SUMMER with ROSE D'ANJOU

Rosé has always been my Summer wine of choice. I think it's hard to beat a glass of crisp Rosé, served perfectly chilled on a long summer evening. So when I was invited to a Rosé tasting I jumped at the chance - particularly, as although I drink it quite often, it's probably the wine I know least about when it comes to varieties and flavours.

So on a sunny Wednesday evening a few weeks ago I jumped on the tube across town to the Queen of Hoxton where we celebrated pink pleasures from the region of Angers, France.

Having got over the embarrassment of saying to lady on the door "I'm here for the Rosé evening" and responding that my name was 'Rosie', I hot footed it up the many flights of stairs to find the roof in all its evening sunlit splendour.

I introduced my self to a few people, and got down to the task in hand - drinking our first glass of Rosé, whilst munching on a variety of nibbles being passed round. I met the lovely Mandy from Emm in London and Emma of Adventures of a London Kiwi, both of whom it was great to chat with about the ups and downs and ins and outs of blogging. However we were soon summoned to our tables for the tastings to commence.

We had 5 wines to decipher, each poured even more frequently than I normally top up my own glass! Rosé D'Anjou means Rosé from the Angers region, which is an area of France located in the Loire Valley, about 80 miles from the Atlantic coast, and with the area of nearby Saumur, makes up what is known as the Middle Loire. The majority of Rosé D'Anjou is made from the grolleau grape, which produces an off-dry wine which makes it really good for drinking on its own, but in fact, even better for pairing with food.

Rather than talk you through the tastes of each wine, I thought it would be nice to tell what foods I think they work with, as they are all delicious, and can be drunk with food or included in the ingredients...

1. La Grille Rosé D'Anjou 2013 - this was a light and fruity wine, which would go perfectly with my seabass pasta recipe - and as it's summer, you could barbecue the fish and serve the pasta cold as a salad with it. 

2. Champteloup Rosé d’Anjou 2013 - lovely with sauteed mushrooms on toast with a little jamon.

3. 1749 Rosé d’Anjou - all year round. I think we'll save this one for drinking on its own! It was my favourite of the five on the night, and could also be drunk with food, but was very quaffable just as it was. It was also the wine that I used to make my nectarine, rose and lavender tarte tatin below.

4. Les Ligeriens Rosé D'Anjou 2013 - this was great with an asparagus and duck egg salad, although asparagus season is over, you could drink this wine with lovely green salads throughout the Summer.

5. Val de Loire Rosé d’Anjou 2013 - a wine that is delicious alongside a beetroot tartare with goat's cheese yolk. This simple veggie alternative is made exactly the same way as its raw meat equivalent - using chopped gherkins, capers and shallots and a Worcestershire, tabasco, ketchup and mustard sauce, and substituting raw meat for cooked, chopped beetroot.

After we'd tried all five wines we moved over to where food photographer extrodinaire, Paul Winch-Furness, was on hand to give us all a quick masterclass in food photography, guiding us through choosing the correct angle and light direction as well as suggesting ideas to help with framing of photos. It was a fascinating insight into how make photos really work, especially when the elements are against you (ie - a dark corner of a restaurant).

Then it was time to make our dinner - we had the choice of various ingredients to make a kebab to accompany our wine for main. Paired up with Lucie of Lucie Loves and Amy Laughing House we came up with a North African inspired kebab of lamb, halloumi and peppers in a honey and spiced marinade, that we named "Agneau D'Anjou". Whilst these were cooked for us we retired again to our table where a huge platter of starters was served.

As much as I loved the evening of Rosé tasting with Loire Valley wines, what I was really looking forward to was getting home and starting work on using the 2 bottles of Rosé we'd been given in our hamper to make some recipes. I use a lot of red wine in my winter cooking for both savoury (stews, pies, sauces) and sweet (poached fruits) cooking, and white wine (cooking sauces for fish, pastas etc) but I've never really used Rosé, as all of it always seems to end up in my glass instead! But that is all to change! I came up with a recipe for a nectarine, rosé and lavender tarte tatin when playing with a menu idea for one of my pop ups and honestly, it's one of my sweet best dishes to date, and went down an absolute treat when I served it as pudding yesterday for my pop up. The rosé adds the edge needed to cut through the sweetness of the caramel, whilst the fruit notes of the wine add a depth of flavour, and are just heavenly with the touch of lavender I added. Here's how to make this little plate of deliciousness....

NECTARINE TARTE TATIN w ROSE AND LAVENDAR

For 2 people

40g caster sugar
30g unsalted butter (unless you like a tiny salty edge, in which case use salted - I did!)
Tablespoon of rosé wine - 1749 Rosé d’Anjou is ideal
2 pieces of lavender
1 nectarine
¼ pack puff pastry
½ beaten egg

Preheat the oven to 200C. Grease the bottom and sides of two ramekins or mini pans (I used my individual Le Creuset casserole pots).

Heat the sugar and butter in a small, non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Heat until all the sugar dissolves and it bubbles and starts to turn colour. Turn the heat up slightly and add the rosé. Keep it cooking until it's bubbled right up and down again and turns a golden colour. In the meantime, cut the nectarine in half, twist and remove the stone, so you have 2 perfect halves. Once the syrup is golden put the lavender heads in and then the nectarine halves - with the skin side facing up. Cook for 1 minute and remove from the heat.

Carefully spoon 1 tablespoons worth of the syrup into your greased tins. Add a piece of syrupy lavender to each and then transfer a nectarine half to each tin, keeping the skin side up. Cut a circle of rolled out puff pastry that is larger than the tins, and place over the nectarine, tucking the excess pastry into the sides. Brush gently with egg wash and cook for 18-20 minutes, until the pastry is puffed up and golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes. After this time take a plate and a cloth, and cover a tin with the plate. In one quick, smooth movement flip it over so your tart lands on the plate. Don't leave them to cool for too long in their tins and the syrup will set and be harder to remove.



These gorgeous summer tartes would perfect to eat while watching Wimbledon with Ralph Lauren!

 

If you want to find out more about Rose D'Anjou then you can have a look at the Loires Valley Wines website here.