A Face to A Bottle

My job here at Vinoteca mostly involves being locked in a dark office, staring at a computer screen, but  sometimes I am released back onto the floor where I began my career here just over three years ago. One of my favourite parts of being a server is suggesting wine; I couldn’t be more pleased when a customer finds one of my suggestions to be exactly what they were looking for. Of course it doesn’t always work, and sometimes I find myself suggesting my favourites over and over again.  Of course just because I like a wine, it doesn’t mean a customer will like it right?

I find one of the best ways to appreciate a wine is to have a story associated with it. It helps to distinguish it from all the other wines. These stories can also be incredibly useful when selling wine to a customer, especially the unpopular ones that no one has ever heard of.

I can understand that it must be quite daunting skimming through our 275 bin list, certain wines and regions are easily overlooked. Bergerac is one of these regions, being the unpopular slightly weird cousin of Bordeaux.

2006 Bergerac Rouge ‘Les Sens du Fruit’, Chateau Jonc Blanc

First of all I love this wine; it is my type of wine.  A Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec blend, unoaked, all about fruit flavours, and great slightly chilled. A few months ago I was vacationing in the South West of France, not too far from Chateau Jonc Blanc, so we headed there one afternoon to see if we could buy some of their wines, and put a face to a bottle. There was no one at the house, just a man driving a tractor in the vines, could this be Monsieur Pascal? We waited at the end of a row until the tractor came closer; he switched off his tractor looking a little confused:

I said “Bonjour! Est-ce que vous-etes M.Pascal?”

He replied “Oui?”

What luck!? We were then given a tour of his chai, and he sold us some of his wine, at a very reasonable non UK taxed price, then we were off to enjoy his lovely wines with our dinner.

Now when I’m working in the restaurant, or suggesting wines for a function this will be one of the stories I can tell to encourage people to drink some of the lesser known wines on our list, which I can assure you are just as good as the more famous ones!

Caitlin

Bordeaux – Tasting ‘Terroir’

Last night I had the pleasure of conducting a ‘Bordeaux’ tasting for 17 people in our private room.  How do you begin to explain the wines of Bordeaux? It is a notoriously complex  region (however, not as complex as Burgundy).I wasn’t quite sure how to approach the topic, luckily I had a few things working in my favour to help prepare for the tasting.

1. My parents own a house in the South West of France, and I was just there drinking bucket loads of Bordeaux, I visited St.Emilion, drove through the vineyards of Pomerol and had lunch at the famous La Tupina in the city centre of Bordeaux, where we enjoyed a bottle of Listrac-Medoc  with a delicious steak grilled over an open fire! I find these experiences are extremely helpful in wrapping my head around a wine region ( I must visit Burgundy!).

2. I just wrote the evil  Unit 3 exam for my WSET Diploma, and of course Bordeaux was one of the million topics that could randomly appear within it, so I had some recently memorised knowledge.

The wines we tasted were the following:

2007 Bordeaux Blanc Sec from Chateau des Antonins, Graves

2006 Graves Blanc from Chateau Langlet , Graves

2005 Château Haura, Graves

1999 Chateau La Croix du Casse, Pomerol, Right Bank

1999 Clos du Marquis, St-Julien, Left Bank

2000 Château Langoa-Barton, St-Julien, Left Bank

Of course this is only a tiny scratch on the surface of what the region has to offer, but what I found most exciting about this line up of wines, was the diversity of styles they offered, which can very simply be brought down to the different soil profiles of each appellation, determining which grape will dominate the blend, and which sites will be home to the best wines.  I did my best to keep it simple last night, and lucky for me found that the wines did most of the talking. There were two wines that stood out, and when tasted together expressed the impressive flavour spectrum offered by red Bordeaux.

1999 Chateau La Croix du Casse, Pomerol, Right Bank -  ‘Right Bank’ – Merlot Dominated – Clay Soils

This wine was drinking beautifully, a very delicate wine with fine ripe tannins.  A perfect expression of the elegance of Pomerol with ten years of ageing bringing in lots of complex and interesting aromas and flavours such as anise and boiled vegetables ( I know it sounds gross, but was amazing!)

