I ahve been absolutely rubbish at updating my blog recently and I am very irritated by this, so I am now going to pick it back up and hoipefully be regimented as surely the Christmas period is going to be filled with delicious meals.
For breakfast today I just had a bowl of cereal, it was Oats and More with almonds, perhaps my most favourite cereals in the whole world.
Mr P and I went shopping at Westfield today, so on the way we picked up a bagel each, I had a health seed bagel with turkey and guacamole. It was alright, a little dry, but it tasted very green and good. The turkey had that gross jelly stuff you get on pork pies, which I did not appreciate though.
Mr P made his usual Saturday night treats, while I watched X Factor. We had lamb shanks, which tasted good, but could perhaps have done with a little longer in the oven, but after leaving them in the oven for 2 and a half hours when it got to 9.30 we were both pretty peckish. We had it with some very buttery spring onion mash, which was superb, some lovely spinach and a minted lamb jus, which i made with the juices from the gravy, a but of mint, some red wine and a few gravy granules. It was a lovely dinner.
Saturday, 11 December 2010
Friday, 10 December 2010
whin.es weekly
This week was our Christmas big taste at the wine shop...
The basic setup for the weekend is open 30 different wines and get people tasting, talking and mainly...buying. My job for the weekend was to be on the tasting counter talking up and discussing wine. I had to wade my way through the wasters and strays, pick out the serious customers and try to convince them that their opinion of one or more of the wines was that they loved it and that they wanted to buy 12 (or more). Which to my credit, I did brilliantly. Everyone has a wine they'll quite happily fall in love with and if you get them to try enough, then you'll generally strike gold somewhere along the line.
We picked an excellent range of wines to contrast and compare over the weekend, and we picked wines to play against other. So, in amangst the 30 wines we had open, were three Argentinian malbecs and three different Bordeaux reds (the winter call for white wine is low so we had mostly reds open...)
My general tack with a sales based tasting is to start somewhere comfortable and get them to try a wine they will generally like first. So it's "Red or white?" or "What style of wine do you normally like?" and "Can I recommend one I've got open?". One chap that I spoke to was great, and highlighted something I really like about wine. Learning.
His initial line was "I'm fairly new to wine, and would just really like to try a few new wines and learn a little". Brilliant, not a sales pitch for once, but the opportunity to pass on some knowledge. I knew he was looking to buy eventually, so didn't need to try. We started somewhere simple, a straight up chardonnay. I really enjoyed passing on bits and bobs, and letting him taste his way through some wines. We skipped to a Marlborough sauvignon, a muscat, a Chablis, a torrontes and an Australian chardonnay/viognier. All different but the chap started to get a bit baffled but really liked the chrdonnay/viognier and the torrontes. (Torrontes is the only indigenous Argentinian white grape, really floral and pretty in taste and aroma). We did have a brief skim of the reds, but he was obviously realising that he had a lot to learn, so had a quick try of the three Bordeaux reds.
As a general rule, Bordeaux reds are a blend of three grapes. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. Depending on the appellation and the winemaker depends on the dominiant grape, either merlot or cabernet sauvignon. We had a 2009 (amazingly complex for such a young wine, drink in 2014) and a 2005 (a little thin and more fruit based than I'd expect for a 2005, drink in 2011) both merlot based and a 1999 Haut-Medoc (gloriously earthy and mellow, drink now!). The guy was impressed with and interested in the differences between such a complicated and famous region. He'd really only scraped the surface, but bought a bunch of the wines and went on his way.
The contrast between the malbecs is a pretty intereting one too. Malbec is an old, old grape. Previously heavily grown in France, but there's hardly any planted there anymore. However, Argentina has taken the grape as its own and really ran with it. They seem to squeeze out lots of different styles of wine from this one grape, which is a testament to the dedication and passion of the Argentinian producers. The three we had open were El Dominnio, Mendoza, 2009, a juicy fruits wine, bright purple and easily drinkable and a great match for a light gamey dish and would definitely go well with a christmas roast turkey. The second was another 2009, Casa Marguery. This is a much more full bodied wine, with depth and oak and more tannins. The third wine was a 2007, the Eral Bravo, (which, in Spanish, is a name of a breed of fighting bull... Wowzers!) this wine really does its name justice, it's big and scary, with a lot of big fruit, it has been oaked for 13 months and that earthy wood and toast come right through. Such a variance between the fruit driven style and the powerful oaky style, but all essentially the same region and grape. Cool huh? Not like Bordeaux, based on differing blends, just simply different winemaking styles.
Now, the good thing about working in wine shop, means that on a weekend where we were giving out tasters of 30 different wines is... You're going to have a little bit of wine left over. It's not like we can sell it now...so I managed to take home 3 half empty bottles of red and 2 half empty bottles of white (whoo!). Being the good son I am, I gave the whites to my mummy. I gave her a Chilean sauvignon blanc and an excellent (half empty) bottle of Chablis. I'm good. I left some tasting notes scrawled on the bottles in black pen so my mum knew what to expect. The note for the Sauvignon read "lively, young and fresh..." and the Chablis read "mineraly, dry and crisp". I left them in them fridge and got comments back from my mum the next day (what a wonderful way to research a wine, write some notes on the bottle and wait for the review to come to you). Well, my mum believes that she doesn't normally like dry, dry wines and I stand by the fact that she hadn't tried enough good wines (spend some money everyone, you get what you pay for). It turns out that she enjoyed the flinty Chablis much more than she though she would, but at the end of the day she still preferred the younger and livelier sauvignon blanc.
