Mark's Blog
04 April 2007
Supper Club
Last week saw me hosting our first supper club in conjunction with Malbec restaurant. The idea of which is to take locally sourced, seasonal produce (where available) put them in the hands of chef-proprietor Simon Malin, who will then create a delicious menu. I will then match some fantastic wines to the dishes. We then create a warm, friendly and social environment in the refurbished cellar of the restaurant, and invite a group of food and wine lovers to come along and have a thoroughly good time.
The menu that Simon had created gave me some great scope to put on some very interesting wines. The thing that I like so much about his food is that he doesn’t over complicate things. He just takes great ingredients, adds some subtle, yet inventive additions and cooks them to perfection.
The choice of starters was as follows: Seared Chicken livers with red onion confit and Jerusalem artichoke puree, matched with Chateau Pierreux ‘La reserve du Chateau’ Brouilly 2005; or, Roulade of smoked salmon with avocado cream, matched with Specogna Tocai Friulano 2004.
Chateau Pierreux make wonderful Beaujolais, they take the underrated Gamay grape and treat it with respect. Putting their faith in bio-dynamic production methods and with judicious use of quality oak, they have created a delicious wine. The soft, almost sweet blueberry and cherry fruit balanced with the onion confit, while the dry, yet well-integrated tannins cut through the richness of the chicken livers.
The Tocai Friulano was the one wine of the evening that I was a little unsure as to how well it would actually match with the food. Specogna’s Tocai is one of the most complex Italian whites that I have ever tasted. The bouquet has aromas of pears and orange blossom, whilst the palate is a combination of delicate, lemony fruit and minerals derived from the calcious clay in which the vines grow. The match, as it happens, worked quite well, with the lemon fruit flavours enhancing the flavours of the salmon.
For the main courses the choices were Roast line caught Pollack with mushroom and Gruyere crust and tomato fondant. This was matched to Domaine de la Galopiere Meursault 2004; or, slow cooked blade of Scottish Beef with spring vegetables. This dish was matched with John Duval Plexus 2004.
Pollack, being from the Cod family is quite a rich and meaty fish and the prominent flavours of the Gruyere and mushroom called for a wine with enough body and flavour to handle it. This wine worked really well, with the soft buttery fruit harmonising with the Pollack and having just the right amount of acidity to refresh the palate. The subtle use of oak added a layer of flavour that went well with the earthiness of the mushroom and cheese crust. The husband and wife team at Domaine Galopiere create wines with a certain charm and finesse and we are very pleased to have them on our list.
For the beef dish I chose Plexus from John Duval Wines. The style in which the beef was cooked dictated to some extent on what type of wine would match. I wanted to show a real blockbuster red, yet make sure that it didn’t overshadow the food. Plexus is a blend of Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvedre, sourced from vines in the Barossa valley. The wine making legend that is John Duval then assembles a superb blend to create Plexus. The full-bodied palate and the richness of the fruit stood up to the flavour of the beef and jus, while the elegant tannins sat nicely with the broken down proteins of the meat.
John Duval is one of the world’s finest wine makers, twenty years at the helm of Penfolds has given him an amazing understanding of the raw materials he needs to create stunning wines; it won’t be long until his wines are some of the most sought after in Australia, so it was great to be able to open up a few bottles and let everyone enjoy them with such great food.
Dessert was a choice of warm banana pancake with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce or a selection of cheeses from Paxton and Whitfield. To match these I selected Two Hands ‘For love or money ‘Cane cut Semillon 2004.
When matching the dessert the first thing to consider was the sweetness. Caramel in any quantity is tough, so I needed a wine that was substantial enough to not get lost or taste overly acidic. Fortunately ‘For love or money’ is all that. The rich, viscous body of the wine matched the caramel and banana and the vanilla notes from French oak ageing worked well with the ice cream. The sweetness of the wine worked as a perfect counterbalance to the saltiness of the blue cheese that was selected as well.
The wine is created by cutting the canes on old Semillon vines and letting the grapes dehydrate on the vine. This intensifies the sugar in the grapes creating very sweet fruit.
As with everything the guys from Two Hands create, this wine is beautifully presented with one of the best labels that I have ever seen on a bottle of dessert wine.
I would just like to thank everyone who came along to the supper club and helped in making it such an enjoyable evening. It’s nights like this that makes being in the wine trade so much fun. The next meeting of the supper club is 31st May, so if this interests you, check out our events page.
On to the matter of all things whisky related.
Our last Whisky club tasting was a showcase of the whiskies of Douglas Laing and Co. I have been a fan and supporter of Douglas Laing’s Old Malt Cask range for a long time now, so it was great that we could put a collection of them on to taste for the whisky club members. The evening was held at the Thistle hotel, which has now become the adopted home for our events and hosted by Susan Webster. Susan has an impressive CV, working for the likes of Glenfiddich and Royal Mile whiskies before finding a home with Douglas Laing. Her father has thirty years service at the Glenrothes distillery, which probably paved the way for her choosing the whisky industry for her career.
Old Malt Cask has one of the finest ranges of malts of any independent bottler which made it a fairly easy task to select an interesting collection to taste.
Susan hosted the evening in an assured, natural style which impressed the gathered club members, many of whom were whisky veterans. The whiskies that we showed on the night were a Glenturret 16yo, Mortlach 12yo, Macallan 25yo, Ben Nevis 10yo (wine finish) Bowmore 12yo, Laphroaig 12yo. All Old Malt Cask whiskies are bottled at 50% ABV, which had the effect of leaving a feeling of contentment among all those who attended. My favourite dram of the night was the Glenturret 16 yo, which I thought was very elegant and subtle.
One of the highlights of the tasting calendar is the annual booze fest that is Whisky Live. My main reason for attending is to catch up with people in the trade. It is a rare occasion to have every one under the one roof at the same time. However, as each year goes by there seems to be less and less of the distillers who believe it is worth their while turning up. Bruichladdich haven’t been for a couple of years and I was surprised to see that such a big player like Grants not bothering this year. It was great to catch up with my old colleague Colin Dunn of Fior brands. He gave me a tutored tasting of the very impressive range of whiskies from Suntory, much to the amusement of his Japanese colleagues.
I was very impressed with the complete re-brand of the whiskies from Balblair. Not only is the packaging and branding a delight but, the three single vintages they have released are all exceptional. They are a 1997, 1989 and a 1997. All three will be available from Vinology from mid April.
  Well it’s getting to that time of year again, yes… its busking season. For those of you who have read previous blogs you will know that Henley Street is a magnet for buskers, some good, some ok, some an affront to the world of music. Over the last couple of weeks we have had the guy with the electric violin. He plays a brand of dreary muzac at high decibels. It is like being put on hold for four hours or being stuck in a lift. Then we have the truly rubbish accordion player who taps out the wrong rhythm on a tambourine with his foot. Having to suffer his rendition of ‘By the rivers of Babylon’ by Boney M is not a pleasure on a Sunday morning. We also have a completely new phenomenon, Chav Busking. This new style of busking consists of two tracksuit-ed youths, hands deeply thrust into their nylon pockets, bouncing around, to a girl playing acoustic guitar. Cigarette permanently balanced in their mouths, they shout ‘Suspicious Minds’ by Elvis to an unsuspecting public. It is quite a sight to behold. I will endeavour to get some pictures of these soap dodging, ASBO waving troubadours, but so far I haven’t plucked up the courage.
Cheers,
Mark.
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