High Street Wine Challenge: Bijou Cuvée Sophie Valrose, Cabrieres (Waitrose, £7.99)

The label doesn't give much away about this wine but I know from the name Cabrieres (a tiny village in the Languedoc in southern France) that it'll be a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre & Carignan, so similar to Cotes du Rhone, Cotes du Roussillon et al. The fruit is super ripe and brambly (blackberry and blueberry fruit) with some delicious sweet spice (vanilla) and a good level of acidity which would make this great with roast lamb or pork belly because it would help cut through the fat. It was also very tasty with the Manchego we were scoffing this evening! A good juicy red for this beautiful Autumnal weather.

Happy Swigging! 

Sherry is for life, not just for Christmas

A couple of weeks ago, I was very lucky to have lunch at Aiko, a wonderful new Japanese/Italian fusion restaurant on Chancery Lane. While the idea of blending Italian and Japanese flavours were intriguing, what really wowed me was host Stefano’s focus on sherry as the perfect accompaniment to his food. I was dining with a friend who has never drunk sherry before, and on taking her first sip of Tio Pepe Fino she wasn’t hugely impressed. “It’s quite bitter…” she told me, which is a common first impression. Then our sushi selection arrived, and when paired with all those salty, fishy flavours, the bitterness vanished and was replaced by refreshing acidity and light nuttiness. Suddenly my friend understood why I bang on about Sherry all the time. This is the ultimate food wine.

 

So what exactly IS Sherry?

Sherry is a fortified white wine made in Andalucia in southern Spain. During fermentation, barrels are not filled completely which allows a film of yeast called “flor” to develop on top of the wine to protect it from oxidation. The barrels are topped up with fresh wine periodically in order to keep the flor alive and then after one year the cellar master will taste the wines and decide which style each barrel is destined for. He then administers the necessary amount of grape spirit to begin the next process. For Fino and Manzanilla, he aims for 15% ABV; for Oloroso he raises the alcohol to 18% which kills the flor and allows oxidation to begin.

 

Flor layer on top of the fermenting sherry (pic courtesy of http://eng.sograpevinhos.com)

So from super dry to super sweet, here’s my guide to the wide range of sherry styles and how to best enjoy them…

 

Fino & Manzanilla: These are bone dry wines, high in acidity and both very similar in flavour profile: crunchy green apples, almonds, lemons. Manzanilla is different from Fino in that it has to be aged in the seaside town of Sanlucar de Barrameda where the humidity encourages a thicker flor layer and the resulting wine is a touch saltier. In truth, I’m not sure I can taste the difference! Both are best served cold from the fridge as you would a Sauvignon Blanc, and taste best with foods that are high in salt, fat and vinegar. In Andalucia everyone drinks this with olives, salted nuts, and the delicious local jamon, but (as I discovered the other day) it is also fantastic with sushi and sashimi. I would highly recommend either Tio Pepe Fino or La Gitana Manzanilla, both widely available in supermarkets and wine shops for around £10.

 

Jamon Iberico, perfect with sherry

Amontillado: this is where the flor has failed so the wine is lightly oxidised, resulting in flavours of toast and hazelnut. This is quite a good starting point for any sherry novice as it’s softer than a Fino, and it comes into its own when served with cured meats and cheeses. Best served lightly chilled.

 

Palo Cortado: this is my absolute favourite, a sherry that is apparently accidental in its making. It starts off its life developing into an Amontillado but the flor inexplicably disappears so it then starts ageing as an Oloroso. The resulting wine is dry and tastes of hazelnuts and dried figs, and is best served lightly chilled. Waitrose do a fabulous own-label Palo Cortado for £9.99 which is a permanent feature in our fridge.

 

Oloroso: a fully-oxidised Sherry so expect intense nuttiness (walnuts), dried fruit and toffee. My favourite Oloroso’s are the dry ones, where the toffee flavour acts almost like a haunting sweetness – bizarre I know but you’ll understand if you try it. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference 12 yr old Oloroso is an off-dry version which is excellent quality for the £8 price tag, rich with prune and walnut notes which would be divine with blue cheese or even a dark chocolate pudding.

 

Pedro Ximenez: Pedro Ximenez is actually one of the grape varieties that is used to sweeten sherry, and this wine is made by drying PX grapes in the sunshine before making them into a lusciously sweet wine which is reminiscent of Christmas Pudding! Delicious with chocolate desserts or just poured over ice cream.

