An organic morning in Montpellier

On a cold but bright day we spent a day at Millésime Bio in Montpellier. Started in 1993 it has grown from just a few, keen organic wine producers to the huge three day event it is now. There are now about 400 tables (all of the same size) groaning with wine, organic and biodynamic wine.

And not a pair of sandals in sight…

We started with the one Savoie table, however with three good producers who work together to sell their wines (we see them at the summer market in our village in Haute Savoie, Le Chinaillon).

First we tasted the whites of Gilles Berlioz, enjoying his Chignin-Bergerons, such as the 2005: Warm berries and rounded fruits on the palate with a touch of hazelnuts; gently dry with plump acidity and a long finish.

Frederic Giachino Apremont 2008: Lovely long ripe fruit on the nose, crisp, dry with attractive length.

and Jacques Maillet’s Autrement whites and reds, such as his Roussette 2009: Herby and meaty (!) as well as fruit on the nose, this is a delicious dry white with good acidity, medium bodied and a long finish.

Keeping with Wink’s regional specialities for Wine Travel Guides we then visited the Jura producer Domaine de la Pinte, tasting their range of wines which included Vin Jaune 2002: Deeply walnutty, with fine fruit notes and not at all heavy. An infant (it was only bottled last year), it will grow into glorious maturity!

We’d only arrived at 11.30 having driven down from Uzès where we were staying with Amy and Matt at La Gramière, and it was now time for lunch where we were joined by Richard James and Louise Hurren, taking a well earned break from the Sud de France stand.

And what a grand lunch it was…

I’ll be back with the afternoon wines shortly.

What wine do you like?

There is far too much snobbery about wine as well as fear of the unknown. The best way to learn about wine is to taste it; be adventurous and look for different wines when you shop or when you’re in a restaurant or bar.

Enomatic in the red wine room

A number of good wine shops have enomatic wine dispensing machines, such as Bottle Apostle, Selfridges and The Old Bridge Hotel, Huntingdon, where you can try tasting samples of wine kept in excellent condition.

If a restaurant has an interesting wine list it will offer a small selection of wines by the glass, like we did at Webber’s Wine Bar in Billericay. You can buy a glass of wine rather than committing to a bottle of wine; you never know you may fall in love with a wine you’d never heard of previously!

To give you an idea of what wine you might prefer you should test yourself with the Budometer. In the form of a short questionnair, developed in cooperation with Tim Hanni MW, it is a fascinating means to try to explain what your wine tastes are likely to be.

Tim Hanni MW

In the 1990s I went to a couple of seminars presented by Tim Hanni when he was working with Beringer Estates. Ostensibly they were about food and wine matching but in fact were a lot more to do with one’s perception of wine. I learnt a great deal particularly as Tim is such an excellent, enthusiastic presenter.

He suggests that there are three categories of wine taster:

• Tolerant tasters – who tend to favour dry, high-intensity, assertive wines.
• Sensitive tasters – the median group with a rather broad range of preferences.
• Hyper-sensitive tastes – who tend to have an aversion to bitterness and favor delicacy over intensity. They often prefer some degree of sweetness in their wines.

In fact Tim and the organisers of the Lodi International Wine Competition, in California, are testing the judges, many of them amateurs, to ensure that there is a mix of these categories on each jury.

Try this taste bud test which will give you an idea of your sensory sensitivity.

1. To test your taste buds, you need some blue food colouring, a piece of paper with a 7mm-wide hole punched through it, and a magnifying glass.
2. Swab some of the food colouring onto the tip of your tongue. The tongue will take up the dye, but the papillae, tiny structures that house the taste buds, will stay pink.
3. Put the piece of paper on the front part of the tongue and, using the magnifying glass, count how many pink dots are inside the hole.
4. Fewer than 15 papillae mean you are an insensitive “non-taster”, between 15 and 35 indicates an average “taster” and over 35 papillae then you are a “super-taster”.

So now you know what sort of taster you are and which wines could be your preference, go out and try all sorts and styles of wine – and enjoy yourself and don’t be put off like Michael McIntyre at the Appollo.

