Domaine de la Tour Vieille, Collioure "puig oriol" 2005

Served as part of the Wines of Southern France gourmet evening last night. Simon paired a lovely little date, raisin and mature cheddar "burger" with this as the cheese course. It was following a 2000 Domaine de Trevaillon, so I was slightly dubious as to whether it would have the strength to follow it, but it coped really well and drew a lot of positive comments.

The wine is a blend of mostly grenache (70%) with rest being syrah. The town of Collioure nestles on the cusp of the Spanish border in the heart of the Basque region of France and it seems to have a very Spanish influence to its flavours. The wine exhibits strong bramble fruit flavours with a savoury influence, quite sun baked in character. The alcohol sits at 14.5% and it is quite evident on the nose with a prickly tingling on the old nostril hairs, but on the palate the wine is perfectly balanced, the medium tannins holding the flavours together and seemingly keeping the alcohol in check. The length is quite long with summery black berry flavours giving way to an almost savoury garrigue-y herbal finish of thyme and peppercorns. While it certainly worked quite well with the cheese, this would be a cracker of a wine for something like a roasted leg of lamb with plenty of rosemary and thyme. While as an 05 it was certainly drinkable it would definately benefit from a year or two of slumber in the cellar.

Thinking Pink!

Tonight marks the last gourmet night of the first half of the year. We get a small break from the gourmets now until September. The theme for tonight is "think pink!" and evening of Rose wines and fine food. Its been quite fun looking at roses for the dinner, and surprisingly the hardest part has been narrowing it down to only six wines. Ive tried so many great roses recently if we did a twelve course meal I probably still wouldnt have enough courses for all the wines I'd like to show.

So were starting off with a champagne - de Venoge brut rose. Its a softer style of champagne, less agressive bubbles, when it was first made in 1864 it was a Cremant rose, that is about half the pressure of a champagne. A blend of red pinot noir and white wines from the three usual varieties it has a light salmon pink colour with redcurrants, cherry and a hint of light spices on the nose.

We move across to South America next to the Colchagua Valley of Chile for the San Elias Cabernet Rose from Vina Siegel. Cold fermented in stainless steel for crispness and soft fruit flavours - ripe red berry fruit flavours. Lovely.

Back to Champagne for the intermediate with Veuve Clicquot Rose NV. A relative newcomer to the rose market, this is another blend of red wine and white. Pinot Dominant with a slightly copperish tinge to it, red fruit on the nose with dried stone fruits following. Veuve Clicquot was apparently the first champagne house to ship a rose champagne back in 1775!.

My favourite wine of the night is served with the main course. Charles Melton Rose of Virginia. Named after the flaxen haired beauty that he fell in love with and married, this is a blend of grenache, shiraz and cabernet from his vineyards in Krondorff, Barossa. Overnight skin contact gives the wines a dark fuschia tone with vibrant red fruit flavours - strawberries, cherries and fresh picked raspberries. This has gotten darker and darker each year and now it almost looks like a light red wine. Ive seen beaujolais that is lighter in colour than this wine, but bloody hell its fantastic. Not cheap, but worth every penny and more.

The next wine to be served with the cheese is quite interesting as well. A Bordeaux Clairet from Chateau Lamothe de Haux. Clairet is made by running some of the juice off from the Clarets after about 24-48 hours of skin contact. This gives the wines a deep intense colour and flavour without any of the harsh tannins that come with longer contact. Morello cherries and currants on the nose with a touch of rosehip and elderberry. Really fresh and as it warms in the glass a little bit grippy with the tannin.

We finish with the Stella Bella pink muscat from the Margaret River of Australia. A fun little wine, a little bit pink, a little bit sweet and a little bit fizzy. Rose petals and turkish delight with a slight grapey muscat flavour. A cracker of a wine to end what should be a fun night.

Im a bit nervous about this one, as we dont have a speaker for the night and so Im doing it. Um, I, um hope um I um dont go um too often um.

Update - all went well and the feedback has boosted my ego somewhat!!

Berton Gourmet.

Last night we had the Berton gourmet evening, and Paul Bartholomeus came over from Australia to host it. (Well there was also this little trade thingy he had to attend - LIWSF). Id been looking forward to this one for a while, as the wines are all top banana, but better than that they are all in the affordable bracket. Their top cuvee, the Bonsai Shiraz will be sitting on our list at around £60.