1999 Clos du Marquis, St-Julien, ‘Left Bank’ – Cab Sauv. Dominated – Gravel Soils

St.Julien and neighbouring commune Pauillac have more fine wine within their tiny boundaries than any other place on earth! This is the second wine of Deuxieme Cru Classe Chateau Leoville Las Cases, and I found that it was quite youthful despite its age, especially when compared to the Pomerol.  It was was a deeper darker wine with sweet spice ,black currant , and an incredible earthiness  on the palate, which must come down to the regions gravel soils.

This tasting further solidified by love and intrigue for Bordeaux, I know I still have a lot to learn, and it will take a lifetime, must keep tasting!

Caitlin

Cooking for Legends

Gravadlax, broad bean, golden beet, celery cress

Langoustine, caramel carrot, sea beet, sea purslane

Pea puree, crab salad, quail egg

Last week I had the priviledge of cooking for two of the Barossa’s foodie legends – Maggie Beer and John Duval. Some years ago at cooking school I was introduced to Maggie Beer when we learnt about the ingredient verjuice, then still an unknown condiment in South African kitchens. I loved it because of its ability to lend acidity to a dish without overpowering, and how its gentle sweetness somehow enriches dishes and lifts out the finer characteristics of ingredients. At Vinoteca we often use the Verjuice from her range, although I had no idea how large the range of products was - including Vino Cotto, fruit pastes, jams and of course white as well as Sangiovese verjuice.

Vinoteca’s Winemaker dinners are well known by now and are an exciting way for us to highlight special wines and create an eveing of informative and fun conversation with the people who actually produce the wines. Friday night’s dinner with John Duval was fantastic – its always great when producers are really passionate about what they do, and this made the evening really special and successful. John makes three fantastic wines under his own name – Eligo Shiraz, Entity Shiraz and Plexus SGM. The menu format of the two evenings were similar but the wine pairings turned them into two very distinctive events.

Guests were welcomed with Charles Melton Rose of Virginia, and a pre-starter of home-cured gravadlax with a salad of broad beans, Secrett’s Farm baby golden beets and micro herbs started the meal. The starter of Scottish Langoustines, carrots caramelised with verjuice, sea purslane and sea beets was paired with an Eden Valley Riesling from Pewsey Vale. The same Riesling was served with a crab, lemon and mint salad, poached quail egg and pea puree for the Duval dinner.

Pheasant Farm Home Block Shiraz was served  with char-grilled onglet, asparagus, jersey royal potatoes and a sauce enriched with Maggie Beer’s Cabernet Paste for Maggie’s dinner, and on the second night the John Duval Entity and Plexus shiraz’ were served with the same main course. These South Australian Shiraz’ are known to be big and rich with intense fruit (excuse the generalisation!) but paired well with rare onglet and a rich jus.

Montgomery Cheddar with Maggie Beer Fig and Fennel Seed Paste and homemade oatcakes filled in the cheese course (I still dont understand this concept of the cheese before the dessert) and then the meal was concluded with traditional English Custard Tart and rhubarb roasted with Sangiovese Verjuice. The latter was prepared intentionally tart (as if the rhubarb needs it!) to liven up the custard tart and to showcase the Deen De Bortoli Vat 5 Botrytis Semillon’s classic tart apricot and peach notes. Once again it was successful, as I was a bit doubtful – rhubarb can be quite tricky in wine pairing.

It was great cooking for two such legends, bring on the next Winemaker dinner!

 

tallchef

Barbaresco Dinner In Pictures

I have to make it clear that I am lucky, and I do realise this.  It was all thanks to my boss Brett having a cold that day (sorry Brett to take happiness from your sickness, but I was so happy!), and so, I was asked to fill his seat at the Northwest Italian Winemaker dinner.  If I hadn’t have been dining at Vinoteca that night I would have been heading to Tayyab’s to dine with 20 food bloggers, which would have been great too, so it really was a win-win situation.

