Been a bit manic confirming the rest of this year and the first half of 2012.Away from my diary, this Monday sees the release of Astrid Williamson’s new album Pulse out on One Little Indian/Incarnation. Astrid has a beautiful voice and listen to Pour.

On the weekend of 10th-11th September, there are two really good foodie events taking place in Chipping Nortonshire, with Juliet Harbutt’s Cheeses on the Green in the lovely village of Churchill. On Saturday 10th, you can taste a stack of cheeses in the day followed by Cheeses under the Stars. Also, Churchill has a good pub called The Chequers, serving well kept Hook Norton and some decent wines by the glass including Santa Digna Torres Rose.

A few miles away in Kingham, Alex James’ Harvest Food and Music Festival runs from the 9th-12th September, with the main action on the Saturday and Sunday. This festival has a strong cast of chefs including: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Richard Corrigan, Valentine Warner and the excellent Franceco Mazzei. On Sunday don’t miss out on what Jay Rayner has to say. Away from all the exciting foodie stuff, you will be able to enjoy the not very exciting KT Tunstall and The Feeling.

We are just off to a winter barbecue, taking some Musks Newmarket sausages and De Grendel Merlot 2008, South Africa, £10.99-£11.99 available from Henderson Wines, Peter Green & Co and oldbutcherswinecellar.co.uk. De Grendel’s Merlot is one of my favourite wines of 2011; medium bodied, balanced, with minerality, complexity, herbacious character and stand out berry fruit.

The Cotswolds is a stunning place to live and much as I will always love going to London it is great to come back to this beautiful countryside. However, the Cotswolds is also an expensive location, with, for example, our village Good Food Shop – a shop for the community by the way – charging London prices and our local gastro pub on an overzealous portion control project with a high price ticket.Presently, there seems to an assumption that people are prepared to pay because of the scenery, but from my experience of dining in Oxfordshire pubs recently there is a flawed arrogance of above inflation price increases, smaller portions and a poor selection of quality wines by the glass. So this week I’m staying in and looking for some wines to enjoy at home from the current offers.
For a starter, try Quinta de Azevedo Vinho Verde 2010, Portugal, £6.99 buy 2 bottles save £4 until 29th August from Majestic, which delivers the crispness required, coupled with some attractive lemony fruit flavours not found in other Vinho Verde wines at the same price.Les Andides Saumur, Loire 2010, France, £7.49 save 25% to £5.59 in Waitrose until 16th August. Made from Chenin Blanc this dry white, has subtle, soft fruity character with a nice balance of minerality. Lovely thirst quenching stuff. Staying in the Loire, New Zealand flying winemaker Sam Harrop MW has overseen a Cabernet Franc Project which is producing softer, more fruit friendly wines from this varietal in contrast to the hard, green, unsociable versions.Le Paradis 2009 Chinon, Loire, France, £9.39 save 25% to £6.99 in Waitrose until 16th August is a really good example of a soft, rounded, medium bodied red with ripe dark fruity flavours and balanced tannins. Accessible and really a style for other Chinon winemakers to emulate. Finally, if are feeling sociable and are hosting a barbie then a dry, inexpensive, reliable sparkler is Lindauer Brut NV, New Zealand down to £6.99 from £7.99 until the 29th August in Majestic.
The guys in the picture are Kissing the Pink, who were a brilliant underrated 80’s and early 90’s band producing excellent albums like Naked and Certain Things Are Likely. I thought they had split up sometime ago only to discover that they played a London gig earlier this year. Check out Kissing the Pink’s Big Man Restless on You Tube.

Just back from my first visit to the Algarve, which belied my expectation of tower blocks, cries of “par 4” and Sir Cliff singing Devil Women. We were staying in Praia da Luz, a 50 minute drive from Faro airport and just west of the popular resort of Lagos.
Praia da Luz has a massive family beach and if you wanting something quieter travel towards the pretty and relatively underdeveloped villages of Burgau and Salema, where there are some less populated sandy beaches. Aside from beach life, Praia da Luz is definitely a good place to be, with a nice balance of bars and decent restaurants. OndaLuz is a typical, friendly Portuguese family restaurant, which we visited twice during our stay. Make sure you have some sardine paste, which is offered as a pre starter nibble and order a delicious mixed seafood dish which will be cooked and served in a cataplana (see picture) – cataplana will often included as part of the dish title, for example Monkfish Cataplana. Ondaluz had a decent selection of 2010 whites in half bottles including Prova Regia Arinto 2010 from Lisboa and the poorly named BSE 2010 made by Fonseca. Remember to look at the vintages of whites, particularly in half bottle, because in a different restaurant I was offered a 2008 Vinho Verde. Next time I visit Praia da Luz I will book a place at the small Restaurant Aquario, which is popular with the locals, avoid dining in the food hall atmosphere of The Gallery and dine at one of the four Indian eateries in the town. With the beautiful sunshine, enjoy some of the excellent fruit juices at the cafes and don’t miss out on the high quality of vegetables and fruit in the local shops.
If you want to find out more about Portuguese Wine and Food then get a copy of The Wine and Food Lover’s Guide to Portugal by Charles Metcalfe & Kathryn McWhirter, Amazon £11.37. In the meantime, I’ll be putting the turntable on and listening to Portugal by Sophia from There Are No Goodbyes Album, Flowershop Recordings online. Sorry Sir Cliff.

