On Vinopic

A while ago, I responded to a post on Quaffable about wine apps and, in short, said I could not see the point as wine is so diverse a subject than a mere app cannot do it justice.

I'd also written a couple of pieces on the idea of choice and choosing wine, noting that the whole thing was rather complex on many levels.

So when Santiago Navarro, founder and CEO of Vinopic picked up positively on a number of my comments about choosing and assessing wine, I was intrigued enough to want to find out a bit more about Vinopic, a company I had never previously heard of.

A few emails later and I had arranged to take the tube down to Santiago's offices in a smart Chelsea flat for a chat about what Vinopic does and how it is different.

I was, in all honesty, not quite sure what to expect and half-feared he might have some eccentric, iconoclastic, mad-science vision of being able, through scientific analysis, to reduce all the world's wines to no more than a bald score and rank them in a single, overreaching league table - in much the same way that in the 1960s we thought that by now everyone would be driving flying cars and eating food in pills.

The reality was much more reassuring and sensible, for Santiago proved to be a well-presented, personable Mediterranean who likes good wine and for whom the science side of Vinopic is actually much more focused on production quality than quantifying aesthetic enjoyment.

Moreover, the scientific analysis is a partner in a two-stage process where an at least equal weighting is given to a taste assessment by Master Of Wine, Rosemary George.

Finally, all the wines on the Vinopic site are rated within, but not across regions - so there is no uber-egalitarian attempt to compare Chilean Carmenere with Bordeaux, for example.

So if the Vinopic scoring system is not the game-changing, mould-breaking revolution I feared Santiago might claim it to be, is it actually anything more than a gimmick ?

Taken alone, it might be little more than a handy, independent assessment of the production-quality of the wine, but I actually think there's rather more to Vinopic's offering than just their scientific wine assessments.

Firstly, they are operating in the over £10 online retail market, so they are hardly competing with the mass-market likes of Laithwaites, Naked or the supermarkets and can, as a result, afford to be a little more selective about what they stock.

Secondly, they have a commitment to keep the process of choosing simple with an easy-to-understand range of around 100 classic wines.

As Santiago explained, where they decide to stock a particular region's wines, there will be one entry-level wine for typicity and one more interesting wine - and that's it, not 20 different examples.

And with Rosemary George tasting and rating all the wines, one would reasonably hope that they should be at least quite good.

And only after that does the scientific assessment come along to identify in an objective, if somewhat limited way, whether the wine is technically well-made or not.

At the start of our chat, Santiago outlined a series of issues with the current wine retailing model clearly and succinctly:

- the "wall of wine" at the supermarket, where to start ?
- too much choice, which becomes confusing for buyers
- outdated and archaic wine labelling with not enough information for the consumer

Moreover, his own thoughts about wine and aims for the business are eminently sensible:

- the wines should match with food (which is consistent with his segment of the market)
- the company should aim to make life easier for consumers, not simply please wineries
- the wines the company sells should be for drinking and enjoying, not investment
- there is asymmetrical information in the market, where the seller knows almost everything and the buyer almost nothing

So far, so sensible.

Citing the UK's food-labelling "traffic light" scheme as an inspiration, Santiago explained that whilst critics tend to have similar views on what makes a good wine, he wants to objectify this as much as possible and give the consumer more confidence in choosing.

Listening to his solutions, I feel that whilst he has definitely identified a number of key problems, I can't yet say whether it's a winning formula or just a Betamax-style step in the right general direction.

There are, for example, many wine merchants with an MW on board as wine buyer; plenty of merchants who sell via the internet only, and these often have a narrower range than even independents, let alone the big supermarkets.

So I can't help feeling that what will distinguish Vinopic from its competitors will be the quality of the range, the value for money and softer factors like marketing and ease-of-use of the website.

Maybe the scientific score will resonate with consumers, but for me, the way I would choose a wine merchant is by the quality of his buyer's palate, which usually becomes apparent after tasting a case or so of their wines.

However, for those interested, the specific measurements the company makes on a wine's key quality indicators are:

- polyphenols (for fruit aromas)
- anthocianins (from the grape skins for colour)
- procyanidins (from the pips for tannins)
- sulphites (10% - 20% of the legal limit is plenty, according to Santiago)
- residual sugars (to establish the ripeness of the grapes)
- alcohol level (food wines should have slightly lower alcohol contents)

Going forward, the company also plans to test for the presence of pesticides and more sophisticated testing for different types of sugars and acids.

In any case, the results of all these individual tests are amalgamated into a single score that the company labels "intrinsic".

There is no attempt to rate objectively factors such as balance and finesse, say, by comparing the different elements relative to each other and this aspect of the wine is handled by Rosemary's tasting assessment.

Moreover, there need not be a direct correlation between Rosemary's taste assessment and the intrinsic score - meaning that a wine might score highly for being intrinsically being well-made, but might be rated lower by Rosemary as a less-interesting wine - or vice versa.

The concept of a system of rating is similar to Naked Wines' offering, but the genius there was to let customers' palates dictate the scores, rather than using so-called experts.

This however, inevitably, results in something of a lowest common denominator approach and means that by implication, the people whose palates are less sophisticated than the Naked Wines' average will be the most impressed by the wines, most likely to keep buying and therefore will bring down the average quality of the palate pool.

And whilst in the sub-£10 area that's a sensible approach, at £10 and above, people are more likely to appreciate the guidance and input of an expert MW and perhaps less inclined towards a simple popularity contest of the biggest crowd-pleasers.

As Santiago explained to me: in the sub £10 bracket consumers are probably comfortable getting a recommendation from a peer they trust but above this psychological barrier they've moved into the financial territory in which they do not want to make a mistake and so seek expert advice. I also believe there is an occasion-based psychological barrier when consumers are entertaining or hosting a special person or event when they want everything to be perfect and for which experts can minimise the risk as best as possible. For daily drinking at home with a partner then a peer recommendation can do. In the new Vinopic Wines website we will seek to address both.

At this stage, then, this is really only a partial review of Vinopic, as the real test is whether their wines are any good and represent value for money at their listed prices and to do that I need to review the wines in depth, which will come next.

