Tag Archives: white wine

Albariño and Scallops

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Recently, I was speaking to a customer who was looking for the traditional Albariño drinking vessel.  He was from Rias Baxas (the home of this delicious wine) and wanted to show the Brits with whom he was staying the classic combination of scallops with Albariño, drunk not from a glass, nor a cup, but a bowel in the shape of a scallop shell.

After a brief search I could find nowhere listed that sold such a vessel, nor indeed any images of people drinking from them.  All I found were lots of pictures of mouth-watering scallop dishes, and people, glass in hand at various stages of merriment.  This only served to make me hungry and in need of refreshment.

A couple of days later, having tried this fantastic combination, I sought more info about this traditional fare (it really is a great match: the delicate sweetness of the scallop, with a bit of salt from pancetta or soy sauce is perfectly matched to the honeyed, slightly nutty and citrus character of the wine).

As far as I can gather, the origin dates back some 2000 years to Saint James the Apostle who is also the patron saint of Galicia, the region in which Rias Baxas is found.  James is usually depicted with a scallop shell when he arrived at churches, or any household that was providing him with shelter, as the pilgrim would only take as much sustenance as he could fit in one scoop of the shell.  This meant that even the poorest family could offer him food or wine without it making much difference to their own stocks.

So, if you want to be a traditionalist, you could travel to Galicia and try this from the source, I imagine it would be worth the trip.  If, however, you are not one to jet set at a moments notice, then try it at home.  There are innumerable quick and easy scallop recipes on the web, (this one would do the trick) but do what you will, just make sure you accompany it with a chilled glass of Albariño.

Misunderstood Varieties, Part III

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Riesling is well known and much loved in the wine trade.  Anyone with a learned interest in wine will either tell you of their undying love for the grape and how misunderstood it is, or that they don’t quite appreciate it yet, but fully accept its place on the podium amongst the finest and most fascinating grape varieties in the world.

During the first half of the last century, German Rieslings were held in equal measure to the praised Clarets and Ports in any serious wine cellar.  Not only are the best examples complex and intricate, they are capable of ageing for very long periods, and it is quite easy to buy (top flight) Rieslings from the 1970s that are still full of life and won’t be over the hill for a few years yet.  In their later stages they become wonderfully honeyed and delicate and make a delicious accompaniment to a salad.

One of the reasons why Rieslings seem to get a bad rep is because they are often (but by no means always) off-dry to sweet.  For some inexplicable reason, any style of white other than dry seems to be looked down upon.  We seem happy with sweet cured bacon, elderflower cordial, baby plum tomatoes, but somehow a little bit of extra sweetness in our wine seems like a massive faux pas even though it is there to bring balance to the wine.  A bit of sweetness in a Riesling also makes it a fantastic match to salty foods (think salted caramels, or salt-water taffy).  For the sake of your own enjoyment please never let others put you off a grape that has provided me with some of my most memorable food and wine matches.

Misunderstood Varieties, Part II

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Chardonnay is possibly my favourite of all grape varieties, partly because it is the star of some of the most hauntingly delicious wines that I have ever tasted, but also because it is capable of producing fine wine in such a diverse range of climates.  From Chablis to Marlborough, Champagne to Montrachet it is able to make crisp, dry whites exhibiting crunchy green apple and citrus characteristics with mouth-watering freshness, all the way up to full-bodied, tropical styles with mango and pineapple flavours.  In addition, it will happily age in oak, taking on butterscotch and honeyed notes.

It is this last aspect that (because of it being overdone in cheaper wines) has affected Chardonnay’s good name and caused the general public to lose faith in it.  Ageing in oak barrels can contribute towards delicious honeyed, nutty, and oatmeal characteristics.  The barrels are very expensive and a significant investment that a winemaker really needs to feel that they can justify, plus are important when making wines that will age well.  The mass-market way is to get a load of oak chips and stir them into the wine until you have something so rich and sweet, yet insipid, that a bottle of Lambrini would be embarrassed to sit next to it.

John Avery, the man responsible for opening our eyes to a lot of the fine wines of the New World, once told me that although he was very glad to have introduced the UK to some extremely talented Australian winemakers that fully deserved to be placed on the world stage, the surge in popularity (and quite rightly so) for their wines also opened the floodgates for increasingly mass-market pretenders, that were more about making money than making quality wine.  Thereafter, oak ageing (something that will always be used judiciously in many of the world’s finest and most expensive wines) became synonymous with cheap, noxious plonk.  Two critical things to remember are:  Chardonnay is by no means synonymous with oaky flavours, and secondly it is the winemaker who is responsible for expressing a top quality grape badly, not the other way around.

Drinking Wine: Temperature

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The temperature at which wine is served is hugely important.  The old concept that white wine should be served chilled and red served at room temperature is only partly accurate.  For one, the temperature of a room is variable and the average today is much higher than it was 100 years ago thanks to central heating and insulation.  Also, full-bodied wines should be served at a higher temperature than lighter wines but a bottle should never be warm to the touch.  Furthermore, most whites should not gather a lot of condensation when the bottle is left standing in the room as this is a sign that they are too cold.

So to summarize, sweet wines, inexpensive sparkling and white wines are best served at a temperature between 4 to 7 degrees centigrade (the average fridge temperature).  Champagne is fine around 8 degrees centigrade or up to 10 degrees if it’s an upmarket or vintage one.  Most Beaujolais can be put in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour and served at around 11 degrees centigrade.

Inexpensive Burgundies and the New World Pinot Noirs are best at 14 to 16 degrees centigrade; this can be especially important with the New World Pinot Noirs as a lower temperature slows the evaporation rate of the alcohol.  I have frequently had difficulty tasting New Zealand Pinots, which are often at 14% ABV, because the alcohol becomes a bit of an elephant in the room if the wine is served at too high a temperature.  Nothern Rhone, Chianti and Rioja should be closer to 16 degrees centrigrade and Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Zinfandel and Barossa Shiraz more like 18 degrees centrigrade.

 

Three South African Stunners

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Matthew Jukes seemed to have trouble narrowing down his favourite South African winery last year. The respected critic and Daily Mail columnist recently released his list of “25 Hand-Picked South African Wineries of the Year”. In the article, published in South Africa’s Classic Wine magazine, he praises a raft of winemakers for their fresh approach to winemaking (and their surfer good looks), and selects the wines that are helping the Cape’s reputation soar.

Amongst the list are a couple of wines that we stock in-store:

2010 Original Chenin Blanc, Raats
“Bruwer’s 2010 Original Chenin Blanc is a model wine. Sleek, steely and not too fat or wearing too much sugary padding, like so many others, this is a crisp, lean, Chablis-shaped wine and it’s on loads of wine lists, too!”
2009 Cuvee Cinema Pinot Noir, Crystallum
“A new name for me, but one that I will never forget…2009 Cuvée Cinéma Pinot Noir was my highest scoring wine from this grape variety ever in South Africa. This young man is clearly onto something. Let’s hope that the 2010s continue this run – I have no doubt, having subsequently met P-A, that they will.”

In other South African wine news, we have recently got our hands on some back vintage bottles of the “Faithful Hound” Bordeaux-style blend from Stellenbosch stalwarts, Mulderbosch Vineyards. This wine scored an impressive 90 points from Wine Specator, a great achievement for a wine that comes in under £15! Here’s what WS had to say:

2006 Faithful Hound, Mulderbosch
“Ripe and tangy, with a mix of red currant, damson plum, Kenya AA coffee and iron notes that glide through the mouthwatering, tobaccotinged finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec.”

Why not grab a bottle for the next time you “Bring and Braai”?