A tour of Italy at Hicks Brasserie

Thursday night I conducted a hugely successful wine dinner at Hick's Brasserie at the Cotswold House Hotel.

The event was a complete sell out, we could have sold it nearly twice over!

The concept was quite simple - an aperitif with canapes followed by five courses each matched to a different wine.

The line-up and comments are as below:

Olives, salami, air dried ham
Prosecco dei Colli Treveigiani IGT ‘Frizzante’, Ca’ Morlin, Veneto

Light, fresh and quite delicious with the antipasto
***
Herb gnocchi, roasted butternut squash, braised pigs cheek, Parmigiano Reggiano
2007 Soave Classico, Pieropan, Veneto

Stood up to the pigs cheek beautifully, a great marriage!
***
Mascarpone & parsley risotto, grilled sea bass, white balsamic jelly

2007 Fiano/Greco, A Mano, Puglia

One of the surprises of the night, the lemon and apricot fruit with a hint of richness was a good foil to the risotto and balsamic jelly without overpowering the sea bass
***
Char-grilled poussin, orecchiette, aromatic tomatoes, artichokes, smoked aubergine, basil

2006 Chianti Rufina, Selvapiana, Tuscany

Beautiful wine at the early stages of it's life, elegant, balanced and complex with delicious layered fruit. A stunner!
***
Gorgonzola, apple & walnuts

2005 Palazzo della Torre, Allegrini, Veneto

The sweetness of fruit in this Valpolicella 'Cru' that is made in a 'Ripasso' style worked well with the blue cheese.
***
Honey & vanilla poached pear, salted chocolate & caramel mousse, tonka bean ice cream
2007 Moscato d’Asti, GD Vajra, Piemonte

The perfect wine to finish off, light in alcohol semi sweet and with a beautiful fruit/acid balance.

The one question I kept getting asked was, 'when is the next event at Hick's?'.

It will be in the new year so keep a look out on our website here and once the dates are advertised make sure you book early!

Tastings and more tastings

What a busy couple of weeks.........
I presented a tasting to the Pershore Wine Society last week which as ever was great fun. The topic was the wines of New Zealand and after tasting through eight wines what was apparent was the sheer quality of the wines coming out of this country. New Zealand don't do average - all the wines were well above average to exceptional and all represented such value for money at their respective price points. Amazing, considering as a nation of winemakers they have only been producing wines commercially since the 1980's.
The stars of the line-up were the following;
2006 Brightwater Riesling, Neudorf, Nelson - Beautiful minerality, purity and that wonderful petroleum nose which seduces the taster. Top class.
2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Kim Crawford, Marlborough - A classic Sauvignon Blanc with a lovely pungency of fruit, zippy acidity and delicious weight of flavour.
2006 Estate Chardonnay, Kumeu River, Auckland - Rich, opulent and so very Meursault like. This took some time to open up in the glass, but when it did, wow what a smorgasbord of complexity and flavour.
2006 Pinot Noir, Peregrine Estate, Central Otago - Wonderful ripe, structured Pinot Noir with delicious cherry driven fruit, fine tannins and great depth.

A day later I presented a food and wine tour of France at Hicks Brasserie at the Cotswold House Hotel. Following an aperitif each course was matched to a different wine, the menu and wines were as follows and I have added in a few comments to boot.

Parmesan choux – smoked salmon, crème fraîche on cucumber
Crémant de Bourgogne, Vitteaut Alberti, Burgundy

(Amazing quality fizz, widely admired!)
***
Chicken liver parfait, red onions, toasted rustic bread
2005 Pinot Gris Réserve, Cave de Hunawihr, Alsace

(beautiful match to the parfait, residual sugar in wine complemented the richness to perfection)
***
Sea bream fillet “bouride”, creamed leeks with garlic mayonnaise
2005 Chateau Grand Bourdieu, Graves Blanc, Bordeaux

(White Graves is often overlooked, the richness and citrussy acidity was perfect with the bouride and garlic mayo)
***
Duck leg confit “cassoulet”, white beans, pork belly, Toulouse sausage, tomato
2006 Rully, Côte Chalonnaise, Burgundy

(the acidity in the Rully cut through the fattiness of the duck and the gamey Pinot was good with the pork belly and sausage)
***
Brillat-Savarin, quince jelly, chutney, fig & almond wheel
2005 Chinon, Domaine de Beausejour, Loire Valley

(white would have perhaps been better, but this ripe mid-weight red with moderate tannins did not disgrace itself!)
***
Apple tarte tatin, vanilla ice cream
2004 Muscat de Rivesaltes, Pietri-Geraud, Languedoc-Roussillon

(the highish alcohol stood up to the ice cream and the peach and apricot fruit matched the apple tart a treat, a fine finish!)

Next week we have a Tour of Italy wine dinner at Hicks and it is a complete sell out.....so until then Bon Appetit!