The pics for this dinner aren’t as good as the photos we have taken of the meals in the past, this is only because Charlie and I kept getting distracted by the food, then the wine, then the food, then the wine etc, and we seemed to keep eating each dish before realising that we needed to take a picture for the blog.   It truly was an amazing dinner put together by head chef Ross Goodall, and the wines from Produttori del Barbaresco were stellar! I was also lucky to dine with Aldo Vacca, the managing Director of Produttori del Barbaresco, who has followed in the footsteps of his Father, who was the first managing director of the company from 1958 – 1984, very cool.  Aldo was great company, with an obvious passion for the wine he promotes all over the world.  I was also sat with Charlie, who was in full wine geek mode, loving every sip of his beloved Nebbiolo, and Mark Perna from Astrum wines, who has the best wine descriptors I have ever heard, some of which I think you need to be Australian to truly understand.

Mark Perna from Astrum with Aldo Vacca from Produttori del Barbaresco

Produttori Del Barbaresco Winemaker Dinner

Thursday 19th March 2009

Apperitif: 2006 Renano ‘Herzu’ Riesling, Ettore Germano

Rabbit & ramson ragout, soft pecorino polenta

2005 Langhe Nebbiolo,

2007 Langhe Nebbiolo,

For me this was the star of the meal, it was such a perfect flavour combination.  The pecorino polenta was rich in flavour, but still light enough to not over power the dish.  The rabbit was perfectly cooked, the vegetables gave the dish texture, while the ramson (wild garlic leaves) lifted the dish.  Aldo said this was perfectly paired with the wines because it was simple and rustic, echoing the food of the Barbaresco region.

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Venison rossini, nebbiolo reduction

1999 Barbaresco

2004 Barbaresco

This is one where we started to get distracted, the photo does not do it justice.

I was first told about Rossini by Brett, it is one of his favourites, and he was very sad to have missed it that night.  When I first heard about  it, I was a bit skeptical of the idea of foie gras with meat, but then again foie gras seems to work with so many random things, so I really wasn’t surprised by how well it went together.  The venison was incredibly tender, and “perfectly seasoned”, which Aldo pointed out.  Another great match with the wines, but we concluded later that the 1999 ‘Riserva Montefico’ would have been an even better match.

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Castelmagno, muscatel raisins, biscuits

1999 Barbaresco ‘Riversa Montefico’

2004 Barbaresco ‘Riserva Montefico’

The cheese was paired with the most amazing wines of the night, and for me they demanded all of my attention, and I seriously neglected my cheese.  I know that the general consensus what that the Castelmagno (a cheese from the Northwest of Italy) works very well with Barbaresco, and it is the cheese that Aldo recommended for his wines.  I am not an Italian speaker, but I was very pleased to learn that ‘Montefico’ means ‘fig tree hill’ in Italian.

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Buttermilk panacotta, rhubarb & vanilla compote

2008 Moscato d’Asti, Paolo Saracco

If you haven’t had Moscato d’Asti before, I suggest you try it.  It is one of the most refreshing and delicious wines I have ever tasted.  This was also a well thought out food and wine matching on Ross’ part, the key thing when matching wines with a dessert it that the dessert cannot be sweeter than the dessert.  If it is too sweet, the taste of the wine is cancelled out, which is always disappointing.  This buttermilk pannacotta was just the right level of sweetness allowing the Moscato d’Asti to remain refreshing.

Overall it was an great night of food and wine, and I learned loads about Barbaresco, which I think deserves a post of its own.

Caitlin

Cata Vino Wine & Web Tasting, Dos Hermanos Dinner & The Power Of the Online ‘Word of Mouth’

Gabriella preparing for the Cata Vino tasting

Ryan Opaz at the Cata Vino Tasting

Well, I can’t believe it, but the Cata Vino tasting has come and gone.  It seems like just yesterday that I signed up to twitter, and started tweeting.  A very good  friend of mine back home, who works in social media recommended twitter.  Who knew that within a few months I would make enough contacts to hold an event in our private room hosted by the very lovely Garbriella and Ryan Opaz from Cata Vino.  Of course it was not on my own that this event came about, it was thanks to Robert McIntosh of Wine Conversation, who guided me in the right direction, and was also there pouring and chatting about wines on the night.

