Two interesting wines last night

Posted by Andrew Chapman in Wine Tasting Notes, 11:01am 04/05/2008. Leave a comment

We had my sister and family over last night - lovely, relaxing evening. She's vegetarian, vegan in fact, and I had tried to make something vaguely interesting for her to eat - knowing that she also like fresh, local ingredients/producers.

In the end I settled on a tart. Using shop-bought pastry (who makes puff pastry anymore when the bought stuff is this good?), I started with a layer of sliced deep red tomatoes (these were the real deal - they smelt just like the ones my granddad used to pick out of his greenhouse), and then added some toasted pine nuts that I had mixed with some finely chopped garlic. A sprinkle of olive oil finished it off, and the tart was then baked in the oven for ten minutes to soften the tomato base. I then popped the tart out to add the finishing touches - a layer of fresh purple sprouting some vegan parmesan cheese substitute. A grind of pepper, some Maldon sea salt, a sprinkle of olive oil and back in the oven for five minutes. As Gordon Ramsay might say - Vegan supper DONE! (In fact, it apparently tasted quite good too... but when I went to rush for the camera for a Blog photo I'd forgotten to charge the camera battery - doh!)

Making something so different from what I normally create had me in the the mood to try something new. Mmmm - it's a bank holiday w/end so why not go the whole hog and experiment with some wines not from our own list? Yes, shock, horror, Andrew doesn't always drink his own wines. As the day had been very spring-like, and in fact quite warm, my thoughts were turning towards glasses of chilled white. I've also determined to explore some other retailers' wines in the next few months....comparing and contrasting what we stock against what else is out there.

In the end I settled on two wines from Waitrose - I've always really rated them for food if I have to supermarket shop, and their wine selection is always interesting. Went for a Vinho Verde from Portugal and a Gruner Veltliner from Austria. Both were exactly what I was looking for. The Quinta de Azevedo Vinho Verde was bone dry; almost squeakily so. Almost took your breath away. The non-veggie food was a salad Niçoise made with fresh tuna and this wine went brilliantly both with the fresh fish and with the olive oil I'd used in the dressing. And, I tried it with a slice of the tart. It worked OK with that too.

We had some fresh asparagus too (can't get fresher than just out of the soil at Q Gardens Farm shop!), instead of the more traditional green beans in the salad, and I was intrigued to see how the second wine, the Schloss Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner would fare with the asparagus. It has always been one of my favourite food and wine combinations. Worked great - I love the mineralty in the wine and the way it plays with 'greenness' of the asparagus. Plus, the Gruner Veltliner had enough weight to work with the fresh tuna. Very well made, and pushed me just that little bit nearer to re-inventing part of our white wine listing at Surf4Wine - we used to have a very interesting Austrian selection, but it was a bit like Alsace - fab wines but not a lot of people got behind them. Maybe time to try with Austria again...!

  Leave a comment

Name (required)	Q. What is the name on the label? (4 letters) A. (required) We ask these security questions to stop comment spam. Sorry for the inconvenience.
E-mail (will not be published) (required)
Website (optional)
Your message:
Left Remember you next time?

House rules - No advertising / spamming, or profanity. All comments are moderated and will not appear immediately.