Autumn and Winter Wines

Hi Everybody,

As the days grow shorter and the air grows cooler, we find ourselves leaving behind the pale roses and fresh whites which saw us through the 35 degree days of summer and reaching for the reds in the wine rack. While many are sad to see the warm days go for another year, we can take heart as we enter autumn and eventually winter because these are the seasons when wine truly shines.

We can of course look forward to the old favourites, aged Bordeaux and mature Burgundy to see us through the festive season. The avante garde Northern Rhone wines of Les Vins de Vienne are elegant, rich and composed, and above all food friendly – and that is what one really needs from their winter wines as we sit down to dinner parties and rich meals. These wines lift the spirt during the colder months and go wonderfully alongside seasonal dishes; roasts of lamb and game, the winter stews and roast vegetables that stick to your bones and warm from the inside out.

Beyond the French classics, there are plenty of other regions producing perfect late autumn and winter friendly wines. Increasingly stylish is the Catalan wine region, Priorat. The reds of this tiny hill-top region are spicy yet elegant and among the few reds to show terroir as beautifully as the whites of Pouilly Fume and Chablis. The unique, rich flavours of the best Priorats, such as the wines of Terroir al Limit, ineffably convey the warmth of the Catalan sun; a welcome thing in the colder months.

But it is not all about the rich spicy reds. Moving on from the Sancerre and Marlborough Sauvignon’s of the warmer months, hedonistic white Burgundies can serve as an excellent way to start a meal or to go alongside the classic Christmas or Thanksgiving (if you’re of the American persuasion like myself!) turkey roasts. One wine which deserves to come out this time of year is dry white Bordeaux. It ages beautifully and the best wines from Graves and Pessac-Leognan stand up remarkably well to seasonal foods.

Jean-Marc Boillot is one of the best producers for both value and seasonal style. His whites from the Cote de Beaune, from his basic Bourgogne Blanc up through the ranks of Montagny 1er Cru, and the Puligny-Montrachets are rich and well-layered. Despite their relatively low prices, they are remarkably serious wines and among my personal favourites.

Another favourite around this time of year is a nice rich, spicy Oloroso sherry. Kept in the fridge for when it’s needed, a nice glass of this dry amber delight at the end of a meal or even in front of the fire can warm the soul like few others. Sherry is one of those wines which deserves far greater attention than it currently receives. Despite a devoted and loyal following in London and the founding of many a sherry bar in the more fashionable areas of town, there is an enduring perception that it is that dark sticky matter best served either over ice-cream or not at all.

The colder months are also a time when seasonal desserts are at their prime. Pies and puddings, warm spiced apple tarts and the like, more and more start to grace the table. This is a fine opportunity to indulge in sweet wines; a pleasure often denied to oneself as too opulent, too hedonistic. We wrote recently extolling the virtues of these wines so I will not delve too deep into the matter, but the simple truth is that some of the world’ finest wines are of the sweet, golden variety and at this time of year they are immensely satisfying. Both Sauternes and Tokaji are a true celebration of the festive spirit, with their pure golden hues, their richness and their elegance. Even if sweet wines are not your usual cup of tea, I implore you, give them a chance and you will not regret it.

After all those rich wines, with your palate overloaded by glorious opulence, it may strike you that something a bit more cleansing would be welcome. This is where the New Year’s favourite comes in particularly handy. Don’t fret about the traditions; that perhaps it is known as an aperitif or only for celebrations. Sometimes a nice chilled Champagne (I am a big fan of Voirin-Jumel) at the end of it all is the perfect way to finish off an evening.  So enjoy the opportunity for variety and remember that the season is long, and there is much of celebrating to be done…

Much Love,

G

London Wine Scene (No.1)

Be sure to try the sherry straight from the barrel at Gordon's I'm partial to the Oloroso this time of year...

Hi All,

Since the days of Samuel Pepys enjoying bottles of Haut-Brion at the Royal Oak Tavern, and before, wine has been a part of London’s venerable drinking culture. However modern London became a beer city through and through and for a long time wine was relegated to the world of luxury and genteel social circles.

London is an increasingly interesting place for both food and wine; the latter being a more recent development which was for a time hampered by the city’s love affair with craft beer. Now far from hurting the wine scene, craft beer has proven to be a valuable role model for the capital’s oenocentric establishments. Just as the last decade saw a

sustained trend toward craft beer bars there is a revamped interest in wine making inroads into London’s well-established drinking culture.

Bars dedicated to grape over grain are increasingly common and popular among the city’s drinkers and as a result the variety and quality on offer are on the rise. For too long the legendary Gordon’s Wine Bar on Villiers Street stood alone, and while no new venture is yet to take this iconic cellar’s place at the top, there are some very exciting, niche wine bars taking the stage.

Sager+Wilde's industrial-rustic bar.

