Fashion Fix

Perhaps it is the influence of London Fashion Week but this weekend I became absolutely sure that a pair of bright pink jeans from Zara would complete my life. Tonight it is the turn of a pair of wide-legged sailor trousers from Boden (I know, I know. I have resisted). What is it about fashion that can make a fairly normal person like me think that a pair of shoes or trousers will complete my wardrobe? Well, I think it is because most of the other stuff we do - motherhood, work, whatever - takes proper effort. Putting on a pair of bright pink jeans doesn't. Doing them up, on the other hand...

Current white in the fridge: Les Andides 2010 Saumur, France, £7.99, Waitrose
Lovely, lovely Loire. This wine is from the Saumur region in the Loire Valley and is made from Chenin Blanc, a grape often overshadowed by the Loire's more famous export, Sancerre (made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape).  Chenin Blanc can match Sauvignon for acidity but has a more apple-like character compared with the citrus & gooseberry-ness of Sauvignon. With age, Chenin Blanc can develop gorgeous honeyed characters too. A glass of this with fishcakes was a very good idea. 

Current red on the side: Castillo de Tafalla Merlot 2010, Spain, £5.99, Naked Wines
Nothing but bills seemed to drop through the letterbox last month so when a voucher from Naked Wines to buy a case of wine for £40 came through, Bearded Husband was all over it. He chose the case - winter warmers? something like that - and this was the one that came out of the rack yesterday to go with roast lamb. Made from Merlot grown in the Navarra region in Spain, this is an undemanding wine, bright and jolly. A bit like the jeans, except red rather than pink. 


Ab fab x

Valentine's Day.

The first time Bearded Husband and I spent Valentine's Day together, we'd actually been together for seven years. Different schools (we were fifteen when started 'going out', not that we went anywhere then) followed by different universities meant we weren't in the same place on Valentine's Day until then. And when we finally were, go out we did. To a swish-ish fish restaurant on the Brompton Road. It was awful; tables squashed together in a room heavy with an atmosphere of forced romance, food rushed onto the table to get another sitting in. As we sat across from each other, starters on the table, I knew he was thinking what I was thinking. We made our excuses, paid and left, stopping for a bottle of pink fizz and chocolates on our way home. It was the first and last time we went out on Valentine's Day. Until now, that is. Tomorrow night, we're going for a curry. Hoping we don't leave in such a hurry.

UPDATE: WE WENT TO A GASTROPUB, PEOPLE!

Current white in the fridge: Tesco Finest Tapiwey Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2011, £6 on offer, Tesco
Drinking Sauvignon Blanc when it is cold outside doesn't feel quite right. But it is not quite as dark in the mornings anymore so maybe I am coming out of aromatic white wine hibernation. Anyway, this one is a brilliant example of bright, gooseberry fruit-ish Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, and it has a bit more liveliness to it that some of the really cheap stuff being churned out by New Zealand at the moment. Sipping this, I can almost believe there are longer, brighter days around the corner. 


Current red on the side: Terra d'Alter Red 2009, £8.99, Solent Cellar and Terra D'Alter
This Portuguese wine was the stand-out red at a wine tasting with a bunch of parents from my middle boy's nursery last week. Made from grapes normally used to make Port (including Aragonez, Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional and Trincadeira), here grown in the southern Alentejo region and crafted by Australian born Peter Bright. He has lived in Portugal for years but as one of the world's original flying winemakers, the style and polish of this wine are tellingly New World. Really gorgeous wine, made to go with food, especially sausages and mash. 


RIP Whitney x

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