RAISE A GLASS
(we couldn’t find coconut cream in lockdown), 75ml of fresh pineapple juice, two tablespoons of sugar syrup and the juice of half a lime. We pulsed everything into a creamy consistency. The pineapple rum was a tasty tease with its notes of roasted and candied pineapple, brown sugar and lime. It was a tropical fruit delight. Talking of tropical fruit … my video-meeting world continued apace and one of the highlights this week was
talking to Louisa Rose, the chief winemaker at Yalumba winery in south Australia. She’s known as an expert on the viognier grape. Louisa explained that in Yalumba’s south Australian vineyards the viognier grapes get close to the ripeness you would expect of red wine grapes. She said the grapes “like to be in the sun. They are typical Australians, they like to get a bit of sunburn, they even like to get a bit shrivelled which again is more like a red wine grape”.
The fermentation takes place with indigenous yeasts which come out of the vineyard on the picked grapes.
The ripeness of the grapes, together with the nuances of wild yeast, create viognier wines with glorious depth of fruit and complexity.
Yalumba Y Series Viognier 2019 (from £8 at Majestic, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, the Co-op and soon in Marks & Spencer) is a lot of wine for £8. There’s ripe, tropical notes of peach, lychee and hints of citrus. This would be perfect with a chicken korma.
We also sipped Yalumba Organic Viognier 2019 (from £10 at Tesco, Waitrose, right) and wow, its flavours seemed to stay forever on my palate. Notes of lemon, apricot, honeysuckle and a dalliance with spice danced together wonderfully.
By the way, one of the UK’s biggest selling viognier wines is created in Chile. Cono Sur Bicicleta Viognier (RRP £7.50, Sainsbury, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda) is so-called because the vineyard workers
travel around on bicycles. It isn’t as deeply rich and fruity as the Yalumba wines, but it tantalises the tastebuds with peach and citrus.
Finally, we sat in the sunshine and sipped a couple of cans of Camden Town Brewery’s Blooming Hells Lager (£6 for a 4-pack at the Co-op and Sainsbury, £2 for single cans at M&S. Simply put, it’s a taste of summer, with light, refreshing citrus notes. What’s more, for every can sold, the brewery will donate 20p to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
Stay safe and healthy.
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