Get Ready For London Wine Week

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Frostie

Block out your diary! The team behind London Cocktail Week have now launched the inaugural London Wine Week, which will be taking place 2nd – 8th June 2014.

A unique seven day celebration of the capital’s flourishing wine scene, set against the backdrop of some of London’s finest bars and restaurants; London Wine Week is designed to decode the wine list and give you new confidence and knowledge when ordering.

Always seem to fall back on old favourites? Feel overwhelmed by the vast number of options? The festival will help you discover new grapes, varieties and vintages usually unavailable by the glass. Simply buy a wristband for just £10 to be part of the Wine Tours, and use the specially created pocket-sized guidebook which maps out all the venues taking part.

From dusty wine vaults to classic hotel bars, top-end restaurants to tiny hidden gems – flash your London Wine Week wristband throughout the week to qualify for premium wines by the glass and taster wine flights, each for just £5.

The festival will also be championing the wealth of incredible independent wine merchants who will be throwing open their doors during the week to offer masterclasses, meet the maker sessions and discounts on bottles for wristband wearers.

And as if this wasn’t enough, there will be a full schedule of ticketed, bespoke events – all a complete departure from the pre-imagined white tablecloth and spittoon tastings, and instead tapping into the pop-up phenomenon and emerging street food movement.

Join the conversation @LDNWineWeek and head to www.londonwineweek.com to register for updates. Wristbands go on sale in April.

Yauatcha Restaurant Review

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Catherine Balavage

Yauatcha, for a restaurant that is so sophisticated and good-looking, actually makes you feel at home. There is something relaxing about it, rare for a Michelin-starred restaurant. My friend and I both felt like we could eat here four night a week. Another good sign is that the restaurant is heaving (it’s Tuesday, so not bad) and some of the diners are Chinese, which is always a good sign when eating in a Chinese restaurant.

The menu has a very good selection with plenty of choice. There is a good selection of drinks too.

To Start:

Lobster dumpling with tobiko caviar with ginger and shallot

This was decadent and wonderful. The lobster was excellent with great texture, firm and fresh along with a subtle hint of ginger all through the dim sum that really works, along with shallot. The caviar is sprinkled on top. This is top class dim sum. Everything just works together beautifully.

King Crab dumpling

The crab is delicious with a great texture. The crab meat is excellent. This dim sum is beautifully made. It has superb seasoning and great use of herbs including chive.

Main

Pork belly with salted fish in claypot

The pork belly is tender and delicious. It comes with mushroom and salted fish. It is very good but beware: it’s spicy and has a kick.

We had egg fried rice with our main. There was a few different ingredients you could choose to have in the egg fried rice and we choose asparagus. Jasmine and scallops were the other options I believe. It is delicate with well balanced flavours. Nothing overpowers but it has loads of flavour. You may have had egg fried rice in a restaurant before, or from a takeaway, but it certainly would not compare to this. It is what egg fried rice should be, fresh, clean, tasty; just very yummy.

Stir-fry Scallop With Lotus Root

I am a huge fan of scallops and this dish is particularly unique. It comes with lotus flower and spring onion. It’s a very good dish with a generous helping of firm and fresh scallops.

Black Bean Beef

Great and fresh black bean sauce, great beef as well, very tender and the vegetables all have great taste and texture.

Drinks

Strawberry and vanilla iced tea
strawberry, vanilla sugar, orange juice and jasmine tea

An excellent mocktail. Amazing and superb non alcoholic cocktail. Beautifully balanced and remarkably delicate. It has a gentle sweetness. It is incredibly fresh and refreshing. Has plenty of ice and is pure pleasure

Hakka
Belvedere vodka, Akashi-Tai sake, lychee, lime, coconut and passion fruit

This was an amazing cocktail. Refreshing, sweet and creamy. Very unique.

Glass of Rose

Very good rose. Not too sweet.

Peach and guava smoothie
peach, guava, banana, cinnamon and oolong tea

Really good. Nice mix.

Dessert was an Orange Mille feuille; it looked amazing and tasted just as good. An amazing looking puddings with apricot
orange and vanilla. A wonderful combination. Had perfect pastry and enough moisture from the satsuma and ice cream.

We also had a Mont Blanc; which was chocolate heaven with almonds and ice-cream. A superb dessert.

There was a lot of other amazing desserts on offer. We will have to go back.

Yauatcha will be offering a special limited edition Chinese New Year menu between 30th January to 14th February, including Golden cuttlefish roll; Pork belly with salted fish in claypot and Jasmine honey dessert with mandarin and sesame.