 

NB: Both Amontillado and Oloroso come in dry or sweet styles, the latter made by adding luscious PX wine before bottling. “Cream Sherry” is another name for PX-sweetened Oloroso which you may have seen in your Granny’s drinks cabinet.

 

Happy Swigging!

High Street Wine Review: M&S Piemonte Barbera

It's been a busy few weeks. The colder weather and my general exhaustion have meant takeaways are key at the moment. 

So with exciting plans for pizza this evening, I popped to our local M&S for a bottle of something Italian (because, in my world, it's wrong to drink anything other than Italian wine with pizza). This bottle of Barbera seemed like the best option. Piemonte is in the north of Italy (translated as "foot of the mountain" as it stands at the foot of the Italian Alps) and is best known for its super expensive and long-lived Nebbiolos, but the locals are more likely to drink Barbera or Dolcetto wines on a day-to-day basis. Barbera, as demonstrated by this M&S example, is soft and fruity, full of sour cherry, strawberries and sweet spice. A great glugging wine which works perfectly with pizza, spaghetti bolognese or aubergine parmigiana. And good value at £7.69.

Happy Swigging!

Sumptuous Stickies

Dessert wines, like Sauternes and Tokaji, are some of the most delicious and most sought after wines in the World. I actually resent using the word “dessert” to describe them as they can also be served with cheese, foie gras, or just enjoyed on their own. The best examples can age for many years but can also be very expensive and very difficult to get your hands on. So here I will explain why they are so expensive and suggest some affordable alternatives for you to try.

 

Majestic Mould

Some of the World’s most expensive dessert wines are made courtesy of a fungus called botrytis. This fungus (also known as "noble rot") affects vineyards near large rivers or lakes as it relies on the initial moisture of a misty morning followed by the dry heat of the sun to be able to take hold on the grapes and dehydrate them, leaving them shrivelled and raisin-like. These are very specific requirements: in some years there is no botrytis at all, in others there is too much moisture and you get grey or black rot which destroys the whole crop. So it's an unpredictable and risky business!

 

Botrytised Riesling grapes basking in the afternoon sun

The botrytis-affected grapes are picked by hand, pressed and then fermented into wine. The high sugar levels mean that fermentation quickly produces a wine of high alcohol and as a result the fermentation process stops naturally leaving plenty of remaining sugar in the resultant wine. Probably the most famous example of this is Sauternes, which is made in Bordeaux from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle grapes. The best Sauternes have a beautiful freshness and minerality which balances the high sugar levels, and goes beautifully with foie gras. If you can't afford Sauternes then look out for Monbazillac which is made using the same method but is considerably cheaper.

 

Other wines that are made using the same method are…

·         Tokaji: made in Hungary from the grape Furmint, the best are labelled “Aszu” and the sweetness level is graded in “puttonyos” from 3 to 7. I recommend you start with the lower and more affordable grades first (number 7, aka “Aszu Essencia” is very much a wine-to-try-before-you-die…)

·         Beerenauslese & Trockenbeerenauslese Rieslings: made in Germany (often abbreviated to BA or TBA on the label), the latter is made solely from raisins and requires around 100kg to make just one litre of this heavenly nectar. Hence their rarity and expense! You can find affordable BA wines but, for a cheaper alternative, look out for “late-harvest” Rieslings from New Zealand.

 

Ice Ice Baby

You may well have heard of Ice Wine, aka Eiswein. To make these wines, the grapes must be picked when they are frozen (often super early in the morning) and rushed back to the winery to be pressed before they thaw out. Another labour-intensive and unpredictable method of production then! The frozen water can then be removed from the grape must, resulting in very high sugar levels. These wines are most famously from Germany and Canada and I’m afraid that, because of how difficult it is to produce, there really aren’t any cheaper alternatives so it may be best to just save this one for a special occasion.  

 

harvesting ice wine grapes, photo courtesy of http://www.indystar.com

Pass a Straw

This final, labour-intensive method is where the grapes are picked and then laid out on straw mats to raisinate before being pressed into wine. Italy widely uses this method, and the wines can be spotted by the names Passito or Recioto. One of my favourites is Recioto della Valpolicella which is a sweet red wine made by drying out the grapes used for Valpolicella. Down in Tuscany, Vin Santo is made using Trebbiano & Malvasia grapes, and often served with Cantucci biscuits to dunk. Heaven.

