The recent bad weather in France has almost devastated the vine crops in the Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux regions. In some areas up to 50% of the crop has been lost to frost. Similarly, late frost has damaged much of the vine crops in the UK.
Winemakers in France can survive a bad harvest but in the UK wine producers cannot benefit from large economies of scale as the vineyards are small and production is therefore limited. UK winemakers have to charge more per bottle and therefore they are not as price competitive as winemakers in France, Italy, Spain, California and Australia.
Taittinger is to become the first Champagne House to invest in sparkling wine production in the UK, with their partners they have acquired a multi-hectare site in Kent which was formerly an orchard.
They hope to produce their first bottles of English Sparkling wine from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes in five years time. Let's wish them lots of success even though the weather in Kent can still be very unfavourable for wine production.
English Sparkling wine is perfectly capable of competing with sparklers from all over the world including Champagne. Taittinger will have plenty of room to grow vines, so let's hope that the price will be kept down a bit.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/09/champagne-taittinger-to-produce-english-sparkling-wine-in-kent
Tuesday, 9 May 2017
Friday, 7 April 2017
Wine apps
I downloaded a wine app onto my android phone and used it to identify three wines. All three were favourite wines of mine, two French and one Spanish. The Spanish wine is internationally famous. The wine app failed to identify all three.
Of course you are at liberty to enter the wine details into the the apps wine database. You are then providing the wine app developers with information for free.
You can easily buy a wine hand book which you can carry around in your pocket or handbag. Hugh Johnson produces a great one. You don't have to buy it every year. It gives you valuable information on all of the world's wine regions and their wines. It also has vintage charts and a wine and food matching section: it is a veritable encyclopedia. Other wine writers do something similar. I find that the wine descriptions and quality assessments are very good.
I have no objection to using the internet to educating yourself about wine. However, a good wine handbook combined with a short course in wine and wine tasting will stand you in much better stead than a wine app gimmick. You can even write down your own tasting notes and there is nothing to stop you from sharing your observations and opinions on the web; very quickly you will be able to trust your own judgement rather than those of an automaton.
Of course you are at liberty to enter the wine details into the the apps wine database. You are then providing the wine app developers with information for free.
You can easily buy a wine hand book which you can carry around in your pocket or handbag. Hugh Johnson produces a great one. You don't have to buy it every year. It gives you valuable information on all of the world's wine regions and their wines. It also has vintage charts and a wine and food matching section: it is a veritable encyclopedia. Other wine writers do something similar. I find that the wine descriptions and quality assessments are very good.
I have no objection to using the internet to educating yourself about wine. However, a good wine handbook combined with a short course in wine and wine tasting will stand you in much better stead than a wine app gimmick. You can even write down your own tasting notes and there is nothing to stop you from sharing your observations and opinions on the web; very quickly you will be able to trust your own judgement rather than those of an automaton.
Sunday, 19 March 2017
Domaine Iris du Guyon Bordeaux Rouge 2009
I was given a bottle of this prize winning wine and it is excellent. It is a typical Bordeax red and it has won prizes. It is for drinking now but you must drink it with good food.
I recommend it highly.
If you are in France and see it buy it.
http://www.vigneron-independant-aquitaine.com/vins-chateaux/?aoc=&search=iris+du+gayon
I recommend it highly.
If you are in France and see it buy it.
http://www.vigneron-independant-aquitaine.com/vins-chateaux/?aoc=&search=iris+du+gayon
Tuesday, 14 February 2017
Boxing Day dinner
For Boxing day 2106 we ate roast rib of beef. And I must say that I preferred this to the venison that I cooked the previous day for Christmas. Beef is my favourite meat.
I prepared the sauce for the beef in the same way as I prepared the sauce for the venison ( see my previous blog) but this time I added the leftover venison stock. The venison stock could just as easily be replaced by beef stock or chicken stock.
Sometimes we cook beef with just a large knob of butter on top of the joint after we have inserted slivers of garlic into the flesh. We add half an onion to the roasting dish and a good half a glass of white wine to the roasting meat about half way through. The meat can then be basted with the resulting stock. This is very much in the French style of cooking.
Generally we sear the outside of the beef before cooking, but then we don't time the roasting as we do it by feel and by checking that the juices are running rare.
If by chance you are cooking from frozen make sure that the whole of the rib has reached room temperature before attempting to cook. If you want the best beef buy it the day before you cook it and store it in a cool place.
It is best to leave the beef rest for 15 minutes to half an hour before serving; you can cover it with tin foil to retain some of the heat.
If you must then you can see the timings and a recipe below.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/techniques/how-roast-and-carve-rib-beef
All beef is best eaten rare but rib of beef is very forgiving if you overcook it by trying to please your English and American friends.
