The North West Spring Wine Festival - Manchester

Some readers may be a little confused by the steady drip of drinks related posts on the blog of late (awful pun most definitely intended); well sorry to say, this post is another homage to the hard stuff – but this time it’s a little more civilised than the usual whiskey and beer guzzling fests I usually attend. How can drinking be a lot more civilised? Well this post is about wine - and plenty of it too - at the recent North West Spring Wine Festival.

 

By accident I took a photo with a man in it who actually looks like he belongs at a wine festival

Held in the newly renovated St Peter’s Church in the Northern Quarter, the North West Spring Wine Festival was a collection of independent suppliers and boutique wines. The premise was thus; buy an entrance ticket and get given a glass, you then mill round the various exhibitors tasting wine and (they hope) buy some to take home with you. As well as the main exhibiting area, there were smaller masterclasses running - we chose to pay £5 extra each to attend the Aumbry wine and food matching class, bringing the price for each of us up to £15. For the amount of wine we put away, that was an exceptionally good deal. And yes, we did drink the wine – if someone’s pouring you a (rather generous) taster from a £20+ bottle, you’re not going to pop it in the spittoon are you?

The North West Spring Wine Festival was filled with about 12 different booze peddlers – from Manchester bar Epernay, to small wine producers, indie shops and some big brand names. In amongst this was a smattering of food producers, touting some very good local produce; much needed for soaking up everything we consumed. Not many exhibitors you may say, but enough for us and probably wise seeing that we didn’t see anyone else using the spittoons either – well accept to dump water in when they washed their glasses out so they could taste something else!

Spittoons - not used much

The Aumbry masterclass was hosted by the lovely Mary-Ellen (acclaimed chef-patron) and Siobhan, the brains behind the front of house. We taste three tasty morals from the Aumbry menu, each paired with two wines. Great idea; you saw how each wine changed each dish and in turn how each dish changed the wine. Stand outs were the amazing Clai from Croatia, which is full of heavy orange flavours and is naturally produced in small runs of 5,000 bottles; and a Brouilly served slightly chilled to inhibit the tannins.

Aumbry wine matching class with Mary-Ellen and Siobhan

Mary-Ellen and Siobhan were entertaining and passionate; it was great to see the thought process Aumbry puts into constructing dishes and how their wine choices influence their menu. I can’t say any of the food stood out because it was all bloody brilliant – a silky hare terrine, a smokey mackerel/sharp rhubarb nibble and a tarte tatin poached in liquid nitrogen (well there had to be some Aumbry kitchen wizardry, we'd have been disappointed if everything had been cooked conventionally!).

We had a great chat with Epernay who, contrary to every other table, were tasting spirits only – we tried the unfiltered Belvedere, quite raw and smoky, but an amazing vodka. This was followed by a locally produced, craft gin called Brockman’s. Distilled in Warrington it’s infused with berries, so perfect for drinking straight – must get me some.

Interesting drinks at the Epernay table

Some of the best tables at the show were the Spirited Wines chaps (used to be Nicolas’ on Deansgate) with bags of good wines and friendly, informed chat. We also hugely enjoyed chatting with Tour De Belfort who are based in the NW but own a small vineyard in France, producing some (almost) natural wine with very low sulfites (no headaches!); light and easy to drink, it would be a killer on a summer’s afternoon.

Lovely people of Tour de Belfort - search them out!

We did try and get to the Bakerie and the Hanging Ditch tables; two of our favourite places in Manchester, however they were totally mobbed so we hung out with the Co-op chaps and had a good chat about organics, fair trade and sustainability (well, that’s what I think we were talking about…).

Top of the food producers were the Cheshire Cheese Company; their range of cheese were going down a treat with the punters (t’boy didn’t think so, but he doesn’t like cheese). The poor staff had to cope with me eating all their cheese (for research, obviously) and blabbering on, but they were dears, even if I don’t really like their sweet cheeses – their four year old, Cheshire and Blue are another thing coming though (and yes I’m promising a future post about these guys, you heard it here).

