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