Anyway, I spent the last few days polishing off the wines I kept for myself...a New Zealand pinot noir, a Portuguese trincadeira and the 2009 Bordeaux I mentioned earlier (it was open anyway!!). All are reviewed in the sparkly new (and brilliantly named) 'reviews' section. Go take a look.
That's it for now, you can check out my website http://whin.es and follow me on twitter @whinesblog. You can also come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.
The basic setup for the weekend is open 30 different wines and get people tasting, talking and mainly...buying. My job for the weekend was to be on the tasting counter talking up and discussing wine. I had to wade my way through the wasters and strays, pick out the serious customers and try to convince them that their opinion of one or more of the wines was that they loved it and that they wanted to buy 12 (or more). Which to my credit, I did brilliantly. Everyone has a wine they'll quite happily fall in love with and if you get them to try enough, then you'll generally strike gold somewhere along the line.
We picked an excellent range of wines to contrast and compare over the weekend, and we picked wines to play against other. So, in amangst the 30 wines we had open, were three Argentinian malbecs and three different Bordeaux reds (the winter call for white wine is low so we had mostly reds open...)
My general tack with a sales based tasting is to start somewhere comfortable and get them to try a wine they will generally like first. So it's "Red or white?" or "What style of wine do you normally like?" and "Can I recommend one I've got open?". One chap that I spoke to was great, and highlighted something I really like about wine. Learning.
His initial line was "I'm fairly new to wine, and would just really like to try a few new wines and learn a little". Brilliant, not a sales pitch for once, but the opportunity to pass on some knowledge. I knew he was looking to buy eventually, so didn't need to try. We started somewhere simple, a straight up chardonnay. I really enjoyed passing on bits and bobs, and letting him taste his way through some wines. We skipped to a Marlborough sauvignon, a muscat, a Chablis, a torrontes and an Australian chardonnay/viognier. All different but the chap started to get a bit baffled but really liked the chrdonnay/viognier and the torrontes. (Torrontes is the only indigenous Argentinian white grape, really floral and pretty in taste and aroma). We did have a brief skim of the reds, but he was obviously realising that he had a lot to learn, so had a quick try of the three Bordeaux reds.
As a general rule, Bordeaux reds are a blend of three grapes. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. Depending on the appellation and the winemaker depends on the dominiant grape, either merlot or cabernet sauvignon. We had a 2009 (amazingly complex for such a young wine, drink in 2014) and a 2005 (a little thin and more fruit based than I'd expect for a 2005, drink in 2011) both merlot based and a 1999 Haut-Medoc (gloriously earthy and mellow, drink now!). The guy was impressed with and interested in the differences between such a complicated and famous region. He'd really only scraped the surface, but bought a bunch of the wines and went on his way.
The contrast between the malbecs is a pretty intereting one too. Malbec is an old, old grape. Previously heavily grown in France, but there's hardly any planted there anymore. However, Argentina has taken the grape as its own and really ran with it. They seem to squeeze out lots of different styles of wine from this one grape, which is a testament to the dedication and passion of the Argentinian producers. The three we had open were El Dominnio, Mendoza, 2009, a juicy fruits wine, bright purple and easily drinkable and a great match for a light gamey dish and would definitely go well with a christmas roast turkey. The second was another 2009, Casa Marguery. This is a much more full bodied wine, with depth and oak and more tannins. The third wine was a 2007, the Eral Bravo, (which, in Spanish, is a name of a breed of fighting bull... Wowzers!) this wine really does its name justice, it's big and scary, with a lot of big fruit, it has been oaked for 13 months and that earthy wood and toast come right through. Such a variance between the fruit driven style and the powerful oaky style, but all essentially the same region and grape. Cool huh? Not like Bordeaux, based on differing blends, just simply different winemaking styles.
Now, the good thing about working in wine shop, means that on a weekend where we were giving out tasters of 30 different wines is... You're going to have a little bit of wine left over. It's not like we can sell it now...so I managed to take home 3 half empty bottles of red and 2 half empty bottles of white (whoo!). Being the good son I am, I gave the whites to my mummy. I gave her a Chilean sauvignon blanc and an excellent (half empty) bottle of Chablis. I'm good. I left some tasting notes scrawled on the bottles in black pen so my mum knew what to expect. The note for the Sauvignon read "lively, young and fresh..." and the Chablis read "mineraly, dry and crisp". I left them in them fridge and got comments back from my mum the next day (what a wonderful way to research a wine, write some notes on the bottle and wait for the review to come to you). Well, my mum believes that she doesn't normally like dry, dry wines and I stand by the fact that she hadn't tried enough good wines (spend some money everyone, you get what you pay for). It turns out that she enjoyed the flinty Chablis much more than she though she would, but at the end of the day she still preferred the younger and livelier sauvignon blanc.