Lunch in the Mountains 1

The sun came out, and so did we! We skied up, we skied down then we clambered aboard the chairlift to take us up to La Taverne where we were in time to get a table on the terrace overlooking a sea of mist covering most of Le Grand Bornand.

La Taverne is a mountain restaurant in a renovated old farm chalet offering simple lunches in the winter season prepared and served by a husband and wife. It is the least sophisticated of the several alpine restaurants in this area but it is all the more charming for that.

We all chose their speciality – indeed signature – dish, Gratin d’Endives et Jambon.

The Jean Masson Apremont is just right for this dish, with lovely acidity to cut through the cheesy gratin and gentle fruit to marry with the endive. Made with the Jacquère grape this Savoie wine is light in alcohol and is from our nearest wine region, well worth a visit - though not in winter. 

With a last look at the gorgeous view we paid the reasonable bill and set off to ski off our mountain lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hungary Wine Seminar

The Association of Wine Eucators organised yet another good seminar and tasting, this time the wines of Hungary, with the help and participation of Mephisto Wines. Presented by Caroline Gilby MW, who has regularly visited Hungary during the last 20 years, we also had the opportunity to meet three winemakers who each presented their wines.

Caroline Gilby MW and Lazlo Hesley of Mephisto

As Caroline said, Eastern Europe is – indeed has always been – Central Europe, and Hungary has a long history of wine production, notably the famous ‘Wine of Kings, King of Wines’, Tokaji.In the 19th Century Hungary used to be the third largest producer in Europe, with 500,000ha under vine. Now there are 69,000ha of vineyards, and recently the European Union has provided €10 million to grub up vines.

However the depradations of two world wars together with the post war communist regime did no favours for wine production. Indeed, during the communist era huge wineries were constructed with their own railway sidings in order to produce and ship cheap ‘wine flavoured alcohol’ to the Soviet Union. Although the turning point was 20 years ago with the fall of the Berlin Wall it took another ten years for individual wine producers to get organised; reclaiming, buying and redeveloping their vineyards and wineries.

There are 22 wine regions in Hungary (too many, said Caroline) and today we would try wines from two areas in the south of the country: Villány-Siklós, with its Mediterranean climate, and Szekszárd, an hour to the north and with its iron-rich soil.

Caroline and the Hungarian wine making team

The producers introduced their wines as well as telling us about themselves and their philosophies, each of them with pride and confidence, and each of them with their individual style and approach to making good wine.

Csaba Malatinsky

Csaba Malatinsky was the first sommelier in Hungary, at Budapest’s Gundel restaurant; he had also travelled to other wine regions, specifically Bordeaux, where he ‘discovered’ Cabernet Franc, which he subsequently planted in his winery which he founded in 1997. He has 30ha of vines.

Malatinsky Noblesse Siklósi Chardonnay 2007 Siklós
Light gold with nutty apricot and white peach on the nose. Dry, bright acidity with fine minerality completed by a long finish. RRP £11.45

Malatinsky Kúria Cabernet Franc 2006 Siklós
Dark ruby colour.  A bouquet of deep black cherries and plump mulberries; dry with soft ripe tannins with lovely rich, meaty fruit. RRP £24.95

József Bock

József Bock’s family emigrated from Schwabia in Germany in the early 17th Century and, although he trained as an engineer, he became the ninth generation to produce wine, now with 70ha, and a pioneer of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah in Hungary.

Bock Hárslevelű 2007 Villány
Mid gold in colour with a touch of shrubbery and linden leaf on the nose. Dry, with gentle acidity, silky, creamy lemon tea fruit. RRP £8.95

Bock Syrah 2006 Villány
Deep, dark red. Gorgeous rich raspberry bouquet with lots of fruit and supple tannins on the palate, as well as peppery notes. RRP £24.85

Andres Takler

The last producer, Andres Takler’s family also came from Schwabia, and his father Ferenc founded their vineyard in 1987; now 60ha, with various plots in the hills of Szekszárd (pronounced ’sex-hard’…) and planted with indigenous varieties as well as Cabernet Franc.

