The dilemma of deadlines and the risk with rose

After the blissful heatwave of last weekend, which I spent enjoying the incredible sun and scenery of the Malvern Hills, the weather has cooled again and, fortuitously, my wines of the week in the Independent on Sunday, which are here, have a definite autumnal air about them again. When you are writing a couple of weeks in advance, the weather in spring and autumn can often be a little trap waiting for you that annoys readers - the casual reference to the warm weather and a recommended rose to be drunk ice cold might be incongruous when read in the middle of a cold snap, when a warming red is what is most needed. Naturally, readers do not like this, but often do not understand that production deadlines for newspaper supplements are usually at least a week or more in advance of actual publication, which means that I wrote today's column almost a fortnight ago. I'm just glad that my autumn wines special of two Sundays ago did not co-incide with last weekend - when it really was rose time. That would have felt wrong. But although I enjoyed a really good, iced Bergerac rose last weekend, with some nice fish, after a long, hot walk on the hills, I'd would have been foolish to recommend it in the column I wrote last Monday, because of the possibility of, say, a decent October snowstorm a week today. It would be tempting fate. As it happens, the Foncaussade Les Parcelles Bergerac rose is on special 25 per cent discount offer at Waitrose until Tuesday, if you want to stock up for next Spring - or hope for another autumnal warm spell. This is the wine here and Waitrose are right in saying it would be good with paella or similar dishes. And at around £5.50 a bottle, its a terrific bargain, cheaper if you buy six.
So far as today's wines are concerned, the Miranda de Secastilla 2008, it has to be acknowledged, does not have the most attractive label. But what a wine for the price - textured, aromatic, chewy, chocolate-y (yes) but still fresh on the palate, which makes it extremely gluggable. Great for autumnal, gamey foods of all kinds. I'm forced into cooking on my gas rings at the moment only because I'm waiting for the oven fan to be repaired. And the weather over the last couple of days has been distinctly chilly. So its a stove top venison and mushroom casserole tonight, with a nice, big red. Or that was the plan - but having been out and about this morning, its a bit warmer than I thought, so I'm having a bit of a dilemma over what to eat tonight, constrained by my oven's limitations. And I'll certainly be keeping some rose in the fridge just in case.

The pleasures of Oporto and port

Just returned from a trip to Oporto and the truly wonderful Duoro Valley to visit both port lodges and some beautiful vineyards owned by Taylors, one of the great names in port. And of course, there was lots of sampling and drinking terrific ports - as well as some very nice Portugese table wines - and some truly fine food and lovely hospitality. Our party stayed for two nights at the awesome Yeatman Hotel, a five-star 'wine hotel' built by Taylors overlooking the centre of Oporto, a World Heritage Site. Will try and post more on Portugal later - and will be writing about the trip for the Independent food and drink pages but for the moment, here is a pic of the glorious Quinta de Vargellas estate, one of the finest port producing vineyards. It was taken by Sue Glasgow, who organised a fabulous few days.
Today also sees the publication of my Wines for Autumn special in the Independent on Sunday, which is here .
I've taken the liberty of using the Independent on Sunday's image which accompanies my piece because it looks so beguiling. So often, the sheer sensual beauty of a wine bottle - the shape, the art of the labelling, which can vary from the lovely to the banal, and the colour of the wine are treats in themselves, even before you drink what's inside. Which, in each and every case here, is rather lovely.

What to drink with....mushrooms

In the last few months, I've been doing an occasional Saturday column for the iPaper, the Independent's cheap and cheerful sister paper on matching seasonal foods with wine. It has been dogged with problems getting it online because, for reasons too complicated to explain here, material written exclusively for the i doesn't automatically go online unless I specifically request it. Then I was away when the last column was published and consequently - being so distracted by the sun and sea of Skopolos - that I forgot to get it organised. I will try and get that online soon. Anyway....here is the latest column, published today. Three excellent and very different wines, with the Co-op Chianti a particular bargain, if you get to your local branch before Tuesday. And I'm off tomorrow to search for some wild mushrooms, hoping that the bounty is as sensational as it was last year, when almost every woodland I visited was full of the most extraordinary fungi, both edible and poisonous.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/what-to-drink-with-mushrooms-2352509.html