Anyway, I spent the last few days polishing off the wines I kept for myself...a New Zealand pinot noir, a Portuguese trincadeira and the 2009 Bordeaux I mentioned earlier (it was open anyway!!). All are reviewed in the sparkly new (and brilliantly named) 'reviews' section. Go take a look.
That's it for now, you can check out my website http://whin.es and follow me on twitter @whinesblog. You can also come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.
Monday, 6 December 2010
whine.es weekly
I’ve been getting asked lots of questions this week. Some of them are tremendously tedious, some of them plain stupid and some of them actually interesting. Well, one of them was vaguely interesting. Either way, I think I'm going to make this a new reoccurring thing called ‘Your Questions Answered’. YQA catchy. Every time I get asked a (seemingly, possibly) interesting question, I’ll remember it (write it down) and then every 5 (or so), I’ll answer them.
Questions for this week:
Wines on tap/pump, good or bad?
Can you recommend me a wine to go with duck?
Should I treat this malbec like a Rioja?
These big elaborate bottle openers, are they any good?
Hi young man, do you know about wine?
In essence, all of these have a predictably short answer, but in general, all were asked in such a way that lead me to want to answer it more fully.
I was working at The Alex, and a rep came in from Cabana, a drinks company asking where we get our minerals and fizzy pop from and whatnot, they offer such classics as Dr Pepper, Sunkist, Irn Bru and Virgin cola, and their (excellent) own brand Cabana Cola and Cabana Applause (a refreshing fizzy apple drink apparently). All of this was irrelevant anyway, but the parting documents included something that really interested me and should have been his primary focus for the venue The Alex is. A really attractive 2 tap font and a unit to dispense wine on draught. The unit looked great from the pictures and they provided equipment and installation for free as well. The only downside was the range of wines available. Cabana Dry White or Cabana Fruity Red just doesn't sound appealing to me or a consumer. I’ve also seen the same thing in Wetherspoons, Echo Falls mertlot, chardonnay and pinot grigio don’t sound like something I’d drink on a night out, or in a pub. The idea behind having a wine on tap is great. Just like draught beer, cider, ale, coke and orange juice. Its good for the bartender, being a quicker way to serve glasses of wine and it’s good for the environment (less packaging and less waste of glass bottles) I’m confident that it’s not the wines fault, it doesn’t taste any different than a bottle of Echo Falls or a bottle of Cabana Dry White. I’m sure that they are unpopular due to the lack of any decent wines being made available for use with the pump system. Get a better wine producer on board, get some excellent venues on board and I think that (with better marketing, and a better company rep) people could really appreciate this method of wine delivery. I’m not saying its ever going to replace the bottle, just that it could really be much better.
Right, I get a lot of food matching requests in the wine shop, loads in fact. A white for pork (something with a bit of body an oaked Australian or South African chardonnay), a red for pasta bolognaise (northen italian, tuscany, chianti). As a general rule, I usually recommend something country specific, Spanish food goes with Spanish wine, French wine goes with French cuisine. Still, this chap that came into the shop spent some time wandering around on his own, happily browsing the shelves before asking me “Can you suggest a red for a roast duck dish I’m cooking tonight”. My usual starting points are price and what style they prefer in general. So then I know what they normally like and if any of them fit already and I know where to start with something they haven’t tried before. So he answered that he usually preferred big spicy reds and that he was looking to spend about £10. So, a quick think and I came up with an excellent Syrah, Gouguenheim Syrah, 2008, peppery, fruity, dense and definitely a match for hearty game dishes. The customer replied instantly with “not that one...”. Brilliant. I confirmed he’d not had it before and that it would really be a great match for the dish, but he was adamant that he didn’t want that particular wine and opted for his own choice of a wine.
What's the difference between a Rioja and this Malbec? This seemingly innocent but scarily obvious question struck a chord with me for some reason. I was so baffled by the obviousness of the question posed by a customer I assumed knew what he was talking about, asked in such a way that almost made me look like the idiot, that I fumbled my answer and let my manager cut in and say exactly what i was trying to get out. Basically, everything and nothing. They’re from different countries for a start, Rioja being a region in Spain and this (and a lot of) malbec(s) being from Argentina. They are completely different grapes, Rioja being mainly tempranillo (and a malbec being malbec). Also, trying to compare one Argentinian malbec to a whole region of Spain is incredibly difficult. Think about regional blending of grenache grapes, different vintages, different ages (a young Rioja differs wildly from a wine that has been aged for 2 years) and then try to sum them up into one taste to compare to a different wine.
The taste between these wines however have their similarities though. I think this is the answer he was looking for. “They are both fruity and deep purple in colour, but the malbec will be more tannic and a higher concentration of fruit, a similarly aged Rioja would be more earthy and a little more lively. I’d have the Rioja with food and the malbec with friends”. So you can go buy both wines if you want. The malbec was the Adnams Selection, El Dominio, malbec, Argentina, 2009 and a comparitive rioja would be something like Perez Burton, Rioja, 2007.
