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CALENDAR Sunday 13 March: First Sunday of Lent (Year A) Monday 14 March: Lent feria Tuesday 15 March: Lent feria Wednesday 16 March: Lent feria Thursday 17 March: St Patrick, Patron of Ireland Friday 18 March: Lent feria; (St Cyril of Jerusalem) Saturday 19 March:


St Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary Sunday 20 March: Second Sunday of Lent


■For the Extraordinary Form calendar go to www.latin-mass-society.org/ordo.htm


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$179. © The Tablet Publishing Company Limited 2011 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 12 March 2011


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


31 January 2010 is 21,858. Volume 265 No. 8886 ISSN: 0039 8837


FROM THE VINEYARD


Something from the borders N. O’PHILE


I WAS SURPRISED to come across a branch of Laithwaites in London recently. I had always believed that all their stores were outside the M25 (and generally concentrated in the South-East, although there is one away in the Midlands in Solihull). But now it has moved in and set up shop just beside Vinopolis on the South Bank (of the River Thames) near London’s Borough Market, where the burg- ers are made of venison and served on organic buns. Having a real shop rather than a virtual range of bottles means that you can get advice and even taste some wines. Wandering round the shop I spotted in the Italian section a wine I had never seen or heard of before. The front label called it senza con- fini (“without boundaries”) and a scrutiny of the one on the back gave nothing away, except that it was made by a man called Gallici. The assistants were very helpful, and told me that it was made on the borders – appar- ently actually straddling the borders – of Italy and Slovenia (which would make it in the Friuli region and close to the fine wines of Collio). I asked what I thought was the natural ques- tion – what’s in it? And there the flow of information dried up. So try it and have a guess. It tasted like the


sort of white you would find in Friuli, bright, aromatic, flavoursome. I see that one of the grapes that is used in that area of Slovenia is a grape called ribula, presumably close to the lovely Italian ribolla. And given that wines from that area are scarce over here, it is well worth a try at £7.49. Most of Laithwaite’s sales are done through the internet. I also tried a picpoul de pinet (at the same price), and while it is better than the two I tasted from Majestic, it is not really anything like the lovely “Félines” label from Waitrose. Another that I was persuaded to taste was


a red from the Côtes Catalanes called Cabalié. This is described on the website as “succulent” and “velvety-soft”, and I must say that it was dense with fruit (100 per cent syrah) and one to try again – like the others this was just under £8.


Another wine with no information on the label was in Marks & Spencer. It was a Saint Mont from Gascony, a wine that can be found also in Majestic. The grapes should be gros manseng (component of the lovely Jurançon), arrufiac and petit corbu, making it a rather unusual wine. But this wasn’t. It was very ordinary. I looked to see if the grapes were listed, but they’re not. I will not be buying it again. But don’t despair of Marks; it has some


very good offers if you are able to buy six or more bottles. For just less than £34, I was able to buy a barbera and a nebbiolo from Piemonte, a nero d’avola from Sicily (the label is “Baglio” – there is a more expensive nero d’avola alongside), a white verdejo from Spain and two bottles of a white Côtes du Rhônes called laudun, and the grapes were listed on the label, grenache blanc “with a little clairette”.


All of these wines were very good value, and I found that with the nebbiolo in par- ticular, I wanted to hold it in my mouth for as long as I could. Finally, very good value from Sainsbury’s, and both Italian, just “Sicilian white” and “Sicilian red”, the former cataratto and grillo local grapes, the latter more nero d’avola and shiraz, both a steal at less than £4. Buy now and save for Easter.


■N. O’Phile is The Tablet’s wine correspondent. He is also a senior Catholic priest.


Glimpses of Eden


“LAST CHANCEto see the long-eared owls,” declared the sign. About 100 of us had gathered at the stipu- lated time and now we


trooped on to the reserve, following the assis- tant warden with his tawny beard and heavy-duty telescope. This winter’s residency of long-eared owls at RSPB Saltholme is both a triumph and a challenge. How to allow peo- ple the rare opportunity to view these birds without disturbing them and kyboshing hopes that they’ll breed. We found the birds roosting in the pussy wil- lows, or at least we found the pussy willows. Only 40 yards away, the birds were almost impossible to spot, their camouflage defying


40 | THE TABLET | 12 March 2011


the phalanx of telescopes. Although we’d been urged to silence, whispered directions crackled on the air. Just there. Where? See the fork in the third tree well just under where the two branches … Twenty minutes passed before I found a sudden orange eye in my binoc- ulars. It was as though the tree itself was looking at me. Long-eared owls are masters of disguise, changing their posture and the ruffle of their feathers to mirror a pattern of twigs. They are also a study in patience. Used to the incessant shrillings of angry small birds, intent on driving them off, during the day they find as dense a thorn tangle as possible and hold tight until the sparrows, or birdwatchers, give up and go home.


Jonathan Tulloch


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