Our annual trip to the Wexford Opera Festival, as usual, produces a fine trio of operas that one goes to see for their scarcity value, if nothing else. At the same time, as we have recorded elsewhere on this website, we note the considerable increase in the quality of the restaurants over the 16 years we have been going there and our report on a fine new discovery this year will be reported in the next monthly update of the website.
However, this report will be destined for the Malessere section, as we encountered bitter disappointment at a long awaited restaurant we have failed to get into in the past. I am referring to the Sky View Cafe restaurant which sits on top of the newly constructed opera house (well, fairly newly constructed - it's about 3 years old now). The restaurant has magnificent views of Wexford's harbour and river, which is a terrific draw, apart from being so conveniently situated in the opera house itself.
The Sky View restaurant is not open post opera normally, but this year, for the first time the Sunday operas were scheduled to start at 5 p.m., so the restaurant WAS open post opera as the opera finished at around 7:15 and was not open for dinner pre opera on those days. They do have a snacky menu for lunch on all days, but this is not what we wanted to go there for. So as soon as the opera was over, we took the lift to the top floor and were shown to our allotted table. Unfortunately our table didn't have a view (only about 3 tables out of 10 have a complete view anyway) so there is obviously a mad scramble for these and we were beaten to the punch by habitués anyway. I needed to go the loo and to my surprise, was told that none were on the same floor as the restaurant but I had to go back into the opera house to find one. A bit irritating and I cursed the architect both down and up the stairs.
The menu was astonishingly short. First course choices consisted of a cheese crottin (3 tiny pieces of goat's cheese on a few rocket leaves), smoked trout (with a beetroot sauce) and a soup. I chose the smoked trout, but as I'm not keen on beetroot, I asked not to have any beetroot sauce. I needn't have bothered. Sure, I got my smoked trout without any beetroot (in fact without anything else and dryz' a bone, as they say in Australia), but one of my dining companions, who liked beetroot, had hers accompanied by four or five tiny blobs of beetroot on her plate, each the size of a ink blot, which I could have easily avoided. The quantity of trout given was pretty mean, too. The starters were preceded by what was described on the menu as 'amuses bouches' which consisted of a half inch slab of minced chicken which had the density of uranium.
Main course choices were either chicken, salmon or vegetarian. Now for a flagship restaurant of the Wexford Opera House, it's pretty astonishing that they are using just about the cheapest ingredients you can get in the catering industry - chicken and salmon. The chicken was pretty dry again - the mushroom sauce was nice but the roasted carrots and parsnips that came with it might have fared better in an Irish stew. I have to say that this menu showed an outstanding lack of imagination from the menu planner, compounded by the fact that the only fish starter was trout and the only fish main course was salmon. The whole of the catering operation here is contracted to the upmarket Ferrycarrig Hotel just across the river from Wexford and the menu had clearly been created by an accountant rather than a chef and specially geared towards a captive audience.
The above menu plus a two choice dessert (one of which was tirimisu, of course) and coffee was priced at €40.00 without service. When you compare this with what you can get at other good restaurants in Wexford with a lot more decent choices for little more than half this amount, you realise what outstandingly bad value this is. Furthermore, if you look on the Wexford Opera House website's restaurant page, you will see it priced at €25.00 - a discrepancy I didn't notice until I was halfway through writing this blog.
I have to say that we were so fed up and disappointed with this meal that we forewent the dessert and coffee and to their credit, they reduced the price to €30.00 a head. Nevertheless it didn't make up for the 15 euros worth of value we had.
A final word about the wines. The wine list mirrored the list of wines which are available by the glass or bottle in the opera house itself, consisting of 3 whites, 3 reds and 3 cuvées of Deutz Champagnes. Again really poor choices for a €40.00 meal. We chose a bottle of Delas Crozes Hermitage Blanc at €25.00 which was not overpriced for a restaurant and it's lack of character was a perfect match for the food. We could have had Deutz's Amour de Deutz 2005 at €195.00 with our chicken but perhaps it might have gone down as a better match in Kentucky.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
A dining experience to forget
We were very puzzled by an advert which we received by email from the Old Vic a couple of weeks ago thus.
"Reserve your tickets now for this unique collaboration combining sight, sound and taste.
For two weeks, during Frieze Art Fair and London Restaurant Festival, Lazarides Gallery and Kofler & Kompanie will present The Minotaur. Transforming The Old Vic Tunnels into a subterranean cultural maze, the event features a unique contemporary art concept to stimulate your senses alongside the UK debut from Michelin Star restaurant, bar and music experience PRET-A-DINER.