I have to say that I have been thoroughly impressed by the power and speed of social networking sites like twitter, I know some people like to poke fun, when the topic of twitter or blogs comes up, but there is no denying the pull that online communities currently have.  I know I always turn to online foodies for reccomendations as to where to eat and drink.

Another event we hosted in the last week of February, was Dine with Dos Hermanos, luckily the famous food blogging brothers rate Vinoteca high enough to hold one of their dinners with us (they invite their fans and friends to come along and dine with them, I’ll be going to the next one!).  It was an interesting week in the private room, Thursday night a room full of 30 food bloggers, and Friday night a room full of wine bloggers!  The pressure was on! For me, both nights were a huge success, and I was just so pleased that without using any conventional forms of advertising for the CataVino tasting we were sold out, by using only the power of online ‘word of mouth’.  Overall it was very interesting, and I was pleased to read all the positive blogs following both events.  I think, as a restaurant, or any business really, these were very unique chances to hear back from customers, and get some extremely thorough feedback on a particular event.   Being present at both ’social media’ gatherings, and experiencing them from my own point of view, it was great to follow them up online, and see how others perceived the same event.

Tomorrow night I’ll be going to Tayyab’s for dinner with 23 food blogger’s organised by Helen, who writes the witty food blog Food Stories.  Can’t wait to read all of their impressions of the meal online.

If you would like to read about the Cata Vino tasting or Dine with Dos Hermanos then please check out the following blogs, thanks to all of you who wrote about us, and if I missed any please let me know.

The Boy Done Food

Hollowlegs

Lambshank Redemption

Dine With Dos Hermanos

Winesleuth

Spittoon – wine drink and food

Londonelicious

I would like to send out a thank you to Miquel from Casa Leal who supplied all the wines for the Dos Hermanos dinner, he even did a pre-dinner wine tasting for everyone, which you can see in the video above.

Thanks,

Caitlin

Berkmann Portfolio Tasting – Pewsey Vale ‘Prima’ Riesling

Aby and I headed to the Berkmann Portofolio tasting at The Waldorf a few weeks back.  We were running late, but managed to get there for the last hour, where we produced Vinoteca’s first ever wine tasting video.  I am not the most comfortable person on camera, espeacially faced with the challenge of tasting wine, and then trying to express verbally what I am smelling, tasting, and my general impression ofthat particular wine.  What I am trying to tell you in this video is that I like the wine, and that it is their ‘Prima’ Riesling, which is what they call their ‘German’ style Riesling, meaning that there is residual sugar unlike their dry Pewsey Vale Riesling (which we stock at Vinoteca).  How they achieve this sweetness is by harvesting the grapes earlier than the ones for their dry riesling, this way they will be higher in acidity, and when fermenting the wine they will stop before all the sugar is gone, leaving an off dry wine, lower in alcohol, that is balanced thanks to the high acidity, leaving your palate fresh and clean!

Enjoy!

Caitlin

Vinoteca Opening For Sunday Lunch

We are delighted to announce that Vinoteca will open for Sunday Lunch as of March 8th from 11am – 4pm.

In addition to Vinoteca’s usual lunch menu, we will also be offering a handful of delicious brunch dishes, along with Bloody Marys and Mimosas from the bar. Sundays at Vinoteca will also include mini wine tastings in our wine shop, featuring wines from our list.

If you would like to book a table for Sunday lunch please call Vinoteca, or e-mail Aby at the address below.

tel: 020 7253 8786 | e-mail: aby@vinoteca.co.uk

German Dinner In Pictures

Thursday the 12th of February, we held our first ever Vinoteca dinner, which we plan to hold monthly, each one with a different theme. As I mentioned in my last post chef Jürgen Bircks came all the way from Germany, to create a very authentic German evening for all of our guests. A great time was had by all, and to show you what great dishes we enjoyed, I have posted pictures of each course, which were paired with some fantastic German wines.