On Wednesday evening at The Academy of Culinary Arts Annual Awards of Excellence Dinner Martyn Nail, Executive Chef at Claridges, and his team delivered an outstanding evening of quality food, timing and service. Catering for 230 guests, they timed the delivery of each course perfectly and subtlety, including a tasty tournedos of Aberdeen Angus beef with Burgundy jus, pea puree, morels and creamed potatoes. After our main course, napkins were taken away before dessert and then the doors were opened to the adjacent room revealing a stunning selection of 14 different desserts. At you will see in the picture, this really was a star performance, with so many attractive choices. The Kanraku, consisting of baked cheesecake layer, cold cheesecake layer and an orange yuzu compote was delicious and smoothly matched with Mumm Demi Sec NV, whilst the Macaroon A La Rose consisting of an almond macaroon, rosewater mousseline cream, raspberries, lychees and rose petal was sublime.
A memorable evening which also reminded you of the art deco influence at Claridges.

The Charlbury Beer Festival last weekend once again proved the point that there is a place for good wines alongside some fine ales and ciders. We featured our largest selection ever including four English wines from Brightwell – keeping it local -, Chapel Down, Denbies and Bolney Estate, convincing me more than ever that the vino-interested public is increasingly positive, supportive and receptive to the styles of the domestic wines produced. It is much easier now to get someone to purchase an English wine versus the competition available from more fashionable wine producing countries.When it comes to rosé, simply offering one pink is not enough anymore, when there are there so many good dry styles on offer and people are choosing this as their regular consumption colour ahead of white or red. Yes there were four rosés available, with the dry, complex and sophisticated Château d’ Anglès from La Clape, the easy drinking Paternina rosado from Rioja – still bang on the money as a region producing well-priced pink – the popular, fruity Pink Elephant from Portugal and finally one of the best still, balanced English rosés from Chapel Down. The were two good reds including the delicious and classy Diemersfontein Shiraz 2003, which is probably at its peak now and the accessible medium bodied blend of Alfrocheiro, Syrah and Touriga Nacional from Quinta da Lagoalva Reserva 2008, in Tejo, Portugal available from Casa Leal.

Next Saturday the 14th Charlbury Beer Festival – solely existing to raise monies for the Charlbury Community and Overseas Projects Charity – in North Oxfordshire, will be featuring 50 Ales including Blue Monkey BG Sips, Grafters All English, Great Oakley Gobble, alongside more household names like Timothy Taylor, Batemans and St Austell. Of course there will be a great choice and diversity on offer not only on the beer front but cider, food and wine too! Invariably the request for a decent glass of vino at a real ale festival results in a plastic glass of boxed wine from under the counter. OK, so some boxed wines are fine, but the unwillingness to provide any decent offering of vino is clear. Organisers, you are missing an opportunity because some people are happy to try a couple of beers or ciders but they then want a decent Sauvignon Blanc or Rioja! This year at The Charlbury Beer Festival we will have a dozen wines on offer by the glass or bottle, featuring Denbies and Chapel Down from England, Jacob’s Creek Chardonnay/Pinot Noir Sparkling which sold out in 2010, a smart Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc from Southbank Estate, Chateau d’Angles from La Clape, Paternina Rioja Rose and the high quality Quinta da Lagoalva Reserva red from Tejo in Portugal.
This is the third year that Louise and I have organised the wine stand at The Charlbury Beer Festival and we have a growing fan club of grape lovers demanding a glass of quality wine. In 2010, we raised over £1,200 for charity, which was a 50% increase on our first year. So remember, particularly with village and town beer festivals, there is an opportunity to raise monies and satisfy an audience of grape lovers.
Also, as a first, The Charlbury Beer Festival will be staging The World Aunt Sally Open Singles Championship. Aunt Sally is a pub game still played extensively in Oxfordshire.
The Charlbury Beer Festival on 9th July starts at midday and finishes at 11pm. Held at the local cricket club, two minutes from the train station, it is easy to find. Check out First Great Western for times from Paddington, Oxford, Worcester and Hereford.

