Archive for 21 February, 2008

An excellent evening en Français

February 21, 2008 1:24 pm

LabelAn excellent evening last night. We had two of our French friends round for dinner and spent the whole evening speaking French (well, they did, we spoke Franglais). I opened one of my last three remaining “good” wines, I’ve had them for seven or eight years. This was a Neibaum-Coppola Merlot 1999. It was excellent, full of fruit, a great bouquet, wonderfully mature, smooth – a great wine.

Our friends brought along a Christmas present they had received. It was called La Clef du Vin (the key of wine). It is an amazing. It is made by Screwpull and it ages wine! It is a long metal rod that you dip into you glass or bottle of wine. Each one second dip ages the wine by one year. It doesn’t significantly change the bouquet but it does change the taste. You can use it to determine how long to keep your wines in your cellar. If you have a case of wine, open one bottle, pour a glass and then start ageing your glass of wine, one year at a time. The flavour will improve with each year and then it will drop off, that is the maximum age for the wine. Amazing but it seems to work. It can also be used in restaurants to improve your glass of young wine and add a few years to it. The only link I can find is to the French site.

Kevin