For now, suffice it to say that Santiago is very impressive in person and clearly and intelligent and thoughtful businessman who has carefully defined many of the issues in wine retailing today and I'd like to hope is in the process of finding the solution.

He acknowledged during our chat that they had launched the website too soon and that it had proven to be confusing and difficult for consumers to use, so clearly he is a man to take note of what works and fix what doesn't.

He is now in the process of redesigning the site so that there are three levels of information on each wine - a quick and simple "consumer" overview, more detailed information for the wine enthusiast and technical stuff for the self-confessed wine geek.

With an easier-to-use site, all that remains is to build awareness of the brand and the offering, and Vinopic's approach is sensibly focused mainly on PR, social media and website SEO.

In my next post on Vinopic, I'll report back on whether the wines themselves are worth investigating.

Links

Vinopic - http://www.vinopic.com/

Dinner at The Malmaison, Manchester‏

It was a notable day in the CWB household at the weekend and I decided I needed to take Mrs CWB out to celebrate - somewhere without the children.

I have been doing a series of pieces for the Hotel du Vin Cambridge in recent months and when the Hotel's General Manager Jacqui Griffiths heard I was heading "oop north", she kindly contacted her opposite number at the Manchester Malmaison (part of the same group as Hotel du Vin) and arranged for us to visit.

I have not been into central Manchester for several decades, despite having hung out there for much of my teenage years.

I hear it has completely changed and been redeveloped into something much nicer than what it used to be, but the short walk down from Piccadilly station to the hotel showed that it is still a buzzy, bustling city on a completely different scale to the quiet, genteel seat of learning that is Cambridge.

I have written elsewhere about my feelings towards my home town of Manchester, so suffice it to say here that to me it is a city characterised by its industrious professionals and businessmen who are not ashamed of their work ethic or personal achievements.

In a way, I find it rather Germanic, with strong social conventions and the business both of making money and having a good time taken equally seriously.

At 6:30 on a Saturday evening, we were amongst the first to arrive at the hotel's Smoak restaurant and were afforded a good view of the low, circular bar which was already lively and buzzy.

I was initially unsure what to make of the restaurant decor whose theme can best be described as "textured period Americana" but whose knowing touches and stylistic cues all came together on a visit to the bathroom.

Laid out in the style of a 1950s diner, it is furnished 21st century-style with unvarnished wood and porch lights replacing the traditional chrome; metallic camping-style mugs for water, a couple of old jerry cans and hessian sacks tied with thick rope for curtains add to the textured, rural southern states feel, but the best joke, however, is reserved for the gents' where the facilities are not porcelain but steel buckets - albeit fully plumbed-in ones.

The soundtrack is also period American and I noted with approval some classic-but-not-too-obvious southern boogie rock swaggering in the background.

The straightforward, slightly rustic theme also applies to the menu, which features steaks, burgers and mostly classic staples, whilst the wine list is extensive and well thought-out.

Having chosen our food, crusty bread with both butter and a very tasty tapenade were brought and the Restaurant Manager popped up to take our drinks order.

With the exception of a lamb main, our choices were heavy on fish and cheese and we eventually settled on an Austrian Grüner Veltliner after considering but dismissing Pinot Noir or Big White.

I had spotted quirkily-monickered Laurenz V "Friendly" Grüner on my quick skim through the wine list and whilst for an Austrophile like me it is hardly an adventurous choice, I was very happy to agree to it as a recommendation.

On first pouring, it was crisp and linear with typical Grüner aromas of white pepper, puy lentils and a touch of flintiness on the nose.

Grüner is Austria's signature grape and this one is from the Kamptal region just down river from the Wachau, with the vines grown on a mixture of granite, gneiss, mica-slate and loess soils. The grape is very expressive of its terroir, with subsoil being a key factor, and the greater the presence of granite, the more intense the minerality in the wine, whilst those grown on loess (a mixture of sand, silt and clay) have a more rounded, fleshier feel.

The wine stood up perfectly to my tuna carpaccio, the sweet, meaty fish marinaded with just a touch of chili and ginger, but also cut nicely through Mrs CWB's goat's cheese hush puppies - cubes of goat's cheese coated in grated apple, deep fried and served with a red pepper sauce.

The Restaurant Manager had suggested the wine might be overwhelmed by our mains and if that proved to be so, he would bring us a glass of something a little fuller; but, after finishing our starters and with our mains brought, right on cue the wine started to open up and become bigger and more mouthfilling with more minerality on the finish, matching perfectly with my dish.

I had chosen monk fish coated in a mix of dark spices that seemed to include cinnamon, nutmeg and cumin, then quickly roasted so that the inside remained plump, sweet and juicy.

With the bitterness of the spices balanced by the sweetness of the fish, it worked perfectly and was delicious, the different flavours complementing each other yet still distinct.

Simple accompaniments of potato puree and refreshing roasted cherry tomatoes also matched well and the wine took all of this in its stride and worked superbly.

Mrs CWB's dish of slow-roasted lamb was a little more complex on the plate; served on a puff-pastry base with a smear of tomato salsa reduction on top, the accompanying vegetables included morel mushrooms, goat's cheese, baby courgettes, baby carrots and broad beans.

With so much going on, it should not have worked and I joked that Chef had obviously just piled on everything he had too much of and served it up.

And yet, somehow it succeeded and the reason, to me, is that none of the flavours was too primary or dominant, so that the sweetness of the veg was balanced by the mild sharpness of the cheese whilst the savouriness of the mushrooms matched with both.

Moreover, the slow-cooked lamb showed less prominent, more secondary flavours that were in keeping with the vegetable accompaniment and again, the body and linear acidity of the wine stood up to the food.

By this point the restaurant had filled up and, with Mrs CWB looking stunning and me working the wine-journo "designer scruff" look, I noticed that we had inadvertently fitted in with the general dress code of the men dressing down and the women dressing up.

With a third of the bottle of wine still left, I opted for a cheese plate for dessert whilst Mrs CWB went for jam roly poly.

Leaving it to the waiting staff to select the cheeses, they came served with a generous selection of crackers, bread and charcoal biscuits and included the Lancashire Cheddar bombe I had tried at Cambridge Hotel du Vin's Cheese Masterclass, as well as a comté-style hard yellow cheese, a Cornish soft cheese and a blue cheese with a rind.

