Portuguese wine

I don't usually write about wine, but a few days ago I went to a wine tasting at a slightly unusual venue - a library. I haven't been to many Lambeth Heritage Festival events, but they cover an impressive range of topics. (There's one coming up very soon, on the evening of September 23, on London in the First World War with Professor Jerry White, an award-winning social historian).

I have to admit I previously knew very little about Portuguese wine, but this event certainly opened my eyes.

Sparkling stuff in the Chilterns

I recently ventured north of London to visit a vineyard. Daws Hill is in the kind of setting that makes wine-making seem like an idyllic pastime - tucked away in the Chilterns, in gently rolling hills, with red kites soaring overhead (one of these majestic birds is depicted on the wine labels). I walked part of the way there on the Icknield Way, an ancient route - arguably the oldest road in the country - that starts from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire and runs all the way to Knettishall Heath on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. Idyllic as it all seems, it demands a lot of hard work. The things that can go wrong with a grape harvest are legion - rain at the wrong time, lack of sunshine when it is needed, incursions by rabbits, nutritional problems...and that is before the work of wine-making begins. Luckily, owner Nigel Morgan is full of enthusiasm for his project.

Daws Hill specialises in sparkling Champagne-type wines, and it has recently won medals for some of them. I was struck by the differences between the 2007 and 2008 vintages. They also make a cider using the same Champagne-style methods. I thought it was a lovely drink, intriguingly reminiscent of champagne but with a dry apple flavour at the same time. As for the price, the sparkling wine is £26 a bottle (£28 for the 2007) and cider a bargain £6.

On the afternoon of our visit there had been a wedding in the nearby village church, and as we left the distant strains of Teenage Kicks by the Undertones were drifting across the quiet air - presumably the wedding reception getting under way. Not quite what you expect, but then I suppose Champagne in the Chilterns isn't what you expect either.

Daws Hill Vineyard (Visits by appointment only)
Town End Road
Radnage
Buckinghamshire
HP14 4DY
01494 483358
www.dawshillvineyard.co.uk 

Cheese and wine matching

I love cheese in all its forms: hard or soft; white, yellow or blue; fresh and mild or smelly as a pair of unwashed socks.

I wouldn’t say no to a glass of wine either, so this week I took myself off to a cheese and wine tasting at Cave a Fromage, a cheese shop near South Kensington tube. They do group tasting events in the evenings and they will cater for hen parties and birthdays too.

We started with Saint Maure, an unpasteurised goats’ cheese from the Loire valley. It is unpasteurised, log-shaped with a grey rind and a stick of straw running through the middle. We drank it with Sauvignon Blanc, which was a good match, though Sancerre or Fume Blanc would work well too. I’d describe it as medium strength. It was nice but not my favourite goats’ cheese ever, though some of the people there really loved it.

Next was Brillat-Savarin, served with a twist – it had white truffle honey drizzled over it. I’m in two minds about this technique. I love truffles, but generally when I eat cheese I want to taste the cheese. The aroma of the truffles dominated, while the cheese itself was quite mild and very creamy. It is a triple-cream cheese (ie there is cream added to the milk) with a white rind, with a similar texture to Brie. This was served with an unusual rose made from Malbec grapes.

Picture: Andreas Nilsson

This was followed by a one-year-old Comte which was my favourite of the evening – a nutty, rounded flavour, which full but not overpowering. It was served with a robust red wine whose identity I actually failed to note, but such a cheese would go well with a Bordeaux or perhaps an oaky Rioja.

Last of all was a Fourme d’Ambert, which is one of the oldest French cheeses. It is a blue cheese, mild compared with something like Roquefort, but still fairly robust. This particular one was the only pasteurised cheese of the evening – most Fourme d’Ambert is pasteurised, although recently a few artisanal unpasteurised versions have sprung up.