Cheshire Cheese Company staff wishing I'd stop eating all their cheese

I couldn’t really round this post off without mentioning the lovely Ginger’s Comfort ice cream who created a special flavour of chocolate and spiced wine (double yum) for the day – poor lass was stuck outside in the cold and didn’t sell much due to the weather, however she was in good spirits and as always her ice cream was silky, soft and super moreish.

All in all it was a great day out for a very reasonable price. The whole affair was pretty civilised, professionally done and attended well. Some warm weather would have been nice, but by the end of the day I was pretty warm, all wrapped up in my tramp blanket.

"Ooh look at all this wine.."

Sad you’ve missed it? Don’t fear, there’s a summer festival on the way, so check out the Manchester Food and Drinks Festival website or follow them on Twitter.

Ps I was given my entrance ticket for free, though we paid for t’boy’s and the additional master class; however I was under no obligation to write nice things, I just enjoyed myself and thought the day was a bargain.

Diablo and Supper Join Us for Supper Club - North Star Deli, Chorlton

Food and wine, wine and food - always a great combination and even better when it's with friends. Last week's Join Us for Supper at the North Star Deli in Chorlton was a a great catch up with chef Deanna Thomas and a lovely bunch of usual blogging faces, plus the added bonus of some new ones thrown in too.

North Star Deli - with thanks to Foodographic.com

The premise of the night is usually; go to North Star and fill up on three courses of local, seasonal, well cooked scoff, have a chat and make some friends. However this was a Join Us for Supper with a difference - having teamed up with Caillero del Diablo wines, we spent the night having wines matched to our foods and being regaled by tall tales and wine facts alike by Hans Jocham Wadsack (or Joe), who is in fact THE nicest chap slash wine buff I have ever met.

Lots of wine!

Things kicked off to a bad start with trams being delayed and our travel plans awry, but upon walking in to North Star we were met with friendly faces and three glasses of wine each - that's a good enough start for any night; plus a rabbit empanada was thrust in each hand by the lovely Adam - which was crispy, salty and hit the spot.

Seared scallops arrived on a bed of puy lentils surrounded by a creamy champagne sauce - all light, bang on and perfectly seasoned and the sauce made a wonderful change from the umpteen usual scallop accompaniments that are turning up on menus everywhere right now ie. the bacons, peas and blackpuddings. We were given a chardonnay and a sauvingon blanc with our starter, both very good wines but the chardonnay (even though it was the cheaper wine) had the slight edge with it's deeper, more savoury flavours.

Scallops and champagne - high style dining

We chatted and drank some more - well I offloaded some wine on to the very pleased boy and the very accommodating Arty Tom and then out marched the mains - ruby red, soft venison sitting atop savoy cabbage and accompanied by a celeriac and venison cottage pie and finished with a red wine sauce. One big, red, meaty hit of pure unctuous meat to chase away the chills outside. This was all washed down with a glass of big, punchy and far too tannic shiraz (apparently it would have been much better with a steak, I might have even liked it then) and a beautiful carmenere; a native French variety with a lot of interesting history and some smooth berry and chocolate flavours, which set off the venison a treat.

Venison - photo makes it look awful, but it was very good

Full of wine I was happily buzzing along and welcomed pudding with that sweet toothed longing you get after more than half a bottle. A silky blood orange tart with Deanna's trademark thin, crispy pastry was a little too sweet for my liking. I'm all about tart fruit flavours and it would have been nice for the orange to shine through a little more, but it was a still a good pudding. Another wine was matched and this time we were given a syrupy pudding wine, just released in the UK and we were the first to try it (get us!) - all floral honeys and orange blossoms, akin to a muscat. Lovely, but drowned out a little by the super pudding.

Join Us for Supper was once again on top form, highlighting North Star's commitment to quality, local produce (Chorlton's Out of the Blue and WH Frosts supplied) and great cooking. Usually PR run nights are frightful shows of posturing and lovies air-kissing, but Casillero del Diablo and their PR company, Cube, seem to have got it right - probably helps with the addition of Joe Wadsack and the fact they piggy backed on one of the best supper clubs in Manchester.

