My opening exchange with the waitress:  Gevrey Chambertin Domaine Heresztyn 2005 please – what temperature would you serve that?  “About two above room”. Ouch, no WART awards here.  Please can I have an ice bucket?  “Yes sir, no problem.”  Things are starting to improve already.  After all, the wine list looks well thought out, and superbly priced, and the menu looks bistro chic.

The wine turned out to be much warmer than the room, which was about “cellar”, confusingly, and served (the wine) in Riedel Vinum Bordeaux glasses to complete the wine misplacings.  After waitress stares colder than the ice bucket, I didn’t dare enquire whether the Pinot Noir glasses were just being washed.

The wine itself was super. Not so much barnyard as tea room with warm flavours of fruit loaf, Darjeeling, and plummy blackberries.

A Bury black pudding salad with hen’s egg (interesting how modern menus often clarify this – the source bird, and “hen” I took to mean “chicken”) was proper northern pudding attired in Parisian haute coutoure.  Tart Dijon dressing and tidy leaves, presumably to acknowledge Autumn has arrived in Leeds.

Wood pigeon came on braised red cabbage as if shot down in a farmer’s field, and the pigeon was redder than the cabbage which is how I like it.  However, I need a training course in eating small birds.  There has to be a better way of eating wood pigeon than scraping it off the bone with a fork.

The veg was no less than superb, I won’t bore you with the inventive detail.

Dessert for Fred was vanilla rice pudding with spiced orange jelly and fudge pieces – if only I was served this at primary school 40 years ago.  I had a selection of cheeses with a small glass of Fleur d’Or Sauternes (violets and honey), both of which filled my belly intensely and admirably, although I’m sure the waiter saw the irony of removing my macchiato before the cheese was served.

At £131 for two including numerous alcoholic beverages and with a bottle of fine wine, this is good value.  In London it would be stupendous.  In Leeds, sadly, it is simply a rare occurrence to find food this good, and a totally normal occurrence to find wine knowledge so lacking.  I was chatting to a mixed European group on the next table who had already sent back one corked bottle of claret (to considerable resistance), and complained that the next, whilst not TCA tainted, was too warm.

I recruited them to my WART campaign.

If you are teetotal, or simply prepared to argue your corner against wine ignorance, you should spend some time here.  It is so much better than the somewhat soulless, and much more expensive, Anthony’s fine dining sibling, a pigeon stride or two along Boar Lane.  Piazza’s potent combination of architecture, atmosphere, and food is unbeatable.  The mere addition of a little oenological schooling would put it near the top of my list of favourite places in the North.

Piazza by Anthony, Corn Exchange, Call Lane, Leeds. LS1 7BR.
T: +44 113 247 0995
W: www.piazzabyanthonysrestaurant.co.uk

Searching for a wine match, I figured a mature Grand Cru Burgundy should fit the bill.  This Domaine Armand Rousseau Charmes-Chambertin is way beyond the top end of my normal wine budget at about £90 per bottle but it IS Christmas so I am happy to splash out.  Is it worth the huge wonga though?  In a single word, erm, not on your bastard nellie.  I would rather have a threesome with two multi-tongued Ood than fork out the price of a brace of afternoon teas at The Ritz to end up with a limp biscuit.

Last time I tried this wine, there was a hint of cabbage on the nose, this time too.  Fortunately, the taste is a bit more refined:  Quince jelly with some orange blossom, but still a bit tart really.  I can think of a large number of Pinot Noirs from Burgundy and New Zealand, for example, that would blow the socks off this wine at about 20% of the price.

Merry Christmas, anyway.  I am going back to my Fortnum & Mason 2000 vintage champagne which is very moreish and goes very well with Dr Who (David Tennant) and the Master (John Simm).  Will the Master Race take over the world?  Not on your bastard nellie!  Can’t wait for the NY Day episode!

An attempt to impress the mother in law almost ended in failure.  Having tried to book places under the direction of Marco Pierre White and Richard Corrigan (and others) only to be told there was no room at the inn, we were suspicious that the Westbury could easily accommodate us at 8pm on a Saturday evening.  We shouldn’t have worried.  Wilde has the atmosphere of a posh but modern grill with the service of a well dressed regiment of polite bombardiers from nations far and wide and including an occasional Irish accent.  The food is as good as I’ve eaten in Dublin and, yes, I have tried Eddie Rocket’s.