All were perfect with the wine which was showing brilliantly by this stage and, having finished mine, I sampled the deconstructed jam roly poly, purely in the interests of research and thoroughness.

Served as slices in a bowl of deliciously creamy custard, the roly poly itself had a surprisingly dense, strangely toffee-like texture almost as if not properly risen and yet was very pleasantly chewy, with a strawberry reduction on top.

We had been invited to check out the restaurant's VIP area after our meal and were ushered through to be welcomed by the mixologist with an extensive cocktail list.

A swift flick through was enough to convince I had no hope of choosing anything before midnight, and so I simply asked for something that would be refreshing and suitable after a plate of cheeses, with Mrs CWB indicating she would like something similar.

What came for me was a verbena-based long drink that was like a grown-up lemonade, beautifully balanced and refreshing, whilst Mrs CWB was presented with an elegant daiquiri which had a flavour of spices or bitters, but which we later found out did not contain any.

On the side was added a shot glass of rum, served neat, but garnished with a sliced of orange, flambée-ed and sprinkled with icing sugar and nutmeg which was also delicious.

Other members of the VIP lounge came and went, but most noticeable was a businessman of a certain age with a group of friends and a well-groomed, eye-catching young lady whom I can only assume to have been a favourite niece or perhaps a PA.

Another couple that we had marked down as likely fellow bloggers turned out to be the new mixologist, as our host was off to New York for a couple of months and then taking over a Bar Manager role at one of the hotel's other locations.

By this point, we were feeling extremely relaxed and rather enjoying the freedom of not having to put the kids to bed.

But years of bringing up children mean that we are no longer the party animals we once were and so we decided to make the short walk back to Piccadilly station and head home.

As we collected our coats from the restaurant, the waiting staff said "Oh, you're the bloggers - do say something nice about us", whilst the Restaurant Manager came over to ask if everything had been alright.

It had all been very pleasant indeed and I explained how the wine had opened up during the meal and stood up to each course.

It was, for many reasons, a memorable evening - not least Mrs CWB's amusement at being labelled a blogger - and having done it once, I'm sure we'll be heading back into Manchester again some time.

A three-course meal for two with wine at the Smoak restaurant costs around £100; we went as guests of the hotel.

Access to the VIP lounge is by invitation only; our cocktails cost £11 each and we paid for ourselves.

Links

Malmaison Manchester - http://www.malmaison.com/hotels/manchester/manchester-mal.aspx
Hotel du Vin Cambridge - http://www.hotelduvin.com/hotels/cambridge/cambridge.aspx
Laurenz V - http://laurenzv.com/index.php

Sunday Lunch at Loch Fyne, Alderley Edge, Manchester - And Driving Through the Peak District

One of the things I like most about the occasional journey back to my ancestral home on the south side of Manchester near the Derbyshire border is the part of the drive that takes us through the Peak District.

One of the various possible routes takes us along the road from Chesterfield to Sparrowpit and, at the right time with the right light, no traffic and some loud guitar rock on the CD, it is as uplifting and scenic a drive as any I have done - especially with the potential detours via Chatsworth House, Froggatt Edge and Winnats Pass.

I am not the only wine writer with a fondness for this area, as both Robert McIntosh and Brett Jones can also be found tweeting about their trips to the Peak District.

Growing up in the north, Manchester was my nearest big city and I spent many of my teenage years hanging out at Affleck's Palace, waiting for the day I could leave school, get my ear pierced, grow my hair long and generally express my individuality by doing the same as the rest of the would-be disaffected late-80s youth in the city of Factory Records and Creation, home to such iconic bands as Joy Division and the Jesus and Mary Chain which, between them, formed the soundtrack to much of my teenage era.

Fast forward two decades and central Manchester has had a series of make-overs and is, so everyone tells me, completely different from the place where I used to hang out.

I have no impression of what Manchester is actually like these days as I haven't been into the city centre for years, but I do not believe the character of the city has changed fundamentally and to me it is still a flash, industrious, new-money sort of place, fundamentally working class in its outlook where intruders are attacked by homeowners and so-called "bigots" harangue politicians.

Someone more adept in journalistic euphemisms than I might call it dynamic, entrepreneurial and go-ahead, but I find it brash and tribal, a place of football shirts, BMWs and trophy wives.

And if anything, the city is becoming more so with the influx of yet more meritocratic new money from football.

Alderley Edge, once an Old Money area, with grand homes and a villagey feel, has historically been the village of choice for captains of industry, partners at law firms and GPs.

However, ever since a certain famous footballer and his ex-pop-star wife / svengali moved there, it has changed from quietly genteel to upwardly mobile and the sole reason I visit it these days is for a wander around the leafy footpaths of the Edge for spectacular views across the Cheshire Plain to the Welsh borders in one direction and the foothills of the Pennines in the other.

However, at the weekend, I found myself driving there to meet the rest of my family for lunch at Alderley Edge's branch of the mainly-seafood chain, Loch Fyne.

The negotiations involved in getting us all there on the same day at the same time are not worth recalling here, but suffice it to say that I come from a family of individuals who all have very different outlooks on and expectations from life.

And with so many generations, opinions and lifestyles around the table, it seemed like a good opportunity to see how the restaurant would cope with the number and variety of us.

In short we numbered 11 in total, with three generations, three children aged between 4 and 12, one wheelchair-user, two vegetarians and three people whose relation to our family is by marriage only; this, then, is a very thoroughly-researched review.

As it happens, we do have a branch of Loch Fyne in Cambridge but in the decade or so we have been here, I have never visited it - I rather like the idea of a seafood restaurant, but somehow I have heard rather underwhelming reports of it (mostly second- if not third-hand, to be fair) and have never quite taken the plunge to find out for myself.

My parents, retired and sociable who like eating out with friends regularly, inform me that the quality of the various branches of this chain vary, but that the Alderley Edge one is the best in their area.

On a bright but autumnal day, our party made up about half the car park as we all arrived for a Sunday lunch, and the place never really got much busier than that.

Housed in a former pub on a bend in the road a mile or two out of Alderley Edge, it is not especially a destination for seeing and being seen, and given all I have said about Manchester so far, that is A Good Thing.

