Wine Tasting and Buying

Colette’s Top Tips for September......

Wine tasting and buying

Well as the nights start to draw in and it becomes just that little bit too chilly to leave your jacket at home, you begin to realise that the seasons are changing, The beginning of autumn always comes as a bit of a surprise to me, I think it sneaks in when I’m still dreaming about holidays and balmy nights and then all of a sudden its dark at 7pm I mourn the loss of summer and am usually quite sad for a few days ,but then I remember how much I love snuggling up beside the fire with a glass of red wine when its cold wet and windy. But then the choice of red wine is always a challenge, which one should I drink??

I am so lucky with our wine supplier Boutinot wines of Manchester, not only do they have fantastic wines but they also invite me to attend Wine Tastings on a regular basis. It is really work, honest, as I have to develop a wine list for the restaurant and how can I possibly recommend them if I haven’t tried them all……………a few times each!!

So Tuesday I went to Manchester to attend the September event, this usually showcases some of the award winners and mostly the new additions to the portfolio along with some of the old favourites. I always try to go in with an open mind but I have to remember that I can’t possibly fall in love with a £60 bottle of wine as who would I ever sell it to. My aim for the day was to find a few reasonably priced white wines for the list make sure that the new vintages were as good as the last ones and the ultimate challenge a juicy mellow red wine with structure, good length, some tannins but only a hint of spice. I’m not fussy am I ??

I found quite a few that made it into my shortlist for the new wine list, surprisingly one is a Bordeaux. I always think I never know enough about French wines and Clarets in particular, so I try to steer clear but this one was young and not fully developed but so full of promise. Not very complex but so easy to drink which is never a bad thing in my book. I’m not sure if it will make the final list as our 58 Guineas Everyday Claret is very popular and I would hate to see it go as I so love the name.

However how do you know what to buy, and more importantly what should you pay? And how can you tell the difference between two wines that are seemingly identical. Let’s take two Merlots from Chile, they promise plum and damson notes, lots of juicy fruit and round tannins. So far clueless, that could mean anything as wine speak is as easy to understand as Mongolian, so do you opt for the prettier label, the one that has fewest bottles on the shelf (my sisters technique, thinking well someone else has bought them, that must mean they’re good, and strangely enough has backfired more often than not) or do you automatically reach for the cheapest as price isn’t everything and sometimes you’re just paying for a name

The most important lesson I have ever been taught about wine is to do with the pricing, not the ultimate sale price but the distribution of what your money will buy you.

Take a bottle of wine in a shop on sale for £4 and another on sale for £4.50, both have paid for the bottle tax, the label, the branding, the shipping, the staff costs and the profit for the supermarket and various other things that I probably could never dream of therefore the only variable is the actual cost of the wine in the bottle. Let’s say the cost of the wine in the £4 bottle would work out at 50p whilst the £4.50 bottle would work out at £1 therefore for just an extra 50 pence you’re actually doubling the value of the content so in most cases you will have a wine that’s of a higher quality. Just think of the difference if you paid £7 for the bottle.

However, as with everything, the great thing about wine is there is no right or wrong, just your personal opinion and taste and that’s what really matters. Next time you find a wine you like, take a note of the grape variety, the country and area of origin………….France is quite a big place, so note down the appellation and of course be bold, try some new wines if you’re worried about opening the whole bottle and not liking it then try some different wines that we sell by the glass and ask our opinion, we all like different things but you will find us unanimous in our desire to match you with a wine you will really enjoy and that complements your choice of meal.

This month we are running our usual prize draw that everyone who comes in to The Tree is free to enter. So keeping with the wine theme the winning prize for October will be a hamper of wine from Boutinot. A great chance to try a few new wines, all carefully selected for your enjoyment.CLICK HERE to find out how to enter.

Feel free to ask questions or comment below
Colette

Fab Recipe for Ragu alla Bolognese

Colette’s Top Tips for August.....

Tomatoes - See our fab recipe for Ragù alla Bolognese below 

I have become rather nostalgic lately of summer in Italy, I think its everyone’s stories of their holidays and what they did that have me remembering the good times we had at this time of year. As most of the produce is local, that means seasonal so you either eat it or find ways of preserving it.

