On Tuesday, I was speed tasting some of the reds at our W1 tasting to check for TCA or other problems before we opened the doors. I wasn’t taking my time to think about balance, fruit or quality. I wasn’t writing notes and mentally composing potential food matches. It was open, pour, sniff, slurp, spit and …
Spring is in the air. Lunchtime walks up Primrose Hill no longer require hat, gloves and scarf. Henry Harris of Racine has been tweeting about jersey royals, mint and butter. There is blossom on the cherry tree outside my house. Cheek-glowing reds from the Rhone are giving way to fresh-as-a-daisy whites from northern Italy.
It’s the week before Christmas and B Times is celebrating by asking four social media-savvy foodies and winos to tell us their gastronomic and vinous highlights of 2010. We’ve asked a chef, a sommelier, a food blogger, a wine blogger and our very own epicure-in-chief Willie Lebus to write posts for us, and we will publish one every day this week. To kick things off here is one of our favourite wine bloggers, Juel Mahoney …
by Gareth Groves
Bollito Misto is one of the great Italian dishes. An (almost) one pot dish, its name can be translated as “Mixed Boiled Dinner”. Luckily, it tastes better than it sounds. It is essentially a big pot of different meats – we used ox tongue, brisket, chicken and cotechino sausage – slowly poached with some vegetables until …
A blend of local Lagrein and international Merlot, it is a beautifully balanced wine with floral dark fruit, sweet spices and wonderful freshness. The tannins are ripe and rounded and the finish, long and bright. It is a school-night-friendly 12.8% abv too.
by Gareth Groves
It was melanzane parmigiana that started it. A simple tweet telling the world what I was having for dinner (the world was clearly on tenterhooks waiting to find out) led to a conversation with Chiara Martinotti from Cascina Gilli in Piedmont. Chiara was also about to eat the world’s finest aubergine, tomato and mozzarella based dish and recommended a vivace red …
By Ben Turner
As one who likes to go and try out new food and wine haunts in London Town I was always slightly disappointed that a certain area of area of North London was void of a certain quality of gastropub. As it happens this place is Holloway and it’s where I currently reside. An especially and notably dry area of my beloved N7 is Tufnell …
by Andrew Barrow, http://www.spittoon.biz/
Readers of Spittoon will know I have a ’special relationship’ with Prosecco – that trendy, low-ish alcohol, Italian sparkling wine that I, and many of my friends, seem to be addicted to. There was a recent pop-up meal that matched Riccardo Proseccos to various courses (see Wine Passionista for a great atmosphere encompassing video) …
By Juel Mahoney http://www.winewomansong.co.uk/
I love reading wine tasting notes in Italian. I always want to sing it back. For example, what is a vino da meditazione? It’s an intriguing term often seen in Italian wine notes.
It looks like the word “meditation”, but it’s not quite.
Coined by famous Italian gastronome, Luigi Veronelli, meditazione is often used to describe sweet passito wines or …
You may have noticed there is a rather well-hyped football tournament taking place in South Africa this month. To celebrate this momentous occasion we have spent the last few months trying to decide which country would win a wine world cup. To do this we invited the crème de la crème of the London food and wine bloggerati to come and …
