Learning about and discovering new wines
This is a full-bodied deep ruby wine from McLaren Vale, Australia. Minty and fragrant on the nose, and concentrated with lashings of pronounced black fruit as well as liquorice and sweet spice on the palate. A smooth wine with a nice long finish. It works well with your Sunday roast, and is a good match for a steak and pepper sauce or something similarly robust.
This deep red Tempranillo wine from the Rioja region of Spain is a well-balanced wine of medium intensity and medium acidity. Aromas of blackberry and cherry together with sweet spices and vanilla on the nose; and intense flavours of black fruits, vanilla and spices, with hints of hazelnut and liquorice, on the palate. It’s a smooth wine with medium tannins which pairs well with red meats, sausage dishes and casseroles. Also, goes perfectly with a hard cheese.
As the temperature starts to drop and the nights draw in, here are a few suggestions for red wines for autumn, to enjoy along with those casseroles, pies and stews as we look towards Halloween and Bonfire Night …
Ramón Bilbao Crianza Rioja 2016 (Tempranillo)
This deep red Tempranillo wine from the Rioja region of Spain is a well-balanced wine of medium intensity and medium acidity. Aromas of blackberry and cherry together with sweet spices and vanilla on the nose; and intense flavours of black fruits, vanilla and spices, with hints of hazelnut and liquorice, on the palate. It’s a smooth wine with medium tannins which pairs well with red meats, sausage dishes and casseroles. Also, goes perfectly with a hard cheese.
Stump Jump Shiraz 17 d’Arenberg
This is a full-bodied deep ruby wine from McLaren Vale, Australia. Minty and fragrant on the nose, and concentrated with lashings of pronounced black fruit as well as liquorice and sweet spice on the palate. A smooth wine with a nice long finish. It works well with your Sunday roast, and is a good match for a steak and pepper sauce or something similarly robust.
Chianti Classico 15 Campomaggio
A medium-bodied Sangiovese wine with high acidity and medium tannins. It has quite intense flavours of strawberry, plum, and blackberry with a hint of cedar and toasted wood. A balanced wine with a medium finish. An appealing wine, a good all-rounder, which is ideal for a big casserole or roast.
This Pinot Grigio is a simple but perfectly agreeable wine from Italy’s Veneto region. It has a subtle refreshing flavour of apples, lemons and pears, with overtones of melon. It’s perfectly fine as an aperitif, but also goes well with pasta dishes with light sauces, as well as chicken or fish dishes.
This Californian Chardonnay from Sonoma Valley is a very good wine. A refreshing, full-bodied wine with medium acidity, with flavours of apple pie, peach and nectarine, and secondary flavours of butter and vanilla. A very well-balanced wine – fine to drink by itself and goes very well with fish/seafood dishes.
I was initially a little sceptical when I first came across this wine in New Zealand earlier this year. My wife and I were on holiday when we spotted it on a supermarket shelf in Auckland and though we enjoy the Graham Norton Show, we doubted his skills extended to wine-making … But we took a punt and were pleasantly surprised – it turned out to be surprisingly good. Very good in fact. Crisp, zesty and refreshing, with tropical fruit flavours of passion fruit and kiwi. Delighted to see that it is now currently available at Asda, and so immediately rushed out to get a few bottles. It goes really well with pan-fried salmon!
Château Argenteyre 2014
This Médoc blend has an unusually high level of Petit Verdot in the mix which probably explains its spiciness and the richness of the black fruit flavours ranging from plum and blueberry to black cherry and cassis. Although there are signs of developing age in the wine with its overtones of leather, forest floor and oak, its generous fruit flavours dominate. Deep ruby in colour, it’s a well-structured wine with high tannin and high acidity, and a medium finish. It needs something a little salty to soften the tannins slightly – goes well with cheese/charcuterie, or perhaps a lamb casserole. Good value for money.
Château Pierbone 2010 Haut Médoc
A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, this is a smooth, rich wine with a long finish. The wine is deep ruby in colour, with flavours of blackcurrants, plums and figs, and some leather and earthy overtones. A medium-bodied, fruity wine with medium tannins, it is very food-friendly and pairs very well with red meats or a rich vegetable casserole. A very good wine from a very good vintage.
Château Tour de Laroze 2012 Margaux
A complex and robust wine with dried/ stewed fruit flavours of raisin and prune together with earthy, forest floor overtones indicating the wine has evolved and developed. Full-bodied, with medium acidity and medium tannins, this is a smooth, well-balanced wine with a long finish. A real treat, a wine to savour and enjoy with roast lamb or a selection of cheeses.
