some exceptions

to five months of mostly unmemorable beverages.*

















* neither a comprehensive nor an ordered listing. japan was the anomaly: a mostly unnavigable sea of delicious and drinkable novelty. ultra-low-alcohol cocktails that abandon the bitters model of flavouring in favour of amino acid savouriness, a profusion of what might be thought of as low-intervention terroir sakes, an entire world of umeshu.

josmeyer, pinot gris vendanges tardives, 1990

we went back to a favoured sri lankan roadhouse and brought reinforcements, who brought many marvelous wines. the stub of this bottle of late harvest pinot gris went home with me (thank you, ed); incredibly, no one wanted it. sweet but not cloying, with brilliant acid balance, vinous, sappy, bitter like grapefruit or citrus albedo. mildly oxidised, smelling of nuts, copper, petroleum then, after some time in the glass, cold but very ripe lychees.

and speaking of colour: this was greek gold, with red and brassy lights. it went great with the cold starchiness of kheer that first night, and then in small sips on its own for the next four days, becoming nuttier every day.