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Come Wine With Me: Chancery, Blind Tasting, Dinner…

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Hola! Back from a relaxing week in sunny spain, returning to showers of rain and gold medals in the Olympics. One far more welcome than the other. The week away was great, but was not a great culinary adventure, despite my love for holiday food-shopping! We ate well, but it’s not enough to write home about! So, I shall jump straight to the dinner which I went to last night, at The Chancery in London.

London is strange at the moment, eerily quiet in some ways, yet populated by hoardes of people in sporty clothing, or – last night – groups of Dutch gentlemen dressed in bright orange suits and orange stetsons. It’s a cheerful, crazy, haphazard side to London life. I rather like it. The Chancery is however set off the beaten track a little bit, in Furnival Street near (unsurprisingly) Chancery Lane.

Seven of us met there for dinner on Monday night, each selecting a course from the Tasting Menu and providing a wine to go with it. This first “Come Wine with Me” dinner was proposed as a relaxed way to enjoy blind tasting and good food. The wines were to be served blind and analysed and identified (roughly) before revelation, and the quality of the wine and its match with the dish discussed. Of course, all seven of us being wine addicts, several of us bought more than one wine, so there were plenty of vinous goodies to compare and contrast. I am not going to go into all of them, but will list the wines and the menu below. There were some interesting wines, some rare wines and some real treats. It was a marvellous evening, in good company and with great food.

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Canapés:  Arancini and something involving (I think) pork belly and black pudding on a little tostada.
(Wine: 2004 2Xoz champagne, Roger Pouillon)

Amuse Bouche: Goats’ cheese and beetroot salad of baby leaves.

Course 1: Seared tuna; tempura squid, chilli, ginger and spring onions
(Wines: 2011 G de Guiraud, Bordeaux; 2001 Maximin Grunhauser Riesling Herrenberg Kabinett)

Course 2: Chilled tomato consommé; tiger prawns, basil and compressed cucumber
(Wine: Manzanilla La Gitana En Rama, Hidalgo)

Course 3: Pressed foie gras; duck crackling, spiced plum, almonds and bitter cress
(Wine: 2008 Soave Superiore, Pieve Vecchia, Fasolini Gino)

Course 4: Line-caught bream; chargrilled fennel, sea vegetables, seaweed and clam butter
(Wine: 2009 Quartz Chardonnay, Bindi)

Course 5: Roast rump of new season lamb; crisp sweetbreads, navarin of baby vegetables
(Wines: 1994 Monte Bello, Ridge; 1983 Château Musar)

Course 6: French and British cheese; biscuits, quince jelly, prune and walnut loaf
(Wine: 1983 Taylor’s Vintage Port)

Course 7: Amedei mousse; ginger, kumquats and marmalade ice cream
(Wines: 1983 Banyuls Al Tragou, Rancio Res Vieux;  Greco di Bianco, Ceratti)

Extra wine: 2000 Marsanne ’1927 Vines’, Tahbilk

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It was a fun evening: a good balance of geeky and giggly, awe and irreverence. None of the wines were disappointing; some of them worked with the food, some of them didn’t (the perils of only seeing a list of ingredients when choosing a wine); some of them were easier to guess, some of them certainly weren’t; some of them were exactly what one would expect, some were more surprising. The food was beautifully presented and rather tasty, and I would be more than happy to recommend The Chancery to anyone passing that way.

Time to start planning the second outing…

 

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Today’s stuck-in-head-song – Call me maybe, Carly Rae Jepsen

Today’s dinner – had a very large comforting BLT at lunch

Today’s drinks – sparkling mineral water

Today’s footwear – black patent heels


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