NV Sekt Riesling Brut, Dr.Baumann (Württemberg)

I love Sekt, so delicious and refreshing, perfect aperitif!

Laugenbrötchen & Bärlauchbutter

These were amazing little pretzel rolls, I ate about four of them with loads of ‘immature garlic butter’.  Some people liked them so much that a few went home in handbags.

Clear Soup & Maultaschen

This was a delicious consomme, with lots of fresh parsley, and stuffed German dumplings.

2007 Weisser Burgunder Kabinett Trocken, Bercher (Baden)

2006 QBA ‘St Veit’ Trocken, Hans Wircher (Franken)

Deciding which wine went with the soup better than the other was impossible.  They were both a good match.

Red Mullet Savoy Cabbage Cream, Schupfnudeln

This dish was a delicious dish with simple flavours in perfect harmony.   It was also a great conversation piece considering Schupfnudeln means little boy’s penis, which no doubt they do resemble.

2006 Sylvaner Trocken, Villa Wolf (Pfalz)

2007 Riesling ‘Castle Label’, Schloss Vollrads (Rheingau)

Sauerbraten Spätzle, Apple Red Cabbage

This was my first time having spaztle, and I love it!  Each table had a big side dish of spatzle, with delicious fried bread crumbs on top.  The cut of beef was ‘top rump’, which has been marinated for 5 days in spices that were sent  over from Germany by Jürgen.  The sweet spice, and the sour flavours from the cabbage worked well together, it was a great dish.

2005 Spätburgunder ‘Q Sonnett’, Heger (Baden) (Pinot Noir)

For me this was the best wine match, the sweet spices in the wine were complemented perfectly by the spices in the dish.  The wine also had great ripe fruit flavours, and high enough acidity to stand up to the richness of the sauce.

Walnut Parfait Hot Rose Hip Sauce

2001 Riesling Auslese “Birkweiler Kastanienbusch”, Hansjorg Rebholz (Pfalz)

To be honest this match was not quite right, the dessert was slightly too sweet and overpowered the wine, however I don’t see this as a bad thing, I think even if a match is not quite right, it at least shows how wine and food matching can be quite tricky, and next time you can try something else.  However, the wine and the dessert on their own were stunning.

Monk’s Head Cheese Quince & Pepper Relish

You can see here how the cheese is shaved off with a wire into oyster mushroom looking pieces, very cool!

This cheese was excellent, not too strong, with a great texture.

2007 Spätburgunder Auslese, Schloss Affaltrach (Württemberg)

This was another spot on food and wine matching, the bright Pinot fruit, was delicious and worked well with the cheese, which is not alwasy easy to match with red wines.

Overall, the dinner was a great success, and everyone here at Vinoteca enjoyed having Jürgen and Gretel as guests, many thanks to them for all their hard work, and an unforgettable meal!

Caitlin

Chef Jürgen Bircks Arrives From Germany To Cook Up At Vinoteca

Tonight we’re having our first ever Vinoteca Dinner in the private room, which will have a German theme.  The menu has been put together and prepared by our guest chef Jürgen Birks, who arrived yesterday with his wife Gretel after an impressive 12 hour journey from Baden Württemberg in South West Germany.  Our head chef Ross tracked down all sorts of specific cuts of meat and fish for the dinner, whatever Ross couldn’t find Jürgen brought with him!  It has been an amazing collaboration between two chefs who don’t even speak the same language!

Tonight I will be dining with Krista author of the well know food blog Londonelicious, it’ll be good fun to dine with a fellow foodie, and see what she thinks of Jürgen’s German fare. I’ll be sure to get some photos , and of course some videos of the evening.

Caitlin

All the way from Germany

Marko In The Morning

Today we received our new Flip video, which is quite exciting.  I took a little video of Marko, which clearly annoyed him.  He wanted to know what I would do with the video?  Well, I put it on our blog!

More exciting videos to come!

Caitlin