It was really sad to leave Shoreditch on Saturday. Not that much because of the flat but because of it being close to all these wonderful shops, markets and restaurants. Oh well. We were happy to find anything for our last four weeks in London so here we are now in the 5th floor of a ridiculously expensive roof chamber in South Kensington. We won’t (and won’t be able to) cook here, there is no wardrobe or chairs and the floors smell like cold smoke. Boo. Thank god Melanie will have the flat most of the time for herself as I’ll be travelling to Tokyo and New York. And of course there is an upside too which is simply the area. Just 500m away from the Natural History Museum (we did hang out there for a while Saturday afternoon) and Hyde Park (where I went for a run this morning – woop woop!), 2 minutes to Gloucester Road station – that’s neat.
And this also means: close to The Sampler which is where I bought myself a welcome drink last night. I felt lucky as there were four different wines from The Scholium Project in the tasting machines. Rare and rather expensive juice which I enjoyed having a sip. Outstanding was a Sauvignon Blanc called The Prince in his Caves. No clue what the vintage was – their labels are rather cryptic and I didn’t make a note. It’s a skin fermented white wine (I guess something like 20 days?) and slightly orange. A perfect fruity, full bodied wine, citrus-y, subtle tannins, blew me away. Also there was vin jaune available for tasting and that was an interesting experience too as I never tasted one before. It was from Benoit Badoz and again I’m not sure what the vintage was but I believe 2006. I was surprised how bright it was. A vin jaune I expected to be a lot more yellow! If you’r not familiar with this kind of wine: it’s from the Jura region in France, made of Savagnin grapes and spent at least six years in a wooden barrel. As the liquid evaporates over time and no new wine is added there is quite a bit oxidation going on. It tastes a lot like Sherry but it’s not fortified so a lot lighter with all kinds of curry and herbal aromas accompanying the nuttiness. Must be a perfect cheese wine. Interesting!
We did spent our Sunday at the RAW wine fair and it will get an extra post. Time to take a deep breath as the last four weeks in London have started. Cheers!