Here at Maxim we take great pride in the range of alcoholic tastes we embrace. We have gin drinkers, lager drinkers, Guinness drinkers, whiskey drinkers and cider drinkers. But the only drink that unites all of us in our endless quest for Bacchanalian perfection is wine. The past few years have seen the whole outfit take to wine in what can only be seen as an almost compulsive attempt for total knowledge. Impossible, of course. Variables in weather, soil and production mean that one can never rest in one's full-throttle attempt to keep up with the infinite variety of pleasures to be taken from the grape. Here, then, are this week's three selections for the Wednesday Wine List.
As the list grows over the coming months and indeed years we hope you'll find it a useful, but never in any way complete, reference guide to one of life's simplest and greatest pleasures.
Hardys tell us that the Oomoo was one of the 'first wines produced by Thomnas Hardy at his original Bankside winery in the late 1800s.' Well done Mr Hardy! Oomoo is adopted from the local Aboriginal dialect, meaning 'good' or 'attractive'. Perhaps Hardys should find out the local Aboriginal dialect for 'absolutely bloody marvellous', as that is what our Deputy Editor proclaimed on tasting. A hearty, serious, full-bodied red (a grenache, shiraz and mourvedre mix) this demands to be drunk with a 'blue' steak that has just been shown the frying pan. We didn't have one in the office, but you can do this justice be seeing your butcher on the way to off licence.
Nottage Hill FreshCases: Cabernet Shiraz and Chardonnay
These FreshCases are good: neatly designed to hold a decent three 75cl bottles of wine, they save space but also keep said wine fresh for a very unlikely six weeks. How any grown man could allow a decent Shiraz or Chardonnay to gather dust for three weeks is beyond us: the red went in just under forty minutes (there were three of us) and the white had but a scant cup left the morning following the tasting. We're not sure if the FreshCase has those silver pillows inside one used to pull out and inflate at 1980s dinner parties, but we digress, and show our age. Good, affordable drinking wine in a nifty package. We're in.
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