Sunday 25 July 2010

Maze Grill

This was far from my first visit to Maze grill, indeed this has turned into my favourite set lunch reccomendation for anyone in Mayfair on a weekday. Stray onto the a la carte and the prices leap upwards but for £21 you can enjoy 3 excellent courses in a well drilled Ramsey restaurant. The dining room enjoys views over Grosvenor Square and though the decor is a little bland, the staff are well drilled and the only inconvenience is the extended trek to the toilets it shares with a Marriot hotel.

A well cooked chicken chausseur married well with a bottle of Château Bauduc as endrosed by Ramsey, Stein and Oz and May (TV wine royalty by today's standards I suppose!). The wine is a straightfoward but well made and rapidly improving Bordeaux AC from Gavin Quinney who has made the dream of every wine fan a reality by buying and improving a chateau in the Bordeaux Appelation, cut out the middleman by offering direct sales to the UK and even finds time to write an informative blog.

No doubt the better value offerings will eventually fade away as the economy improves so for now, take advantage of one of the few upsides of the failing economic environment and pay a visit.

Maze Grill on Urbanspoon

Sunday 11 July 2010

Marques de Riscal




Marques de Riscal is Riojan Royalty. One of the first great houses founded in 1858, it is a major brand, runs an award winning hotel at it's winery in Elciego and is unique in the area for having the right to grow Cabernet Sauvignon (a grape that is not permitted under Rioja regulations) since the planting pre dates the DO rules.

It's range encompasses the full spectrum from everyday to premium so we took the opportunity to visit for a tour and tasting whilst on holiday nearby. Their grapes for their white wine are grown in Rueda, the balance in Rioja Alavesa. Maturation of their Rioja DO is in American oak, traditional for the area and a tour encompasses all of their onsite wineries, though one is not allowed into the hotel. One of the most interesting points of the visit was a walk through their oldest cellar in which they keep a full catalogue of every single vintage for the last 150 years. Jancis Robinson attended a tasting there a couple of years ago and tasted vintages back to 1900 which were apparently still going strong.



The reserva was a classic Rioja, red fruits, sweet oak and a decent amount of tannin with good balance. Their Rueda 2009 is unoaked, aromatic and herbaceous. Both are excellent and due to the size of the winery the range often feature in the major wine chains and supermarkets in special offers.

Bodegas Baigorri



Our annual Spanish trip allowed us the chance to visit a newcomer to the world of Rioja. The bodega, constructed in 2002, is an exercise in clean functional design using gravity fed systems for fruit handling. French oak is used throughout along with quality hallmarks of green harvesting and careful selection at the sorting table to produce US friendly fruit forward wines with a hint of Cali Cabernet about them.



The winery is built underground, the top floor, a striking vacant glass cube just outside the traditional Riojan town of Elciego. As with many bodegas, they buy in the majority of their grapes and select from Rioja Alavesa and Alta.

They also serve a fine lunch if requested. We enjoyed Pate, a Tuna Salad, Chorizo and bean stew, Shin of Beef and an Ice Cream Cake. Happily we had the opportunity to taste the full range of wines with the lunch.

They produce a barrel fermented white, Rose and Crianza but the stars of the show were their 2005 Reserva and 2006 El Garaje.

The former benefits from an excellent vintage, offers leather and cigar box oak on the nose with a whack of deep cherry whilst the palate follows through with good structure and balance that makes it a modern but excellent match to the traditional hearty Riojan cuisine.

The latter is a premium cuvee which does not fall into the Crianza/Reserva/Gran Reserva classification. It offers smoky, overripe sweet cherry fruit, soft tannins and plenty of complexity and length. Both are well made excellent wines though my personal taste is for the reserva over the top wine in which I find the fruit a little confected. Whilst it is not sweet, perhaps this is why they recommend it as both a savoury and dessert wine.