Restaurant Show ’09 Earls Court

We came, we saw, we… Well read the blog for the results. Monday afternoon we collected together the paraphernalia and ingredients for the trip to London to compete in the Gastropub Challenge in the Restaurant Show ’09 http://www.therestaurantshow.co.uk/page.cfm/link=106 We were invited to enter as either or both the Garrick’s Head pub and the King William pub. We entered as the King William http://www.kingwilliampub.com/ with a team comprising staff from all three pubs in the group. 

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 After dropping most of the equipment at Earls Court 2, see previous picture, we headed to leafy Clapham to drop off sleeping stuff and Charlie and Amanda’s children with Granny. After a short walking tour of south London, thank god for GPS, we arrived at the Anchor and Hope, The Cut, Waterloo, London (seems they have no website), to drink a pint or two, eat, drink a glass of wine and discuss the final plans for the competition the next day. Without turning into a reviewer, all grand on the Anchor and Hope’s product: nice beer; sensible no reservation policy; good wine (same supplier as us http://www.lescaves.co.uk/ ); fairly bright service considering they were heaving on a Monday night; and most importantly great ‘gastropub’ food. Collectively we had smoked whitebait, smoked cod’s roe, a whole crab, charcuterie and a rather super salt beef broth, ‘just’ to start. Then shared a superb slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with Dauphinoise potato. A bottle of Grüner Veltliner with starters, then a surprisingly zingy Beaujolais with the lamb (turns out neither of these from Caves de Pyrene).

Morning of the competition and London traffic crossing the Thames was grindingly slow as ever, so we were last to arrive at the competition. The arena comprised four equal kitchen and dining spaces for four teams of four; two chefs and two front of house. The competition was http://www.millbrookinnsouthpool.co.uk/index.asp ; http://www.thecrookedbillet.co.uk/ ; http://www.theploughwavendon.com/ ; and us http://www.kingwilliampub.com/ . The teams all said hello and good luck, this was a ‘friendly’ and the organisers were very helpful, introducing us to three runners from Westminster College who pointed us in the right direction or ‘ran’ off to get us missing bits n bobs. As previously posted, I was pretty nervous, as I imagine all of us were. We had a bit of time to get our bearings and switch on the ovens etc. The start was 10.30 so no cooking or laying up ‘til then. Each team had two hours to cook and serve a main and dessert to twelve diners (three tables of four) with two more servings for the judges.

Nice aprons! Chefs got jackets, we got monogrammed aprons, so named and logoed  the event began. We were issued our wines from our sponsors, Brown Brothers, so in the fridge with the bubbles and whites. Table cloths went down; napkins were folded; cutlery placed; glasses buffed and repositioned for maximum sparkle; menus placed in our rough-hewn display blocks, then turned and turned to be facing just the right direction; cold-pressed rapeseed oil placed centre table as our emblematic local fine product. Chefs chopped; creamed; ice-creamed; seared; sautéed; sausaged; butchered; boiled; dirtied bowls and handed washing up to me, which I judiciously handed to Jason to wash up. 

Each team’s fourth person got the lofty title of ‘gopher’, i.e. washer up, they formed a bond in the backup area swapping detergent and scrubbers until the hot water duly ran cold halfway through service. All the while judges noted and ticked away, marking each team for hygiene, professionalism, communication, organisation and efficiency. Our tables looked nice, but had we gone a bit pared down? The tables of the other pubs had a bit more flare and finish. Also we hadn’t quite got the right end of the stick regarding wine service, having brought the correct glasses for what we would recommend, but weren’t going to serve. Turned out we were serving the provided wines, had we got flutes? No! Thankfully the sherry schooners were miniature flutes, it made a talking point.

 Midday neared and guests/judges started to arrive. We were being scored on greeting, seating and service. So charm and natter I did. The rules did not permit any wine or food service ‘til 12.30, but what to do with already sat guests whilst they had a talk from Paxton and Whitfield Cheese? Quick word with the compere and rules bent, of course any pub wouldn’t have sat customers without serving a drink. Out came the bubbles, Brown Brothers Prosecco (no I hadn’t ever seen Prosecco from outside Italy before either) and ‘Restaurant Show’09’ water.

 Service time beckoned and hopefully I’ll get all the menus emailed back from the other pubs to include in the next entry.

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Restaurant show

Very nervous

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Restaurant Show '09 Earls Court

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Restaurant Show '09 Earls Court

Just unloading at the show. Back tomorrow morning to compete.

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WSET 2 part 4 – Côtes du Rhône

The river Rhône flows south from the Swiss Alps to Marseille on the Mediterranean. Swelled on its route by many tributaries, this mass of water has not only carved a deep cleft through the rocks between the Alps and Massif Centrale, it has an effect on the climate on those banks. The appellation runs from Vienne in the north in a thin corridor down the banks of the river, fanning out west to Costière de Nîmes and east to the boundary with Provence at the river’s delta. Any wine produced within this can carry the name Côtes du Rhône.

 

map courtesy of Wikipedia.

