Beautiful liqueur cherry and dark berry compote aromas with a touch of mediterranean herbs and white pepper over lean, velvety dark fruit with satisfying black olive notes, opening up to show meaty, pencil lead depths. Juicy with fine-grained tannins and a delicately spicy finish.
The elegant opulence and complexity of Tignanello makes it one of my favourite wines and it’s really exciting to try an older vintage where all the subtle notes that are hinted at in its youth are magnified in the most beautifully seductive way.
An inviting minty, cigar box fragrance mingles with peppery blueberries and fleshy plums, lightly touched with a streak of honey and underpinned with raisins and slightly leathery, cured meat and dried herb aromas. On the palate, refined dark fruit characteristics have a juicy berry edge, damsons, flinty notes and peppery herbs, with a meaty, minty length going on and on… Sink your teeth into it, it’s a whole meal in a wine.
“This is where I lure unsuspecting young women, up to my dungeon with whips and chains and things” deadpans Keith, The Vintage House’s resident spirits nut, as he leads us above the malt whisky shop for a sneaky peek at The Soho Whisky Club, a newly opened private members’ club in the heart of London…”
If I’m going to be drinking whisky, I’d better be drinking it in a place where my parents know I’m safe - at least this is Keith’s logic for why my parents should buy me a membership to The Soho Whisky Club. In the likely event that my parents do not wish to fund my whisky habit, I will be appealing for donations towards the membership fee. Paypal accepted.
What’s all the fuss about? Stagger over to Imbibe and read on.
“The Italians do it best. Or at least in terms of regional food and wine, they’re certainly hot property at the moment. London restaurants Bocca di Lupo and the Polpo clan are bright and buzzing Italian offerings in a sea of drab pizzeria chains, serving up small plates ranging from crostino to fritto misto and battuto from their respective Italian regions. Yet where it gets really exciting is when these flavour-packed dishes are paired with wines from their local area, exacting a beautiful harmony between the flavours, textures and aromas…”
My second blog post for Imbibe is now live. Grab yourself a nice glass (or bottle) of something and have a read.
From Boutinot’s Autumn Tasting in London last week, here’s my pick of the bunch…
Amarone della Valpolicella by Pra, Veneto 2007: Aromas of dark cherries, cured meat and blackcurrants are rich and heady, with a note of sweet, roasted red peppers leading to a full-bodied palate of mouthfilling blackcurrant, black cherry and raisinated dark fruits with a touch of spice.
Minimal Gruner Veltliner by Sepp Moser, Kremstal 2008: Honeyed stone fruit, vanilla and pastry crust on the nose, met by a pear and lime freshness. Apple tart palate with a creamy mouthfeel, a spicy finish and lovely red apple juiciness.
Zeltlinger Himmelreich, Spatlese Riesling by Markus Molitor 2007: A lime and smoky mineral nose does nothing to prepare you for the palate of this Spatlese Riesling, which is surprisingly sweet in comparison. Juicy acidity is beautifully balancing, with a slight spritz on the front of the palate following on to a creamier mouthfeel with a stone fruit character and savoury hints on the finish. According to my notes, I could drink buckets of the stuff.
It can take quite a lot for a wine to impress myself and my flat mate as we both work in the industry, but by by jove, this has done the trick.
Decanted from a magnum after developing a fatal crack in the neck of the bottle, this Alsatian Gewuztraminer is starting to show touches of oxidation with slight nutty notes on the palate but these are only adding to the charm and complexity of the wine, which has aged remarkably well.
The depth of flavour in Josmeyer’s Hengst Gewurztraminer is hinted at by floral aromatics, dominted by honeyed melon, lychee, papaya and guava. Following through to the palate, this fruit character meets a savoury nuttiness and some pepper spice. Deep golden in colour and incredibly viscous and rich, the wine still retains a remarkable freshness and balance. Good enough for us to have drunk over half of the magnum already. Oops.
(Photo taken with iPhone & instagram)
Shiny Riedel glasses. Open bottles lined up, labels stained with violet to burgundy streaks. A low murmur of thoughtful chatter.
Over the past few months I have migrated from Leeds to London, taking up an Assistant Sommelier position and immersing myself fully within the wine industry. One thing that Leeds always seemed to lack but London is certainly not short of, is wine tastings. They have been frequent since I moved here, ranging in quality and excitement. The Natural Wine Fair had even the most seasoned industry professionals intrigued while there were such gems to be found at the Big Fortified Tasting, once again proving that sherry needn’t be slapped with the “old ladies drink” label.
Seeing as Liquors & Lace has been somewhat neglected in my transition period, I will be digging out my tasting notes from the various events I’ve attended, posting the pick of the bunch on here.
And so, one to get the ball rolling…
Chateau Cambon, Beaujolais 2009: Fresh redcurrant nose overlaid with some pungent, dried berry notes, slightly smoky, charred and gamey. Raspberries and cranberries on the palate carry through freshness from the nose, with tart acidity adding to its charm. Light and juicy with lovely, subtle flavours on the length. Biodynamic and using wild yeasts, it’s not a commercial style of Beaujolais, with much more rusticity than you’d expect, but a thrilling little drop if you look beyond appellation typicity.
From a Beaujolais Masterclass, hosted by Master Sommelier, Gearoid Devaney, for Imbibe.
(Photo taken with iPhone & instagram)
I’ve been a little reluctant to write anything about the secret speakeasies that are popping up all over London as my view is that perhaps they’re best kept on the hush hush. However, TimeOut London wrote a piece online today outing the trend so I suppose it’s only a matter of time before people all over the capital are knocking on unmarked doors, hoping to find a palatial drinking den behind.