It’s not a walk in off the street place, but if you are prepared to make the effort, I think you will find it worth the trip.

“Burren” cold smoked salmon was served in slivers of bog paper consistency with the lightest, fluffiest, cumulus nimbus horseradish sauce.

Roast rump of new season lamb was a little tough and I would have preferred the gorgeous carrots, asparagus, mange touts and fat chips that came with Fred’s chicken than the ratatouille and crushed potatoes that came with my dish.  However I polished the plate with my tongue and my tie.

My wine choice was Gevrey Chambertin Domaine Rossignol-Trapet 2002, €89. The sommelier informed me that the wine store was 18.5 °C - impressively precise and it was no problem that I wanted my Gevrey just a touch cooler.  I wish more wine waiters had more liberal and less right wing views on wine temperature.  Salty and fruity with tomato like acidity, the wine tasted like a red salad.  Great with lamb but I doubt I would finish a bottle on its own.

Here’s the token negative bit.  Forks should be heavy at the business end.  These were heavy at the wrist end and eating with them was like trying to make a Weeble fall down and, as we all know, they only wobble.

Crème brûlée arrived with a half of Château La Caussade Sainte-Croix-du-Mont which carried lots of delicious lavender, rosemary and honey.  The caffé macchiato was as bad as I have tasted in Dublin, and, since you ask, yes I have tried Eddie Rockets.

The bill for three was €290 including service, 2 glasses of champagne, a bottle of wine, a half bottle of dessert wine and a minimum of two courses each.  Although, for us English, painful at today’s almost parity sterling/euro rate, Irish folk will see VFM.

Wilde, The Restaurant, at the Westbury Hotel.
Grafton Street
Dublin 2
Ireland
T: +353 1 646 33 11
W: www.wildetherestaurant.com
M: mail@wildetherestaurant.com

The other happening on this historic date is a “trade only” event but I’m sure you can blag your way in by wearing an Oz Clark face mask.

They say that in Burgundy, follow the domaine not the source of the grapes.  Louis Jadot is a respected Burgundy producer that you can buy without having to negotiate an extra £25Bn of quantitative easing from the family treasury.

I think Beaujolais may actually be even more complex to understand than the rest of the Burgundy region, with super fragmented vineyards worked by individual independent producers.  For this reason, I would say take a chance.  Don’t over analyse, simply experiment.  However, if you want something widely available you could do worse that try something like a Georges Duboeuf, or a Jadot, with their distinctive, recognisable labels.

This Beaujolais AOC is a light, fruity barbecue wine.  As it happens it also goes excellently with chicken shish kebabs, aloo chana and chicken and spinach masala.  It tastes like a trifle base with fruity jelly and sponge fingers.  Very nice drinkable wine that is really improved by serving chilled to about 12 degrees.  Sit back, imagine you are in the rolling hills of Beaujolais on a lazy sunny day with nothing better to do than eat lunch and watch the world go by, dreaming of your favourite childhood sweet shop.

In classic gastro style it is a country pub atmosphere and decor, with cheffy food and a fine wine list.  All the waiters wear butchers’ aprons and ties.  The menu is full of frilly culinary bonmots.  This is the brasserie – I wouldn’t bother paying extra for the restaurant which is a sniffier, more morgueish affair, better suited to divorcing couples who have no need of the convivial bar hubbub.

We took Steve and Rita who, as it happens, have just got married.  They loved the Angel and promised to reply with a foursome (or was it fourball?) at a Warwickshire competitor.

Steve’s oysters were Colchester Rocks and looked good, even though no R in the month.  I started with Goosenargh duck terrine – awesome.  Served with a cured ham wrapped fig injected with ricotta.  An unusual amuse-bouche that for once added value.

The pick of our (numerous) selections from the wine list was Henri Boillet Chassagne Montrachet 2007, £44.20.  The mark up policy is closer to fixed price per bottle than percentage uplift which makes many of the wines extraordinarily good value.  For example, if you wanted to try a bottle of this in the smoke, say at Le Caprice, you would have to fork out a ton!  Yorkshire diners are getting value alreeeet.  Guess there are not so many bankers up here (well, only the Government employed Bradford & Bingley staff and I hear their bowler hats have all been confiscated).

