Matthew Boucher, from drinks shop Thirsty, takes a look at the perfect drinks for warming you up on wintery days
For both food and drink, seasonality has never been more fashionable. Of course you can still buy products out of season, but surely the best flavours are to be had when food and drink is fresh and ready to eat.
So it is with wine, which is why this month we turn our attention to wines befitting the late autumn weeks, with earthy and smoky flavours.
Maybe the best wine grape to express this is Pinot Noir, the notoriously difficult to grow grape from Burgundy, eastern France. We recommend trying Guillaume Guiton’s humble Bourgogne Rouge, which Thirsty is offering either by glass or by the bottle to drink in or take away. This wine embodies our theme of earth and smoke; beginning earthy and dry, but with a fruity, smoky quality to the aftertaste.
If this doesn’t whet your appetite, Thirsty has a burgeoning range of Pinot Noir from Germany known locally as Spätburgunder. The latest arrival is from the Rings brothers in the Pfalz from a village called Freinsheim, which is possibly the most deliciously delicate red you’ll ever try.
“A perfect partner for Autumn recipes”
There are also smoky Pinot/Spätburgunder reds made by Weingut Espenhof in the Rheinhessen district, south of Frankfurt. Earthier than the Rings style, these wines are a perfect partner for autumn recipes, and maybe even cooked into red wine sauces. The Pinot Noir grape is well suited to root vegetable stews and mushroom dishes.
If you need a white grape fix, may we suggest Riesling? With a little time in the bottle Riesling takes on a wonderfully smoky aroma all of its own. Just arrived is the 2011 Freinsheimer Riesling, again from the Rings brothers and it really is, as one of Thirsty’s customers said, “rather serious wine”. In a good sense we hope! Riesling too will match those autumn vegetables, especially squashes, which are in such abundance.
Finally, of course, there’s beer. There is a great tradition of smoked beer and we have plenty of roasted, toasted dark styles to ease you into winter. Our beer of the month is Beavertown Brewery’s Smog Rocket – do try this if you haven’t already, it’s a real treat.
If you’re wondering what all this smoke and earth stuff is really about, come to Thirsty and ask to taste something. We’re only too happy to advise on our top picks which express these flavours.
