As regular readers of that blog will know, our two lads were adopted some eight years ago. They had a rough start, and so it’s been great to grow that family together, even though it has been durable work. Sadly, elder son has always been the more troubled, and of late his troubles have intensified to the point where he is throwing huge tantrums both AM and evening. I guess that is understandable given the poor early experiences. You can manage more easily with tantrums from a toddler considering of their size; when it’s a big 11 year old, it’s trickier. Today, though, he went to stay overnight at Fiona’s mum’s, and in his place, Louis has a friend to stay. Suddenly, it’s like living in a normal family. We went for a expanded walk with the dog along the Thames, and soon after came back and they’ve played happily since. Fiona and I feel like different folks.

I cooked that evening. An improvised, simple recipe that involved using lots of tomato, lots of olive oil, lots of garlic, lots of parmesan and a bit of sea salt, served by spagghetti. To accompany it, two Rhones. The first, from Chapoutier, is OK, but like many Chapoutier wines, underdelivers slightly. The second, from Domaine Richaud, is just brilliant: dense, generous, pure and really more-ish.

Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Petite Ruche 2005 Northern Rhone, France
This northern Rhone Syrah is bright, fresh and juicily vibrant, with focused raspberry-tinged fruit as well as a subtle peppery meatiness. There’s good fresh acidity here, and it’s nicely savoury, but it does taste quite light and commercial when compared with more serious Crozes Hermitage. A useful food wine, I’d buy that whether the price was right - around £6. 84/100 (Waitrose)

Domaine Richaud Cairanne 2006 Cotes du Rhone Villages, France
A dark, concentrated Southern Rhone wine, that is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and Carignan. The nose is ripe, meaty, peppery and quite pure. The palate is dense with lovely sweet blackberry and raspberry fruit combining well with a savoury, spicy, slightly reductive streak. There’s some lushness here (it’s 14.5% alcohol), but it avoids being over-ripe. The most impressive aspect is the concentration and purity of the fruit. With its richness, that could nearly be a new world Syrah, but whether it was, it would be one of the very best considering it’s still really well balanced and quite elegant. 92/100 (this was around 10 Euros from a Paris wine shop)