What are you eating and drinking tonight?

[Zulus Thousand of em]

Tango, you are going to have to explain to me this concept of recorking an open bottle of wine. It always gets finished off in one go at Chateau Zulu. I was under the impression that this is the law.

It might explain my Fergie nose though!

[Bruno]

Went to L'enclume last night for a very belated Birthday treat. Absolutely, mind-blowingly, awe-inspiringly brilliant cooking. The wine list is a cracker (we partook of Alsatian Pinot Gris, Regnie and Jurancon) and the cheese board is full-on top-notch all-French farmhouse cheese. Expensive yes, but a four-and-a half-hour extravagana of 15 indulgent and unique courses.

Nice.

I'n not jealous....

So tell us about some of these 15 courses...


Or all...

I'm glad someone bit

Phenomenal William - all based on Molecular Gastronomy, almost impossible to describe in words, but I'll try.....

To start, a Martini glass with a cocktail/foam (served from a soda siphon) of chilli and ginger with a meadowsweet and melon base. Wonderful, words can't, won't and don't do it justice.

Then a couple of more strange enough courses, to one entilted "Grown up yolk from the golden egg". To quickly describe this, it looks like an egg yolk on top of a bed of maggots in sawdust - only as if Salvador Dali had rendered it, if you understand. And it tasted nothing like it sounds, it was wonderful. I think the guy cooks on LSD, personally.

There was "Henry's Pool" , a seafood dish in stock, only not quite as it seems, and Squid with Cauliflower and Elderberry. Now this is where he steps it up a gear, beacuse I've spent my life in kitchens( I like to flatter myself that they are mostly quite good ones), and never have I contemplated putting cauliflower with elderberries (or indeed either with squid and a liquorice based sauce) and yet its one of the most perfect flavour combinations I've ever tasted.

There was an artichoke salad, A perfectly cooked scallop with cepes, A hake/chicken crossover dish(?!), perfecly cooked sweetbreads, Venison...

And then the best cheese board I've seen in years. Being an unrepentant Francophile, I like to think this was my area of expertise, my comfort zone. Not only had the guy ticked all the boxes with fabulous farmhouse cheeses, he pulled a couple out of the bag I'd never heard of, and from an area I like to kid myself I know a great deal about. Hats off, he's done his homework.

And then Stiffy Tacky pudding - the core flavours of said dish rendered in gelatine balls ( resembling those bath ones you get). Amazing. Simply amazing. And Expearamenthol Frappe, which tatses of Eucalyptus. Perhaps the only course I wasn't completely taken with. Though as the (incredibly knowledgable) staff said it was their "marmite" course.

Its also easy to see why the wine list has won awards, every bottle lived up to the astonishing calibre of food. And considering the level of restaurant, not too extravagantly priced either (compared to the competition).


All in all one of those nights that lives long in the memory, and serves as a tool with which to utterly bore friends, family and web acquaintances!

http://www.lenclume.co.uk/food/

How much did that set you back!!!??

[clapton is god]

Back last winter a friends father died. The old chap (also a friend of mine) had lived alone for many years and had been a hoarder. Every Christmas and birthday his friends would give him a bottle of whisky and he would say 'Ooh, thanks,' and put it away in a cupboard for it to never see daylight again.

Clearing out his house my mate found dozens of bottles! And he doesn't like whisky either!

Well, what are friends for?

To my great good fortune I came into possession of about 15 bottles, 10 half bottles and dozens of miniatures and have been working my way through them all this year.

Its been an education for me too. Whisky does not improve with age, as I naively thought. When bottled it is as good as it is going to get and it then has a shelf life of about 10 years. The two inch space at the top of some of the bottles did not mean that some of the water had boiled off leaving a stronger alcohol inside, it meant that the alcohol had boiled off leaving whisky flavoured water inside!

However, there was still plenty and I saved what I thought might be the best until last.

