Cake & Fine Wine.

If you fancy doing the same - combining cake and wine that is, not behaving badly in a tearoom - then here's your chance! Enter English Mum's Baked With Love Bakeoff and the winner gets pink fizz. I've heard that the judge is open to bribes and that my her favourite cake is coffee & walnut. All details over at Becky's, closing date is the 14th Feb.

Current white in the fridge: Asda Chilean Chardonnay 2011, £3.98, Asda
A friend told me that the children's clothes in Asda were really very good - basically Boden-a-like at a fraction of the cost - so off I went to stock up on jeans, tracksuit bottoms and long-sleeved tees for the boys, hair clips and tights for the no-longer-a-baby-she's-nearly-three girl. Mission accomplished, I picked up a bottle of this Chilean Chardonnay mostly because I liked the groovy camper-van label (turns out it's a cable car) and wasn't in the mood for surprises (Chilean Chardonnay is usually a safe bet). This was just right; bright and fresh with a flash of tropical fruit. Not a game-changer, but sometimes simple is good. My mum loved it, and she 'doesn't like Chardonnay', apparently. 


Current red on the side: Asda Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2010, £3.68, Asda
This was the red I went for, mostly because it was so flipping cheap and I needed some wine to stick in a slow-cooked beef stew. Turns out it was actually rather lovely, with black cherry fruit and a sprinkle of spice. Made from the Montepulciano grape from the central Italian Abruzzo region (as the name suggests), this is warm, friendly and not at all serious. We finished the bottle with some Sunday night telly and a plate of  cheese and crackers. Living the dream (not joking). 


Chin chin x

My Sherry Amour

Glorious, under-rated and often misunderstood: that's Sherry. Well, not all of it - there's lots of sweetened stuff that tends to cast an unfashionable shadow over the rest - but the good stuff is really, really good. So when my friend Hannah asked for some Sherry recommendations I vowed to do a post on them. Here's what you need to know when you go shopping for Sherry:

What is it?
Sherry is made mainly from the light-skinned Palomino grape in Spain's most southern - and very hot - province, Andalucia. To be called Sherry, it must come from the Sherry Triangle, marked by the towns of Jerez de la Frontera (from which Sherry takes it name, we just couldn't pronounce 'Jerez') and the coastal towns of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. The best vineyards are on chalky 'albariza' soils.

What does it taste like? 
Sherry ranges from bone dry to candy sweet, depending on style. The two basic dry styles are Fino and Manzanilla, both very pale in colour and positively quivering with nervous tension. They taste tangy (due to flor, more on that in a mo). Then there are dry amber-coloured Amontillado and darker Oloroso styles, both nutty in flavour and in the case of Oloroso aged for much longer in oak barrels. If you want good sweet, there's the dark treacle-like PX, made from the Pedro Ximenez grapes.

Flor! What is it good for? 
Flor is a strange yeast beast, unique to the Jerez region and grows as a delicate film on top of the wine in the barrel, protecting it from air (and oxidation).  Flor needs around 15.5% alcohol to thrive, so base wines are fortified with spirit to reach at least that, sometimes more depending on what style of Sherry is being made. Wines aged in bodegas in the more humid coastal town of Sanlucar are called Manzanilla and possess a certain seaside saltiness (although I do wonder if this is partly due to the salted almonds I shovel in when sipping it). Flor doesn't survive on the higher alcohol Amontillado or Oloroso styles, so the wines oxidise and darken in colour as they age in oak, developing stronger flavours.

Should it be aged? 
Actually, by the time you buy it, it is pretty much good to go. It is aged as it is made, via a 'solera' system. Barrels (known as Sherry butts) are stacked up on top of each other in a pyramid shape in the bodegas (cellar) and a proportion of older wines are taken out at this blending stage and replaced with younger wines. The older and more layered the 'solera' system, the more subtle the resulting wine should be. Over the years producers have developed their own consistent styles, similar but unique. Drink Fino and Manzanilla within days of opening the bottle. Darker styles will last a bit longer.

So what else makes Sherry interesting? 
What makes it is the complexity, the mix of young and often very old wine and the exhausting range of styles. Dry Fino & Manzanilla is best served really cold in small measure as a pre-prandial (tapas-type nibbles essential). Amontillado & Oloroso (meaning 'scented') is best served when curled up in front of a fire. PX is almost always poured over ice cream in this house (adults only, obv).