 

Passito grapes drying out

Outside Italy, you will find “Straw Wines” (also often labelled as “Vin de Paille”) in such far flung places as Croatia, South Africa and California. They are made using the same methods and well worth looking out for, although in general these styles are a touch cheaper than their icey or mouldy counterparts.

 

FOOD MATCHING TIP:  always make sure the sticky wine you serve is sweeter than the dessert itself.  None of the above dessert wines are actually high enough in sugar or alcohol to stand up to a chocolate pudding, they are much better with apple tarts (Sauternes), bread & butter pudding (Tokaji) or Sticky Toffee Pudding (Straw Wine). And if all else fails, just scoff the pudding and enjoy the sticky wine after.

There are plenty of other sweet wines out there which are made by fortifying the wine to stop fermentation early & retain a high level of residual sugar. Some of these can work brilliantly with chocolate but that is something for another blog post.

 

Happy Swigging!

High Street Wine Challenge: La Patrie Cahors, Sainsburys

On Saturday night I cooked a roast beef joint and I popped to Sainsburys to find a suitably beef-friendly bottle of vino. Normally I'd veer towards Argentinian Malbec, but this slightly different bottle caught my eye.

Cahors wine is made in South West France and is 100% Malbec. This is where the grape originated from, here and in Bordeaux where it is sometimes blended with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot et al. The style of wines from Cahors is somewhat different to its Argentinian cousins: more savoury, meaty and spicy. My first impression on tasting this Sainsburys example was one of a meaty aroma, almost Bovril-like (in a good way, I promise)! Then the taste was pleasantly rich, lots of blackberry fruit and peppery spice. Very smooth too (more than I was expecting) which meant it was ridiculously easy to drink (and that my head's still sore while I write this at 9pm on Sunday night)! Definitely worthy of its £7.50 price tag.

Happy Swigging!

Are You Game?

Grouse season is here, which marks the beginning of Game Season in the UK and the steady emergence of some of my favourite foods on restaurant menus and in my butcher's window. Vegetarians look away now, because here follows my quick guide to the wines you should be drinking to ensure these beautiful animals didn't die for nothing!
 

The key with game is that these animals are all pretty low in fat so work best with wines that are low in tannin. Avoid Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux reds unless they are really mature. Syrah/Shiraz/Rhone reds and Pinot Noir/Red Burgundies are all safe bets but there is more you can try...

Photo courtesy of www.countryandtownhouse.co.uk

 

Grouse

This is a very strongly flavoured bird so it needs a big powerful red wine. Try Cornas or Crozes Hermitage, both 100% Syrah from the Rhone Valley.

Pigeon
Goes deliciously with Oregon Pinot Noir, Barossa Shiraz or Rioja

Partridge & Pheasant
If you'd like a white wine, you can't go wrong with a white burgundy, especially something like a Puligny Montrachet. Or try a dry Pinot Gris from Alsace. For reds, try Chianti Classico or mature Rioja.

Venison
My dream match for venison is Nebbiolo: look out for Barolo & Barbaresco which are both made from 100% Nebbiolo in the north of Italy. Or if you want something a bit sweeter, try a Californian Zinfandel. 

Hare
You can't beat a good bottle of silky smooth, rich Amarone here. Or even an Argentinian Malbec. 

Wild Boar
Look out for top cru Beaujolais such as Fleurie, Brouilly or Morgon. 

Happy Swigging! 

Wine Review: Marananga Dam Old Vines GSM, M&S

A few weeks ago, I wrote about top quality Australian wines and I discovered that one of my favourite wineries, Torbreck in the Barossa Valley, makes one of M&S's own-label wines: the Marananga Dam Old Vines Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvedre at just £15.

Torbreck have built their reputation making top quality Rhone-style red wines with Australian warmth, and they are one of the country's most iconic wineries. I am delighted to report that this wine totally lives up to its epic credentials: full of deliciously ripe autumnal fruits, sweet spice and a lovely freshness that doesn't make it too heavy. With every sip, the flavours are more and more complex.

This wine is well worth hunting down, I realise it is above my usual £10 budget but this massively overdelivers for its £15 price point. One to buy for your next romantic steak supper or special Sunday roast.

Happy Swigging!