Has anyone every used one of these Bottle Openers ? Do you like it? Did it break? Did you realise after you’ve paid £50 for it that it isn’t any quicker than a spoon? The elaborate, gift fodder style bottle opener, with a separate faff for a foil cutter (use a knife), they frustrate me. When asked direct I was honest and said No. Why? 3 reasons.
They are usually pretty heavy, so even for an elderly person or someone with weak wrists or someone incredibly LAZY they aren’t that much extra help (a screw cap is much easier).
Even as a gift for someone who likes wine they are useless. They’ve probably either already got one or know that are cumbersome. I’ve been given them as a ‘Free Gift on orders over £1’ and as birthday presents and they sit dusty on my shelf.
They are a pain to use, and every make and brand I’ve tried, they break. No matter how simple they claim, they are elaborate and over-engineered pieces of equipment to do a rather simple task.
Get one of these Pulltaps waiters friend, they are the absolute best, I’ve got 3.
So, on reflection, here is a quick round up of the questions I’ve dealt with this week.
Q: Wines on tap/pump, good or bad?
A: It depends on the wine.
Q: Can you recommend we a wine to go with duck?
A: Gouguenheim syrah, 2008, Argentina.
Q: Should I treat this malbec like a rioja?
A: No.
Q:These big elaborate bottle openers, are they any good?
A: No.
And finally...
Q: Hi young man, do you know about wine?
A: Of course I do. I work in a wine shop.
That’s it for now, you can follow me on twitter @whinesblog and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.
Questions for this week:
Wines on tap/pump, good or bad?
Can you recommend me a wine to go with duck?
Should I treat this malbec like a Rioja?
These big elaborate bottle openers, are they any good?
Hi young man, do you know about wine?
In essence, all of these have a predictably short answer, but in general, all were asked in such a way that lead me to want to answer it more fully.
I was working at The Alex, and a rep came in from Cabana, a drinks company asking where we get our minerals and fizzy pop from and whatnot, they offer such classics as Dr Pepper, Sunkist, Irn Bru and Virgin cola, and their (excellent) own brand Cabana Cola and Cabana Applause (a refreshing fizzy apple drink apparently). All of this was irrelevant anyway, but the parting documents included something that really interested me and should have been his primary focus for the venue The Alex is. A really attractive 2 tap font and a unit to dispense wine on draught. The unit looked great from the pictures and they provided equipment and installation for free as well. The only downside was the range of wines available. Cabana Dry White or Cabana Fruity Red just doesn't sound appealing to me or a consumer. I’ve also seen the same thing in Wetherspoons, Echo Falls mertlot, chardonnay and pinot grigio don’t sound like something I’d drink on a night out, or in a pub. The idea behind having a wine on tap is great. Just like draught beer, cider, ale, coke and orange juice. Its good for the bartender, being a quicker way to serve glasses of wine and it’s good for the environment (less packaging and less waste of glass bottles) I’m confident that it’s not the wines fault, it doesn’t taste any different than a bottle of Echo Falls or a bottle of Cabana Dry White. I’m sure that they are unpopular due to the lack of any decent wines being made available for use with the pump system. Get a better wine producer on board, get some excellent venues on board and I think that (with better marketing, and a better company rep) people could really appreciate this method of wine delivery. I’m not saying its ever going to replace the bottle, just that it could really be much better.
Right, I get a lot of food matching requests in the wine shop, loads in fact. A white for pork (something with a bit of body an oaked Australian or South African chardonnay), a red for pasta bolognaise (northen italian, tuscany, chianti). As a general rule, I usually recommend something country specific, Spanish food goes with Spanish wine, French wine goes with French cuisine. Still, this chap that came into the shop spent some time wandering around on his own, happily browsing the shelves before asking me “Can you suggest a red for a roast duck dish I’m cooking tonight”. My usual starting points are price and what style they prefer in general. So then I know what they normally like and if any of them fit already and I know where to start with something they haven’t tried before. So he answered that he usually preferred big spicy reds and that he was looking to spend about £10. So, a quick think and I came up with an excellent Syrah, Gouguenheim Syrah, 2008, peppery, fruity, dense and definitely a match for hearty game dishes. The customer replied instantly with “not that one...”. Brilliant. I confirmed he’d not had it before and that it would really be a great match for the dish, but he was adamant that he didn’t want that particular wine and opted for his own choice of a wine.
What's the difference between a Rioja and this Malbec? This seemingly innocent but scarily obvious question struck a chord with me for some reason. I was so baffled by the obviousness of the question posed by a customer I assumed knew what he was talking about, asked in such a way that almost made me look like the idiot, that I fumbled my answer and let my manager cut in and say exactly what i was trying to get out. Basically, everything and nothing. They’re from different countries for a start, Rioja being a region in Spain and this (and a lot of) malbec(s) being from Argentina. They are completely different grapes, Rioja being mainly tempranillo (and a malbec being malbec). Also, trying to compare one Argentinian malbec to a whole region of Spain is incredibly difficult. Think about regional blending of grenache grapes, different vintages, different ages (a young Rioja differs wildly from a wine that has been aged for 2 years) and then try to sum them up into one taste to compare to a different wine.