After hellos and welcomes, handshakes and hugs and discussions about the seating arrangements and drinks, we finally all settled down with menus in front of us to consider our meal.

In addition to the usual a la carte and specials board, the restaurant has a £10 two-course lunch menu and a £6 children's menu, delivered with crayons and pictures to colour.

In the setting of my family, I have the habit of trying to organise everyone else - for their own benefit, of course - but on this occasion I resolved to sit back and just go with the flow, partly as an admission of the error of my ways and partly with the aim of a broader, more democratic review.

One of my principles when eating out is to try and have something we do not eat at home, and so I chose a starter of rilettes, a coarse, smoked-fish quasi-pate served with white-bread toast which was well-made and had plenty of strong, salmon flavour.

My brother in law applied the same principle and enjoyed a bowl of moules which my sister, being vegetarian, does not allow him to have in the house.

Mrs CWB chose goose liver pate which she later pronounced "alright", whilst the remainder of the adults generally opted for smoked salmon - which proved to be two small slices with a couple of salad leaves of which the quality was deemed good but the portion size modest to say the least.

Mother CWB opted for bread with oil and balsamic vinegar and olives - my niece, who had never had balsamic vinegar before, decided she liked it, whilst my sister and I both approved of the black and green olives we tried.

The children's mains were brought along with our starters and niece had a bowl of pumpkin soup which she pronounced delicious and creamy whilst our two tucked into haddock goujons and sausages.

Children go through different phases and moods and on this occasion, child #1 was rather quiet and indecisive whilst her younger brother made the most of the waitress's attentions firstly by ordering sausages for himself, then telling her he would like chips with them - not mash, and no veg - and that he would like his gravy poured over his sausages rather than on the side.

The wine-ordering process somewhat passed me by as I had decided not to interfere, so all I know is that a couple of carafes of house rosé arrived and one found its way to my end of the table.

On first pouring, it was perhaps a little overchilled and under-aired and all I really picked up was good, crisp acidity that cut through the oily fishiness of my starter, with neither much fruit on the nose nor the minerality on the finish that I would hope for in a food rose.

On the plus side, the wine glasses were reasonably tulip-shaped and we were left to pour the wines ourselves which meant no overfilling in my case and allowed for some swirling.

With a bit of air and warmth, the red berry fruit became more apparent on the palate whilst the finish started to show a little more minerality.

The choice of mains was slightly more taxing - sausages are a regular feature in the CWB household, so hardly an adventurous option whilst of the remaining fish options neither whiting fillet (bland white fish) nor sardines (not keen last time I had them) appealed, so I opted for the plaice with boiled potatoes.

When it came, grilled whole with parsley butter on top, it was as good as a plain grilled plaice can be and in no way unpleasant.

With brother-in-law enjoying his sausages and Dad tucking into his sardines, I was more intrigued by the presence of samphire with my sister's tilapia fillet served with chili and ginger (she can only bring herself to eat fish that neither looks nor tastes like fish, but found this meal excellent).

I managed to try one of the dainty green strands of samphire and found it to taste mainly of the melted butter that had been poured over it, but with a juicy, succulent texture and a shap hint of herbaceousness to it.

At this point my brother declared he had enjoyed his fish, but there was not much of it and inwardly sympathising, I stole a few of my daughter's chips before she polished the lot off along with a couple of her Grandma's langoustine-tail scampi (which Grandma herself pronounced delicious).

Fortunately, #2 child came to the rescue by filling up on a second bottle of J2O and leaving most of his sausage and chips, so I was able to finish them off and report back that they were fairly good, with a reasonable texture and some herbiness that a went well with the gravy whilst the chips were good too.

For desserts, the children's menu kept it simple and classic with a choice of three flavours of ice-cream, which came with a bit of wafer biscuit and a dusting of icing sugar.

I was completely unsuccessful in persuading #1 child to let me try some of her ice cream and was reminded of the saying that "Whoever coined the phrase 'As easy as taking candy from a baby' has clearly never tried taking candy from a baby !".

However, when my latte arrived with a long spoon, I was able to reach over and steal enough of a mouthful to tell that it was good and tasted home-made.

And with most of the rest of the party not bothering with either coffees or puddings, that was pretty much it.

Asking for the bill, I flashed a Loch Fyne loyalty card which got me a 10% discount that was then added straight back as a gratuity, but overall the price was very reasonable given the quality of the food and, whilst portions were modest, I would rather it that way round than greater quantities of less-good food.

There was then the rush of trips to the loo with little ones ahead of our journey back to East Anglia and goodbyes and farewells in the car park.

In terms of style and presentation, Loch Fyne treads something of a middle ground with more of an identity and a personality than most chains plus high standards of service and a touch of upmarket edge, but not quite the quirkiness or individuality of a truly independent or one-off restaurant.

That said, it succeeds where a lot of other places fail, in providing good, well-made, food at very reasonable prices and therefore is a very safe option for a get-together with the added advantages for my family of being wheelchair accessible, vegetarian and child-friendly.

As a group of 11 rather diverse people, finding somewhere like that to accommodate all tastes and wallets is no mean feat and I would happily return - even if I need to remember to have a big breakfast on the day.

A meal for a mixed party of 11 people cost £155, including wine, loyalty card discount and gratuity.

xxx---xxx

Our route back to Cambridge bears some recalling as, for the first hour-and-a-half it was a stunning drive through some lovely north Derbyshire countryside.

We started by driving through Alderley Edge, climbing up to Over Alderley and the Edge itself where, with more time we would have stopped for a stroll.

Instead, we carried on through winding lanes to Macclesfield, then took the Cat and Fiddle road (the A537) to Buxton.

The climb out of Macc is winding and spectacular with great views across the Cheshire Plain until you reach the moorlands at the top and then begin the descent into the faded glamour of the 19th century spa town of Buxton, still famous for its waters.

The A515 down to Ashbourne, another genteel Peak District market town famous for its waters, is a less winding, more undulating drive and, with the sun setting over the hills and a blast of something uplifting on the stereo makes for a lovely end to the weekend.

