At the end of a long weekend of celebrations for my sister’s birthday up in lovely lovely Derbyshire, most people had buggered off back home ready for Monday morning work duty. The few survivors tasked with cleaning the place up (damn it!) were me, the wife, my mum and dad, and my cousin Trudi, who I’m hoping is going to be up and running on WordPress herself soon as the latest and greatest Celiac blogger!
We started with the TTD Primitivo. Lovely looking ruby red in colour, but not too dark. The flavours in there were fig, plum, and raspberry, which threw me a bit cos I was expecting something dark and heavy! What I loved a lot about this was the fantastic pepper spice, which went great with the spiced lamb. Trudi and Linn loved how smooth it was, and the tannins were very soft. The acidity and length were on the good side of medium, and as Trudi put it “a bargain at £8”. Not massively complex, but very tasty indeed. 13/20.
Next up was the Natale Varge. Now this one was heavier looking, with darker fruit smells, and some tobacco, chocolate in there. It was agreed that this one was more interesting to smell, and we all loved the dark cherries (apart from the celiac who moaned about our reference of black forest gateau!!!!) Again there was easily enough acidity to carry it, and a slightly freaky, but very nice, lightness to the finish. Apparently it “leaves you craving for the next hit” chirped in my cousin as she popped out for a ciggy. Big more complexity, and more to talk about, but you’d need food with it. 14/20
Both went great with the food. Those spices of cumin, paprika, and coriander worked great together. I was a bit fed up about slightly over doing the lamb, but my parents tend to like their meat cremated, so I probably would have been told to stick it back in the oven if I’d have done it right, so everyone else loved it!
Cheers
Other Posts in NWTW Week 43:
#NWTW Week 43: Puglia May Be The Answer