Wines of the week

My wines of the week are here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-la-vicalanda-reserva-2005-tres-olmos-verdejo-rueda-2010-cuve-de-richard-ros-2010-2331203.html
The Vicalanda reserva is a fabulous wine I recently tasted on my trip to Spain, which I wrote about in June here
Already its August.....almost time for mushrooms and game, without even properly exploring the delights of summer. One or two days nice weather, meals in the garden etc, then its cool and rainy again. Time for a holiday, I think.

My wines of the week

Here are this week's Wines of the Week in the Independent on Sunday New Review:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-chteau-de-segure-fitou-2007-raimat-abadia-ros-2010-ken-forrester-reserve-chenin-blanc-2009-2326908.html

Wine winners

There are some wines that you try and they take a little while to grow on you, or perhaps just need to find the right food, the right time, the right place. And there are some wines you try that you admire and are happy to recommend to others as fine examples of what they are, even though you might not want to drink them yourself very often. Then there are wines that simply knock you out at the first mouthful, that you think, right away, this is stunning. And so it was with the Stanley Estates Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, which I am recommending in this week's column in the Independent on Sunday, which is here http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-stanley-estates-marlborough-sauvignon-blanc-2010-domaine-les-yeuses-les-epices-syrah-2009-trivento-malbec-2009-2317571.html It's hardly the most unusual wine, but I love Kiwi Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc - its approachable, refreshing, zingy on the palate. While standards are mostly high - you find very few duff bottles - such consistency often leads to over familiarity and one zesty gooseberry-and-lime flavoured bottle begins to taste pretty much like the others. Not so the Stanley Estates - yes, its got all those flavours, but in massive quantities: a hugely refreshing mouthful with the tastes of elderflower, gooseberry, asparagus, green peppers and lime all easily identified. And its made by a British couple: you can read all about them here: http://www.stanleyestates.co.nz/
Unfortunately, while you can get it easily enough online - the stockists are in the column - the Stanley Estates isn't yet available in one of the High Street majors like Waitrose or Majestic, because, I suspect, they can't produce sufficient quantities. It's a real shame, but reinforces the fact that if you want to try individual, different wines, going to small online retailers is often the best bet.

In the pink....

While the quality of much Spanish sparkling wine is a given (see my earlier post) they do not really attempt to challenge the French in the higher price range, where bottles of rose champagne cost two, three or four times that of a decent cava. So, step forward an Englishman, hotelier Richard Balfour-Lynn, (left) who is producing a rose in Kent that, in taste terms alone competes with the best French can do, even if he can only make a fraction of the volume. Hush Heath Balfour Brut Rose is a terrific celebration drink, which should be supported by everyone who loves good wine. Here's my piece for the Independent today http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/in-an-age-of-austerity-at-least-we-can-raise-a-glass-to-british-bubbly-2296757.html

Sparkling Spain....

Guilty feelings about not blogging or tweeting, particularly after a few days touring vineyards in Spain last week in the company of two enthusiastic bloggers, Andrew Barrow, who blogs as http://www.spittoon.biz/ and tweets as @wine_scribbler and Sarah Belizaire-Butler, who blogs as http://eatsdrinksandsleeps.wordpress.com and tweets as @sarahbb. Both managed to keep up a steady stream of tweets while I spent most of the time watching the battery drain out of my iPhone. Time for an upgrade, I think.
We were in Spain courtesy of Grupo Codorniu, for whom Sarah performs pr duties, to meet some of the winemakers (led by Australian Arthur O'Connor) who are attempting to bring up to date a venerable but perhaps slightly fusty company (it dates from the C16th, is still in the hands of the same family and pioneered Spanish sparkling wine) and sample some of their wines, many of which were excellent.
Among the many highlights was a visit to the astonishing Codorniu winery on the outskirts of Barcelona, which was designed by modernist Catalan architect, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, a student of Gaudi and a tour of its massive underground cellars where wine is stored.
Here are some pictures:































This one is, I'm afraid, a bit blurred (bloody iPhone again) but it shows the astonishing main hall, with its lovely curved seating, the arched doorway and the stunning stained glass panels above.
From intricate lunchtime tapas snacks (melt in the mouth octopus stood out) to delicious, fullsome home cooked fare at Codornui's 'castle' near Raimat (including a remarkable prawn and aubergine 'lasagne') and and a six course meal in the C15th atrium of a former prison now turned hotel in the Rioja town of Haro, (stunning roast vegetables and charcuterie) the food was delicious. There was also a simple lunch in a vineyard - tapas, tortilla and chorizo, morcilla and thin pork cutlets all cooked over a fire of vine cuttings, accompanied by lovely wines and followed by a 25-year-old brandy.
All of that went some way towards compensating for the meal on our first night in a boutique hotel in Barcelona, where the restaurant goes under the wing of Martín Berasategui, a Michelin-starred Basque chef. Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adria have a lot to answer for: it was ill-conceived (cheese soup with salmon? Candied veal cannelloni?) poorly-served (my tuna was well done, the red wine arrived too late) clumsy (the pinapple 'jus' was straight out a can and accompanied banana from which the taste seemed to have been surgically removed; the 'cabbage cream' was pureed spinach) while requests for changes for vegetarians or the shellfish-allergic were done only grudgingly ('there is only a little meat in it'...).
But the real point of our trip was to visit the vineyards and taste the wines, which we did with gusto. From Codorniu HQ ( where we sampled fabulous cavas such as the Seleccion Reventos; £9.99 Majestic/Wine Rack)) we travelled south to the mountainous Priorat region, where Codorniu own the Scala Dei (God's ladder, named after the mountains) winery, which sits in the middle of the tiny village of the same name. While Codorniu HQ is grand and historic, Scala Dei is small and functional, making modest amounts of up-market wines from Garnacha and other vines grown on small, carefully tended plots high up in the mountains, such as the wonderfully intense, complex, spicy Cartoixa 2005 (available at Tesco, Wine Rack, Oddbins for around £30.00)
From Scala Dei, we travelled north to Raimat to see another contrasting vineyard - here, vast amounts of previously neglected land have been planted with carefully irrigated vines to produce a range of varietal wines based on the familiar varieties such as syrah and cabernet sauvignon for the mass market in both Spain and the UK. They grow about half the grapes for the main Codorniu cava production, although they also make their own. Here is a pic of one of their massive vineyards:














But despite the industrial scale of production, I was impressed by the fact that the vineyard is striving to be sustainable and converting as much production to organic as possible. In one vineyard, wheat is allowed to grow between the vines, providing a home for rabbits and quail, which themselves become food for birds of prey - who scare away the flocks of smaller birds, which had been eating the grape. Simple.
And this care certainly came through with some of their wines, particularly whites such as the Castell De Raimat, a lovely, citrus flavoured blend of the local xarello grape with chardonnay and the creamy, herby Terra chardonnay, both of which will be on sale in the UK soon at around £9.99. Raimat's own award winning sparkling wine, Gran Brut, is also lovely and worth seeking out in independent wine shops at around £14.99.
From Raimat it was a long, long coach trip to Haro, in Rioja, to try some of the Legaris wines (although the vineyard, actually in Ribero del Duero was too far to get too) in the previously mentioned atrium of the Hotel Los Agostinos. I've recommended the Legaris Reserva before in my Independent on Sunday column http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-legaris-reserva-2004-aliwen-reserva-pinot-noir-starborough-sauvignon-blanc-marlborough-2009-2275534.html and I'm happy to say the other vintages and wines we tried were just as good. As I said earlier, the subsequent six course, six wine meal was terrific, although the bar we found afterwards was a bit of a disappointment - a style borrowed from the best Parisien/Chinese red/black brothel look and a barman with one of the more eccentric tie/shirt combinations I've ever seen.
The following morning, it was a tour of the Bodegas Bildbainas winery in the centre of Haro, a tasting of their lovely wines, including the Vina Pomal (both Reserva and Crianza are in Majestic, £12.99 and £9.99 respectively; both recommended) and their top of the range, powerful, long, long finish reds, La Vicalanda Reserva 2006 and Gran Reserva 2001 (£15.99 and £24.99 respectively; independent stores). We also had the chance to taste their new, boutique wine, the Vina Pomal Alto de la Caseta 2007, which goes on the market shortly at around £45. Made from 35-year old Tempranillo vines, its one to put aside for a few years before getting out for special occasions. There is a pic of the vineyard and our party sampling the wine on Andrew's blog here: http://www.spittoon.biz/ To paraphrase Andrew's blog subtitle, he's done that, so I don't have to...
We got to see the incredibly stony vineyard (I had a chance to drive a 4x4 around the estate, which was great fun) before a wonderful lunch in the hut in the middle of the vines:































We digested our lunch (and ate some delicious tiny cakes) on the long journey to Madrid airport for the flight home.
I'll return to some of the wines I tasted in my IoS column at a later date, but in the meantime, here is this week's column, a tribute to the truly wonderful Wine Society: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-dunico-masseria-pepe-2007-the-societys-exhibition-grner-veltliner-2009-the-societys-corbires-2008-2294678.html

Living longer and drinking well....

I've been very busy over the last few weeks - end of term for my students, various bits of freelance work and a couple of weekends away - so no time to blog. Not much time for anything other than work until the last few days, which have largely been about catching up and going to the gym. So I'm here, rather than being in the garden, which is hopefully where I will be this afternoon.
One of the weekends away was a lovely trip to the Gers area of Gascony, courtesy of the one of the largest wine co-operatives in the area, Plaimont, to taste some of their excellent wines, eat some of their local food and generally get to know the place. I'm not saying this just because they paid for a splendid, if brief, weekend, but because they seem a decent organisation, who appear to look after their employees, have a clear sense of the time honoured traditions of the area, but are also savvy enough to see that the emerging markets for their wine include India and China....I'll write more about Plaimont and the villages around Saint Mont later, either here or elsewhere. And one of their very fine white wines is recommended in this weeks column, which is here: http://tinyurl.com/3zrukp7
What is also interesting about Plaimont is that some of their red wines are made from the Tannat grape, which has been the identified as being a 'healthy heart' grape in research by Dr Roger Corder (which is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6195220.stm?lspan although there is something more technical here http://ezinearticles.com/?Understanding-the-Health-Benefits-of-Moderate-Red-Wine-Consumption&id=4512803 ) although the diet of the area is heavy on meats, particularly duck, foie gras and, well, more duck, and relatively low on vegetables, grains and pasta and all the other ingredients of the supposedly healthy 'Mediterranean diet.' It's closer to the Atlantic than the Meditteranean anyway and the countryside has a distinctly English feel to it. But what is also astounding is the longevity of some of the local people - I met wine growers well into their 70's who still work in the fields every day and one extraordinary man, Rene, pictured here, who tends some of the oldest vines in France, if not the world, although they are for the table, rather than wine. His age seemed a bit variable, but he said he had been working in the fields for about 80 years, so he could be around 90.
This is, of course what is known as 'the French paradox': how can such a diet and regular wine consumption lead to such longevity? The answer of course lies in many variable factors - regular physical work, fresh air and a relaxed and relatively un-stressful lifestyle all play their part. It is important to remember such people as Rene when there are stories around such as the latest report this week that said, effectively, 'drinking gives you cancer' (here is the BBC version, which also links to the original, slightly less emphatic, BMJ report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12999000) I'm not going to get into the whole debate here, except to say that it is important to realise that society is constantly in a process of re-assessment and reviewing its own behaviour, something accelerated by technology, medical research, our expectations about lifestyles and means of communication. What was once acceptable is no longer the case: The British Empire, male chauvenism, casual racism, battery chickens, asbestos, tobacco....you get the picture. Maybe the world is just beginning a whole process of re-appraisal of its relationship with alcohol, just as it is doing with our production of carbon and has done with tobacco. But I also want to add two other things: firstly, it's not new that drinking more than is sensible carries a risk of cancer and other diseases for some people and that, secondly, many other things also carry a risk to our health - excessive work, stress, lack of fresh air and exercise being just some of them. Which is why I'm going to switch off the computer and go and spend some time in the garden. And if I had some vines, I'd be looking after them like Rene...