We kick started the evening with the Head over heels Sparkling Chardonnay. Fermented in steel tanks with oak staves to impart some oak character its made by the Charmat method. Think of it as a gigantic soda stream kind of thing and you arent too far off the mark. Stupidly I never actually tried this one, so not too sure what its like, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. For the starter we poured the Head over Heels Forgotten Riesling. This wine got its name because it was literally forgotten about when they were harvesting the vineyards and after a couple of extra weeks on the vines it had ripened up nicely, giving them a fairly high potential alcohol. The wine has a lovely character of citrus fruits, lime and ruby grapefruit with a green melon like finish to it. There is some residual sugar giving it an off-dry flavour. This was a really nice complement to the pork, cabbage verjus and foie gras.

The intermediate was a rose made from Sangiovese and Barbera (sounds like some funky 60's cartoonist). A lovely nectarine skin colour this had a beautiful nose of rosehips and cranberry. I kind of forgot to taste this one as well (wasnt on top form on Tuesday!). But I got loads of positive comments about this one.

Main course was paired with the Bonsai Shiraz. The name came around when a visitor to the vineyard jokingly asked them if they were growing Bonsai vines as the vines were quite stunted and low to the ground, producing really small intensely concentrated berries. I liked this wine, Ive liked it each time I taste it. When I was double decanting it earlier in the day it gave off a really powerful aroma of cassis, blackberry and that slightly menthol note that usually comes off Barossa wines. The Boss didnt really like this wine, but then Shiraz has never really been his thing, hes more of a Bordeaux variety kind of drinker.

Cheese was matched with the 2005 Reserve Cabernet from Coonawarra. The Terra Rossa soils of Coonawarra seem to be perfectly suited for Cabs, and this is no exception. Cassis, licorice, cinnamon spices and the ubiquitous eucalyptus notes all blend very well together.

We finished with the Raisined Semillon, another late harvest wine. Rich, sickly sweet, this went beautifully well with a date sponge, sticky toffee and iced walnut.

All in all a really good night, Paul was very entertaining, and everyone left nice and happy.

Working on 2008.

In this industry we are always looking to the future. Depending on where your role lies in the grand heirarchy, will depend on exactly how far ahead you are looking. At the bottom of the scale - the commis are looking ahead to the next service - dinner (at the moment). Do they have enough plates polished, is the cutlery ready, have they got enough napkins etc. The Chef de Rangs and Head Waiters start looking to the next service - whats the table layout for tomorrow, do we need to order any extra butter, extra linen, condiments etc. The supervisors are looking to next week - have we got any functions coming up, do i need some extra cover for that shift, can we squeeze a training session in next wednesday. The managers start looking to the following month - are we going to make budget, have we got enough staff rostered on, do we need to purchase any more crockery, glassware, cutlery etc. The F&B manager is looking to the next quarter - will we make budget, what functions are coming in, training plans, payroll costs, replacing staff. The General Manager starts looking at next year - preparing budgets - what needs refurbishing - how much Capex is that going to cost. And at the top of the scale - the Managing Director is looking as far afield as ten years from now - large scale refurbishments - business development plans etc. Its quite scary sometimes when you break it all down. I bring this up, because having pretty much sorted out the New Years eve wines, my next job is to put together next years Gourmet Calendar. Im looking at 2008, and its only just the third week of May.

Now we already have the first gourmet planned. I hate to say it, but that was actually sorted out in February. Now Ive just got the rest of the year to sort out. And thats partly why Im procrastinating - Ive run out of ideas. Well not strictly true - Ive run out of practical ideas. So far Ive got five gourmets - three of them are viable, the other two are iffy. By iffy I mean that Im not sure there will be sufficient interest in the events to make them a doable option. One of them is the wines of Languedoc-Roussillon, and the other is wines of the Pacific Northwest. Now the later is a particular favourite of mine, but the hardest part of it is actually securing the wines. In my mind I would like to show some Washington wines - and thats ok because I can get hold of some Andrew Will wines from Morris and Verdun. I also want to show Oregon, and again I can get some Drouhin Oregon Pinot also from M&V, or some Jepson from Simon at Whirly wines (Ive been promising to get some off of him for a while now!). Where things start to fall apart is British Columbia. Theres a wine Id give my left bollock to get my hands on. Its from a winery called Blasted Church based in the Okanangan Valley. Their labels are just brilliant - quirky cartoonish, and while the reviews arent glowing, its had a lot of very positive press in right places. Check them out for yourselves - www.blastedchurch.com . The other stumbling block is the whites. I can find plenty of washington whites if I dont mind them being on the supermarket shelves as well. Well I do mind, not out of snobbery, thought. So Ive got a feeling this one might well be consigned to the maybe pile.