My rib of beef tasted gorgeous we had bought it from a local butcher who knows how source and keep his beef properly.
What did we drink with this? Beef goes best with a full body Bordeaux or Rioja or a New World red or even a full body Italian red. A friend had given me a bottle of Beronia 2012 Red Rioja Reserva. This wine is superb; it is full of red fruits with a hint of vanilla and cloves coming from the oak maturation. The plentiful tannin refreshes the palate. It has well balanced acidity, tannin, dryness and body. It is concentrated and complex and you could taste it well after you swallowed it. Above all it is easily recognisable as Rioja. It is a wine of good character and it should keep for a few years longer. What more could you ask for to go with the perfectly cooked beef
I might repeat all this next Christmas with luck.
I prepared the sauce for the beef in the same way as I prepared the sauce for the venison ( see my previous blog) but this time I added the leftover venison stock. The venison stock could just as easily be replaced by beef stock or chicken stock.
Sometimes we cook beef with just a large knob of butter on top of the joint after we have inserted slivers of garlic into the flesh. We add half an onion to the roasting dish and a good half a glass of white wine to the roasting meat about half way through. The meat can then be basted with the resulting stock. This is very much in the French style of cooking.
Generally we sear the outside of the beef before cooking, but then we don't time the roasting as we do it by feel and by checking that the juices are running rare.
If by chance you are cooking from frozen make sure that the whole of the rib has reached room temperature before attempting to cook. If you want the best beef buy it the day before you cook it and store it in a cool place.
It is best to leave the beef rest for 15 minutes to half an hour before serving; you can cover it with tin foil to retain some of the heat.
If you must then you can see the timings and a recipe below.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/techniques/how-roast-and-carve-rib-beef
All beef is best eaten rare but rib of beef is very forgiving if you overcook it by trying to please your English and American friends.
My rib of beef tasted gorgeous we had bought it from a local butcher who knows how source and keep his beef properly.
What did we drink with this? Beef goes best with a full body Bordeaux or Rioja or a New World red or even a full body Italian red. A friend had given me a bottle of Beronia 2012 Red Rioja Reserva. This wine is superb; it is full of red fruits with a hint of vanilla and cloves coming from the oak maturation. The plentiful tannin refreshes the palate. It has well balanced acidity, tannin, dryness and body. It is concentrated and complex and you could taste it well after you swallowed it. Above all it is easily recognisable as Rioja. It is a wine of good character and it should keep for a few years longer. What more could you ask for to go with the perfectly cooked beef
I might repeat all this next Christmas with luck.
Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Christmas Dinner Roast Venison and John Duval Eligo 2008
This year I cooked the Christmas Dinner. I did roast venison and it was mighty good. First I prepared a sauce in a large frying pan:
I chopped up an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic,
I fried the onions with some sunflower oil,
I added 200 ml of good port,
I added the garlic,
I added about 500 ml of water,
I added several blackberries,
A good dash of lemon juice,
I added some chicken stock,
A teaspoon of honey,
Some sea salt to taste,
I added a few juniper berries, some crushed cloves, pepper corns and a stick of cinnamon to taste.
I cooked the sauce whilst stirring it occasionally. I saved some of the juice to make a sauce later. I reduced the remaining sauce until it was thick.
I fried the joint of venison both sides until it was just becoming brown making sure that the juices of the sauce were well incorporated around the joint.
I warmed the oven to about 180 degrees C.
I greased an oven dish with some vegetable oil. I coated the venison joint with the onions, garlic and berries remaining from the sauce on both sides. I added the remaining liquid to the joint.
I cooked the joint until it was cooked on the outside but rare in the middle.
I left the joint to rest in its dish before serving but covered the baking dish with foil.
After removing the joint to carve it. I poured out the juices and made the sauce.
My joint weighed about 1 kg so I cooked it for about 45 minutes at 180 degrees. I basted the joint and checked that it was not overcooked by piercing the flesh to ensure that the juices were running rare.
The joint was cooked perfectly and was full of game flavour. The seasoning , port and berry flavour went perfectly.
I kept the remaining sauce for the next day.
You may be asking, what is the best wine to go with this? Well you need a top red wine which has a full flavour to match and which has a good structure with sufficient tannin to cleanse the palate between mouthfuls of succulent meat.
I choose a fabulous candidate: John Duval Eligo 2008 Shiraz from the Barossa Valley. This wine will cost you a few bob; mine was a present from some Australian friends. I am a lucky man. This wine was lovely. It had the perfect balance of tannin, acidity and dryness. It was of full body. It was concentrated and complex. It had a strong taste of red fruits with a hint of oak, vanilla and cloves. It had long length on the palate. It had all of the attributes of an excellent wine, so it was good value for money. At six years old ready for drinking but this wine could have been kept longer.
