Vinos to enjoy and raise the steaks..

WHEN it comes to getting your hands on a decent steak pie I’ve long since decided that you have to go to the butcher’s.

We’re all looking to save a few quid here and there and flit from one supermarket to the next in search of the most convincing offers.

But for a steak pie it has to be the butchers. Even the premium ones in the supermarkets don’t come close to one from your local and trusted butcher. Proper chunks of meat, a nice gravy and a crust so good you could eat on its own.

It’s a kind of school night dinner, but we’ve taken a notion for the odd one on a Sunday so we can do something nice like visit some National Trust property where we’ll argue over which route to take. Obviously I always want to go the longest line on the map while herself want to do the shortest one followed by a scone.

Anyway, having a dinner you can just fire in the oven when you get back is handy. And since there’s steak in it, it does justify getting a bottle out.

I was thinking the other night about the wine movie Sideways and Miles’ rant that “if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving”.

Apparently, so the internet says, in the aftermath of the film Merlot sales were hammered, while California Pinot got a massive boost. I used a birthday voucher a

while back to splash on a Cali Pinot. It’s not a drink you’d be buying too often unless you have a bank balance like Elon Musk.

As for Merlot, well I’m not sure about American stuff, but there’s some great value out there and plenty of variety from Chile to South Africa to New Zealand to name but a few. I’m not quite sure why Miles took umbrage against Merlot, but I think it was something to do with that idea, prevalent at the time, that it was perhaps a little too ‘flabby’. It was a 2004 film, but I’m going to pretend I can recall with great accuracy what Merlot was like then

compared to now.

But I remember the term ‘flabby’ for wines that were all soft and juicy, but without the necessary edge, via acidity, to stop it being, well juice. The notion was that some Merlots were made to be easy drinking, marketed at women, and not serious wine for the Miles of this world who preferred Pinot for its finesse or Cab Sauv for its steak friendly tannins.

Well the tannins are generally softer alright then Cab Sauv, but there’s plenty of beautiful and, importantly, well balanced Merlot out there. Try one of these with your next steak pie.