€7 wine served at €380-a-head Iftas

IF I’D PAID THAT KIND OF MONEY, I’D BE OUTRAGED BY MEAN BOOZE CHOICE

A GLITTERING occasion, no doubt, but the Ifta dinner seems to have had a streak of meanness. Sure, the menu reads well: wild mushrooms and St Tola goat’s cheese to start, and beef sirloin with a Merlot jus, no less, to follow. No complaints there.

But the wines? Fine for a barbecue in your back garden or a party for friends. Júlia Florista, a Portuguese multiregion blend, both white and red, is what I’d consider to be mid-week wine. And currently offering great value at €7.95 or €15 for two in O’Brien’s. I’ve even recommended them in these pages.

To be perfectly frank, if I’d paid €380 for a ticket, I’d have been outraged. Glittering, how are you?

They are well-made wines, very modern, and, like pretty much everything coming out of Portugal these days, great value. But they didn’t even match the menu. You need a flinty Sauvignon Blanc with goat’s cheese and with the meat?.. well the clue is in that Merlot jus, or gravy to most of us. The chef seems to have been better at wine-matching than the organisers.

Even if they had been watching the pennies, they could have gone mad and doubled the spend on the red and had a single estate St Emillion Grand Cru 2015 from Aldi for €14.99. That’s the Merlot ticked, very tastily and at pretty well half what I’d normally expect to pay. And O’Brien’s have an excellent flinty Sancerre, 100% Sauvignon, for €21.95, also single estate and exceptional value for money.

How about going for something truly fashionable? Tesco have an elegant Margaux for €20, but foolishly – I’m guessing – they didn’t want a supermarket wine on the glittering tables. More fool them.

I wasn’t there, of course. My TV career, to date, has not stretched to the Iftas and, to be honest, I’m not holding my breath. But maybe there was some subtle, subliminal Portuguese theme?

If so, well, they could have had the white Crasto Douro, which would have dealt more than adequately with the starter, and the Crasto Douro red, a perfect match for the beef, currently at €15.70 and €16 respectively, from Wines Direct online. As, I say, Portugal does great value wines.

Even so, for €380 you expect a bit of luxury. O’Brien’s have Pauillac de Lynch Bages 2015, which should be drinking nicely at this stage, for €40. Would that be too much to ask out of the ticket price? Nah!

As you climb the wine ladder, you tend to get what you pay for. But not at the Iftas, it appears. No danger of altitude sickness there!