Reserve your tickets here for the exhibition and bar experience, The Minotaur.
or,
Register and book your table for your PRET A DINER Michelin star dining experience here, (includes entrance to the exhibition)."
The top Michelin starred chefs promised were: Nuno Mendes (Viajante, London), Matthias Schmidt (Villa Merton, Frankfurt) and Olly and Juan Amador (Amador, Mannheim).
Good, we thought. What a lovely evening this is going to be – the chance to see a contemporary art exhibition in an unusual setting and a Michelin-starred meal afterwards for a fixed price of £75. A bit dear, but no more than you would expect to pay at Claude Bosi’s two Michelin starred Hibiscus and you get an art exhibition thrown in for free.
The exhibition is fascinating, ranging from conceptual art, film, photography, sculptures, lighting effects to street and graffiti art, and is well worth a visit.
There is also a very popular bar in the Minotaur gallery steeped in darkness and candles and serving mostly very pricey but quite unremarkable drinks and cocktails.
Having been forced to pay a £25 a head deposit via the internet before they would accept our booking, we decided to book for the second sitting at 9.00 pm, (we don’t like being shoo-ed out of our seats if we haven’t really finished our meal) but when we got to the dining room the organisation was a bit chaotic as we had to wait and when we could finally be seated they offered as two stools perched on the bar! We declined, and eventually were found a table. (Clearly, they were not too good at shoo-ing people away so that the 9 o’clock diners could actually take their tables on time).
What was on the table was quite puzzling: the serviettes are dish cloths, the cutlery consisted of forks and spoons and chopsticks in a bucket. The bread was served in a paper bag, the butter on a small plate. As we found it difficult to spread the butter with a chopstick we had to ask for a couple of knives., which took some time to come.
An even bigger surprise were the two 3 course menus offered and when on examination they consisted of two Japanese menus to choose from, both three courses, at £75 and dessert £9 extra, we wondered why they bothered to get these chefs over from Germany. I was really looking forward to some Michelin starred bratwurst and sauerkraut or at least, something European.
On offer was the Nuno Mendes Menu and the Ollysan Menu (looks like Matthias Schmitt had the night off). We decided to have one of each and share. The Nuno Mendes Menu was described as a “non vegetarian menu”. Well pretty obvious you would think unless it WAS a vegetarian menu for those special people. The first course was described as “ an angry cherry and her friends go fishing at green rivers shore” How pretentious for a piece of cold mackerel with a few leaves and a garish cherry sauce which leaked onto my shirt as it seeped through the dishcloth that apologised for a serviette. The Ollysan first course was described as a ‘mystified swarm caresses our palate with grace and glory”. Quite a handle for a couple of slices of raw tuna and a couple of slices of raw salmon with yuzu and tamari and a tiny blob of wasabi, looking very much the same as you could get at Yo Sushi for £5.95.
Nuno’s second course was “a yolk shines down from the hill of langoustine dwell” with the emphasis on the singular. I didn’t realise that there was only one langoustine tail in the dish and I ate it which meant that Sonia didn’t have any! Still, she didn’t miss much – the egg was all mashed up with a sliver of mushrooms and a sort of rice pudding effect which gave the dish the consistency of a tin of Heinz baby food. Olly’s second course was “a fivesome from Japan takes you to a secret trip down in the tunnel”. Not sure about the secret but it was a pretty ordinaire sushi worth about £5.95 again. By this time we were getting a bit fed up – if we wanted to go to a Japanese restaurant we didn’t need to go to one where the food was prepared by German chefs – Michelin starred or not.
At least the third courses appeared to contain some meat at last. Nuno’s “a noble man from Iberico tumbles and falls from scattered dreams” consisted of two slices of (presumably) Iberico pork which was surprisingly tough and dry and not what one would expect from one of the best quality pigs in the world. By contrast, Olly’s “a rare invitation full of tenderness and wishful thinking” DID have a stunning piece de boeuf, really tender and succulent (if a bit small) with shitake mushrooms and a potato purée, certainly the best dish of the lot. We declined the no choice dessert of chocolate and beetroot at £9 extra, not because it was £9 extra but we somehow couldn’t get our heads round the combination. The people at the next table who had it were not impressed with it either.