And thats where I run out of ideas. So if anyones got any inspiration, Id love to hear it.

Grower Champagne Gourmet

My, how the time flies along, it hardly seems like that long since the last gourmet, and here we are again. Tonight we are looking at a few Grower Champagnes, that is smaller producers who make all their wines from their own stocks. By their very nature, as small producers, these wines are far more representative of what the region is capable of. Unlike Veuve Clicquot which produces somewhere in the region of 6 million bottles of yellow label each year, Jacques Selosse makes about 60,000 in total! We are starting off with the Jacquesson Cuvee 731, apparently we are the first to get the new cuvee. This is a great chardonnay dominated champagne, crisp, dry, and acidic enough to get the juices going. It is based around the 2002 vintage, with reserve wines to fill it up.
For the starter we are pouring Egly Ouriets brut. Pinot dominated from his grand cru vineyards in Ambonnay, Bouzy and Verzenay, this is much softer, red fruit flavours with a well developed yeasty character from a full three years and three months on the lees. Like many grower-producers, Francis Egly lists the date of disgorgement on the back label giving an indication of the "freshness" of the wine but also allowing the consumer to work out the base vintage. This was disgorged in 05 so is likely to be based on the 01 vintage (01 harvest, in bottle by late 01 early 02, three years on the lees = 2005).

For the intermediate we are pouring the Selosse Rose. Coming in a nice fancy frosted glass bottle with minimal labelling this is quite an enigma. Apparently the pinot for this is sourced from Egly-Ouriet so there is a bit of a cross-over. Light salmon pink in colour, I cant actually taste this one, so Im not sure what its like. Will try and get some feedback later and post a tasting note.

The main course brings out one of the big boys, Egly-Ouriets Blanc de Noir. 100% Pinot, again from his grand cru vineyards in Ambonnay and Bouzy this is ripe red fruit with a rich almost grainy character to it. I love blancs de noirs and this is one of the best that Ive had. Although hand on heart my favourite was a Meunier champagne from Moet, part of the Trilogie des Grands Crus - Les Champs de Romont that alas is no longer available.

With the cheese we are serving Jacques Selosse Initiale Brut NV. Big burgundian style champagne, this is very much like drinking a sparkling montrachet. Anselme did a stint of training in Burgundy and consequently his wines are made in quite a burgundian style. Oak barrel fermentation, weekly battonage, long time on the lees. This should be a great match with the Epoisses.

We also finish with Selosse, this time his Exquise Sec. Specially created for three friends of his, all chefs, each with three michelin stars, this is a rich robust champagne that has been sweetened with brown sugar that Anselme apparently imports from Manchester - a local connection. The wines has a bit of a bite to it, almost cognac-y with hints of dark muscovado sugar. With a pear tatin this will be great.

Chivite Gourmet

Tonight is the Chivite Gourmet night, and two weeks ago it was looking a bit grim. We were facing the prospect of doing a gourmet night with 16 covers, only ten of which were paying. Through a hefty dose of luck and some perseverence weve managed to get 45 bums on seats tonight, of which 12 are freebies. Im happy with that.

Marife Blanco from Chivite has flown over from the Pro-Wein festival in Germany today to host the evening. Ive literally just finished decanting the reds and got changed, and Ive got to get back as the first guests have started arriving.

We are starting off with the Gran Feudo Rosado, which is 100% Garnacha (Grenache). Almost a flourescent pink in colour, this is Spains best selling Rosado. Light, fruity with rosehips and raspberries on the nose, its very dry with a hint of a spicy finish. I can guess that this would be great drinking ice cold on a hot beach with the sun blazing down on you.

The first course is being paired with the Gran Feudo Chardonnay, a fresh style of white, stainless steel tank fermented, from Navarra. The nose would suggest a touch of oak about it, but Im going to put that down to the wines maturity (two years old). Thats going with a Paella Negra (Black paella - coloured with squid ink), mussels, clams and spiced squid. with a lobster bisque.

The intermediate course is a carpaccio of tuna with a salsa of cucumbers, pepper and mediterranean herbs served with a hot red pepper gazpacho. We are pairing that with the Vina Salceda Rioja Crianza 2002. Ripe red fruit on the nose, this put me more in mind of a Beaujolais Cru - a Morgon perhaps than a Rioja. I had to really sniff the wine to find those raw meaty aromas I usually associate with Rioja. I reckon this is going to be the best match of the menu.

