St-Valentine's Day - Pink Champagne etc...

A little red faced as after last week’s e-mail, though only one of you upbraided me for such a glaring failure (sure more of you noticed it), Avize is of course Champagne, as per the topic of conversation, but not one of those illustrious Grand Cru names in Burgundy as I wrongly ascribed. So J.C. of W.8, you are quite right Avize is indeed Champagne and not Burgundy. Though in reality, the very best of Champagne and with serious bottle-age is more than compared to Burgundy, many say it is!

Enough of Champagne. No, it’s St-Valentine’s Day looming. Luckily on a Monday so I can stay at home and do the washing. Still, I am sure some of you indulge in such romantic notions and for those of you not perusing the wine lists of Hôtel Meurice à Paris or the Fat Duck in Bray or some shack in Verbier or Le Grand Coeur in Mirabelle…

François Diligent Brut Rosé Champagne at £ 29.50 per Bottle

A friend treated me to a couple of glasses of Laurent Perrier Pink t’other night up at The Commander just off Westbourne Grave and I have to say I far, far prefer the Diligent, even forgetting that it is markedly cheaper. The bargain in Restaurant terms however, for a proper Champagne, is next door at La Côte (on the corner of Westbourne Grove & Hereford Road) as they have Henriot 1996 at about £ 64.00 a bottle. Made the Laurent Perrier look and taste positively anaemic! La Côte looks good and in Fulham always full yet I found the food competent no more. Perfectly cooked steak but just lacking in that depth of flavour one wishes when slaughtering a cow. Otherwise what’s the point. Little or nothing else of merit on the Wine List but Henriot 1996 at £ 64.00 is worth a trip itself.

For those not thinking pink, the usual suspects in Village; Premier; Grand Cru; Non-Vintage; Vintage; Blanc-de-Blancs; Growers; Brands even, of course prevail (£ 20.00 to £ 150.00). APPLY WITHIN!

            I have a boozy lunch planned for this coming Sunday 13^th February but for any die-hard romantic regulars who might require “last minute” something concerning alcohol, I could happily open By Appointment so just try my mobile number.

Weekly curiosity (as opposed to indulgence):

Château Loudenne 1996 Médoc Cru Bourgeois at £ 20.00 per Bottle

Yes this should really have been drunk 5 or more years ago but still drinking okay now.

Rugged, earthy, backward, typical Left-Bank 1996 really.

12 Bottles available.

Silly Season

“When the battles are over and the soldiers have all gone,

The real heroes of the Great War – the dead – will reassemble under the moon in the vast cemeteries,

whose crosses look like nothing so much as vines that have never borne fruit.

And there, Champagne will be celebrated once again.”

-          C.I.V.C. archives

-          “Champagne” – Don & Peter Kladstrup

Think about it, if you ever had cause to telephone the Police Complaints Authority you would arguably be most likely to call them of an evening or weekend or both. Funny then that in today’s world where so much goes beyond the nine-to-five, this little service doesn’t.

            Well, what an extraordinary weekend of Premiership Football. You kind of have to feel sorry for Arsenal. Not.

Speaking of sorry, what about the Muppet who robbed a Petrol Station in Cardiff using a Halloween disguise? He was easily identified as he bought the disguise from the petrol station three days earlier.

Well my furry slippers are usually slid beneath the bed well before midnight these days but I might just stay up this coming Sunday as the Oscars unravel down the red carpet and into some of our homes. A customer has been nominated for the Documentary “Waste Land”. They already bagged the Audience Award at the recent Sundance Film Festival so one to watch, in both senses. www.wastelandmovie.com

Tuggy & Henry

Avize Grand Cru Champagne...

Fish ‘n chips and a good bottle of Champagne. Not many things better. Okay, maybe an Ashes Series win. We have just become the exclusive retailer for a small but fine quality Grand Cru Champagne from the Village of Avize. At thirty-five pounds this is not exactly budget Champagne but it is a real cut-above in terms of quality.