The wine list was short but contained some good kit. We drank a bottle of Little Beauty Pinot Noir 2009 from New Zealand – quite typical NZ pinot with sour cherry overtones but a good food wine because of the lack of residual sugar so often found in New World wines and at £46 (around 3 times retail) not wildly overpriced.
Service was a bit chaotic. They had difficulties in getting the early diners out in time for the second sitting and although the restaurant wasn’t quite full, it was pretty busy and some of the staff looked decidedly harassed. But under the circumstances, they did pretty well.
Ambience was strange. The tunnels are a bit eerie and the higgldy-piggldy furniture and ancient candelabras gave the impression that the dining room was straight out of Hogwarts. At any moment we expected to see Dumbledore at the top table and Sir Nick ghosting over the rest of the tables in the room.
But perhaps the oddest experience was the bill. First of all, they didn’t deduct the £50 deposit we paid. I don’t know how they could have forgotten this since everyone had to pay a deposit of £25 a head otherwise their booking was not accepted. Secondly, there appeared a sum of £26.25 for “cover charge”. Did this mean service charge? If so, why call it a cover charge? Is this some tax fiddle? Anyway, after deducting the £50 deposit our bill should have been £146 – 2 times £75 plus £46 for wine, less £50 deposit paid. But the machine printout read £150.21. Now this is only a difference of £4.21 (or the cost of a sushi in a local Japanese restaurant) but the principle remains – how did the machine get to that figure? On top of this was a “cover charge” this time of £20.50 which is 13.6475% of the bill. We queried this twice but each time the waitress came back insisting that it was right. A very strange calculation. Maybe it’s the German way of getting funds for keeping the Greeks well greased, but by this time we were tired of the whole thing so we paid up what we thought the correct amount should be and went off.
A pity. We were promised a dining experience by Michelin starred chefs to be remembered, but this was clearly an over ambitious event. We could have gone to Yo Sushi for a fifth of the price or to Hibiscus for a far greater dining experience for the same money instead, but curiosity certainly killed the cat here.
"Reserve your tickets now for this unique collaboration combining sight, sound and taste.
For two weeks, during Frieze Art Fair and London Restaurant Festival, Lazarides Gallery and Kofler & Kompanie will present The Minotaur. Transforming The Old Vic Tunnels into a subterranean cultural maze, the event features a unique contemporary art concept to stimulate your senses alongside the UK debut from Michelin Star restaurant, bar and music experience PRET-A-DINER.
Reserve your tickets here for the exhibition and bar experience, The Minotaur.
or,
Register and book your table for your PRET A DINER Michelin star dining experience here, (includes entrance to the exhibition)."
The top Michelin starred chefs promised were: Nuno Mendes (Viajante, London), Matthias Schmidt (Villa Merton, Frankfurt) and Olly and Juan Amador (Amador, Mannheim).
Good, we thought. What a lovely evening this is going to be – the chance to see a contemporary art exhibition in an unusual setting and a Michelin-starred meal afterwards for a fixed price of £75. A bit dear, but no more than you would expect to pay at Claude Bosi’s two Michelin starred Hibiscus and you get an art exhibition thrown in for free.
The exhibition is fascinating, ranging from conceptual art, film, photography, sculptures, lighting effects to street and graffiti art, and is well worth a visit.
There is also a very popular bar in the Minotaur gallery steeped in darkness and candles and serving mostly very pricey but quite unremarkable drinks and cocktails.
Having been forced to pay a £25 a head deposit via the internet before they would accept our booking, we decided to book for the second sitting at 9.00 pm, (we don’t like being shoo-ed out of our seats if we haven’t really finished our meal) but when we got to the dining room the organisation was a bit chaotic as we had to wait and when we could finally be seated they offered as two stools perched on the bar! We declined, and eventually were found a table. (Clearly, they were not too good at shoo-ing people away so that the 9 o’clock diners could actually take their tables on time).
What was on the table was quite puzzling: the serviettes are dish cloths, the cutlery consisted of forks and spoons and chopsticks in a bucket. The bread was served in a paper bag, the butter on a small plate. As we found it difficult to spread the butter with a chopstick we had to ask for a couple of knives., which took some time to come.
An even bigger surprise were the two 3 course menus offered and when on examination they consisted of two Japanese menus to choose from, both three courses, at £75 and dessert £9 extra, we wondered why they bothered to get these chefs over from Germany. I was really looking forward to some Michelin starred bratwurst and sauerkraut or at least, something European.
