As with every aspect of our lives, the world of wine and spirits is heavily regulated. Growing grapes, making the stuff, distilling, selling, even (perhaps especially) drinking it. Here Ken Gargett takes a light-hearted look at some of the newer and crazier laws and regulations around the world.
For many people, anchovies are one of those foods to be avoided like the plague. But for Ken Gargett anchovies are not a love-it-or-hate it food. Rather, they are a love-it-or-you-have-not-discovered-how-good-they-can-be food. A lunch of a freshly baked loaf of hot, crusty bread smothered in good quality anchovies is just magic. Here he takes you on an aquatic journey through the culinary aspects of this small fish.
The Marchesi di Grésy estate is now one of Barbaresco’s most highly regarded, if not the region’s greatest – for many, Barbaresco’s first – Grand Cru, even if not officially designated as such.
“So marvelous, so delicate was the bouquet, it seemed an impertinence to go further and taste this miraculous liquid; and yet, on the palate it almost made one regret the waste of time the moments spent in taking in the perfume.” Ken Gargett didn’t write that, but he feels the same way about the fabulous wines of Burgundy. Find out here why this is the golden age for this region.
For those not familiar with what was a monumental shift in the tectonic plates of the world of wine, the Judgement of Paris is a legendary moment when the spotlight’s glare revealed that it was entirely possible to make great wine outside France.
The first Black Tot Day was in 1970, the last day on which sailors in the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy were issued their daily rum rations (“tots”). Pusser’s has taken the exact recipe used by the Royal Navy when it discontinued the daily ration on July 31, 1970 and used it to make its rums, the only producer in the world to do so. Here, Ken Gargett fills us in on everything tot – he luckily doesn’t go “sipping the admiral,” though.
There is one wine producer that has taken on almost mythical status in recent years: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. And one of its wines, Romanée-Conti, stands out above all others. Many wine lovers, perhaps most, consider it to be the very best wine in the world. Ken Gargett is one of them.
Pol was the first champagne Ken Gargett ever tried – a sneak swig under the kitchen table from a bottle at one of my parents’ dinner parties. And he particularly loves the Sir Winston Churchill.
Ken Gargett thinks that the 2015 Cristal is a wine of purity. Wonderfully fresh, we have notes of white florals, citrus, honey and chalk. Gentle notes of stonefruit emerge, with a walnut backing, all held together by that line of salinity. This is layered and complex, a beautiful Cristal with serious intensity. Great focus and such length. Impeccably balanced and with a lingering finish. It should drink beautifully for the next 10 to 20 years.
The Punch ManTua cigar has serious oomph throughout. Some find a slight sweetness, but Ken Gargett’s had no evidence of it. This cigar has considerable complexity and there is no hint of anything out of place or any of the awkwardness that sometimes afflicts younger cigars.