Posted on July 29, 2010 by nealmartin
I am worried. I am worried because my calamitous house move is just the opposite.
It is going TOO smoothly.
Nobody is trying to ruin my life.
This afternoon we go to visit the house to measure up and what d’ya know…we have only gone and bought a house with an AGA. It’s probably worth more than the house. Maybe I need another mortgage? The good news is there is lots of space in the loft for my 2,000 vinyl records that I have informed my wife on our very first date, I can never be parted with. I think they will be at home up there, kind of looking down on the master in the bedroom below. Lily and Daisy seem to like the prospective abode, though they demand to paint the entire house pink, including the outside and possibly the grass. As we leave, the 135-year old next-door-neighbour stands stoically at the door, perhaps a little miffed that his neighbours of 40-years are leaving to replaced by a family with the collective IQ of three. Two if you include me.
In the evening, a Trimbach dinner at Sketch restaurant in London where I am seated next to Jean Trimbach. It is undoubtedly the most pretentious restaurant in the world and Jean’s introduction does not really go with Rhianna on the PA in the background (eventually it is turned down.) The toilets are still those bloody disorientating white egg-shaped cubicles that are impossible to open and when you do get your love sausage out, you hear a round of applause which really puts you off peeing (I am not making this up.) What happens if you take a shit? Does the maitre-d’ break the door down and give you a certificate?
Still the wines, a vertical of Frederic Emile from 1989 to 2002 is very fine. Whether Jean Trimbach ever made it back from the loo is still unknown? But if you do hear banging on the toilet doors and a man with an Alsatian accent crying for help, you know that it is Mon. Trimbach.
Filed under: alsace, house move, london tastings | Tagged: trimbach, sketch, jean trimbach, frederic emile | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 29, 2010 by nealmartin
A lovely day today. First we drop Lily off at Spectrum leisure centre for her friend’s party in the soft-play centre. They crack team of 5-year old pig-tailed girls march off in single file, hands on the shoulders in front like prisoners-of-war, barely able to contain their energy that is about to explode in a multi-tiered labrynth filled with soft balls, padded slides and who knows, the odd Minotaur lurking in one of its darker crannies. That will give them a bit of excitement.
Daisy as a bee...for no reason other than to be a bee.
We drive back and then pop round to Caroline and James’s house for a barbecue. It ends up as a six-hour plus al fresco drinking session with copious amounts of Blossom Hill (I like the fact that their bottles bear the signature of the winemaker…I think Carol is her name…bet she has to oversee a few fermenting vats…I wonder if she does the malo in barrel?) We end up consuming more than our fair share of plonk because we all blessed/saddled with young kids and it is a sense of relief that we can just sit and pretend our lives are pre-sprog. I proffer a magnum of Trottevieille 2005 because I just fancy sharing it with friends and it’s better than the Blossom Hill (sorry Carol.) By early evening, the children are running riot on the water slide and attempting to drench any adult that comes within the throwing distance of a 5-year old girl (1.5-metres), whilst the 3-year olds busy painting themselves. Young George seems to be recreating the look of one of those brightly coloured male dancers in Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” video from 1983. I am not sure whether his silver legs suit him, but hey, what do I know about infant fashion. Daisy seems to have drawn a flag on her arm (?) whilst Lily just has random pastel splodges. We leave past 8 o’clock after a blissful Sunday afternoon.
Filed under: bordeaux, lily & daisy | Tagged: lily, guildford, daisy, spectrum, elton john, bee, trottevieille 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 27, 2010 by nealmartin
Drive down to Waitrose in the morning. For some reason, whenever we physically visit the supermarket we spend more than visiting Ocado. And this is despite me sacrificing my 99p gingernuts!
In the evening I rustle up some nifty lamb chops with a bottle of Calon-Segur 2006 and then I am so knackered from writing throughout the week that I fall asleep straight afterwards. Either that, or it is stultifyingly dull, turgid TV that insults a nation’s intelligence on Saturday nights.
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Posted on July 27, 2010 by nealmartin
Today is Lily’s last day at school, her final day in reception year that has passed in the blink of an eye. I do feel some sort of poignancy as she blithely skips to school and enters Ms. P’s “Owls” class for the final time. She gives her teacher a small Japanese themed gift, which seems to almost move her to tears. Then there is the home-made card in which Lily has written “Thank you for being my teacher”. It took a couple of attempts to get it right. I thought of leaving the mistakes in so that Ms. P can see the chinks in her pupil’s knowledge. But then the card would not make sense.
Again, an intense day researching and writing Pomerol whilst polishing off the final Burgundy articles for Wine-Journal. I keep being interrupted by Daisy who has tummy ache and seems a little constipated. At around six o’clock she is finally able to dispose of three days of poo, which I am convinced is the largest ever achieved by a 3-year old. She must lost half her bodyweight in a single plop. Anyway, she seems relieved and can enjoy her bathtime without feeling she is about to explode.