On offer was the Nuno Mendes Menu and the Ollysan Menu (looks like Matthias Schmitt had the night off). We decided to have one of each and share. The Nuno Mendes Menu was described as a “non vegetarian menu”. Well pretty obvious you would think unless it WAS a vegetarian menu for those special people. The first course was described as “ an angry cherry and her friends go fishing at green rivers shore” How pretentious for a piece of cold mackerel with a few leaves and a garish cherry sauce which leaked onto my shirt as it seeped through the dishcloth that apologised for a serviette. The Ollysan first course was described as a ‘mystified swarm caresses our palate with grace and glory”. Quite a handle for a couple of slices of raw tuna and a couple of slices of raw salmon with yuzu and tamari and a tiny blob of wasabi, looking very much the same as you could get at Yo Sushi for £5.95.
Nuno’s second course was “a yolk shines down from the hill of langoustine dwell” with the emphasis on the singular. I didn’t realise that there was only one langoustine tail in the dish and I ate it which meant that Sonia didn’t have any! Still, she didn’t miss much – the egg was all mashed up with a sliver of mushrooms and a sort of rice pudding effect which gave the dish the consistency of a tin of Heinz baby food. Olly’s second course was “a fivesome from Japan takes you to a secret trip down in the tunnel”. Not sure about the secret but it was a pretty ordinaire sushi worth about £5.95 again. By this time we were getting a bit fed up – if we wanted to go to a Japanese restaurant we didn’t need to go to one where the food was prepared by German chefs – Michelin starred or not.
At least the third courses appeared to contain some meat at last. Nuno’s “a noble man from Iberico tumbles and falls from scattered dreams” consisted of two slices of (presumably) Iberico pork which was surprisingly tough and dry and not what one would expect from one of the best quality pigs in the world. By contrast, Olly’s “a rare invitation full of tenderness and wishful thinking” DID have a stunning piece de boeuf, really tender and succulent (if a bit small) with shitake mushrooms and a potato purée, certainly the best dish of the lot. We declined the no choice dessert of chocolate and beetroot at £9 extra, not because it was £9 extra but we somehow couldn’t get our heads round the combination. The people at the next table who had it were not impressed with it either.
The wine list was short but contained some good kit. We drank a bottle of Little Beauty Pinot Noir 2009 from New Zealand – quite typical NZ pinot with sour cherry overtones but a good food wine because of the lack of residual sugar so often found in New World wines and at £46 (around 3 times retail) not wildly overpriced.
Service was a bit chaotic. They had difficulties in getting the early diners out in time for the second sitting and although the restaurant wasn’t quite full, it was pretty busy and some of the staff looked decidedly harassed. But under the circumstances, they did pretty well.
Ambience was strange. The tunnels are a bit eerie and the higgldy-piggldy furniture and ancient candelabras gave the impression that the dining room was straight out of Hogwarts. At any moment we expected to see Dumbledore at the top table and Sir Nick ghosting over the rest of the tables in the room.
But perhaps the oddest experience was the bill. First of all, they didn’t deduct the £50 deposit we paid. I don’t know how they could have forgotten this since everyone had to pay a deposit of £25 a head otherwise their booking was not accepted. Secondly, there appeared a sum of £26.25 for “cover charge”. Did this mean service charge? If so, why call it a cover charge? Is this some tax fiddle? Anyway, after deducting the £50 deposit our bill should have been £146 – 2 times £75 plus £46 for wine, less £50 deposit paid. But the machine printout read £150.21. Now this is only a difference of £4.21 (or the cost of a sushi in a local Japanese restaurant) but the principle remains – how did the machine get to that figure? On top of this was a “cover charge” this time of £20.50 which is 13.6475% of the bill. We queried this twice but each time the waitress came back insisting that it was right. A very strange calculation. Maybe it’s the German way of getting funds for keeping the Greeks well greased, but by this time we were tired of the whole thing so we paid up what we thought the correct amount should be and went off.
A pity. We were promised a dining experience by Michelin starred chefs to be remembered, but this was clearly an over ambitious event. We could have gone to Yo Sushi for a fifth of the price or to Hibiscus for a far greater dining experience for the same money instead, but curiosity certainly killed the cat here.
