NR13_Full

which makes drinking them pleasingly diaspora, global disciples of unclassical Do you own more wine than you can drink in a lifetime?
mouth-watering. As Phil Bracey of P. Franco, French chefs like Alain Passard, Michel Bras
who thinks that “all red wine could and should and Pascal Barbot, and chefs who draw We’re always looking to buy well-stored,
be served a few degrees less than it usually inspiration from Japanese cuisine have beautiful mature wines and pay auction hammer prices.
is” says, “red wine can still be refreshing.” remodeled the format of so-called ‘fine dining’.
Influences are more plural, and past Get in touch at [email protected] for more information.
If that’s a preference, then one universal templates inform rather than dictate.
wine truth, as Alex Whyte from Tutto Wines
tells me, is that “by altering the temperature Beatriz Errando, the current sommelier at
of wine you are able to make a wine much Le Chateaubriand, says “the tendency
more or less enjoyable.” [towards] wine has changed. We have always
worked with natural wine, but natural wine is
In a kind of avant-garde symbiosis, punk more accepted everywhere right now. We also
chefs like Aizpitarte, stirring things up in the really like the juicy style of red wines from
kitchen, have drawn attention to punks in the Jura, Beaujolais, Auvergne and Georgia.
vineyards. There has been a rise in popularity They can be served a little bit colder.”
of white wines that have been macerated
longer and red wines at the lighter end of the But as chefs and, by default, sommeliers
spectrum, challenging binary definitions of popularise modern styles of eating and
what constitutes ‘red’ or ‘white’. We’ve also drinking, it is perhaps inevitable that we see
witnessed the re-emergence of ‘orange’ wines in the past the origins of what some might
– with some great examples from the think to be new. As well as having lost touch
northern Italian and Slovenian border region. with the temperatures once dictated by cool
Natural (or ‘low intervention’) wines – such a cellars, in warmer climates more crude
focus for Le Chateaubriand a decade ago – techniques have been implemented to make
now find their way onto the lists of many of red wine more enjoyable (and tolerable) to
the world’s most interesting restaurants. drink. “The Spanish have been plunging their
reds into ice buckets forever,” says Noble
As a general rule, in many restaurants Rot’s Zeren Wilson.
afforded the highest praise today, the style of
food is comparatively lighter, fresher, has a The fact is, as Wilson points out, “all wine is
more subtle appreciation of acidity and is less flattered by being cooler rather than
concerned with what was once a tacit warmer.” The key point perhaps being that, if
obligation to offer a ‘rich’ experience. a “wine is served ‘warm’ there is nowhere left
Vegetables, seafood and the processes of to go.” At least if it’s a little on the cold side,
fermentation are treated with the same level then it can be left in the glass and allowed
of consideration as meat, heavy preparations time to reach its optimum drinking
and the methods of frying and roasting. This temperature. He goes further to suggest that
is not to say that they no longer matter, it is “20 minutes in the fridge at home, for any red
that they are now just a part of what matters. wine, will only help.”

But it also means that traditionally ‘big’ If we can be sure about that, then there is
wines – oaky Chardonnays and Cabernet one other certainty: the ‘right’ temperature is
Sauvignons, for example – are not necessarily probably much cooler than we’ve been drinking
the right match for ‘modern’ cooking. Instead, the majority of red wine. Bringing red wines
cooler-climate wines (Alpine regions, Jura, ‘to temperature’ by the stove, anyone?
Savoie) with higher levels of acidity,
minerality and more subtle tannins have In all likelihood, my chilled red that
attracted greater attention from the current summer at Le Chateaubriand had been kept
wave of agenda-defining chefs. A massive in a fridge merely to prevent it from becoming
Shiraz or Claret works with Steak Diane; undrinkably warm. And though new styles of
much less so with charred hispi cabbage, cooking have brought lighter reds, suited to
pickled nasturtiums and oyster emulsion. And cooler temperatures, to the fore, chances are
lighter red wines can and should be served a that trends in dining and drinking will change
little cooler. again. But let’s hope that we will have
remembered the ‘rules’ – even if we decide to
Chefs such as René Redzepi and the Noma start breaking them again.

