Life · Quaffing · Tasting · Travel

Barcelona: Cava to end the Saga

Spoiler alert: my few days in Spain were better than my two and a half weeks in France. Sorry, France. I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you. #BeQuietTiffany

Our hostel was superior to the one in Paris: Erin and I helped cook dinner one night, we met a Canadian from Edmonton, and we made a cab driver go through McDonalds after a hostel-hosted bar-hopping session that eventually ended on a club next to a beach. And then drinking on said beach, which was a reaaaaal big blur. Have you ever drunkenly told someone they look like Ygritte from Game of Thrones way too many times?

There’s a story later that night involving myself ejecting the Devil’s Liquids from my soul, but let’s just summarize here and say that I fucking covered that up better than all of the Desperate Housewives would have, combined.… read more

Life · WSET Diploma

WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 16: Spain

Fun: wine fest, sort of.

Not fun: PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. I’m debating whether or not I should squeeze another post dedicated to the Wine Fest 2015 because that’s what I’ve done in the past, but I feel like I’m being a late bitch.

I mean, these posts should be good enough. Right? Meh. Fun:
Decades Apart
Shiraz: Aussie Superstar
All About Syrah
Mod Oz

Not fun: falling right back into wine class right after wine fest.

Fun: Spanish wine, and definitely ignoring half the lecture to write in my journal because I’m a bad student.

Not fun: Having an odd week-long and spirit-encompassing feeling of wanting to do nothing, including sleep or eat or work. Not sad or happy or tired or angry, just a state of existing.… read more

Quaffing

Monday afternoon in a bottle: 2012 Artero Macabeo Verdejo

Tasting Note:

Eyes: clear, med- lemon, legs
Nose: clean, med- intensity, youthful, mineral, pear, citrus, hint orange, stone fruit, peach, white flowers, hint herbal
Mouth: dry, med body, med- acid, med alcohol, med flavour intensity, med length, mineral, pear, citrus, stone fruit, floral
All in all: Good quality: while the wine lacks in complexity and persistence, there is a balance and moderate intensity on the palate.

2012 Artero Macabeo VerdejoThis wine serves as a symbol of my half-assed sort of not really “New Year’s resolution” to try all the cheaper value wines in the store. It was also my house “emergency wine”, just in case I decided I wanted to drink today (which evidently I did), and it also served as my reward wine – so I had a goal of studying a certain amount of things (Which happened to be Champagne) before I was allowed to open the wine.… read more

Quaffing

holiday wines with the co-workers

Overdue post, but it’s all good. Some time in December one of us hosted another staff get together complete with an amazing multiple-course home-cooked meal, which included:

– roasted celeriac soup
– kohlrabi slaw with cranberries and walnuts
– beet salad (with goat cheese)
– braised white beans
– roast chicken

It was so good that most of the food is still weirdly vivid in my mind despite this being around 4 weeks ago. Alas, I don’t remember the wines as well – I do remember one of us trying to act as a lion for a charades clue. The phrase was “The Chronicles of Narnia”.

Oh, and one of us was sick which sucked, which means we had no mashed potatoes.… read more