- Treat the wine as a sauce or condiment
This can be very useful. Take a very citrussy wine like a dry Riesling or Picpoul de Pinet from the Languedoc region. These have a good chance of matching foods that would take a squeeze of lemon – such as seafood. A sweeter (to cope with the heat) Riesling makes a great match for tandoori dishes, as several visits to Tayab’s in Whitechapel have confirmed. Similarly a peach laden Viognier can be really good with pate, pork dishes and chicken.

- Go local
In other words buy a wine from the revelant region. So if you’re cooking a gutsy Tuscan classic, buy a Chianti; it will probably work.

- Sauvignon Blanc is a good allrounder
If you’re going to dinner and have no idea what’s being cooked, consider taking a Kiwi sauvignon Blanc. A bit heavy for some fish dishes but gebnerally fine. Great with dishes with a touch of chili eg Thai crab cakes, due to its fruitiness and the fact it has the same chemical compounds as capsicums – this also makes it great with goat’s cheese. Fine also with green leaf salad (due to its herbaceousness)

…and finally a bit of a cop-out….

- Google it
If you can’t get to bottle apostle to endure a 20 minute lecture, try googling “moussaka wine pairing” or “osso bucco wine match” and so on. You’ll probably find more than enough suggestions.

We’ve had loads of requests for more dates for tutored wine tasting events so that people can book places as gifts. Your wish is my command!

We already have the following with tickets still available:

• Thurs Jan 7th 8pm £15 – New Year Beer: An Introductory Tasting
• Thurs Jan 28th 8pm £30 – Cellar Workshop: Collecting and Ageing Wine

The new wine tasting events are as follows:

• Wed Feb 3rd 8pm £25 – A Proper Cheese and Wine Evening
• Thurs Feb 11th 8pm £25 – An Introduction to Port
• Wed Feb 17th 8pm £25 – How to Taste Wine (our introductory tasting)
• Thurs Feb 25th 8pm £40 – An Introduction to Champagne
• Wed March 10th 8pm £35 – Chateauneuf and Beyond: Wines of the Rhone Valley
• Thurs March 18th £35 – Cognac and Armagnac
• Wed March 24th £40 – Fine red wines of Tuscany

To book places, please ring us on 020 8985 1549, or email info@bottleapostle.com

We will also be adding a series of supper club evenings once dates are confirmed with caterers.

Tuesday 8th December at 6pm

Bottle Apostle will be hosting a free wine tasting event in the Napoleon Bar on Tuesday 8th December from 6pm.

Open to both Bistrotheque customers and members of staff it will a be chance to learn more about specific grapes and regions, and to try some delicious wines.

Bistrotheque
23-27 Wadeson Street,
London,
E2 9DR

Please email info@bistrotheque.com to let them know if you’ll be coming along.

The line up will give us a nice range of styles, as well as being the best kit I can lay my hands on. The list is necessarily provisional as there may be a couple of cheeky “upgrades” if we fill the last few places.

We’ll probably kick off with Champagne: Gosset 1999 vintage (£59.50) is drinking beautifully. I have one white “in the bag” which is the 2006 Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir from Christian Moreau (£32). This is just about as good as Chablis gets.

The reds will be equally epic. We have the 1995 Gran Reserva Rioja #890 from la Rioja Alta (£95). This is one of the top two or three Gran Reservas and it’s an excellent vintage. Customers have been swooning over its kid sibling the #904 (£34) so I think we should all have high expectations. We’ll also chuck in a Supertuscan but you will probably have to wait untill the night to find out which one – right now I can’t decide between the 2005 Solengo from Argiano in Montalcino, or the Ilatraia from Brancaia from the Tuscan coast. Something from Bordeaux or the Rhone will also make an appearance. From my own cellar (well, pantry) I’ll bring a mature bottle of D’Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz from McLaren Vale as a “bonus wine”. Maybe a 2001 or 2002; maybe a ninetysomething. 

We finish on a high (in several senses) with one of the great dessert wines; a 2007 Von Buhl Forster Pechstein Riesling Eiswein from Pfalz – a mere £135 per half bottle and 299g of sugar per litre.

Simple food (cheeses, cold meat, bread etc) will be served. if you’re not already signed up we hope you can join us!

The 5 Baroli (my anticipated Barbaresco failed to be delivered) tasted certainly didn’t let the side down though. We compared the more “classic” (massive generalisation I know) 2004 Barolo Baudana by Luigi Baudana (£31.50) - high toned, floral, a very good vintage which needs time to peak - with the 2003 Bricco Cogni by Michele Reverdito (£34); more obvious new oak, well controlled richness in a hot year – a fleshier blockbuster which was generally seen to be drinking well now. Then on to the 1996 Vigna Mandorlo by Giacosa Fratelli (£47.50); still good depth of fruit and something of a mellow bruiser (contradiction in terms I know) which nevertheless demonstrated why we should probably try to hold onto 2004s for a decade or so.

These were followed by two Riservas from Giacomo Borgogno; the ‘82 (£85, sold out) and the ‘61 (£105). The former was decanted in 2007, the latter recently also. This means they hit the shelf with a new springy cork and very little sediment. Special case wines but they still demonstrate the capacity to age of Nebbiolo. The older wine was unsurprisingly more seamless, but it also seemed more vibrant and showed more obvious hints of cherry fruit. Consensus was that the extra £20 would be money well spent.

Final wine was the Steenberg Nebbiolo 2007 from Constantia (£21). This has sold well here, having been featured in our enomatics. Lots of ripe heady spicy cherry fruit, hints of licorish, cough mixture and spice, with butterscotch on the finish. A chunky wine balanced by Nebbiolo’s refreshing acidity. Nothing like the Piemontese wines but deservedly popular all the same – South African Nebbiolo should have a different style, otherwise why bother making it?

We stock around 350 wines plus a compact selection of beers and spirits. We don’t like to cram the shop full as we need space for buggies and prams! This means a wine really has to earn its position on the shelves. We shy away from the big brands and focus on the less familiar and hard to find.

We also have 4 shiny Enomatic sampling machines allowing us to have 32 wines available for sampling; just top up an “oyster card” with credit and away you go – samples cost from 35p to £15 for wines from £6 to £300. Weekly tutored wine events are held in our cellar, which are proving very popular. This week, for example, we are having a Fireworks Night-themed supper club (sold out); next week a Nebbiolo tasting. You can also hire our cellar / tasting room for private events.