Archive for Wine
08.10.07
Posted in General, Wine at 1:55 pm by Jon Pither
I feel compelled to write about the culinary delights I’ve experienced over the last month or so. This is clearly a brag of sorts, so as usual I serve up my humble apologies in advance.
First off was the leatherne bottel. It’s a lovely restaurant by the thames in Goring. I’ve been there before a few years ago when it was owned and run by my wife’s uncle who has since sadly passed away. The food is as good I as remember it being back then, having recently picked up the Johansens Most Excellent Restaurant award for this year. I had a terrine confit of rabbit for starters, which was delicate and fantastic. In fact it inspired me to make a terrine of my own, but I’m not sure mine lived up to my expectations. At one point I was mashing up pigs liver and I remember wondering how on earth this could ever be appetising. It’s in my fridge at the moment and my wife is politely pretending it’s not there.
The main course was a honey glazed pork belly – something I’ve also made at home with dubious results. The pork was lovely, not fatty but very tender. Mmmm. We then delved into cheese and I had some chocolatey thing for desert.
Of course though, there was some wine. A lot of it. We eased into the afternoon by having a chablis premier cru 2003, which was very elegant and lovely. I have to concede I’m becoming a bit of a chablis fan of late, I love the place and wine. Simultaineously the ladies had pink champagne which I was assured was it’s usual lovely self.
Moving forward we tackled a mersault, which was lovely – a bit jammy, typically full of flavour for a bungundian white. After this we upped our game to the delights of two premier cru Cortons. I love Corton, as I’ve blogged about a couple of times. It’s a real treat whenever I get to have it.
We stayed with the red until the cheese course, where we reverted back to white and tackled a puligny montrachet premier cru which was very sesame-seedy. It was very intense, very much a contrast to the chablis. Rounding off an extremely pleasant occasion we had a armagnac.
Phew!
The table where we sat
The next big feast of the month was to be my wife’s birthday, at Foliage in Knightsbridge at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. I’ve heard good things about this place from a colleague who proclaimed that the food is simply unbeatable in London. It certainly was that. We opted for a gastronomic tasting surpise menu, leaving it up to the chef to decide what we should eat. There’s about 6 courses and I also had a cheese board (a little miffed I had to pay 17 quid for it). The food was unlike anything I’d had before. The main item on the plate, whether it be salmon, duck or veg, often came out with different types foam on it. Foam! I remember some fantastic scallops with a pea puree and little chunks of pear. The food was just incredible, I would recommend anyone to go there.
For the wine we had a cheeky bottle of Chablis premier cru vallions, which was outstanding. I really loved that wine and I was rather sad that Kath liked it too. After that we had some pinot noir, a glass of champagne and a Tokjai. I could definately have used an additional brandy as I got the bill though. The mandarin oriental has a funky cocktail bar, which I would also recommend for special occasion.
The final meal that completes the triad was a ThoughtWorks event. At TW we have sponsors who guide you through life at the company, dishing out advice when needed and helping out with the review process. I have the splendid fortune of having a sponsor who likes to take her sponsees out for dinner occasionally as a group, and this time it was at Vinopolis the wine museum. We had a fantastic, if not slightly boozy night. We managed to sneek in a couple of burgundies, namely a Nuit St George which was lovely and a Saint Aubin. It was fun night, although I am suffering a little today because of it.
Plan for the rest of the summer – diet!!
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07.03.07
Posted in General, Wine at 10:37 pm by Jon Pither
When I started this blog, I did so with the small purpose of recording my activities with regards to my budding interest in wine (of course this wasn’t the only inclination for blogging). It’s perhaps a little boastful to stand back and announce a list of wines drunk in a single evening, a bit akin to the distasteful notion of an uncouth individual revealing the notches on his bedpost, but I do so anyway. A little sheepishly though.