Sadly, a few miles beyond Ashbourne, we hit the dual carriageways and motorways that make up the rest of the journey and whilst this allows us to cover the rest of the journey efficiently, the spell of the dramatic scenery is broken by the tedium of motorway miles and the mood changes from being wistfully at one with the landscape to something more focused and purposeful.

As the landscape gets flatter and more predictable, so does my mood as I feel myself mentally doing that Sunday-night thing of starting to gear up for the working week ahead.

Maybe that's both inevitable and No Bad Thing, but for me, however nice Cambridge is, and it is one of the most unique university cities in the world, I will always miss the dramatic hills and brooding moors of the area I grew up in.

Links

Loch Fyne Alderley Edge - http://www.lochfyne-restaurants.com/restaurants/alderley-edge
The Peak District National Park - http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/
Chatsworth - http://www.chatsworth.org/

The Lindeth Howe Hotel, Cumbria

Last summer, we decided to tack an extra day onto a family holiday in the Lake District and booked ourselves into the Lindeth Howe Hotel overlooking Lake Windermere which, according to its website, is a unique 4 star country house hotel once owned by Beatrix Potter and boasting 34 beautiful bedrooms, cosy lounges and award winning 2 AA Rosette dining.

We had spent most of the week at the very lovely Langdale Estate and would gladly have had an extra night there; however, booking a family room for a single, high-season weekend night was not possible either at the Langdale Estate or at any of the other half-dozen or so places we called - until we got through to the Lindeth Howe, who kindly agreed to break with their usual policy and allow us a one-night stay.

Having grown up in the north of England on the edge of the Pennines, I have an affection for hills and moors that I can't readily explain and which I miss greatly in my adoptive and very flat home town of Cambridge, so every visit to Langdale in Chapel Stile with its views of the Langdale Pikes seems to bring about in me a sense of hazy wistfulness brought about by gazing at a dramatic skyline of rugged hills, gently swaying trees and sonorous flowing brooks with patterns of light and shade.

If it sounds idyllic, that's because it is, but the Lake District has its more commercial and, yes, child-friendly corners, with boat trips, ice-creams, fish and chips and so on.

The Lindeth Howe, set in leafy foothills just up from the Hawkshead Ferry is closer to the tourist destination of Bowness than to anywhere more dramatic, but occupying a grand house and set in acres of gardens, it still has very much a sense of place and looking out from any of the genteel sitting rooms on the ground floor, there are views only of lawns and tree-tops.

The walk into Bowness via a shortcut through the garden takes only about half an hour, whilst the ferry itself is easily reached in about ten minutes and provides both views of the Lake and the excitement of fresh air and a new mode of transport for young children.

Smart and with a touch of old-school formality, the hotel is welcoming and as child-friendly as such a place can be - there is a small swimming pool and children's meals are available in the restaurant, but don't expect any soft-play areas, entertainers or mini-discos.

However, after a week of running around in the fresh air and eating pub lunches, we decided it would be appropriate to give our two the experience of a formal dinner and so booked to eat in the restaurant.

Sitting in high-backed chairs in the bar area, we ordered drinks, nibbled canapes and perusing the menu and more importantly, the wine list.

Intrigued by a multi-course "trio" tasting menu, I ordered for ourselves and chose a half-bottle of Chablis from Domaine Pascal Bouchard, whilst Mrs CWB established that the children would like something with chips.

As we were led through to our table in the dining room, the children immediately picked up on the quiet hush of formality and responded with impeccable behaviour - in fact, they rather enjoyed the ceremony of chairs being pulled back for us and napkins being opened with a flourish and elegantly draped over our laps, before choosing from a basket of bread rolls and tucking in.

As an amuse bouche, the adults were brought a "fruit soup" in a shot glass with a dainty caviar spoon - I can't say for sure what was in it, but it seemed to be a refreshing blend of tropical fruit purees with just a hint of spirit, such as Cognac or whiskey.

The waiting staff helpfully arranged to bring the children's mains with our starters so that they were not left waiting and stuffing themselves with more bread.

Our trio of fish starter was a perfectly-cooked, sweet scallop with a spiced risotto, a garnished slice of smoked salmon with caviar and a Bloody Mary shot, which were all superb and matched well with the crisp acidity of the Chablis.

Meanwhile, the children were very pleased with their respective burger and fish and chips which I checked out in return for a bit of scallop and also found to be well-made.

After a hearty pub meal at lunchtime, we were already feeling a little full by this point so a refreshing fruit sorbet (inevitably shared with the younger members of the family) worked the trick before before our main courses arrived.

The trio of mains was a delicious parcel of lamb wrapped in a cabbage leaf, a dainty lamb wellington and, only slightly less convincingly, a lamb dumpling.

Our delicious trio of desserts was a vanilla panna cotta, a mini sticky toffee pudding, and bitter dark chocolate mousse and the only challenge was avoiding the temptation to dive straight into the chocolate dessert, but rather to eat them in order of increasing intensity and sweetness.

The children's desserts of chocolate brownies with ice-cream were also delicious - and I can say this authoritatively as they actually struggled to finish them.

Finally, the trilogy of Cumbrian cheeses was brought out - a Blengdale Blue with oaties, a Ribblesdale with sesame biscuits and a Gurney's Gold with salted cracker.

At this point, #1 child announced herself full and ready for bed and, as any parent will know, this is just too much of a result not to be taken up immediately. So, Mrs CWB who was also struggling to finish off her cheeses, whisked her off for bedtime preparations whilst I continued to supervise Young Man and his ice-cream.

#2 child, being four years younger than his sister, has all the stamina and stubbornness of his age, but not long later he also admitted defeat both on his pudding and more generally, asking to be taken back to our room for bed, so I did what any devoted father and husband would: ordering my coffee to be taken in the lounge, I quickly got him upstairs and into his pyjamas, before heading back downstairs to settle myself on a sofa for petits fours and a pot of decaff, whilst flicking through the weekend papers and gazing out of the window at the relentless rain which had started earlier in the afternoon and not let up since.

And thus reposed, I spent a very pleasant hour or so of child-free, carefree bliss, before arriving at the advert section of the paper's magazine with glossy pictures of expensive rail-journeys through the Canadian Rockies, Baltic Cruises and a breathlessly enthusiastic half-pager for some Spanish wine I'd never heard of but which was apparently such a bargain that I really should snap up a case of it - and get a lever-action corkscrew thrown in - right now before it's all gone.

