Tarani wine, and helping out a dog charity

Do you remember this photo from my July trip to France. It was from the specialist wine shop, Le Cav’Epicerie, in Mareuil. Here I have highlighted the shop owner and my mother.

If you recall, I bought two bottles of the wine that the shop owner recommended to my mother. One he said would not be too acidic.

She has now tried the wine, and separately, so have I. Here is the wine.
It is called Tarani and is from the South West of France. It is described on the Bien Manger website as “Balanced and harmonious” (This Bien Manger site is well worth look, a good selection for French food, wine and gifts).

Tarani

• Around €5
• From Le Cav’Epicerie wine shop in Mareuil

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My mum took her bottle to one of her dinner discussion groups, and sent me the following email.

Finally got a chance to taste the Tarani 2019 wine and everyone rated it very highly – better than the ~”Bordeaux Superieur” that someone brought. So, thank you for that and I will look out for it as it was very mellow indeed – not at all acidic.

Ellen

A while later I had my bottle, with a vegan meal with Jacqui

Aroma: A lovely delicately spicy aroma, and not too overpowering
Taste: A good full bodied and reasonably strong wine. Still quite smooth. Definitely better after being left to breathe for a while.

Paul (me)

Aroma: Nice, delicate
Taste: Good, but a little bit acidic. No specific fruits come to mind

Jacqui

Overall, a nice wine. Both me and Jacqui did not find it as smooth as my mum did. But we did enjoy it. It is nice to buy a wine from a specialist wine shop occasionally (but I will still do my big Auchan wine shops as well). Interesting that the people at my mother’s dinner party thought it better than the Bordeaux Superieur that someone else brought. I too have been disappointed by some ‘Bordeaux Superieur’ before. I am not sure what is required for wine makers to add the ‘Superieur’, but I will look into this for future posts. But this Tarani was better than most of them in this price range.

My trip to Boulogne and Paris: Helping out Dog Team UK

In last month’s post I mentioned going over to Boulogne and also I wrote ‘A friend had some urgent business in Paris and needed a lift.’

Firstly, I did go to Auchan for their wine fair. I will post more about that in upcoming posts. I did not have much time there as I had to get to Paris to help my friend with her ‘urgent business’ that I can mention now.

It was to collect two dogs for the rescue dog charity ‘Dog Team UK’. They take rescue dogs from South Korea when they have people to adopt them. For some reason it works out cheaper to fly them to Paris Charles de Gaulle rather than any of the London airports. Here is Jacqui with the two dogs Injong and Rico, and the courier who came over from South Korea.

The poor little things were quite freaked out. They had been badly treated, and would probably have been eaten. Then they were put into a crate and stuck into a cargo hold of a plane for nearly 12 hours. On the trip back to the UK, we tried to comfort them, and by the end of the trip, they were taking some food and seemed a bit more relaxed and at ease. They were in my car for about 8 hours, and even in that short time, I became quite fond of them. Glad that I could help with their transport to the UK. Upsetting to think of them being eaten.

They were collected by another Dog Team UK volunteer, Louise, who had arranged to take them to their new adopted home. However Louise has kept Injung for a while. Here he is.

Here is the Dog Team UK website. There is information if you want to support them or even adopt a rescue dog.

Dog Team Update: Jacqui and Louise are going back to Paris to collect 7 more rescue dogs. They are hiring a van and could do with help for costs. Here is link to fundraising page for this.
Help for Transport for Rescue Dogs. Any help much appreciated.

Ilkley Literature Festival update

If you remember my June 2020 post, I said that I would update you about the Ilkley Literature Festival. As expected, mainly cancelled, but they are doing a digital weekend on 24th and 25th October. Oops, sorry too late for the Saturday but you should get this in time to check out events for the Sunday. Check it out here.