Leclaire-Gaspard “Cuvée Carte d’Or” Blanc-de-Blancs Champagne

Avize Grand Cru Champagne at £ 35.00 per Bottle

Avize is just one of the seventeen Grand Cru sites in Burgundy. One of our long-term favourites has been the Jacquesson Avize Grand Cru, reasonably well known and well respected too.

The Leclaire-Gaspard however is a relative unknown. Never seen in the U.K. before, so we are pleased to have just shipped this for the very first time.

A mere 2,000 Bottles produced. Old vines. 100% Chardonnay. The base of this Non-Vintage is 2005.

Technicalities aside, we are left with a wine that has no harsh edges to this full-bodied, rich but still reserved Grand Cru.

Rounded, ripe, flavoursome fruit, good minerality and would make a perfect accompaniment with seafood but also the richer things like foie gras etc.

This is different, very individual and I am struggling to draw a parallel in style to other obvious Champagne names – and that’s no bad thing!

*

“Gentlemen, in the little moment that remains to us between crisis and the catastrophe, we may as well drink a glass of Champagne” – Paul Claudel (Ambassador to the U.S.)

“Only the unimaginative can fail to find a reason for drink Champagne” – Oscar Wilde

“I drink Champagne when I am happy and when I am sad. Sometimes I drink it when alone. In company I consider it compulsory.

I sip a little if I’m hungry. Otherwise I don’t touch it – unless I’m thirsty of course.” – Lily Bollinger

*

Weekly indulgence

With Champers at thirty five a pop, are you kidding? Something big, something tempting next week.

“Silly season”

Much missing Costa’s Fish & Chips as he retired Christmas before last I was delighted to see that his cousin’s at the near next door Costa’s Grill (Greek Cypriot) have taken up the batten and are now doing good old fashioned fish ‘n chips, and takeaway to boot. This was 85-90% as good as I remember of the old days, so highly recommended for now. Another plus is that the owner extended a very modest £5 corkage deal when I presented a bottle of the above, the Avize Grand Cru. Great match, great price. My favourite Greek has always been Halepi (Leinster Terrace) so I have always more than a little overlooked Costa’s Greek as I felt it was very much a poor man’s version. Even on one occasion, I recall sitting at the head of a long table of about a dozen friends and whilst all and sundry were tucking into their dolmades I was on a solitary glass of Brandy, and one asked out loud why I wasn’t eating. The formidable and vocal Charlotte, a veritable Margaret Rutherford like figure, boomed in response “Oh, because Tuggy thinks the food here is absolutely disgusting”. From a party atmosphere a temporary silence fell across the whole dining room in an instant. All looking for the man with no food before him. It has taken me twenty years to venture back! Costa’s is a virtual Mike Leigh film set with ‘70’s dark brown Formica table tops and pictures that would make your dentist’ waiting room look decidedly classy, as well as, dare I say, a clientele that all remember how ghastly the ‘70’s were for real. Nonetheless, for locals in search of decent fish ‘n chips within a country mile and a £5 corkage deal, I think Costa’s in Hillgate Street is truly back on the map. Best chips are still the Fox & Anchor off Charterhouse Square in Smithfield and best burgers are still Bar Bouloud in Knightsbridge. The Ledbury; Tenth Floor; Whites and more, next week.

It is all very well The Sunday Times pumping out headlines about over-paid and under-taxed Premiership Footballers and bonus filled Bankers but surely a case of calling / pot / black…as the proprietor, that charming gentlemen, Rupert Murdoch, I believe pays circa 6% in tax for his profits made this side of the Pond.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulacity uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid!! Aoccdrning to rscheearch at Cmabridge Uinvertisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt thing is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuscae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lieter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzaning huh?

W.W (1934-2011) – with such experience, a true guiding hand – on the cricket field and in life. Thank you.

Tuggy and Henry