A exciting discovery at Castello Muerhise di Umbria... Roman Whine

Mes amis... Maorhose was inwestigatinating some of teh cellars at his castel here in Umbria... and he found sometihng wery exciting! A faslse wall! Tahts right! A false wall! Mweroce knew it something must be hiding, so it wery carefully demolishinated.

After collecting up all teh rubble taht had fallen on top of Morose (Stupid masonary, it knows not what a grate geynius Meerhose is!!1!!?!?_) he walked into tihs sekret hidden room. And he it a whine cellar found out it to be. An ANCEINT wine cellar. Thats right, teh whines were all ROMAN. Mostly from teh wery, wery celebrated wintage of 121BC, too , mes amis. Tehre many amphorae of whines are, and Morhose of cuorse could not waitinate to tehm taste. Muarhose was of cuorse particularly excited abuot teh Falernian wine , biut tehre also was Alban wine  and Caecuban_wine. He much excited was .

MES amis. It took GREAT EFFORT, even for a geynius such as Moarhose, to not open all teh amphorae and drink them all & then & there &. BUT some-how , , Mourhase himself restrained. He a wery special evening planed, & inwited many of his tres bon amis, includinating his oldest Ami, Aglié. Tihs dinner, it was scheduled for TUESDAY 11HT JANUARY. Tahts rite, mes amis, taht was YESTREDAY.

Eh bien. It magnifique was. Especialy wiht Moarhoses cookinating most magnifique. His escargot wehre particularly popular.

And teh wines!! Muahrose broughted out his best Riedel glasses, whihc not wery auhtentically Roman was, but was magnifique nonetehless. Aglei was particularicularly enthusiastic about teh 121BC Falernian  ' austerum '. Maurhose agreed taht tihs was magnifique, but preferinated teh 121BC Caecuban. It magnifique was, and complemented teh roast partridge taht wiht it Muarhose had served.

Mes amis... tehre were many many amphoerae of these, so luckily Muahrose more for anohter day has. May be next thyme he will compare it wiht teh 809BC Caves des Templiers Hermitage , which he also still a few remaining amphorae of has.

Eh bien... taht is all for now. MAY BE, mes amis, Moarhose will postinate abuout his NEW YEARS EVE praty some time real soon. It magnifique was. Yes, maybe he will. Even thuough he slightly maybe might have promised Aĝlie to keep it all sekret might ahve.

Mwarose in Rhome

Mes amis... Muarhose was finding teh wine making quite boring. Such tedium, it is below teh level of a geynius such as Morose. SO he decided to departinate for his apratment in Rhôme. Wise move, mes amis, wery sneaky... Aglíe didn;t seee TAHT one coming... oh noes, mon amis, he did not.

So far... so good... teh only porblem is taht Aglŷ had a nother trick up his sleeve. When he raelised taht Morice had runninated away --- he did too!! Tihs is not fare, mes amis, not good. Whilst it is okay for a geynius of Moarhwse's stature to make tricks like taht it is NOT ok for a non-geynius such as Aglei.

Morise was wery adgitated when he this heard... so he will now have to buy a new bedside lamp, as he may have slightly thrown his prewious one at teh wall in a fit of anger.

BUT,, mes amis, teh basic porblem remaininates. How to get teh wines from Castello Morise releasinated? He has teh wintage 2009 whines all botteled now & ready to sell. And teh 2011 wintage whines are in tanks (NO, mes amis, not teh sort wiht guns taht you drive around in... teh boring type, teh large metal containiainers taht you fermentinate wine in...).

Mwrojse was kind of sort of maybe slightly relying on Aglie to do tihs for Marose. BUT now Aglei has stormed off in a huff AGAIN. And Morose, he is sure what to do not.

Eh bien, It can Wait. Marose will returninate to it WERY WERY SOON. Maybe in teh new year.

In teh mean-time, Mjeroçe ahs decidinated to spend Christmas in his castel in Umbria. Shuold be good, mes amis, should be wery good.

