Wine with Goat

We noticed some goat meat on sale in our local butcher’s recently. It’s something you rarely see in the UK, but we’ve enjoyed it in restaurants while we’ve been on holiday, particularly in Spain and Portugal, where Cabrito Asado – roasted young goat – is a familiar sight on menus.

So, we decided to buy some and cook it for ourselves. A quick scan of the internet revealed quite a choice of recipes but the one that most caught our eye involved braising our goat chops with fennel, spices and the juice of an orange. An interesting mix of flavours there, so a bit of a challenge to find a wine to match it. Red, of course, but which one? Thinking back to our travels, I would certainly have ordered a wine local to wherever we were – possibly a Rioja or a Mencia-based bottle in Spain and a Douro or Dão in Portugal. And all of those would work well with plain roasted meat. But here, I was tempted to look for something more characterful to match with the aniseed flavour of the fennel, the spices and the sweetness of the fruit juice. I settled on Luigi Einaudi’s Dogliani from Piedmont in north-west Italy (Wine Society, £11.50).

Made with the local Dolcetto grape, this has the delicious richness I was looking for but is also quite soft and harmonious. Lovely black fruits come through with a hint of garrigue herbs and a long, dry, slightly earthy finish. Einaudi is one of the most famous and historic producers of the region, once owned by a former Italian president who helped establish the reputation of the Dogliani DOC – one that is certainly upheld by this really attractive and good value red. It worked perfectly with the goat, but, if goat’s as scarce with you as here, it would be great with some lamb, too.

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Midsummer Madness!

A guided tour of a local vineyard followed by a wine tasting and a light supper. What better way to spend an evening in June? My wife and I quickly signed up for the Bristol Tasting Circle’s summer outing: a visit to Aldwick Estate vineyard, a few miles south of Bristol. We were looking forward to it but, as ever in Britain, the weather can spoil the best laid plans. And, on this particular evening in June, it was as far from summer as you could imagine: cool and with rain lashing down – more like November.

But, the trip went ahead and, after a welcoming glass of Aldwick’s Jubilate fizz, most of the group were happy to ignore the rain and go to see the vines – my wife was more sensible and stayed behind! So, along with Sandy Luck, the owner, we donned our wellies and waterproofs and stoically walked round the vineyard hearing about the varieties planted, the different methods of vine pruning used and the threat to the fruit from badgers.

Back in the warm and dry, we tasted 3 of the estate’s wines.   Bacchus is becoming quite a common variety in English vineyards and ripens well in our relatively cool climate. Aldwick’s example was delightfully fresh and showed all the aromatic, elderflower character that is so much of Bacchus’ attraction. Next up was Mary’s Rosé, named after the owner’s mother and already a medal winner from the International Wine Challenge. The blend of the rare Solaris grape, together with Pinot Noir and Regent produced a delicate but flavoursome strawberry-fruited dry wine that I sense would be quite food-friendly. And finally, just to prove how far English wines have developed, we were served the estate’s attractive, peppery red made entirely from their Regent vines.

With delicious charcuterie and cheese boards to follow, you could almost forget the weather – until, of course, the time came to leave for home!

Great Food, Great Wine

We don’t often go to London, even though it’s less than a couple of hours away by train. So, when we do, we enjoy trying some of the capital’s restaurants – and, of course, our emphasis isn’t just on good food, but an interesting wine list with, hopefully, something different for us to try. A recent discovery is Margot, an Italian restaurant just a few minutes’ walk from Covent Garden tube.

We both chose a fishy main course and, in casting my eye down the extensive list of Italian whites, my eye was drawn to a bottle from Donnafugata, a Sicilian producer we visited some years ago and whose wines we’ve followed ever since. But here was a new one to me: called ‘SurSur’, it was made with Grillo, one of Sicily’s excellent local grape varieties. Lovely and fresh and floral on the nose, the palate showed attractive peach and ripe pear flavours and was, as I would expect from an Italian wine, properly food-friendly.

Then, when it came to dessert, the menu offered a further temptation: each dish had a recommended sweet wine to accompany it – and by the glass, too. Again, I chose something I’d not tasted before: Bissoni’s Albana Passito from Emilia Romagna in the north-east of the country.

Passito is a method widely used in Italy and involves drying the grapes after harvesting to concentrate the sugars and so produce a more intensely sweet wine. Traditionally this was done by spreading the grapes out on straw mats on the ground, but more commonly these days takes place in heated drying rooms. But Bissoni have gone a stage further by adding a proportion of nobly-rotted grapes to the blend to give extra complexity and interest. The result was a wine with an enticing bouquet of dried figs and honey with vanilla and sweet spice on the palate. Delicious and, like the restaurant with its wonderful wine list, a real find.

Try Uruguay

Wines from South America have become familiar sights in UK supermarkets but are almost always from that region’s 2 major players: Argentina and Chile. Yet, virtually every country in South America makes some wine – I’ve tasted some attractive bottles from Brazil, for example – and I recently opened a delicious rosé from Uruguay, South America’s 4^th largest producer.

Atlantico Sur’s Tannat Rosé (Wine Society, £12.50) is delightfully fresh and clean with tangy cranberry and raspberry fruit, a slight smokiness and a lovely crisp, dry finish. The Tannat grape may not be widely known but it’s Uruguay’s most planted variety, accounting for about a quarter of the country’s vineyards. Originally brought over by settlers from the French and Spanish Basque regions in the late 19^th century, it is more usually used, both in Uruguay and in its European heartlands, for deep, robust reds which, as the name implies, are often pretty tannic in their youth. Those who have tasted Madiran from south-west France will know what I mean.

