Man in the Moo meets his match
Selecting a pudding wine can be a pig. If the wine's too dry for the dessert, it can taste mean and sour, while an overly sweet wine can overwhelm a pud completely - as I found out the other weekend. I plucked a late-harvest Juran‡on (1996 La Quintessence, Domaine Bru-Bach‚) from my cellar - OK, cupboard under the stairs - thinking it would partner a Normandy-style apple tart, but the wine's gorgeously ripe fruit was trumped by the sweet crumble topping. "You should have tried an aged Calvados," suggests pastry chef Damian Allsop.
The former Locanda Locatelli chef has upped sticks from the capital to make his home in Barcelona. "England is full of copycats - they see what's going on elsewhere and then run with it; while France holds back too much - if they make a tarte tatin then it has to be made in a certain way. Catalonia is a creative region - and the creativity isn't second or third hand. It will inspire me, I'm sure of it," declares Allsop.
He was recruited by Spanish chef Jordi Roca to head up the pastry section of Roca's new Barcelona venture, which is due to open next month. Called Moo - don't laugh, the Spanish spell the onomatopoeic cow's noise as mu - it is a collaboration between Jordi, and his brothers, manager Josep and chef Joan, at the two-Michelin-starred Gerona restaurant, El Celler de Can Roca.
And as we're talking Barcelona here, you can expect things to be a little different. For starters, all portion sizes will be kept small, "not tapas-size, but about half normal portion size," explains Allsop, with diners expected to choose up to five courses. And the wine list - get this - will be organised by soil type. "We will focus on the winemaker, not the person who owns the place," he adds.
Each dish on the menu will get suggested wine matches. Allsop is already working on the matches for his desserts. So what are some of his favourite dessert wines? "I love Australian botrytised S‚millon and late-harvest Alsace Riesling - you have all that sweetness but you've still got the acidity," he says. Another favourite match is PX sherry with warm chocolate fondant.
Talking of warm chocolate fondant, Allsop's version, along with the other desserts planned for Moo, are more than a nod to one of his idols, Ferran Adrià.
A Trip Around Havana is a dark chocolate cigar-shaped tube filled with tobacco-smoked ice-cream, served with a rum-soaked sponge, a mint granita, and lemon and lime soup - Allsop's homage to Cuban cocktail classic, the Mojito. There's even "ash" spilling out of the end of the chocolate cigar. "We make it using a Spanish Christmas confectionery speciality called Carbon," explains Allsop. Barcelona, here I come.
Shorts
In the red
Through a glass darkly Riedel (020 8545 0830) has been at it again with the launch of yet another new glass shape - for blind tasting. Completely black, the glass allows you to assess a wine based purely on its aroma and taste, and - while not exactly a Riedel invention (sommeliers have been doing this for years) - the Riedel glass is a Chianti Classico bowl, rather than the more usual ISO shape. Only thing is, it's £40 a stem, as it's part of the super-fine Sommelier series.
Alsace on a roll
The Alsace "ethnic food" ad campaign seems to be working - export figures to the UK are up by 5.8% from January to August, reports the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d'Alsace, with 58% penetration of Chinese cuisine and 49% of Indian among UK consumers.
Strong gin Following the launch of Miller's Gin in the UK, the Reformed Spirits Company (020 7352 8697) adds Miller's Westbourne Strength to the range. With an abv of 45.2%, the gin achieved a 97/100 rating at the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago and was launched in response to customer demand for a higher-strength gin.
Wrist action A survey into screwcaps commissioned by top New Zealand winery Villa Maria found that British wine drinkers are "increasingly adventurous in their acceptance of Stelvin screwcap closures". More than half (64.4%) surveyed said they would buy, or have already bought, screwcapped wines; and 60.3% said they would not be the slightest bit embarrassed to take screwcapped wines to a party. The winery has now converted all of its production to screwcaps. "We felt that we could no longer allow the aromatics of our wine be so affected by the vagaries of cork," said Villa Maria's UK manager Warren Adamson. Yes, but how has the controversial closure affected sales? Up by 13.7% in the UK over the past 12 months.
