An Uneventful Night

I had what I thought was T-bone steaks sitting in the freezer for a couple of weeks now and I’d been dying to pan fry them really easily; coated only with freshly crushed black pepper and salt, before finishing them off in the oven (and still have them done medium).

It turned out though, in the butcher’s infinite wisdom, she/he had chopped up the steaks into chunks instead. Blurting out all sorts of profanities in my head, I didn’t have much of a choice to change up the menu as I’d planned to finish off an opened container of cream I also had in the fridge. With it I’d be making a sauce with beef stock, black pepper and Scottish whisky. As such, I dry-fried the T-bone chunks accompanied by the sauce, made some fried rice and added some greens in the form of stir fried bok choy. Dinner for one was served!

Some of the whisky (Johnnie Walker Double Black) had inadvertently found its way into my tumbler and was to keep me company for the rest of the night…

That was until a bottle of wine just happened to be opened. It almost feels like I hadn’t had wine this entire week! The wine that was opened was a Chardonnay from Chile, which would be perfectly suited for this incredible heat we’ve been experiencing in Nairobi. It, however, read “2012” which, between you and me, I wasn’t really hopeful for. Also plastered on the label was “Caliterra Reserva”.

Casablanca Valley, where the grapes were sourced from, is incredibly close to the cold Pacific Ocean which should lower the ambient temperature sufficiently to produce a cool climate, fresh and hopefully longer lasting Chardonnay. Not this time though.

I picked up bruised apples, a bit of earth and oxidation. On the palate, there was a clear sweet edge with a clumsy, almost added acidity character. The citrus flavour was short, with the finish beginning to turn tart. Possibly as an infant it would have been a cheery reasonably priced sparkle, but sitting here in my glass it was rather disappointing. Quaffable yes, but lacklustre and clumsy.

14/20