The Rose Edition
The Rose Edition is a true celebration of British producers.
Perfectly paired, this is the ultimate night in with artisan products and tasting notes. You’re going to love it!
We founded The Deli Society sitting around a table of wine, cheese and charcuterie with our family.
We were having such a good time and we thought we could use our many years of connections across different producers in the UK and Europe to bring those good times to other households.
This box is the epitome of that and we hope you love it.
Salut,
Josh & Harry
#totasteistotravel
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
Ortega Rosé 2020 - Westwell Wines
Name: Ortega Rosé – Westwell Wines Estate
ABV: 11.5%
Grape: Ortega & Regent
Country and Region: England, Kent
Winemaking: Traditional
Provence style this is not! But we’re busting the myth rosé has to be pale to be delicious.
Just because a rosé is darker does not necessarily mean it’s awfully sweet. Most of the time, wine makers of cheap wines, put a lot of sugar in to mask bad grapes. The colour actually has very little to do with it.
In this case the Regent grapes skin have been left to soak a little longer with the juice, imparting more of the red colour of the grape.
Our Deli Soc tip would be don’t be a rosé colour snob but if its dark in colour and cheap, it may be safer to avoid!
Tasting notes of Strawberry, Redcurrant’s and Honeysuckle.
The Ortega is fermented in stainless steel tanks at cool temperatures to retain freshness and purity.
Side Note: Fermenting in stainless steel tanks means no other flavours are imparted on the wine, keeping it pure and fresh. An alternative to this wood be oak barrells which give wines oaky, vanilla or smokey finishes.
For this Rose they’ve co-fermented with ripe Regent to add notes of bright red crunchy fruit.
Sweetness (dry to sweet) 1-5: 2.5
Acidity (low to high) 1-5: 3
Tannin (low to high) 1-5: 2
Body (light to full) 1-5: 2
Producer
Westwell Wine Estate
Adrian Pike took over the Westwell estate in 2017.
Prior to working in wine Adrian made his name in the independent music sector and has brought some of that spirit along with him into the English wine world.
Westwell is located just beneath the Pilgrims Way on the North Downs in Kent; a route used for centuries by Pilgrims travelling to Canterbury
Their estate boasts an ideal mix of climate, aspect and soil. There are six classified soil geologies there; and the varieties have been planted with these in mind. Chardonnay is situated on shallower, chalky soils where flint proportions are highest and where it captures the evening sun best. The Pinots are on mixed sand / chalk soil, and our Ortega is planted in the sandiest, most sheltered spot of all to fully develop its fruit-forward, aromatic style.
All the wines are made on-site from fruit grown on our estate. This gives them complete control of the full process and ensures an end product that we can be really proud of.
Cheese 1
Quicke's Double Devonshire Clothbound
Age: 3 – 6 Months
Country + Region: United Kindom, Devon
Milk Type: Cows
Pasteurised: Yes
Strength Of Cheese: 3
Style Of Cheese: Hard
Vegetarian: Yes
Texture: 5
Handcrafted using milk from their grass-fed cows, clothbound and naturally matured, typically for 3- 6 months.
http://https://youtu.be/kTpqhw7nNlk
We’ve got a lot to thank Anne Boleyn for.
It was because of her that Henry VIII fell out with the Catholic church, dissolved the monasteries and reallocated their land. Some of that land – a particularly beautiful stretch near Newton St Cyres in Devon, to be precise – he allotted to a chap called Thomas Bidwell.
And when Richard Quicke walked Thomas’ daughter Elizabeth up the aisle of the local church, the Quicke family became established in this green and very pleasant corner of Devon.
Made by hand in the old-fashioned way, slowly matured for a deeply satisfying flavour, this cheese celebrates the deep connection that has grown between the Quicke family and the land they have nurtured for almost 500 years.
British Cheese Awards 2018 Silver
World Cheese Awards 2017 Silver
Great Taste Awards 2017 2 Star
Taste of the West 2017 Silver
Great Taste Awards 2016 2 Star
Cheese 2
Lincolnshire Poacher
Age: 14 – 16 Months
Country + Region: United Kingdom, Lincolnshire
Milk Type: Cow
Pasteurised: No
Strength Of Cheese: 3
Style Of Cheese: Hard
Vegetarian: No
Texture: 5
Making the cheese is an unusual blend of art and science. Getting the right temperatures and acidities throughout the process is vital.
The cheese maker also needs to have a really good feel for the curd because it is this, that determines when the whey is drained off. This is critical for getting the right texture and our distinctive flavour.
Unpasteurised (raw) milk from the afternoon milking is held in a bulk tank and kept at chill temperature overnight. In the morning the cold milk from the previous evening’s milking is piped into the cheese vat and to it, the warm morning milk is added directly from the milking parlour. Initially starter culture is introduced to turn the milk sugars (lactose) to lactic acid. Then traditional animal rennet is introduced to the milk (1 litre to 5000 litres of milk) to separate the curds from the whey, after which the milk is heated to a temperature of about 41°C.
Once the curd has set into a junket, it is cut with knives until it is the size of a pea. The vat is then stirred for about an hour until the individual bits of curd are about the size of a grain of wheat.
The whey is then drained off to leave a mat of curd at the bottom of the vat. This is cut and piled in to blocks three times (cheddaring) and then milled into chip sized pieces.
Salt is then added and mixed in by hand (very hard work!). The cheese moulds are then filled with 20kg of salted mixed curd and pressed for 36 hours.
- Supreme Champion at the 1996/7 British Cheese Awards
- Best British Cheese at the World Cheese Awards in 2001/2
- Gold Medals at the British Cheese Awards 2003/4 for both Lincolnshire Poacher and Smoked Lincolnshire Poacher
Cheese 3
Organic Cotswold Brie
The Weavers have been farming in the Cotswolds for three generations, and in the South West of England since before 1570.
