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Drink Bill Knott
by The Oldie
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a man?’ when the restaurant called to tell me Sharon had left her phone behind. So another 40 minutes was added to our journey. Clearly, 4. Keep phone in handbag. 5. Don’t tell your date he ‘dresses like a paedo’, as she did three weeks later at dinner with the editor and me after a not-unemotional day at Cheltenham races.
Mind you, she also foghorned the couple next door that their conversation was ‘BORING, BORING, BORING.’ 6. Don’t insult other diners.
Please don’t let her behaviour put you off Trullo: Matt and Gina chose one of the best Italian restaurants in London.
I have tried hard not to review The Pink Goat, which I love. I have known the owner, Benji, for 20 years; indeed, we reared pigs together at his smallholding. As a safeguard against sentimentality, we named the pigs after sausage varieties: Toulouse etc.
It was on one of our trips to the abattoir that Benji indulged in a rare bath of immodesty by confessing nonchalantly, ‘They reckon I am one of the top-ten best-looking blokes in Bournemouth.’
I was never acquainted with the other nine but I doubt they were as lucky in love as Benji, who lured Pav from Poland to Corfe Castle.
They swapped pigs for goats and publicised their new café by tying fluorescent-pink goats to the lampposts on the approach to the village.
Pav is the John Inman of the Dorset restaurant scene. Wickedly disrespectful of his customers, especially to their faces, he – and his enormous ploughman’s lunches – are much of the draw of this café, which opens for cocktails and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. He might just put Sharon in her place. Now, there’s a thought.
Trullo, St Paul’s Road, London N1 2LH; tel: 020 7226 2733; www. trullorestaurant.com; pasta dishes from £12
The Pink Goat, West Street, Corfe Castle, Dorset BH20 5HA; tel: 01929 480399; www.thepinkgoat.co.uk
DRINK BILL KNOTT WINE THAT LASTS FOR EVER
Greg Lambrecht knows his needles. Trained in medicine, in the 1990s he developed a smart way of delivering chemotherapy to children with leukaemia without traumatising skin
This month’s Oldie wine offer, in conjunction with DBM Wines, is a 12-bottle case comprising four bottles each of three wines with a distinctly Iberian theme: an organic, vegetarian white from the heart of Spain that will appeal to Sauvignon Blanc fans; a mature Portuguese red from the Dão region; and a vibrant young red from the Montsant region of Catalunya. Or you can buy cases of each individual wine.
tissue. Since then, he says, ‘I got really good at making needles that didn’t damage things.’
Why should this interest the discerning oenophile? Because Lambrecht, who loves wine and has a vast cellar, had a problem: like Mr and Mrs Jack Sprat, he and his wife had different tastes in wine. A bottle of wine, however, is not a platter of meat, and he found himself with too many halffinished bottles on his hands. When she was pregnant with their first child, the problem became even worse.
And so he invented Coravin, a preservation system that sucks wine from an unopened bottle through a slim needle, replacing it with a blanket of inert gas. Launched in 2011, it immediately became popular both with home drinkers who did not want to drink a whole bottle and with those who simply wanted to sample a few different glasses from their cellar.
It was a hit, too, with wine bars and restaurants, who could now offer their clientele a range of fine wines by the glass without worrying about wastage or investing in cumbersome and expensive wine cabinets. Not that Coravin is cheap: prices start at around £200, rising to £400 for the new gizmo for preserving sparkling wines – and the argon costs about 50p a shot. Lambrecht has, however, sold more than a million of them.
But does it work? Yes, in my experience. I remember a perfect glass of Pingus in a smart Copenhagen restaurant, from a bottle broached six months before by winemaker Peter Sisseck – but I make do at home with a Vacuvin (around £10) and a few stoppers. Vacuum pumps keep even light, spritzy whites such as Vinho Verde fresh in the fridge overnight and seem to keep most reds fresh for a couple of days.
Champagne (on the rare occasions there is any left) copes very well just with a stopper: its natural blanket of carbon dioxide does the rest.
In the decade since Lambrecht’s ingenious invention took hold, myriad other systems have come on the market – the Eto wine decanter and the Wine Squirrel, for instance – and they all have their merits. Ideally, of course, a great bottle of wine should be uncorked, shared with friends and good food, savoured as it evolves (as all good wine should) and is finished, preserving just pleasant memories. But, for times when that is impossible – and there have been many over the last couple of years – wine-lovers are now spoilt for choice.
Wine
White Field Blend, Te Quiero, Vino de la Tierra de Castilla, Spain 2021, offer price £8.99, case price £107.88
As the name suggests, a blend of old, native varieties: gently floral, with crisp acidity.
Quinta da Mariposa, Dão, Portugal 2017, offer price £13.99, case price £167.88
Smooth and fragrant, with wild berry fruit, a lick of spice and a long, savoury finish.
Mas Donis Negre, Celler de Capçanes, Montsant, Spain 2020, offer price £11.50, case price £138.00
Medium-bodied red, made mostly from Grenache and Syrah: splendid with roast pork.
