I hadn’t had a decent lunch in ages. I mean a proper lunch, one with three courses and red wine and at least the possibility of some cheese. In fact, it had been months: Christmas, January credit card bills and the cold had been getting in the way of serious eating.

That all changed with one absent minded click that took me from a random tweet to the menu at Bistrot Bruno Loubet. Fifteen minutes later the table was booked. Who can resist a menu that contains words such as Lyonniase salad, hare royale, daube and crepes suzette?

Loubet first hit my radar last autumn when he was cooking with Pierre Koffman at the latter’s eponymous pop up at Selfridges. Koffmann’s other guests included the likes of Toms Aiken and Kitchin and ex-The Capital chef Eric Chavot. However, Loubet’s name didn’t ring a bell. It turns out his fame predates my fine dining career and that he had spent the last eight years cooking on Australia’s Gold Coast. A few chats with my elders and betters revealed his pedigree, as tales of dinners at the Four Seasons and L’Odeon were recounted by glassy eyed gourmets with long memories. The boy, they said, can cook.

Loubet’s new home is the boutique Zetter hotel in Clerkenwell and the heart of one of London’s foody quarters. Smithfield Market is a bone’s throw away as are the Eastside Inn, St John, Vinoteca, the Modern Pantry and countless others. If he forgets to do the orders there will be plenty of neighbours from whom to borrow a cup of sugar.

The room is bright, airy and light. The food is not. The food is gutsy, bold and rich. Classic bistro dishes with the flavours writ large upon the plates. Our starters comprised a fabulously fishy potted shrimp and mackerel and Loubet’s revised Lyonnaise Salad. The revision came in the form of two oblong croquettes of gelatinous trotter which added an extra porcine bite to the bacon, egg and leaves. The salad’s Beaujolais dressing was the only quibble, a tiny dice of shallot presumably soaked in Gamay that was fine without adding much to the overall effect.

Round two brought the hare royale and the rose veal dish of the day. The hare was dark, gamey and rich, the meat flaking under the weight of a fork. Underneath was a pumpkin puree seasoned with dried mandarin, the subtle orange flavours giving lift and zest to a dish that was well suited to a sub zero London Sunday. The veal was just the sort of food I like to eat: robust, slow cooked meat with the depth of flavour that only comes from a long spell in a low oven. The veal breast has been rolled and stuffed with a herby veal (?) forcemeat and sat on top of a rustic puree of the braising vegetables. Why chuck them out when they have soaked up so much meaty flavour? Waste not, want not. Some baby carrots and Jerusalem artichokes added bite and prettiness on the side.

The veal went well with a small carafe of gutsy, unrefined St Chinian – a bruising Southern French bistro red to go with proper bistro cooking. That was all we drank. Mrs G was having a dry lunch and I was on my best behaviour. A quick glance through the list though revealed a wide ranging, eclectic mix from some of London’s better suppliers, Bibendum included. It was particularly good to see my old favourite Champagne Bruno Paillard listed by the glass – and more than one table enjoying it immensely.

Desserts were fun, the star being a rice pudding pannacotta with marmalade coming served with two fluffy, eggy madeleines. Apple and quince mille feuilles showed a dab hand with the pastry and came with London’s poshest and booziest squirty cream, albeit described on the menu as ‘chilled orange blossom sabayon’.

Throw in a (fresh) mint tea, a (very drinkable) macchiato and service and the bill came to something around the £85 mark. A very acceptable number for a fantastic winter lunch.

Welcome back, Bruno.

http://www.thezetter.com/en/Restaurant

Fresh juice at Knappstein

I made wine the other day. Shiraz grapes from the Stobie vineyard came into my crusher, at which point I twiddled my knob and sped up or slowed down the speed of the crusher-destemmer and then adjusted the speed of the pump accordingly. The deep purple juice then sailed off happily down a big fat hose into a tank. It was wine and I was a winemaker….easy. Sure there are still a few processes for that juice to undergo, but now that the hard work is done, I’ve left all that in the capable hands of chief winemaker, Julian Langworthy, and his very capable team at Knappstein in the Clare Valley.

Now I’m back in the big smoke, thinking I’d get up a bit early to write this. Meanwhile Jules has already been up since 5am welcoming the first Riesling of the day. That’s if the day is cool enough that they can get the grapes in and crushed with the absolute minimum of oxidation. The clean, pure, pristine Knappstein style demands this sort of handling and also makes the picking schedule a pretty intense juggling act. While I was there, the forecast was hot, so Riesling hand picking was postponed for a day while the early-ripening Shiraz blocks took centre stage.