I was introduced to Purl a couple of weeks ago, where a theatrical and scientific approach to their cocktail making would be sure to please the Heston Blumenthals of the world. My ‘Mr Hyde’s No. 2’ cocktail was served infused with smoke in a medicine bottle and surrounded by billowing Lapsang Fog escaping from a cooler. Depending on how smoky I wished my Ron Zacapa 23-based cocktail to be, I could either pour the drink straight away into my tiny metal cup, or leave the cork in the bottle for a while longer. A friend of mine chose the ‘Green Fairy Sazerac’, which was topped with an Absinthe ‘Air’ the consistency of lightly whipped egg whites, and was made in a way which would preserve the alcoholic content of the Absinthe. Hic!
With wood floors, exposed brickwork and leather Chesterfield sofas casting shadows in the dim light, Purl is cosy without succumbing to the usual faux-luxe trappings of velvet and sparkly bits. Even though we were seated at the bar, curiosities were to be seen all around us from punch bowls to taxidermy, and I hear there’s a piano room if you venture further…
My second secret speakeasy, where cocktails were a birthday treat a few days ago, is the Experimental Cocktail Club. Hidden away in Chinatown, it occupies the two floors above one of the Chinese restaurants and has the interiors of townhouse turned boudoir, where waiters in red bow ties squeeze past merrymakers whose heels sink into the pile of the soft carpet underfoot. Even though it was only 7pm on a Thursday night, the Experimental Cocktail Club was packed with a mixture of people who were there for the cocktails and others who were having a post-work glass of Champagne. Not quite as niche as Purl but when it came to the cocktails, I couldn’t complain. I have a bit of a sweet tooth so my choices were rum and Calvados based. The rum cocktail, called ‘Jamaican Pogo’ definitely had a Caribbean punch vibe to it with the ingredients list containing spicy bitters and pineapple flavours. A friend’s ‘Old Cuban’ was an interesting twist on the classic Mojito, while the ‘Havana’ is recommended by the bar staff if you’re not afraid of a stiff drink.
While Purl and the Experimental Cocktail Club are quite different in terms of atmosphere and clientele, both offer cocktails that are actually worth paying £10 for and have an individual character which is so often lacking in many of London’s identikit bars. There are more Prohibition-inspired speakeasies popping up so catch them before the rest of London does.
(Photo taken with iPhone & instagram, unfortunately not at a speakeasy)
When done right, food and wine matching can bring out the best in both parties, creating an overall coherent blend of scents, flavours and textures. This evening I was cooking dinner for my mother’s birthday and used it as a thinly-veiled excuse to try out some classic food and wine matches.
The starter, pictured above, was moules mariniere - mussels cooked in garlic, onions, herbs and cream. Using a little white wine in the cooking, I also found that the Muscadet I’d chosen made a perfect accompaniment to the dish, natural as it’s a famed accompaniment for seafood. Often aged Sur Lie, Muscadet can have a lovely roundness to the palate, and on La Petit Fessardiere, citrus fruit and melon flavours were softened out by this aging but also had enough bite to cut through the richness of the cream sauce and the mussels.
Keeping a little Muscadet to try with the main course - a white fish and asparagus risotto - it also made for an ample match. The other bottle chosen to pair was equally pleasant and in fact, rather interesting on its own. A Pinot Grigio by Specogna from the appellation of Colli Orentali del Friuli in Italy, it possessed an enchanting copper-tinged amber appearance, with a toasty nose of faint apple and hazelnut notes, and gentle white flower aromas. The palate was mouthwateringly fresh, with apple fruit having a limey tang, and some nuttiness and minerality leading to a long, fresh and dry finish. Beautifully complex and from someone who previously dismissed Pinot Grigio as “boring”, well worth a try.
(Photo taken with iPhone & instagram)
A lovely full-flavoured, off-dry Gewurztraminer by Hugel, from the Riquewihr area of Alsace. A very fragrant nose of honeyed stone fruit and papaya also displays characteristic rose petal notes which follow through to the nectar-tinged palate, where there are other delicate floral notes, a creamy mouthfeel and a touch of white pepper on the finish.
At my local wine shop, The Wright Wine Company, there is good selection of half bottles of wine. Due to my penchant for trying new and interesting things, and a tendency to spend more money per bottle of wine than most people I know, halves are a good bet. Drinking a half bottle over a couple of nights won’t leave me too squiffy and I can try something of a higher quality without watching all my pennies slip away.
On my last visit to Wright’s, I picked up a half of a 2000 vintage Nuits-Saint-Georges by Henri et Gilles Remoriquet. Thinking that this red would be ready for drinking was to underestimate it slightly. However, the tannins which were grippy and pronounced on opening, softened out after a day and the palate opened up to offer richer fruit flavours.
A very elegant, glossy garnet colour in the glass, Les Allots displays classic red Burgundy characters, with a light, juicy palate of red berries and a touch of minerality and white pepper spice. The faintest whiff of aniseed accompanies red currant and dried cranberry notes on the nose but there are some farmyardy aromas hiding, hinting that this wine has more to offer in time.
I’m miles away from having enough wine to call a ‘cellar’ but I do always have a few bottles lying down. I opened one of them, a Malbec by Sur De Los Andes, last week after keeping it for two-or-so years. A 2005 vintage, it was a little young when bought but is drinking well now and could even be laid down for a little longer.
A deep, violet-hued red in the glass, this Malbec is full-bodied with dense, dark fruits on the palate, including blackcurrant and black cherry compote. Hints of cocoa are hiding behind the fruit and following on from a seductive nose of prunes and blackcurrant pastilles.