Feeling good about eating and drinking....

Today's wines recommendation in the Independent on Sunday New Review are the first of two weeks' selections from the list of Wine Relief wines, a project started by wine writer Jancis Robinson, (I think, officially, the doyenne of wine writers) which is designed to raise money for the Comic Relief charity, which stages its bi-annual Red Nose Day on March 18. For each of the bottles sold from a selection, retailers who are signed up to the scheme - Waitrose, Booths, Majestic, Laithwaites and others - donate 10 per cent of the purchase price to Comic Relief. Like last weeks Fairtrade wines, it is a concept that I'm very happy to support on the basis of one simple premise - that the wines are good and worth recommending. While quality of the Faitrade wines is, frankly, a bit mixed, I'm happy to report that almost all the Wine Relief wines are absolutely worth drinking and its certainly a good time to, perhaps, spend a little more on these wines over the next couple of weeks to ensure even more money goes to a good cause. In this case charity begins not at home, but when we go shopping.
Here are this weeks recommendations, which include the stunning Grande Reserve Du Grassac Rouge, which has become one of my favourite reds: http://tinyurl.com/62dltve
So its nice to feel good about our ethical and charitable contributions while we are slurping down a nice bottle...which brings me, slightly tangentially, to today's appeal by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster. Archbishop Vincent Nicholls has appealed to Catholics to give up alcohol and meat on Fridays for Lent in a spirit of self denial - but also, he says, that there are other benefits, like losing weight. While I abhor being lectured to by any religious leaders (particularly ones from institutions like the Catholic church) I can't help but agree we all need to give up or moderate our alcohol consumption - and I do not think that is a hypocritical attitude from a wine writer since I've always advocated sensible drinking and chose to do my period of abstinence in January - but he fails to mention other issues like liver diseases and cancers, which are equally or more important. And his plea to give up meat on Fridays for Lent seems amazingly out of touch - I'm sure there are very few people who eat meat every day now for either health or economic reasons and by implication endorses the idea of eating meat every day once Lent is over. Which is not anyone's idea of a balanced diet. In the same way that religious bodies should never be relied upon for moral guidance and the churches role in charity and ethical issues has been long shown to be overtaken by such secular ventures as Fairtrade and Comic Relief, I dont think we can rely on churches for advice for eating and drinking.

Fairtrade wines

A brief note this week, as have much to do today - its a lovely sunny morning, so the first bicycle ride of the year is called for, I think, followed by a late brunch and, hopefully, watching Arsenal winning the Carling Cup...
So, this weeks wines in the Independent on Sunday are all Fairtrade wines, ie those produced under an agreement where small producers in South America and South Africa are paid an agreed fair prices for their grapes and wines. It is, of course, a laudable idea and this is the third time in past four years that I have tasted a large amount of Fairtrade wines before writing about them. I have to say that, although there are more and more Fairtrade wines around, the quality of many of them this year is, sadly, quite poor. Like English wine, it's something you want desperately to succeed, so it's all the more galling when the wines fail the most basic test of all - are they any good? Without naming names, so many of the wines I tried this year were either thin or acid in the case of the cheaper ones - mainly sauvignon blancs or chenin blancs - or simply too young and Ribena-like in the case of the reds - cabernet sauvignon, merlot or carmenere grapes picked only a year ago, which have simply not been allowed to develop long enough, either in the barrel or bottle. Why they have been rushed onto the market I have no idea. Thankfully, there were enough decent wines around to find three for recommendation in the column, which is here http://tinyurl.com/5tw8n6t
Some others which did not quite make the cut include the lovely, smooth Los Robles Canelo 2009, a cab-sauv/carmenere blend from one of the biggest Fairtrade co-ops in Chile (M&S £6.99 but reduced to £4.99 for Fairtrade Fortnight, which lasts until March 13); they also do a perfectly decent Sauvignon Blanc for the same price. Also worth mentioning are the darkly intense Sainsbury's Taste the Difference South African Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, (£9.99 but reduced to £7.49 until March 22) the crisp and apple scented White River Chenin Blanc and the lively, pizza'n' pasta friendly Six Hats Grenache,(both from South Africa; both Laithwaites; £83.88 for 12) and the Kleine Rust 2010 Chenin Blanc/Sauvignon Blanc (£42.89 for 6; www.bibendum-wine.co.uk)
Some supermarkets now have decent Fairtrade wine ranges - the biggest by far is at the Co-operative although Sainsbury's also have a good selection. And a case of their carefully chosen wine from the Fairtrade specialist online retailer, Traidcraft (www.traidcraft.co.uk) would be a great present. But, when in supermarkets, please remember my points above: don't buy a 2010 red and avoid the cheaper whites.