Takler Kadarka 2007 Szekszárd
Light ruby. Touch of red berries and strawberries; dry, with fresh acidity completed by spicy red fruits. RRP £9.95

Takler Kékfrankos Reserve 2006 Szekszárd
Deep red with a touch of vanilla mingling with red fruits on the nose. Dry, spicy with ripe red fruits and good tannin structure. RRP £18.95

Caroline, the wine makers and me!

This was a very interesting seminar and tasting, ably introduced by Caroline Gilby MW, wines charmingly presented by their winemakers and kindly supplied by Mephisto Wines. Thank you.

I look forward to tasting, nay drinking, more Hungarian wines! Have you enjoyed Hungarian wine lately? Indeed have you bought any Hungarian wine lately? Do let me know – just comment below.

Malatinsky

A Fishy Sunday Lunch in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

After a Saturday that was marred by high winds and heavy rain we awoke on Sunday to clear blue skies, and decided to go down to Old Leigh-on-Sea, Essex and enjoy a long walk by the ‘sea’, in fact the Thames Estuary, before having lunch by the sea.

 

It appeared that lots of people had the same idea as the coastal path was swarming with keen walkers, many accompanied by dogs of all varieties, who were taking advantage of the sunny, brisk weather.

The point of this exercise was to work up an appetite as we had booked a table at a fish restaurant highly recommended by a good friend.

Leigh-on-Sea is famed for its cockle sheds which have been a favourite for years of East Enders who would make the trip down the river to visit the bright lights, seaside and longest UK pier ( 1 1/3 miles) at Southend-on-Sea. Part of the fun was to eat a plate of locally caught cockles by the sea, which you can still do, at Osborne Bros for example.

However we had booked a table ‘on the covered, heated terrace’ at Simply Seafood. The building was converted last year from a cockle shed to a very smart restaurant as well as wet fish shop.

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Faced with a great choice of fishy dishes on the menu we chose the Fresh Seafood Platter for two. At £26.95 it was good value and very British; as well as the usual suspects, prawns, mussels, crab etc there were also the ubiquitous cockles as well as jellied eels (another Cockney delight) and rollmops! As another nod at healthy eating we started with a mixed salad and a tomato and mozzarella salad; the latter shouldn’t be on a menu in winter as tomatoes aren’t good in the autumn, basil is out of season and the mozzarella doesn’t look appetising, crumbled over the salad.

The fish was good though the crab left a little to be desired (it wasn’t like the crustacean I’d enjoyed at Terroirs a couple of weeks ago). Shame too that there were no oysters, as billed on the menu. It was the first time that Wink had tried jellied eels and was suitably impressed – it’s easier to eat them on a plate than, as the day trippers did, from a cardboard dish on a charabanc with a glass of brown ale…

From a decent, short wine list (I enjoyed the headings for the colours of wine – very Essex…) we chose Kuki Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2008 from Marlborough, New Zealand. A classic NZ Sauvignon it had the weight to match the brininess of the fish; indeed it wasn’t fazed by the rollmops, which weren’t too vinegary and with a sweet edge.

We shared a chocolate sponge, had coffee and paid the reasonable bill (£67.55 plus a tip).

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It was a good lunch, pleasantly and cheerfully served, and we shall return to enjoy other delights from their menu.

As well as Simple Seafood and the cockle sheds there are art galleries, a couple of pubs, teashops and wet fish shops. I disagree with the sentiments expressed on the first line of the blackboard of a nearby fishmonger, but their fish looks good!

Do visit Leigh-on-Sea: il vaut le détour…

Have you visited Leigh? Or Southend-on-Sea? Have you tried cockles or even jellied eels? Let me know – do leave a comment below!

Sunset over the 'sea'

Marley's Ghost buys his supplies in Leigh-on-Sea...

Wildlife teems in Leigh-on-Sea

Local college wall art offering very good advice!

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Terroirising in Town and Brewing in Blackheath

Back in England after a great trip to Portugal (stories to follow) I enjoyed a couple of meals in very good company.

Terroirs in all its glory

I revisited Terroirs for lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen for, oh, thirty seven years. Sue was in town for a few days and as she had been to see Les Miserables again, we thought that we would continue the French theme – without stealing the candle sticks.

The waiter was very patient as we had a lot of catching up to do, but he did manage to squeeze an order out of us when Sue and I had told each other of our families, children etc.