They proudly follow a traditional method of organic farming and place great store in caring for land and animal welfare. Their closed organic herd enjoy a forage-based diet, and their milk production is not forced. They know that if their girls are happy, their cheeses will taste great too.
Age: 1-2 Weeks
Country + Region: United Kingdom, Cotswold
Milk Type: Organic Cows
Pasteurised: Yes
Strength Of Cheese: 2
Style Of Cheese:
Soft Ripened
Vegetarian: Yes
Texture: 2
Cotswold Life Food and Dirink Awards 2018 – Winner
Cheese 4
Drunken Burt
Burt’s Cheese started out life in January 2009 in Altrincham, Cheshire.
It was a career in the dairy industry, that inspired Claire Burt to follow her passion for cheese-making. It started as a hobby on her kitchen table, but after winning Gold for Burt’s Blue Cheese at the International Cheese Show – Nantwich 2010, she decided to pursue the business full-time.
Burt’s Cheese is now based near Knutsford, Cheshire, and under the skill and patience of Claire Burt and Cheese- Maker Tom Partridge produces a range of award winning Cheeses. We use single herd milk from Halton Farm on the Rhode Hall Estate. Burt’s Cheese was very proud recently to be named by the Observer Food Monthly as Best Producer
Age: 2-6 Weeks
Country + Region: United Kingdom, Cheshire
Milk Type: Cow
Pasteurised: Yes
Strength Of Cheese: 4
Style Of Cheese: Blue, Washed rind
Vegetarian: No
Texture: 3
The milk is inoculated with the Penicillium Roqueforti (blue mould) which is allowed to developed on the surface of the cheese.
However, the cheese isn’t pierced during ripening so doesn’t develop the blue veins as the Burt’s Blue cheese would. (The paste may occasionally develop small pockets blue). Instead the cheese is ‘washed’ in Gwatkin’s Cider*, this process encourages other bacteria to develop on the surface.
The result is a surface mould that tends to be paler, often ‘sandy’ in colour. The younger cheese will have a chalky centre (or paste) which carries with it the fresh ‘apple’ acidity from the cider. As the cheese matures the acidity softens and the flavours become more rounded and subtle, the cider ‘notes’ become less ‘appley’ and more ‘oaky’ from the aged cider barrels. The paste softens to become silky smooth.
International Cheese Awards 2017 – Gold
British Cheese Awards 2018 – Gold
Cheese 4 - Blue Alternative
Highmoor
Rose’s grandfather started our dairy in 1950 and it converted to being organic in 2001. They felt it a crying shame that this beautiful organic milk was being hauled away and mixed with the milk of many other farms before it was dispersed into the market. They thought that the animals, and their milk, deserved greater appreciation and so they set about creating Nettlebed Creamery.
Rose founded the business in 2015 and it has since won many awards, including Super Gold at the World Cheese Awards, and Best Organic Cheese and Best Soft White at the British Cheese Awards.
Country and Region: United Kingdom, Oxfordshire
Milk Type: Cow (organic)
Pasteurised: Yes
Strength: 4
Style: Soft, Washed rind
Vegetarian: No
Texture: 3
Artisan Cheese Awards 2021 – Gold
Charcuterie
British Salami
The Deli Society partners with artisan producers that put animal welfare first.
Country & Region: United Kingdom, London, Penge
This salami is hand made with Free range british pork and cured in South London. Guiseppe, the maker, uses ancient artisan methods of fermentation and air drying inspired by Italian traditional methods, passed on by his family.
Chocolate
Lavender 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.
Travel Guide
We may be biased but we think London is the best city in the world. New York has nothing on us! Whatever you’re looking for in a city, London will be able to provide. Whether it’s cheap food markets or eye-watering overpriced novelties (Salt Bae geezer), bars, museums or parks, London has it in abundance.
Talking of parks, did you know that London is in fact a forest. The amount of greenery and green space you can enjoy in London is enormous. So much so, in fact, that the density of trees it has per square mile qualifies it as a forest per the United Nations definition.
Treehouse Hotel: This stylish, fun spot is located in Marylebone with views overlooking The Shard, Canary Wharf and Regents Park. Even better is has a rooftop terrace to appreciate it all from.
Madera at Treehouse: Convenience is key. We’d normally recommend getting away from hotel breakfasts but what better way to start your day than with Mexican food and a view of the city? We recommend the chorizo bowl..obviously.
Regents Canal: Head to Kings Cross for a waterside stroll or cycle down Regents Canal, taking you right up to Camden Market. Boat moorings and heritage buildings galore.
The Coffee Jar: A local favourite due to it’s charming reputation. Small, cosy, welcoming and importantly serving delicious coffee by people who genuinely care.
The Spaniards Inn: One of the oldest and most famous traditional pubs in London, located in Hampstead (nice and easy from Camden). The beer garden is perfect for both winter and summer, as well as pints, scotch eggs and if you’re there on a Sunday, obviously a roast.
Hampstead Heath: Work off those lunchtime beers with a stroll through the beautiful, famous greenery Hampstead Heath has to offer. If you’re brave enough, take a dip in the outdoor pools.
Trullo: Staying put in North, Trullo is plotted just by Highbury and Islington station. Pasta, pasta, pasta. Expect a simple, seasonally focused menu which changes daily (so you’ll have to go back). Wash it down with an Italian wine of your choice and finish off with a negroni.
The Bar with No Name: Keeping it close to dinner, this neighborhood cocktail bar boasts 1940’s/1950’s “Film Noir” references in settings, style and scene. Perfect to sign the night off. Proper speakeasy vibes.