Post-holiday transition

Friends had just got back from some sunshine and fancied carrying on their theme of food from abroad, so we had lunch at Café Rouge on Bridge Street in Cambridge. It was surprisingly busy at 1.30pm and has recently had a small face-lift, so was interesting to visit once more. I arrived a dash earlier than the others, so I ordered a bottle of wine: a Tannat-Merlot blend (the first of which I’d never heard of). It was 12.5% and from 2008 and Vins de Pays Côtes de Gascogne. The nose was spicy and full of blackcurrants, the body was smooth and peppery and the finish even had a hint of marzipan. So far as I could tell, the name was La Gascogne par Brullont, but there were so many things on the label that it was difficult to tell, especially with its unconventional one-side-only label.

To eat, I enjoyed an excellent goat cheese salad, the cheese in which came slightly toasted on small pieces of bread and the body of the salad included boiled new potatoes and much of the usual trappings. My luncheon companions both went for the steak sandwich, and asked for it ‘a point’ which had to be explained to the waiter meant pretty much ‘pink, no blood’ but eventually we settled on ‘medium rare’. Quite an excellent lunch and I’m sure the ideal finish to a trip abroad, somewhat easing the shock of the pretty cold and windy autumn day.