Dinner by Heston – and a trip round the world in a wineglass

Gazing out over Hyde Park from the uber-hot London restaurant with the city’s best park view, it was odd to suddenly find ourselves transported to Provence, Tuscany and Andalucia before coming full circle back to the South of France without leaving Knightsbridge.  That’s what wine can do for you – transport you to the place you first tasted a special drop and bring all the sense of mise-en-place flooding back , and no-one is more susceptible to being transported by their adventures in a glass than The Wine Wanderers.

Turns out that Dinner, Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental, has not only just leapt to no. 7 in the World’s Best 50 Restaurants list, it has a fabulously diverse and esoteric wine list.  Had we been drinking wine by the bottle, we’d have been transported to Argentina by a Catena Zapata chardonnay last enjoyed in Buenos Airea; as it was we relived several imbibing adventures in Europe with extraordinary dishes based on Britain’s own culinary adventures over the centuries.

Naturally, we  started with Meat Fruit, Dinner’s famous 15th century-inspired signature dish.  It’s a rich parfait of chicken liver and foie gras double-wrapped in mandarin-flavoured jelly, dimpled to resemble a whole mandarin.   We chose a beautiful pale golden-pink Bandol  from Domaine Tempier, best-known for their sublime reds; there may have been a touch of mourvedre in it as well as the quintessentially Provencal mix of cinsault and grenache.  This rose proved a perfect complement to London’s most coveted starter, which came with satisfyingly trencherman tranches of smoky grilled sourdough.

Turbot with cockle ketchup proved controversial; the salty, sweet and sour cockle dressing was tongue-ticklingly oceanic, but not necessarily a perfect match for the delicate turbot.  Nor was the Friuli pinot grigio first suggested a perfect partner.  A glass of Ballot Millot Meursault hit the spot much better and reminded us of past meanderings through the Burgundy vineyards, discovering the great, sumptuous whites which never disappoint; pure hedonism in  a glass.

There was no argument about the Chianti Riserva from Casale dello Sparviero accompanying one of the world’s finest pork chops, a thick cut of black foot Iberico served fresh instead of more commonly as slivers of the world’s finest ham.   Sangiovese can be so disappointing, but sublime when properly made; we first appreciated the best at Terme di Saturnia in Tuscany.   A spelt risotto with the chop transported us to Lucca, where they revere and celebrate this under-appreciated grain.

Then it was off to Seville, where we first appreciated how well sherry partners food, for dessert, thanks to the Gonzalez Byass Apostolos palo cortado  accompanying brown bread ice-cream with salted caramel.   An Uroulat Jurancon alongside tipsy cake served with glazed pineapple fresh off the rotisserie brought us back to southern France – before, after three hours, it was time to end our reverie and step out into the here and now of London’s Hyde Park.   We always  expected great food from Dinner, but the wine list and world trip of happy memories were an unexpected bonus.

From Slovenia with love – zelen, sauvignonasse and pinot noir to die for

The Wine Wanderers have tracked some great bottles to the cellar door on their travels, most often from some restaurant in France to a vineyard down the road.   But this time a glass of pinot noir in a London gastro-pub drove one of us 1000 miles to Slovenia to find the genius who made it.

That restaurant was The Jugged Hare, which inspiredly featured Marjan Simcic as winemaker of the month.  They were in good company; Simcic’s award-winning wines are listed by The Fat Duck, China Tang and good restaurants across the globe.   The wine was a pinot noir so staggeringly good, it was no surprise it commanded £16 per glass in the City.

Turns out Simcic is a fifth-generation wine-maker in Slovenia’s Goriska Brda region skirting the Italian border who has won countless international awards – and his pinot noir is just the start.   Marjan’s wife, Valerija, presented a sumptuous sauvignon blanc 2009 matured in oak, a gorgeous 2007 merlot from their Opoka range, named for the stone which peppers the soil, and the 2010 vintage of that heart-stopping pinot noir.  We also recommend Simcic’s pinot grigio, which knocked our socks off at the earthily delightful Jugged Hare.