The taste between these wines however have their similarities though. I think this is the answer he was looking for. “They are both fruity and deep purple in colour, but the malbec will be more tannic and a higher concentration of fruit, a similarly aged Rioja would be more earthy and a little more lively. I’d have the Rioja with food and the malbec with friends”. So you can go buy both wines if you want. The malbec was the Adnams Selection, El Dominio, malbec, Argentina, 2009 and a comparitive rioja would be something like Perez Burton, Rioja, 2007.
Has anyone every used one of these Bottle Openers ? Do you like it? Did it break? Did you realise after you’ve paid £50 for it that it isn’t any quicker than a spoon? The elaborate, gift fodder style bottle opener, with a separate faff for a foil cutter (use a knife), they frustrate me. When asked direct I was honest and said No. Why? 3 reasons.
They are usually pretty heavy, so even for an elderly person or someone with weak wrists or someone incredibly LAZY they aren’t that much extra help (a screw cap is much easier).
Even as a gift for someone who likes wine they are useless. They’ve probably either already got one or know that are cumbersome. I’ve been given them as a ‘Free Gift on orders over £1’ and as birthday presents and they sit dusty on my shelf.
They are a pain to use, and every make and brand I’ve tried, they break. No matter how simple they claim, they are elaborate and over-engineered pieces of equipment to do a rather simple task.
Get one of these Pulltaps waiters friend, they are the absolute best, I’ve got 3.
So, on reflection, here is a quick round up of the questions I’ve dealt with this week.
Q: Wines on tap/pump, good or bad?
A: It depends on the wine.
Q: Can you recommend we a wine to go with duck?
A: Gouguenheim syrah, 2008, Argentina.
Q: Should I treat this malbec like a rioja?
A: No.
Q:These big elaborate bottle openers, are they any good?
A: No.
And finally...
Q: Hi young man, do you know about wine?
A: Of course I do. I work in a wine shop.
That’s it for now, you can follow me on twitter @whinesblog and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Pork belly with spring onion mash and home-made apple sauce
Feeling totally back to normal this morning I got up and had a bowl of cereal plus a cup of tea for breakfast before gettign the train to epsom to have a little day out with Mr P.
Whilst in Epsom we went out for lunch at a Slug and Lettuce, where I had my second platter of the week, this time a tex-mex one. It consisted of:
* Mini flour tortillas
* Chilli beef
* Shredded lettuce
* BBQ ribs
* Jalapeno and cream cheese croquettes
* Tortilla chips with grated cheese
* BBQ sauce
* Sour cream
* Salsa
* A strange kind of bruschetta with chopped cucumber on (not the best as it made the toasted bread kinda soggy)
My sister came round for dinner and Mr P mad eus a slap up treat... we snacked on a few pistachios while he cooked and he then dished up pork belly on a bed of spring onion mash, with spinach, carrots and home-made apple sauce.
The pork belly was absolutely and utterly delicious - probably the best thing he has ever made me. The meat was so succulent and tender with the beautifully crisp crackling on top. The spinach and carrots were both perfectly cooked and the mash was so so smooth and presented beautifully in a circle underneath the pork. I am not usually a huge fan of apple sauce, but this was seriously the best I have ever tasted, it was more like a purree and had been seived to make it smooth. According to Mr P alongisde the apple he had also added white wine, salt, pepper, sage and mustard. Outstanding.
This was followed by a lemon cheesecake courtesy of Waitroise - tasty but I was so full I felt sick ... again. So I couldn't quite finish this.
Whilst in Epsom we went out for lunch at a Slug and Lettuce, where I had my second platter of the week, this time a tex-mex one. It consisted of:
* Mini flour tortillas
* Chilli beef
* Shredded lettuce
* BBQ ribs
* Jalapeno and cream cheese croquettes
* Tortilla chips with grated cheese
* BBQ sauce
* Sour cream
* Salsa
* A strange kind of bruschetta with chopped cucumber on (not the best as it made the toasted bread kinda soggy)
My sister came round for dinner and Mr P mad eus a slap up treat... we snacked on a few pistachios while he cooked and he then dished up pork belly on a bed of spring onion mash, with spinach, carrots and home-made apple sauce.
The pork belly was absolutely and utterly delicious - probably the best thing he has ever made me. The meat was so succulent and tender with the beautifully crisp crackling on top. The spinach and carrots were both perfectly cooked and the mash was so so smooth and presented beautifully in a circle underneath the pork. I am not usually a huge fan of apple sauce, but this was seriously the best I have ever tasted, it was more like a purree and had been seived to make it smooth. According to Mr P alongisde the apple he had also added white wine, salt, pepper, sage and mustard. Outstanding.