Tackled in one sitting between five of us (plus a driver who acted as the adjudicator):
A Ladoix, bought from a charming shop on Old Street that my colleague Stuart Rolland recommended to me (they do very good wine tastings). I’ve eaten at Ladoix, outside in the searing heat of 40 degrees. The food was amazing, and wine fantastic too. Ladoix is very close to Corton, and thus has similar qualities.
A Crement de Bourgogne, our wedding bubbly! It’s a bit of an event-opener really. We still love this crement – it will stand up to the majority of champagne/crement offerings.
A Mersault 1st Cru – Olivier Leflaive. A lovely wine, smooth, intense summer fruit flavours.
A chassagne montrachet 1st Cru – Olivier Leflaive. A wine I’ve encountered before a few times now. A stonker, very strong and intense.
Pernand Vergelesse sous fretille 1st Cru- a little lesser intense than the pre-mentioned montrachet, but still a piece of work – I love this wine. It has strong flavours and has elegance.
Pommard Les Cras – Darker, heavy bodied. Not as elegant as the cortons, but has intense berry flavours – lovely.
Volnay – Olivier Le Leflaive – I remember being fantastic, though admittedly I need try again to recapture the flavour!
The Macon Lugny. A bread and butter wine from Majestic. We’re always well stocked with this. It’s lovely and light.
An enjoyable evening! I finally managed to cook a coq au vin to the correct colour. I concentrated a lot more on making an intensely reduced chicken stock, and sacrificed an Irancy – a very heavy Burgundian red. I was also less wimpish with chucking in corn flour to thicken it out. I still haven’t investigated what’s involved with chucking in pigs blood though – it’s definately on the list of things to try!
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03.25.07
Posted in General, Wine at 5:15 pm by Jon Pither
Ouch, my head hurts a little today. I’ve suffered again my repeated offence of drinking too much wine. I’m starting to wonder if I’m one of those people that never learn.
Oh well nevermind. Yesterday my chef’s outfit got another outing as we cooked up a beef Wellington for Kath’s father and his wife, in a night that also developed into something of a wine tasting. Having trialled this meal a week earlier, and it being somewhat of a disaster, I didn’t really have too many reasons to feel confident about it this time round. Last time I was taken aback by the width of the fillet we’d got, and as a result the stuff (mushroom-mashup) in between the meat and the pasty got spread too thinly. Also I assaulted such a wonderful cut of beef with an overdose of English mustard. And to add insult to injury, I didn’t cook the thing for long enough or give it a decent rest either. So all in all, it was a bit of a disappointment. Mind you, it made for very pleasant sandwiches the next day. In retrospect (in an Agile fashion I’ve starting having impromptu retrospectives on many different things), I suppose I was distracted by a Terry Wogan hosted competition on TV to see which candidate the UK public would put forward to enter the Eurovision song contest. I think the Eurovision’s great, it’s sheer entertainment.
This time though, the Wellington came out a lot better. By deviously combining the good bits of two or three better recipes on the web, the meal came to much more of a satisfying conclusion. I used a tea-towel to wring the moisture out of the flat mushrooms, as oppose to cooking them for an eternity. As an insurance policy against not having enough of the mushroom paste to provide a filling, we combined the mushrooms with a lovely chicken pate, which I think gave the desired effect. To wrap things up literally, we cunningly used parma ham, a nuance from Gordon Ramsay. All in all I thought it was very nice. I could probably have used a sharper knife the slice the entity up, and it was rareish again, but I declare myself chuffed. I feel obliged to report on this blog how wonderful I think the butcher ‘Eastwoods’ is from Berkhamstead. Sure, a little more expensive, but this award winning place is a mecca for meat enthusiasts.
So I come to the wine. We chirpy contingent of diners split into two factions: the ladies favouring a bottle of Laurent-Perrier pink champagne, and us world-wise hearty gents opting for an action packed Pernand-Vergelesses En Caradeux. The latter is a white Burgundy, originating from a village living slyly close to the soils of Aloxe Corton, Burgundy’s most special wine. This wine in particular, the Pernand-Vergelesse, is one that would be a challenge to find in the UK. Being a lesser known and hence a much cheaper village wine, it is great value for money. In my humble opinion I think of it being slightly similar to a good Saint Aubin. Lovely and jammy, a little peary.