The most memorable is the making of tomato sauce. In Italy, each family buys around 400 kg of very ripe San Marzano tomatoes to make into sauce.

They arrive on a lorry and basically just poured out on the street, where you have a lifetimes worth of buckets where they get stored overnight. 6 am and you're outside washing them and the matriarch of the family, or my mother-in-law, has a wood fire going with a giant trivet and pot of water. The tomatoes then get boiled for around 2/3 minutes to slacken the skins, and then put into colanders. My job, or usually the youngest family member, was to prick each tomato about 3 times for the water to drain away. Can you tell that being a foreigner I wasn't allowed to anything more skilled! Then they go through a type of blender which separates the pulp, the skins and the seeds. The pulp is then bottled and sealed. Some at this time get left plain; others have herbs and seasonings added. By this time it’s about 5 pm and you're aching all over. They are then placed gingerly in a drum which is filled with water and placed over a fire until boiling. The bottles are left to cool overnight and then stored for the family’s enjoyment over the course of the year. It was such a long hard day, but the enjoyment of eating fresh tomato sauce in the midst of winter made it all worth while. The next best thing is the conversations about yield, bottles, how many bottles broke etc. Keeping up with the Jones in Gamberale is just so different

Here is a lovely recipe for a pasta sauce, using Passata. Don’t worry you’re allowed to cheat and buy the Passata (tomato sauce)  from the supermarket 

  

Ragù alla Bolognese 

Makes enough for 8

• 2kg minced beef,
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 carrots, finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• sprig of rosemary and sprig of sage,
• 1 bottle of red wine
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste/puree
• 1 litre tomato passata
• salt and pepper
• crushed garlic 2 tea spoons

To serve: 

• pasta, preferably pappardelle, tagliatelle or short pasta
• freshly grated pecorino or parmesan cheese

Take the meat out of the fridge and lay it on a tray and let it come to room temperature, so that it will sear, rather than ‘boil’ when it goes into the pan.

Heat the oil in a wide-bottomed saucepan, add the vegetables, herbs and the crushed garlic , and sweat over a high heat for 5—8 minutes without allowing it to colour (you will need to keep stirring).

Season the meat with salt and pepper and add to the pan of vegetables, making sure that the meat is covering the base of the pan. Leave for about 5—6 minutes, so that the meat seals underneath and heats through completely, before you start stirring (otherwise it will ooze protein and liquid and it will ‘boil’ rather than sear). Take care, though, that the vegetables don’t burn — add a little more oil, if necessary, to stop this happening.

Stir the meat and vegetables every few minutes for about 10—12 minutes, until the meat starts to stick to the bottom of the pan. At this point, you should be ready to add the wine.

Add the wine and let it reduce right down to virtually nothing, then add the tomato paste and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time.

Add the passata with 1 litre of water. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook for about 1-2 hours, adding a little extra water if necessary from time to time, until you have a thick sauce. Season to taste

When you are ready to serve the ragù, put it back into a pan and heat through. Cook your pasta (preferably pappardelle, tagliatelle or short pasta) and drain, reserving the cooking water. Add the pasta to the ragù and toss well, adding some of the cooking water, if necessary, to loosen the sauce. Serve with freshly grated Pecorino or Parmesan

Seasonal Produce

Colette's Top Tips for June....

Lately we seem to be getting inundated with advice from top chefs to eat seasonal produce. This is a great way to get maximum flavour for minimum price in terms of abundance, however how do we know what’s good to eat when shops have very conceivable type of food all year round.

This is when old wives tales really do come into their own, not that I remember very many, just the one about not eating mussels when there is no R in the month so guess what……………its June and we are not serving mussels. However we have Asparagus which is in the height of its British growing season. I personally adore it and it can be quite versatile in ways that generally are not put on menus.

One of my favourite dishes is Spaghetti Carbonara but why don’t you try making it substituting Asparagus instead of the bacon…………….delightful, even for a meat eater such as myself

Carbonara is so deliciously creamy that sometimes it becomes quite an achievement to find a wine that you can enjoy whilst eating it. I know that oaked Chardonnay’s have fallen out of favour lately but there can be only a few other wines which can accompany such a heavy dish. One of my favourites from the list is quite an unusual wine, being a Pinot Grigio from South Australia. It has a fantastic mouth filling creamy quality and is unoaked. However the label would have you believe that it’s dry and minerally……………..on which sliding scale did they measure it on.

