Not such a simple question to answer. Over on Simon's Blog he commented on the recent film Inception and how good he thought it was - whilst flying on a plane. Level 1 of the dream if I remember correctly. Still it sparked a little discussion on movies and I realised I hadn't recently reviewed my own "Ten Favourite Films of all time" list. I wondered if Inception would make it on the list. Thus, I have just recreated my list and shall record it for posterity and ridicule here on my own blog. I used a system of brainstorming followed by directed selection. Simply put, I tried to recall any movie that had had an impact on me during my life, I filtered many at this stage - all remaining get an honourable mention. I suspect there is a certain amount of bias too, particularly if I had recently watched or discussed a move, but I tried to adjust for this. I then asked myself the question, "If I could watch only one of these movies in the whole of the next year and no other, which would I watch?". I also tried to adjust this for having watched recently. When I had selected one, I looked at the remaining list and asked the same question prefaced with "of those left, ....". During this process I remembered some more movies which either got added to the pool or noted.
I like the new(ish) stats page on blogger. If I'm honest I like stats. As mentioned before (http://jims-soliloquy.blogspot.com/2010/04/big-brother.html), periodically I have a nosy at who, if any, are visiting my musings. I paticularly like the search terms that people have entered immediately prior to selecting my blog from the list presented by their search engine (not shown here). Anyhow, today I noticed the portentous count that had been reached for my UK total.
This year we spent the etymologically challenged hog-ma-whatsits at our neighbours. The gathering also included one of my great mates, Scrivvy. Now Scrivvy is what one might call a bit of a hoarder, and has the habit of producing, out of the hat, the most stupendous bottles of alcohol that he has kept next to the AGA for the last 10+ years and more often than not, asks my help to recover, decant, and consume said tipple. This year proved to be a little extraordinary. I'm not sure if you can see on the label in the photo but this bottle of Madeira was conceived in 1954.
The Scrivs brought the cheese course comprising Oxford Blue, another quite delicious Oxford soft white cheese and the olfactory assault followed by gustatory nirvana that is Stinking Bishop. With grapes and figs accompanying the cheese we were all set to excite the palette for this potentially phenomenal Madeira.
So yes, I'm a bit of a ponce when it comes to wine as evidenced by this innuendo stuffed video. Please enjoy this video of me already gently lubricated, as I over enthuse about this wonderful wine.
So finally, my verdict on the '54. Outstanding, honeyed notes with an undercurrent of gently flambé toffee. The complex flavours contrasted vividly with the cheeses - well worth the 56 years since the grapes were harvested. Happy New Year.
