Category: Xander

The wine tasting at the Cork and Bottle focused on wine from Languedoc and Rousillon. Picking the best of the 6 wines we sampled is a tricky task. The two most obviously in the running would be the first wine of the evening – a dry white muscat –...

This wine is one of the best and best value bottles there is. Viña Ardanza Reserva Especial 2001. La Rioja Alta have only declared three Reserva ‘Especial’ years in the Estate’s 121 year history – the others being in 1964 and 1973. The price? €20… or (alas) £25, which...

During the summer I quite enjoy to make summer pudding, but also just to eat the berries on their own. It’s almost as good and none of the effort. I enjoyed a bowl of redcurrants, whitecurrants and blackcurrants. Pretty tasty!...

I bought this bottle in the bin-end of a shop for £20. A red Burgundy made by Carre-Courbin using grapes from the ‘les lurets’ vineyard in the Volnay region, 2001. I’ve been looking the internet for it ever since. This was stonkingly good. I might settle for a different...

I’d been to the cinema and left needing lunch so went home via M&S where I picked up a box of prawns and some rocket to add to the avocado at home. I cubed the avocado, mixed with the prawns, rocket and pine nuts then prepared a very tiny amount...

Pretty tasty stuff, but my table made a rookie mistake. There were four of us dining and I wanted us to each choose a dish and then we all share. However, everyone else decided that we should instead select some sharing dishes and share those. Mistake, the sharing dishes...

Well, I’ve yet to drink a bad Puligny-Montrachet and this one didn’t let me down. I’m a general fan of white Burgundy and a particular fan of the richly minerally profile that gives Montrachet wines their angular elegance. This one also had hints of a roast beef sandwich, toast...

This month has been rather Burgundian. This was a rather nice Pouilly-fuisse chardonnay which balanced fruit notes of pear and apricot with floral ones of elderflower and honey. It would have gone excellently with seafood or chicken but I elected to drink it with a good conversation instead....

Guacamole is so incredibly easy to make and so seemingly expensive to buy. All you need is 2 ripe avocadoes, a 1/2 tomato (or in this case 5 cherry tomatoes), a purple onion, lime and a chilli. Slice everything except the avocado finely and squeeze 1/2 lime juice over...

I’m a huge fan of spanish wine, it is cheaper than french wine and at the cheap end is better. This wine, at £14 a bottle isn’t particularly cheap so I had high hopes. I would describe it as not being a ‘classic’ Rioja but rather more in the Bordeaux style...