Because when it comes to red wine, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are where it's at as far as my taste buds and nose are concerned, especially stuff from the north of those countries. I mean, it's never going to replace Barolo as my ultimate wine, but then again, Barolo is a little pricier, to say the least, and not necessarily a wine you'd want every day even if you had the fucking money (which I certainly don't) given that in the heaviness stakes, Barolo (younger examples especially) is the Skullflower of the wine world, but fuck me Otoñal's really fucking nice, outrageously drinkable, tastes like it's twice the price and it goes with bleeding meat like they were designed for each other, which is important to me, given my predilection for enormous slabs of pretty much anything on four legs** (except rabbit, which no one will ever convince me is worth eating***, even the Spanish and Maltese methods of cooking it don't do it for me).
Seriously, this is really good shit. I've been back to my utterly fantastic local off-license§ for another couple of bottles, because the first one disappeared down my throat in the time it took me to write the first paragraph and the second one's almost dead. It's that fucking good. Buy some now before the snobs notice, because when I looked it up on the web lots of wine ponces are banging on about how good 2009 Rioja is in general, and I think it may not stay so cheap for too long...
*Pireneos Mesache is also highly recommended. By me. And every other bastard who's got drunk on it with me.
**Or two. Or with fins. Or tentacles. Or mandibles. Oh fuck it, I'll eat almost anything that was running/swimming/crawling/slithering/whatever. It doesn't even have to be dead. Like krill, the spacedust of the seafood world. I also heartily recommend zebra. And antelope. Never tried camel tho, if anyone knows of a butcher who sells it...
***Never trust an animal that doesn't make a noise unless you dropkick it. They're planning something. Hare, on the other hand, is ultragamey godlike awesomeness, especially cooked in it's own blood.
§I'm not telling you which one, they get great wine off the back of a lorry and flog it far too cheap, I once got 4 bottles of Barolo for a fiver each from there. And I seem to have become their unofficial real ale taster over the past six years or so. Make of that what you will...
I'll eat rabbit, partly because I can't think offhand of another non-rodent mammal whose life cycle is so based on the assumption it will be eaten. Did you know that lady rabbits ovulate at the moment of copulation, almost guaranteeing every fuck results in progeny?
ReplyDeleteThe flesh is quite repellent without careful treatment though, especially the way the French cook it; like cow liver without the charm. I find it's a lost cause without maximally acidic tomato, like in a sort of cacciatore dish.