There were two half bottles of White Horse, one with a silver foil top and another with gold foil top, both with serial numbers and marked '1954', and what I expected to be best of all, a Johnnie Walker 12 years old Black Label bottle complete with box marked with a competition which expired in 1989.

I opened the Johnny Walker last night....

Absolute nectar!

[Lord Kangana]

Being a confessed non wine buff, there is one thing about wine; it constantly surprises you. Yes, there are some wines I find unpallatable, but every now and then someone gets you to try something and you find yourself pleasantly surprised. I'm not really a red wine lover ( aquired taste I suppose, like all things) and tend to prefer sweet, or medium sweet to dry. Spanish Valdepena has never let me down and is my wine of choice when over there. Over here I find little wrong with a bottle of Hock (all the wine buffs shiver)

Heads up on some German Wine Tango. Lidl is knocking out some Halbtrocken Riesling at £3.99. I'm just off to (hopefully if theres any left) buy some more. Bargain.

[TANGODANCER]

Well, after a glass of Morrisons Spanish sherry for pre, I had the wife's best offering of steak and onions, cabbage, carrots and roast spuds. Chocolate cheesecake followed and I saw off two glasses of the Tempranillo during it all. No complaints at all.

[General Mannerheim]

Well, after a glass of Morrisons Spanish sherry for pre, I had the wife's best offering of steak and onions, cabbage, carrots and roast spuds. Chocolate cheesecake followed and I saw off two glasses of the Tempranillo during it all. No complaints at all.

i got given that tonight, except mash instead of roasties, and it was all in a big yorkshire pud! nice. no wine though, had a havana club & coke, didnt fancy another, so had a bottle of stella, didnt fancy another of them either so now i have a glass of lemon fanta.

[William the White]

Parsnip soup, roast chicken dinner, wolf blass chardonnay...

i'm happy...

[Lord Kangana]

Risotto a la Milanese (tip: pop some Ricard in, beautiful) Alsatian Pinot Gris, The Damned United.

Pretty good combo if you ask me. Although I do feel a little guilt at pre-watching my dads christmas present. But there you go...

[William the White]

i made a hotpot for four, and no mean portions either, then we decided my wife was so ill, having caught my cold/flu, that we couldn't invite friends around to become infected... so, hot pot for me for two or three days... Had tonight portion with a cote du rousillon.. was nice...

[Worthy4England]

My first mince pie(s) of the festive "campaign". For Pud. Hot with ice cream on them.

Smashing.

[Little Green Man]

My first mince pie(s) of the festive "campaign". For Pud. Hot with ice cream on them.

Smashing.

First? I'm on my fourth box.

[KeeeeeeeBaaaaaaab]

Mmm. Mince pie and cheese. Sweet and savoury dessert. Yum.

[William the White]

Spicy turkish lentil soup - chilli flakes, dried mint, lots of fresh lemon juice - fantastic. Had that with cava.

Roast chicken dinner - but we've started buying organic - I reckon it does taste better, any thoughts? Classic, roast potatoes and parsnips, leeks and sprouts. (It's a meal i love - and with lamb, and, to some extent, beef, very occasionally pork). With an on offer Wolf Blass Chardonnay... nicer than anticipated... much.

Gooseberry pie - summer gooseberries donated by allotment-owning friend - frozen since august - but delicious - with double cream and/or ice cream. Small glass of white port, lightly chilled.

Dolcelatte - medium bodied pinot noir from chile...

Six of us. All happy but the driver (not me - I and partner the hosts for visiting family up from London).

Two hours n a bit well spent...

[Lord Kangana]

If you're looking for a bit of validation on the organic purchase William, I highly recommend "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, and "We Want Real Food" by Graham Harvey. Plenty of science in there about the crap in our food and what its doing to us, and much more importantly, what our foodstuffs now lack in the way of vitamins and minerals due to intensive farming and chemicals and what thats doing to us.

[Gary the Enfield]

Had some matured beef from Sainsbury's as a Sunday Roast. Hung for 21 to 29 days.

Absolutely fantastic.

