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