Monday, September 26, 2011
A historic gourmet evening in North Wales
On Friday, November 11, Bryan Webb, the chef-patron of the Michelin-starred Tyddyn Llan restaurant with rooms at Llandrillo, will be recreating six dishes at a gourmet dinner dedicated to his mentor, Sonia Blech, in whose kitchen Bryan took his very first step towards culinary excellence some 35 years ago at the Crown Inn (another restaurant with rooms - probably one of the first in the UK) at Whitebrook, near Monmouth.
These six dishes are some of the many originally created in the 1970s by Sonia, who, although having no formal culinbary training, was regarded as one of the most inventive and avant-garde chefs of her time until she retired from the restaurant scene in 1996.
Sonia and I have closely followed Bryan's career from the time he left The Crown and so pleased and proud that he has achieved the same culinary status that Sonia attained all those years ago. We are also pleased and proud that Bryan has decided to honour Sonia in this way and has asked me to choose some of my favourite wines from his wine list to accompany the meal. The wines do reflect my love of California and Bordeaux and I am particularly looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with Jonathan Maltus's cult Clos Nardian white wine and one of the late Jess Jackson's early meritage creations - Stonestreet "Legacy".
The full menu and wines are set out below and I am hoping that some of you who have already experienced Sonia's cuisine in the past will be able to make the pilgrimage to North Wales to be with Sonia and I to help to celebrate this occasion. And if you haven't - then this is a great opportunity to get to know it.
The cost of the dinner (including wines) is £85 per person and Bryan has offered a special discounted price of £110 for a standard room and £140 for a superior room including full breakfast for two for those who wish to take advantage of the lovely accommodation offered at Tyddyn Llan.
As I understand it, some rooms have already gone, so please do contact them about it as soon as possible. Contact details are:
Tyddyn Llan Restaurant with Rooms
Llandrillo, nr. Corwen
Denbeighshire LL21 0ST
Tel: 01490 440264
Fax: 01490 440414
Or viist their website and choose your room at www.tyddynllan.co.uk
These six dishes are some of the many originally created in the 1970s by Sonia, who, although having no formal culinbary training, was regarded as one of the most inventive and avant-garde chefs of her time until she retired from the restaurant scene in 1996.
Sonia and I have closely followed Bryan's career from the time he left The Crown and so pleased and proud that he has achieved the same culinary status that Sonia attained all those years ago. We are also pleased and proud that Bryan has decided to honour Sonia in this way and has asked me to choose some of my favourite wines from his wine list to accompany the meal. The wines do reflect my love of California and Bordeaux and I am particularly looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with Jonathan Maltus's cult Clos Nardian white wine and one of the late Jess Jackson's early meritage creations - Stonestreet "Legacy".
The full menu and wines are set out below and I am hoping that some of you who have already experienced Sonia's cuisine in the past will be able to make the pilgrimage to North Wales to be with Sonia and I to help to celebrate this occasion. And if you haven't - then this is a great opportunity to get to know it.
The cost of the dinner (including wines) is £85 per person and Bryan has offered a special discounted price of £110 for a standard room and £140 for a superior room including full breakfast for two for those who wish to take advantage of the lovely accommodation offered at Tyddyn Llan.
As I understand it, some rooms have already gone, so please do contact them about it as soon as possible. Contact details are:
Tyddyn Llan Restaurant with Rooms
Llandrillo, nr. Corwen
Denbeighshire LL21 0ST
Tel: 01490 440264
Fax: 01490 440414
Or viist their website and choose your room at www.tyddynllan.co.uk
Wine Dinner to celebrate the cuisine of Sonia Blech
Friday November 11th
Salade aux aubergines grilles en nid d’artichaut
Artichoke heart with a salad of grilled aubergine, tomatoes and herbs
Ch. Cinc Hilhs Blanc 2009
Pate de poissons au beurre blanc
A warm mousseline of sole with a classic white wine butter sauce
Clos. Nardian 2005
Caille au riz sauvage de mon amie Pearl
Boned quail stuffed with wild rice, garnished with pecan nuts with a Bourbon and orange sauce
Teppesquet Syrah 1996
Noisettes de chevreuil au genièvre et sureau
Medallions of venison served with a juniper spirit and elderberry sauce
Stonestreet « Legacy » 1996
Fromage du Berger
A homemade cream cheese with white wine, herbs and nuts
Ch. Cinc Hilhs Moelleux 2009
Biscuit glace Crown Inn
An iced soufflé flavoured with chocolate and Grand Marnier on a Génoise biscuit
Ch. Lamothe Guignard 2003
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Wine Dinners - who's kidding who?