Simcic was one of several top-class winemakers visited in this region and the nearby Vipava valley whose bottles deserve to be better-known.  They include Sutor, whose pinot noir 2008 is divine and whose malvasia won a Decanter silver medal in 2009.   The 2011 vintage was sumptuous, ditto Sutor’s 2010 sauvignon blanc.

Scurek, another five-generation winemaking dynasty on the border, has won gold for their Stara Braida white, a blend of the indigenous(but difficult as a single varietal) rebula with sauvignonasse, malvasia and a touch of  piccolit.  This last is usually a sweet wine in Slovenia, but Scurek makes a dry version which is to die for; sumptuous enough to partner foie gras, great with cheese and amazing even without food.  Scurek’s Stara Braida red  was as close as I came to any of the country’s seductive refosk; 25% of it joins merlot, cabernet franc and a little cab sauv in a heady blend.   But I wish I’d been close enough to the Adriatic coast to visit Santomas, whose own 2005 refosk, tasted at Valvas’or in Ljubljana, was sublime.

Valvas’or also introduced me to a drop-dead-gorgeous sauvignonasse from natural winemaker Borut Blazic, whose vineyards fell into Italy when the border was redrawn.  He makes only 3000 bottles from this grape (known as tokai friulano before the EU forced a name change);  the 2006 is spectacular.   Blazic has a US agent but no UK distribution, and my mission is to spread the word; this white deserves publicity!

Ljubljana’s best restaurant, the excellent and innovative JB, makes a point of showcasing Slovenia’s best wines, and I have them to thank for an introduction to a super zelen.  This grape, exclusive to the Vipava valley, is a revelation and makes the best possible aperitif in a country full of great wine; the best I tasted was by Pasji Rep and came in a distinctive woman-shaped bottle.

From Piemonte pain and pleasure to super sakes

The Japanese are thought of as austere and the Italians effusive, so it was interesting to experience the reverse of these stereotypes, at least in drink, last week.   And all without leaving London, as The Wine Wanderers progressed from wine tasting in Knightsbridge to sampling sake in the heart of Mayfair.

We started at that shrine to Italian glamour, the Bulgari hotel, which is hosting a series of wine tasting sessions to provide insight into the offerings of Italy’s top wine-producing regions.  Long fans of heady Barolo, we were delighted at the chance to learn what else Piemonte produces – until we started tasting.  The fact this region is more celebrated for its reds may have something to do with the austerity of its whites.  A Roero 2010 Arneis displayed notes of – er – laundry detergent, and even the more approachable Erbaluce di Caluso  only livened up when partnered with morsels of buffalo mozzarella.

Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo are Piemonte’s glorious red varietals, but the Dolcetto d’Alba Vietti 2011 seemed a tad monastic.  We were happier with a Barbera brought to life by some accompanying charcuterie – head sommelier Sam Heathcote recommends monkfish to bring the best out of Dolcetto.   Only when the Barolo finally came out – a lovely example from Giacomo Fenocchio – did we feel as seduced as we expect to be by the great, voluptuous reds which Italy does like no-one else.   If you want to get to know some of these, book in at the Bulgari to taste Tuscans with Sam on June 17.

From Knightsbridge it was on to Bruton Place for dinner at Umu, a Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant whose warmth and buzz diminishes any notions of stereotypical austerity even before you get the menu.   It had to be sake to complement chef Yoshi’s rirgorously authentic food, and a Shirakabegura Daiginjo from Hyogo, with fruity aromas, made a perfect aperitif and also a great complement to Yoshi’s sashimi selection.   This included paper-thin slices of sea bass served with an intriguing yuzu and chive dip, as well as our favourite yellowtail and some surprisingly great raw mackerel.