It holds its own well with the top red wines from France, Italy, Spain and the US and, certainly, other top wines from Australia. Of course, this is wine to be savoured with the best food and should not be sloshed down at a barbecue. It went down well with some strong French cheeses after the main course.
It made a memorable day, with me cooking the Christmas day meal, even more memorable. My French wife was duly impressed and the wine won her over too.
https://www.masterofmalt.com/wine/john-duval/john-duval-eligo-reserve-shiraz-2008-wine/
I chopped up an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic,
I fried the onions with some sunflower oil,
I added 200 ml of good port,
I added the garlic,
I added about 500 ml of water,
I added several blackberries,
A good dash of lemon juice,
I added some chicken stock,
A teaspoon of honey,
Some sea salt to taste,
I added a few juniper berries, some crushed cloves, pepper corns and a stick of cinnamon to taste.
I cooked the sauce whilst stirring it occasionally. I saved some of the juice to make a sauce later. I reduced the remaining sauce until it was thick.
I fried the joint of venison both sides until it was just becoming brown making sure that the juices of the sauce were well incorporated around the joint.
I warmed the oven to about 180 degrees C.
I greased an oven dish with some vegetable oil. I coated the venison joint with the onions, garlic and berries remaining from the sauce on both sides. I added the remaining liquid to the joint.
I cooked the joint until it was cooked on the outside but rare in the middle.
I left the joint to rest in its dish before serving but covered the baking dish with foil.
After removing the joint to carve it. I poured out the juices and made the sauce.
My joint weighed about 1 kg so I cooked it for about 45 minutes at 180 degrees. I basted the joint and checked that it was not overcooked by piercing the flesh to ensure that the juices were running rare.
The joint was cooked perfectly and was full of game flavour. The seasoning , port and berry flavour went perfectly.
I kept the remaining sauce for the next day.
You may be asking, what is the best wine to go with this? Well you need a top red wine which has a full flavour to match and which has a good structure with sufficient tannin to cleanse the palate between mouthfuls of succulent meat.
I choose a fabulous candidate: John Duval Eligo 2008 Shiraz from the Barossa Valley. This wine will cost you a few bob; mine was a present from some Australian friends. I am a lucky man. This wine was lovely. It had the perfect balance of tannin, acidity and dryness. It was of full body. It was concentrated and complex. It had a strong taste of red fruits with a hint of oak, vanilla and cloves. It had long length on the palate. It had all of the attributes of an excellent wine, so it was good value for money. At six years old ready for drinking but this wine could have been kept longer.
It holds its own well with the top red wines from France, Italy, Spain and the US and, certainly, other top wines from Australia. Of course, this is wine to be savoured with the best food and should not be sloshed down at a barbecue. It went down well with some strong French cheeses after the main course.
It made a memorable day, with me cooking the Christmas day meal, even more memorable. My French wife was duly impressed and the wine won her over too.
https://www.masterofmalt.com/wine/john-duval/john-duval-eligo-reserve-shiraz-2008-wine/
Friday, 13 January 2017
Osteria Da Fabrizio Christmas Eve 2016
We like to go out on Christmas eve, my wife and I, and why not saunter down to a regular and favourite restaurant? Once again we went to Osteria Da Fabrizio where regularly we both enjoy the food, the wine and the music. It is in Orpington in the London borough of Bromley and it's half an hour's brisk walk away- for us anyway.
The music is important to me when I am dining and Fabrizio always plays the best jazz and blues. Every year he resists the temptation to play "Jingle Bells" "White Christmas" and "Away in a Manger". This alone is good reason to dine there.
For some reason this year every body seemed to be happier, maybe no one had been caught up in traffic jams trying to enter and leave the huge and local shopping malls.
We met some great people. I thought I recognised the accent of the young people on the next table; they were from Bermondsey and my mum was born there too. We enjoyed a lovely conversation ranging from life in South London to the exploits of Millwall football club.
On another table some of Fabrizio's French relatives were visiting from Nice which is not far from the Italian border. My wife and I enjoyed a good conversation with them too.
We had very friendly if not familiar company.
For food we shared starters of "Grigliata di Mare" or octopus calamari with king prawns. And, "Tagliolini Alla Coda d'Aragosta Marinata" or pasta with marinated fresh lobster tail.
For main course we both ate "Orata Al Cartoccio" or steamed sea bream.
For dessert we both chose Chocolate fondant. We rarely chose the same menu but we could not resist the selection. All of this was delicious and served in an unpretentious and down to earth style.
