August 2010 – Colin Harkness on Wine

Bay Radio’s Sunday Brunch On-Air Wine Tasting!

Presenters Noelle & Bob enjoy the recommended wines- but which will they choose to take home?

Caribbean Grilled Chicken.

Regular listeners and readers of the website will notice that I’m often banging on about the fruit content of the wines I recommend. It’s a crucial part of our enjoyment of wine anyway, but with certain dishes it’s essential.

We need bags of fruit in a wine to accompany this dish as a partner for the orange juice and as a foil for the ginger, soy, honey and pepper. However the parts as a whole also need wines with some body too.

For our on-air tastings we usually have two wines and here we have a white and a red wine, both of which should do nicely and therefore keep the red wine and white camps happy!

I recently received some wines from a bodega near Málaga, Bodegas Descalzos Viejas, and it’s two of their wines that I’ve chosen for the Caribbean Chicken dish. Their white is a fruity Chardonnay which will blend well with the sweetness of the honey and the orange juice. It’s also had a short time in oak, giving it the body to accompany the chicken and savoury finish to the dish.

Their red 2007 is made from the fruity varieties Syrah and Merlot accompanied by the full-bodied Garnacha. It too has enjoyed a short time in oak and should therefore add value to the recipe.

Salud!

PS They chose the red!

First Published August 2010 Costa News

DOUBLE PLEASURE AS LA VINOTECA HOSTS BODEGAS VICENTE GANDÍA TASTING

La Vinoteca owner Cecilia appreciates Herman's presentation of Bodega Vicente Gandía Plá wines.

It’s always a pleasure to attend the regular wine tastings at Calpe’s leading wine shop, La Vinoteca, aside the dry river a hundred meters or so from the Mediterranean. The all-embracing charming smile on owner Cecilia’s face is a wholly genuine, warm welcome liberally and naturally used as if you are a treasured member of the family. And of course, to complete this family affair, Cecilia’s Mum is always on hand producing with a flourish a tray of her wonderful, secret recipe, Argentinean empanadillas at the optimum moment when the wines are making you peckish!

If you haven’t yet been (and they are usually worth even travelling from all points served by the Costa News Group’s four titles) – then you really should!

However there was a double pleasure in store for me when I attended the first of two tastings recently. The wines were from Bodegas Vicente Gandía Plá whose empire (and I use the word deliberately as it is one of the largest business enterprises in the whole of Spain!) makes wines from easily accessible entry level up to top award winning fine wines. So that was a good start, but I was also delighted to find that the presentation was to be given by my young friend Herman Potgeiter, South Afrikan, multi-lingual commercial winemaker.

The first wine was in fact Hoya De Cadenas Brut Nature Cava – a wine that needs no introduction for me as it is the aperitif that we use exclusively at all of our wine tastings with dinner and classical music. The cava has a fine mousse resulting in the continual, pleasing sound of light bubble bursting (cava is the only wine which requires the use of the sense of hearing for its assessment!). It has a good mouth-feel, some body and a bready/brioche nose, typical in fact of Champagne.

The next wine is one that I’ve mentioned before in this column – and is one of the original Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc blends in Spain, a wine style that seems to be gaining in popularity. It’s not surprising as this blend is all fruit – perfect for consumers with a fruit-lust regarding their wine preferences.

Actually though, compared with previous apricot and peach laden aromas and flavours, this 2009 vintage has a more subtle citrus fruit presence coupled with a faint aniseed nose, with a greater freshness and increased acidity, making it a super aperitif wine and one to drink pleasurably with salads. Visually, Herman’s comment that whilst many white wines’ brilliance in the glass is akin to a 40 or 50 watt bulb, this is in the 100 watt category is true when you hold the glass against a white background!

The next wine was Miracle Art – a red wine in a distinctive bottle with some

quite amazing labels! I remember being invited to an art exhibition that featured wine barrels that had been painted by some of Valencia’s acclaimed artists in various different styles – it really was quite a show. And it is these barrels that feature on the labels of this wine.

Made from Monastrell, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Tempranillo and Merlot this 2007 vintage wine has had ten months in oak and whilst drinking well now can do some with more time in bottle to evolve further.

Hoya De Cadenas Reserva Privada is a wine I first tasted in the subterranean cellars of the bodega in the glorious eponymous valley where their ultra-modern winery is set. Made from grapes grown at a higher altitude in a vineyard that consistently produces fruit of top quality this wine is a cuvee of Tempranillos with 15% cabernet Sauvignon for greater depth and darker colour as well as blackcurrant flavour tones.

The 2005 has enjoyed 14 months in American oak and plenty of extra time in bottle where it has become rounded and softer making it a super wine for enjoying with dinner, but then for continuing with during post-prandial conversation.

However you need to somehow make space for Bodegas Vicente Gandía Plá’s lovely dessert wine. For a start it looks so charming on the table – the instantly recognizable label was the winner of a Valencia Art Student Award competition and when condensation drips down the bottle following its extraction from the chiller it really makes you want have a taste. Once tasted, this delightful, medal winning, orange-blossom scented Moscatel, which has also benefited from three months in new French oak finishing school, has the perfect equilibrium between sweetness and acidity.

P.S. Information about these and other wine tastings can be found at: www.colinharknessonwine.com click Events; and by joining my e-mail list – please e-mail me at: colin@colinharknessonwine.com .

