The Gourmet Food Kitchen seems to be a unique idea in UK City of Culture Coventry, launched by local chef Tony Davies (pic. below) 'who has worked in kitchens across Europe.' Located in Fargo Village just out of the centre (Far Gosford Street, Coventry CV1 5ED), which has the feel of a burgeoning trendy boho kind of spot. Tony offers 'a chef table experience' reserved in advance on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays for 12 guests only, whether one large group together or a few smaller tables and seated outside when the weather's good, serving up a slow onslaught of seven flavoursome elegant and varied mini-courses across the evening, each one introduced by the chef.
"Order my book on the Roussillon wine region (colour paperback) DIRECT FROM ME SAVING £4/€4 (UK & EU only), or Kindle eBook on Amazon UK. Available in the USA from Barnes & Noble in hardcover, paperback or eBook; or Amazon.com. For other countries, tap here." Richard Mark James
06 September 2021
06 August 2021
Bubbly and white wines of the moment
Photo from saint-chinian.pro |
Château Viranel Intuition blanc 2020 Saint-Chinian Languedoc (60% Grenache blanc, 15% Roussanne, 20% Vermentino, 5% Bourboulenc, 13.5% abv): This delicious mix of southern French grape varieties undergoes a modest 15% of the blend fermented in barrels (and all the better for it) with the completed wine stored and stirred on the yeast-lees for three months to maximise flavour and texture.
Labels:
Bourboulenc,
Chardonnay,
Glera,
Grenache blanc,
Macabeo,
Macabeu,
Parellada,
Pinot Meunier,
Pinot Noir,
Roussanne,
Saint Chinian,
Vermentino,
Viognier,
Xarello
30 July 2021
Old Luxters Farm Brewery: craft ales of the moment.
This multi-faceted business is also known as the Chiltern Valley Winery & Brewery and Old Luxters Vineyard and Barn (wedding reception venue), with a luxury farmhouse B&B (four rooms) and cookery school too; in addition, they make a range of fruit liqueurs and sell local cheeses, honey and chocolates among other things! Certainly couldn't accuse them of not being enterprising.
Labels:
craft beer,
England,
English sparkling wine,
real ale
09 July 2021
South of France, Pays d'Oc part three: Rosé.
These five rosés are all IGP Pays d'Oc from the Languedoc.
Marselan 2020 Les Caves Richemer (13.5% abv) - As I said in two previous posts about IGP Pays d'Oc (part 1 and part 2), Marselan is a crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache that's been around for a few decades and has adapted well to the Languedoc. Well-made easy-going tasty rosé combining juicy red fruits and white peach with creamier food-leaning mouth-weight and fresh zingy finish. Not bad match with a kinda 'surf & turf' pasta dish: spicy sausage tortelloni topped with bolognese and sardine sauce with courgettes, garlic, ginger and smoked paprika! France cellar door €4.30, Netherlands €8.95, US €9.99.
Labels:
Cinsault,
French rosé,
Languedoc,
Marselan,
Pays d'Oc,
Petit Verdot,
rosé,
Sauvignon Gris,
Syrah
07 July 2021
Three whites of the moment: M&S 'Found'
Moschofilero & Roditis 2020 (12% abv) - One of the newish M&S 'Found' range sourced from the Peloponnese, the southernmost part of mainland Greece, and produced by Semeli Winery from these two indigenous varieties (80% Moschofilero in fact) grown in two different high-altitude vineyard areas. Very aromatic with citrus and grapey Muscat-like notes, zesty yeast-lees tones too, concentrated zingy palate with lingering aromatic fruit on its crisp elegant finish. Highly recommended dry white: try with smoked salmon or haddock, prawn curry, asparagus or goats' cheese. £8.50
Labels:
Fetească Regala,
Moschofilero,
Ribolla,
Roditis
05 July 2021
Belgian beer of the moment: Duvel Blond
Admittedly it's a big brand, relatively, but this smooth and serious Blond(e) beer is a long-time favourite and still offers more quality and flavour than many other bottled beers, even in the welcome days of trendy craft beers (I think the Belgians may have done 'craft' for some time already). Definitely a sipping or foodie beer in moderate amounts due to its powerful 8.5% abv, I love its irresistible combination of refreshing hoppy bite and full fruity flavour.
Labels:
Belgian beer
01 July 2021
Chile review 2021 masterclass
Valle de Elqui
Two tasting sessions featuring very diverse wines were held live via Zoom at the end of May, hosted by Wines of Chile UK, Tim Atkin MW and several leading Chilean winemakers also online commenting on their wines as we sampled from home. Tim picked sixteen whites, reds and a rosé to showcase the latest developments on the ground in Chile, enhanced by lots of up-to-date information on vineyards, grape varieties and wine regions. Atkin produces a substantial report every year on the Chilean wine scene, which can be purchased from this website here. Wine geek warning: this post is quite long and 'serious' (but does contain some great wines to look out for)...
