Luv Ya Muva - The Mother's Day Edition
The perfect gift for the perfect mother…
What screams thank you for the million and one things your mum does for you more than a rose cava, cheese, charcuterie and chocolate?
Mum, we’ll let you answer that one.
Grab yourself a glass, put your feet up, and enjoy. You deserve it 🥂
Wine Tasting
How to taste wine
The first step of assessing wine is looking at it
Wine snobs like to talk about the legs of wine. In all honestly, this is a bit of a waste of time.
The wine legs (or tears of the wine as the French refer to them) can give an indication of the alcoholic content of the wine. But it’s so difficult to be accurate with a reading from legs,
So we say just read the label!
For appearance, we only ever find it useful to note something if the colour is completely out of the ordinary i.e. it’s a really dark rose
The next step is to smell your wine.
Swirl the wine in the glass. Looks poncy but does release some aromas, and helps it not just smell like alcohol.
Broadly, smells can be broken into three categories.
Primary Aromas: grape-derivative and include fruits,
herbs, and floral notes.
Secondary Aromas: from winemaking practices and easiest to find in white wine. Examples include beer, cheese rind, or nuts.
Tertiary Aromas: from aging in bottle or oak. Normally savoury. Examples include roasted nuts, spices, vanilla, autumn leaves, tobacco, and leather.
Start broad. Is it fruity?
Red wine? Think of red, blue, and black fruits.
White wine? Think of citrus, orchard, or tropical fruits.
Once you’ve identified a scent such as citrus, you can now think if it’s more apple than lemon or more orange than lime.
This is all pretty personal to your own nose.
The same principle can be applied to floral and herb scents, but in our opinion, not many people can tell you the specific scent of geranium.
If you can detect herbs or floral notes, it’s a great start.
Wine Tasting
How To Taste Wine
Finally you get to actually taste the wine. Funnily enough though, tasting is predominantly to detect the structure of the wine.
Body: Think how differently skimmed milk, full-fat milk and cream coat the mouth.
Acidic: How much does it make your mouth drool?
Tannin: An annoying word but an easy one to detect. Imagine sucking on a teabag and how dry it would leave your mouth.
That’s tannin.
Dry or sweet? Tannin can trick you to think there’s no sweetness in a wine. Stick the tip of your tongue in as the best detector of sugar (probably not the done thing to do in a restaurant).
The final part of tasting a wine, is to come to a conclusion about it.
What type of wine did you just have and did you like it?
Was it too acidic or just a bit meh?
If you’ve just tried, for example, a Barolo, log that experience with that wine in your mind so that the next time you have a Barolo, you have a foundation of knowledge to judge it against.
The only way to really educate yourself is to drink more. Poor us.
Wine
Masia D'or Brut Rose, Cava
Name: Masia D’or Brut Rose, Cava
ABV: 13%
Grape: Grenache, Monastrell
Country and Region: Spain, Catalonia
Winemaking: Organic
Tasting notes of Strawberry, Red Apples and Toast.
Garnacha imparts delicious red berry flavours, Monastrell is responsible for the beautiful colour – floral on the nose, with red apple and pear notes leading to a crisp and lively wine with a signature toasty cava finish.
Sweetness (dry to sweet) 1-5: 2
Acidity (low to high) 1-5: 3
Tannin (low to high) 1-5: 1
Body (light to full) 1-5: 2
Producer
Can Virgili
If the wine world was a school, Can Virgili would be the playground!
The family tradition of making quality organic wines meets Alex and Albert Virgili’s unorthodox creative wines.
NESTLED IN THE HEART OF THE PENEDÈS WINE REGION.
The third-generation family are creating fun juice, whilst having fun and well, doing it organically!!
Grapes are grown in Casa Berger vineyards beneath the slopes of Montserrat in Alt Penedes. Harvested at night, mixed and chilled in dry ice, then spent 2hr macerating before being fermented for 25 days. Aged for 10-12 months before release.
