Ville Lång

I picked up this second wine called Sarget vintage 2014 from Chateau Gruaud-Larose just a week ago from our local retailer Nicolas. When buying the bottle I was thinking that for an affordable bottle to drink immediately instead of storing, there would not be a better choice than to try a second wine from a chateau with long history. Now you may wonder what does "a second wine" refer to? Don't worry, this is part of the wine slang not known to all. Second wine means with all simplicity that the wine is made of the grapes not good enough for some reason to be put into the chateau`s first wine.  The Chateau Gruaud-Larose winery has a long history dating back to 1778 when it started operating by the name it carries today. It got the the second growth in 1855 classifications the Medoc. Gruaud-Larose is situated on the left bank of Bordeaux. Unfortunately this chateau has a questionable reputation of producing unstable quality of wines. It has had long breaks between q...

Is there a more suitable topic to write on a sunny Friday in Paris than wines? Nope, I guess not. Still I was hesitating a bit when the thought of adding wine reviews to my blog crossed my mind for the first time. Why? Because I felt like I lack both knowledge and experience to actually write about wines. Internet is full of great wine reviews from professionals whose ancestors were already involved in a wine business. What can I add to that? I do not have a degree on wines, no years of experience. Not even a single official training on the matter.  I am self-read and self-taught when it comes to wines. Expert only on my own taste, still struggling to find the corret terms to describe this drink of Gods. Have I read dozens of books and watched a bunch of documents on the subject? Yes. For sure. Have I had my share of wines? Yes. Definitely. But still, it seems that wines are almost sacred topic to touch. Form of art where I would be far from being Michelangelo.  So ...

In the latest news in media as well as in people`s discussions sports’ cleanness has taken lots of hits, and the whole reputation of sports has in some way experienced inflation and in most cases rightly so. Almost every week there are athletes who are being crucified in the news and media for doping. Some cases it is because of already failed doping tests and some other it is because some athletes are believed to be users of performance enhancing drugs. Rightly so again. I have wanted to write on this subject for so long. For one I have had the privilege to get an insight look to the topic through my own professional career in badminton. And as in Finland there currently is an on-going campaign called "Puhtaasti paras" against doping it seemed like a perfect timing to write this post. When I was younger I believed that completely clean sport existed, maybe mostly because of lack of knowledge and because I was still naive. At least when it came to my own field, badmi...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin I have received messages from friends abroad that I should start to write my posts in English. As Finnish is my mother tongue I still hesitate to abandon it completely but I decided to give it a go and write some posts also in English. Let’s see how this goes and if you, my dear readers adapt the new language, maybe I continue this for good, who knows? As a start I decided to translate some of my previous posts to which I have received messages asking if translation would be possible.. So here you go! First one is a post of our one-of-a-kind honeymoon in Maldives. Just two weeks ago we arrived from the paradise straight to the freezing coldness. Although it was great to be reunited with our daughter, it is not often I have felt so emotional when saying goodbye to a holiday destination. To ease this still on-going travel fever I decided to write couple posts from our trip. “Couple posts” because the post would be miles long if I tried...

Saavuimme vain muutama päivä sitten paratiisista suoraan pakkaseen ja vaikka oli mahtavaa päästä kotiin tyttäremme luo, täytyy sanoa että harvoin on näin haikein mielin jättänyt lomakohteen taakseen. Päätinkin siis kaukokaipuuta helpottaakseni (tai lietsoakseni) kirjoitella reissustamme pari postausta tänne blogiin. Pari siitä syystä että tekstistä tulisi usean kilometrin mittainen, mikäli yrittäisin saada kaiken sanottavani yhteen postaukseen. Puhumattakaan kuvatulvasta, sillä kuvia tuli räpsittyä vaatimattomat useampi tuhat kappaletta. Mikäli olet siis kyllästynyt kylmään ja hyiseen viimaan, ei varmasti kannata jatkaa tästä pidemmälle ellet ole valmis seuraavaksi bookkaamaan lentoja lämpöön.  Kävimme häiden jälkeen perheen kesken roadtripillä Etelä-Ranskassa mutta varsinaiselle adults only -häämatkalle kahdestaan lähdimme vasta noin puoli vuotta häiden jälkeen. Matkalle lähtö Pariisin sadekauden aikana tyttömme ollessa jo yli 2,5-vuotias tuntui meille hyvältä a...