There are other composers who wrote great Nocturnes too, you know. Guy Ropartz (1864 - 1955) was a French composer who added three beautiful Nocturnes to the piano repertoire. His music can sometimes take after Cesar Franck and Vincent d'Indy, especially apparent in the first Nocturne; at other times, like in the second and third Nocturnes his music offers a palette of stunning harmonic colours and nuances that are unmistakably French.
Though living well into the 1950s, his late-romantic language
Spain is a country that has insanely good food almost everywhere you go, and to crown an establishment (not only by me, but by every food critic in the Iberian Peninsular) as the best seafood restaurant is a royal feat. It has to boast not only the best cooking but also the best ingredients, and it is not a title born out of snap judgment. Welcome to Restaurante d'Berto.
d'Berto would probably win the title of the most obscure fine dining location - in O Grove, Galicia, Northwest Spain, no less. I first met Berto months before I visited his restaurant,
Brittany is well-known for its seafood, particularly Creuse oysters. Creuses from the northern coast is exported all over the world, and could fetch handsome prices in select supermarkets and restaurants. Are they worth the price you pay? - or are you simply paying middlemen?
The famous oyster farms are located in Cancale, about 70km north of Rennes, the capital of Brittany. It is a great place not just for the regular Creuse - I will get to that in another post. However, in recent years, it has become a bustling tourist town, so I head out in search for more hidden spots along the
Label: Graham's Late Bottled Vintage Port 2003, bottled in 2009.
Strength: 20%
Tasting notes:
Colour - Deep matted ruby
Nose - Intense red fruits and jams
Palette - Medium body, soft tannins
Finish - A long and quiet aftertaste, almost no acidity, fragrant raspberry
An easy and well-balanced drink that would appeal particularly to wine drinkers. Nothing stands out in particular, but this subdued quality is precisely its attraction. A drink for anytime of the day.
Label: Bas Armagnac, Dartigalongue 1982. Maison Dartigalongue la plus ancienne du Bas Armagnac
Strength: 40%
Availability: Rare
Price: 62€ to 106€
A fifth generation distiller in the town of Nogaro, southeast of Bas Armagnac about 2 hours from Bordeaux, is the famed but small family-owned Armagnac maker Dartigalongue.
Tasting notes:
Colour - Deep amber in the bottle; dark honey in the snifter with a rich patina.
Nose - Complex nose of raw vanilla, toffee, sweet caramel, very faint hint of sherry oak.
Palette - Medium bodied, various candied fruits, complimented by a pleasing anise flavour
Finish - More anise, smoked tannins, slightly acidic, a long finish.
An excellent digestive that is smooth and elegant, complex yet easy to drink. The finish may be a little heavy on anise, but a left-over from the candied fruits on the palette makes a very desirable and mature after-taste.