In the picture I am presenting for Waitrose at Taste of London, where clearly I am getting passionate about a white, which might have been Domaine Wachau Gruner Veltliner 2010, Quinta de Azevedo 2010 or Denbies Surrey Gold NV, Surrey, £6.49, Waitrose, which is a nicely fruity, off-dry, refreshing 10.5% abv white.
Other wines that I have tasted recently include a beautifully balanced apertif Alameda Oloroso Abocado NV from Bodegas Hidalgo, £10.45 per 50cl. Stockist: slurp.co.uk. Don’t serve too chilled. De Grendel Merlot 2008, South Africa, from £9.99, is a medium bodied, complex Merlot, with spice, minerality, damson, blueberry fruit and herbacious character. A top quality red that can be enjoyed without food. Stockists: Henderson Wines, Peter Green & Co, oldbutcherswinecellar.co.uk

On Friday night I was the MC at the Passione Italiana Dinner organised by Grossi Wines and held at the wonderful Chatsworth House in the Derbyshire Peak District. Before dinner our passage from pre-dinner drinks to the Carriage House restaurant talk us through several rooms in Chatsworth House, with the guests taking several opportunities for photo calls. I hadn’t visited Chatsworth House for 20 years and it was wonderful to be back.
The menu for the dinner was prepared and cooked by Francesco Mazzei from L’Anima. There were some potentially tricky food and wine matches here, however the stand out combination was handmade cavatelli with Massara shrimps, homemade sausage and bottarga with Corte della Meridiana 2005 Valtellina Superiore DOCG, Conti Sertoli Salis, which really heightened all the mellow characteristics of this wine. I must also give a special mention to the taut, dry, minerally and classy Kerner 2010, Alto Adige DOC, Lahnhof made by Carlo Ferrini and the appassimento Pian de’ Guardi Supertuscan 2006, Toscana IGT, Fattoria IL Lago. All of these wines are available from www.clubviniitaliani.co.uk
Foodie wise the evening was rounded off with some superb Robiola Brunet,a 100% goat’s milk cheese from northern Italy and beautifully presented, fine Italian chocolates from Baruzzo.
Entertainment was provided by a real vocal talent in Gianluca Pagenelli, who combined some familiar operatic numbers with songs from his new album Tango which will be released in October. Gianluca was a real fun guy who clearly knew how to charm the ladies!

It has been a very busy June with a hugely successful Taste of London, where people decided, that despite the weather, they were still going to have a good time. Also, I was delighted as the Wine Ambassador for this festival with the success of the inaugural Best in Taste Wine Awards and the exciting range of wines featured by the exhibitors in 2011. During the show I had the opportunity as a presenter for S Pellgerino to interview Rene Redzepi – Noma, Rene’s restaurant in Copenhagen, has won The S Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards in 2010 and 2011 – and run a Q&A as part of a Trilogy Masterclass session on food, wine and water harmonisation.The award winning chef was a really cool guy to interview who gave some great and original answers to questions from myself and the press. Rene is famous for sending his team of chefs to forage for food from the local countryside and if you would like to secure a table at Noma then check out their website for booking dates because there are 22,000 covers available on an annual basis, with 1 million people trying to secure a booking!
During Taste of London I also presented for Waitrose in the Tasting Table Seminars, which included sessions on: Off the beaten track, Best of British and Lighter styles for summer. This was a great opportunity to feature a diverse range of wines, including:Puklavec & Friends Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Slovenia, £8.99 which is dry, with ripe fruit, minerality and enough grassy character to tell you that this wine is made from this famous white grape. Domaine Felines Picpoul de Pinet 2010, Languedoc, France, £7.99 is a great advert for the obscure Picpoul Blanc varietal. This is dry with really attractive fresh, crisp, citrus notes. How can you ignore Domiane Wachau Terraces Gruner Veltliner, 2010, Wachau, Austria, £8.49 when you are looking for a dry, mildly spicy, peachy, easy drinking white which is ideal as an aperitif or a perfect match with mild Thai dishes.

On Wednesday evening at the VIP Taste of London Secret Garden Party I announced the winners of the inaugural Best in Taste Wine Awards sponsored by Blue Tomato magazine.
This competition was open to all the wine exhibitors and producers at Taste of London. We decided to have three fun wine categories: Taste of Summer Wine Award, Foodies Wine Award and Indulgence Wine Award. I enlisted the help of Mickey Narea, sommelier at Launceston Place, Denise Medrano The Wine Sleuth and Roberto Della Pietra, sommelier at Gauthier for the judging.
In order to taste the eighty wines entered, we set aside three hours for our blind tasting – this is the correct way to judge wines by covering the bottles. Each of the wines were then marked out of 20. We then agreed on a shortlist of three wines per category. Our Foodies Wine Award shortlist revealed diversity, with Pizzato Concentus 2005 – a Brazilian red made from Cabernet Sauvignon Tannat and Merlot – gaining a place, whilst a silky, smooth red from Portugal named Zimbro Douro 2006 made it to the Taste of Summer Wine Award shortlist and the Reserva Malbec 2008 from Norton Argentina was a contender for the Indulgence Wine Award . The trophy winners were:
Best in Taste Wine Awards
Taste of Summer Wine Award – Prosecco Riccardo NV, Italy.
Stand:Harmonicande Vintners.
A superb, crowd pleasing bubbly.
Foodies Wine Award – Gran Feudo Edición Chardonnay 2008, Bodegas Chivite, Spain.
Stand: Chivite.
Classy, well structured, foodie match wine.
Indulgence Wine Award – Felsina Vin Santo 2001, Italy.
Stand: Design Wine.
Delicate, exotic with balanced sweetness.
See you at the show.

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