Saturday Afternoon Food & Wine - Wrap Up Warm!

Nothing beats a leisurely Saturday afternoon sampling some great authentic dishes accompanied by some fabulous wine.

We have partnered with our friends at St Vincent, to create a new format food and wine event. St Vincent will be cooking up a delicious tasting menu, designed to warm the cockles of your heart on a cold November afternoon, and compliment the fabulous wines you will be tasting alongside the food.

The afternoon will take a leisurely approach, giving us time to talk about, and apricate each wine.

This venue is superbly located in the centre of historic Shrewsbury, surrounded by cobbled streets, and church spires. The event will be hosted in their private dining room on the first floor, which allows us to make use of their audio/visual equipment.

Over the course of 3 hours or so, we will sample six dishes in “a tasting menu” format paired with six expertly chosen wines.  All the dishes have a distinctive "winter warmer"theme, and the wines are paired accordingly.  There will be fine wines from France, Spain & Portugal including a sparkling wine and two fortified wines.

This is a more informal and convivial event than most of our others and although you will undoubtedly learn about some great wines, and perhaps discover some new favourites, there will not be a formal presentation.  Instead, let us enjoy the food and wine, whilst learning about the wines’ origins and of course “tasting like a professional” throughout. 

Read on for more information:

1. We start with an amuse bouche of Celeriac velouté truffle accompanied by a Cremant de Limoux AC - my "go to" sparkling wine from Southern France, made in the traditional method but at a fraction of the price of Champagne.
2. Next up is a Ham hock, caper and parsley terrine with pickled golden raisins and black garlic emulsion on sourdough, accompanied by an Alsace Riesling.  As anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm a convinced fan of Riesling and the style in Alsace is very food-friendly.
3. Moving on we now have Smoked haddock and pickled mussel chowder accompanied by a Albariño from Rías Baixas in Spain.  Smoked fish chowder is a great winter warming dish but is quite a tricky wine pairing, Albariño has both the acidity and weight to provide a good match.
4. Our main course is a French classic of Beef bourguignon – medallion of beef with pearl onions, king oyster mushroom and bourguignon sauce.   This needs a robust red wine from Southern France dominated by powerful Grenache and Syrah varieties to pair with it.
5. Time for something sweet - Chocolate moelleux with clotted cream ice cream.  Chocolate is a notoriously tricky pairing, but my "go to" wine for chocolate is Banyuls, a "vin doux naturel" fortified red wine from southern France.
6. Finally, we finish with some cheese in the form of Perl wen brie a classic Welsh cheese which is a cross between Brie and Caerffili.  Soft cheeses like this work best with Tawny Port, and that's an ideal way to finish before braving the November weather!

Perfect for foodies!

Look out for more food and wine pairing experiences in the months to come.