The different and the familiar
STRAIGHT OFF THE VINE
WE MET up with our “foodie” gang last weekend for a lovely lunch and a catch-up.
As ever, the food at the Heathcock in Llandaff, Cardiff, was excellent, but I’m not so enamoured by their small plates format.
Don’t get me wrong – as regular readers of this column will attest, give me a mountain of Spanish pintxos or tapas and I’m happy as Larry, but in a “pub” setting I want a menu reflecting the surroundings.
English Tapas is an album by Sleaford Mods, not a culinary style. I know that pay-off line doesn’t work at all in Wales but it made me smile.
A compact but interesting wine list complemented the great flavours on offer and we enjoyed a bottle or three of a delicious Georgian red,
TBILVINO SAPERAVI, from the Kakheti region, showing soft blueberry and forest fruits with pliable, easygoing tannins.
So let’s have a look at a few wines off the beaten track or that are produced in a slightly different place to those we are familiar with.
After several enjoyable holidays – seemingly many moons ago – it’s always nice to hark back to sunny days in Greece, enjoying the odd glass of local wine.
So let’s have a look at a Greek wine I enjoyed a few months back.
The MITRAVELAS ‘WHITE ON GREY’ MOSCHOFILERO 2020 (£7.25, The Wine Society) has a pretty floral nose carrying rose petal aromas alongside bright white fruits.
This 100% moschofilero variety is initially crisp but a little closed, however give it a minute and the fruit begins to stand proud, with fresh citrus acidity and some fleshier notes through the mid-palate.
It’s definitely worth sticking with as all manner of interesting, refreshing fruit tones reveal themselves continually.
This is a belting food white that would happily sit with a seafood salad or maybe a smoked salmon and scrambled eggs brunch. Now that’s the way to start a weekend, and a bargain too.
A particularly interesting spin on a RhÔne Valley red is the delightful LES GRANDES
SERRES CAIRANNE CARIUS (£10, Co-op).
For those who have seen GSM on the label of many a New World red, this is the spot where it all began.
This is an intoxicating blend of 60% grenache with 30% syrah and 10% mourvedre with a decent amount spending time in French oak.
This wine hides its weighty alcohol under the facade of a juicy black fruit veil.
The nose has an entry of sweet, earthy beetroot and punnets of stonking hedgerow fruit.
In the mouth the integrated tannins add grip and texture to the spicy black fruits.
There’s a nice acidic lift through the mid-palate, with the alcohol delivered carefully – it creeps up on you as if wearing carpet slippers.
Get a deep beef stew or braise on and grab a spot by the fire and you are good to go. A very nice Cotesdu-Rhone Villages indeed.
How about a Bordeaux blend from western Australia that won’t break the bank?
From a terrific winery, the VASSE FELIX FILIUS CABERNET MERLOT 2019 (£14.99 or £12.99 as a mix six, Majestic) is one of the shining lights in the Margaret River region in Oz.
It’s not surprising that Dr Thomas Brendan Cullity was the first to plant vines by the Wilyabrup Brook inspired by European wines in the 1960s.
This wine was made with minimal intervention and has put the fruit at its heart.
The black fruits on the nose are rich yet precise, with blackcurrant and dark plum tones shining through.
In the mouth there is a juicy and brisk acidity on the attack, with soft tannins adding some weight across the mid-palate.
A touch of oak adds seasoning and a little savoury note to the generous mouthfeel.
This drop of red is equally at home on its own or with food, and with our supper of meatballs and a rich tomato sauce, with all manner of flavoursome additions, the wine never missed a beat.
Delicious.