For Right Bank wines see this post
While Port & Stilton is a classic wine and cheese pairing with the sweetness of the wine complementing the saltiness of the cheese, there are several other excellent wine-cheese combinations that are also worth a try:
Brie/Camembert
The soft texture of a Brie or Camembert needs something acidic to cut through the creaminess so try a Pinot Noir or a Sauvignon Blanc.
You might even want to push the boat out a little and enjoy your Brie with a glass of Champagne. It’s a marriage made in heaven!
Cheddar
A bold cheese such as a mature Cheddar needs a strong wine such as a Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany it. The strong sharp flavour of the cheese goes well with the tannins of a fruity Cabernet Sauvignon. A creamy mild Cheddar needs something more subtle – a crisp, fruity Chardonnay, for example.
Goat’s cheese
The flinty, citrusy taste of a Sancerre or Pouilly Fumé is a great match for the earthy flavours of a goat’s cheese such as a Crottin de Chavignol. And apart from anything else, this is a fine example of the old adage ‘What grows together, goes together!’
Jarlsberg
The sweet, nutty flavour of Jarlsberg needs something light and fresh to go with it – a dry/ off-dry white wine with high acidity such as a Chablis or an Alsace Riesling does a perfect job.
Manchego
A mature Rioja is an obvious choice for the nutty, tangy flavours of a Manchego. The fruity dryness of the wine is an excellent pairing for this cheese. A dry fino sherry also goes well with Manchego.
Pecorino toscano
This mild Italian cheese from Tuscany goes perfectly with a Chianti from the same region. The saltiness of the cheese softens the tannins in the wine and draws out its fruitiness – a natural accompaniment.
Saint Félicien
This soft French cheese with its creamy texture and bloomy rind pairs perfectly with the light, fruity flavour of a Syrah-based Crozes-Hermitage red wine. Beaujolais is also an excellent match.
We stumbled on Kryivka restaurant, which translates as ‘underground bunker’, by mistake. After a pleasant morning’s sightseeing in Lviv, western Ukraine’s historical and cultural gem, my wife and I were actually looking for the entrance to a popular coffee shop on the city’s Market Square when we joined what we assumed was the queue to get in.
‘Slava Ukraini!’ (‘Glory to Ukraine!’) said the young man behind us, tapping me on the shoulder. It turned out he was called Andriy and sensing my confusion from the look on my face, he explained it was the password to get in. Still not really any the wiser (a password?), we waited in front of the non-descript door until it was our turn, then dutifully knocked as we had seen the others before us do.
We were greeted by a grouchy-looking soldier with a machine gun at the ready, demanding the password, which we duly gave. Satisfied that we weren’t undesirables or enemy spies, the guard let us in and immediately offered us a shot of honey vodka. He then directed us downstairs and it became clear that it was not quite the coffee shop we were expecting.
Kryivka is a sub-terranean pub-restaurant set up to represent a Ukrainian partisans’ bunker from the Second World War; the underground maze of corridors and tunnels is a relic of the past – dim lights, spartan tables, with military uniforms and other paraphernalia on the walls. A friendly waiter – in military garb of course – walked us to a table and brought a menu.
Andriy, the young man from the queue earlier, came over and helpfully recommended a few of the traditional no-frills dishes that partisans back in the day used to eat to sustain themselves in the fight – kholodets (jellied chicken), pivmetra kovbasa (half a metre of sausage) and varenyky (dumplings stuffed with potatoes and onion, or minced meat). Thinking we would struggle with half a metre, we decided to pass on the sausage but the kholodets and varenyky were surprisingly tasty and came served on a soldier’s tin plate.
Kryivka is part of a group of trendy ‘concept restaurants’ in Lviv which aim to combine the eccentric with the wholesome. This explains the earlier charade at the entrance. This particular venue is one of the most popular and it was certainly full of customers – mainly a fairly young, hip crowd – when we were there.
We thanked Andriy for his help and made our way out through the courtyard at the rear. We couldn’t resist a mock ride on the military motorcycle with sidecar, and trying out the anti-aircraft gun on the roof. Although we didn’t quite get our coffee and cake, we did have a quick introduction to what life was like as a WWII partisan and enjoyed one of the most unusual, and entertaining, experiences of our trip.