With the seared toro which followed,  a seasonal Urakasumi Tokubetsu Jumai Shiboritate from Miyagi was suggested.  This was rich, yeasty and somehow slightly dry, slightly bitter and slightly sweet all at once – an outstanding accompaniment to unctuous, rich and fatty tuna belly.

The piece de resistance was the wagyu beef, which came with a blisteringly hot slab of Himalayan rock salt on which to cook the thin slices to our taste(interestingly, medium proved better than rare at extracting the flavour of the fabulous fat within the meat).  We complemented this steak-fest with a Kamoizumi Nigori Ginjo from Hiroshima, unfiltered and looking more like milk.    Barolo is also a fine partner for steak, but for great wagyu you can’t beat great sake, and it was the Japanese who sent us home happiest last Thursday.

Exciting wines from Chile? A reality, thanks to Aurelio Montes

I was privileged to take wine recently with Aurelio Montes, a legend in his own Latin American lifetime.  A free thinker who believes his grapes and the men who tend them benefit from spiritual sustenance like beautiful music while they work, Montes is that rare creature among Chilean wine-makers, a risk-taker.

If Chile has been missing a mention in these pages, it’s because their wines tend to be so darn bland.   Reliable, yes – you’ll rarely find a £5 bottle of Chilean which is undrinkable(with the exception of some carmeneres) – but rarely exciting enough to write home about.   The Argentinians on the other side of the Andes have been making most of the wild experiments with varying degrees of success, but the result that much more excitement has been coming out of Mendoza than Casablanca, Colchagua and the Central Valley.

Montes, named 1995 Chilean Winemaker of the Year, has shown faith by expanding the Chilean terroir, planting grapes in a coastal valley where no wine-makers have attempted to cultivate before.   Namely in the hinterlands of Zapallar, a little Pacific beach resort where summer sea breezes and morning fog inform the wine, as does slow ripening during a cool autumn.

The Outer Limits experiment has worked; these are terrific wines, even given their hefty price points(around £17 for the beautiful, grassy but full Sauvignon Blanc, £27 for the  pinot noir, heady with violets, and the somewhat more austere CGM – carignan spiked with grenache and mourvedre).

The Icon range is an even riskier venture in a recession; for £30-plus per bottle, the drinker has a right to expect something out of the ordinary.   Folly. which commands £40,  is certainly an outstanding Syrah, with all the complexity the grape can offer; it would be hard to find a better partner for red meat.    However, I  take issue with Montes on Purple Angel.   Chile has embraced carmenere as its own, but there’s a reason it disappeared from European vineyards 150 years ago, and it may well be that austere aftertaste of burnt coffee.

However, Montes is to be applauded in every other respect – not least for making very drinkable wines at the £12.99 level; in this Alpha range, the Chardonnay is to be particularly recommended, with unusual apple and pineapple notes which lend it extra liveliness.   And he makes an entry-level range at £7.99 I will be prepared to take on trust if I come across it.

Montes says the secret of his wines is that he lays out the barrels on feng shui principles and plays Gregorian chants to them 24/7 while they mature.   It sounds daft, and is bound to have taken an extra investment in the winery.  But it’s all part of what makes Montes wines much more worth drinking than the average bottle of Chilean plonk – you can taste the investment.

Incidentally, Montes is now growing in Argentina, too, and bottling under the Kaiken label.  Naturally, there’s a Malbec, but I think I prefer his Chilean Malbec overall for its subtety, ditto Montes’s Chilean chardonnay to the Kaiken, which does not display the old-fashioned white Burgundy sumptuousness Argentina’s Catena Zapata winery has brought to this much-mistreated grape.

From Rioja to Leeds with love – an extraordinary red, a delicious rose and a Montrachet taste-alike

Leeds may seem an odd place to discover a range of beautiful and unusual Spanish wines, but there is a link between the city of muck and brass and Luis Alegre of Rioja.   That’s the local importer who has introduced this maverick winemaker to The Foundry, an award-winning wine bar in the canal-side  complex which has extended and revitalised the city’s dining and entertainment scene.

