Eat & Drink
Originally published on Tuesday, 20th July 2010
Wine Chap’s Wine Tips: July
Winemate: 28°-50° Wine Workshop & Kitchen
The eagerly-awaited new project from Texture (butter-free Scandi-influenced cooking, lovely Madeira selection, you remember) quite rightly insists food plays a supporting role to the two winelists. The first offers a changing selection of fifteen reds and whites each, all available in a variety of glass sizes (highlighting the absurdity of legislating against elegant 75ml measures in favour of goldfish bowl 250ml servings that guarantee drunken misdemeanours and warm Chardonnay).
The other, The Collector’s List, is drawn from the private cellars of owner-sommelier Xavier Rousset’s clients wishing to sell off their surplus mature vintages. Prices for this mouth-watering collection of vinous gems, highlighting Xavier’s love of the Rhone in particular, make WineChap want to leap and sing … and get very, very drunk.
Vintellect Tips
1. Rousette de Savoie, Berlioz 2008, S. France – fresh, sinewy, some herbaceous notes
2. Vermentino, Domaine Alzipratu 2009, Corsica – fuller than many versions from Sardinia, still balanced but more honeyed richness
3. Dolcetto di Dogliani, Bricco Rosso 2007, Piemonte – good cherry sweetness and soft tannins, supported by typical vibrant acidity
4. Faugeres, Maison Jaune 2004, S.W. France – maturing nicely, showing some leather and spice alongside the berry fruits
For selections from the Collector’s List, please get in touch directly. (WineChap is very protective of such rarities – especially if it means he cannot drink his fill of the best bargains, them having been consumed by a mad stampede of UJ readers.)
140 Fetter Lane,
EC4A 1BT
www.2850.co.uk
GrapeVine: The BYO Wine Club
“Why didn’t someone do this ages ago?” people keep saying of the BYO Wine Club. Perhaps because we needed this hideous recession to force restaurants into working for their impecunious punters. The BYO founders, Christopher and Khadine Rose, enjoy eating out a lot and so had the necessary clout to convince some of their preferred haunts to join the scheme. Now with an impressive selection of restos to pick from, for £75 per year (rising to £90 soon so be quick) members of the club can enjoy their own special bottles at a growing selection of London’s premier restaurants.
The BYO Wine Club has a few common sense and courtesy guidelines about what you can and can’t bring and most partnering restaurants impose certain restrictions regarding timings, minimum spend or reduced corkage (eg. Bentley’s are Mondays only; Club Gascon requires £80 on food per person; Boisdale’s has a £5 corkage), but a couple – Andaz and Apsley’s (the Lanesborough) – none at all. Although turning up at Tom Aikens with four cans of Special Brew, like running the bulls in Pamplona, has its own crazy appeal for danger freaks, one has to imagine that most will not seek to abuse the club rules or privileges – but rather appreciate this overdue opportunity.