Ps - North Star have now opened a new deli on Dale Street in Manchester, a great place to stop on your way to and from the station or get a decent bite to eat at lunch.

Food - 8/10
Atmosphere - 8/10 (bonus booze points)
Service - 8/10
Value for money - no score as this was a promotional event

Total - 24/30

Go again - yes, they're a friendly bunch at the deli and it's a pleasure to see them - and supper club is always a good place to meet new people.

Join Us for Supper, North Star Deli, 418 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton, Manchester M21 0SD - Twitter - Facebook

http://www.northstardeli.com/

Please note - I was invited to this event for free, however all thoughts are my own. The usual price for Join Us for Supper is £25, tickets available from the deli/website.

Evuna - Manchester

I recently entered Evuna with trepidation; not because I was dining with the father-in-law, more for the fact that I've had some decidedly dodgy tapas in the past, some of which has been served to me at Evuna. But buoyed by recent good experiences (see Charango and Salt House Tapas), and the fact that the father-in-law was paying, my hopes were as riding as high as my spirits.

Evuna with thanks to lep.co.uk



Evuna is decked out in dark wood, evoking the romance and passion of Spain - it's quite easy to imagine a fiesty senorita turning down her matador lover in one of the broody corners of the restaurant. It's a lively place, lubricated by plenty of good wine and the darkness of the room only adds to the mystique. The bar features prominently as you enter; an important thing seeing that Evuna is Manchester's premier Spanish wine importer.

We were eating early enough to qualify for the lunch special (3 tapas for £10, Mon-Sat 12 noon-6pm), but decided to order mostly from the larger tapas menu, which offered far more variety. The specials of the day were roasted pork belly and braised ox cheek - both were ordered by myself as they sounded delightful and the boy had ordered nearly everything else off the menu anyway.

Unlike previous visits (I should mention previous means at leats two years ago) where food has been disappointing; the dishes this evening were very, very good. Notably the pork belly with it's crispy crackling and fruity breadcrumbs adding both a contrast in texture and a good foil for the salty, fatty cubes of porcine delightfulness. The ox cheek was delivered in one of the thickest sauces I have had, with a good punch of beefy umami leaving your tastebuds screaming for more.

The patatas bravas were fragrant with fennel, giving it a sweet yet lively taste that complimented the many pork dishes on the table. The Iberico Bellota was from a good quality, well sourced ham - the sweet nuttiness emanating through each generously marbled slice. The plate of ham was expensive, but it was a good sized portion and worth paying extra for the quality.

Iberico Bellota - yum yum

Thankfully most dishes sang to us that evening, the only bum notes were the dishes we had ordered off the special lunch menu - the tortilla was so bland I can't even think of any words to describe it and the chorizo in vino tinto was overly oily and a bit bitter.

There's one aspect where Evuna outshines everything (even the wonderful belly pork cubes) and that's on the wine (they are a well-respected importer...). The waitress guided us through the comprehensive wine list and chose a bottle that not only complimented the dishes we had ordered, but our wallets as well. When that wine was out she suggested a very agreeable alternative and allowed us to try before buying.

Evuna knows its stuff; their produce is well sourced, the staff are very knowledgeable and helpful and most of the dishes that come out of the kitchen grab your attention with their big punches of taste, clever layers of flavouring and generous (for tapas) portions. For a place that's got wine at it's heart, it's also a hub for good food, relaxed eating and reasonable prices.

Ps - If you love the wine you're drinking, or just want a really good bottle of Spanish wine, Evuna has a licence to sell alcohol for consumption off the property - the prices are also cheaper than the bottles you drink in house so you can carry on your party at home for less!

Pps - Evuna also holds wine tasting nights and other Spanish themed events - check out the website for more info.

Price for eight tapas, one lunch special (3 plates), one bottle of cava, one bottle of wine, one pudding, two PX sherries and three coffees - £158.27

Food - 8/10
Atmosphere - 8/10
Service - 8/10
Value for money - 7/10

Total 31/40

Evuna, 277-279 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EW - 0161 819 2752 - enquiries@evuna.com - @Evunamanchester

http://www.evuna.com/