98 Noble Rot

Tortilla

One man’s mission to recapture Spain’s classic
synthesis of egg, potato and onion

Words by George Reynolds  |  Illustration by Astrid Weguelin

There was a summer, once, when the – even worse, moved into my pensión – I kept
world was a lot less complicated. I was my distance. Until it became not just
working on a vineyard in Cataluña, in impractical – you cannot cohabit a tiny bed
a tiny village called Gratallops which spilled and breakfast in a tiny village without
down a hillside like the centuries-old vinyes bumping into each other fairly regularly – but
velles parcelled improbably around the actively impolite. He was friendly, he was
vertiginous Priorat landscape. I am a open, he was the nephew of wine éminence
creature of routine, and my routine was grise and million-dollar nose Robert Parker.
simple, almost pre-industrial: wake early, eat So we went for a beer one night. And then the
some jamón sandwiched between two pieces next. We watched a Barcelona game in a bar
of pa amb tomàquet on the way to work, work full to bursting with hot-blooded fans who
until 10.30, break for a morning merienda kept heckling us as we accidentally obscured
(more pa amb tomàquet), work until lunch their view of the screen. And, slowly at first,
(taken in the village), work until four, come but then as quickly as two stimulus-starved
back into town, buy bread, buy jamón, buy and reasonably adventurous youths could be
tomatoes, make tomorrow’s sandwich, grab expected to, we became inseparable.
something for dinner, read, sleep.
It is no exaggeration to say I’d been puzzled
I was happy enough on my own and by and ignorant of Spanish food until this
jealously protective of anything that point. At the start of the trip I’d spent two
threatened the pattern I’d established, so one dizzying, borderline terrifying days getting
day when a new foreigner came to the village lost in Barcelona’s Barri Gòtic; I’d been robbed

