Invitation to a Mediterranean Wine Tasting Dinner

FLAVOURS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

Greece, France, Italy, Spain, Santorini, Menorca, Sicily

TONGHAM VILLAGE HALL

SATURDAY 3^rd MARCH 2012 7pm

7 COURSE WINE TASTING DINNER TO RAISE FUNDS

FOR MAINTENANCE OF OUR VILLAGE HALL REG CHARITY No. 200365

Suggested Donation £22.50

Ring Jane Etherton 07983 154 295 to book your tickets and participate in the life of your village

EASY, QUICK & HEALTHY PINOT NOIR TASTING MENU

French Cooking in Ten Minutes

I have to admit to being a disciple of Edouard de Pomiane who wrote books about cooking 5 course French meals in ten minutes back in the 1930s.  Some of you may remember a great BBC2 Series from 1995 entitled French Cooking in Ten Minutes, which was dramatized from his work.  If so you may be interested in the following links.

The BBC2 series can be seen on You Tube.  I would highly recommend watching them, as they are both entertaining and inspirational. Click here to watch the first of the series.

and the second

and the Third

and the Fourth

and the Fifth

and the Last

Edouard’s book is available from Amazon.  Click here for a link to their site.

I thought it might be an idea to take some inspiration from Edouard and write a few blog posts on easy and quick wine tasting menus.  They will use the techniques of Edouard but bought up to date with the use of modern frozen food and microwaves etc.  My intention is also to keep the meals balanced and relatively healthy from a modern perspective.  The ten-minute rule is just a guide and I won’t stress myself with keeping exactly to this rule, even our hero broke it on occasions.

A nice bottle of Burgundy Pinot Noir

My first menu is one for tasting with a bottle of Pinot Noir, which is probably one of the easiest wines to pair food with; it even goes well with some fish. If there are just two of you have just one bottle of wine and see how it goes with each course.  If there are four of you have 2 different bottles of wine, if six then three bottles etc.   Choose any Pinot Noir within your price range, but just remember that buying Pinot Noir under £9 is risky.  There are good Pinot Noirs available from Burgundy, Oregon, California, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and even from Germany and Austria, so there is a good choice to choose from.

For this menu I have particularly emphasized the healthy aspect of the meal, as January is a time of the year when we all make New Year’s resolutions about eating or drinking more healthily.  This meal will certainly help you towards your five-a-day and there is a considerable amount of raw food in this recipe that can be also be very good for you.  With a really good bottle of Pinot Noir you might also wish to consider this as a Valentine’s meal that in any case should never be too heavy.   It is assumed that you will serve some water as well as wine with the meal as this means that you will slake your thirst with the water and the wine will be for appreciation and pairing with the food.  You will probably also want to serve some nice crusty bread with the meal so that you can clean your palate between courses and fill up as necessary.

The Menu:

Amouse Bouche – Peppered Strawberries

Starter – Beetroot and Blueberry salad

Main Course – Seared Tuna with Pak Choi and Oyster Sauce

Cheese Course – Shavings of Manchego, Double Gloucester and Red Leicester served with a salad of young leaves.

Dessert – Fresh Cherries and Raspberries (or seasonal fruit)

As you can see, there is nothing time consuming or complicated about this menu but there are some elements that will perhaps surprise and delight your partner or guests, particularly if served with a nice bottle of wine.  The Beetroot and Blueberry salad will be something new to most people but it is a great combination and the recipe below really pairs well with a Pinot Noir.   Having shavings of cheese is also different and it may surprise you how it enhances the taste and reduces your calorie and dairy intake.

Each dish is described below and the ingredient lists are for a cosy dinner for two but can be easily multiplied up for more.   Prepare everything but the main course before the meal, it shouldn’t take you long at all.   The Tuna should be cooked in between courses but you should be away from your guests for less than 10 minutes.