For photos of the area, follow these links: and

Geographically the region is split in two. The Northern Rhône runs along the steep slopes of the gorge from Vienne to just south of Valence. Principal cultivation is on the granite right (western) bank, the only exceptions being the left bank granite outcrop of the Appellation Contrôlées of Hermitage and Crozes-Hermitage, and the satellite appellations of Clairette de Die and Châtillon-en-Diois on the Drôme tributary. The Southern Rhône is everything south of Montélimar, now recognising the Mediterranean influenced Costière de Nîmes as its western limit. In addition to the general umbrella appellation Côtes du Rhône, within the Southern Rhône there exists another term Côte du Rhône-Villages, which is then appended by one of the 95 ‘villages’ names. This defines the wine production as a step up from the general category but on which is not from within one of the strictly regulated Appellation Controlées.

Northern Rhône

In the northern Rhône four grapes dominate. Red Syrah, and the whites, which only make up four percent, Rousanne, Marsanne and Viognier. The Côte-Rôtie, literal translation ‘the roasted coast’, with its nearly unscalable, south facing slopes, benefits from the Rhône’s reflective qualities, magnifying the sun’s ‘roasting’ effects. Almost exclusively Syrah is grown here, but Viognier is also present in small quantities; a small percentage of its juice is sometimes added to Syrah’s to increase the aromatic qualities of its red. Condrieu’s equally difficult terrain is not the only cross the region bears, as Viognier is a notoriously stubborn and finicky vine to grow. It is unusually grown in pairs in a tapering shape here. Condrieu’s single variety white is very much back in vogue with demand outstripping supply now, where once its vineyards were near abandoned. The area St Joseph is now long and thin, having expanded the AC in 1969 to over 40 miles long. Having endured criticism for the dilution this caused to the quality of some of the cooler climate, riverbank grown reds, the Rousanne and Marsanne whites are some of the most prized of the locality. Limited to just 130 hectares, Hermitage is the big star of the northern Rhône. Almost every available plot is put aside to vines. Traditionally the boisterous red that the region produces was so sought after that some Bordeaux reds were termed ‘hermitagé’, i.e. actually beefed up by small amounts of imported Hermitage red. Hermitage is 100 percent Syrah and is intended for maturation, even the fruit led examples. Enveloping the appellation is the much larger Crozes-Hermitage. Reds from here can rival Hermitage, or can be full of blackcurrant fruit flavours that are better younger. Like St Joseph on the opposite bank, Crozes-Hermitage produces Rousanne and Marsanne whites, these are substantial in flavour, if not in production quantity. Those two white grape varieties feature exclusively in the golden sparkling wines of the most southern appellation of St-Péray. The sparkling and still whites of the tiny Drôme appellations utilise Clairette and Muscat grapes instead. Cornas completes the appellations of the northern Rhône; its reds, though consistent, don’t carry the cachet of its near neighbours.

Southern Rhône

Châteauneuf-du-Pape, so famous, so instrumental, so why? Geographically at the centre of the southern Rhône, it was here that Baron Le Roy became the first wine grower to delimit an area of land to exclusively produce Châteauneuf-du-Pape in 1923. In doing so the Appellation Contrôlée system of France and Denominazione di Origine system for elsewhere in Europe began its development. This delimiting was not merely a system of marking boundaries for the villages’ grape crops. The grape varieties that were permitted into each named appellation and methods for growing, harvesting and vinification became law in 1935 and 1936 across all of France’s wine production areas. Grenache was brought to the area as Garnacha, while the southern Rhône was under the Kingdom of Aragón’s rule until the mid-seventeenth century. Grenache dominates both Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s blends as it does most of the wine production of this area of the Mediterranean. Almost always bolstered by the sterner Syrah, thirteen varieties are permitted; Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Counoise and Cinsault then in smaller amounts Vaccarèse, Picpoul Noir, Terret Noir, Grenache Blanc, Clairette, Bourboulenc, Roussanne and Picardan. Only Château de Beaucastel and Clos des Papes use all in their blends.

Surrounding Châteauneuf-du-Pape are the Côtes du Rhône Villages. These fine ‘parishes’ of wine producers are named on the appellation. Certain larger ‘villages’ have become ACs in their own rite. Most famously: Gigondas; Vacquerays; Cairanne; Beaumes de Venise, even more famous for its Muscat dominated sweet wines; Tavel and Lirac the torch bearers for the regions rosés.

Eastwards towards Provence lies Côtes du Ventoux; southwesterly towards Languedoc is the more Mediterranean Costières de Nîmes; both their reds and rosés are lighter in style. Beyond these ACs a great deal of the general Côtes du Rhône appellation is grown within a broad band of quality and styles.

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WSET 2 Part 3 – Riesling

Sugar and acid, Riesling has bundles of both. Going right across the range of sweetness and acidity is both Riesling’s trump card and Achilles’ heel. 

image: Ripe grapes of Riesling. Photographer: Tom Maack, Riesling grapes and leaves. Rheingau, Germany, October 2005. Source: Wikipedia.