Vodka nights and old friends

I forgot, when blogging last week, and have not had time to deal with it since, to talk about the vodka-themed dinner party I had attended the previous night, maybe because I was still a bit bleary eyed. Now I love vodka sometimes - a well made Bloody Mary is one of the greatest of all drinks and the best hangover cure I've come across. And a very cold shot as an aperitif is pretty good as well.
But an entire evening of vodka drinking - well almost, there was a glass of red to accompany the (ironic) chicken Kiev, but it seemed strangely out of place - was something else. It was because my old friend Lesley (someone I've known since we were both pretending to be older than we were in the pubs in Bham) now only really drinks vodka, because her stomach is resistant wine. Which is why there is always a bottle of vodka on the table when she comes for dinner. So Lesley and her partner Skye had an evening of Russian food - caviar, blinis, borscht, smoked fish and the Kievs - accompanied by a selection of iced Russian vodkas. I wasn't making notes and the evening ended in, well, a bit of a blur, so I cant give all the details - I must post them - but they were astonishing for their variety of styles - one creamy, another sharper, another fruity and luscious, which was particularly good with the strudel for pudding. A great idea for a different evening.
And particularly good company, which included an interior designer, a food photographer, a man who runs a history website and a conceptual artist from Canada whom I quizzed about eating moose. Curiously, three of those there were people who had been to the same schools in Birmingham as I, one of whom I had been friends with at primary school, climbing trees together in the park, sometime even before both of us got to know Lesley. Did any of us think then, that by curious paths and connections, we would, one day in our, ahem, middle years, all end up drinking and eating and talking in an elegant room in West London. It only really the sharing of food and drink that can bring people together like that, I think.
And yes, I know vodka isn't supposed to give you a hangover, I just always feel bleary eyed on a Sunday morning.
So, to this week's wines for the Independent on Sunday, which are here: http://tinyurl.com/6bfjhe6. It's Valentines Day tomorrow, so there had to be some sparklers. I've also suggested a terrific Spanish red for a main course for those sensible enough to cook at home, (rather then indulge in some awful Valentines Day themed meal in a restaurant strewn with pink balloons) and because while you can drink vodka with just about anything, as I've discovered, pink champagne really doesn't do much for food after the nibbles and oysters. Although of course that doesn't mean you can't save a couple of glasses for later...