Peppered Strawberries

6 fresh ripe Strawberries

Black Pepper

Bring the strawberries to room temperature and then cut them each into two lengthways.   Arrange in a small bowl or plate and season with freshly ground black pepper.  Serve just before the meal and before your first glass of wine to liven up your jaded palate.  Remember what the strawberries smell and taste like as many Pinot Noirs have that characteristic.

Beetroot and Blueberry Salad

3 Medium sized cooked (but not pickled in vinegar) beetroots

A good handful of blueberries

A handful of rocket leaves

2 Chestnut mushrooms

Very Good Quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Very Good Quality Balsamic Vinegar (go easy on this)

Salt and Black Pepper

Dijon Mustard (very small amount)

Put the olive oil, vinegar, seasoning and mustard into a large salad bowl and stir together.  Dice the beetroot and mushrooms into centimeter squares and add to the salad bowl along with the blueberries and rocket leaves (chop the rocket only if the leaves are on the large side).   Mix all together and plate up just before serving.

The earthiness of the beetroot and mushroom, the fruitiness of the blueberries and the pepperiness of the rocket mimic the flavours of a Pinot Noir and thus pair well with one.

Beetroot and Blueberry Salad

Seared Tuna with Pak Choi and Oyster Sauce

2 Fresh Tuna steaks

A head of Pak Choi

A bottle of Chinese Oyster Sauce

Sunflower or Groundnut Oil

Half a lime

Salt and Black Pepper

Pat the two tuna steaks dry, wipe with a little oil and season well with salt and black pepper.   Wash and slice the Pak Choi ready for stir-frying.  Heat a grill pan to it is very hot and at the same time heat the oil in a wok or similar type pan to a high temperature.  Get the oyster sauce out of the cupboard, ready for use.  First put the Pak Choi in the wok or pan and stir-fry for about two minutes before adding a few good dollops of oyster sauce and a squeeze of lime and stirring in.   Turn the heat off the wok and cover.  Then sear your two tuna steaks for about 30 seconds to two minutes maximum on each side (frankly the smaller the amount of time the better but I appreciate that not everyone likes their steaks very rare).    Serve by putting the pak choi on the plate with the steaks on top. 

The Cheese Course

Shavings of Manchego, Double Gloucester and Red Leicester

A small portion of Spanish Manchego or other hard sheep’s cheese

A small portion of good quality Double Gloucester or other medium cow’s cheese

A small portion of good quality mature Red Leicester or perhaps Cheddar or Wensleydale & cranberries

A handful of young salad leaves

Put a small amount of salad leaves in the middle of each plate.  I prefer not to dress this salad and then you can just pick up the leaves by hand and enjoy their true unadulterated taste.   Use a vegetable peeler to shave thin slices of each cheese onto the plate on and around the salad leaves.  I prefer to keep each cheese to one region of the plate so that one can appreciate each one separately.   You should finish the wine with this course, or of course if being very good leave some for another night!

Fresh Cherries and Raspberries

A handful of fresh cherries

A handful of fresh raspberries

Wash the fruit and arrange in a bowl for serving.   You can eat on their own for a really healthy end to the meal or serve with a little sugar or cream or perhaps a chocolate dipping sauce.   

Enjoy and be surprised what a nice healthy wine tasting meal you created with so little effort.

New World Wines for the New Year

Our Tongham Taster’s New Year started with one of our regular trips to Farnborough where John S treated us to a fantastic evening of New World wines.  Five of us travelled up from Tongham where we met up with four of our Farnborough regulars for this entertaining evening introducing us to six wines from four countries accompanied by an interesting mix of food and appetisers.



Happy New Year!

New World wines cover North and South America, Australia and New Zealand plus Asia and Africa.  They tend to be more fruit driven and powerful but would John’s selection appeal to our refined palates!?   It was certainly well sourced and we got a very good £10 worth as John had picked most up as special offers – all prices quoted below are what John actually paid.  Find out below our thoughts on all the wines we blind tasted, which are listed and described in descending order of preference.  Scores mentioned are out of twenty and are presented in the order John E, Jane, John S, Jill, Ian, Kathryn, Steve S, Sheila and Clive.