Dorset crab - work to be done

We started with the Dorset crab,  and were delighted when we were told that it was undressed and we would have to attack it ourselves. I had a glass of white Château Clément-Termes, Gaillac sec 2008 which went very well with the messy but delicious crustacean.

Vacherin Mont d'Or

As Sue and I had met in Geneva all those years ago we chose to relive our past by ordering a dish similar to the cheese fondue, many of which we’d enjoyed in Switzerland: Vacherin Mont d’Or. Served with charcuterie and pickles it was unctuous, gooey and very rich – a fine substitute for fondue. I plumped for a glass of red Marcillac, Philippe Teulier, whose berry fruitiness stood up well to the cheese.

To complete our lunch we indulged in the pear and almond tart, which we shared, like all our meal and our reminiscences.

Sue and Brett in Terroirs

I enjoyed Terroirs again and was delighted to share this lunch with my ‘old’ friend, who enjoyed discovering this great restaurant. We, of course, decided not to leave it another 37 years before getting together.

Terroirs Wine Bar & Restaurant‎
5 William IV St, London, WC2 4DW‎  tel: 020 7036 0660‎

Sunny day on the Heath

A couple of days later I delivered wine to a Wine Maestro Club member who lives in Blackheath. It was a sunny, crisp day, just right for the huge firework display on the Heath that evening and an opportunity for us to have a walk and, yes, lunch.

From a choice of restaurants and delis in the centre of the village we were enticed – well, I as the beer drinker was enticed – by the sight of the tanks of the microbrewery, Zerodegrees, which is also a restaurant. Once inside we realised that Zerodegrees is a restaurant with a microbrewery. In France it would be called a brasserie but I’ve yet to see a brasserie in France that brews its own beer – if you have, do tell me!

A pot of Creole mussels

From a good menu which offers pizzas (there’s an oven in full view), salads, pastas and mussels we chose a Caesar salad and Creole mussels, accompanied by a reasonable glass of Chilean Sauvignon (for the non beer lover) and a pint of Zerodegrees Pale Ale, which went well with the light spiciness of the plump mussels.

Busy, bustling and family friendly

No room for pudding, just coffee. There is a good buzz about the place with a decent menu, a short but good wine list and, of course, a list of their beers. We enjoyed our lunch at Zerodegrees, leaving as the international rugby was just starting on the huge TV – we were off to see if any kites were flying.

Oh, look at it fly!

 

A little jazz and some wine

We’ve had a busy weekend with exciting website developments in progress, planning wine tastings and preparing for our trip to Portugal to attend the European Wine Bloggers’ Conference #EWBC. However we managed to tear ourselves away from whirring computers to drive to Greenwich for some jazz on Saturday evening and to walk along the Regent’s Canal on Sunday for an open day in an excellent wine shop.

Eager for some live music I scoured Time Out and discovered that Peter de Wit’s Café offered ‘Sausage and Mash and Jazz’ every Saturday evening in the autumn. We booked, managed to park nearby and discovered this tiny café shoehorned in a row of shops on Greenwich Church Street.

With just enough room for 18 diners the musicians were squeezed in by the piano: Branco Stoysin, guitar, accompanied by Leslee Booth, on 6-string contra bass. This splendid instrument, we learnt later, was built (too grand to have just been ‘made’) by Branco.They played their own music, mostly composed by Branco. Indeed, when a diner requested a ’standard’ he was told they don’t do standards, nor requests!

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The menu is as tiny as the room, offering sausages, either Cumberland or vegetarian, and mash or a vegetarian quiche and salad. The wine list was equally concise with a Barbera di Piemonte and Le Bosq white; beers are from the local Meantime Brewery. There are a couple of robust puddings and a cheese plate, all very pleasantly served by a keen young lad.

We both had the Cumberland sausages, so filling that there was no room for a pud, and the Barbera was decent too. It was an interesting experience and a bit different. Keep an eye open for the Branco Stoysin duo or trio – have a look at Branco’s website for details of his music and forthcoming gigs.

Sunday dawned bright and we walked along the canal to Victoria Park Village, Hackney to participate in the open day at the Bottle Apostle, the wine shop run by our friend and colleague, Tom Jarvis.