First Publiched in Costa News Group July 2010

WINES TO COMPLEMENT INDONESIAN CUISINE

JAVEA’S NEW ‘RESTAURANTE TAPINDO’

HOSTS DELICIOUS WINE/FOOD TASTING

Having owned and run two restaurants in the UK I have perhaps a natural interest in wine and food combinations. I don’t, in fact, subscribe to the widely held view that wine was invented to be drunk with food. I’m sure it was the buzz he got from drinking the alcohol that appealed to Stone Age man when he first discovered how to make wine, rather than thinking it would go perfectly with his mammoth steak that evening!

However I certainly believe that wine can complement food and vice versa and it has always been fascinating for me to experiment with various wine/food matches. Some matches are of course easier than others but I also like a challenge. So when Su, joint owner of Javea’s La Casa Del Vino wine merchants, invited me to present a tasting of the wines they supply to the new Indonesian Restaurant, Tapindo, and to match them with the exciting Indonesian tapas with which they would be served – I accepted with alacrity.

A warm June evening on a relatively quiet World Cup night saw forty of us filling the terrace of the restaurant arm of the established Tapindo Take-Away a kilometre or so nearer the Arenal than this new location, not far from Javea Port. Su and I had colluded several times regarding the choice of wines to be used and although we were fairly confident that we had it right we were both nevertheless nervous. You see there are so many flavours and aromas happening in Indonesian cuisine that wine matching is a precarious business.

Indonesian cuisine uses aromatic and sweet spices, sweet and hot chilli, perfumed herbs etc and to find wines that can take on this very sensual cuisine and at the same time complement it can be difficult. Judging by the appreciative comments restaurant owners Glen and Martin and Su and I received it seems we mostly got it right!

Udang Goreng is prawns wrapped in filo pastry and chives served with a chilli dip. My wine selection for this really attractive starter was Bodegas Viñas del Vero’s Gewurztraminer. This is such a super, aromatic wine and it really does go so well with lots of Indonesian dishes, this one included. You must try this gorgeous, perfumed white wine

It’s a while since I’ve mentioned the wines of Bodegas Urbezo from DO Cariñena but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten them. So it was good to re-acquaint myself with, this time, their medal winning Rosado 2009. A lovely pink colour in the glass and super aromas of raspberry and a faint touch of stewed light red plums. There is a slight residual sugar content to this wine giving it an off-dry style which will appeal to those with a slightly sweeter tooth. We used this mild sweetness to balance the hot chilli of Rempan – spiced Indonesian meatballs.

Pangsit Goreng is a super dim-sum style parcel filled with beef and served with a sweet chilli dipping sauce. Normally I’d hesitate to recommend a Cabernet Sauvignon with anything that contained chilli, sweet or otherwise. Often Cabernet’s tannin in younger wines can be too harsh anyway, but include some fiery heat and this is accentuated giving an after-burn of which Houston Mission Control would be proud!

However Muñana Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 from vineyards over 1,000 meters above sea level in the Granada area, is a really super example of how good this variety can be when fully ripened and treated with care. Not a trace of harshness, just lovely blackcurrant and blackberry character with a really good finish too. I’m going to have to taste more from this VdlT bodega (Vino de la Tierra) as I’m very impressed.

The excellent Ribas from the Island of Mallorca is made with local variety Mantonegro, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot – a super mix of extra fruity varieties but sturdy sweet tannins too. Ten months in oak also give it a depth of flavour that adds to the sensation as you taste.

It was Su who introduced me to Mantonegro and I’ve become quite a fan. Daging Rendang is spicy beef served with fresh chilli – any tannin in Mantonegro and Cabernet would be highlighted with such a dish spoiling both the wine and the food, but there is also a crucial further ingredient. The beef is stewed in coconut milk and it is this that softens the tannins and make the match a really good one.

Finally we had an Indonesian dessert. Lapiz Ligit is a layered cake with sweet spices and cardamom. The wine choice for this dish was a Brut Cava from Bodega Bohigas whose rich grapes are picked at their optimum ripeness giving a fruity-sweet first hit on the palate, blending with the dessert but finishing dry and refreshingly clean.

There are other wine/food tasting evenings planned by La Casa del Vino – you can find out about them by being included in my client e-mail list, just send me an e-mail at colin@colinharknessonwine.com; or by calling in at the shop.

PS My first English language articles for the top Spanish wine magazine, Vinos de España, will be available in the August/September edition – you can buy your copy at wine shops: La Casa del Vino; Moraira’s A Catarlo Todo; and Calpe’s La Vinoteca as well as all good newsagents.

Bay Radio’s Sunday Brunch Programme – Wine Recommendation!

Minty Lamb.

Something of a Spanglish dish this one – lamb, garlic and herbs very Spanish; mint jelly, oh so British! In Spain, think lamb – think Rioja, and you can’t go too far wrong. However the mint jelly can be a problem as it tends to strip wine of its fruitiness.

Therefore rather than a super Rioja Gran Reserva which, without the mint,

Oh Dear, Presenter Noelle's glass is empty!

would be wonderful I’d go for a quality ‘roble’ Rioja – i.e. a young very fruity Rioja with only a little time in wood; or Bodegas Luis Alegre’s oh so fruity new Parcela No. 5 wine would be excellent.

Finally, those who like me, often prefer Ribera del Duero wines to La Rioja, may like to try one of their better juicy, fruit-laden offerings which will have sufficient fruit content to be able to lose a little because of the mint and yet still have plenty to spare for this succulent herb infused lamb.

Salud!