100 Noble Rot Noble Rot 101









“Up here, trapped in my cramped seat, CONTRIBUTORS Zeren Wilson has spent 11 Adam Coghlan is a food,
I’ll look forward with feverish anticipation to any old shite years in the wine trade, most restaurant and travel writer
Writers recently selling wine to London based in London. He is also the
and wolf it down happily.” Stephen Harris is chef-patron restaurants. He writes a wine director of content and
of Michelin-starred self-styled column for Christie’s and has communications for the annual
Branson after a Virgin flight; it featured such blinis and little hummocks of finely chopped Illustration by Neal Fox “grotty rundown pub by the written for various other London Restaurant Festival.
zingers as “I know it looks like a baaji [sic] but hard-boiled egg, onions and sour cream with sea”, The Sportsman in Kent. publications. twitter.com/adamcoghlan
it’s in custard, Richard, custard”, and “the muslin-wrapped lemon half; lamb noisettes; He writes a weekly column for bittenandwritten.com instagram.com/adamcoghlan
potato masher had obviously broken and so it lobster served on bone china; gallons of Dom The Telegraph and is The Guild
was decided the next best thing would be to Pérignon and Meursault and Château Lafite. of Food Writers’ Cookery William Kelley has a doctorate in Emilee Tombs writes about
pass the potatoes through the digestive tract We had our own little rooms, with walls. Writer of the Year 2016. 19th century history, and was restaurants, bars and hotels for
of a bird”. All the applause. But still I ate the The partner in crime marinated himself in so thesportsmanseasalter.co.uk president of the Oxford Wallpaper* and Supper
lot. I’m not even ashamed – I left shame many of the fine vintages that, over- Marina O’Loughlin is the University Wine Circle for four magazines. instagram.com/
behind at the check-in desk. refreshed, he managed to lock himself into the anonymous restaurant critic for years. He lives in Napa Valley, emileejanetombs
spa (I know! In-cabin spa! In reality a shower Guardian Weekend magazine where he’s learning to make
Over the years, various airlines have with some scented diffusers) and thought he and one of the most respected wine. twitter.com/wgfkelley Mark Andrew co-founded Noble
attempted to up the First-Class ante by was actually going to die when we reached commentators on food in Britain. Rot and holds the WSET
recruiting haute cuisine chefs as consultants: our destination, panicking there wouldn’t be a twitter.com/marinaoloughlin Kate Spicer is a journalist and Diploma in Wine & Spirits.
two-Michelin’d Carlo Cracco for Singapore coffin in Korea large enough to accommodate Rowley Leigh is the chef-patron documentary maker living and He is studying for the Master of
Airlines, Neil Perry of Sydney’s Rockpool for him. My sympathy was, of course, mighty. behind restaurants Kensington working in London. Her work Wine qualification, and spent
Qantas, British Airlines and Heston Place and Le Café Anglais and appears mostly in The Sunday eight years as the senior buyer
Blumenthal, Joël Robuchon for Air France. Over years of flying far too frequently, here has won three Glenfiddich Times, and her first film Mission at London wine merchant
And still the food is, at best, disheartening. In are the things I’ve learned. Even if the food is awards for his writing in the To Lars was released to critical Roberson.
fact, because it’s weighted with the promise of inevitably better, bringing on your own Pret Guardian, the Sunday Telegraph acclaim in 2012. twitter.com/noblerotmag
the big names, it ends up being even more of a picnic doesn’t provide the same peculiar, and the Financial Times. twitter.com/spicerlife
disappointment than the notorious molten- masochistic pleasure. The beef is never twitter.com/lecafeanglais Dan Keeling co-founded Noble
lava, wet-sponge-in-curdled-milk croque anything other than inedible. It used to be a Alice Lascelles writes about Rot and is Fortnum & Mason
monsieurs from Easyjet. At least we know good wheeze to pretend to be vegetarian but I drinks for the FT and is the Drink Writer of the Year 2016,
these are going to be bad. (I find that adding a think they’ve got wise and the gloop of a author of Ten Cocktails: The Art and Louis Roederer Emerging
layer of Pringles improves them no end.) vegetable pasta bake is now massively of Convivial Drinking. Wine Writer of the Year 2015.
unrewarding. Cooked fish: just say no. Plus it, alicelascelles.com He has previously been
Blumenthal, of course, applied his mad er, perfumes the cabin for the entire flight. Managing Director of Island
scientist intellect to an undeniable problem: People who treat airline staff badly are the George Reynolds won the 2016 Records and Head of A&R at
up in the sky, tastebuds don’t function worst people in the world, and quite a lot of YBFs award for Fresh Voices in Parlophone Records.
efficiently, desensitised by air pressure and them congregate in First Class. I’m incapable Food Writing. He blogs about instagram.com/noblerotmag
dried out by recycled air with the humidity of not buying a mini tub of Pringles if offered, food and drink at www. twitter.com/noblerotmag
sucked out of it. Instead of simply increasing even if I never eat the wretched things at any egoscriptor.space, and tweets
salt levels, he whacked up the umami and other time (ditto trains and Twixes). And the about them as @go_scriptor.
satisfied cravings for big flavours with bread, no matter what class you’re in, is
lemongrass, chilli and citrus. This always, always grim. British Airways recently Tom Kemble is Head Chef at
desensitisation explains why we have in-flight announced that they’re phasing out meals in Bonhams Restaurant, Mayfair,
cravings for Bloody Marys – in my case, many, economy and offering passengers the chance where he was awarded a
many Bloody Marys. It was flying over the to buy, instead, an M&S sarnie. If they serve it Michelin star within 8 months of
Atlantic that I first encountered Big Tom to my little squished-up, belted in trap, opening. He has previously
Bloody Mary mix, an affection for which I’ve surrounded by screaming kids and sneezing worked at Hedone in Chiswick
retained ever since. oldsters while I squint at something starring and Faviken in Sweden.
Ryan bloody Reynolds, I don’t care. Basically, instagram.com/tfkemble
My favourite flight ever was when I – I’ll happily eat anything they give me.
somehow – scored First Class on an Emirates
flight to Seoul. The meal featured caviar with