After 25 years of faithful service, Riedel glasses are being retired to Sound of Music country in favour of new imposters – the name of which I did not recognise and forgot to note.  The glasses were just as sexy and, let’s be honest, for mere northerners like me, the look of the glass is much more important than whether it is the correct shape for the wine.

Peach and honey flavours were made more complex by a wave of salty seaweed, a wisp of smoky oak and a clump of earthy beetroot.  It is this sort of complexity that makes a good Burgundy worth so much more than a cheap California Chardonnay.

The main course of Lobster Thermidor from the specials blackboard lived up to cheesy, mustardy expectations.  You have to admire a pub equidistant from East and West Coasts that has the ability to buy and serve excellent shellfish.  Then again, I once ate gorgeous scallops in Courchevel, and that is hundreds of miles from a sea (although the prices justify this fact).

The service was also excellent up to a point.  That point was when we tried to order dessert which eventually came, but without the wine list, and the “contemporaneous” coffees never arrived at all.  The waiter picked up on our mutterings, “our service fizzled out a bit towards the end didn’t it?”  A genuine apology supported by a couple of free glasses of dessert wine and I refuse to let it put me off a place that I know is excellent time and again.

As good as food gets, and as good (and good value) as a wine list gets, and 3/4 as good as service gets – for one night only.  Highly recommended.

The Angel Inn, Hetton, Near Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 6LT
T: 01756 730263
E: info@angelhetton.co.uk
W: www.angelhetton.co.uk

None of the above.  Just my thoughts on the first 2005 Gevrey Chambertin I can remember tasting.

This Gevrey is top notch for a mere £20.99 from the Sunday Times Wine Club.

OK, that is far from cheap but I think it is worth it.  Bright as a button with forest fruits, hay and meringue, it is a veritable farmyard pavlova.

Didn’t last long…..

I was going to review this place next year when I could have titled the post, 4030 2010.  But on the 40th floor bar of 30 St Mary’s Axe the view could not wait and, verily, it must be one of the most stunning in the whole of London.

On one side, the city and a view down the Thames to parliament.  On the other, Canary Wharf and in the distance the leaning tower of Pisa, Sydney Opera House, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon on a clear day.

We could also see some extreme sportsmen on the wrong side of the sun-proof, bomb-roof, rain-proof, credit-crunch-proof glass. Apparently the windows are cleaned once a year and today was the day that polishing and wiping was executed by adrenaline junkies whose only umbilical cord between life and a grand canyon scale drop to death was a slender abseiling rope tied to a big pair of cojones.

This iconic building is so exclusive we had to call in a few favours to get a table.  We also had to donate a kidney to afford the bill.

I love eating with posh people.  It is the only circumstance in which it is worth earwigging.  The Hooray Henries (and Henriettas) were bemoaning the fact that ordinary Muggles could now get into Tower 42’s restaurant so it was simply not exclusive enough these days.  “Is 4030 the only remaining place where my accent will not be mocked?”  I wonder if they realised that a northern oik, and an intruder from the world of the non-magically gifted, was at the very next table.

My starter was tartar of mackerel, fennel, smoked jalapeño jelly and crisp sandwich.  An intense peppery spicy, fishy sensation but in reality, the size of a sprat.  I suppose such food should probably be served in these quantities to avoid heartburn and to keep my diet (ha!) intact.

Rump of lamb, yellow beans, tomato tapenade and salted lemon arrived for main course looking more substantial.  The salted lemon was as appropriate as running a gauntlet screeching down a blackboard while an actor relays your favourite Shakespearian sonnet, but the rest of the dish was perfectly put together and the new potatoes (two distinct varieties of Jersey Royals I think) were quite astonishing, like no other potatoes I have ever eaten, and on their own justified the enormous bill.

An interesting and not stupidly priced wine list threw up a Nicolas Potel 2004 Savigny les Beaune Vielles Vignes “Les Charmeuses” - £55.  Bibendum have this at £18.12 per bottle making the mark-up on the London average 200%.  To be honest I expected it to be more expensive – it’s a good job the Gaucho Grill did not get this franchise!  2004 was a mixed Burgundian year in quality terms according to most commentators.  Personally I have found most samples pretty good, albeit priced higher than new world comparators.

