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

Wine Dinner to celebrate the cuisine of Sonia Blech

Friday November 11^th

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

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.

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.

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.