8 H&H Series, Thursday August 7, 2014
wine Liz Sagues restaurant of the week Raise a glass to Gascony Chewing the fat The French region’s white wines offer good value at all price levels about greasy ne entirely non- alcoholic pleasure of wine is how Oit connects with pole’s climbers place – and if you’ve been to that place, each glassful is special, wherever you Author Tom Bower’s conversation doesn’t drink it later. That’s why I’m always delighted to pour a Gascon wine, as I’ve spent many happy disappoint our reviewer but the pork does holidays in that region of gently sloping hills where vines grow alongside corn and sunflowers and the towns and villages evoke at is back! Fat is be declared in fact to be bad for the Three Musketeers’ escapades. good! Fat is the new you. Similarly, it is pointless to A very large share of the fat-free: fat, quite avoid the things you love because Young vines in the Plaimont conservertoire Gascon wine that reaches Ffrankly, is now the within them you have been told UK drinkers comes from the varieties of southwestern France, has always been on reds. But way forward. Not there lurks a terrible danger exemplary Plaimont Producteurs and there are more serious, the whites are fighting for new actually to be a fat person, of … because after not really very co-operative, whose former complex and ageworthy but still attention, and they deserve it. course (that is still uncool) but long at all they will be joyously director, André Dubosc, saw – deliciously drinkable wines. They’re sauvignon blanc-based, simply shovelling the stuff down proclaimed to be a wonder-food. and achieved – an alternative, L’Empreinte de Saint-Mont and careful work in vineyard and you – because after decades of In many new restaurants in brighter future for the juice of (which come in a tempting red cellar is resulting in wines with vilification, fatty foods and full- London, they are literally serving the local white grapes as wine version, too) is a fine example. a freshness and depth of fruit fat milk have become the grub fat, in the form of lardo: cured, rather than in Armagnac, a fine The current 2010 vintage is sold which can rival – though with of choice. It doesn’t clog up the and sometimes whipped, pig fat, but under-appreciated spirit. by The Wine Society (£11.50) restraint – the market-dominating arteries, is what we’re now being spread on toast, crostini and even Plaimont spans the spectrum and Adnams (£13.40). Adnams, New Zealand sauvignons. told – and nor does it pile on the pizzas. The good stuff is worth from £5 supermarket wine to fine with a branch in Store Street, Both these, both 2013, are pounds like the absolute arch- it … the bad version, simply château bottles with style and Bloomsbury, offers an excellent good examples: Dourthe Grande villain, sugar. Well who knew? disgusting. consistency. The happy, excellent Plaimont selection – try Les Reserve (Waitrose, £9.30), with But this is not the reason you value, easy-to-enjoy introductory Bastions (£7) or the very smart Le concentrated, zingy green should now be up to your nose Old-fashioned whites are perfect for summer Faite (£19), blended each year by character, and Château Haut in fatty gourmet delectables, So I thought a traditional old- drinking. Most often from the different top names in the wine Rian (Nicolas/Spirited Wines, however – you should be eating it fashioned French restaurant colombard and ugni blanc grape world. Corney & Barrow, too, is a £9.05), actually more semillon because you like to eat it. It’s the might be the place to wallow: varieties, they are fragrant, good source of Plaimont whites. than sauvignon, but still grassy, only way. Anything you consume rich creamy sauces, and heavy citrussy-fresh and generally citrussy and tangy. because it’s “good for you” will on the meat. I had spotted Otto’s restrained in alcohol level, Freshness Perversely, this white column is not only disappoint, but – as a few weeks earlier: it seemed though as you mount the price The co-operative’s members also going to end with a red – but one with any duty – you will come to incongruous in this patch of scale the complexity increases. make fine sweet wines – again which is a splendid summer wine. resent it, and it soon will anyway Holborn – amid a cluster of All these are recommended (all from the two mansengs, gros and Alsace sticks in my memory for 2013 vintage – these are wines to petit – where unctuous richness its geranium-decked buildings, drink young): Gers White, M&S, is always countered by a lovely but geranium isn’t a smell I’d £5.30; Pujalet White, Waitrose, freshness. Pacherenc or Jurançon look for in my glass. Instead, £5.50; Gascogne Cuvée Speciale, are the words to look for (though Rolly Gassman Pinot Noir de A curious note is struck by Marilyn Monroe: M&S, £7; and – my favourite, both can also be dry, and equally Rodern 2011 (The Wine Society, with denser flavours and greater well worth pouring). £24) has a discreet but classic scattered all over the red velvet banquettes length – Grand Héron, Majestic, If D’Artagnan was a red wine forest floor and red fruit scent £8 (£6.80 if you buy two or more). drinker, he was missing a lot! and develops great aromatics on are many cushions bearing her wonderful and Move up, where the Who’s the wine writer who the palate. It’s smooth, elegant, predominant grape is often hasn’t been to Bordeaux? Not me restrained and complex, and all distractingly erotic visage. I had bagged a classic manseng, a particular treasure certainly, though like most of my the pleasures linger on and on: a among the many indigenous colleagues the emphasis there treat worth the indulgent price. Warhol, but there were plenty more variations
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