Labels:
Carignan,
Carmenere,
Chardonnay,
Cinsault,
Garnacha,
Grenache,
Malbec,
Monastrell,
Mourvèdre,
Petit Verdot,
Pinot Noir,
Riesling,
Sauvignon Blanc,
Semillon,
Syrah,
Viognier
03 June 2021
'Apples of the moment': Aspall Cyder and Boulard Calvados
Aspall is an almost 300 year-old cider house (hence ye olde spelling of cyder on the label), as the website tells us: "In 1728, Clement Chevallier planted the first large-scale cyder orchards in Suffolk (England)." Their modestly named Premier Cru Cyder (with serious 6.8% abv) is described as "the first cyder produced by Barry and Henry Chevallier Guild when they joined the business - seven years in creation - and still their favourite drink." I wouldn't argue with that, cider-wise at least.
20 May 2021
Miscellaneous wines of the moment
An enticing half-a-dozen of whites, red and rosés sourced from big supermarkets and one-store independents priced £7 to £10 in the UK.
Vara Rosé 2020 Cramele Recas Estate, Romania (12% abv) - Good-value dry and zingy rosé made from 65% Merlot and 35% Feteasca Neagra, which develops creamy straw-raspberry flavours followed by crisper cranberry type crunchiness. £7 Marks & Spencer (image from their site). Versatile with food.
Labels:
Arinto,
Australia,
California,
Chardonnay,
Fernão Pires,
Feteasca Neagra,
Grillo,
Lisboa,
Merlot,
Pinot Noir,
Portugal,
Romania,
rosé,
Sicily,
Spain,
Tempranillo,
Victoria,
Viosinho
16 May 2021
South of France: Pays d'Oc IGP part two.
The second instalment of a mini-feature on Pays d'Oc IGP wines from the Languedoc (see Part 1 for more about terminology, rationale etc.) focuses on half-a-dozen varietal wines, this time including well-known grape varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon blanc) and relatively new arrivals to the region or discoveries (Albariño, Marselan). Last time, my notes were mainly centred on a few different styles of Syrah, Carignan, Grenache and Viognier.
Labels:
Albariño,
Chardonnay,
IGP,
Languedoc.,
Marselan,
Pays d'Oc,
Pinot Noir,
Sauvignon Blanc,
south of France
24 April 2021
South of France: IGP and Vin de France
Many wine producers in southern France make wines labelled as Indication Géographique Protégée or IGP, which replaced Vin de Pays over ten years ago as part of a Europe-wide rationalisation of wine laws and 'trademarking' of specified wine areas. Hence in Italy, it's Indicazione Geografica Protetta or Indicación Geográfica Protegida in Spain, although confusingly they still also use the term Vino de la Tierra ('country wine') whereas the French have dropped Vin de Pays.
07 April 2021
Varietal wines of the moment (except Sauvignon blanc)
Finest Valle de Leyda Chardonnay 2020, Chile - Luis Felipe Edwards (13.5% abv): As soon as this delicious fruity Chardy was discovered among Tesco's large 'Finest' range, it went out of stock; hopefully just temporarily. Ripe peach and melon fruit with creamy tones then zestier citrus on its weighty but balanced finished. Oak is suggested in the blurb but it was hard to spot, perhaps adding to its rounded texture and cashew flavours. £8 Tesco. (Since then, a subsequent bottle did strangely taste oaky...)
Labels:
Chardonnay,
Chenin blanc,
Gewurztraminer,
Malbec,
Nero d'Avola,
organic wine,
Pinot Gris,
Pinotage,
Riesling,
Tempranillo,
Viognier
05 March 2021
Sicily: Ragusa and Agrigento
Aruci Aruci caffetteria, gelateria & Casa Siciliana Trattoria - Scicli, Ragusa province.
A few reminiscences, sightseeing tips, places to stay, photos and a little food and wine condensed from a lucky-break week spent in Sicily last September in between Covid restriction lockdowns. The plan was to avoid big towns and cities (so no Palermo or Catania this time unfortunately), hire a car, stay in the middle of nowhere and not tour around too much (pretty much the opposite of a 'normal' holiday), which part of the south of the gorgeous island provided a perfect backdrop for (Ragusa province and Agrigento a couple of hours up the coast).
24 February 2021
Zeitgeisty wines
Zeitgeisty is admittedly a little literary and pretentious, and I wasn't aware it was a word as such, in the adjective form with a 'y' ending, until I saw it recently in a one-line review on the back cover of a new book (quoting a well-known writer so it must be okay). Any road, this latest batch of wine buy tips kicks off with a handful of tasty drops of bubbly, which always has a certain 'spirit of the times' feel about it on any occasion and any time of year, especially to toast in winter drawing to a close sooner rather than later.