For the main course chef has paired an Assiette of Veal - braised cheek, tongue, pan fried sweetbreads and roasted fillet, with creamed ceps, with the Coleccion 125 Reserva 2000. Tempranillo with a dash of Cabernet and Merlot from the Navarra blended together. After double decanting this one, I reckon they should meld well together.

Weve stuck the Conde de la Salceda Rioja Reserva 2000 with the cheese course - a poppy seed tortilla with manchego cheese. This wine is my favourite of the wines tonight. Rich, opulent flavours, with a meaty backbone and spicy tobacco notes. But still fresh with fruit, and a good clean acidity at the finish. That Manchego cheese dont half hum when its melted!!

We finish the evening with the Dulce de Moscatel dessert wine, served with a vanilla panna cotta with ginger crisp and tropical fruit. Weve got mango, plums, melon and pomegranite seed all in there, with a pineapple ravioli and passionfruit. The wine is like opening a tin of fruit cocktail - grapey fruit flavours with an almost syrupy quality to it. Fresh and simple with enough acidity to clean right through the creamyness of the panna cotta. I dont like dessert wines, but this is gonna be such a winner. Even cheffie loves it.

So thats it, should be good.

Late night last night

Im absolutely shattered today. Yesterday was my first day back after a week off having fallen down stairs, and it ended up being a sixteen hour monster of a day. I left the hotel sometime after three am this morning and crawled into bed for about four hours of fitfull sleep. So why was I so late?

Last night we had the second of this years gourmet evenings - Chateau Bauduc. We had the owner/winemaker Gavin Quinney come and talk about how, why and some of the trial and joys of what he and his wife Angela do in Creon. Unfortunately Angela was unable to join us having busted her knee, but she missed a great evening. Despite running over his alloted time (to the consternation of Ross, Paco and the Chef) Gavin kept everyone amused with witty anecdotes (some at the expense of Gordon Ramsay's team of sommeliers!!), tales of some of the trials of being a novice winemaker in Bordeaux and some of his aspirations for the future of Chateau Bauduc. I dont honestly think weve ever had such gushing praise from the guests about the speaker before. The wines were very well received too which is always a bonus. The rose we poured at the start was quite popular, 100% merlot with overnight skin contact, we were pouring the 2004 which isnt the most current vintage, but still packed fruit flavours with a deliciously savoury edge which I think set people up nicely for the starter.

For the starter we poured the Bordeaux blanc, which is 95% sauvignon and 5% semillon for a bit of depth and body. Everyone raved about this wine. Crisp, fresh and lip-smackingly good it worked a treat with chef's crab raviolis. The next wine was a love or loath wine. Roughly half the people loved it, the other half didnt. It was the Trois Hectares 2004. 100 % semillon from a small three hectare vineyard (and the cause of much hilarity when Gavin recounted the story of one the Ramsay sommeliers (a Frenchie no less!!) asking why it was called Trois Hectares!!). Its barrel fermented again for depth of character. Much less expressive than the Savvy, I loved this wine, but for sure its a food wine. I think this would have been great with the intermediate course of Seared Scallop on a bed of cauliflower puree with carpaccio of cauli and a parmesan brittle. Anyway, the next wine was the Clos des Quinze a bordeaux blend dominated by merlot (60%) with the remainder almost evenly split between Cabernets. Coming from a walled vineyard of about 15 hectares. I had double decanted it earlier in the afternoon, so it was showing very well indeed. Again everyone seemed to rave about it. That was paired with a saddle of roe deer and pumpkin spatzle. Everyone raved about that too!
With the cheese souffle we poured a more limited cuvee, the Trois Etoiles which Gavin told us was actually selected by the Ramsay team to be bottled into a separate cuvee. Hence the name - Trois Etoiles- Three stars in honour of Royal Hospital Road and Gavins first customer in the UK. This is a pure merlot and I loved it, for me it was the highlight of the night. But again it seemed to divide the room, some loved it, others loathed it. That was the end of the Bauduc wines, but as we had dessert still to come, we had to throw a ringer into the mix. We chose a Graves Superieures from Haut-Bergeron, which also received mixed reviews, but then a lot of folks dont like sweet wines, myself included.

