..and now for something completely different
2nd October 2009
Domaine de Lavasoa, Vin Gris de Besileo, Non Vintage
This vaguely pink wine looked pleasantly coppery, but the colour was actually the best thing about it. It smelled like the worst South African wine, a noxious admixture of old vegetables and burnt rubber - and sadly its flavour was wholly consistent, thoroughly dirty, as if rotten green peppers had been put in a blender. So sad, I really had high hope of Madagascan wine - after all the French ran the place from the 1890s until the 1960s - but after this experience I will be reluctant to touch another drop....
Here, for those who are interested in the lacunae of the world of wine, is a small Madagascan vineyard.