[Bruce Rioja]

Made a beef in red wine stew yesterday. Today's portion, having been sat in the pan overnight, was infinitely better than yesterday's portion, which was fine enough anyway. Today's portion also came on the back of 10 miles of the Rossendale Way. Superb.
LK - I have a bottle of Argie Malbec here. It's telling me that 50% of the grapes are from 1,100 mtrs asl, whereas the remaining 50% are from 700 mtrs asl. Is that significant in some way? It's very nice by the way, and although 14% abv isn't a tongue peeler by any stretch.

[Lord Kangana]

I'm suffering a crushing hangover after a "not seen you lot in nearly a year" night out, so whilst I love a good Malbec, the thought isn't appealing at the moment!

In terms of the height above sea levels of the vines, my scratchy memory recalls one or two things about its significance, but they tend to relate to dessert wines. That is, that in order to encourage 'noble rot', you need dew without rainfall, and a lack of ground frost (both of which will obviously damage the grapes). This will then condense on the grapes, so allowing the fungus to grow (I believe this is particulaly true/unique to Jurancon and Tokaji). This tends to mean you need vineyards at certain latitude, height, direction etc. Its why the French bang on about "terroir" so much. Frankly, no-one has conclusively scientifically proved most of it, but seeing as all the best and most important wines come from France, and seeing as everbody else in the world falls over themselves trying to copy them, I'm sticking with the frogs.

I also hazily remember there being a certain height beyond which vines can't grow effectively, so maybe the Argies are boasting a little, I don't know. I'm also aware that wind direction (which affects slopes more) is important. You got me interested, and I found this site:

http://www.lescaves.co.uk/wine/region/argentina

Which will probably answer your questions better than me (and something new for me to learn).

[William the White]

I'm suffering a crushing hangover after a "not seen you lot in nearly a year" night out, so whilst I love a good Malbec, the thought isn't appealing at the moment!

In terms of the height above sea levels of the vines, my scratchy memory recalls one or two things about its significance, but they tend to relate to dessert wines. That is, that in order to encourage 'noble rot', you need dew without rainfall, and a lack of ground frost (both of which will obviously damage the grapes). This will then condense on the grapes, so allowing the fungus to grow (I believe this is particulaly true/unique to Jurancon and Tokaji). This tends to mean you need vineyards at certain latitude, height, direction etc. Its why the French bang on about "terroir" so much. Frankly, no-one has conclusively scientifically proved most of it, but seeing as all the best and most important wines come from France, and seeing as everbody else in the world falls over themselves trying to copy them, I'm sticking with the frogs.

I also hazily remember there being a certain height beyond which vines can't grow effectively, so maybe the Argies are boasting a little, I don't know. I'm also aware that wind direction (which affects slopes more) is important. You got me interested, and I found this site:

http://www.lescaves.co.uk/wine/region/argentina

Which will probably answer your questions better than me (and something new for me to learn).

Well, while I agree the touchstone is French, it's only at the very highest levels this operates definitively - there's plenty of convincing competition for most AC wines elsewhere in Europe and beyond...

But... Really interesting link, and my guess is that Chile has something close to this geography, just on the Western slopes of the Andes. I like Chilean wine a lot, and I'm going to experiment with some Argentinian more closely and thoughtfully now...

Hard life...

Congrats on the hangover... When you get better you could amuse us all with a report of the booze that got you there

[Lord Kangana]

The statement relates to the fact that everyone copies the French William - they define most wine styles. Even modern day Rioja is as it is because of the French. Without them the wine world (new and old) would be very different.

[William the White]

The statement relates to the fact that everyone copies the French William - they define most wine styles. Even modern day Rioja is as it is because of the French. Without them the wine world (new and old) would be very different.

I pretty much agreed (above - touchstone)... and concurr with the above... recognising it's a hard world to reinvent, but the masters are getting some stiff competiton now below the greatest Appelations...

So, since you're still awake... what did you get through to earn this m&f of a hangover?