Monkeyshed Wines

Made with a few special touches.... Grapes are picked later, in order to obtain riper flavours. Fermentation is cooler, in order to preserve the delicate aromatics of the grape, and ensure that the yeasts have sufficient nutrients so as not to produce deviant wafts that would mask the delicate aromatics!! Finally there’s a lower level of residual sugar than is usual with Prosecco, so the wine is drier and more drinkable as a result.

Summer threatens to take hold, school is out and its time for family hunting and gathering – jaunts to catch that slippery little sea bass or perhaps just a sunburn and then home for a refreshing glass (well that should be sorted) and something simple to go with the main showpiece. We have the solution!
Frankly, wine has preparation and service licked. Twist a screw top, pour, enjoy. Why should it be more complicated? Perhaps slip in a decanter and those ever so impressive crystal stems for a bit of flair but essentially its a straight forward affair. This is probably the thinking that has led to a surfeit of John West cans outside far too many wine trade doors or the odd gouty leg from too much issue shirking in the finest hostelries.
Let us help you find and embraced your inner Nigella! She's all in the decanting, seemingly a frivolous extravagance but actually a simple process that completes any glass.
Back to the Bass. This needs to be a savoured occasion and that requires nibbles. To the larder and pull out four jars of mixed antipasti and pop a helping of each on a plate. Now for the decanter moment - scatter each with a few rocket, dandelion nasturtium or other leaves to hand, drizzle with a bit of tasty olive oil and serve with fingers of lightly grilled ciabatta. A few extra minutes and John West is an ancient historical reminder of darker days!

*The Monkeyshed selection - for £30:*
► Wild Asparagus in Extra Virgin Olive Oil - £5.95 (280g jar)
► Artichike Hearts, alla Romana (and that does make all the difference!) - £5.95 (290g jar)
► Porcini Antipasti from Seggiano - £5.50 (180g jar)
► Peperoncino Piccante Ripieno - £2.95 (180g jar)
► Alpha Zeta Extra Virgin Olive Oil - £9.95 (750ml)

For a spot of gastronomic inspiration you can't beat a coffee and bite at Hornet Provisions, The Hornet, Chichester - 01243 790999. Pop in for something there, something for home or a brimming cold box for a picnic on the downs, by the beach or in your garden.
Meetings we look forward to with glee!

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Grapes: Chardonnay
Each: £12.45

Deux Roches has been there or there abouts for every wine list I have put together since starting my wine life in the UK in 1992. The key, as ever, is a commitment to quality and addressing each individual parcel and vintage as conditions and grapes demand. Across the board theirs is a cracking selection from the straight unoaked St Veran through a handful of individual parcels all with partial oak exposure where appropriate.
Les Chailloux is lieu-dit, literally said or named place. Lovely I hear you all chorus but what, pray tell, does that mean? Effectively it was a cunning way around the bureaucracy of the appellation system that has now been absorbed into the appellation system – glad you asked? It’s a way of singling out really good parcels that produce particular wines. Les Chailloux produces rich, luscious grapes that work particularly well with a good hit of oak. Fantastic integration of fruit and oak produce a wine that really punches well above its price.

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This comes from no less noble a stable than that of the family Perrin of Chateau de Beaucastel fame, acclaimed by everyone who has an interest in selling it as “an” if not “the” premier property in the whole of Chateauneuf-du-Pape me lud! A few less interested parties might concur.
The grapes for this wine come from vineyards the family own and manage around the property lived in by Francois Perrin, uncle of the current custodians of the family name and reputation. The property is named after an 11^th Century tower built by the Provost of Orange. That tower apparently blew down in 1624 but its spirit lives on in this tasty little number primarily of crunchy Grenache with a backbone of more stern Syrah and Mourvedre. Made for early drinking try it a little cool al fresco.

The Alpha Zeta range marries the new world winemaking skills of kiwi Matt Thomson with fruit from 1700 hectares in the hills northeast of Verona Italy, not Texas. The aim is simple, to produce good affordable wines that highlight the quality of fruit traditionally lost in the melange of co-operative mediocrity.
The Chardonnay shows good weight, ripe fruit with a zippy lean finish.

The key to this wine, well of course it’s tasting it but, the other key is the person that made it – Alvaro Palacios. Heralded by just about everyone that writes on the subject as the embodiment of the New Spain, Alvaro spent time at Chateau Petrus before cracking his own whip at L’Ermita in Priorat. One of sixty-five children (or there abouts) Alvaro then returned to the family property to do his bit.