(A couple of people asked me the difference – pasteurised cheese has been heat-treated, and may be slightly safer to eat, at least if you are pregnant or frail – I don't think there’s much to worry about for healthy people. Unpasteurised cheese can often have a fuller flavour, in my opinion anyway. Bizarrely enough, it is heavily restricted in Australia – unpasteurised cheese cannot be made there, with the exception of one cheese which was given special permission earlier this year. )

The Fourme d’Ambert came with a sweet fortified red wine, not unlike port and with a distinctive flavour of raisins. It would also work with a sweet white wine such as Sauternes, or if sweet wines are not your thing, try a red Cotes du Rhone or white Saumur Champigny.

You don't have to use the same cheeses, but this kind of mixture is pretty much what you want for a festive cheeseboard (or a cheeseboard at any other time of year): something hard and mature, something goaty, something soft and white and something blue. These examples were all French, but you could use English cheeses with equally good results. If you only want three cheeses, I'd lose the goats' cheese, but it's up to you. Don't worry about having too many cheeses: quality beats quantity every time.

Cheese and wine festival

Cheese and wine - truly one of those combinations made in heaven.

Despite the potential, the Cheese and Wine Festival at the South Bank at the weekend left me less than excited. It was more of a market than a festival, for a start - there was a cookery theatre (a bit small for the number of people there) but otherwise it was just stalls selling things. Mostly cheese and wine, obviously, though there was also a surprising amount of cake.

It did a good job of bringing lots of cheese retailers together, including really top-notch ones like La Fromagerie, based in Marylebone. But I would have liked to see more cheese producers represented, to give visitors a more direct insight. More samples would have been good too. And frankly, it was a bit too packed, though you can't really blame it for being popular. 

As I'm a bit late in writing about it, I won't dwell on it any further. The same people are organising a tea festival and a chocolate festival later this year, but I don't think I will be rushing back.

The Three Wine Men

The Three Wine Men are Tim Atkin, Oz Clarke and Olly Smith. You may have seen them separately slurping vino on television, and now they have got together to hold wine tasting events.

There was one at the Lords’ cricket ground in London last weekend, another in Manchester this weekend (October 1-2) and another in London on December 3 and 4.

I have been to a few wine tastings over the years, but not as big as this one or on quite the same scale. It seemed well-organised, with unlimited wine tastings and plenty of opportunities to meet the wise wine men themselves.

Tim Atkin at the Three Wine Men tasting

A selection of wine producers and retailers were offering their wares for sampling. There were also themed wine-tasting sessions, where you could taste six wines while being talked through them by one of the experts. These were first-come-first-served and very popular.

Meanwhile Oz, Tim or Olly held court in a more informal manner, doing impromptu talks on particular wines and dispensing samples as a small crowd gathered around them. We got a front-row position while Oz talked about Innis and Gunn beers with great enthusiasm. Innis and Gunn, by the way, is an unusual Scottish brewery which makes oak-aged beers, including some aged in bourbon, rum or whisky casks. They demonstrated that beer can be every bit as complex and full-flavoured as wine.

Wines started at fairly cheap and cheerful prices and went up to champagnes and 30-year-old sherries. Spittoons were on hand, and visitors were encouraged to use them, but there seemed to be a fairly even split between swilling and swallowing.

Oz Clarke at the Three Wine Men event

Water biscuits were provided to cleanse the palate, but I would have liked to see more opportunities to buy food – always important when large amounts of alcohol is involved! As far as I could tell there were little plates of bread and cheese on offer but nothing more.


For cricket fans I suppose sipping wine by the hallowed turf of Lords would add an extra dimension.

And as for a favourite wine? I couldn't even begin to decide. I remember being quite impressed by the Chateau de Pennautier AOC Cabardes (available from Majestic and the Wine Society) but there were too many to choose!

Tickets, incidentally, are £20, though I think the London weekend in September had not sold as well as hoped, because a special offer for Groupon members offered tickets at just £8 the day before the event started.