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When you get to meet and go out with the head Sommelier at Michelin starred Tamarind restaurant, Tobias, West London Wine school director, Jimmy, our lovely wine girl, Colleen, and the Dwarf all together in one night, you already know you’ll end up spending shit loads of money on fine drinking, this being only the first of a series of collateral effects you learn to love!

So we met Colleen at wine bar and bistrot Antidote in Soho to get a few lat bits sorted for our food and wine extravaganza on Saturday 10/03. There we met Tobias and his lovely girlfriend. Tobias is one of the most volcanic and funny person ever and we got the party started very easily. A couple of glasses of Colleen’s wonderful natural wines which eventually became a couple of bottles and a sudden urge to go and introduce the dwarf to Jimmy who was “tasting beers” in West London.

In west London whilst eating and “tasting beers”, we had memorable digressions on small quality wine makers, TV fiction series (!?!), food making tips and tricks, writing menus, wine styles and we also had a little friendly fight on natural and non-natural wines, the eternal war within the wine realm 😉

Anyway, we also “worked” and came out with brilliant ideas for our Saturday tasting. The wines we will introduce to our guests on Saturday  are all natural, as the ones we tasted in our previous supperclub, which is no artificial ingredients added in during the process and, sometimes, the process itself following “natural” methods like tracking the moon movements to decide the right picking time and so on. In this mini venture with Aubert&Mascoli we are all starting to understand, with some surprise and pleasure, that making natural wines is al about going back to traditions, history, terroir discovering your own origins and trying to make something new, powerful, elegant out of that.

And here they come, the wines of our Saturday 10/03 food&wine matching event:

Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce– when you say Lambrusco make sure you know what you mean. That is what i’ve been told once by a lady from Emilia-Romagna. If you think Lambrusco is that cheap fizzy wine-like beverage you’ve been drinking loads at whatever college party, well, that is not Lambrusco. Lambrusco is the great convivial wine of Emilia-Romagna and it must be one way only. It usually comes dry, fruity and juicy with subtle bubbles to caress your palate and cut through the fattiness of heavy Emilia-Romagna dishes or renown cheeses and meats. Lambrusco is a natural mouth cleaner and pleasantly enhance the savouriness of food. On Saturday we introduce a Lambrusco that lady would be proud of.

Campania Bianco, Paski 2008 – the grapes grow on the slopes of Vesuvium, quite a harsh, hostile terroir to creat life on. The wine coming out of this area shows that character the grapes needed to endure and live. A full bodied, crisp, mineral white with vegetal notes. Strong, warm character but never aggressive, in fact quite refreshing and pleasant. This contrast makes this wine a pure reflection of a territory and of an idea of making wine which is not about the easiest way at all.

Primitivo Gioia del Colle 2008 – Primitivo is the Red Grape of Apulia. Rich in alcohol and powerful, Primitivo is the Italian Zinfandel but with smoother tannins and more fruity flavour. Nonetheless Cristiano, who vinifies in old amphoras, gave to this Primitivo a superb structure, depth and complexity. From red and black fruit to spiciness, passing through balsamic parfumes and earthy leathery notes, this red wine is an experience which continues glass by glass. It needs to breath at least one hour before serving but, as the saying goes, all good things come to those who wait.

Sorted out all our wine&food issues and needs we came back home. No need to say we had a great time tasting around with these incredible people who seemingly are living bibles of wine, beers and whatever implies alcohol in it 😀

Remarkably, the day after, the dwarf wasn’t much hangover and we all have started collecting great memories of all these people (guests, wine makers and wine people) that this natural wine journey with Colleen has made us known so far. We hope to know always more interested and lovely guests as they’ll come and taste these beautiful wines next Saturday!

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