It’s easy to jump over an Asti in a wine list but you really must stop for a moment, because this is a vital style of wine in your ‘wine diet’. If you ever dabble in chocolate or strawberries then Moscato wine is a must. It is also one of the most refreshing ‘full stops’ after a very long dinner. It perks the palate and hoses down the taste buds in a soda-syphon of grapiness. I know that you will not be ordering cases of the stuff, but a bottle serves ten good glasses so do the Maths for yourself. This is a crucial, if frivolous member of our elite team.
The beautiful thing about this silky, sensual Chenin Blanc is that while it is strictly speaking a sweet wine the sugar is barely evident. It is a wine to utilise with deft precision and laser-guided accuracy. Terrines and pâtes are the main target with fresh fruit tarts and fruit salads well within its grasp. Don’t open this wine with anything too sweet because it will appear dry! We know that real stickies have a limited audience, but wine with this sort of calm and hauteur appeal to almost everyone. Couture pud wine never looked so unruffled and confident! Les Bonnes Blanches is a weird one, but it’s a wine style which, at serious dinner parties, always goes down a storm. Dry Chenin Blanc with age and intensity is about as exotic a proposition as it gets. Serve it ‘blind’ to your favourite wine bores and watch as they squirm in their chairs!
Rudera’s Chenin is much richer and more exotic than the Chenins you might have come across in the past. In fact, it is Chardonnay ‘shaped’, but the aromas and flavours are very much this grape’s own – pear, light honey, hazelnuts and orange blossom. Suited to main course fish dishes and roast chicken this is the perfect wine to vary your ‘diet’ and amaze and trick your friends at the same time.
Weird wine alert - this is a Sherry and it is a sensational, sweet, wintry, after dinner drink. It is hard to explain, but I will have a go – it tastes like a drunken-squashed-raisin-chocolate-dipped-prune-juice-imbued-caramel-scented-nutty-elixir. Once tasted never forgotten and an essential part of any gastronomic repertoire PX is addictive and hilarious fun in equal measure.
There are very few affordable Sauternes that have true breeding and integrity and this wine is the equal of some with very grand names indeed. We have bottles (75cl) and half bottles (37.5cl) available - a half bottle should serve six people well. Honey, orange blossom and nougat are the flavours here, which should give you an idea of what to cook for your friends, too. Every time that we’ve poured Clos Dady for members at tastings and dinners they have all been completely floored by the intensity and class on show.
What an unexpected wine this turned out to be. We were sent a bottle because of our obsession with the dry Chenin (see above) and this sweetie turned out to be sensational, too. Every bit as stunning as any decadent pudding wine I have ever tasted this is a head-turner for fashionable dinner parties. It is also an awful lot sweeter and headier than our Loire offerings!
The beautiful thing about this silky, sensual Chenin Blanc is that while it is strictly speaking a sweet wine the sugar is barely evident. It is a wine to utilise with deft precision and laser-guided accuracy. Terrines and pates are the main target with fresh fruit tarts and fruit salads well within its grasp. Don’t open this wine with anything too sweet because it will appear dry! We know that real stickies have a limited audience, but wine with this sort of calm and hauteur appeal to almost everyone. Couture pud wine never looked so unruffled and confident! Les Bonnes Blanches is a weird one, but it’s a wine style which, at serious dinner parties, always goes down a storm. Dry Chenin Blanc with age and intensity is about as exotic a proposition as it gets. Serve it ‘blind’ to your favourite wine bores and watch as they squirm in their chairs!
Stop Press - this is a monstrously enjoyable wine and it is a ‘full’ bottle (75cl). It is therefore embarrassingly good value for money. Like the PX, it is a fortified, sweet after-dinner creation, but this time it comes from our great mates at Skilly. Christmas pressies all ‘round? You should reward your pals with this wine – it is a dream come true.
The little-known house of Gould Campbell makes macho, no nonsense Port and this delicious vintage is drinking really well right now and it stands up nicely against the more famous names! Decant for an hour and then get out the choccies and cigars.
Tawny Port can either be served as an ultra-fashionable, chilled aperitif, or with coffee after dinner. This is the very best on the planet – honest. Make sure that you buy a case though because it is rare and people always drink far more than you could think was humanly possible!