I have received a plethora of invitations to wine dinners in my inbox recently (not as a freebie - I hasten to add!) - Ch. Angelus and Ch. Palmer at the Connaught at £390 and £480 a head (plus a "discretionary" service charge of 12.5%) - Thomas Keller's pop up restaurasnt at Harrods is around £250 without wine and service (but don't expect to drink Blossom Hill with this 9 course dinner). Are they worth the money?
On the face of it - not. The inbox has also produced a deal from lastminute.com where you can eat at Marco's - the Marco Pierre White inspired restaurant within the Chelsea Football Club complex at Stamford Bridge for £18.50 for two courses and £22.50 for three, which looks remarkably cheap. But when you consider that you will be given 6 glasses of wine at the Angelus dinner and 7 glasses at the Palmer dinner of varying vintages, you are going to be drinking more than a bottle of wine a head (unless they are incredibly mean) - perhaps even a bottle and a half. Ch. Palmer 2001 on Marco's list is £210 (plus service - of course) and if you double the food costs to compare with the number of courses at the dinners at The Connaught - there is not a lot of difference.
So what should one do? Go for the experience of drinking a number of different vintages of top Claret at an extended meal - or pay little for quality food and indulge on several good bottles from various producers for a lot less money?
Let me know what you think. I am offering as a prize the chance to share with me one bottle of Ch. Branon 2000 (Parker 97 and about £400-£500 in a good restaurant) from my personal cellar for the most interesting and succinct reply.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
On the face of it - not. The inbox has also produced a deal from lastminute.com where you can eat at Marco's - the Marco Pierre White inspired restaurant within the Chelsea Football Club complex at Stamford Bridge for £18.50 for two courses and £22.50 for three, which looks remarkably cheap. But when you consider that you will be given 6 glasses of wine at the Angelus dinner and 7 glasses at the Palmer dinner of varying vintages, you are going to be drinking more than a bottle of wine a head (unless they are incredibly mean) - perhaps even a bottle and a half. Ch. Palmer 2001 on Marco's list is £210 (plus service - of course) and if you double the food costs to compare with the number of courses at the dinners at The Connaught - there is not a lot of difference.
So what should one do? Go for the experience of drinking a number of different vintages of top Claret at an extended meal - or pay little for quality food and indulge on several good bottles from various producers for a lot less money?
Let me know what you think. I am offering as a prize the chance to share with me one bottle of Ch. Branon 2000 (Parker 97 and about £400-£500 in a good restaurant) from my personal cellar for the most interesting and succinct reply.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Michael Broadbent and The Lovely Ladies
Swung by Buxton on our way to Manchester to see the second (and last) performance of "Lovely Ladies" - a comic opera composed by Peter Cowdrey and written by Hamish Anderson with a definite wine theme. Set in a Christie's warehouse - the synopsis is as follows:-
"Two aspiring wines - Mas de Daumas Gassac and Alsace have heard a rumour that Michael Broadbent, their 'English friend' has retired from the wine trade and even repudiated wine altogether. Their future looks bleak.
Champagne arrives, confirms the rumour, but suggests that an ambassador be sent to Broadbent to persuade him not to retire. The grandee Bordeaux introduces himself as the wine best qualified for this role. The glamorous Château d'Yquem arrives, denounces Bordeaux and says that she and Michael have long been intimate and that she should be sent. Gassac, intending to recommend himself,suggests a younger wine is needed. Burgundy Red and Burgundy White are called forward and sing an ethereal duet. A fiery Côtes du Rhône now bursts upon the scene, arguing that she alone has sufficient body to revive Broadbent's interest.
The dispute becomes general and more heated, until finally there is a thunderflash: a deus ex machina appears in a cloud of smoke. George Saintsbury, the father of English wine writing, has been sent down from on high. He tells the wines that Broadbent has only partially retired and that, in any case, his influence on the appreciation of wine has been lasting and profouind. Reassured, the wines retire to their bins, singing in chorus".
It's a pretty toungue-in-cheek romp with some spot-on allusions to the character of the wines with good performances all round, particularly by David Wolosko as the pompous portrayer of Bordeaux, described as "a firm wine with impressive length", Gail Pearson oozing liquid gold as Ch. d'Yquem (an exquisite wine) and a feisty performance from Lilly Papaloannou as Côtes du Rhône (a vigorous wine with plenty of body) acting like a real Dolly Parton in all respects. But as Rosie Johnson, the director says in the programme notes "The opera is not about wine, but human frailties - the fear of change, a sense of loss and ambitions threatened."