The last time we’d been to see the shop was just before it opened in July, so it was a pleasure to see how smart it looked in its black livery with the shelves of wines cradling the enomatic wine dispensers.

There was a steady stream of people, some just to have a look, tasters using the Enomatic machines with knowledgeable familiarity, shoppers buying wine (to go with the Sunday joint of meat from the Ginger Pig butcher nearby?) as well as tasting wine from a couple of supportive suppliers in front of the shop.

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We were intrigued by the clever colour coded wine categories which will certainly help people with their wine discoveries. Every wine on the shelves has a pithy description, as well as the wines in the four Enomatics, with 16 whites and 16 reds available to try in 30cl, 60cl and 90cl measures.

Tom gave us a taste of a red:  Montefalco Sagrantino 2004, Paolo Bea
Lovely rusty colour with rustic cooked black fruits. Big fruity, herby concentration, long rich finish.

We also tried three more wines.

An unusual pink Prosecco; from just outside the new DOCG area, the addition of 15% Marzemino makes the colour and enhances the flavour.  Prosecco/Marzemino Rosato Spumante nv, Cantina Beato Bartolomeo
Red fruits on nose, off dry. Fruity gentle acidity lovely red fruits. Med bodied, medium finish.

From a new producer in Marlborough, New Zealand. Sauvignon Blanc, Stanley Estate 2009
Crisp dry gentle acidity, good minerality, lush herby with a long finish.

And, finally, ‘why pay for Barolo’ when you can enjoy this Nebbiolo d’Alba 2005, Marziano Abbone
Ruby. Red misty fruits. Dry good acidity  soft tannins. Red fruity plump ripe.

With a last glance at the green wine display,

and a lingering look at the Gosset Champagne  collection,

we set off for a pleasant walk home, admiring the autumn foliage in Victoria Park, returning to the whirr of our computers and the joys of the internet.

A Monday evening on the Fourth Plinth

Thank you very much for your interest and support for my hour on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square on 14^th September 2009.

One and Other Plaque

I was delighted when I learnt that I had won a place in the ballot for an hour on the Fourth Plinth as it would give me an opportunity to talk about two things close to my heart: raising awareness of prostate cancer and the enjoyment of wine. I was even more excited when the Prostate UK charity suggested I wear gold pants and gold cape – just the garb to brighten up an early autumn evening up high in the heart of London…

As well as the encouragement of Prostate UK I was generously given the wines to taste by the excellent wine importer Caves de Pyrène and by Ridgeview, producer of top quality English sparkling wines, to whom I am very grateful.

Fortunately it didn’t rain during my stint and, once I’d ditched the Prostate UK banner, the wind didn’t cause too many problems, as long as I clutched my flipchart tightly and held on to my (plastic) glass! My hour passed very quickly but I managed to say all I wanted to before the green tumbrel appeared with the next plinther.

Many people turned out on the blustery evening to gaze up at me and vicariously enjoy the wines I was tasting, as well as cheering me on with the occasional pithy comment. And many people sent me messages of support and compliments through the main One and Other site, emails and social media. All of you put a spring in my step and gave me the confidence to ‘get up there and do my stuff’.

I am very grateful too for the support that Wink gave me in preparing for this exciting adventure, especially in writing the press release.

Thank you all very much indeed, and for your support of Prostate UK.

Here is a list of the wines I tasted:

From Caves de Pyrène:

1 Con Class, Rueda Sauvignon Blanc 2007 Rueda, Spain

2 Domaine Bruno Lupin, Roussette de Savoie Cru Frangy 2008 Savoie, France

3 Wakefield, Promised Land Shiraz-Cabernet 2006 Clare Valley, Australia

4 Terra Organica, Zuccardi, Terra Organica Malbec 2008 Mendoza, Argentina

From Ridgeview:

5 Ridgeview Cuvée Merret Grosvenor 2006 Sussex, England

Blog links:

Jim Budd’s Blog 13 Sep 09

Jim Budd’s Blog 14 Sep 09

Newspaper links:

Southend Echo

Billericay Gazette

Link to One and Other video:

My hour on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square

One and Other

I will be on the Fourth Plinth on 14th September 20.00 – 21.00 and am busy planning with my charity, Prostate UK who will be lending me some interesting clothes as well as a banner. I will taste some wines making comments about them as well as their producers and the countries where they’re made.