The city’s ‘E’ postcodes have long been a heartland for the latest and greatest in London’s various trends. It is here that the wine scene in our fair city is moving forward the quickest. Sager+Wilde is an excellent place to enjoy a well-curated wine list which combines value with exceptional quality. The wine list is among the city’s best and unlike many places claiming as much, it’s not a leather bound book the length of a Tolstoy novel.

Spread across 12 concise pages, this list has plenty to cater to the classicist's needs as well as plenty for the eclecticist’s imaginations. The bubbly list is wall-to-wall with top growers including Jacques Selosse and Cedric Bouchard and includes a funky vintage 1992 number from Copeland Vineyards (Russian River Valley). The rest of the list is packed with gems, from little known Loire reds and Jura whites to blue-blooded burgundies such as Ramonet, Leroy and Hudelot-Noellat. The Rhone selection is immense and includes Cornas from Clape, top Cote-Rotie from Jamet as well as Pignan for very good prices. The ambience is perfect as well, with it's contradictory industrial-rustic style, making for a perfect venue to enjoy a rural product like wine in the heart of East London.

Moving back into the centre of the city, Terroirs on William IV Street, is a traditional wine bar that opened in 2008 and got everything perfect. The food is the right size and on-message with the majority of the wine list, focusing on Old World specialties from Italy, Spain and France. Though the list is a bit more expensive than Sager+Wilde, the prices are still reasonable and considering the central West End location, they’re pretty good indeed.

Terroirs is definitely worth visiting if you want to try out some more adventurous bottles as well, with one of the largest selections of ‘orange’ wines (essentially white wines made with skin contact like reds) in London. In addition, the wine list is actually a pleasure to read, with good introductions to each section, it’s refreshingly un-stuffy and engaging.

I will keep exploring the wine bars of the capital and be sure to report back regularly on my findings. Until then,

Much Love,

G

Andrew Edmunds

Hi All, 

I recently had a spectacular experience at Soho's Andrew Edmunds Restaurant. 

The Short and Skinny of it...

Andrew Edmunds, 46 Lexington Street, Soho

Wine List – Extensive, all tastes catered; excellent prices; aged wines available. 

BYO - No, but why bother?

Menu – Classics with a Spanish inclination.

Don’t miss – Confit Pigs Cheeks to start, Chateaubriand to share. Arrive early and peruse the Andrew Edmund print shop next door for a wealth of original Hogarth engravings.

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The combination of the right wine with the right food gives both the chance to shine and finding the right place to experience this interaction is essential. Fortunately, London’s wine scene has been on the up for years now and the capitol’s restaurants have proven to be dynamic and exciting places to experience some truly interesting wines and to do so in context. 

One of the true classics of the city’s wine scene is tucked away on Soho’s Lexington Street in one of the area’s best preserved original town houses. Andrew Edmunds Restaurant is a “bastion of old Soho,” and since 1986 has been the haunt of a devoted and loyal following. A combination of a fantastic menu, warm ambience and one of London’s best wine lists, have earned this establishment it’s place of pride in Soho’s proud restaurant tradition. 

The wine list is among the best in Soho and not just because it is extensive. Though slanted towards an Old World palate as befits its 18^th century digs, there is more than a tip of the hat to the Southern Hemisphere and the United States as well as an abundance of back vintages and the odd bottles of more esoteric stuff. There is no shortage of American cult wines, as Sine Qua Non, Araujo and Abreu adorn the list alongside many others.

Perusing the list, a wine-geek such as myself cannot help but tremble with excitement from the prices for proper wine. No write-off house reds here; no one is phoning it in by building a wine list based on whatever is easily available. The bottom end of the spectrum starts around £20 per bottle and includes a very tempting selection of Loire reds, and big name Chateauneuf and Crozes Hermitage for not much above retail prices at £30-a-bottle. 

We started off with a bottle of Gallimard Brut Reserve non-vintage Champagne, which was a fantastic value at a mere £29.50 (what happened to restaurant mark-up?!), and was a perfect pairing for the braised pigs cheeks and mussels we started with. 

For the main event we sprang for a Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos des Argillieres 2010 from Vincent Dureuil-Janthial that was absolutely delicious and again entirely reasonable at £48. The wine was bright and forward with pure raspberry and strawberry fruit and a hint of sweet-citrus like a very ripe satsuma.

It was a tough choice though, with both the 1996 Ormes de Pez and the 1997 Lail Vineyards Cabernet jumping off the page. In the end, the lightly spiced pork chop and seared hake, demanded something more delicate and we acquiesced. A glass of Antinori Vin Santo was a perfect way to top it all off.

I don’t often drink such good wine at restaurants unless I’m able to bring it myself, but even if they did allow customers to bring their own, standard corkage on top of retail prices would probably be more expensive than ordering off the list anyways. For a bottle of top quality, aged wine at a stylish Soho location as this, Andrew Edmunds is a proper exercise in well-priced luxury. It is a fantastic place to enjoy quality wine and excellent food together and London deserves more jewels like this.

Much Love,

G