If wine circles are to be believed, then those in the know revere Riesling above all the white grapes. It has the required sugars to either leave residual sweetness in the wine and remain low in alcohol, or after the impact of Botrytis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botrytis_cinerea the noble rot, deliver high alcohol sweet wines, and also be able to deliver dry wines. Temper this with its mouth-watering acidity and its ability to produce balanced, fine white wines that then can be matured to improve them, and it’s easy to see its appeal. To the untutored, though, what to expect of a Riesling has seen its popularity waver. Compound this with the name being used, for a while, to refer to a group of lesser grapes; further confusion with Welschriesling and Riesling Italico not being Riesling (The Germans and Alsatians are keen for these varieties to adopt Rizling for these grapes); and its easy to see how this fairest of fine grapes has had mixed reactions.

The vines are resistant to frost, so make Riesling good for early winter pruning, and more importantly able to survive in regions that cannot support other varieties. The bunches are small and compact and are prone to coulure and botrytis. This vulnerability to botrytis and the plant’s resistance to frost actually give it the ability to enable the harvest for Eiswein, where the grapes are picked late in the year while actually frozen. The resulting juice that is extracted without the crystals of water being melted is super-concentrated and the resulting Eiswein is prized, and priced, as a supreme luxury drink.

Yields can be high and growth vigorous without undermining the quality. The grapes ripen late, so while vines have been lost from certain areas due to this, they have often been reinstated where warmer microclimates enable full ripening. Juice from under-ripe grapes produces a characterless wine, therefore a decline in vine numbers. Over the last half century this selective replanting has resulted in better Riesling wines.

Origins

In the Rheingau, Mosel and Baden regions, mentions of Rieslings date back as far as the middle ages. Confusion exists for exact dates due its similarity of spelling to the other native ‘Räuschling’ grape. By the middle of the fifteenth century it is recorded throughout the wine producing areas of south western Germany, then only slightly later in Alsace.

Territories

A strong candidate in the cooler northern European wine regions of Germany, Alsace, Luxembourg, Austria, Alto Adige in Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and then on into central Asia. Surprisingly, Riesling was the biggest white grape grown in Australia until Chardonnay took over very recently in 1990. The total hectares grown continues to increase, though, as new areas introduce the variety. Present in New Zealand and America, it is in Ontario, Canada and New York State, USA that production of Icewine has led to a surge in popularity again of Riesling.

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WSET 2 part 2 – Grenache

Fruit, think Grenache, think fruit. Growing in three grape colours, Noir, Gris and Blanc, the varieties are used in red, rosé and white wine production. It buds early, so can be prone to coulure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulure,  ripening late, so needs areas with long growing seasons.

 
image courtesy of Josh McFadden  

Also known as Cannonau or Tocai Rosso on Corsica and Sardinia, it is more often seen as Garnacha, simply the Spanish spelling. It has a close relative Grenache Poilu or Velu, that is also called Lladoner Pelut or Garnacha Peluda depending which village you’re in.


Showing out in the prized rosés of Tavel, Lirac, Provence and Navarra, and the whites of the Roussillon, Grenache is AC named in many southern French sweeties. Single varietal Grenache red wines are generally fruit led. They can make reds with tannic elements if the vines are old and stressed, but it’s as the bearer of fruit flavours to blends that Grenache is most widely used.

As a vine it’s a tough fruit, resisting phylloxera in the nineteenth century, so making it much favoured when European vineyards were being replanted. The mostly bush grown vines can survive, even prosper, in dry, hot and dusty conditions. Until Shiraz took over in 1970s, it held the number one spot in red grape production in Australia. Unlike in many European territories where it had been removed, Grenache vine numbers have not diminished, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot have simply had more new plantings.

Origins
The kingdom of Aragón, Spain, spread Garnacha vines with the expansion of their realm until the mid seventeenth century.  East to Duero, south to Valencia, north into Roussillon and west to the Mediterranean islands. Curiously it was not planted in the Aragón region of Rioja (I know you’ve heard of it), until the twentieth century.

Territories
In Europe its northern most situation is the northern Rhône. Not permitted in the mix with Syrah in the top end ACs, it has a presence elsewhere. It is top banana though in the southern Rhône, I’ve already mentioned the rosés of Tavel and Lirac. The most famous red, Châteauneuf du Pape, is synonymous with Grenache, as are the surrounding blockbuster ACs. It is the lead grape, but generally has a supporting role from Syrah to add much valued tannin and substance, as well as a large cast featuring Carignan, Mouvédre, Cinsault and more, up to thirteen in some. There is so much down there it’ll have its own post. Neighbouring Provence and Languedoc Roussillon for whites, rosés and reds. Then over the border to north east Spain, where as Garnacha, it is a solo star of the Navarra rosados; for the past century adding fruit to the harder Temperanillo in Rioja; and as the headline grabber in the ever more popular Priorat blend.

In Australia it holds its volume, if not its poll position, where due to irrigation its flavours can become somewhat dilute. In California it has its place as ‘White Grenache’ rosé that I sense it blushes slightly from. Those ‘Rhône Rangers’ there  are thankful for that somewhat dubious patronage as it has allowed Grenache vines to mature in the Californian vineyards, where it may have been uprooted for more modish varieties.

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