Labels:
Castelão,
Cava,
Chardonnay,
Chenin blanc,
Grenache,
Lisboa,
Oltrepò Pavese,
Pinot Noir,
Tinta Roriz,
Touriga Nacional,
Verdicchio,
Viognier,
Xarello
22 February 2021
'Noir, blanc or gris: Grenache is at home in the wild south' - The Wine Merchant magazine
Screenshot from the Feb. digital edition:
This short paragraph from an article in the February 2021 edition of The Wine Merchant magazine (UK business publication) is a taster of a few combined extracts from my book on the Roussillon region themed around the Grenache variety. Follow the link above to read the feature (full digital issue) or go to winemerchantmag.com to find out more and buy a printed copy.
Labels:
Grenache,
Roussillon,
The Wine Merchant magazine
20 January 2021
Red & rosé wines of trying times
Whereas the fifty-odd 'white wines of the cosmos' in my previous feature were arranged by store, these forty red and rosé tips have been grouped by good old-fashioned grape variety (or combinations of). Once again, no apologies offered for, this time, an irrational amount of Grenache, including GSM (Grenache / Garnacha, Shiraz / Syrah and Mourvèdre blends), as well as Pinot Noir...
Labels:
Garnacha,
Grenache,
GSM,
Malbec,
Mourvèdre,
Pinot Noir,
Shiraz,
Syrah,
Tempranillo
15 January 2021
White wines of the cosmos
'Here we are in the ship of the imagination...' Remember that awe-inspiring space travel programme 'Cosmos' back in the 80s by Carl Sagan (paraphrasing one of his most cosmological lines)? Don't know why I thought of that though: stellar white wines of the split-atom millisecond perhaps? Sounds more out-there than international or global, especially as these words are usually stranded with media-nouns like crisis, conflict or pandemic; or similar marketing babble (e.g. brand, product).
Photo from amazon.co.uk |
Labels:
Arinto,
Chardonnay,
Gewurztraminer,
Greco di Tufo,
Grenache blanc,
Grillo,
Muscat,
Pinot Grigio,
Riesling,
Roussanne,
Verdicchio,
Viognier
16 December 2020
Roussillon: top 100 red wines
Apart from another excuse to plug my new book on the Roussillon (links to previous post with details, or go straight to Amazon UK or USA or Barnes & Noble to buy it - other formats and countries' stores are also linked in the post above), here are some of my hot red wine tips from the region made by producers featured in the book. Many winemakers have just released their 2018 and 2019 reds, and I look forward to tasting more of these next year (?!) when we're able to travel safely to France again due to the ongoing Covid-19 nightmare.
27 October 2020
ROUSSILLON ‘French Catalonia’ Wild Wine Country by Richard Mark James
This detailed book on the Roussillon wine region in deepest south of France, or far western French Mediterranean to be more precise, is available to order on Amazon as a paperback (with colour photos) and eBook (Kindle). Follow the link below to your 'marketplace' to read the blurb, get swept away and purchase a copy!
Or buy it DIRECT FROM THE AUTHOR (UK and EU only):
02 June 2020
Lockdown bubbly of the moment
At first, I thought this dynamic duo were the usual Marks & Spencer Cavas with flashy new labels and a price rise, but they are additional to the range and definitely noticeably tastier and toastier quality-wise for the £10 price tag.
Labels:
Australia,
Catalonia,
Cava,
South Africa,
Spain,
sparkling wine
02 February 2020
Wines of the moment and other strange fruits
Aconcagua vineyard from monteswines.com |
Virtually the only red I've been buying in recent times (I love Pinot's silkiness and aromatic yet savoury fruit), here are my top Pinots for under a tenner. Interesting to note that four of them are from cooler climate zones in Chile.
23 December 2019
Posh Armagnac, Calvados, Cognac, Marc de Champagne, Marc de Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Armagnac - Château de Laubade
Château de Laubade is the largest estate in the Armagnac region (lying in deepest south-west France, south of Bordeaux and Bergerac, the main town is Auch) with 105 hectares of vineyards, which they claim allows them not to have to buy in any grapes or spirits from outside of the property. Laubade is considered the centrepiece of the Lesgourgues family business run by Arnaud and Denis Lesgourgues.
14 November 2019
Irish Craft beer: Kinnegar Brewing, Donegal
Originally set up in a farmhouse in Rathmullan Co. Donegal, the Kinnegar (named after a nearby beach apparently) operation moved into a new 'state-of-the-art' brewery in Letterkenny in 2017. The 'core range' comprises six beers (plus an intriguingly wide variety of seasonal 'specials'): pictured above is the absolutely delicious Rustbucket Rye Ale (5.1 % abv), very fruity and tangy and rather different.