This was followed by a lemon cheesecake courtesy of Waitroise - tasty but I was so full I felt sick ... again. So I couldn't quite finish this.
whin.es weekly
France.
I've spent a lot of time looking up bits and bobs on France this week. France is a pretty interesting place when it comes to wine. That's a pretty obvious statement, but it's true. They call their grapes different names, they refer to the wines solely by region or chateau and they have a specific word that encompasses everything from soil, sunshine, rain, wind, geography and geology. Terroir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir). A weird, but terrifyingly interesting lot they are.
So, here is a quick whip through France: there's (loosely) 4 main regions, plus a whole host of others. There you go.
Ever heard of Bordeaux? Some of the most famous red wines in the world come from this area, plus it's split up into a serious number of appellations. Including Medoc, Saint-Emillion, St Julian, Paulliac (the list is endless). What I've been looking at with Bordeaux is the differences between the two common divides. Right and Left bank. In general a more fruity merlot based blend comes from the right bank which included Saint-Emilion and Pomerol. And a more dense, Cabernet Sauvignon predominant wines come from the left bank, which includes Medoc and Graves. I've prattled on before about Medoc and Haut-Medoc, I once described a Medoc (Chateau chantelys) at a wine tasting as a wine that I could drink with a packet of crisps or a piece of toast for breakfast, some people even agreed with me, they understood the excellent food matching capabilities of that wine. Idiots.
I don't drink the Bordeaux dry whites. There's more interesting whites about and the main grape variety is semillion. Some are ok, but you've got to do your research (if you want, get in touch and I'll look into a couple and write them up). Drink the sweet Sauternes though, excellent with a Christmas pudding and some vodka margarine.
Burgundy is on the right side of middle France, a massively divers, with some absolute classic regions and wines. I'd have at it with a mineraly, flinty, bone dry Chablis and a handful of oysters with a little rock salt. Definitely also try a light burgundy red, or a Beaujolais. I think Beau is underrated; the Cru Beaujolais (Beau top 10 essentially) cover their tracks by using their village name instead. Clever. Look out for a Brouilly or a Julienas and definitely a Fleurie. All Beaujolais, all light, but all different.
A highly underrated region (in my opinion), because of its diversity is the Rhône. The northern Rhône and southern Rhône are really different. Up the top you've got mainly red wines like Cote Rotie and Crozes-Hermitage et al, where they blend up to 20% white grapes in with the reds. It's a bit more regimented than that, the French make sure each region has specific rules for blending different varieties. Genius. Make each region different. By Law.
The southern Rhône includes cote-du-Rhône and the CdR Villages regions and of course the famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape region. With blends of load of different grapes including spicy syrah and Grenache grapes, but can be (as is the case with C-d-P) 18 differnet regional grape varieties! Eighteen, wow, that blew my mind this week. Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape. That's just the French, they called it syrah first and everyone else called it Shiraz, why not? Because they didn't want to be the same as France? I think so.
The other region I've been looking at is the lesser known, main region. The Loire. There are some absolute gems in the Loire. Obviously Sancerre, but maybe a chenin blanc! Vouvray produces incredibly fresh, crisp white wines with a hint of sweetness and plenty of fruit, made almost exclusively from chenin blanc, a grape that has been made popular by south Africa. The region called Chinon! One of the few red regions in the Loire, Cabernet Franc grapes are at the forefront here. There is a small amount of Cabernet Franc in Bordeaux, usually as small part of the blend, but in Chinon, it's usually at least 80% which produces light reds. Chinon reds go exceptionally well with food, a red for white meats and risotto dishes, with more depth than a burgundy or New Zealand pinot noir.
Writing about France brings me back to the time I went to work there. I learnt stuff, ate nice thing and generally had a relaxed time in a hotel as a waiter. I had to speak French and everything.
I spent two weeks working at the l'Hotel Les Tourelles. It is in north-west France, near the town of Amiens, but on the coast. When we were not at work me and my colleague Luke spent most of the time wandering around. The little village of Le Crotoy is pretty much empty, not much to do but eat and drink wine. Excellent. The work involved being a runner in the hotel restaurant at night and serving on the outside patio for lunch. I got thrown in to serving real customers on day 3 after proving I could hold my own in French, and Luke got stuck with pouring drinks and carrying food about. I was amazed by the customers knowledge of the food and especially of the wines and the wine list. People were asking constantly for specific vintages of specific regions of France, only France. A common knowledge and interest in eating and drinking, a passion for quality and preference you just don't see in England. Not one person said “le vin du maison” (house wine).