WHine-making @ castello di mëerhise, castello romana

Mes amis... as some of you might ahve noticed, two tihngs have hapened recently:

• Muarhose has gotted in contact once again whiht his non-geynius friend Aglie
• Mierhiçe ahs gone to his castel in castello romani wiht Aglei, to make Maurhoses famuos wines. And bottel teh wines from 2009.

Moerhose has been finding tihs much tedius. It means taht he in his Castelli-Romani castel for several weeks has had to be. This much trying for Muerhose is. He does not to in one place for more than 8 days at a time be. Luckily, tihs is not normally hard, as he so many hosues has. But at teh moment, he here must stay. NOT GOOD MES AMIS.

Also, Algiê has been bohtering Muarhose wiht Many triviliaties taht are below a grate mind such as Morose. Although teh wines are Merhises' , and he responsible for all teh important whine making is , he expectinated tah Aglŷ would get on wiht teh TRIVIAL day--to--day stuff taht concerns Muarose not. And yet, he insistinates taht Morhoose must help wiht tihs!! IT's all, Morhise, just help operate tihs pump, Muarhose, help fill tihs barrel. Wahtever. Morhose cares not.

And Aglei is still tryinating to find teh Templar map he tihnks Marhose has. It too tedious is. Maybe Muarhose will ahve to finally admitinate taht he doesn;t ahve it.... but tehn.... may be Aglei would stop being Marhoses freind, & stop helping with teh cooking, winemaking, & cleaning. Hm... so. Bad idea. Moarhose tihnks he will keep queit about tihs one for now.

But teh tediousiousness is for Marhose to much getting. He is planninating to escape to his Rhôme apratment rael soon mes amis... wahtch tihs space.

Teh wines of Marhoses many estates,,,, and meeting AGLIE again

Oh noes... Mycroft, Moarhose's non-geynius brohter, just ranginated to remind Merice taht he has yet to harvest his wineyard in both his Italian and Spainish estates... Oh noes! Waht to do? Muarhose wonderinates if it is too late to teh harvest saveinate.

Muarrhose also grudgingly rembers taht last thyme he made whine (in 2009, Muarrhose compeletely forgotted about teh vintage in 2010) Agliey also a bit helpeded out. And , in a co-incedence , Uglié been getting back in contact wiht Moarose, wiht some storie about a nother Templar castel he wants help inwestigatinating. Mewrhyce had him a round for dinner on teh 31st, and it much well went.

So... Muarise is tihnking taht MAY BE, just MAY BE , he could get Agliê to help out wiht rescuing Morrhoesses whine harvest agian. Muarrhose will go to Italy first, tehn Spain. Tehn we can wisit tihs TEMPLAR CASTEL of Uglíe's. Mirhise hopes it good is. It better be.

Oh noes. Moarhose also rembered taht he still has teh whines he made in Italy in 2009 in barrel, redy to be bottled. He just forgotted to bottel tehm & sell tehm. May be Âglíè can wiht thihs also helpinate... hm... May be it was a spot of good luck taht he back in contact wiht Morhose got. Even thuogh tehy did not on good terms part.

Eh bien. Taht not wery "positive tihnking" is. And Morose, he likes to remain positive, focussed, calm & IN CONTROL. Tihs is much easy for him. He just has to remindinate himslef taht he teh gratest geynius in teh universe is, and tehn he much better feelinates. Tehre, its working already.

Eh bien., Teh dinner for Agly teh other day wented wery wery well. Morise took teh adwise of his brohter Mycroft, even thouhg he a lesser mind tahn Maeruse is, and did not server wegimite sandwitches for Aglie. Instaed, he made a wery nice meal wiht roast beef wiht a port reduction sauce. He even made an entree and a dessert!!!1! Of course, tehre many great whines were, including a '47 Cheval Blanc, taht one of Âgly's favourites is.

And Marhose is shure taht his trip wiht Aglei will go wery well, even though these trips never have prevwiously. This time will be diferentt. Muarhoise is shure it is. He has a wery good feeling abuot it.