Big Dan at work

Our day started slightly later than usual, at 6am, when we hit the winery to gulp down some coffee and indulge in some gentle singing (or was this my imagination?). Our first batch of Shiraz was late in so we tasted the ferments and the juice in tank to get an idea of how vintage 2010 was travelling. First up a batch of Auburn Riesling from the southern end of the valley which reminded me of cloudy, natural apple juice; not unpleasant at that time of the morning, but not of the style or quality to make it into the Knappstein Hand-picked Riesling. Next up a tank of juice from the Ackland vineyard in Watervale. This was much more like the house style, pure and driven with lemon and lime to the fore and complex aromatics sitting astride the lengthy finish. 12 Baume, great juice and one very happy winemaker.

Along one and the tank held juice from Jules and wife, Alana’s, own block – the Lacy vineyard. Immediately more pungent on the nose, it was absolutely dripping character and floral complexity. Not bad for something that comes from your front garden. Then a real style change as we got stuck into the 8.8.18 – a really interesting wine that Knappstein made for the first time last year. More Germanic in style, the first attempt had 8g total acid, 8% alcohol and 18g residual sugar, hence the name. By definition this year the label will have to hold a different name and Jules imagines it will be in the 9-9.5% alcohol region. A real mineral tang and a steeliness to the acidity. Juicy and lifted with a character that I could only describe as black tea spice. Jules looked at me dubiously and we moved on…

One happy winemaker

We next sampled from the 1700 litres of Pinot Gris that Knappstein crush…a tiny amount really. Intense and interesting with vibrant pink juice; the colour will drop out later in the process. It sounds a bit silly but I always get a really grapey character on good young PGs and this was no different. The Gewurztraminer in the next tank makes up the bulk of the blend (70%+) for the Knappstein Three (Riesling being the other variety). The only thing holding back the growth of this delicious wine is the lack of good Gewurz in the valley. Well every drop of the 8500 litres here was precious and a quick taste showed why. Beautifully floral with that trademark precision of acid and balance. Tangy with apple hints and the fruit sweetness that characterises great Gewurztraminer in my mind. We finished up our little tank tour with some old vine Shiraz that had already been in tank for a couple of days. It was soft and plush with loads of blackberry and boiled sweet flavours. Interestingly there was also a hint of that vanillin oak character (even though it had been nowhere near a barrel yet) which Jules explained he often sees off old vine Clare Shiraz.

Watch this space for part 2 of Dan’s harvest diary where he finally pulls his sleeves up and gets into some real harvest action.

150 de-labelled green bottles

The weather has been so bad recently, ie raining a lot, that we haven`t been able to finish pruning the vines, it’s so muddy underfoot. It really must stop raining soon, as it’s getting rather late in the year. The local folklore here says that you should have your pruning finished by San José, ie 19th March. Well, we have a week! I think the idea is to have the pruning done while the vines are still dormant and before the sap starts flowing, otherwise you’d be removing the nutrients that the vine needs to sprout before the leaves can photo-synthesize energy for themselves.

So, if the vineyard is out, .. to the winery, to recycle wine-bottles for the end of the month:

Ismael scrapes labels off

We left these bottles soaking last week, so most of the labels came off quite easily. Some, though are just impossible to take off no matter how long you leave them soaking. it makes you wonder what kind of glue these wineries are using.

More bottles soaking

We managed to de-label about 150 bottles, and next week (or whenever!) we’ll set up the washing-sterilizing assembly line, before bottling and corking.

Used corks awaiting recycling

And talking about corks, here we have 000’s of corks that we’ve been accumulating over the years. The idea is to make “curtains” for the windows and doors of the winery, but of course we never have any time! There’s always something more urgent/essential to do!

Barto's vineyards

We’re excited to publish a series of extracts from Olivier’s wine rambling in South Africa. This time he visits Franschhoek & Hermanus. Olivier is  the Head Sommelier at the Bluebird in Chelsea.

Next destination: Franschhoek (the French Quarter in Afrikaan). This is where French protestant immigrants arrived after leaving their country during the religious war.

Our first stop was Cape Chamonix. The estate’s wines offer immense value, complexity and poise. Again,we were welcomed in very kindly by Goettfried the winemaker, despite showing up in mid-harvest. We sampled many wines but didn’t get a chance to sample the fantastic Chardonnay, as the production is tiny and only sold on allocation. To compensate we enjoyed the Cape Method Sparkling wine in generous quantities.

The same evening we decided to try the most exclusive restaurant in the country, Le Quartier Francais, and were in such generous mood that the tasting menu was chosen. Even though the food was great and complex, it went a bit too far to our taste, as flavours were clashing with each other and we remained disappointed by the whole experience. The wine side was brilliant and we enjoyed the Estate Pinot Noir 2006 from Bouchard Finlayson.