But the variety grows well in Uruguay’s climate. Most of the country’s vineyards are close to the capital, Montevideo, which means they benefit from an important Atlantic influence – vital in moderating the temperatures in this relatively warm latitude (around 35˚S). Unfortunately, this also results in high levels of rainfall and humidity, so planting on well-drained soils and training the vines high to ensure good air circulation are key if undesirable rot is to be avoided.

The size of Uruguay’s vineyard and the keenness of its inhabitants on drinking their own wine means that Uruguay is unlikely to become a major player on the world wine stage but, based on this and a few other examples I have tasted, if you see a bottle on the shelf of your local wine merchant, it may be worth giving it a try.

Labels can Deceive

Wine labels can sometimes tell you a lot about what is in the bottle: where the wine comes from, what grapes are involved and, perhaps, even whether the wine has been fermented in barrel or tank. And, of course, they are a useful marketing tool. Which of us has not picked up a bottle with an interesting label and then gone on to buy it?

But marketing can also go wrong. I saw the label above in Grape and Grind, one of our excellent local wine merchants and my first thought was ‘No!’ Bold, ‘in your face’ and gimmicky is just not my scene – and that was what this label said to me. And I was just about to move on when I saw the words in much smaller type: ‘a wine by Bruce Jack’.

Bruce is a South African who has been involved in a number of interesting projects, both in his home country – Flagstone and Fish Hoek spring to mind – and elsewhere: his collaboration with Ed Adams to produce the ‘La Bascula’ range in Spain is a favourite of mine.

So, I sank my prejudices against the label and bought a bottle of Bonfire Hill (£11.50). As I might expect from Bruce Jack, the wine was an unusual blend of grape varieties – Shiraz and Grenache native to the Rhône, Malbec with its origins in Bordeaux and south-west France (although these days more likely associated with Argentina) and Portugal’s Touriga Nacional – and from different vineyards across South Africa: the Swartland, Overberg and Paarl regions are all mentioned on the label.

And the taste? Not at all what I expected from my first look at the label; attractive stewed and dried fruits with hints of coffee. Quite a chunky mouthful with, at the moment, plenty of tannin but very drinkable after an hour or so in a decanter and pairing with a robust dish.

So, next time you see a label you absolutely hate, do check a little further as it might just conceal something attractive.

 

Best Vintage Ever

With reports that the 2018 wine grape harvest in England and Wales was the best on record, I was really looking forward to the launch of the new vintage from one of my favourite local vineyards – Dunleavy, based at Wrington, just a few minutes’ drive south of Bristol.  And I was not disappointed. One sniff of Ingrid Bates’ Pinot Noir Rosé (£12.95 direct from the vineyard – www.dunleavyvineyards.co.uk – or from local wine merchant Grape and Grind) revealed a glass full of delightful spring blossom fragrances, followed on the palate with lovely raspberry fruit and a hint of smokiness. This is a proper rosé, almost dry, ideal for drinking, well chilled, on its own but with enough body to pair nicely with, perhaps, a fresh tuna steak in a Niçoise salad. In my mind, a deserving winner of a Silver Medal at the Independent English Wine Awards.

Although only the rosé was on show at the launch, appropriately held once again at Bellita Wine Bar, who pride themselves in a winelist comprising all female winemakers, Dunleavy are also now producing a sparkling wine from their own Seyval Blanc grapes. Only 500 bottles of the initial vintage were produced and, not surprisingly, sold out quickly before I was able to get my hands on a bottle. But I look forward to tasting and reporting on this new development later in the year.

As I have said before, English (and Welsh) wine has improved enormously in the last 30 years and there are now almost 500 vineyards operating commercially.  Many will be opening their doors or participating in special events during English Wine Week, the now regular annual celebration of our home-grown product, which begins on Saturday 25 May.  Do check the English Wine Week site for details.

And finally, let me repeat an important clarification: English and Welsh wines are often incorrectly referred to as ‘British wine’. British wine is produced from imported grape juice or concentrate and is not recommended; English (or Welsh, if appropriate) Wine is a quality product made from freshly picked grapes and reflects the place where those grapes are grown.

Swiss Wine Triggers a Memory

Part of the beauty of enjoying wines is the memories it can trigger. A bottle a good friend of ours, who is currently working in Switzerland, brought back for us on one of her brief visits did just that. You very rarely find Swiss wine in the UK; production is small and almost none of it is exported – figures showing that more than 95% is consumed locally, so her gift was especially welcome.

Cave St-Pierre’s Pinot Noir comes from the Valais region, home to some of the highest vineyards in Europe. Here, the steep, south-facing slopes overlook the infant River Rhône before it empties into Lake Geneva (Lac Leman to the locals) and provide ideal sites for vineyards, offering the vines excellent exposure to the sun and good drainage – both essential to full ripening of the fussy Pinot Noir grape.

And the result is delicious: a quite light-bodied red – more reminiscent of an Alsace Pinot Noir than one from Burgundy – but smooth and with lovely raspberry fruit, good balanced acidity and a long, dry, elegant finish.

In recent times, as tastes have moved in favour of red wines, Pinot Noir has taken over from the white variety Chasselas as the most widely planted in Switzerland, although Müller-Thurgau, Chardonnay, Silvaner and Pinots Gris and Blanc are still widely planted. Among red varieties, Gamay, Merlot (strangely also made into a white wine in the Italian-speaking Ticino region) and Syrah (Shiraz) are well represented but it’s almost certain that you’ll need to travel to the country itself to enjoy any of these.

And the memory I hinted at earlier? I’m fairly sure that the first time I ever tasted a Swiss wine was over a meal at the long-closed Swiss Centre in London many years ago. I have a particular reason to remember the occasion because my dining companion at the time, Hilary, soon became my wife – and now, more than 40 years later, we were able to celebrate with this bottle given by our friend, who had no idea of its significance!