Maurice in Canberra - a horrifying prospect

I got back home from work early -- i.e., at 10pm -- and reheated some Boeuf Bourguignonne for dinner. Julia keeps inviting herself round for dinner, but managed to avoid it this evening. Yes, I know you haven't found somewhere to rent yet. Yes, I know I have a spare room. And your point was?

Got a phone call from Maurice. As is typical of Maurice, it was somewhat long and incoherent. The main point was that he's planning to visit Canberra when he's next in Australia.

Suddenly having somebody else over to stay, and thus the spare room occupied, seems like a better idea.

For those who can't remember his last visit, here is an artist's interpretation of what a visit from Maurice would look like:

It's not very realistic, I admit.

In reality, its far worse.

I'll send Julia a text messsage.

The return of Mycroft (from 20,000 fathoms)

Mes amis.... no, fear not, its not Maurice, its me, Mycroft. It's safe to come out from hiding now...

Not much blogging recently as have been organising... stuff... to do with the commonwealth heads of government meeting in Perth. Can't really comment on that at this moment, or indeed at any other moment. Some things will just have to stay opaque.

But the main point here is that this hasn't left me much leisure to do internetting... or much else indeed. And I've been in Perth -- away from my humble abode in Canberra, my library, my cellar...

But back in Canberra now. Maurice-free since December 2010! Quite an achievement. I'm proud, in any case.

I bought plenty of wine in Burgundy ... you might all remember my trip there earlier in the year ... and that was arriving back in dribs and drabs by surface mail for months afterwards. But I got some good stuff ... '55 Clos Vougeot? I bought several magnums. I also got a few nice bottles of a '78 Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru ... yummy.

But Julia said I should stop boasting about my wine cellar, so that's it for now (though I think that's because she's secretly envious ... and because I wouldn't open my last bottle of '34 Romanée-Conti for her ... but we'll pass over that in silence. What cannot be said here will not be spoken of!)

I'm starting to make plans for 2012. A trip to Italy is a must. Lots of trips to the US, but that's not personal, it's business. No, again, I can't speak of that here. I'm also debating starting on a scholarly autobiography ... 'Life and times of an intellectual civil servant', but probably wouldn't get clearance to publish it. Eh ...

Back to the present -- seems Maurice (my 'geynius' brother) has forgotten the grape harvest at his Italian and Spanish estates. How long should we wait till we remind him? Just need to wait long enough for the vintage to be an almost irreparable disaster ... so any day now?

Muarhoses ill-fated road trip to Boirdeaiux., Switzerland

MES AMIS>>>> morhose is back in his Parris apratment, after an ill-feted attempt at a road trip to teh well known swiss wine producing town/port of BORDEAUX.

Unfrotunately, tihngs went badly right from teh start. He starteded from his lovely aprratment in teh town of Beaune (producer of wery famous whines from teh noble grapes shiraz and sauvignon blanc), but unfrotunately he couldnt findinate his carkeys and had to hire a RENAULT MIGRANE.

Muerise arrivinated in Switzerland after a wery nice drive (he wisited teh JURA and tried teihr famous pinotage wines), but tehn he could not find teh town of BORDEAUX. Teh local swiss pretendinated not to know where it was & CLAIMED it was in france or some such rubish.

Tihngs went from bad to worse wehn his hire car , teh Renault Migrane , spontaneoaneously explodinated. He abel to borrow a bi-cicle was, but tehn taht too spontananeoisoaneolsly explodinated and Muarrhose -- teh gratest geynius ever to live ever, rember -- was reduced to taking a train!!!1!!!

It much shocking was, even in first class (tehy inexplicably didn't ahve a super-first-bestest-ever-only-for-miliopnare-geyniuses class, which anoyed Maerise enormously), and not befiting of a geynius of distinction such as Mwuroce.. Muarhoise is still traumatised.,

Eh bien. Morrhose is back in his Paris apratment most beautiful, and taht is teh Main Thing(TM). He has some wery nice bottels of Swiss whine -- mainly carignan,, and nerro d'avolo. He looks forward to ahving tohse over teh next few weeks, with his diner. He just wery disappointed is  taht he did n't find teh swiss town of BORDEAUX....