Getting it right

I am always slightly nervous about the whole process of recommending wines. The taste of something and the sensitivity of an individual palate are so variable and personal that it can be a risky business. One person's wonderfully subtle and aromatic red is anothers' thin and uninspiring vinegar substitute. There are some wines I love simply for their unpretentious nature and their appropriateness for time and place that would have many other wine writers recoiling with disgust. I've had people round to sample some wines where everyone agrees consistently on their merits or otherwise - apart from the one person who always takes the contrary view. Sometimes, you don't 'get' a wine until the second or third glass or when you are eating it with just the right food. I remember a particular South African Chenin Blanc, which I thought had probably spent too long in the bottle and was past its best. Then, by accident, I used it to wash down some grilled fish with a particularly strong aoili. It was a revelation - the almost oily wine perfectly marrying the garlic. Similarly, a dark Spanish red, dismissed by a group of us as rather flat and lifeless was revealed in a more thoughtfully drunk glass the next day to be something of stunning complexity and depth.
So it's nice to think you might have got it right when you find a wine that you really like and hope that others will feel the same. Therefore it was with some joy that when I walked into the front room of the house of my old friends Sheila and Gerry last Saturday night and saw everyone enjoying a bottle of La Vieille Ferme, a wine from the Cotes Du Ventoux which, by a nice co-incidence, I was recommending in the Independent on Sunday the following morning. Everyone there expressed their enjoyment of the wine - brought by another guest - and which accompanied Sheila's robust vegetarian cooking extremely well. I felt somewhat smug, it has to be said.
It is a wine I first came across in the on board shop of a ferry from northern Spain a few years ago. I bought a speculative box of six for about £30 and thought it a terrific wine for the price - medium bodied, well made, spicy and fruity at the same time, a perfect accompaniment to Mediterranean foods. I quickly discovered that it was made by Perrins et Fils, one of the great names in Rhone wine, who have been making wines for almost a hundred years and whose Chateau de Beaucastel, an organic Chateauneuf du Pape with great ageing potential, can cost around £80 a bottle. If you can find it. La Vieille Ferme is made using the same love and care but from grapes (a familiar southern French mix of Syrah, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault) grown close to the main estate. It is therefore, a fantastic bargain, but also sometimes difficult to find. The couple who bought it to the dinner party found it in Waitrose, although it is listed as 'out of stock' on the Waitrose wine website. Unless you want to take a trip on a Brittany ferry, the only other place I could find it is in Majestic - where you have to buy six, but it is a steal at £7.49. The same has to be said for another Majestic wine I'm recommending in the Independent on Sunday this week, the Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zinfandel, which is possibly an even better deal at just £4.99. Although a single varietal from America's native grape, the Zinfandel, it is in many ways a similar wine - well structured, spicy, fruit driven, with a satisfying finish - and from a producer with real longevity and experience. Waitrose, it should be noted, are selling it for about £9.50. Majestic told me they are able to offer it at such a price because 'our buyer got a great deal on a few hundred cases.' Good for him and for us. Both these wines are excellent value for midweek meals and, as I said, neither would (or did) disgrace the dinner table. Go and buy...
Here is last weeks' column: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-coyam-emiliana-2007-la-vieille-ferme-ctes-du-ventoux-2009-st-hallett-poachers-blend-2008-2196344.html
And here are this weeks' wines: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-chteau-de-ciffre-faugres-terroirs-daltitude-2008-montgravet-chardonnay-2009-ravenswood-vintners-blend-zinfandel-2007-2202431.html

Bargain bin....

Last week of January eh? Bit of a grim time all things considered - what seems to be endless gray days, all that let's-get-back-to business after the festive season workload, the collapse of our cricketeers down under (I think I know what the next 'An Apology' column in the Eye might say), the lack of interesting food around (the new season blood oranges is about the best I can look forward too) and, for some of us, the prospect of another week without the comfort of a nice glass of wine as we complete the January detox.
I've relaxed my previous total January ban a bit this year, as I explained last week, but for those of you still grimly hanging on, there is one reason to rejoice - it's a great time to buy wine for when you can drink again.
While prices seems to be rising everywhere, as my wine recommendations in the Independent on Sunday this week illustrate, there are plentiful bargains for wine drinkers out there, whether it is about big reds to warm the body and soul or cheapish whites for midweek meals and whether you are shopping in your local supermarket or online.
Here is the column: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-carchelo-jumilla-2009-champteloup-chardonnay-vin-de-pays-du-val-de-loire-2009-rockbare-tinder-box-mclaren-vale-shiraz-2008-2188854.html
These are not, I should stress, wines that fall into that category of almost permanently discounted, big brand labels, that sometimes dominate the supermarket shelves. Those wines are wines which are often rarely worth the full price of £7 or £9 or whatever; their real worth is at £4.99. These wines are, I hope, genuine bargains as dealers clear their shelves to make way for new bottles.
So, stock up the wine cellar, stoke up the fire, experiment with some new casserole recipes, (Tonight I'm going for mixed game - a big thank you to The Wild Meat Company - with mushrooms, chestnuts and parsley dumplings), and take comfort in another warming mouthful of a big red. Or just admire that bargain bottle and tick off another January day.