So, putting aside Tony Laithwaite's over-enthusiastic sales pitch for underwhelming wines, I drained my last cup of coffee and headed upstairs.

xxx---xxx

The next morning, the heavy rain had given way to mist and light rain, and we took breakfast in the restaurant as late as possible, as we were still full from the night before.

Sitting by the window, we were served a wonderful, and filling, breakfast of toast, pastries, coffee, juice, cereals for the children and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon for the adults.

This was followed by a cursory exploration of the hotel including two birdcages with finches and canaries, a trip to the swimming pool for the children whilst Mrs CWB packed up and, back in our room, some children's TV for the kids with elevenses of the hotel's complimentary coffee and biscuits for us.

On a clear day, the views from the upper floors of the hotel over the lake must be spectacular, but a drizzly aspect over the car park from the Family Room does nothing even for an Old Romantic like me, so we did not linger for too long and instead took a stroll in the fresh air around the formal gardens before settling up and heading off to an indoor and outdoor play area to calm the kids down before the long drive back to East Anglia.

xxx----xxx

To me, British food and our attitude to food is, in places, undergoing something of a quiet revolution, with the rise of farmers' markets, British artisan cheeses and restaurants taking traditional British dishes and refining them just enough to be elegant rather than hearty.

As a nation, we have a great heritage to draw upon and to me, the Lindeth Howe is part of that movement, mixing traditional foods with a touch of refinement, presented elegantly with a genteel style of service that is formal but not stuffy.

It's not the edgiest of approaches, but if you want edginess, then the hikers' and fell walkers' mecca that is the Lake District is probably the wrong place to be looking for it.

Transplanted to London, or even Cambridge, the Lindeth Howe's lack of irony or knowing humour might seem somewhat pedestrian, passé or too-school-for-cool, but in the setting of the Lake District it is a lovely reminder of a more genteel age, with enough of a concession to modernity to feel relevant.

A family room with bed and breakfast at the Lindeth Howe Hotel costs around £260 per night, with (normally) a minimum stay of two nights at weekends in season.

Our Trio menu costs £47.50 per person, excluding wine.

Links

Lindeth Howe Hotel - http://www.lindeth-howe.co.uk/
Lindeth Howe on twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/LindethHowe

Hidalgo Sherry Dinner With Cambridge Wine Merchants at The Punter

Another week, another visit to Cambridge's Punter pub for some superb wines (this time from sherry house Hidalgo) matched to excellent food by the pub's talented Head Chef, Ben Pope.

I had been invited by Cambridge Wine Merchants director Lyndsey Spellman and found myself joining an assorted group of CWM employees, the "other" Cambridge wine blogger, Davy Kurniawian, a representative from Hidalgo's UK agents, Mentzendorff, and a wine-buyer from one of the colleges who seemed rather more at home with the liveried grandeur and ancient splendour of his estimable college than with the buzzy world of social media and popular culture.

On arrival, I was invited to sit "anywhere except the studded chair"- which I half-expected to tip back Austin Powers-style into a pool of sharks with lasers - but which actually proved to be merely reserved for Javier Hidalgo himself.

A neat, dapper, handsome man who enjoys coursing hares on horseback and has both the frame and sartorial elegance of a jockey, with quiffed hair, walnut skin and twinkly eyes, Senor Hidalgo is immediately impressive.

The introduction to the evening came from Cambridge Wine Merchants owner Hal Wilson, who described himself as never happier than when he has a glass of chilled manzanilla in his hand, which I'm inclined to believe as he has won several awards for CWM's range of sherries.

With aristocratic gravitas, Sr Hildalgo then introduced himself as the latest in a line of owners of the Hidalgo sherry house stretching back 300 years and made the obligatory reference to sherry being considered these days a drink for aunts and vicars.

From a historical perspective, he pointed out that sherry had previously had few competitors either in Spain or worldwide, which accounted for its success and widespread appeal, but that in the latter half of the 20th Century, the rise of New World wines and the improvement in the quality of Spanish wines had made life harder for sherry producers.

He summed up the current situation as "the best of times, the worst of times"; being best for the consumer who can pick up sherries that are world-class for very little money indeed, and the worst for the producers who are focusing on quality but not seeing that reflected in selling prices.

Of course, there are very few winemakers and winery-owners who do not think their product is undervalued and under-appreciated, but in the case of sherry this is perhaps more true in reality than pretty much anywhere else.

We started with a La Gitana Manzanilla - made in Sanlúcar de Barrameda where the cooling sea breezes allow the flor to grow more thickly, it was fresh, pungent and elegant with a salty tang and refreshingly linear acidity.

Javier explained that the base wine achieves around 12.5% - 14.5% alcohol before fortification to 15% with grape spirit, whilst the average age of the wine in the solera is 4 - 7 years.

The name La Gitana means "Gypsy girl" and comes from the fact that it was historically sold from casks (i.e. not bottled) on docksides to sailors by gypsy girls.

When the wine began to be sold in bottle, the name La Gitana was chosen and a picture of a typical gitana was commissioned for the label.

The wine was matched with olives in a sherry vinegar marinade, roasted almonds, a shot glass of gazpacho and a skewer of roasted peppers, caperberries and anchovies; for me this simple starter was perhaps the highlight of the meal, at least until the dessert wines came round.

The next wine was a Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana - an unusual style of older, more oxidative Manzanilla with an average age of 8 - 12 years that was popular until a couple of generations ago and which remains the wine Javier himself drinks at home.

More golden than the Manzanilla, it showed less on the nose but had more mouthfilling body on the palate.

It proved a difficult comparison with the up-front pungency of the previous Manzanilla which had really started to open up with a bit of warmth and aeration in the glass and initial impressions of the Pasada were of it being much more restrained than the Manzanilla.

For this reason, when I am comparing a series of wines at home, I like to open them all at the same time so that no single wine gets a "head-start" in terms of aeration and perhaps show better merely on the basis of having been opened earlier.

However, with more warmth and aeration, the Pasada also started to open up and show more pronounced, complex oxidative aromas and I found myself liking it very much.