Address

15-17 Broadwick Street.
Soho, London, W1F 0DL
+44 (0) 20 7494 8888

twitter.com/yauatcha
facebook.com/yauatchaLondon
instagram.com/yauatchalondon
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A Cocktail Fit For A Royal

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Frostie

To celebrate the arrival of Zara Phillip’s first child, a Royal baby girl who is sixteenth in line to the throne, Gallo Family Vineyards created a celebratory The Mini Monarch cocktail using Gallo Family Vineyards Summer White.

The Mini Monarch has sumptuous flavours of ripe apple, pear and citrus with subtle floral notes. Muddled with fresh strawberries, vodka, lemon and basil, this delicious cocktail is perfect for any royal celebration.

The Mini Monarch

6 oz. Gallo Family Vineyards Summer White

1 oz. vodka

5 Strawberries – keep 1 for garnish

1-tsp sugar

1 sprig basil

1 ounce lemon juice

– Blend all ingredients, except wine

– Strain into flute with a strawberry at the bottom

– Top with Gallo Family Vineyards Summer White

Gallo Family Vineyards Summer White has an RRP of £6.99 and is available from UK retailers including ASDA, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Co-op.

Burn’s Night At Seven Park Place By William Drabble Review

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Catherine Balavage

Situated in the luxurious St James Hotel and Club, Seven Park Place is a Michelin-starred venue with all the class you would expect. I joined a fun and varied group of women for a Burn’s Night Preview; a six-course meal with matching wine that finishes with a glass of Highland Park 18-year-old whiskey. This is what we had:

(Sorry about the pictures. They were taken on my Blackberry so I could be discreet)

Uig Lodge smoked haddock soup with whiskey

Seared hand-dived Scottish scallops with garlic puree and parsley oil

The wine we had with these courses: Solo Quinta, Cramele Recas, Romania, 2012

I have never had soup with whiskey before but what a clever idea. This soup is just stunning, with perfectly cooked smoked haddock. I love scallops and these seared scallops with garlic puree and parsley oil were perfect on every level.

Poached Scottish langoustine with buttered cabbage, foie gras sauce and truffle

Ravioli of haggis with confit of turnip, whiskey and thyme jus

The wine served with this course: Riesling Trocken Qba, Sybille Kuntz, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany 2010

The poached langoustine was just superb, one of my fellow diners called it a ‘posh prawn cocktail’. It just tastes like some sort of heaven. The ravioli of haggis is a stunning invention from William Drabble. It is such a smart idea and it tastes amazing, as does the sauce which sounds like a weird combination but really works.

Saddle of Scottish highland venison with beetroot

Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon Royale, Koyle Estate, Colchagua Valley, Chile, 2009

The venison is perfectly cooked and the whole meal just works amazingly.

Selection of British cheese by Paxton & Whitfield

A wonderful selection of cheese. Very tasty.

Souffle of Scottish raspberries with dark chocolate sauce

Wine: Coteaux-Du-Layon Saint-Aubin, Domaine Des Barres, Loire Valley, France, 2012

This souffle is impressive not just because it tastes delicious, but also because it was huge and arrived from two floors down still beautifully risen. It is the best souffle I have ever had and the dark chocolate sauce is perfect. The texture of the souffle is great. A wonderful dessert. Seven Park Place is a Michelin-starred venue and even if you didn’t know this before you went, it would soon be obvious. The food will be some of the best you have ever tasted and the imagination of the chef is truly impressive.

Chocolate and Apple Truffles

These truffles were unbelievable. And the one in the middle was like a very posh apple fruit pastel. I could eat these everyday and not even care if I got fat. Wow and wow.

And to finish….

A glass of Highland Park 18-year-old Whiskey

What to say? Great whiskey: true luxury.After the meal we got to have a chat with William Drabble and I promptly made him an honoury Scot. I complimented William on his cooking and he swept away the compliment by saying it was the good, Scottish, ingredients. He is far too modest and also said that the food is simple as you have to realise that the other people in the kitchen cannot cook as well as you. William manages to make food heaven in a small kitchen, two-floors down, with a staff of only six. Both impressive and surprising. Williams mantra is, “Make it simple, think about it and make it idiot-proof.” Sounds like the perfect system. In the kitchen they drink tea in the morning and water to clean their palette so they can taste the food properly.During the evening sommelier Marco Feraldi told us about each wine. Marco really knows his stuff and every single wine was amazing. I am very fussy about wine but I loved it all. Especially the Solo Quinta, Cramele Recas, Romania, 2012. I had never tried Romanian wine before but I am now hooked.I had a wonderful evening, the food truly was stunning. The perfect place for the perfect Burns Night.

