4 minute read
Drink Bill Knott
could be ordered as a supplement for 3s 6d – the same price as caviar.
Not any more: prices have tumbled. £3 a pop is the standard price; but tiny, green-tiled Parsons in Covent Garden is offering three Jersey Rocks for £3. OK, so still a long way to go to honour Sam Weller’s comment about oysters and poverty – but a step in the right direction.
Advertisement
The oldest purveyor of bivalves (at £4 for Rocks) is, of course, Rules, started by Thomas Rule as an oysteria in 1798, but they have nothing like the selection of Boisdale in Belgravia, which hosts the annual British Oyster Championship.
Few restaurants are brave enough to cook oysters, for which Rocks are better suited. In prelapsarian times, they used to act as ballast in steak pies and were often cooked in ale and breadcrumbs.
However, last month, my old friend Adam from Oz took me out for dinner at the Oystermen, in Covent Garden, who offer six differently cooked oysters. Ads has always eschewed menus, preferring to order multiple batches of chips, or poppadoms in Indian eateries, and prawn crackers in Chinese restaurants. Yet he’s mad about oysters (albeit to accompany his chips) and insisted on our working our way down the list.
And they were delicious: tempura with champagne aioli and smoked-herring caviar or, more classically, with pickled samphire, brown butter and preserved lemon – two per portion for just £7.
Sensing I was a little overwhelmed by the quantities of Chablis Premier Cru he was pouring, Ads went in for the kill, and ordered three lots of the spiciest oyster dish in London: calamansi, jalapeño and dill. Taxi!!
DRINK BILL KNOTT WHEN IN DROUGHT
A few years ago, I was standing in a vineyard in the Alentejo, Portugal, with the winemaker. I noticed that his vines were being irrigated, something usually frowned on by the rules of European appellations.
‘Is that allowed?’ I asked.
‘Only in exceptionally dry years,’ he replied. I asked him when the last time had been.
‘Last year,’ he told me. And, it transpired, the year before that.
Portugal is no stranger to drought nor forest fires. Mix drought with searing temperatures, strong winds from the Atlantic and tinderbox forests of pine and eucalyptus, and that is what happens.
Nor is it a new phenomenon: the scariest coach journey of my life was in 1983, by night from Lisbon to the Spanish border. Portugal’s train drivers were on strike, and so we were piled into buses instead. Forest fires raged to left and right, so brightly that our driver turned off his headlights.
It remains to be seen what effect drought and fires will have on this year’s vintage in Portugal. Even if the vineyards themselves are untouched by fire, ‘smoke taint’ in the grapes can be almost as ruinous, as California’s winemakers have discovered to their cost. But there are plenty of previous vintages on offer, and Portugal is perhaps the best-value-formoney wine producer in the world.
The Douro Valley is a case in point. As demand for port has declined, so the valley’s winemakers have increased their production of table wines, invariably from the same grapes (Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca) but fermented until dry. DBM stock the richly fruity Vinha Grande 2019 from Casa Ferreirinha (£14.99, dbmwines. co.uk). It’s made by Sogrape, the Portuguese wine giant, who also make the spicy, elegant Tesco’s Finest Douro 2020 (£10, or £8 with a Clubcard, tesco. com). They are both improved by being vigorously decanted and left for an hour before you drink them.
Portuguese whites have much to recommend them, too, from the fragrant wines made from Alvarinho (aka Albariño, over the border in Spain) to the central Tejo region (previously called Ribatejo). There, characterful native grapes – of which Portugal has many – are often happily blended with international varieties. Try the Wine Society’s crisp but nicely rounded blend of Arinto and Chardonnay, made by the ultra-reliable Quinta da Alorna (£9.50, thewinesociety.com). DBM stock their chewy, complex Tinto 2018 (£11.99).
For something wonderfully frivolous, the Wine Society also stock Hortas do Caseirinho Frisante (£7.50), a semisparkling wine from Vinho Verde country that weighs in at a mere 10.5 per cent. Despite its having one of the worst labels I have ever seen, it is impossible to drink it without smiling.
And this month the estimable Max Graham, restaurateur (Bar Douro) and scion of the famous port family, is launching the Festa Bottle Shop (wearefesta.co.uk). More than 150 Portuguese wines are listed – the biggest selection of any UK merchant – allowing you to explore Portugal’s vineyards from the comfort of your own home. Without getting your fingers burned.
This month’s Oldie wine offer, in conjunction with DBM Wines, is an entirely French affair, a 12-bottle case comprising four bottles each of three wines: a beautifully made sparkler from Alsace that benefits from some bottle age; a Mâcon that would partner roast chicken admirably; and an elegant Fleurie from one of the region’s best producers. Or you can buy cases of each individual wine.
Wine
Crémant d’Alsace, Blanc de Blancs Brut, Dopff and Irion NV, offer price £13.99, case price £167.88
Fresh and delightful classic-method fizz made from Pinot Blanc and Auxerrois.
Mâcon-Chardonnay Talmard, Burgundy 2021, offer price £12.99, case price £155.88
A notch up from normal Mâcon, from a famous old Burgundy name: very pure fruit and great length.
Fleurie ‘Présidente Marguerite’, Cave de Fleurie 2020, offer price £11.99, case price £143.88
Seductive cru Beaujolais with bags of juicy red fruit and rounded, soft tannins. Drink lightly chilled.