We did venture on the dodgiest bus service I've ever been on into Abbeyville, closer but smaller than Amiens, but still definitely a town. Luke constantly looked like a tourist, even when we're in England he dresses like a tourist. Bright yellow board shorts, flip flops and a face like a ripe tomato. I tried desperately to look normal, but we got clocked as English Aliens wherever we went. We wanted (needed) some wine to take home so stopped in at the French equivalent of Lidl for some supplies and spent ages trying to figure out which wines were which. There wasn't one country other than France and lots were local but mostly from the nearest region, the Loire. You just don't get that anywhere else in the world; ignoring every other wine producing country and being happy with the wine available on your doorstep. We were stuck scrabling for ideas when a small, walking stick wielding batty old French lady hobbled up to us and muttered in broken English, “you, err, wan... some 'elp?” to which I replied in French “oui, votre favourite vin rouge, sil vous plait”. She seemed pleased I'd replied in a Suffolk accented French and directed us to her favourite local reds, and Anjou and a Chinon. Me and Luke both bought a bottle of each for a total cost of about 10€ (4 bottles 2€50 each!!) and when we got home were completely blown away but the character and quality, and have both kept an affection for the regions. You just wouldn’t get that in England in either. If I came up to you in a supermarket, harbouring my love and knowledge of wines and suggested you take a chance on something new and interesting, I'm pretty confident I'd get a lot of “thanks, but no thanks...”, but reading it here is obviously a totally different story, huh?
Next week Italy. Not.
That's it for now, you can follow me on twitter @whinesblog, check out my website http://whin.es and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.
I've spent a lot of time looking up bits and bobs on France this week. France is a pretty interesting place when it comes to wine. That's a pretty obvious statement, but it's true. They call their grapes different names, they refer to the wines solely by region or chateau and they have a specific word that encompasses everything from soil, sunshine, rain, wind, geography and geology. Terroir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir). A weird, but terrifyingly interesting lot they are.
So, here is a quick whip through France: there's (loosely) 4 main regions, plus a whole host of others. There you go.
Ever heard of Bordeaux? Some of the most famous red wines in the world come from this area, plus it's split up into a serious number of appellations. Including Medoc, Saint-Emillion, St Julian, Paulliac (the list is endless). What I've been looking at with Bordeaux is the differences between the two common divides. Right and Left bank. In general a more fruity merlot based blend comes from the right bank which included Saint-Emilion and Pomerol. And a more dense, Cabernet Sauvignon predominant wines come from the left bank, which includes Medoc and Graves. I've prattled on before about Medoc and Haut-Medoc, I once described a Medoc (Chateau chantelys) at a wine tasting as a wine that I could drink with a packet of crisps or a piece of toast for breakfast, some people even agreed with me, they understood the excellent food matching capabilities of that wine. Idiots.
I don't drink the Bordeaux dry whites. There's more interesting whites about and the main grape variety is semillion. Some are ok, but you've got to do your research (if you want, get in touch and I'll look into a couple and write them up). Drink the sweet Sauternes though, excellent with a Christmas pudding and some vodka margarine.
Burgundy is on the right side of middle France, a massively divers, with some absolute classic regions and wines. I'd have at it with a mineraly, flinty, bone dry Chablis and a handful of oysters with a little rock salt. Definitely also try a light burgundy red, or a Beaujolais. I think Beau is underrated; the Cru Beaujolais (Beau top 10 essentially) cover their tracks by using their village name instead. Clever. Look out for a Brouilly or a Julienas and definitely a Fleurie. All Beaujolais, all light, but all different.
A highly underrated region (in my opinion), because of its diversity is the Rhône. The northern Rhône and southern Rhône are really different. Up the top you've got mainly red wines like Cote Rotie and Crozes-Hermitage et al, where they blend up to 20% white grapes in with the reds. It's a bit more regimented than that, the French make sure each region has specific rules for blending different varieties. Genius. Make each region different. By Law.
The southern Rhône includes cote-du-Rhône and the CdR Villages regions and of course the famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape region. With blends of load of different grapes including spicy syrah and Grenache grapes, but can be (as is the case with C-d-P) 18 differnet regional grape varieties! Eighteen, wow, that blew my mind this week. Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape. That's just the French, they called it syrah first and everyone else called it Shiraz, why not? Because they didn't want to be the same as France? I think so.
The other region I've been looking at is the lesser known, main region. The Loire. There are some absolute gems in the Loire. Obviously Sancerre, but maybe a chenin blanc! Vouvray produces incredibly fresh, crisp white wines with a hint of sweetness and plenty of fruit, made almost exclusively from chenin blanc, a grape that has been made popular by south Africa. The region called Chinon! One of the few red regions in the Loire, Cabernet Franc grapes are at the forefront here. There is a small amount of Cabernet Franc in Bordeaux, usually as small part of the blend, but in Chinon, it's usually at least 80% which produces light reds. Chinon reds go exceptionally well with food, a red for white meats and risotto dishes, with more depth than a burgundy or New Zealand pinot noir.
Writing about France brings me back to the time I went to work there. I learnt stuff, ate nice thing and generally had a relaxed time in a hotel as a waiter. I had to speak French and everything.
I spent two weeks working at the l'Hotel Les Tourelles. It is in north-west France, near the town of Amiens, but on the coast. When we were not at work me and my colleague Luke spent most of the time wandering around. The little village of Le Crotoy is pretty much empty, not much to do but eat and drink wine. Excellent. The work involved being a runner in the hotel restaurant at night and serving on the outside patio for lunch. I got thrown in to serving real customers on day 3 after proving I could hold my own in French, and Luke got stuck with pouring drinks and carrying food about. I was amazed by the customers knowledge of the food and especially of the wines and the wine list. People were asking constantly for specific vintages of specific regions of France, only France. A common knowledge and interest in eating and drinking, a passion for quality and preference you just don't see in England. Not one person said “le vin du maison” (house wine).
