The third Crozes-Hermitage webmag takes us to various parts of London, the global city where wine opens the most unexpected doors and leads to some amazing encounters that offer a fascinating opportunity for time-out. The result is a choice of venues filled with humanity. From Mayfair to Shoreditch, they reveal a cosmopolitan capital which, away from the bustle of the city streets, provide some very civilised interludes.
Phil Howard
On the Joys of Classic
He has been chef and co-owner of The Square since its opening in 1991. His dishes bring together impeccable seasonal ingredients in a harmonious and elegant manner.
Food
“Chefs, especially when they are young, want to make their mark because the culinary scene is a competitive one. The modern trend is to have one weird rogue ingredient in the dish to make it cool, modern and edgy. I like harmony of flavours. I have never been strategic about it, it is just the way I like to cook. I stick to classics because their combination of flavours are the end product of research done by generations of hungry people, who, ultimately, would go for what tastes better. Some flavours work better together and it is not negociable. Take duck, for instance, you can go back hundreds of years, everything would have been tried, people have cooked duck with everything under the sun. The truth is that duck is most enjoyable with fruits (orange, figs…)”
Wine
“You find it on the wine scene too, where the great wine-makers are the ones who remain open-minded but have the confidence to maintain their belief in tradition and just deliver excellence in a world where the demand (by the consumer) and the desire (by the producer) for change are constant. Also, unusual ingredients tend to bring complications with regards to pairing a dish with wine. That has always made food at The Square very easy from a wine-pairing point of view. We do a lot of wine events, simply because the food lends itself to drinking with good wines! None tries to outshine the other. Our classic food pairs particularly well with classic wines, including, of course, those of Crozes-Hermitage. They are the kind of wines that make you want to cook with your stomach and not your brain.”
Interview by Anne Serres
Tim French
The Supplier of the Queen
A gentleman of encyclopaedic wine-knowledge, Tim French joined Fortnum & Mason as a wine buyer. He is now buying director with this institution that counts amongst its clients no less than Her Royal Majesty.
How do you build the collection of Fortnum’s own label wines?
We’ve got around 1,600 wines on our list and 120 wines under our own label. Through the 80’s and the 90’s, the New World revolution simplified the understanding of grape varieties and people has learnt to appreciate the consistency of New World wines. Now we have reached a new stage in the journey, where both New World and Old World are making much better wines. It is an incredible time to be a wine consumer.
What place do Crozes-Hermitage hold on Fortnum’s list?
We love the Rhône here, and the Northern Rhône (is extremely exciting for its slightly cooler climate.) At the moment, the only Northern Rhône appellation we have with our own label is a Crozes-Hermitage. It is a delicious wine. Elegance and freshness are two things I look for in any wine, and the wines of Crozes-Hermitage deliver that.
What did you make launch the Fortnum & Mason wine bar?
Wine is all about experience of tasting and enjoying it, if possible with food. In our bar, you can shop the entire list and take your bottle to the wine bar to enjoy it with food. It is a very powerful proposition, which our customers love.
Interview by Anne Serres
Wine Bar
Like Paris and Lyon, London has also witnessed an exciting new wave of wine bars where fashionable thirty somethings meet up in search of authenticity.
You could probably design a map of hip London venues – are there any parts of London that aren’t hip? – just by superimposing its map of wine bars. Critics might comment that you could also add the places where property prices have gone through the roof!
Over the past twenty years, the English capital has changed faces – several times in fact – and wine bars mirror a lifestyle that contributes to its current appeal. They are often small bars with a very assertive identity – commensurate with that of the boss! – and encapsulate positive attributes such as authenticity, sharing and togetherness.
One of the consequences of this choice of tack, where attention is paid to what you drink and how you drink it, is that many of them offer a list of organic or natural wines. Just as London is famed for its impeccably green parks, gardens and tennis courts, it would seem that the people who live there are just as attracted to this nonconformist colour when it comes to the contents of their glasses or plates.
One of the catalysts for this change, at least as far as wine is concerned, has been the French who have introduced a careful selection of offerings where what is inside the bottle is more important than the label.
All you need is food
London’s restaurant scene transports gourmet food enthusiasts to an array of sometimes offbeat venues including a fire station, the former head office of Reuters and an old abattoir.
London is a city boasting 6,000 restaurants. The choice is constantly evolving and driven by talented young chefs from around the world eager to get their creative juices flowing and show off their skills.
And yet, London is not afraid to nurture its Britishness and there are still countless eateries showcasing a part of British history, from what’s on the plate to the buildings themselves.
The result of this is a myriad of unique settings, so that when you sit at the table of a London restaurant, the experience is often extremely compelling.
“The London food scene is such a hotbed of innovation that Queen Elisabeth’s reign would not be long enough to discover every aspect of it.”
