Dean Hewitson 'Ned & Henry's' Shiraz Mourvèdre
... and roast Quail

Posted by Andrew Chapman, 9:32pm 13/01/2008. Leave a comment

A real wet and blowy evening here in Oxfordshire. Just the night for a 'big' red, and they don't get much bigger than this!

But for such a big wine the southern Rhône-styled 'Ned and Henry's' Shiraz Mourvèdre 2004 from Dean Hewitson has very good balance, making at a not bad accompaniment to the roast Quail. To be fair, tonight's supper was trailed as the more gamey Partridge by Alison - hence deciding on such a substantial wine when I called into the warehouse earlier this evening.

Quail is a lot more delicate than Partridge, and not nearly so gamey (somewhere between chicken and Pheasant perhaps?) so I was hoping that the wine wouldn't swamp the food flavours. It just about worked! Pepper and cloves in the wine worked really well with the smoked Bacon that Alison had covered the Quail in to stop it drying. The dark red fruit flavours of the wine made a nice contrast to the lightly gamey meat.

This might be a 14.5% big Aussie red, and so potentially too big and gutsy as a true 'food wine'. But it worked out pretty well with some tasty Quail as a heart-warming supper on a chilly January evening.

Buy Dean Hewitson wines@ Surf4wine

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