Our two factions continued along separate paths. One strode forward and ripped into a Chablis premier cru Vallions, and the other steered us into Saint Aubin premier cru. I enjoyed the Saint Aubin, although both chaps were in agreement that the former wine of our choice was the victor. It was fun to be able to compare the two. It must be pointed out though, as inconceivable as it may be, that my faculties as a supreme judge of all wine may have been beginning to recede.
Our two factions shook hands and ended a self imposed separation, rejoining in a graceful yet savoury harmony, embellishing the flavours of the main accompaniment to the Wellington. As part of a thankyou to our guests for helping with the wedding, I sourced a Grand Cru Corton, a ‘Clos Des Cortons Faiveley’ from Berry Brothers. Mmm. Absolutely smooth, that lovely liquorice flavour, gorgeous. We all murmured in contentment as we swished it down. Lovely.
Well, it may have been sensible to end on a high, especially for me personally with my resented attachment to abhorrent hangovers, but we did not. We continued, the four of us proceeding ahead as a single unit. The same wine that I had raved about on this blog that had been consumed at Christmas, had coincidentally made its way here in the back of our guests’ car. Since Corton was on the brain, I suppose it was inevitable that was cracked open. This is a lovely wine, the Corton Pouget Grand Cru, and has such presence it felt like there were five of us at the table, plus the cheese. There was however a smidgen of unanimious opinion that it was beaten by the former. Thinking about it today, I wonder if this was because the Berry Brothers one, a 2001 vintage, had a couple of years on the Pouget.
Well, did it end here? Not quite. Making a special appearance, and gracing our table was a Vosne-Romanee, another Burgundian big-gun. We’d picked this up as a present to our guests in Burgundy last year, as part of our wedding wine-buying excursion. It was different, fantastic. Although I am ready to admit my pre-mentioned faculties of a wine taster extraordinaire were pretty much compromised.
Phew! It’s made my stomach twist and turn just recounting! A wonderful and wickedley indulgant night of food and wine. I’m sure I’ll be fresh as a daisy ready for work tomorrow, but for today, please let me snooze and watch series 6 of the Sopranos on dvd.
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02.14.07
Posted in General, Wine at 12:50 pm by Jon Pither
Well, on the 30th of December last year I did the unthinkable and inflicted my surname on another human being. There is now another Pither walking amongst us – my wife! She will now suffer the routine humiliation as I do when people try to pronounce Pither like it’s somehow connected to the pith inside of oranges and lemons. It’s Pither as in ‘dither’ I tell people. Then they understand.
I approached the wedding philosophically questioning what could really constitute ‘the best of your life’. I’ve had plenty of fantastic days in my life – in fact I like to make a habit of it, and I just presumed this was a saying you would exercise as a default response to those asking you ‘how was your special day?’ Really though, I was quite struck when I stopped and thought many times throughout the wedding that this really was the best day I can remember.
So, a fair bit of planning went into it. Whilst anticipating the wedding, each member of the family probably had a different idea of what would make all the difference and make it truly memorable. Personally, I just wanted a truly momentous party. I wanted to see people dressed stylishly and wonderfully, and sipping champagne (gulping perhaps), and just enjoying themselves and talking, dancing, laughing, as well as maybe a few antics.
We certainly got what I’d hoped for. Please allow me to indulge myself and recount the day with the aid of a few photos. I’m quite aware that looking at other people’s wedding photos is immensely boring (well for me anyway), so I apologise in advance.
For the day we provided the wine that we’d collected from our trip to Burgundy earlier in the year. Post wedding-day reports suggest that we’d chosen well, although admittedly we’d guessed people would want more white than red. That was in error, as it seemed people couldn’t get enough of the lightened red stuff. The champagne (well, burgundian crement actually), from Chambolle Musigny went down a storm. Later on the dance floor people were to be seen holding the bottles by the neck and passing them around.