I was impressed enough that The Foundry offered  Cotes de Provence rose by the glass – always, for me, the perfect aperitif, even far from the Med on a bitterly cold day – but Phil Richardson, Foundry co-owner who clearly knows his bottles, suggested I try Alegre’s rosado instead.  It was crisp, dry and delicious, in spite of being a pale strawberry colour which doesn’t, for me, hold a light to the golden pink of Cotes de Provence.  It did, however, remind me that we’ve never been disappointed yet by a rose sipped in Spain.

The wine, made by one of the young Turks who is changing the face of Rioja as we know it,  went down a treat with chef Shaun Davies’s white onion and Stilton soup, and had enough body to stand up to my thick, beautifully-seared veal chop, the shade of whose rare middle it exactly matched.  But Richardson had other ideas, pouring me a glass of Alegre’s Koden 2010 – and that’s where the wow factor really kicked in.

The strange name is apparently an Aztec term to describe a woman in her prime, and that was certainly true of this blend of this far from classic tempranillo aged in new French oak for six months.  What you get is a marriage of sumptuousness and elegant restraint in a rich ruby package which seems astonishing value at £6.25 a glass.

The Koden was a fabulous match for the earthiness of the ceps and other wild mushrooms garnishing the chop and the rich marsala cream sauce, and I would happily have left with only two great new wines to tell you about.  But Phil insisted I take home a bottle of the Alegre white Rioja 2011 to see if I agreed it resembled an old-fashioned French Burgundy.

I had my doubts that a concoction of 90 per cent Viura and 10 per cent Malvasia grapes could in any way approximate 100 per cent Chardonnay; indeed, the first tentative sip brought sour apples to mind.   But how the wine changed with food; it does indeed become reminiscent of a Montrachet, which may be a lot to do with the nine months it spends in oak from the Troncais forest.    This unusual wine won’t be for everyone, but it’s worth a fiver a glass to investigate when you’re in Leeds and want to try wine and food Michelin has recommended for six years running.

As for Alegre, you can’t miss the winery if you happen to be in the Rioja Alavesa, where it’s one of two very distinct and futuristic buildings on the horizon.   The one by Frank Gehry which looks like a mini-Guggenheim Bilbao belongs to Marques de Riscal, the makers of much more traditional Rioja.    The circular one on the hill resembling a flying saucer is Alegre’s

Limoux, Godello and other rich white wine surprises

The great joy of the best wine lists is the surprise element – a delicious bottle you’ve never heard of before, and should have.   Blame the marketing efforts of the world’s big wine producers in pushing regions and grape varieties which are household names; these grab most of the shelf space and commandeer all but the most informed wine lists.

Happily, Giuseppe Iacona has created an inspired list for Pierre Koffman, which is how we came to taste an outstanding white at Koffman’s the other week unlike anything we had come across before.   Limoux Cuvee Oppidum, Chateau de Gaure is a Chardonnay blend in which characteristic butteriness is tempered by notes of stone fruit and honey, Chenin and Mauzac adding a surprise in every slurp.   Rich and long, but with enough mineral and acidity to keep it fresh and never cloying.

The Limoux makes a perfect partner for Koffman’s rich, spicy concoctions from south-west France.  It was recommended to accompany a Gascon-style black pudding croque monsieur topped with an egg, and worked better than you might expect with Korrman’s signature main – a pig’s trotter stuffed with sweetbreads and morels.
Koffman recommended a visit to one of  his proteges, the two-Michelin-starred Tom Kitchin, when in Edinburgh, which produced another surprising white wine recommendation to complement one of the richest, meatiest dishes imaginable.   Little Beauty, a superb pinot gris from the Marlborough region of New Zealand, was a charcterful aperitif and a fine partner for a delicate starter of creamy razor clams at The Kitchin, but it also worked beautifully with the chef’s triumph, a roasted marrowbone with ox tongue which was simply to die for.