Labels:
Co. Donegal,
craft beer
07 November 2019
New York State, Finger Lakes: Seneca and Cayuga
The cool-climate Finger Lakes wine region, although summers can be very warm, is named after this series of eleven beautiful glacial lakes found in central-northern New York State, which dramatically mark the landscape like long deep cuts running north-south(ish) about 50 miles inland from the southern (US) side of Lake Ontario. It's about a four and a half hour drive from New York City and two and a half hours from Niagara Falls (extremely touristy but unmissable by the way). Seneca and Cayuga lakes are the longest of them, and Seneca the deepest, which is where the greatest concentration of vineyards are planted along and around their sloping edges as the corresponding microclimate is much less severe in winter there. Not surprisingly, there are two well-organised wine routes (in fact Cayuga Lake wine folk claim to have 'America's first wine trail') linking up wineries, accommodation, restaurants, events and attractions.
Labels:
Finger Lakes,
New York,
Riesling
16 October 2019
Wine Education Service Belfast wine workshops, tastings and courses winter-spring 2020
You can now book these Wine Education Service NI wine workshops, tastings and courses online, scheduled to run from February to May 2020. All delivered with enthusiasm, insight and a sense of humour by wine tutor and blogger Richard Mark James, and held in Belfast city centre. Also available to buy as gift vouchers. Go to the WES Belfast web page for more details and online booking:
wine-education-service.co.uk/location/wine-tasting-belfast.
wine-education-service.co.uk/location/wine-tasting-belfast.
Labels:
Belfast,
wine course,
wine tasting,
wine weekend,
wine workshop
22 September 2019
Belgium and Netherlands: Bruges, Gent, Rotterdam, Haarlem; beer and eating...
Besides being one of the most awesome (and alas touristy) old cities in Europe, Bruges is home to three (according to belgium.beertourism.com) tasty breweries as well. The Bourgogne des Flandres brewery backs on to the Dijver river on the south side of the old centre. On the website, their beer is described as a 'red-brown ale' (the English translation obviously), although I remember it being fairly dark but not at all heavy - alcohol content is 5% - with a lovely tangy finish to the richer darker malty side.
Labels:
craft beer,
lambic,
real ale
30 July 2019
Ballyhackamore Belfast BYO: Rajput and Good Fortune restaurants (with wine tips to match dishes).
Ballyhackamore in east Belfast - known locally as 'Bally-snack' thanks to no shortage of eateries and cafés along this busy stretch of Upper Newtownards Road - is home to at least two recommended restaurants, where you can bring your own wine. The Rajput has become something of an Indian food institution, and I've always found the quality to be very consistent and the service top notch. It has also become one of the dearer Indian restaurants in Belfast, although no more than some fancy places with arty pretensions where you don't get enough food for the money. Whereas, even if the prices have edged up a little at Rajput, you always get good portions of tasty and varied dishes.
Labels:
Albariño,
Belfast,
BYOB,
Carignan,
Cava,
Champagne,
Chardonnay,
Chinese food,
Gewurztraminer,
Indian food,
Malbec,
Pinot Noir,
restaurant review.
24 May 2019
'Wines of the week'
This varied selection of 'wines of the week', to use the popular editorial-speak, is making an impromptu appearance here instead of the more customary 'wines of the moment', just for a change of scenery, along with a few random dishes that made a good match. Some of these wines were opened at two recommended BYO restaurants located in Ballyhackamore in groovy suburban east Belfast, known affectionately as 'Bally-snack-amore': the Rajput Indian and Good Fortune Chinese, which will both be featured on this blog shortly.
Labels:
Amontillado,
Cahors,
Cava,
French rosé,
Garnacha,
Gewurztraminer,
Malbec,
Passerina,
Pinot Noir,
Ribera del Duero
05 March 2019
The Hoose Bistro, Belfast
Chocolate orange délice @ Hoose. (No I wasn't drinking gin, the Hendrick's bottle makes a tasteful candle holder.) |
This is the first in a new 'chapter' on this admittedly wine-centred blog, which will feature 'reviews' (for want of a better word) of recommendable restaurants where you can bring your own wine, either because they are unlicensed or the owner is flexible / enlightened. The focus initially will be eateries in Belfast and North Down, for no better reason than that's where I work and live, although the grand plan is to 'roll out the guide' (to use the marketing speak) to further afield, as and when other places are discovered where you can experiment a bit with wine and food without being ripped off.
Labels:
Belfast,
bistro,
restaurant review.
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Header image: Château de Flandry, Limoux, Languedoc. Background: Vineyard near Terrats in Les Aspres, Roussillon.