I made the comment to the College Wine Buyer that the Manzanilla had more immediate appeal, whilst the charm of the Pasada was subtler but potentially more long-lived and that therefore they might be classed as "snog" and "marry". In response, his eyes shot through his forehead and he asked me with all the supercilious disdain he could muster "And that's the sort of thing you write on your ... blog, is it ?".

The food match with this was a stew of baby octopus, capers, parsley and tomato and salt cod croquettes with aioli.

The salt cod with aioli I liked very much, but I found the sauce with the octopus a little too intense and salty and rather overpowered the wine.

We then moved on to a Palo Cortado, which is something of an orphan wine, as by nature it is not really supposed to occur.

However, Davy explained to me that despite the inauspicious circumstances of its birth, Palo Cortado is the wine by which a sherry house should be judged as it is always the winemaker's baby.

This one was thirty years old and named Wellington; with a knowing twinkle, Javier dryly explained that during the Napoleonic Wars, his company had supplied both sides ("all soldiers like to drink") and also had a wine named Napoleon.

A mahogany colour in the glass, it had glycerol on the palate, and complex evolved aromas of antique leather, pastry shop, nuts and woody aromatics with an acidity that is still fresh and elegant.

Like a doting father, Sr Hidalgo explained that Palo Cortado needs time and is expensive to produce and I began to understand Davy's earlier comment.

The wine was matched with chorizo cooked with sherry and cauliflower, saffron, pine nut and raisin and whilst the food was good and the logic of the pairing sound - the dark spice of the meat and nuttiness of the accompaniment - it was not quite gastronomic heaven.

We then moved on to an Oloroso Abocado Alameda - with some sweetness, it was nutty and figgy with complex oxidative aromas of leather and polish and was matched with pigeon breast with pomegranate molasses, aubergine with chili and mint and beetroot with yoghurt and pine nuts and rocket.

All three dishes were delicious but the roasted aubergine worked best with its more secondary, roasted flavours and touch of sweetness matching with the oloroso perfectly.

For me, the gaminess of the pigeon might have worked better with the woody aromatics of the older Palo Cortado whilst the sweetness of the beetroot was too primary for the evolved, oxidative flavours of the oloroso.

Matching foods to aged or oxidative wines is a topic I have only recently begun to think about in depth, but for me one general principle is that older wines tend to match with long, slow cooked foods, so that the secondary flavours of both can show though, and perhaps roasting the beetroot after cooking would have brought about a better match.

Sr Hidalgo's comment on the oloroso was that he does not drink sweetened wines at home as they are not suited to somewhere as hot as southern Spain, but that they go much better in cooler northern climates where he enjoys them.

With the final wine a 30yo Triana PX, in one sense the whole of the evening thus far had merely been a warm-up to the main event.

Gloopy and syrupy, the colour and consistency of used engine oil, it had aromas of figs, coffee, treacle, prunes, molasses and raisins, was utterly delicious and matched simply with some excellent home-made vanilla ice cream.

There were plenty of people in the room that evening keen to talk to Sr Hidalgo, hoping for an invitation to visit his bodega or get his autograph on a sherry cook book, but I did manage to ask him about his business, export markets and the potential significance of China which has driven prices of First Growth Bordeaux to such heights in the last few years.

He explained that the UK is a key market for him - La Gitana is stocked by Tesco, for example - whilst Italy buys large amounts of the PX as it produces no equivalent dark, sweet wine.

Specifically on China, he said that if the country gets a taste for sherry, he will have to start a huge planting project to meet demand.

I mentally filed this away as a "diplomatic answer" as there is another approach to dealing with increased demand that the First Growth Chateaux of Bordeaux are very aware of, and decided not to pursue the matter.

For what it's worth, I think that sherry has the potential to do very well in China; its crisp acidity is a much better match for Chinese food than tannic red wines and when well-made, it is elegant and truly world class.

From a marketing perspective it is, like Bordeaux, a European food wine with a heritage and a history and a story to tell, so why not put a red-coloured label on it with number 8s (both symbols of luck to the Chinese) and position it as something to give as a gift to show honour to your intended recipient ?

Who knows, maybe the Chinese will even find they don't need to add cola to make it palatable and it could take off.

Recommended Wine

All the sherries were excellent, as was the food - even if some matches worked better than others.

Sherry afficionados all have their own favourite style but - for me, on that occasion, with the food matches - the most enjoyable food and wine combination was the simple Manzanilla matched with tapas-style starters.

It was certainly not the most complex wine on show, but its freshness and elegance worked superbly with the food.

For anyone new to sherry and trying to work out what all the fuss is about, it's also a good place to start as, along with fino, manzanilla is the most approachable of the sherry styles, is not expensive and there are plenty of easy food matches such as cured hams, salamis, manchego and bread with oil.

Davy's favourite wine of the evening was the Palo Cortado - see here for his review.

The Wines

La Gitana Manzanilla, £7.99
Hidalgo Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana, £14.99
Palo Cortado Wellington 30yo, £58.00
Oloroso Abocado Alameda, £11.25
Pedro Ximenez Triana VORS 30yo, £58.00

All available from Cambridge Wine Merchants

Links

Hidalgo - http://www.emiliohidalgo.es/
Cambridge Wine Merchants - http://www.cambridgewine.com/
The Punter - http://www.thepuntercambridge.com/

Wine of the Month - November

The clocks have gone back, Halloween is out of the way, and once bonfire night is past, there's not much to look forward to during this last month of autumn except more damp and cold.

And yet, for those of a melancholy bent, those who can see in nature's riotous panoply of autumnal russet, gold and burnt ochre hues a last hurrah before inevitable decline and decay set in, for those of us in whom the season brings about a sense of introspection and melancholy, late autumn is a stirring, moving, soulful time of the year - a season for Romantic Poets and armchair philosophers alike.

The Romantic or Philosophical amongst us, then, must choose wines and food that feed the melancholy of our souls and speak to our inner wistfulness through their aromas and flavours.

If wine is poetry bottled, then there are few more poetic terroirs than Burgundy whose indulgent, decadent, hedonistic oenology and gastronomy convey a sense of autumnal decay perhaps like no other, and so we start with a white Burgundy.

