Mixed Feelings

Sunday was a busy day for me as I had to prepare for some meetings that I have today. And knowing the Tube strike would be going forward, I cooked not only a big pot of chilli to eat yesterday, but also a pork, apricot, and prune stew for this evening since I have no idea how long it will take me to get home tonight. But partway through the flurry of the day, I remembered that a while ago we had put another bottle of prosecco from the Champagne Warehouse on the champagne shelf. This one was La Jara's Pinot Grigio Rose Brut, something I was very keen to try because I often like pinot grigio wines, but had never had a sparkling one before. My husband and I opened the bottle, and sipped as we got on with our respective Sunday activities.

For those of you who are American and reading this, you'll understand when I say that it smelled like raspberry ginger-ale (which is one of my favourite non-alcoholic drinks, in diet form). Like the smell, it had a lot of berry flavours, but with a crisp acidity that cut through the sweetness. On first opening, the prosecco had loads of bubbles, too - but they didn't last through subsequent glasses. My first impression was very favourable, I thought this would be an incredibly refreshing thing to serve on a hot summer day. I was having mixed feelings by my second glass, though, as the bubbles disappeared and the acidity in the wine became sharp in my stomach. As we've commented about other champagnes in the past, this might be a 'one glass only' drink.

Wednesday Came Early

It's another busy week - one in which I won't be seeing much of my husband because of our different committments and schedules. But we were both home for dinner on Tuesday, so we decided to turn Tuesday into the new Wednesday and open a bottle a bubbly. On top of that, he cooked, something that always makes the evening special!

Another prosecco was on the champagne shelf from the Champagne Warehouse - this time it was Zero assoluto from La Jara made from 100% glera grapes. To be honest, I almost didn't order this prosecco because the description said that it was 'floral' and that's not something that I love. The Zero assoluto is zero dosage, though, and I've never tried a low dosage prosecco before...so it went into the case.

On its own, the floral-ness of the prosecco is very strong, smelling and tasting heavily of honeysuckle, but with an appealing, clean, grapefruit finish. For my palate, the prosecco went down much better with food - a blackened chicken and garlic-broccoli pasta - that squelched the flowery taste and left only the lighter citrus notes of the prosecco. While not completely to my taste, it was worth trying, though, an interesting comparison both to other low dosage bubbles we've had and to the other bottles of prosecco that we ordered.