HONEST GRAPES & TRUFFLES at POLPO

I've long been a fan of the Polpo restaurants - they do Italian (mostly Venetian) staples so very well, there's always a great atmosphere at their restaurants and the cocktail list isn't too shabby either. So what's better than an evening at Polpo....? An evening at Polpo full of wines and truffles, that's what. Honest Grapes invited me along to their five course truffle dinner with paired wines at Polpo at Ape and Bird for a feast of an evening. After a chat with executive head chef of the Polpo group it was time to get down to the serious business of eating.

Dinner kicked off with what was to be my favourite (if I had to choose one) course - cured halibut with truffle dressing. The lightly almost-ceviche'd fish's delicate taste went so well with the subtle but heady truffle. Such an unusual but delightful pairing, and so pretty too. It was paired with the young, fresh Vette di San Leonardo white wine.

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BLANCHETTE, SOHO

It's so good when I finally get round to visiting a restaurant that I've been meaning to go to for ages and it lives up to the high expectations I had of it - always a relief....!! Emily and I went to check out the cutesy little French restaurant Blanchette, in Soho, that I'd heard so many good things about but still hadn't got round to going to. Blanchette is a French bistro on D'Arblay Street that's beautifully romantic/lit by candlelight/awful for photos and serves up small French family dishes alongside charcuterie, cheeses and excellent French wines. You're encouraged to order for the table and share dishes, though there were so many utterly delicious plates, I really wanted to eat all of some of them myself!

We started with one of their signature dishes - crispy frog legs with Bois Budran sauce - whole frog legs that had been breaded and deep fried, which were actually a little tricky to eat. As the leg is whole, it's still on the bone. I'm not sure if we tackled them wrong, but we both ended up with mouthfuls of frog leg meat and bone. Not our favourite but luckily not a sign of things to come as the rest of the plates of food that came out were spot on.

 

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COCKTAILS and DRINKS

Whether you fancy a glass of wine at home or heading into central London for a cocktail or three, I've got some great recommendations for you.

First let's talk cocktails. This week is the annual cocktail event Cocktails in the City, taking place from Thursday 10th - Saturday 12th March at One Mayfair. The three nights will see 20 world-renowned bars serving cocktails in this stunning four floor building, where there's also a rooftop BBQ. You can experience so many different drinks and bars without having to leave the building! There's live music, masterclasses and a liquid nitrogen bar. Tickets are £15 and include one cocktail. If you want to drink more cocktails (of course you do), then they're all £7.50 on the night.

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MUSCADET MAGIC

Normally the only time I'm awake at 5am on Saturday morning is when I haven't made it to bed yet, but a couple of weeks ago I tucked myself up in bed early(ish) on a Friday evening, ready for my alarm to go off at 5am the next day. Bleary eyed and not quite capable of anything involving make up or matching socks, I stumbled downstairs to a waiting taxi, to be whisked off to Billingsgate Market where I met a group of equally foggy food bloggers. We were there for a day with the ever flamboyant and way-too-lively-for-that-time-in-the-morning wine expert Douglas Blyde, who wanted us to go shopping for fish and seafood that we'd use to make a dish to eat with a glass or three of Muscadet later in the day. We stumbled into the market and found our way to Piggy's Café for some breakfast.
 

 

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CHABLIS AT THE CHANCERY

Every summer I seem to have a different drink of choice. Last year it was Prosecco, and this year it's Chablis. We went to Ealing Park Tavern a few Fridays ago and I perused the wine list but didn't see any Chablis on the menu. So I asked the barman which of their whites was most like Chablis, only to be told "the Chablis" - slightly embarrassing! So when an invite to an evening of Chablis and food pairing popped in to my inbox from Douglas Blyde it was always going to be a definite yes. Diary cleared, I patiently waited for the Wednesday when we would go to The Chancery for an evening in geology and geography, learning about Chablis and the food to eat with it. 

 

The Chancery is a smart restaurant just south of Chancery Lane. The main restaurant is on the ground floor, and is full of linen covered tables and lots of men in suits. It was downstairs in one their private rooms that chef Graham Long had created a unique, Spring themed menu for the evening to guide us through the various types of Chablis that we were tasting.

 

Chablis is a dry white wine that is produced in a small town in France, north west of Burgundy, and comes in 4 levels of quality - Petit Chablis, Chablis, Premier Cru and Grand Cru - all of which we tried on the night, working our way up from Petit to Grand. Chablis is more acidic than many whites due to the cooler climate of the area and the soil that is rich in oyster fossils, from a time when France was the bottom of an ocean floor. It's this mineral taste found in Chablis that I really enjoy, and even though this taste was less present in the first Chablis we tried - the 2012 Dauvissat Petit Chablis, it worked wonderfully with the truffle arancini and crab beignet nibbles that we enjoyed before dinner was served.

 

 

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WINE TASTING AT VINOPOLIS

How much do you know about wine? I'm lucky enough to have been on quite a few wine tastings and talks, and have a brother who is the ultimate wine buff, but if you're not sure what makes one wine sweeter, or tastier, or fruitier than the next, then I know the best place for you to find out. According to Google, Vinopolis is "a London visitor attraction operated by Wineworld London that presents the subject of wine and oenology through exhibits and wine tastings". It is essentially a wine museum, where you can eat, drink and learn about wine. I visited for one of their Wine Tasting Experiences, and though I didn't learn anything new, I had a lovely time sampling some wines I otherwise wouldn't have come across.

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GRAND TOUR OF L'HEXAGONE WINES

There are a lot of things I like about wine. When I fancy an alcoholic drink, it's normally wine, or sparkling something that I go for. A crisp glass of cold white is a wonderful thing on a hot summer day, as is a deep bodied glass of red when the nights draw in and winter arrives (now!). Sparkling wine is perfect for celebrations, while there are many types of wine that match with all foods I can think of. And when you think you've found your perfect or favourite wine, you can spin round the globe and discover different versions of the same, and/or totally new wines. It seems that wine and my discovery of it is limitless - there's always a new wine to try or a different situation to try it in. So when asked to go on a virtual wine tour of France, up on the 31st floor of one of London's most Central buildings, I couldn't say no (apart from my vertigo, which was solved by a - staying in the middle of the room at all times, and b - sampling 10 different wines in the space of an hour!)

This wasn't an evening just to drink wine though, we were taken on a tour around France via wine, and talked through the perfect food to match each wine so I wanted to share what I learnt with you. All the wines we tried are reasonably priced, and generally widely available to buy, so each wine name will be hyperlinked to where you can buy it if you want to try any of them.

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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.

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