Wine & song (inter alia)

I went to an Epiphany Carol Service at Tewkesbury Abbey on Sunday evening. It was packed! I do like the Cornelius Three Kings, but it was a bit unbalanced from where I sat - on the edge of the South aisle at the back! I got there almost 20 minutes early, and was still relegated to the cheap seats. I hadn't seen a lintel chalking before - an interesting ceremony. Other music included Buxtehude Prelude, Fugue & Chaconne in C, Messiaen Desseins Eternels, Les Enfants de Dieu, and Les Mages (all before the service), Bach Chorale Prelude on Das alte Jahr vergangen ist during the candle-lighting, and carols: Palestrina's Vespers responsory for Epiphany (where have I heard that before?), Richard Rodney Bennett's A little child there is yborn, Coventry Carol (arr Shaw), a modern Long long ago on a clear winter evening by Richard Shephard, Bullock's Love came down at Christmas, and Joubert's Nowell.

Wines. Unfortunately the recyclers chose today to take away the empties, so I don't have as much of a record as I'd like.

• Les Abeilles, Jean-Luc Colombo, Côtes du Rhône, probably 2004. Had this around Christmas sometime. Could have been the best wine to date. Definitely full bodied, although not as fruity as I'd have liked. Will have to try this one again some time.
• 2002 Chateau Bibian Cru Bourgeois from Listrac-Medoc. This was even more full bodied than the Les Abeilles. The flavour at first wasn't so good, but the second glass went down very easily. Again, the tannins were out of proportion with the fruit. But I don't know where the rest of the bottle went - it must have slipped down very easily. This was the first of the wines that I picked up from Calais.
• Winter Hill de Foncalieu, Chardonnay 2005. Nothing special. (It's lasted a few nights already.)
  
• 2004 Grand Arche St Emilion Grand Cru. Tried this one tonight with a beef & lentil stew. It was overpowered by the meal, so it could have been nice in a subtle way. Maybe my palate needs more subtlety! It (and the Bibian) maintain the pattern of wines from the Southern side of the Gironde river in Bordeux (e.g. St-Julien, St-Estephe, Margaux, Listrac) having more Cabernet sauvignon, and the wines on the other side (St-Emilion) having more Merlot.
  

Berenice left early this morning on the 5:30 train for Gatwick, to head over to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee & North Carolina. It seems the trains didn't quite connect as scheduled, but there was enough slack in the schedule, and she should be landing in Charlotte as I write.

It was so much fun going to the station in the dark, that I'm going to do it all over again tomorrow - off to London to visit people at City University. It will be the girls' last day of holidays - back to school on Wednesday! Helen's holiday essay is nearly finished, and Stephanie's violin practice is mostly up-to-date.

I should mention that I gave myself an Amazon Christmas present - I ordered the Carols for Choirs books 1 and 2. I've been meaning to add them to my collection for some years - they seem such a staple. And now I can play that B minor seventh with flat 5th in the Willcocks last verse to O Come All Ye Faithful!

Finally, I've started my ridgetop hills ride. I will do it all in one day at some stage, but this was just a taste, from . The nice people at Back on Track have given my bike a once-over, but they didn't put anti-ice tyres on! (There was a close call at Gardiner's Quarry, and the view was much whiter and sparklier than in the Wikipedia photo.) The new map showing all the paths should help now. I can see that home is about 80m altitude, and the Wyche is about 280m, and then Thirds Land and Perseverence Hill (the closest two peaks pictured) are both about 325m. The Worcestershire Beacon (in the distance) is the highest at 425m. I didn't attempt that one this time - I made it up there once before, but a significant fitness improvement will be required to do it with any style (ie. without stopping!). Getting there slowly...