As a WART fan member, I was pleased to see the label recommended serving temperature was 10-12 degrees, about twice the temperature of the average UK fridge.

The wine was grapefruity, tangy and yet with the stainless steel flintiness you expect from a good Chablis.  More zingy than a Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc, and with a finish longer than a David Cameron speech (but without the gaffes).

If you can find it in the UK, do let me know.  I’d like some more.  Oh!  It goes perfectly with Camembert.

Well, I am prepared to reveal that the dish can be improved upon.  Adding a glass of Chablis is like adding a spoon of Dijon mustard to a French dressing – sort of essential*.

You could do worse than this William Fevre, which I picked up from the Wine Society for £13.95.  At time of writing the 2008 had replaced the 2007 at the same price.  Not cheap but a solid example of this under-rated genre.

With the zing of Sauvignon Blanc, the smoothness of Albariño and the class of Chardonnay (we were yet again reminded in this World Cup year, on the day that Fabio named his final 23, that form is temporary), this Domaine William Fevre is perfect with the noble spring vegetable.  The flintiness perfectly offsets the buttery, almost yeasty flavour of the asparagus.

* Other dressings are available.

So how come, I’ve already drunk 7/12 of these bottles that arrived from the Sunday Times Wine Club in August 2009 with a recommended drinking date of up to 2014?

Well, good is good, and brilliant is brilliant, but this wine is awesome.  I can’t stop pouring it down my neck as if I was a human decanter.  Smooth yet spicy and zingy, it is everything I could wish of a Pinot Noir.  Tar, tea, cranberry and redcurrant and worth every penny of the £21 per bottle it eventually cost me.

Finally, one in the eye for the Kiwi arrivistes.

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…..