You all know how much I love wine, I’m sure I’ve told you countless times but its all about your own tastes and preferences, however we do spend a long time trying out the wines we list (ok repeatedly) to find some lesser known jewels for you to appreciate. Next time ask a member of staff to recommend something new, you never know it might turn out to be your new favourite too

LTH meets SATC

Hello again

Hope you've had a great week. Its been a pretty busy week for us and as per usual the days have flown by. I'm so glad the days are getting longer buts what's happened to the weather, I've been freezing for the last couple of days.I'm sure that's just the excuse I need to book myself a holiday on a palm fringed beach somewhere hot, where I can watch the world go by whilst sipping a Margherita. I can picture myself now..........ahhhhhh. That's nice mmmmmmmmmm

However, back to reality, we're here in sunny Wales and I'm supposed to be writing about my week not dreaming about the future

However, I never thought I would say this but I am concerned about the world cup because according to every mailshot from my drinks suppliers and e-mail from random suppliers that I've never heard of, I need to get prepared NOW. Have I got my England Pack.................mmmm my postcode says Wales, who unfortunatley aren't competing, my passport says Scottish (no not really) lets move on and my hubby is ITALIAN and as he says at least 5 times a week when the conversation crops up..............we are the World Champions and in the next breath where is my World Cup that was behind the bar...................oops it kinda went into a box in the garage never to be seen again, but he has another 4 back ups in the office!!! I need a game plan to get rid of them too but please don't tell him. So now the question remains..................am I organised.............NO, will Scotland ever win the trophy...............NO unless it's in some parallel universe and do I care if England win..........NO sorry. I'm more interested in the WAGs but as Vicky and Cheryl will  not be there, I think we can bet its going to be a bit boring.So if we can't talk handbags and shoes how can we make it more interesting?

I think we should think of a girlie cocktail drinking competition to do with the world cup along the lines of SATC. We should get glammed up and have a Cosmo every time England score................nope that means we don't really get to drink anything. Let me think every corner and we would be hospitalised, every penalty, we would be bored, every time a footballer pulled off his top........................nice. Yep that could be a plan but that would mean we would have to watch it too. Noooooooooo life is too short. So girls if we want to survive the summer I think we should put our heads together and come up with a plan. Hair and make up, high heels and glitzy top, meal and a few cocktails at The Tree with our friends, a visit to the cinema to watch SATC2 and an eye full of Ronaldo when he pulls his top off.......Maybe that can be the prize draw for June..........now how do I get in touch with Ronaldo???

Twitter, Tweets and Twits

Hi again, sorry I had a week off and didn't blog as I had promised but its been so busy. I am so pleased everyone loves the new restaurant but sometimes its just too hard to pull myself away from the customers and focus on the boring bits that never get seen. Then again I am a master of procrastination. There is always something else that's just a bit easier to do, like updating my status on Twitter. Can you believe that I now prefer Twitter to Facebook. Nope I never thought that would happen either. It took me such a long time to get to grips with it but now I realised that I've accepted to host a Tweetup...............trust me to get myself into trouble in the virtual world. Must mean I'm a twit ??!!

Another way that I manage to distract myself  is thinking about what to write in this blog. Usually accompanied by a panic attack and that I really have nothing new to share with you. Therefore I thought I would do some research..............no not my usual type like making myself a fab cocktail to tell you how great it is, although Jam Donut is really everyone's favourite. This time I meant to do proper research and read other hotel blogs to give me some tips and inside scoops. I was so bored after only 5 minutes of reading about the 100 top tips to use social media as a marketing tool...............yawn. I wanted a Hotel Babylon type blog and never found it. Maybe I have cornered that market as I try to think what i would like to hear if I were you??? Am I making any kind of sense today?