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© 2017 Noble Rot Ltd. Illustrators Emix Regulus
All rights reserved. Authors’ Jose Mendez ‘Eukaryote’s Paradise’
views do not necessarily reflect ‘Inside the Mind of a cargocollective.com/
those of the publisher. Restaurant Critic’ (cover microcosmicorbit
Noble Rot, 51 Lamb’s Conduit artwork)
Street, London, WC1N 3NB josemiguelmendez.com Rachel Jablonski
‘Dead Vignerons Society’
Editors Adam Batchelor racheljablonski.com
Dan Keeling & Mark Andrew ‘Goodbye to Old Lace’
[email protected] ‘Vermouth Strikes Again’ Thomas Humeau
[email protected] adambatchelor.co.uk ‘What I’ve Learned About
Airplane Food'
Art direction Neal Fox thomashumeau.tumblr.com
Dan Keeling & Lizzie Ballantyne ‘Francis Ford Coppola’
‘Contributors’ Astrid Weguelin
nealfox.co.uk ‘Tortilla’
astridweguelin.com
Design Egle Zvirblyte
Lizzie Ballantyne ‘Going Solo’ Daniel Pudles
lizziebdesign.com eglezvirblyte.com ‘Advert’
danielpudles.com
Sub-editor Jo Houghton TOTES AMAZING!
Polly Rappaport ‘Rebel Aesthetic’ Photography
[email protected] ‘The Art of Homage’ Elena Heatherwick The perfect size for transporting marrows,
joannahoughton.com ‘Critics’ Choice’ turnips, a leg of lamb or the spoils from a visit
Head of Marketing elenaheatherwick.com
Naomi Keeling J.B.R to the wine shop
[email protected] ‘Brown Paper Bag’ Juan Trujillo Andrades
‘The Other Bordeaux’ ‘Wines from the Ancient Ocean’ Just £12 from the Noble Rot Online Shop www.noblerot.co.uk
Sales & Distribution jacksonrees.co.uk ‘The Only Way is Essex’ Also available a limited run of beautiful Noble Rot artwork prints,
Manager ‘AA Gill Is Away’
Megan O’Rahilly Kris Chau truliphoto.com magazine subscriptions and back issues
[email protected] ‘Chill Out’
krischau.com Ben McMahon Noble Rot 113
Distributors ‘Skills to Pay the [Fine Wine]
antennebooks.com Yoyo Bills’
raandollyltd.co.uk Inside Front Cover benjaminmcmahon.com
weloveyoyo.com
Press enquiries Jon Wyand
[email protected]  William Elliott ‘Wedding Crashers’
‘Charlie & the Champagne jonwyand.co.uk
Proof editors Factory’
Segrave Foulkes willustrates.wordpress.com Rob Billington
‘The Other Bordeaux’
Special thanks robertbillington.com
Jancis Robinson, Romaric
Chavy, Jeremy Leslie, Jacob
Kenedy, Ben Chapman, Oliver
Milburn, Sunaina Sethi, Leonid
Shutov, Ricky McMenemy,
Roy Richards, Kermit Lynch,
John Livingstone-Learmonth

Illustration submissions noblerot.co.uk
[email protected] instagram.com/noblerotmag & /noblerotbar
[email protected] twitter.com/noblerotmag & /noblerotbar

112 Noble Rot

Wine Bar & Restaurant
51 Lamb’s Conduit Street, London, WC1N 3NB

www.noblerot.co.uk  |  +44 (0) 207 242 8963

114 Noble Rot