The Wine Guy
BaG IT UP
ANDY CLARKE EXPLORES A RANGE OF ETHICAL BAGGED WINES, AND DISCOVERS SOME RIGHT GEMS TO MATCH THE RECIPE HE’S SWIPED FROM ADELINA YARD... IT’S TWO YEARS ago now that I returned to the West from London, and what a well-timed homecoming; having developed an independent dining culture like nowhere else in the UK, the West Country is the place to eat. But with this vibrant and ever-changing scene, places, inevitably, come and go. I was gutted that I never made it to Flinty Red on Cotham Hill, but luckily Bellita sprung up in its place. Cherry Duck on Welsh Back (where, funnily enough, my husband and I first told my family that we were moving back) is also no more, having changed hands shortly after we relocated. Adelina Yard sprung up in its place, though, and very quickly generated a lot of positive noise; it didn’t take long to learn that Jamie Randall and Olivia Barry’s new restaurant was clearly quite something. This is another pair who came to Bristol from the South East, and they set up the restaurant, named after the road where they used to live, in December 2015. Their innovative thinking and twists on classics have made Adelina a must for any crumbsmag.com
self-respecting West Country foodie – or, indeed, food tourists looking to taste what Bristol is all about. It’s not hard to see why diners leave this quayside hotspot mesmirised. Jamie was head chef at one of my favourite London restaurants, Odette’s, under Bryn Williams, and Olivia worked with Angela Hartnett at Murano. Experience like this is invaluable, and has led to the couple creating a really special restaurant – one that hooked me from the off. For this month’s match, I chose the unusual starter of fermented kale, cavatelli pasta, slow-cooked egg and goat’s cheese. It’s beautifully salty, thanks not only to the goat’s cheese, but also kale’s fermentation process, with the egg calming this salty hit, and making the dish luxuriously rich. And, heck, I chose a main too: mutton cooked two ways with pumpkin seed pesto, fermented swede and a gravy reduction (yep – my mouth is watering now, too). I felt I had to match such innovative cooking with some equally interesting wines. For that, I turned to More Wine,
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a Bristol-based company created by Rich Hamblin, a Vintners Cup-winning wine buyer and sommelier. Rich has concentrated on high-quality, lowintervention wine from small vineyards where sustainability, eco-friendly packaging and transport logistics are key. Rich’s philosophy is simple: “If you’re not looking to age the wine, you don’t need to import the glass bottle.” So More Wine’s vinos are available on draught in venues around the West, as well as in ‘bagnums’ – wait for it – magnums of wine in bags! And I found me an ideal bagnum for the kale, too: Du Grappin Macon Villages 2015 – a white wine from Burgundy. When you smell this Chardonnay, it’s not distinctly fruity but more mineral and, dare I say, saline – perfect with the savoury kale. And, when you taste it, there’s instant apple and a hint of stone fruit, but with a fresh and slightly buttery finish: it’s brilliant with the texture of the egg and cheese. It’s not oaky but is really confident against dishes like this, which are both fresh and rich.