The wines are being sourced, the clothes and banner sent to me and we are trying to arrange somewhere near to Trafalgar Square we can all meet up afterwards for a bite to eat, a glass of wine and chat about the artistry of the Fourth Plinth.

Do come along and join in the fun – I will be very grateful for your support!

Lunch in Burgundy

It would be wise, we thought, to break our journey in Burgundy for a light lunch; how pleasant it would be to revisit one of the better restaurants where we’d lunched and dined during an organised trip to Burgundy a couple of years ago. We were driving from Haute Savoie to spend a few days in the Loire visiting friends and relations. Having driven through the Jura on the splendid L’Autoroute des Titans we arrived in Chalon-sur-Sâone and parked just by the Rue de Strasbourg, a street with many restaurants, on a small island in the heart of the city.

I am always impressed that not only are there no parking charges in France between midday and 2pm, but if you arrive during that time and will be leaving after 2pm the charges start after the free period. How civilised is that?

After a stroll along this street of restaurants and bars we arrived at Le Bistrot. Seated outside we were able to watch the world walk by along the mainly pedestrian street as we decided that instead of our previously planned one course choice, we would have the prix fixe lunch: 3 courses for €27. If we’d wanted cheese as well it would cost €33. There was a certain logic to this decision as from the a la carte the first courses would be €16 and the mains a tad more. With dessert €7.50 we were going to enjoy a bargain!

There was a sign in the window exclaiming that the ‘cut in VAT was a cut in prices’. A couple of months ago VAT on food in restaurants was reduced from 19.6% to 5% to help during the recession to reduce prices and as well help pay wages. Each establishment has reacted to this ‘help’ in different ways. Here the price of only three dishes have been reduced; for example from €16 to €14.11. I suppose every little helps even though the VAT on wine and other alcohol remains at 19.6%.

Wink started with Rémoulade de celery aux cereals, sa marinière de noix de St Jacques à l’huile de cèpe et maceration de ciboulette, a celeriac remoulade with slices of scallop, dressed with wild mushroom infused oil and chives.

I had a dish which seemed to be modest but was in fact packed with a double whammy of rich flavours. Verrine de compotée de tartare de pot au feu de boeuf du lendemain en gelée de caisson et foie gras; a compote of concentrated, tender beef served in a glass jar topped with a slice of foie gras.

Both our main courses were fish, Wink enjoying a piece of gilthead bream in a rich sauce: Sur un toast tiède à la tomate et aux herbes fraîches, filet de dorade royale poêlé au thym citron et jus de canard.

I enjoyed the plat du jour, an osso bucco of monkfish crowned by a splendid king prawn and garnished with pasta in a tomato sauce. The fish did resemble its more traditional veal counterpart as it was cut across with the bone in the middle.

We drank a white Burgundy, Montagny Premier Cru 2007, Château de la Saule. Light gold in colour, its touch of oak flitted in and out of view depending what you were eating with it; full bodied with good fruit it was a decent half bottle.

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Desserts are good too though a tad rich. Wink’s  Mousseline de pâte d’amande de Provence, ses abricots à l’huile d’olive et sa glace aux amandes grillés was decent although the mousseline was a bit gloopy!

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However I got my chocolate kick with the rather scatological dish Mousse chocolat au beurre salé, saveur caramel mou, sabayon vanilla-mangue. The rich mousse was complemented by the vanilla and mango sabayon, which continued the Italian theme as sabayon is French for zabaglione.

The proprietor, Patrick Mézière, is a fine chef as well as a keen gardener growing a lot of the produce used in his dishes. Indeed, when we visited here a couple of years ago our group wanted to thank him after an excellent meal only to be told that he had gone to attend his vegetable garden! Ably assisted by his wife in ‘front of house’, Le Bistrot is worth more than the one knife and fork in the Michelin guide.

This was a good start to our few days travelling and we were looking forward to some more good meals in the days ahead.