Eat & Drink
Originally published on Wednesday, 31st March 2010
Wine Chap's Wine Tips
UJ’s Wine Guru is back, embarking on an oenophilic adventure through London’s most authentic Spanish restaurant, Iberica, taking some time out to try Quilon’s beer pairing menu and popping by the Halkin for a flight of wine fancy. Make sure to check out the man’s very own version of Desert Island Discs meets Last Suppers and send in your own suggestions, and don’t forget to brush up on Wine Chap’s foolproof Booze Bluff before you next head out.
WineMate:
Iberica, the most authentic Spanish joint in town, is doing a great stuffed Pig’s Trotter which pairs up particularly well with their toothsome (and inexpensive) Beronia Rioja Crianza 06. With Iberica intending to ship and retail their own Spanish wine selection directly, they could be challenging Brindisa in London’s fertile Iberian market.
ShelfTalk / DrinkOut:
Quilon: Whilst Benares fights to pair Southern Indian cuisine with the world’s wines, the competition’s great 5 or 8-course beer pairing menu is gaining in popularity. The highlight is the Deus ‘Brut des Flandres’; a vintage Belgian beer at 11.5% which uses Champagne yeasts for a secondary fermentation and is then topped up with an older vintage when those yeasts are disgorged. Actually more complex and elegant than a lot of supermarket fizz.
Available at Waitrose, Ocado and BeerHere.com
Halkin:
WineChap loves wine flights and Sommelier Troy Sutton has created a menu of interesting trios (a la 1808 at Fortnum’s but with more generous measures) for the hotel bar. 3 x125ml glasses served with ‘light bites’, starting at £17 which make a pleasantly louche alternative to lunch or a good start to aperitivo hour.
BoozeBluff:
‘Well I have always preferred more cerebral wines to the shamelessly hedonistic’ A useful phrase to drop in when serving a leathery old boot of a Red Burgundy that is making everyone wince, or conversely when everyone else is making appreciative noises about your host’s velvety Chateau-neuf du Pape.