John and Jill enjoying their evening

Lindauer Special Reserve Blanc de Blancs, New Zealand Sparkling White NV, 11.5%, Majestic £7.20.

Six of our team voted this their top wine of the evening, which was no surprise as it had a wonderful biscuity nose and a very subtle smooth dry taste – in fact not obviously New World at all.  Some of our team guessed that this was from New Zealand and even got the producer.  This wine is made with Chardonnay grapes and thus is the same as a classic Blanc de Blancs Champagne but much cheaper.  We can certainly recommend this as a good value sparkler.  Scores were 13.5, 20, 11, 15, 12, 18, 15.5, 13.5 and 18.

Hahn Winery Pinot Noir, Monterey California Red 2010, 14.5%, Waitrose £10.44.

This wine got two of our team’s top votes and was probably the best USA wine we have had at one of tastings to date as everyone had it in their top three wines.  Few, if any, realized that it was a Pinot Noir but it was a lovely spicy pleasant wine.   Scores were 14.5, 16, 14, 14, 15.5, 16, 13.75, 13 and 16.

John and Steve discuss he finer points of sparkling wine

Villa Maria Private Bin Dry Riesling, Marlborough New Zealand 2011, 12%, Majestic £7.20.

With five of our team including this in their top three wines, this lovely New World Riesling just scraped into third place.  Initially, some of us thought it was a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc but we could see from John’s face that we wrong and so plumped for a Riesling instead and capped it by even getting the producer.  This wine just missed out on getting into our recent Village Hall tasting and we can certainly recommend it for its limey taste, although Kathryn found it slightly soapy.   Scores were 14, 19, 12, 14, 12.5, 12, 12.75, 8 and 15.

Flaxbourne Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough New Zealand 2011, Marks and Spencers £8.49.

One of our team had this as their top wine and it was obviously a Sauvignon Blanc.  Rather like The Ned we served at the Village Hall it has some minerality as well as fruit.  As for the fruit our team named everything from Apples to Pineapple.  Scores were a 14.5, 13, 10, 13, 14, 11, 12.5, 10 and 17.   A good buy at this price.

Boschendal SMV, South Africa 2009, 14%, Morrisons £6.95.

Although only our fifth best wine of the evening, this wine was still very well received.     It had a good herby berrylike taste but some thought it was a Pinotage rather than a Syrah, Mouvedre, Viognier blend.   Scores were 13.5, 14, 10, 15, 14, 12, 12, 10.5 and 13.  A nice wine for this price and good to see a wine from Morrisons for a change.

Casa Leona Cabernet Sauvignon, Rapel Valley Chile 2011, 13.5%, Marks and Spencers £5.49.

The cheapest wine of the evening was the only one that didn’t impress and everyone had it in last place.  Scores were a very lowly 7,10, 7, 8, 6, 6, 4.5, 6 and 9.   After all the beautiful aromas of the other wines, this one had a quite horrible smell and a metallic taste.    Obviously something wasn’t right with this bottle as we have had some nice Casa Leona in the past.

With all these wines we were served some lovely cheese, some homemade cheese straws, humous, bread, Thai spring rolls, Prawn crostini, Satay and more!  An excellent spread.

Peppered Prawn Crostini

As usual the conversation flowed alongside the wine and we had another great evening.


As usual thanks to Clive for the more professional pictures that accompany this blog post.

Next up is Steve S’s choice of wines on Friday 10^th February, John E’s Italian wines and pasta evening on Friday 16^th March and Clive’s wines on Thursday 12^th April 12^th.  All of these events will be held in Tongham, before we return to Farnborough again on Saturday May 19^th for Ian’s wines.  Jane has plumped for our midsummer date of Thursday June 21^st.   Feel free to join us at any or all of our events– contact details are in Wine Circle at the top of this blog.   Our next big wine tasting dinner in Tongham Village Hall will be on Saturday March 3^rd – more details coming soon but the theme is The Mediterranean (Greece, Sicily, Catalonia and the Languedoc).