The wine was heavenly for a Pinot lover like me - stewed prunes, apricot and black tea with classic barnyard or is it seaweed aromas?  Complex and rewarding but slightly unusual.  Is this the wine equivalent of an expensive fruit tea?  Best of all it was SERVED AT THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE!

The cheese course (£3 supplement) continued the excellence and contributed another photo opportunity.

The macchiato was served with an erect nipple even though it was 30 degrees Celsius the other side of the window.  Not Italian style but nice with a Château de Laubade Armagnac (unusually, served in a whisky tumbler).

The final destination (aka the bill) was worth more than either of my kidneys (although had processed almost as much alcohol) at £213 including service.  It rankled a little that the meal starts with the waiter bringing over 2 bottles of water (still and sparking) already opened in expectation of you accepting both, at £3.95 each.  If you have the balls to ask for tap water fair enough, but, as it happens, I felt that an £8 cover charge was a small amount to pay for a stunning one-off experience…the highest non-helicopter fine dining in London.

The base price before alcohol is two courses for £39.50 and £47.50 for three.  That’s a lot for lunch but it is not every day you can eat superb food, look down on the Nat West Tower, with its restaurant full of commoners, and imagine you are a rich banker (or was that rhyming slang?)

40 | 30, St Mary’s Axe, The City of London. EC3A 8EP – Nuff said!
T: +44 20 7071 5009
W: www.4030.co.uk

In barely the time it takes a Tory MP to repay his moat cleaning expenses, I am already deep into my third bottle.

And this one is a 2004 Gevrey-Chambertin by Alain Burguet “En Billard” 2004.

Rotting veg, blue cheese, plums and a dash of cinnamon but tasting much nicer than that sounds.  I like this a lot.

The Wine Society case price implied £23 per bottle but they don’t stock it any more.  I really struggled to find an alternative supplier but Googled upon Winenirvana who advertise US$85 per bottle.  That implies a price of about £55 at today’s exchange rate.  So I guess I got a bargain.  Much better than his Gevrey “Mes Favorites Vielles Vignes”.

If there is one maxim in life that everyone understands it is that money does not guarantee success.  I mean, look at Mark Hughes’ under-achievers.  Being a long suffering Man City fan, it is no surprise to me that we scraped in mid table a whopping 5 points clear of footballing paupers, Stoke City, even though one of our players cost more than Stoke’s entire squad.

I have to congratulate Stoke on an over-achieving season.  Based on the resources available to them and being newly promoted to the division, they were odds on to get relegated.  But Tony Pulis had a well thought out strategy and it worked.

Strange game football eh?  But the same can apply to wine.  This bottle came from a Wine Society Mystery Burgundy Case (average implied bottle price £20 but actually was on sale for £56.75 on the WS website).  Ouch!  It better be good!

Tasting of soft white bread, bramble jelly and liquorice root, it was a bit like drinking a 1970’s larder and I particularly liked the fact that the usual Burgundy barnyard aromas were largely missing.  I drank it enthusiastically, but I had to admit that whilst this Chambolle-Musigny is good, it is not £56.75 good.

In fairness I had intended to keep M. Roumier’s efforts for a few more years and I wish now that I had stocked it at the back of the combine harvester, which might have prevented me grabbing it and whipping the cork out before recognising my prematurity.

Other over-achievers in the Premiership include 2nd placed Liverpool (who are not short of cash but have invested wisely) and Fulham – Roy Hodgson must wish his team was called “Rovers” such is the dream-like improvement from last year.

As for under-achievers?  Well I am glad I am not a Newcastle supporter.  I have a lot of sympathy for a team with fans as loyal as labradors, a squad with endless footballing pedigree, a top-dog stadium, but a history of dog quality management.  Sounds a bit like Man City?  We were there a few years ago and I wish you a speedy return.

And Mark Hughes?  I never wanted him and still think he is the wrong man for the job.  But it looks like we are stuck with him for at least another year so I am going to stop moaning and offer him my support.  I can’t help thinking Man City are going to be the silliest sop soccer star spenders of the summer.  Fun fun fun!  And perhaps this circus alone will justify my huge investment of time and money in this sky blue roller coaster ride since 1970.