When commenting on the wedding a few days later, one pal, Jim, who I suspect had a rather colourful night, looked up, gathered his thoughts, and then proclaimed: ‘Well the wine certainly flowed!’
My Father and I. And if I don’t say so myself, a couple of elegantly dressed chaps! For those wondering where my hairline is heading, you need wonder no more.
Myself and the father of the bride.
My mother and I
Because we got married on the 30th of December, the Hyatt in Birmingham still had all the Christmas decorations up. The Burgundy colouring of the decor matched the colour scheme we’d generally chosen (of the bridesmaids too), and I thought it looked brilliant.
The so-solid usher crew. L to R: Steve the best man, Jez, myself and Giles. Before the actual ceremony was an interesting experience for me. At one stage I was congratulating myself on how calm I was, and how everything was going smoothly. I’d had a decent massage, greeted people on the way in, things were progressing well. Then suddenly an hour before kick off, the quartet turns up, then the evening band, then a particularly imposing registrar (early twentieth century headmaster type, in the mould of Stephen Fry), the florist needed paying, the photographer kind of went AWOL… Consequently I began to get flustered. Luckily though, the assembled A-team of ushers and family where steadfast. They were excellent.
Meanwhile, my Bride and her cohort were getting ready, whilst tucking to a cheeky bottle of something by the look of it!
In the bridal suite.
Kath, mother, and sister.
Preparation in earnest.
The cohort.
The bar beforehand was buzzing. The ceremony kicked off at four, so natually all the guests assembled here at around 3.30. I had the pleasure of walking round and greeting everyone. As you can see in the above photo, the dress code was black tie / cocktail dress. I thought everyone looked absolutely fantastic. The ceremony room was very close to the bar, so the guests had a very short walk at five minutes beforehand.
With a quartet adding to the atmosphere.
A quick signing of some important documents. When doing the vows beforehand, and in being asked ‘Do I take Kath to be my wife etc’, I forgot to say ‘I do’, and simply exclaimed ‘Yes!’ rather loudly. I have to say, I spent days dreading the speech, but surprisingly, and later to be confirmed by other grooms having gone before me, it’s the taking of the vows that is the most gut wrenchingly nervous part of the day.
Well, I thank the Hyatt staff for this, because as we were leaving the room some chap was waiting for us with a tray holding two glasses of the Crement. Certainly required we thought at the time.
After the ceremony everyone gathered on the large balcony leading into the function room where the meal was to be held. There was lots of posing for photos, lots of socialising, and lots of drinks and nibbles.
My sister and I. Despite her being older, I really do feel I’m the sensible one.
It was a great day for seeing old friends.
And more such friends.
After this congealing of people on the balcony we had an exhausting line up that lasted for 30 mins. My feet frequently threatened to give way. It was wonderful though to get the chance to greet everyone, even the odd person you’d never met before in your life. It was at times like this throughout the evening when I felt astounded by the sheer effort the guests had put in. It’s an extremely humbling experience. Around the time of this lineup I was also nervousley anticipating the speech. Quite rightly though, more than one person told me not to worry, and that I was amongst friends and family. I couldn’t possibly balls up in front on them… The best man on the other hand could though!
The speech went OK. I actually relaxed into it. Afterwards I felt a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. That was until…
The best man’s speech! It was a very good speech, although somewhat much more of a mauling than I’d anticipated, and this was the so-called watered down version. Quite how Steve thought it appropriate to recount details of a police-chase in Cork leading to my house arrest in a hotel on suspicion of kidnapping is beyond me! Don’t worry that’s a story that sounds way worse than it was; I wasn’t in any real trouble and I certainly didn’t know I was in the police chase until pulled over by the Garda (even though I’d accidentally driven the wrong way a chunk of the one-way system – they must have thought I was cunningly pulling off evasion tactics), the rest was really a frivilous ruckus. I was 18 at the time, and I’ve never been so glad to leave a country as I was back then! Other stories the best man brought up included ones best not mentioned here. Overall it was a complete demolition job, and I sincerely hope Steve appoints me as his future best man so I can return the favour.