I spoke to Rosie after the performance, to ask whether there was a libretto printed. "Not yet" she replied. As far as I am aware, there have been only three performances of this opera - at Christies in May 2010 and the two performances at the Buxton Festival this year and there are no plans for another. I wondered if this would be a good thing to put on for The Benevolent but Rosie was pretty adamant that they could only afford to do another performance "for money." If anyone connected with Covent Garden Opera is reading this, it would be an ideal one for the Linbury.
"Two aspiring wines - Mas de Daumas Gassac and Alsace have heard a rumour that Michael Broadbent, their 'English friend' has retired from the wine trade and even repudiated wine altogether. Their future looks bleak.
Champagne arrives, confirms the rumour, but suggests that an ambassador be sent to Broadbent to persuade him not to retire. The grandee Bordeaux introduces himself as the wine best qualified for this role. The glamorous Château d'Yquem arrives, denounces Bordeaux and says that she and Michael have long been intimate and that she should be sent. Gassac, intending to recommend himself,suggests a younger wine is needed. Burgundy Red and Burgundy White are called forward and sing an ethereal duet. A fiery Côtes du Rhône now bursts upon the scene, arguing that she alone has sufficient body to revive Broadbent's interest.
The dispute becomes general and more heated, until finally there is a thunderflash: a deus ex machina appears in a cloud of smoke. George Saintsbury, the father of English wine writing, has been sent down from on high. He tells the wines that Broadbent has only partially retired and that, in any case, his influence on the appreciation of wine has been lasting and profouind. Reassured, the wines retire to their bins, singing in chorus".
It's a pretty toungue-in-cheek romp with some spot-on allusions to the character of the wines with good performances all round, particularly by David Wolosko as the pompous portrayer of Bordeaux, described as "a firm wine with impressive length", Gail Pearson oozing liquid gold as Ch. d'Yquem (an exquisite wine) and a feisty performance from Lilly Papaloannou as Côtes du Rhône (a vigorous wine with plenty of body) acting like a real Dolly Parton in all respects. But as Rosie Johnson, the director says in the programme notes "The opera is not about wine, but human frailties - the fear of change, a sense of loss and ambitions threatened."
I spoke to Rosie after the performance, to ask whether there was a libretto printed. "Not yet" she replied. As far as I am aware, there have been only three performances of this opera - at Christies in May 2010 and the two performances at the Buxton Festival this year and there are no plans for another. I wondered if this would be a good thing to put on for The Benevolent but Rosie was pretty adamant that they could only afford to do another performance "for money." If anyone connected with Covent Garden Opera is reading this, it would be an ideal one for the Linbury.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Putting some fizz into the La Spinetta empire
Last month La Spinetta's Giorgio, Bruno, Carlo and Giovanna Rivetti and the rest of the family finally acquired the Contratto winery at Canelli in Piedmont for an undisclosed sum. The Contratto brand is a prestigious label that has produced legendary spumante wines such as ‘For England’, ‘Bacco d’Oro’ and ‘Miranda’.
Contratto was founded in 1867 by Giuseppe Contratto and the winery is known as the oldest producer of sparkling wine in Italy. In fact, the "Metodo Classico" 1919 Contratto Extra Brut was the first vintage sparkling wine ever made in the country.
The winery has a long, distinguished history. At the turn of the 20th century, its wines were leaving Canelli for destinations all over the world (predominantly to royal houses), and Contratto was the personal supplier to the Vatican as well as to the Italian Royal Family. Awards and medals from international exhibitions and contests of the time emphasise why the name of Contratto has long been synonymous with prestige and quality in the world of sparkling wine.
In 150 years of winemaking, Contratto went from producing Moscato and red wine to Spumante Metodo Classico, still white wines, as well as Vermouth, tonic and syrups. The historic cathedral-like cellars at Contratto, now designated a UNESCO Heritage Site, are a real treasure, and among the finest of their kind. These huge underground cellars, covering more than 5,000 square metres, were built into the heart of the hill that protects the small town of Canelli, excavated from tuff limestone to a depth of 32 metres. The project took three years of manual work to finish. The cellars maintain a constant annual temperature of 12 to 13 degrees and sufficient natural humidity, an ideal environment for bottle fermentation and the slow and steady bottle maturation of "metodo clasico" sparkling-wines.