Cheese 1
Brie de Meaux
Country + Region: France, Meaux
Milk Type: Cows
Pasteurised: No
Strength Of Cheese: 2
Style Of Cheese: Soft-ripened
Texture: 2
The Bries-de-Saint-Remy workshop is located on the bank of the Grand Morin River, in St Remy-de-la-Vanne, in the heart of this historic cheese area.
The bloomy rind cheeses of the area, formerly protected by abbeys from different Briardes cities (Meaux, Melun, Nangis, Montereau, Coulommiers), are currently produced in one workshop taking into account the peculiarities of every one of them.
A historical and favourable prairie inhabited by people trained to make cheese and pay great attention to product quality and traceability; there was little to be re-launched in this workshop that makes the most of this Briard country’s treasures.
This Brie is made in a workshop in the Eastern Paris Basin, known for its rich soils and large fields. It takes 25 litres of cow’s milk to make one Brie. It is matured for 6 to 8 weeks and turned regularly to prevent it from ‘sinking’ in the middle and to develop an even, velvety rind.
As the cheese ages, the rind develops red or brown patches. It has a creamy meltingly-soft texture, a pungent aroma and rich buttery flavours, with notes of mushroom/truffle. Although most people are familiar with the Brie, they may be surprised by the strength and depth of this one, as it is made from raw milk. This is the real Brie, the one that is known as the ‘King of Cheeses’.
Cheese 2
Reypenaer VSOP 2 year aged Gouda
Age: 24 Months
Country + Region: The Netherlands, Woerden
Milk Type: Cow
Pasteurised: Yes
Strength Of Cheese: 3
Style Of Cheese: Hard
Texture: 5
The Wijngaard Cheese Family
Grandpa Piet started in 1936 with the trade in cheese, actually as a medium of exchange for the groceries who he provided to the farmers in the region of Woerden in the Netherlands, where he was paid by cheese. During that age, cheese got more and more important. His son Jan took over the company in 1946/47 and set out completely to the ripening process. The company developed slowly but steady. In the Netherlands the cheese was more and more appreciated. In 1975, the third generation showed up, with daughter Riet, son Jan and since 1995 son Rien. In 2019, the fourth generation joined with Jan, the son of Rien.
Let nature do its work
Maturing is a process in which flavour and aroma are allowed to develop over time. The master cheesemakers let in ambient air by opening the shutters in the old ageing room and allowing nature to play its important role. The variations in the natural conditions during the maturing process make all the difference.
The cheese is always adjusting to the changing conditions around it. In warm weather, the individual cheeses heat up gradually and maturation accelerates, while in cooler weather the opposite happens: the process slows. In damp weather, the cheeses lose less of their moisture (dry out less), whereas the reverse is true in dry weather. In this way, they put nature to work to help the cheeses and their maturation. These natural differences account for the depth and complexity in flavour and aroma.
Cheese 3
Driftwood
Country + Region: United Kingdom, Somerset
Milk Type: Goat
Pasteurised: No
Strength Of Cheese: 3
Style Of Cheese:
Soft
Texture: 2
White Lake Cheese
3 Stars Great Taste Awards 2021
Silver Award – Global Cheese Awards 2021
Silver Award – World Cheese Awards 2019/2020
1 Star Great Taste Awards 2020
Charcuterie
The Deli Society Saucisson Avec Truffle
The Deli Society partners with artisan producers that put animal welfare first.
Country & Region: France, Aveyron
This saucisson sec has been produced to traditional standards with high animal welfare pork and infused with chunks of truffle for a truly delectable flavour. Bon appetit!
Chocolate
Salted Caramel Milk Chocolate
We have partnered with COCO Chocolatier to provide you with the very best artisan chocolate.
Challenging industry norms, COCO Chocolatier begin the making of the chocolate at origin before passionately transforming it in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a result, more wealth remains within developing economies.