The following morning, and just before leaving Franschhoek we decided to visit Boekenhoutskloof, one of the largest wineries of the country.  We tried some great value bottles at very soft prices from the Porcupine Ridge range followed by the one of my customers’ favourites Chocolate Block. This is a stunning Syrah, Grenache Noir, Cabernet & Viogner blend. As the name might suggest the palate shows strong chocolate flavours as if a piece or two of it found their way into the vats.  We finished that tasting with the very prestigious Boekenhoutskloof Collection Semillon 2005 and Syrah 2005, both absolutely mind blowing. Sophie and I then had a stroll in the vineyards surrounding the winery, in the hope of seeing the famous porcupines but neither saw nor caught any to bring back home. Just another wine myth?

On the road again, this time heading towards Hermanus, a town with 49,000 inhabitants on the southern coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is famous as a place to watch whales during the southern winter and spring and is a popular retirement town. On the way down we drove through some of the most dramatic and most beautiful sceneries we have seen during our trip, down-casted a bit by wildfires which seem common place in those arid areas.

We entered Hermanus looking forward to meet up one of my favourite winemakers, Bartho Eksteen, formerly of the Eponymous winery. Bartho has recently started his new Hermanuspietersfontein venture with his business partner Johan Pretorius, making premium wines from a single estate where he has full control on quality. He came to introduce his wines in London a few months earlier and as we had a good first contact I told him of my intention to come to South Africa, and possibly to come to Hermanus, which at the time still felt like distant dream. I still remember his genuine and warm invite to come and see him, hence my visit. I was excited to see a familiar face and was very moved when he offered us to stay at his home.

Barto & I

Entering the winery, we were slightly overwhelmed by the busy, hectic and speedy movements…I thought the moment was surely not the best to announce ourselves. Asking for Bartho, I was a bit concerned that his good intentions would be long forgotten. Luckily I was wrong.  Bartho did expect us and we straight away started a tour round the state of the art shiny new winery. That being done Bartho offered to go to eat at his local steak house, sampling the most delicious meats while sipping his great Die Arnoldus. My favourite wine from him has always been Hermanuspietersfontein Sauvignon Blanc No7, as it excels in all the vintages I have tried, as well as the Die Bartho (Semillon-Sauvignon) and Die Arnoldus (Cabernet blend), without forgetting Kleinboet (Bordeaux blend) and Die Martha (Shiraz, Cabernet and Merlot).

Going back to their place we chatted until very late and drank a bit more. We then somehow agreed to wake up before dawn and go watch the sunrise on Hermanus beach. In return we were promised to witness one of the most exclusive views of SA.

Few hours of sleep and we were in Bartho’s car again on our way to the Hermanus beach. It is hard to express how beautiful it all looked. Back in bed for a few more hours sleep we felt very tired but extremely rewarded. A few hours later and it’s goodbye time to Bartho and everyone at HPF, promising to come back soon.

If you missed out you can check Olivier’s visits to Stellenbosch and Cape town.

The 130 year old basket presses are getting a real work out

The cellar crew are busier than a one armed window washer after a sand storm. We have received almost half of the grapes we will process this year, with more expected over the weekend, starting with Adelaide Hills Pinot tonight. The cellar are averaging 15 foot treads a day, however this will be significantly expanded to 160 a day when all of the pinot arrives as it requires special attention. If you see a tanned Australian, South African or Kiwi walking around with purple hands and thighs the size of tree trunks, chances are he did a vintage at d’Arenberg in 2010.

d’Arenberg by night, vintage requires 24 hour shifts

While there is still a lot of picking to be done, differing quantities of all varieties have been crushed. Cabernet Sauvignon is traditionally the last of the varieties to be picked and we received 15 tonne this week, with more expected next week.

Riesling being basket pressed

The first Riesling ferments are completed and Chester is excited by what he has tasted. We did not make a Dry Dam in 2009, so it’s great to see the 2010 in such good shape to follow up on an award winning 2008 vintage.

Growing conditions

We had a great winter with an above average rainfall in our area. The rain came almost every second week and continued until the middle of November 2009.

From the middle of November until we started to harvest, we had little or no rain. These conditions are great for healthy ripening of our grapes.

Our harvest started out a bit latter than the previous year and that is mainly due to the cooler growing conditions in the early and middle section of the growing season.  Our Red grapes also ripen slower than in normally.

The Harvest

This vintage will be remembered for a ‘unique’ reason. White grapes ripened at the normal time while Red grapes where marking time. Utopia for planning Cellar activity! This gave us the opportunity to harvest more than 90 % of all our White grapes and having to only crushing about 15 % of our Red grapes.

This will give us the luxury of spending most of our time in the second part of harvesting exclusively to the Red grapes which inevitably makes quality planning and selection so much easier.

Unfortunately the crop will be slightly down on the previous year. At this stage the expectation is between 6 and 8 % lower than 2009. For our dry land vineyards rain is a blessing, however this year the lower crop is due to the wind and rainy conditions we experienced during the flowering period of some of the cultivars.