What should I buy? 
Sherry can make for complicated shopping. Luckily, there are some very trusty producers to look out for. Some of them make wines for supermarket own labels too, making them brilliant value. Here's a shortlist:

Lustau - brilliant producer, always winning medals. They make the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference 12 year old Oloroso, a snip at £7.99.

Hidalgo - try their Manzanilla, La Gitana. Widely available, including Waitrose & Majestic at around £9. Love the label.

Gonzalez Byass - the makers of Tio Pepe (lovely Fino). Try their more adventurous Palo Cortado, a style that starts life as a Fino and quickly morphs into a sort-of Oloroso style. Widely available, including Majestic, Tesco & Waitrose at around £17 for a half bottle. Small measures, remember.

There are lots more, including Valdespino, Harveys (makers of Bristol Cream) and Osborne.

Chin chin x

Blogging doesn't get tougher than this...

A normal Tuesday night for me goes something like this: have a bath, go out, meet a friend for supper in a local gastropub, share a bottle of wine, get back after 11pm...oh, sorry. No, forgive me, that's my old life. Tonight has been about getting three children to bed (easier herding goats, although I've never actually done that, so I'm guessing), sinking into the sofa and watching Masterchef. Very difficult to blog with Masterchef on because it is so very entertaining. Now that's what I call a good night.

Current white in the fridge: Domaine Joel Bordet Chablis 2009, £12.99, Laithwaites
Last week I was sent a case of wine to try out with my Book Club. I know, tough gig, but remember I do it for you. So it was this Chablis was unleashed on Madeleina, Cecily and others (please note these are not their real names; these are Book Club names that sound a little more, er, literary for blog purposes). I loved this one, all steely and sharp as Chardonnay is from this part of Northern France, a slap for the tastebuds. Thumbs up from most, but not from Sam (she hasn't decided on her BC name yet). I supped mine with twiglets, not a great food match for white wine admittedly, but pretty impressed that the flavour of the wine got past the taste of marmite. 

Current red on the side: The Grinder Pinotage, 2010, £9.99, Laithwaites
This wine tells you that you WILL smell mocha when you sniff this wine. This is a fairly brave thing to do because often when a label tells me I'm going to find something, I expect to find it. Unless it says mulberry, and then I have no idea what I'm supposed to be smelling, having never smelt a mulberry in my life. I digress. So, when Susie Drusilla declared that it did indeed smell of mocha, it was a small victory for The Grinder. It is made from the Pinotage grape in South Africa, one that is often referred to as the 'marmite' grape (love it/hate it thing) but this was lovely and smooth, rich and mocha-ry. Was a fab match for Madeleina's cayenne-pepper infused chile con carne (she forgot to buy chillies). 

Off to read my book x

Hope

After the incredible madness of December, January is a horrible month. I feel thin in January, and sadly I don't mean weight-wise. Just thin. A large part of feeling like this is because this is the month my little brother died: it will be ten years next week since he did. But as the month goes on I'm being fattened up by life. Watching my children run in the low winter sunlight. Seeing Currently Bearded Husband tending to his leaf-burning bonfires. Pulling up the blinds to a breath-taking pink and blue dawn (even though I'd rather be sleeping). I sense hope in the air. And he's there.

Current white in fridge: Cantina di Monteforte Passo Avanti 2009 Soave, Italy, £5.69, Waitrose.com
Italy grows over 1000 different grape varieties across a million vineyards. The Italians drink quite a bit of it themselves but they export more wine than any other country. Much of what we get is the ubiquitous Pinot Grigio but when you start exploring other indigenous Italian white grape varieties, it gets much more interesting. This one is made from the Garganega grape and made in the Veneto region by a New Zealander. The result is a lemon/apple/pear mash up with gorgeous sunshine fruit. It sings rather than shouts, just as I like it. Put it with simple roast chicken. 


Current red on side: Montgras Carmenere Reserva 2010, Chile, £6.40, Waitrose.com
I plonked for this one when doing the online shop (told you it wouldn't be the last time), always a bit more risky because you can't really tell what the label is like. I do like a nice-looking label. Anyway, this was a joy. It was wintery, squashed full of bramble fruit and topped off with a lovely waft of spice. For years, the Carmenere grape was mistaken for Merlot in Chile and the two grapes were harvested and vinified (made) together. Now, it is often vinified separately. Good job too, as Carmenere has a bit more grip and attitude than Merlot. Made from grapes grown in the up-and-coming Colchagua Valley. Loved it with roast beef on Sunday.

Here's hoping x