Macon-Bussieres Dom du Vieux Puits 2008, Domaine Drouin, Maconnais, Burgundy - £12.99 Cambridge Wine Merchants

Made from old vines, the nose is toasty with hints of tropical fruit, white flowers and vanilla.

On the palate, there is ripe pear fruit and rounded acidity; the wine feels full and rich from aging in mainly large, old oak barrels with 25% new oak for a hint of toasty vanilla sweetness, whilst time spent on the lees gives a savouriness to the finish.

Neither a blockbuster New World Chardie nor a tropically fruity unoaked version, this is a classic food wine to match with straightforward dishes like plain roast chicken and lighter game such as partridge and quail.

Alternately, match with pasta and wild mushrooms in a creamy sauce.

Tenuta Monticello 'Operetta' Rosso delle Venezie IGT - £8.99 Noel Young Wines

A Ripasso-style wine made from 70% Corvina, 20% Rondinella, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% of the grapes are 'appassimento'- dried in small crates in a drying room, with the two parts of the wine vinified seperately and then aged 12 months in French and American oak barriques.

The nose is full of blackcurrant and elderberry aromas with a hint of prunes, cherries, spice and a mushroomy woodsiness. On the palate, there is concentrated fruit sweetness, more elderberry fruit, liquorice, vanilla musk and a sour cherry acidity with soft tannins.

Match with either roast lamb or darker game, such as pigeon or pheasant.



Pinna Fidelis, Roble 2009, Ribera del Duero, £7.99 Bacchanalia
From Spain's prestigious Ribera del Duero region, this one has a big nose of bramble fruit, tarriness, liquorice, loganberries and vanilla spice with a touch of funky, vegetal forest floor.

The palate feels full, soft and sweet with velvety dark berry and prune fruit, mintiness, vanilla and dark spice, whilst there is plenty of lively sour-cherry acidity.

On the finish, there is more mintiness and some gentle grip.

With air, the decaying, vegetal aromas and sour cherry acidity become more pronounced giving this a Pinot-esque feel; match, therefore, with typical Pinot Noir food such as pheasant, duck and other dark game or meaty casseroles with some clove spice.

These are all good wines, but this month's winner is the Macon-Bussieres from Cambridge Wine Merchants on a number of counts - the most classical, it matches well with the kind of seasonal autumnal food that brings to mind images of rooting for truffles in the mist and half-darkness.

But more than that, should we find a day this month when the sun shines and the temperatures rise to moderately warm, we need a white wine, albeit a Big White, to match with lighter game or creamy pasta with wild mushrooms and truffles and leaven our diet of Hearty, Spicy Reds, bringing a life-affirming touch of levity, the freshness of a morning mist and the golden hue of a turning leaf.

Links

Bacchanalia - http://www.winegod.co.uk/
Cambridge Wine Merchants - http://www.cambridgewine.com/
Noel Young Wines - http://www.nywines.co.uk/
Drouin - http://www.domaine-drouin.com/en/macon-bussieres-vieuxpuits.php

Image credit - http://www.pashley.co.uk/code-inc/view-gallery-img.php?size=large&id=338

Errazuriz Wild Ferment Chardonnay, 2009, Chile

As I have noted earlier (writing about a De Martino tasting), to me Chile, with its varying terroirs and microclimates, has the potential to be one of the more interesting New World countries for wine.

Viña Errázuriz, dating back to 1870, was founded by Don Maximiano Errázuriz  in the Valle de Aconcagua, 100 kms north of the capital city, Santiago and has a long and involved history - suffice it to say here that Don Maximiano’s descendant, Eduardo Chadwick, is the fifth generation of his family to be involved in the wine business, overseeing the modernisation of winemaking technology at this estate while maintaining a distinct identity for its wines.

Before I tried this wine, I had a twitter exchange with recovering journalist Paola Tich, tweeting as sipswooshspit, who found the oaking to be "clunky" and felt that the wine needed either time in bottle or decanter to integrate.

I have to say, however, that I disagree with Paola on this one - it is certainly a Big White, with plenty of tropical fruit and lots of layers of what I initially took to be buttery new oak, but which Wink Lorch helpfully pointed out is actually the wild yeast and character of the lees.

Trainspotters may be keen to note that approximately 30% of the final blend underwent malolactic fermentation with the wine then aged for 12 months in French oak barrels, 11% of which were new.

So neither clunky, nor in fact oaky; but it is perfect for autumnal drinking and will match well with the sweetness of root vegetables and squashes, a touch of spice or nutmeg and big flavours like stews and casseroles, or will cut through meaty fish such as salmon and mackerel.

And if it's not the most versatile food wine, that's because it has so much of its own personality to shout about which makes it a great crowd-pleaser.

To me, this is what a sophisticated but fun New World chardie should be like - well-made, more-ish and a lively party-animal of a wine.

On the nose there is a cornucopia of toasty oak, butterscotch, vanilla musk, wet stones, grapefruit and tropical fruit.

The palate shows sweet vanilla, ripe pineapple fruit, rounded acidity and layers of toasty, buttery, oatmealy oak, whilst the sweetness and oak linger on the finish.

Researching for this review, I came across a piece on Viña Errázuriz by fellow CWW member Jamie Goode which details the fascinating history of the company and also provides a (much briefer) tasting note for this wine:

"Rich, quite complex and bold: an intense style of Chardonnay that is toasty, nutty and quite rich, but with nice freshness, too. 90/100 (01/08)"

Priced at £11.50 and available from Majestic, Co-op, Wimbledon Wine Cellar, Cambridge Wine Merchants, Matthew Clark, wine-studio.co.uk; provided for review.

Links

Errazuriz - http://www.errazuriz.com/errazuriz/
Jamie Goode's review - http://www.wineanorak.com/chile/chileanwine_part2_vinedochadwick.htm
Wink Lorch - http://winetravelmedia.com/
Majestic - http://www.majestic.co.uk/
Co-op - http://www.co-operative.coop/food/food-and-drink/drink/Wine/
Wimbledon Wine Cellar - http://www.wimbledonwinecellar.com/
Matthew Clark - http://www.matthewclark.co.uk/
Cambridge Wine Merchants - http://www.cambridgewine.com/
wine-studio.co.uk - https://www.wine-studio.co.uk/