Filed under: lily & daisy | Tagged: daisy, last day at school, lily, poo | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 27, 2010 by nealmartin
Spend the entire day working on my Pomerol book, transcribing an interview with ober-oenologist Michel Rolland that I did way back on a freezing Monday morning last December. In order to feel like I am making tangible progress, each chapter is printed off and files in its own clear plastic folder. Sounds anal, but it does work. My aim is to finish the bulk of the writing over the summer, although whether my wife can cope with my obsessiveness is another question. These days I seem to be either asleep or writing. Shame you cannot do both and wake up with a few more sheets of paper typed up at the bottom of the bed.
Filed under: pomerol book | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 22, 2010 by nealmartin
The whole day is devoted to Pomerol, researching, writing, editing and stressing. I work solidly for hours and then bail at 5.00pm to attend a tasting of German 2009s in Victoria. The wines are impressive, full of minerality and personality, although it will be remembered more for a tirade against French AC laws by Dirk Richter of Max Ferdinand Richter. He’s off on one. Christian Ebert of Schloss Saarstein tries to interject every now and again, but even he knows it is futile. We could be here until midnight before Dirk has put the world to write. When I suggest to him that the German wine laws are not the main cause for the UK’s apathy towards German wine, but more the fact that consumers cannot remember the multi-syllabic names that inhibits brand loyalty…well, I am surprised he doesn’t leap over the wild boar sausages and punch me.
But I like his wines, but God knows what they were exactly. Was it Mulherimer? Feinherb? Kabinett? Himmelreich? God knows.
Filed under: germany, london tastings | Tagged: 2009, riesling, german wine, max ferdinand richter, schloss saarstein, christian ebert | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 22, 2010 by nealmartin
I drive down to Basingstoke as I have arranged a morning to inspect Berry Brother & Rudd’s purchase ledger from the 1930s as research for my Pomerol book. It is fascinating looking through the entries all written in fountain pen, notes of wines, prices and comments. Particularly interesting is the old champagnes: Krug 1928, Pol Roger 1929 and so on. After a morning’s work we go for a quick pub lunch, during which Tomoko texts me to let me know that the Natwest said “Yes”!!!
My fish and chips suddenly taste even better.
This house move is going too smoothly…there must be trouble round the corner, surely? C’mon…tell me when the sewage works are being planned for the back garden.
I drive back in the afternoon having gleaned some useful information (not only for the book) and spend the rest of the evening writing. In fact, I am still there past midnight typing away. I am a man on a mission.
Filed under: bordeaux, dining | Tagged: natwest, mortgage, berry brothers & rudd | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 22, 2010 by nealmartin
This week I am focusing upon my long-overdue book on Pomerol that has been delayed due to the sheer amount of work that Wine-Journal consumes. Therefore I spend most of the day translating J.A. Garde’s “L’Histoire de Pomerol” looking for nuggets of useful information. There are a lot of technical French words last used around 1802 in some dying hamlet in Central France. Anyway…the chapter on Petrus is coming on nicely although I realize that there is an unbelievable amount of work to do. I am shattered by the time I have to bath the kids in the evening and whilst they are making imaginary concoctions with soapy bathwater, I teach them a few 17th century French verb conjugations, just in case they are not included in their infant school curriculum.
In other news, we are supposed to hear from Natwest regarding our mortgage application but the phone does not ring. Consequently I spend the entire day assuming we have been rejected and will spend our entire lives in rented accommodation due to our torpedoed credit score.
Filed under: bordeaux | Tagged: french, j a garde, l'histoire de pomerol | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 22, 2010 by nealmartin
Sometimes it is difficult to stop working. At the moment I am taking traveling hiatus in order to try and catch up on my mountainous backlog, also pre-empting a house move that may or may not take place in the near future. So these days I keep finding myself at the Mac and this morning is no different, polishing a Georges Roumier article and dozens of others that I “ferment” simultaneously. My middle name is prolific at the moment.
In the afternoon, I need to get out, so I load the family into the Clio and we drive down to the New Forest (although it seems quite old to me.) Lily and Daisy enjoy watching the wild horses and gargantuan cows that seem to park themselves inconveniently across the road. We finally make it to Lyndhurst where we enjoy a cream tea and sarnies, then leisurely drive back to Guildford. I end up writing again in the evening…I just can’t help myself.
Filed under: lily & daisy | Tagged: new forest, lyndhurst, georges roumier | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 20, 2010 by nealmartin
Listen to Joanthan Ross’s final Radio 2 show, which I think I will miss more than his television show. Again, it’s all rather poignant as Tom Jones comes on as his final guests and Ross makes his valedictory speech. By the time he has bid adieu I have penned a disquisition on Domaine Georges Roumier. In the evening I cook up a barbecue to make the most of the clement, almost Mediterranean weather. The problem is that the barbecue must start early for the kids, which means that Tomoko and I finish off a bottle of delicious Roussillon Grenache Gris by around seven o’clock. Do the kids notice that their parents are rather inebriated during bathtime? I suspect that they barely notice the difference to be honest.
Filed under: lily & daisy | Tagged: barbecue, jonathan ross, radio 2, roussillon | Leave a Comment »
