Tuesday
9.15:
So I've spent the last week wrestling with a cold the size of the
Andes, which has meant (among other things) that I've been drinking
mostly tea and whisky on account of not being able to taste wine - no
hardship, given the stuff I normally consume, in fact I feel slightly
better overall for it,
apart from the cold
- and which, therefore, just about accounts for everything
else.
You all take care now and be sure to wrap up warm.
9.47:
Oh well, yes, there is an ongoing situation
looming in the wine rack, but I won't bore you with the details.
9.48:
It concerns, if you must know, a bottle of Lambrusco which someone
very kindly gave me for Christmas. I mentioned it. There is a problem
with it, I won't go on about it, I don't want to be a drag, what with
this cold and everything. Just that the PKs, PK and his glamorous
missus, came over a couple of weeks back and I thought I'd get this
stuff out to go with the sweets & cheeses course, it being, I
thought at the time, a sweetish fizzy Lambrusco such that you could
eat with sweetish things, which included persimmons as it happened, a
fruit PK had never encountered before and made a huge fuss about
trying for the first time. I'd even chilled the Lambrusco a bit, for
laughs. Open it up, pour a couple of glasses, take a swig and it's
dryish, not sweetish. I stare at the label and what do you know?
Secco,
right there on the label, right where I can see clearly it but have
until now failed to. Have you any idea what this tastes like? I mean,
it's bad enough sweetish, but dryish?
It's like a boiled sweet dissolved in kerosene. It's so bad it ranks
down there with the poison we concocted last year, the home-made
stuff. I had to throw it away. I couldn't even use it for cooking. I
don't want to think about it. I'm done, frankly.
2.33:
No, that's it.
Wednesday
11.08:
Except, as I said, there's this ongoing situation - there were two
bottles of the Lambrusco to start with, now there's one. It's just
sitting there. I don't know what to do with it. I hate having a
bottle of wine sitting around being undrinkable. I've still got two
of the home brews and I find it irksome beyond belief that they're
there, waiting for me to have an idea of what to do with them, some
crazed inspiration which I know will never come but the possibility
of which haunts me. Maybe I should take a run at one of them now,
while I've got this cold and can't taste anything? I could try that.
But do I want to drink anything that badly? I'm not eighteen.
11.10:
I mean, whoever heard
of Lambrusco Secco?
11.16:
Turns out, quite a few people. Deep,
complex and savoury
says one commentator; Refreshing
and easy
to drink
says another; Great
to pair with fennel-infused sausages says
yet another.
11.25:
Gorgeously
purple
crops up, too.
11.
48: Very well. As soon as this cold comes to an end, I'm going to
have to man up and open the second bottle, apparently in company with
some fennel-infused sausages or, failing that, some charcuterie or,
failing that,
some spicy Thai cuisine, which sounds dreadful however you approach
it. What it adds up to, at any rate, is a precautionary side dish of
something - anything - strongly-flavoured, to cope with the horrible
guff coming off the Lambrusco. I can't wait.
2.07:
So how come PK wasn't onto this when we tried the stuff a couple of
weeks back? He's supposed to be the expert. He's always going on
about Super Tuscans and for all I know a Lambrusco could be a Super
Tuscan, I mean, come on, it's not a million miles away. All right,
it is
in principle,
but you take my point.
2.10:
I think the cold's come back.
Thursday
9.55:
It's definitely back. At least, it hasn't gone away.
9.
59: I think I'm giving up wine altogether.
10.03:
Unless it's coronavirus,
of course.
10.05:
Lemsip. Lemsip and whisky, alternating. I could see that. I could see
that for the rest of the year, to be honest. Lambrusco Secco! I just
don't need the aggravation.
CJ
Are you of an age to remember Collis Brown’s linctus? It was available over the counter in the 1970s, and had a lot of opiates in it. A judicious dollop added to a glass of Blue Nun created a poor man’s laudanum. Would have made a perfect combo to fight off that wretched cold. Then again, OD’ing on cheap Liebfraumilch is no way to go...
ReplyDeleteI was still relatively young when the stuff was freely available, but my Ma swore by it as a remedy for all ailments. I think she may even have carried a bottle around with her in her handbag...
ReplyDelete