We did venture on the dodgiest bus service I've ever been on into Abbeyville, closer but smaller than Amiens, but still definitely a town. Luke constantly looked like a tourist, even when we're in England he dresses like a tourist. Bright yellow board shorts, flip flops and a face like a ripe tomato. I tried desperately to look normal, but we got clocked as English Aliens wherever we went. We wanted (needed) some wine to take home so stopped in at the French equivalent of Lidl for some supplies and spent ages trying to figure out which wines were which. There wasn't one country other than France and lots were local but mostly from the nearest region, the Loire. You just don't get that anywhere else in the world; ignoring every other wine producing country and being happy with the wine available on your doorstep. We were stuck scrabling for ideas when a small, walking stick wielding batty old French lady hobbled up to us and muttered in broken English, “you, err, wan... some 'elp?” to which I replied in French “oui, votre favourite vin rouge, sil vous plait”. She seemed pleased I'd replied in a Suffolk accented French and directed us to her favourite local reds, and Anjou and a Chinon. Me and Luke both bought a bottle of each for a total cost of about 10€ (4 bottles 2€50 each!!) and when we got home were completely blown away but the character and quality, and have both kept an affection for the regions. You just wouldn’t get that in England in either. If I came up to you in a supermarket, harbouring my love and knowledge of wines and suggested you take a chance on something new and interesting, I'm pretty confident I'd get a lot of “thanks, but no thanks...”, but reading it here is obviously a totally different story, huh?
Next week Italy. Not.
That's it for now, you can follow me on twitter @whinesblog, check out my website http://whin.es and you can come and see me in-store at the Adnams Cellar & Kitchen Store in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Should you wish.
Friday, 26 November 2010
Chinese take away
Feeling more than slightly worse for wear today after a night of wine drinking and karaoke singing. Could not raise myself from the sheets of my bed until around 6pm and therefore could not bare to eat anything until then.
Mr P however had popped out in the middle of the afternoon for a sausage in batter and some chips, so I teasted my fragile stomach with a couple of soggy chips warmed up in the microwave. After leaving these for about half an hour I discovered they were safe and so moves onto Heiz spaghetti and sausages. Half a tin of this made me feel almost human again, so Mr P and I decided a chinese take away would be a grand idea to help get our energy levels back up.
We ordered:
2x chicken and sweetcorn soup
1x House special noodles for me
1x Sweet and sour chicken balls for Mr P
4x Cans of Coke
Pretty much back to normal now thanks to our local Chinese Bamboo.
Mr P however had popped out in the middle of the afternoon for a sausage in batter and some chips, so I teasted my fragile stomach with a couple of soggy chips warmed up in the microwave. After leaving these for about half an hour I discovered they were safe and so moves onto Heiz spaghetti and sausages. Half a tin of this made me feel almost human again, so Mr P and I decided a chinese take away would be a grand idea to help get our energy levels back up.
We ordered:
2x chicken and sweetcorn soup
1x House special noodles for me
1x Sweet and sour chicken balls for Mr P
4x Cans of Coke
Pretty much back to normal now thanks to our local Chinese Bamboo.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Sharing platter
Yoday was my last day at Bookseller Towers - sob. To mark the last day working together MR P and I decided to go for a slap up breakfast... at MacDonalds. I had a sausage, egg and cheese bagel and he had a double sausage and egg mcmuffin meal. Always a great way to start the day, but usually leaves my stomach a little fragile.
I bought lots of goodies in to celebrate my last day, so for much of the morning I was munching on mini rolls, party rings, pink and whites, chocolate cornflake cakes, etc etc.
We went out for a girly lunch at Zizzis, where three out of five of us had our favourite dish.. strozzapreti somethingor other - pasta with chicken, red pesto, spring onions and cream fraiche - delicious.
In an attempt to line my stomach whilst ina bar for my leaving do me and my friend Fliss ordered a sharing platter consisting of ribs (tricky to eat with one hand whilst standing in a busy bar), cheesy garlic bread, calamari, breaded chicken - it was a tasty selection - just wish it had been able to line my stomach more adequately...
I bought lots of goodies in to celebrate my last day, so for much of the morning I was munching on mini rolls, party rings, pink and whites, chocolate cornflake cakes, etc etc.
We went out for a girly lunch at Zizzis, where three out of five of us had our favourite dish.. strozzapreti somethingor other - pasta with chicken, red pesto, spring onions and cream fraiche - delicious.
In an attempt to line my stomach whilst ina bar for my leaving do me and my friend Fliss ordered a sharing platter consisting of ribs (tricky to eat with one hand whilst standing in a busy bar), cheesy garlic bread, calamari, breaded chicken - it was a tasty selection - just wish it had been able to line my stomach more adequately...
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