At the end of the night as we cleared all the glasses, Danny and myself chatted to Gavin, Danny using the opportunity wisely to increase his knowledge of Bordeaux and winemaking. But he wimped out at 1am leaving me discussing future ideas that Gavin has for moving Bauduc more into the UK market, and ideas for further developing the range of wines that he has available. Next year hes got a monbazillac coming out, from a winemaker that he knows who cant get his product onto market. He talked about developing Bauduc into a brand again using contacts who again cant find a route to market in France. Imagine a Bauduc Pomerol, Pauillac or St Estephe. Anyway, I really enjoying chatting to him, and getting involved in helping him reach a wider audience. For great easy drinking Claret you cant do any worse than check out their website and order yourself a case or two of wines. www.bauduc.com

Gourmet Evening Again - Vallet Freres

My god how the months fly by! It hardly seems like last week we were having the last gourmet evening, and here's the next one already. Tonight Im very chuffed to have Bernard Vallet from Vallet freres here, to show his wines. All the more so, because all being well, Im going to France in October to Vallet freres to work a harvest. Its the first time that Ive done that, so Im really looking forward to it, although Im well aware its going to be hard work. But the thing is, its easy enough to read all about burgundy, to look at maps and see the villages - Volnay, pommard, meursault, gevrey-chambertin etc etc, but I think that to actually get out there, to physically see the land, the vines, to pick the grapes, work in the winery and really get my hands dirty will give me a much better feel for the region and its wines.

Many colleagues and peers have all told me that the best way to get an understanding of a region is to be there, to stand in the vineyards and feel the soil under their feet. To feel the heat/cool/wind/mist to experience the climate that the grapes are exposed to. To spend time in the wineries, smell the new oak casks as they are filled with wine fresh from the fermenters. All those wonderful experiences which I havent had yet. So Im really looking forward to it. Hopefully we will get some time to ourselves to go and explore the region a little bit as well.

Well tonights menu looks good, and Bernard and Ed have arrived, so I need to go and brief the man on what happens tonight. Hopefully if it isnt too late I will post something afterwards.

grazza

Gourmet Evening - Italian Connection

Its another gourmet evening tonight, and Ive just finished glassing the restaurant up. We probably spend as much time on the mis-en-place of the gourmet nights as the actual event itself.

Tonight we have Nick Masters from Enotria wine cellars coming down to present a range of wines from their portfolio.

We are starting off with Ruggeri's Santo Stephano Prosecco which is a single vineyard prosecco from one of Veneto's better producers.

With the first course we are pouring a Fiano di Avellino from Feudi di San Grigorio. I first tasted this wine back when i worked at Amaryllis is Glasgow, so Im quite looking forward to tasting it again. Its a fantastically crisp, fresh style that works so well with seafood. Chefs paired that with a pave of cod with lobster.

The second course is going to be a Langhe Roero from Christina Ascheri. Slightly fuller flavour wine, with a bit more depth and body. Main course is a Barolo "Cerequio" from Roberto Voerzio 1996. That was outstanding when i opened it half an hour ago.

With the cheese course we are pouring Nino Negri's Sassella Valtellina Superiore. Another Nebbiolo, but slightly more rounded, a little softer in texture and not quite as aggressive.

Dessert is being paired with Anselmi's I Capitelli a recioto di soave style wine made from partially dried Garganega grapes. Roberto Anselmi used to be part of the Soave consorzio, until he felt that they werent doing enough to preserve the integrity of the region. He famous resigned from the D.O.C. in an open letter to the press. Now his wines have been granted I.G.T. status and he is happy, as this allows him to work the way he wants to.

To finish the guests off (literally) we are serving Nonino's Grappa di Moscato with coffee and biscotti.

Pass the nurofen please!!!

Gourmet Night

Its a gourmet night tonight, which is fun!! Its the first of the new year and we are staring at 54 covers tonight. Youch!!! Well it is a champagne dinner, and they are always popular. We have Joel Marti-Baron from Moet and Chandon coming in tonight to present his wines, with a five course gastronomic meal prepared by Simon and his team. Should be good, especially the 1988 Vintage Moet, which Im quite looking forward to. For the red tonight, Ive chosen a cheeky wee Volnay from Domaine Laurent. Its a 95 premier cru "Santenots". We tried a bottle last week, and it was a bit tight at first, but after about half an hour, opened up really nicely to reveal that earthy red fruit nose, with the slight hints of floral violets.

Anyway, i'd better go and get changed, as its nearly rock and roll time.