Well, I went back and re-read the blogs I had already posted, and I must admit I thought they were quite funny and entertaining, even if I do say so myself! But I have already told you loads, what else is there??? Panic struck, oh dear was I going to fall into the boring trap too?? Probably yes. So I made a mental list of the most asked questions from customers and maybe I could answer them but they change all the time. This week it's "who are the new managers"?? SORRY STILL US....................next is usually how Carmine and I met, but as that's a full page on the website, and I'm sure you have all visited About us on our website to read all about it, then I can't do that, next is why we don't still live in Italy.....................that would take tooo long so again we're back to the usual, food, wine, decor etc

So I've decided to tell you a little behind the choices of the decor. We wanted to have a little bit of our personality in the decor which is why we choose the pictures of Venice in the bar. You did know we lived there just after we got married although believe me its just like living anywhere else when you have to get up and go to work every morning. The one thing that sets it apart is the transport. Did you ever notice there are no pictures of Gondolas? I'm sure most think it's because it's too touristy or naff when the actual truth is I'm terrified of them. I HATE GONDOLA'S  If you don't already know there are only 4 bridges that span the Grand Canal, one of them only being a few years old, so 3 in my day, and if you want to get from A to B without deviating too far to the nearest bridge then the Venetians have an interesting transport mode. Gondola crossings that only go from one side of the canal to the other, so one day after I had been asking to get the romantic gondola tour Carmine, ever the rational and practical one,  said we should hop in one of these taxis, not that the fact it cost 1000 lire or 30p instead 15p had any bearing on the decision, but you know what he's like about spending money??

So anyway, we were helped into the gondola and that is where all my problems began. I was terrified,  there are no seats therefore you have to stand in this tiny vessel, whilst one poor bloke rows you to the other side I was convinced we would fall into the slimy oily water, we would get ploughed into by a faster boat. The other passengers thought I was a  nut case as I was crying, screaming and hyperventilating all at the same time, not one of my more elegant performances, thank heavens there was a lovely old granny that held my hands and calmed me down. After that I never once complained about walking or crossing bridges.

The are loads of great Venice tales, like when we cooked for Robert Redford, swoon.................
but mostly I remember celebrating my birthday in St Marks square, the feast of San Marco, 25th April when girls receive a single long stemmed red rose, my first ever from Carmine.................there had been a Valentine incident involving red tulips and this was to make amends! Poor Carmine has never lived that one down, who said all Italians were romantic and well dressed obviously has never met him, but then again, maybe all his talents lie in the kitchen!

Will look out for funny stories for the next blog

Colette

The Lemon Tree Website

Bella Italia

Hey there, what a beautiful day The sun is shining and finally I am having a well deserved day off. Well realistically I've been to work for just an hour so it's really just like a full day off for me. I was told recently that my job must be fantastic, just pottering about the restaurant, chatting to customers and propping up the bar !! Maybe its a compliment that I make it look so easy, at least that what Cary reckons. Instead of writing a confessions book maybe it should be a self help book with chapters on how to survive a 70 hour week,how to calm down an irate Italian Chef,  how not to eat all the muffins...............although so far I havent actually managed that yet!! How to taste 50 wines and not get drunk.............nope not managed that either. Ok so my alternative career path of becoming someone creative doesn't look feasible. Think I will just stick with running the hotel for now.

I am constantly amazed that alot of people don't know we're also a hotel being that we're called The Lemon Tree Italian Restaurant Bar and Hotel, well we're also asked if we're a Chinese about the same amount of times as we're asked if we deliver pizzas so maybe I really shouldn't be surprised

It was so much fun at the weekend as we had most of the customers going upstairs to see our bedrooms which have been re-decorated at the same time as the restaurant.I very rarley talk about the accomodation part of the hotel in my blog for some reason, I think it's because its easier to chat about food and wine but sometimes the best customer stories come form the hotel part. By no means can we compare ourselves to Hotel Babylon................honestly we have never poisoned a football team or anything but a few of the saucier episodes brought back some memories but maybe I shouldn't really share these with you just yet?? Lets just say that the lost property department can be a source of constant amusement.