New Year, new wine column

So, yes. Um. Where were we? I see that the last post I wrote here was in November 2009. Er, been a bit busy since, what with the teaching and writing and so forth.
Not that I suspect people were hanging around for my every word, but for those regular readers – my old friend Lottie, my mother and that strange chap who keeps sending emails in capitalised green - huge apologies for not keeping you up to date with details of my amazing life, astonishing meals cooked and eaten, fantastic adventures in wine etc.
Sorry you’ve missed out on hearing about that wonderful tasting of Spanish wines and foods, the terrific (well, I think so) meals that I cooked for a couple of dinner parties, the fascinating time I had exploring Morocco with my sons, a birthday weekend of vodka, caviar and borscht (thanks, Lena) the incredible once-in-a-lifetime displays of woodland fungi last autumn that had me scrambling around in the leaf litter for hours, my agonies searching for the right Christmas Eve meal and my utter joy at finding a raclette grill in Lidl, for just £14.99. Sorry, but I’ve just been far too busy just, er, doing all that. Any anyway, Tweeting has replaced blogging, hasn’t it? No one, surely, has time to blog anymore. I certainly have not. Blogging, is, in fact, just a bit last decade. And I don’t even have time to Tweet.
Therefore, it is time, obviously, to revive my blog. For several reasons. This weekend saw the end of my annual New Year detox – this time ten days without a drink, although I will stay off the booze on weekdays until the end of the month – and the publication of the first of my little wine recommendations column in the Independent on Sunday New Review. It is part of a revamp of the Review, which, since its inception, has been by far and away the best written and best designed Sunday supplement among the national newspapers. And I am honoured to be writing for it. So what better way to celebrate the column with a few glasses of decent wine: a fine Australian white and a robust South African red. And very nice they were too.
The Wines of the Week column is a simple idea – just three recommendations for wines to buy in the forthcoming week – something for Sunday lunch (or Saturday dinner; you get the idea, I am sure, this is one to spend a little on) a bottle for midweek drinking (a more modest proposal, what I call my ‘pizza’n’pasta’ wines) and a bargain buy (which can be anything from a good supermarket discount on a reliable branded wine to a bin end clearance of a pricey claret).
I will not be recommending wines I have not personally tried, neither will I advocate stupidly priced ones, at either end of the scale, or ones which are sold by one wine shop, somewhere in deepest Somerset, that does not do mail order. But I will be hunting down the best wines from among the thousands available from retailers ranging from High Street supermarkets to the very many online outlets.
And what I will also do – in recognition of the fact that almost all of us buy wine principally to drink when we eat – is recommended the best kinds of foods for these wines. Indeed, the successful marriage of food and wine is, in my opinion, one of the greatest sensory pleasures available to us. And that is the underlying basis for the column.
In January, of course, the kind of wines to recommend is a bit of a no-brainer. It has got to be big, warming red wines, the kind of bottle to put on the table with the venison stew or baked pasta and then finish off in front of a roaring fire afterwards. But in coming weeks, I’ll be suggesting wines for other occasions – Valentines Day, Fairtrade Fortnight, Easter Weekend and basically any other excuse for an interesting theme I can find. I will also try and post most of them on this blog and perhaps talk about them a little more. Here is the first column: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wines-of-the-week-terry-kirby-selects-the-best-bottles-to-buy-2182919.html
So, a New Year, a new wine column.