For many generations the winery remained in the hands of the Contratto family. In 1993, after 126 years and somewhat in decline, it was sold to Carlo Bocchino, owner of Canelli’s grappa distillery of the same name, who undertook the restoration of these historic cellars and the impressive building and tasting rooms with great effort and investment.
Bocchino will now return to concentrate his efforts and resources on the family distillery. "I am glad to have been able to leave Contratto to the Rivettis, who are people from the same land" states Bocchino. "I would not have wanted to see the cellars end up in the back of a large group or multinational's catalogue."
For La Spinetta on the other hand, the acquisition of Contratto represents the entry into one of the top Italian sparkling wine houses, by way of a prestigious brand whose Champagne-style production from Asti DOCG to Brut, have greatly influenced the history of Italian Spumante, and whose potential is yet to be fully developed. "We are very excited to have acquired this important facility," says Giorgio Rivetti. "It was important for us to enter into this market, and to do so with a famous brand. From now on, we can play an active role in making Contratto known throughout the world, thanks to our own high profile abroad. Italian sparkling wine does not yet enjoy the recognition it deserves on the international scene. Now, we will be able to bring the wine onto all the international markets, along with our Barbaresco, Barolo and Moscato. There are some real treasures hidden in these cellars."
What has not been said is that for the past four years or so, Giorgio Rivetti has ben acting as a consultant to the Contratto winery and has succeeded in producing elegant and complex sparkling wines from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from vineyards located in Oltrepo Pavese. With the facility now completely in the hands of the Rivetti family, one can now expect a further upturn in quality from this famous and prestigious estate.
Contratto was founded in 1867 by Giuseppe Contratto and the winery is known as the oldest producer of sparkling wine in Italy. In fact, the "Metodo Classico" 1919 Contratto Extra Brut was the first vintage sparkling wine ever made in the country.
The winery has a long, distinguished history. At the turn of the 20th century, its wines were leaving Canelli for destinations all over the world (predominantly to royal houses), and Contratto was the personal supplier to the Vatican as well as to the Italian Royal Family. Awards and medals from international exhibitions and contests of the time emphasise why the name of Contratto has long been synonymous with prestige and quality in the world of sparkling wine.
In 150 years of winemaking, Contratto went from producing Moscato and red wine to Spumante Metodo Classico, still white wines, as well as Vermouth, tonic and syrups. The historic cathedral-like cellars at Contratto, now designated a UNESCO Heritage Site, are a real treasure, and among the finest of their kind. These huge underground cellars, covering more than 5,000 square metres, were built into the heart of the hill that protects the small town of Canelli, excavated from tuff limestone to a depth of 32 metres. The project took three years of manual work to finish. The cellars maintain a constant annual temperature of 12 to 13 degrees and sufficient natural humidity, an ideal environment for bottle fermentation and the slow and steady bottle maturation of "metodo clasico" sparkling-wines.
For many generations the winery remained in the hands of the Contratto family. In 1993, after 126 years and somewhat in decline, it was sold to Carlo Bocchino, owner of Canelli’s grappa distillery of the same name, who undertook the restoration of these historic cellars and the impressive building and tasting rooms with great effort and investment.
Bocchino will now return to concentrate his efforts and resources on the family distillery. "I am glad to have been able to leave Contratto to the Rivettis, who are people from the same land" states Bocchino. "I would not have wanted to see the cellars end up in the back of a large group or multinational's catalogue."
For La Spinetta on the other hand, the acquisition of Contratto represents the entry into one of the top Italian sparkling wine houses, by way of a prestigious brand whose Champagne-style production from Asti DOCG to Brut, have greatly influenced the history of Italian Spumante, and whose potential is yet to be fully developed. "We are very excited to have acquired this important facility," says Giorgio Rivetti. "It was important for us to enter into this market, and to do so with a famous brand. From now on, we can play an active role in making Contratto known throughout the world, thanks to our own high profile abroad. Italian sparkling wine does not yet enjoy the recognition it deserves on the international scene. Now, we will be able to bring the wine onto all the international markets, along with our Barbaresco, Barolo and Moscato. There are some real treasures hidden in these cellars."
What has not been said is that for the past four years or so, Giorgio Rivetti has ben acting as a consultant to the Contratto winery and has succeeded in producing elegant and complex sparkling wines from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from vineyards located in Oltrepo Pavese. With the facility now completely in the hands of the Rivetti family, one can now expect a further upturn in quality from this famous and prestigious estate.
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