Distinction.

In my opinion, the leaf of the Cabernet sauvignon (CS) vine is the most distinct of all Vitis vinifera varieties.  The very deeply, almost always overlapping (appearing as if the leaf is pierced with five holes) lobes on the leaf,  including the lyre-shaped petiolar sinus, make the CS leaf very recognisable.  (This specimen, photographed this morning, is wet because it rained overnight.)  By comparison, the leaf of a Chardonnay vine has extremely shallow sinuses and a petiolar sinus which is u-shaped.  I find ampelography, the field in botany that is concerned with the identification and classification of grapevines, fascinating. 
To my mind, nowadays, it is a distinct pity that wine made from CS grapes is not always recognisable as truly varietal in character (as is the grape variety's leaf).  Reflect upon the descriptors that self proclaimed Cab-lovers use to describe their favourite Cabs; jammy, bold, chewy, fruity, chocolate-y, smoky and, sometimes even, raisin-y (heaven forbid) etc.  What happened to the true characteristics of the varietal?  The finessed, medium-bodied clarets that I cut my wine drinking-teeth on, a wine with herbaceous undertones (pyrazines), tea leaves, damp earth, mint, cherries and violets, seem to be a thing of the past.  Cabernet sauvignon, où êtes-vous?  It's a vinous-conundrum.
Living in the Napa Valley doesn't exactly help my dilemma, either.  Napa is the poster child for big, intense, overblown, super extracted and high alcohol wines that are made to be consumed early.  There isn't a hope that the current style of CS being produced in the valley is chemically capable of aging for 20-30 years.  Perhaps I'm just getting old, my tastes are changing.  I'm okay with that.  That being said, I'm off to have a glass of an Austrian Grüner Veltliner.  Cheers!

Deva 2.

Today, like last November, Thud and I took a quick drive over to Chester.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so after we had done some of the usual things that we have always done when we visit Chester - have a coffee, visit my favourite wine shop, walk on some of the Roman wall - we stopped in the Roman Garden for a sit in the sun.  The garden is really a mishmash of  broken columns, pieces of  stonework and a reconstructed hypocaust that were all relocated from various other parts of the city centre.
There are always classes of school children on field-trips in the garden, and other places around town, learning about the Roman way of life.  At the back of this photograph you can see one such school group being put through their paces by a young legionary who is wielding a rather large sword.  I have to say the costumes the actors wear look rather good, albeit to my untrained eye.  However, when we were walking back along the river to the car another legionary passed us and he was holding a metal-capped, wooden staff in his hand.  "Wrong," Thud said, "he should be carrying a vitis."  Indeed, a vine-stick would have been more authentic.  Sin, sin, sin, dex, sin...