It’s harder to identify nice surprises on the supermarket shelves than when you have an inspired sommelier to guide you, but mine came when I took Morrison’s 30-second Taste Test, which aims to define your palate with a few questions about how you like to take your coffee and tea.   The “Fresh” profile brought a recommendation for another astonishing white wine we had never heard of, let alone tasted, the Mara Martin Godello from Galicia in north-western Spain.   Talk about a taste explosion – fruit and flowers, lime and hay, vibrancy but also a satisfyingly long finish.    This is an inland wine, richer and more complex than the Albarinos from the Rias Baixas, which can only add to Galicia’s growing reputation for exciting white wines.  Worth splashing out a tenner on.

There are apple notes in the Godello which it was surprising to also find in fairly heavy measure in another white stocked by Morrisons and other chains, the Montes Alpha Chardonnay from Chile.  This beauty from the Casablanca region is more complex and  distinguished than most Chilean whites, though at just over £12 it has to compete on price with Montagny and other great-value chardonnays of the Cotes Chalonnaises.   Another surprise – that Chilean wine can command more than £10 a bottle and occasionally be worth it.

One reason to take Eurostar to Paris – brilliant Brasserie Terminus Nord on the doorstep

Take the Metro to the Brasserie Terminus Nord if you’re not going straight from the Eurostar

Who would have thought one of the best meals in Paris could be had within steps of the Eurostar terminal at the city’s busiest main line station? Plenty of insiders, judging by the line for tables at Brasserie Termiinus Nord.

The restaurant is part of the Flo chain, which has long specialised in acquiring the city’s great fin de siecle brasseries and preserving with respect everything from their etched glass to their art nouveau panelling to their classic menus.   Many are a bit off the beeaten track, but those with an hour or so to spare before an onward journey to other parts of France can enjoy one of the finest feasts available in the capital on the hop.

This is a restaurant well used to serving travellers fast with no loss of quality. Bags are stowed in a discreet but capacious area right in the heart of the restaurant as you are escorted briskly to your table (a reservation is de rigeur unless you want to squander part of your precious dining time in the queue).

Seafood lovers immediately call for fines de claire or other delights from the oyster menu; I added a few plump crevettes just for the joy of getting a gloop of divine mayonnaise as well as the mignonette, pumpernickel bread and fine Normandy butter which come automatically with every plateau de fruits de mer.

Like most brasseries in the Flo stable, Terminus Nord does a superb choucroute, our normal choice for a main here following an oyster fix.  But as we were on our way to Alsace, with its unlimited supplies of pickled cabbage and smoked pork, within the hour, we opted for other regional specialities. This brasserie might as well be in Marseille, so deliciously authentic is its bouillabaisse, from the rascasse to the garlicky rouille. Liver braised in sherry was another excellent choice, it could as easily have been kidneys in mustard sauce or steak tartare. An excellent Cotes de Provence rose from a well-chosen and fairly priced wine list suited our choices perfectly; those opting for a seafood feast should check out the choice of Sancerre and Muscadet

Our only regret about this excellent restaurant is never yet having had time to sample dessert – a tragedy when real rum baba and crepes Suzette are invariably on offer. But perhaps it’s good to be  left wanting to more; we  now make a point of travelling though Paris at lunchtime for any journey across France involving a change of trains.  Those feeling flush might even consider splashing out £69 for a midweek day fare just to indulge in such a special lunch.  But you don’t have to be a rail traveller to eat here; those lucky enough to be stopping over can enjoy the privilege of a leisurely dinner – or come for a no doubt excellent breakfast from 8 am.

The Terminus Nord is at 23  rue de dunquerque, right opposite the main entrance of the Gare du Nord, tel: +33 (0) 142 85 05 15. For those £69 fares check out http://www.eurostar.com