Monday, January 08, 2007

days of wine and roses

it happened out of the blue, a drink with a friend and suddenly it turns into a party as others turn up to share the week between christmas and new year.
and what a party it was.
i had - at one time or the other - dated three of the women at the table. one was the highschool sweetheart while the rest were in the not-so-recent-past.
that's where the roses part comes in. if i had a ringgit for every stalk i sent... hmmm!
but that is the past. and best left there as two of them will finally tie the knot this year.
back to the report at hand. we were at the vintry - a bottle shop - a couple of doors away from the ribshop in medan damansara and as usual, decided to get a bottle of wine.
red it was and for the life of me, i cannot remember the name except to say that it took time before it was good to drink. we had some, make that lots of bruschetta as we gave it time to breathe.
having said that, that bottle finished fast and it was time for the second bottle - a stonier pinot noir. the crowd grew to three and possibly four - i had already picked up my highschool sweetheart - by this time as we opened the bottle.
the pinot noir had a delicious berry taste with some plum notes and a certain spiciness. it had a smooth silky finish and certainly went to our heads.
the crowd grew bigger as an old friend from school turned up in the already packed bottle shop. we ordered the wonderful chilled beef tenderloin from the ribshop as some were hungry.
so off i went to trawl among the bottle racks and picked a bottle of porca de murca douro reserva 2002. wasn't quite sure what i was doing but the bottle was a revelation.
it was really really nice with a pleasant woody and vanilla taste. the full bodied wine was also smooth and went well with the beef that we had.
great stuff from the douro region in portugal where porca de murca - which means the sow of murca - is one of the best selling wines.
that was done and the crowd grew larger. another bottle was to be found and it was the chateau belles eaux coteaux du languedoc 2003 that made its way to our table. another round of glasses for the ever-growing crowd that now stood at 10. only one couldn't drink while another had to be persuaded to try a sip as she had sworn off alcohol a while ago.
that was done and we sipped another good wine, slightly mineral in taste but a good plummy finish.
that bottle went pretty fast too.
time was coming to somewhere around midnight and a platter of cheese kept us company, apart from the crowd from other tables that became chummy with us as smiles were exchanged and bottles drained their content.
so we chose another bottle that was nice but no one could remember the label as none were that great a wine aficionado. guess our taste buds were inundated with so much wine that we just couldn't think of the label.
but it was a great night, i can assure you that! hic!
the vintry is at 130, jalan kasah, medan damansara - among the other restaurants in the only row of shops there. one can order from the other restaurants to eat in the vintry - which also has its own selection of good food.

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