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CALENDAR Sunday 14 November: Thirty-third Sunday of the Year (Year C) Monday 15 November: Feria or St Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor Tuesday 16 November: St Edmund, Bishop Wednesday 17 November: St Elizabeth of Hungary, Religious, or St Hilda, Abbess, or St Hugh of Lincoln, Bishop Thursday 18 November: Feria or Dedication of Basilicas of Sts Peter and Paul Friday 19 November: Feria Saturday 20 November: Feria Sunday 21 November: Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King


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Published weekly except Christmas. Periodicals Postage Paid at Rahway, NJ, and at additional mailing offices. U.S. Postmaster: Send airspeed address corrections to The Tablet, c/o Air Business Limited, 4 The Merlin Centre, Acrewood Way, St Albans, Herts AL4 0JY, UK. Annual subscription rate US$177. © The Tablet Publishing Company Limited 2010 The Tablet is printed by Headley Brothers Ltd, The Invicta Press, Lower Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH, for the proprietors The Tablet Publishing Company Limited, 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY 13 November 2010


Independently audited certified average circulation per issue of THE TABLET for issues distri buted between 1 January and


30 June 2010 is 22,000. Volume 264 No. 8870 ISSN: 0039 8837


FROM THE VINEYARD


A glass of memories N. O’PHILE


THE EDITORof The Tablet recently forwarded a letter to me enquiring about a wine that the writer’s husband had discovered in Italy. He was an inveterate beer drinker and never touched wine (he is now 81), but in Pisa he found a wine that he would love to drink again. The son thought that the name of the grape was vermentino. Could I help? I was delighted to write back and say that, by an amazing coincidence, I had just discov- ered two examples of this grape, both pure and unblended. One was from Tuscany, from the Maremma coastal plain just south of Pisa (a good candidate for his experience) and this was in Sainsbury’s, selling at £8.99. The very best vermentino I have ever had,


however, was not in Pisa, but in Sardinia, and many would agree that something like ver- mentino di Gallura is as good as you will get. It has a firm and dense texture that Italian- wine expert Nicolas Belfrage describes as “slightly oily”, and that seems just right. But that is offset by a nice citric acidity. The Sainsbury’s example certainly has the citric acidity – almost more lime than lemon – but doesn’t quite manage the oily texture. Nonetheless, it is a pleasant, fresh and fruity wine. The second was from Tesco, and slightly cheaper at £6.79. This was from Sicily, from Menfi near the western end of the island, in terrain unlike the Tuscan Maremma. But this was possibly more akin to its Sardinian rel- ative, with a touch of that oiliness and a clean and sharp enough bite, though with less pro- nounced citrus than the Tuscan variety. So perhaps slightly better value: I hope my beer- drinker likes one of them. Sainsbury’s also came up trumps with another new name on its shelves. In May 2009, I praised Lidl’s choice of the Italian red


teroldego, a wine that had been difficult to find at all in this country. But now Sainsbury’s have found one, and much smoother than Lidl’s more “rustic” example. This is a typically bal- anced teroldego with body and lots of fruit; it is almost strawberry that comes across. And it is a reasonable £7.99. I suspect that, like many of these more exotic wines, it will not be on the shelf for ever. Try it while you can. I note also in that same piece from 2009 that Lidl was selling a vermentino from Sardinia. Whatever happened to that? Keep an eye out; it might come back. Last month I mentioned the special offer


on Portuguese wines in Majestic; it is over now, but I would still recommend more of their reds. Two that I tried and was pleased with were a Malvis label from the Douro region and a Marco de Pegões from the Setubal region. The Douro produces some of the coun- try’s best reds, and this was a fruity, dark and smooth wine. The Marco de Pegões was less intense, but weighty and soft, and both sold (before discount) at less than £7, offering very good value. The only disappointment of the month was a rather dull (and expensive at £8.99) white wine that I have seen for years on Waitrose’s shelves. It is called Lugana, from the shores of Lake Garda. And this may explain its pres- ence. It is presumably for those customers who have sat on the shore of the lake, sipping a glass of Lugana as the sun goes down, and think- ing that they must find it again when they go home. I suspect that they, too, may find that the experience can’t be repeated so easily. Join my convert to vermentino and try a glass of that instead. And then go to Sardinia.


■ N. O’Phile is a wine writer. He is also a senior Catholic priest.


Glimpses of Eden


THE WINDS are rising. I love these playful days when the gusts grab your hat and hurl it away, or sprint through the garden


chasing leaves. Even in the quieter months of summer, you can’t feel alone in our house, with the cooling breezes constantly flowing between rooms, purling gently under doors, rippling cur- tains, but November is the month of the blow. Now the wind becomes a wide, roaring river, and the shortest walk can be exhilarating as any waterfall. This morning I waded up the byway through the rising spate of a north-west- erly. The gale, rushing head on through the trees, made the oak woods seem to bear down on me like an armada in full sail. On reach-


40 | THE TABLET | 13 November 2010


ing the oaks, I dodged the cannonades of branches, twigs and leaves, fired down in quick broadsides. Yet the moment I stepped on to the east side of the woods, where the trees grow thicker, the wind stopped, muffled into a dis- tant sea roar. As I stood there catching my breath, an ash key drifted gently down like a seahorse in a sheltered bay. Beyond this haven, rooks rode the rolling gusts with as much pleasure as any surfer; a huge flock of pigeons rising from the winter wheat was thrown, as though for luck, over the shoulder of the fields. Breathing in deeply, I stepped back out into the full blast, and found myself with an invisible partner for a quick, joyous Texas two-step.


Jonathan Tulloch


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