lathany

One of these two events from the weekend before last involved blood and gore. And, no, it wasn't the Warhammer 40K. That said, it was over and treated quickly and I thought the actual event was a great success.

leathellin had arranged a Rioja tasting evening. She had bought an impressive quantity of Rioja ranging from Rioja to Crianza to Reserva to Gran Reserva (or, to me, from the cheaper type to the expensive type). According to the chart I was provided with, Rioja has low or no oak and one to two years aging. At the other end of the scale Gran Reserva has two years in oak and three in bottle. I believe

jezzidue also brought along one or two bottles - I think a Reserva and a Gran Reserva.

Across the course of the evening, I tried ten different wines. Assuming that my dubious handwritten notes are right, this included two Gran Reservas, three Riojas of the same type but different ages (I think ranging from Rioja to Reserva). Also, a white Rioja, a rosé Rioja (the pink one), a pretend Rioja (same grape type, wrong region) and, err, my notes aren't good enough to suss the last two (which I think were my seventh which suggests it was 2012 and ninth also listed as 2012). My opinions were:

Gran Reservas - Both among my favourites of the evening (surprising no-one I suspect). I thought both tasted rich and oaky (the latter being a characteristic that I don't always like, but was good here).
The three from Rioja to Reserva - I liked all three, but thought the youngest one was best (just). I've noted it was peppery. Lots of people thought it tasted like Merlot, which I'm very fond of, which may explain my preference.
White - This reminded me of White Merlot (which Tesco stocks intermittently) and again I enjoyed it.
Rosé - This was fine, but a bit dull (perhaps because of the competition).
Fake - I didn't like this as much as the ones from the region. I don't know why, perhaps I was influenced by knowing it was an imposter (but surely should taste the same?).
Other two - I've listed one as tasty and peppery and the other as slightly metallic. I'm sure it meant more to me at the time.

As for the drama?

hearthfire hugged

jezzidue, jogged his glass and he caught it in a fist. This opened up his finger and he spurted blood everywhere. He was taken off to accident and emergency (as

hearthfire had colleagues conveniently located at the nearby hospital) and they were back before the end of the evening, despite having an X-ray to go with the stitches.

quisalan was staying with us overnight for the wine tasting, so this seemed an excellent time to do a Warhammer 40K game for her and

chrisvenus. This game was not so much combat light as combatless because, whilst

chrisvenus was playing an assassin,

quisalan was an Adept. Also, both were careful to avoid trouble, at least of the guns and blades variety. They were investigating a Cult Magus (who had been killed by the Inquisitor in the previous game) as it was not clear where she had received funding from and also what the source of her materials was. By the end of the game they had identified the former and found the latter - a secret apartment containing may heretical items. Although also clearly missing some rather worryingly large heretical items. I had named the session "Some of our Chaos Marines are missing" for the (fairly) obvious reason that five suits ain't there.