The Father of the Brides speech was touching for me personally, there were lots of nice things said – surprising really! The two mothers and Kath’s best friend also chipped in for a few words (as above).
As you can see. and hopefully the guests would agree, drink was in an abundant supply. After the speeches and dinner the party atmosphere continued to grow. We had a great band playing Indie rock music, loads more Crement, people all over the hotel having a great time. Later when the band finished those still well enough headed downstairs to the cocktail bar. There we continued until 3.30 am, indulging in some fantastic arm wresting competitions, an attempted swimming pool break in, cigar and cocktail partaking, and generally in having as much fun as we could. I recall a couple of gents wandering off for a donner kebab, getting completely lost in Birmingham, and then having to succumb to a three minute taxi ride back to the hotel.
It was a fantastic day. The official photos can be found here: http://www.richardmorrell.co.uk/kathandjonswedding/.
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12.28.06
Posted in General, Wine at 12:59 pm by Jon Pither
This year Christmas falls five days short of our wedding. After solemnly promising myself that I would not spend the Christmas week eating and drinking, I’ve spent it… eating and drinking!
Oh well. On the other hand though, and if I recall correctly, one shady day a few months ago I decided to set up this blog with the intention of writing about food and wine. I can now attempt to justify my excesses in the face of a rapidley approaching wedding that this festive period has at least given me something to write about. Other than the fact I went out yesterday and purchased one of my favourite ever films on dvd: ‘star trek 2 – the wrath of Kahn’. I always want to rise out of my chair and give Kirk and co a hand when Kahn, bloodsoaked, in a wrecked ship shrieks “From hell’s heart I stab at thee!”.
So Christmas day. I was very much pleased to discover that the turkey we had purchased was in fact a Kelly-Bronze one, apparently a good breed according to Hugh and Delia. I buy purely on the prinicipal of whether or not an assurance is forthcoming that the Turkey has not lived in miserable, intense-farming conditions. I remember once watching a Rich Stein food heroes programme where he did a blind-fold taste of an organic free range turkey, pitted against a typical supermarket specimen. Unfortunately Rick got it wrong. Anyhow, the Turkey we had was delicious, incredibly tasty, and had an ambundance of meat, as our creaking fridge will testify.
Our Kelly Bronze.
Accompanying this meal, were some bottles of wine we had been saving. I had ensured their safely during my stag night, and here they are safe and sound:
On the left is a Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru, which in all honesty we didn’t drink – but it was there perched and ready! It will be there for another day (actually, it would benefit from us leaving it for a while). On the right flank is a Corton Pougets Grand Cru, and taking the central position is a half bottle of Chateau Yquem, the best pudding wine in the world.
After toasting the day with a Moet, eventually we made our way to the Corton. I can genuinely say I loved this bottle. I found it immediately distinguishes itself on colour. It possesses a purplely-red tinge to it, still retaining a transparency I’ve come to associate with pinot noirs. Along with the powerful aroma the taste was fantastic, full bodied. At best, I can explain it by saying it had a rich berry flavour with a little plummyness, and with a hint of liquorice. Mmmmm. I may have to go back to Burgundy and get some more. It costs me thirty-five quid a bottle out there, I’ve no idea what you would expect to pick it up for in the UK.
Next was a Christmas present given to us – the Yquem. Surprising light, a little orangey, possessing a delicate sourness, it was lovely. Perfect way to round off a fantastic day. Happy Christmas!
