Eat & Drink
Originally published on Wednesday, 30th July 2008
Burgundy, Merlot, Sherry, and The Square - Urban Junkies has teamed up with wine guru extraordinaire Tom Harrow to bring you the Wine Chap's useful Wine Tips.
1. ShelfTalk: Independents Day
The credit crunch precluded your investing in premier cru claret en primeurs this year (not that anybody else bothered) and you haven't enjoyed the 10-course degustation menu with paired wines at L'Atelier recently either.
So where does the epicurean on a budget turn for solace? WineChap advises forming a relationship with your local independent wine merchant, of which London has a plethora dotted around, whose ambience and selection range from old school crusty to new world quirky.
Invariably staffed by enthusiastic and unusually-informed public-school boys, here you can find rare wines from smaller artisan producers whose annual production is sufficiently small to avoid Asda's winebuyers. A few gems worth a ruminative trawl on a lazy Saturday afternoon include:
Handford Wines, 105 Old Brompton Rd, SW7, tel: 020 7589 6113
The Sampler, 266 Upper St, N1, tel: 0207 226 9500
The Wine Library, 43 Trinity Sq, EC3N, tel: 020 7481 0415
Huntsworth Wine Company, 108 Kensington Church St, W8, tel: 020 7229 1602
2. BoozeBluff: ‘I prefer the autocthonous varietals’
In layman's terms, i.e. those the boozebluffer ever seeks to avoid, 'a local grape', and a perfectly cutting retort to anyone who mentions a Cabernet, Merlot or Chardonnay-based wine recently enjoyed on holiday (most particularly in Spain or Central Italy). Tread a little warily with this one as you may require an example as back-up: candidates for reds are Sangioveto or Sagrantino (Tuscany/Umbria), Garnacha and Carineno (Spain, all over), and the white shortlist includes Vernaccia or Grechetto and Albarino or Rias Baixas respectively.
Don't worry too much if you get them mixed up - you can always explain patiently to your confused stooge that you were actually referring to a particularly obscure clone that they, as a Merlot-drinker, are unlikely to have heard of.
3. WineMate: 'Choking
Artichokes - now coming in to season but traditionally a nightmare to pair successfully with wines. Naturally occurring cynarin acid gives them a distinct bitterness which makes all wines taste flat and metallic and the tendency to use lots of lemon juice in their preparation (to prevent discolouration) causes further problems for successful matching.
Cooked simply with summer peas and pasta (Rome is considered their birthplace), accompanied by buttery or creamy sauces to soften the harsher effects, artichokes will still present difficulties. But alongside the exhortation to avoid oaked or sweeter whites and tannic reds, here are some suggestions: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (where the wine's own assertive acidity overpowers the 'choke's); conversely, Unoaked Chardonnay, Pinot Gris/Grigio and Austria's increasingly popular Gruner Veltliner all with lower natural acidity but varying degrees of fresh apple character can often work; whilst for a red, a young Sangiovese's bitter cherry fruit, freshness and soft tannins is worth a try.
I'm still searching for the perfect match (any suggestions, accompanied by samples, welcome) but ultimately, even if you aren't 100% happy with the match, artichokes stimulate the liver so at least you can continue experimenting with abandon…