The chocolate fondant was well cooked on the outside but runny in the middle; for me this is an indication of a chef that knows what he is doing.
So what wine did we drink? Well, we drank white wine of course. We washed the meal down with a bottle of 2010 Abruzzo Duca Thaulero Passerina Superiore DOP. This wine has the right balance of acidity, dryness, alcoholic strength, fruit flavour, concentration and complexity to complement both shell fish and sea bream etc. It is high quality wine at a reasonable price. The Abruzzo region is on the east coast of Italy in the central region. So it is no wonder that the wine goes well with fish - perfect. Apparently, the Passerina grape is named after the sparrow which loves to eat the small ripe fruits on the vine - dream on about viticultural paradise.
http://www.casalthaulero.it/en/vini/duca-thaulero/
I could not resist a glass of Cognac with my coffee but my wife did. We both sipped a glass of Limoncello afterwards. I was mixing it a bit but there were no side effects. I resisted the temptation to hear health warnings ringing in my ears on the walk home as I preferred to sing jazz to myself. It was Christmas, after all , and I did not want to spoil a perfect evening.
If ever you are nearby Orpington then try www.dafabrizio.co.uk/our-location/
The music is important to me when I am dining and Fabrizio always plays the best jazz and blues. Every year he resists the temptation to play "Jingle Bells" "White Christmas" and "Away in a Manger". This alone is good reason to dine there.
For some reason this year every body seemed to be happier, maybe no one had been caught up in traffic jams trying to enter and leave the huge and local shopping malls.
We met some great people. I thought I recognised the accent of the young people on the next table; they were from Bermondsey and my mum was born there too. We enjoyed a lovely conversation ranging from life in South London to the exploits of Millwall football club.
On another table some of Fabrizio's French relatives were visiting from Nice which is not far from the Italian border. My wife and I enjoyed a good conversation with them too.
We had very friendly if not familiar company.
For food we shared starters of "Grigliata di Mare" or octopus calamari with king prawns. And, "Tagliolini Alla Coda d'Aragosta Marinata" or pasta with marinated fresh lobster tail.
For main course we both ate "Orata Al Cartoccio" or steamed sea bream.
For dessert we both chose Chocolate fondant. We rarely chose the same menu but we could not resist the selection. All of this was delicious and served in an unpretentious and down to earth style.
The chocolate fondant was well cooked on the outside but runny in the middle; for me this is an indication of a chef that knows what he is doing.
So what wine did we drink? Well, we drank white wine of course. We washed the meal down with a bottle of 2010 Abruzzo Duca Thaulero Passerina Superiore DOP. This wine has the right balance of acidity, dryness, alcoholic strength, fruit flavour, concentration and complexity to complement both shell fish and sea bream etc. It is high quality wine at a reasonable price. The Abruzzo region is on the east coast of Italy in the central region. So it is no wonder that the wine goes well with fish - perfect. Apparently, the Passerina grape is named after the sparrow which loves to eat the small ripe fruits on the vine - dream on about viticultural paradise.
http://www.casalthaulero.it/en/vini/duca-thaulero/
I could not resist a glass of Cognac with my coffee but my wife did. We both sipped a glass of Limoncello afterwards. I was mixing it a bit but there were no side effects. I resisted the temptation to hear health warnings ringing in my ears on the walk home as I preferred to sing jazz to myself. It was Christmas, after all , and I did not want to spoil a perfect evening.
If ever you are nearby Orpington then try www.dafabrizio.co.uk/our-location/
Friday, 9 December 2016
Worth Keeping Your Wine - Domaine de L'Arjolle Paradoxe 2010 red
In a former blog on this site for September 2013 I wrote the following about Domaine de L'Arjolle Paradoxe 2010 red:
Well I didn't keep my own promise and drank the wine before 2015. I did, however, give away a bottle to a good friend who took my advice to keep the wine. We went to dinner at his place a couple of weeks ago and he opened his bottle. I couldn't see the label but recognised that this was superior wine and this was confirmed by my wife and our hosts.
The wine had indeed improved enormously in the bottle; it retained is full fruit flavour but the tannin had softened. The wine tasted superb and went down well with some beef. There is no doubt in my mind that this wine will probably improve more over the next year or so. At 16.5 Eur a bottle it represented tremendous value for money back in 2013: what more can I say. The quality of the wine reflected the love and dedication of the Domaine as applied in the vineyard and the wine making process.
So give three cheers for my wine tasting prowess.
Domaine D'Arjolle is based in Pouzolles in the Côtes-de-Thongue and not far from Péz
énas.
énas.
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