Now we've been open a few weeks, the restaurant has been going well, we are now really starting to get busy which is just great and the accomodation bookings for the hotel part are really looking up too. We've managed to regain a few of our regulars . Some of the girls checked in today for the first time since we have been re-open and they were sooooooooo enthusiastic, I mean over the top enthusiastic rushing about into each others bedrooms to see what it was like and positively screaming with excitement.  I had thought this was slightly over the top until they started to spill the beans about the other bed and breakfast places they had stayed whilst we were closed. Not impressed that some places don't offer a choice of white or brown toast?? Can you imagine how excited they'll be in the morning when we give them fresh homemade muffins. I mean hotel breakfasts can sometimes be the downfall of a good overnight stay, now that we are also trying to encourage people to come to us for breakfast we are trying to pull out all the stops possible. Its just a pity I only focus on the unhealthy options, don't think I'll ever go mad over the choice of yoghurt, fruit salad and muesli. Bring on bacon sarnies, croissants and muffins :) I'm just about as obsessed with these muffins as I am with the "Twilight" series. I have to have an Edward moment every day. Its great when Carmine calls me "bella" which means beautiful in Italian.............okay so its not very often but I imagine its Edward and I swoon just a little bit more than usual, Have you checked out the photo of me making puppy dog eyes at him yet on the website. Yeuch, do I do thast often?? Maybe he was calling me "bella"................


Ciao Ciao

Colette

Its not all about winning, its the taking part that counts!

Domesticity reigns in my house tonight................yep I've been left to cook . How rubbish is that, Carmine has been so busy in the garden tidying it up in the hope of sunny weather and I'm left to organise dinner. Well I'm trying to recreate one of the dishes from the menu for the simple reason we didn't go shopping and the freezer at home is dismally stocked. We will be having Tagliatelle with a sausage and tomato sauce, minus the olives and Pecorino as De Pasquale Mansions doesn't run to exotic ingrediants. I really wish Carmine's secrets page was up and running on the website then I would have a better idea if I was doing it properly. Oh well, he always knows that I won't cook again if he moans too much. Vindictive or what??  Oh for those who don't know my house here is called "De Pasquale Mansions" and the one in Italy is "De Pasquale Heights" I forget why Liz named them that but its stuck and its what we call home,

Getting back to my cooking abilities, well I'm not that bad, nowhere near as good as Carmine obviously but If it's just one meal then I usually can cope fairly well, unless I'm left to do breakfast. That's where it gets dicey and the one day of the week we see how well the smoke alarm works. We had a bit of a competition going at work some time ago as one night I cooked Risotto for the staff and they said it was better than Carmine's ! Flattering but a sure fire way never to be fed again Then with her competitive spirit, Emma challenged Clare...........you would get the impression we had nothing to do?

Talking of Risotto, it has been fun to have a different flavour every day, so far we have had, mushroom, chicken and mushroom, mediterranean vegetables, seafood, squid ink and my favourite so far, Chicken and Asparagus.I'm sure that we'll probably have a competition to see what absurd creation we can convince Carmine to put on the menu. We do that sometimes, create a competiton for the restaurant staff just to give us a bit more of an incentive, not that we get bored or have an amzingly short attention span, but sometimes its just nice to do something a wee bit different. Usually the winner has early signout, a glass of wine or the likes. Just now I think the best prize would be a bottle of the Redorvelik Cider. Its got a hint of Strawberry and a twist of Lime through it. Now I don't particularly like Cider but this is amazing. Quite far up the list of staff favourites along with the chocolate beer I was telling you about last week. We really do have some amazing new products and Cary was telling me that she stumbled across the website for our designer champagne and seemingly this guy designs clothes too that are worn by Beyonce, Madonna, Paris Hilton and David Beckham. Ha, does that mean I'm finally cool, hip or trendy..........using those words possibly not. What is the word of the moment?? Ooh before I forget he's called Cristian Audigier and one of his designs is Ed Hardy............my thoughts exactly...........WHO?? anyway in keeping with our staff theme, we have a competition on the new website to win a fantastic bottle of his Rose Champagne. Just visit               http://www.lth-wrexham.com/ and pop in your details  and soon my blog will move there too although I will still post it here too as I know you would miss me if I disappeared. Actually, I'm still amazed how many people read it although on Saturday someone had visited the website and asked if I would be beginning the blog sometime soon. Guess she's not a facebook or twitter fan?? and here was me thinking I had finally become famous...............guess we'll have to wait a very long time before we have Champagne Colette, still it never hurts to dream

See you soon

Colette