You can catch the Burn’s Night Menu at Seven Park Place between January 20-26.

Seven Park Place, St James Hotel and Club, 7-8 Park Place, SW1A 1LS.

£72 or £126 with paired wines. (£13 supplement for cheese selection) Phone:020 7316 1615

stjameshotelandclub.com

Errazuriz The White Blend 2011 Wine Review

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Frostie

This wine is new for us: a blend. Some of us were a bit befuddled by the concept and unsure what to expect. In fact, we were sent three wines from Errazuriz and this was the overall favourite. (The others were Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc: also good). The Blend 2011 is a blend of three different grapes: Roussanne (55.0%), Marsanne (30.0%) and Viognier (15.0%). All from the Aconcagua Valley. It is 13.5% Alcohol and you can drink now or two-to-five-years from now.

The main thing about this wine is it’s uniqueness; it has typical Roussanne aromas like pear, honey, hawthorn, almonds and honeysuckle. The wine has plenty of flavour and complexity. It does not have that terrible aftertaste a lot of white wines have. Greenish-yellow in colour, the wine is also fresh. We’re a fan. Delicious.

Enjoy with: pizza, pasta, casseroles, stew, mild creamy cheeses, oriental food.

Errazuriz Aconcagua Costa Chardonnay 2011 Wine Review

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Frostie

Errazuriz Aconcagua Costa Chardonnay 2011 is a high-quality, sophisticated chardonnay. It is not sweet, It is dry with a smooth texture. It tastes great and has lots of exotic, tropical stone fruit in the form of apricot and peach, along with touches of quince and honey. It has white floral notes accompanied by a hint of truffle.

The wine is a pale yellow color with greenish tints. The grapes are 100% Chardonnay and naturally occurring yeast in the grape skins are used instead of cultivated yeasts. There is also a taste of oak due to the subtle use of 10% French oak. This is a well balanced wine. There is also a rich creaminess.

The intense fruit and acidity ensures it has great cellaring potential but enjoy it within the next two-to-five years to let the further integration of oak and fruit.

Enjoy with grilled or roasted white meat, fish/shellfish, pizza, pasta, salads and mild, creamy cheeses.

£14.95 from majestic.co.uk

Fattoria La Vialla Christmas Advent Calendar

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Catherine Balavage

It will be hard for any of the Christmas presents we get this year to top this wonderful advent calendar from Fattoria La Vialla. It is certainly the biggest advent calendar we have ever seen, and behind every window is a delicious product from the organic family-run Fattoria La Vialla. Organic wine, pasta, sauce, olives, biscotti…every day is so exciting you will feel like a child again. A book is included and we were also delighted to have a beautiful Christmas card.

A selection of some of the products in the advent calendar (below), does not include them all as we went day-by-day. All of the products are delicious and healthy, the salami was also amazing. Nothing like it tastes in supermarkets. You just cannot compare. In fact every product is of the highest quality. For a more detailed review of their food click here.

What do you think? Will you be buying a Fattoria La Vialla Advent Calendar for someone?

Cune Barrel Fermented 2012 Wine Review

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Catherine Balavage

We have been lucky enough to review a lot of wine and this Cune Barrel Fermented 2012 is one of our favourites. A fresh and balanced wine which doesn’t have the terrible acidity that lesser white wines tend to have. Although this is a young wine it still had the class and refinement of an older wine. A lot of effort has been put into this wine and you can tell.

A manual selection of grapes are picked at their optimum point of ripeness. Once in the winery, the grapes are cold macerated for 6-8 hours to creature more structure and flavour to finish the wine. The grapes are then lightly pressed and the juice transferred to new American oak casks for fermentation for between 15 to 20 days at cellar temperature, between 16 and 20 Celsius. The wine is tasted until it is at it’s optimum moment to rack and bottle.

100% Viura, the dry white wine has a toasty richness and is balanced by crisp, fresh, citrus characters. A soft, aromatic wine that goes beautifully with poultry dishes, smoked fish and makes a particularly good partner to paella.

This wine is now a favourite of mine and I will be buying it again. It is fresh, crisp, dry and has a wonderful citrus character. Great flavour.

RRP £9.49, Waitrose, Christopher Piper Wines, Eynsham Cellars, Luvians

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