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11.26.06
Posted in General, Wine at 3:05 pm by Jon Pither
A friend (I think it was Tim Forshew), once said to me that drinking makes you more intelligent. This is because the bad brain cells are destroyed by alcohol, and therefore you end up with a better good to bad cell ratio. In fact a different friend this morning developed the theory further, saying that brain cells are a bit like a wild herd of animals. The herd only goes as fast as the slowest beast, but since the slow ones are picked off by predators, the herd is kept fast, lean and mean. I therefore draw a conclusion, that excessive drinking allowed me through the IQ test during the ThoughtWorks interview process. It probably explains why so many of my new colleagues, enjoy as I do, the occasional aquisition of a few social bevys. I particulary found this out in India in TW’s immersion process. I met some great chaps out there. I loved the ‘penthouse’ party apartment we were given, but it’s the people I shared it with, and the people that we couldn’t keep away that really made India a fantastic, memorable experience. Well, the people and the taylors, got to give a nod to the fantastic taylors. P N Rao and ThoughtWorks have a very much loving relationship.
Whilst on the subject of drinking, is just me (probably), but does anybody notice that the next day, during or after the inevitable hangover, one is gifted with a clarity on life? It’s a bit like the saying ‘you can’t see the woods due to the trees’, and drinking allows you to elevate yourself to a good viewing platform. The mists of lifes various paths and background ‘stuff’, is cleared. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m still intoxicated from the night before. It’s possible, I wouldn’t rule it out. Anyhow, I’ve been a bit stressed over the last week, probably because I’ve had to organise the Stag do. Today I’m feeling happy, I’m very much looking forward to my wedding, to seeing my partner return from her hen weekend, and I have given consideration to the fact that I’m really enjoying my current assignment at TW. I’m enjoying coding in Python with Django. Whilst using these tools for spiking purposes, I love the sheer productivity you get. Initial impression is that the Django guys have done a good job. The project is also great fun to work on, it’s a good team, and the subject matter is of interest to me.
So, what have I come here to blog about? Having already taken a couple of tangents so early in this entry? Well, I wanted really to blog about my stag night. I had a great time, and I’d like to thank my home friends, university friends, and family for coming along. We had a pleasant time at the Coalhole on the strand, Livebait at covent garden, Spamalot (which I’m not sure is very good – probably the booze taking a toll, and the couple of naps I took during the performance, but I never really got to grips with the plot), then on to the Coach and Horses in Soho, then a meal at the French House in Soho, and then various drunken staggerings around other venues. The only thing that perhaps did not go so well, was the stripper that was booked for me without my knowledge.
Apparently, the best man phoned up some seedy place in Soho, and asked for the biggest, most ugly, hariest woman they had, and this person / creature should come immediately. Well, we should have thought this may happen, but 2 things went wrong. Firstly, I was at this stage a bit worse for wear, and I kept walking off and getting lost. Various people would have to come and find me to escort me back to the table. Ah I apologise, a bit of context would be useful. We are eating in the French House, having hired out the upstairs room. Anyway, the second problem was that the French House staff, upon encountering this unearthley professional, took one look up and down and flatly refused entry. Now with a conundrum, my best man Steve, decided we should move venue so that our party could have their entertainment. So, the next place we went, the same things happened. I would get lost, and the stripper would not be granted entry. In fact this pattern repeated itself 2 or 3 times. We kept moving round Soho with an incredibley ugly stripper in tow.
Meal number one was fantastic. I had an incredibley large platter of seafood at live bait. Others elected for the fish and chips which they reported back was also very good. I wanted kick off proceedings in a lively manner, so I ordered a bottle of Chassagne Montrachet, which I found disapointing, especially for the price of 66 pounds. I know this particular wine can be very strong at times, but I’ve had a couple of Montrachets that come out like petrol. The next meal at the French was lovely. I shared a Chateaubriand with Steve – lovely. I also had a chocolate tourte and cheese. Drinks included a bloody mary, which was a highlight of the day, a bottle of Puligny Montrachet, and a couple of bottles of port. All things considered I would recommend the French House to those fancying a meal in Soho.
Well. thanks to those among the group, it was a pleasure to see you all. I’m maybe a little disapointed that when we got back none of you, bar Phil, ate any of the chilli I had prepared. I know there were maggots inside the jar of chilli-powder, but not got into the food. Next time make more of an effort please.
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