Chenin Blanc, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon will be more or less the same as 2009. Chardonnay, Pinotage and Semillon are estimated to be down by between 15 and 20%. The rest of our region expects to be down by between 15 and 20 %.

A cooler growing season is always good for wine quality. Cooler conditions will give slower ripening and in Red grapes it will give riper tannins and flavors at a lower sugar level and also a lower wine alcohol. Red wine color is also excellent in a cooler growing season.

On the White wine side the Sauvignon Blanc shows a lot of greener, grassy flavors moving towards slightly riper fig flavors. With the skill and assistance of our Winemaking team, no doubt the 2010 wines will be something to look forward to! We will have more news later, until then, all the best.

I’m so tired of wine being exclusive. I’m so bored of the London scene. Why can’t us Gorillas have some of the action?

I love wine and I think I understand it, so I sent a message out to fellow wine lovers.

“Join me by the river to explore and enjoy good wine.”

We had fun. We had wine. You saw what all happened…

I love reading Decanter.  The articles are extremely well-written, the information is always valuable, timely and interesting.  However, I always skip over the tasting notes.

This isn’t because I’m a wine geek and already know what to expect from all the wines – far from it!  For me, just the fact that the wines were deemed interesting enough for discussion among the pages of the magazine means I would be more willing to search out those wines simply due to the recommendation from this trusted source, not because they were noted as having hints of ‘dried flowers’ or a palate of ‘pineapple with some lentil’.

So what is the best way to describe a wine?  Our palates are like snow flakes – no two are exactly the same. What I suggest is manadrin may be more tangerine or blood orange to someone else. Instead of specific descriptors, should tasting notes be more general? ‘A rich, round full-bodied palate with a long, fresh and flavourful finish’?

What’s the best tasting note you’ve ever read?  Better yet…what’s the best tasting note you’ve ever written?! Was there a wine that was so expressive and exciting that you were compelled to record your experience of it?

There’s always time for wine!

The Post was reproduced with the kind permission of the author. A real Londoner with an American accent the Passionista will broaden you wine horizons. Check her blog for some refreshing wine views.

The grass is just beginning to sprout

Here at Bibendum Times we are constantly looking after new and exciting wine blogs. Having just discovered Vinos Ambiz’s blog we had to share it with you. Fabio and Juan practise organic and sustainable viticulture and are documenting the daily practises of their vineyards in Carabaña & Ambite next to Madrid. This is what is happening there now:

It actually stopped raining for two days in a row, so I went to the vineyard to do a bit of pruning, but it was still very muddy underfoot. I did a few rows and then took some photos with my mobile:

The buds on the almond tree are just beginning to swell

The ladybirds are making more ladybirds (Spring has indeed sprung!)

Then on to the winery, to face the facts! I spent several hours just sweeping up rubble from the roof, and generally tidying up.

Rubble from the roof

Then I put about 150 bottles in water to soak off the labels in about a week’s time, hopefully in the company of new victim-helpers

Wine bottles submerged in water to soak off the labels

Then inside to check the equipment:

Oak barrels are damp and mouldy

While this is what happens in Spain now, in the Southern hemisphere the harvest is in full swing. for the full and live picture check our harvest diaries.

A wine loving Gorilla

Wine is one of my favourite things. A glass with a friend or over dinner is one of the most pleasant ways to spend an evening. A bold and spicy glass of red for winter, or a gorgeous sparkler for summer, for every season and occasion there’s a glass of wine.

I’ve been exploring and learned a lot this last few years. It’s been one of the many pleasures I’ve indulged in since starting blogging. I have always had a healthy interest, but have been further investigating regions, vintages, grape varieties and it has been an enormous education.

It seems a great shame that for most people, exposure is limited. People fear it’s scientific and that they will get it wrong. Perceived to be an elitist sport, they stick to the supermarket offerings, anxious that they will be exposed in a local wine shop as someone who doesn’t understand.

The Line up

I felt like this too once, until I realised that it is personal and subjective and the only way to learn and appreciate is to try. There’s so much to try, and so much fun to be had in the process, so why not do something different, available and democratic?

We thought that we would get out there, and do a Guerilla Wine Tasting and make it fun. Crowd sourced over twiter and open to everyone, a merry band of some friends and some strangers collected on the South Bank and explored some fine Portugese Wines and a delicious French Sauternes. We had a great time and discovered some great new wines in the process. We also had a wine tasting gorilla. Why not, eh?

Thanks to Casa Leal, Quinta de Lagoalva and Nicole for donating the wines, and to Ailbhe for the photos. The inimitable Wine Sleuth was at her best, you can see how much so in the video below.

The Portugese red wines were particular favourites of all whoe tried. I’ll be writing about these more soon, as I was lucky enough to visit Quinta de Lagoalva late last year.

Watch this space for further Guerilla Wine Tastings!