Well it's Friday evening and as tradition dictates, it the evening of fish 'n chips. I'm a follower of no particular religious doctrine, but I do think the Catholic tradition of not eating meat on a Friday as a welcome one. What a perfect night to pop down to your local chippie and pick up a steaming paper bag of fresh white fish, deep fried in batter with chunky yellow chips and plenty of salt and vinegar splashed liberally over the top, and a pickled egg sitting on the side.
Unfortunately our local Chip shopschanged hands and the quality of chips has slid down hill rapidly. Those crunchy, crispy yellow fried chips with fluffy white centres have been replaced by soggy, turgid oil soaked chips with fish that swims happily in an ocean of vegetable oil. So this evening I've decided to make my own, everything from chips through to mushy peas.
With a glass of Chardonnay at my-side I'm attempting to cook chips, like they do in the chip shops, just without the massive deep frying baskets and lighted up glass counters. Here's the recipe I'm following, to cook traditional chips. The fish is Sea Bass covered with rosemary and lemon bread crumbs, which is a recipe i'm making up as I go along. The mushy peas are, as tradition decrees, from a tin.
Anyway, as the chips are going through the par-boil stage, I've opened a bottle of Oak-Aged White Burgundy from Tescos Finest 2007, and I've got to say, I'm sick of Tescos finest. I tried a really good Nebbiolo a while back, but since then every bottle I've tried from this range has let me down.
What Tescos does to create their Finest Range is after every vintage they go out to the wine growing regions and buy up bulk wines that are floating about, slightly sub-par, wines that the original producer doesn't want to put their name to, which Tescos moves in on an snaps up. The bigger the volume they can lay their hands on the better. This wine is made by the large cooperative 'Cave des Vignerons de Buxy', a nice off load of fruit from the less prestigious and more high yielding regions.
This wine will put people off a region that produces possible the finest wines on the planet. I love Burgundian Chardonnay, for its complexity, lengh, fullness and the fact that they can be drunk at absolutely any time, with any meal, fuck it, once in a while give a nice crisp chablis a go with eggs benedict and toast for breakfast.
Back to this wine, fresh but basic and smells slightly of swimming pool changing rooms. White-gold in colour. On the palate it is citrus, old neutral barrels, bit of texture, bit of phenolics, bit of peach, bit of alcoholic warmth and a bit a let down. If you want to explore the fantastic wine growing region of Burgundy go elsewhere, this bears scant resemblance to what the region can produce.
Comments