It is not often that I embark on a 500 mile round trip to visit a single hostelry but such was my anticipation at the reopening of this lavishly refurbished and lovingly revived inn that I was prepared to schlep all the way from south-west Wiltshire to northern Norfolk last week. The Gunton Arms (www.theguntonarms.co.uk) lies on the edge of the Gunton estate, near the village of Thorpe Market, and is home to a 1000 acre deer park that offers spectacular views and a plentiful supply of prime venison. Fortunately the Gunton Arms is the sometime local of world-renowned art dealer Ivor Braka and his artist wife Sarah Graham who have expediently secured its future by purchasing the property. After 18 months of building and renovation it is now open to the public and is well worth a visit.
The Gunton Arms
With 8 comfortable, beautifully decorated and refreshingly individual bedrooms named after local characters, such as game keeper James Ellis (a wonderful, Flashman-esque figure who coincidentally was to be found propping up the bar telling tales of tracking elk and dispatching mambas with the air of one who would happily be doing just that), the Gunton Arms is well-equipped to cope with further flung visitors. It also functions very well as a proper pub offering a fine range of draft beers such as Adnams’ Spindrift and Broadside as well as bar snacks, sandwiches and tea and coffee. There is a pool table and dart board and for a meagre £1.50 you can get a portion of pork crackling and gooseberry sauce.
All of the above is commendable and, in an era when rural pubs are dropping like nine-pins, should be celebrated but what really puts the Gunton Arms on the map and justifies the journey is its restaurant. Presided over by Stuart Tattersall (who was head chef at Mark Hix) the Gunton Arms boasts a menu of deftly-cooked, robust British dishes that illustrate a consummate knowledge and care for ingredients coupled with commendable restraint. A choice of 6 starters, all between £6 and £8, included ‘Rabbit, chestnut and chanterelle soup’, ‘Deep fried cod cheeks with caper mayonnaise’ and ‘Game dumpling with creamed leeks and juniper’. Main courses are equally appealing and modestly-priced. ‘Whole roast gurnard with cockles and chorizo’ and ‘Barnsley lamb chop with bubble and squeak’ both looked delicious but a superlative mixed grill of Gunton venison, cooked by Stuart on an open range, had the lowest food miles and made a fine foil for a toothsome bottle of Bandol: Mas de la Rouvière 2005. The short but well-balanced wine list (in which I should declare a commercial interest) and front of house are skilfully overseen by Stuart’s partner Simone Baker, who is also a Mark Hix alumnus and clearly knows how to run a tight ship.
The Gunton Arms - Stuart Tattersall
It would be remiss not to mention the Gunton Arms excellent art collection which boasts some hilarious photographs in the Gents loos (sadly I didn’t get a chance to check out the Ladies), fine ink depictions of Norfolk livestock and some provocative Paula Rego pictures in the dining room that won’t go down well with the blue rinse brigade.
After dinner I joined Mr Ellis in the bar and enjoyed some improbable stories, some well-kept beer and inept pool. Fortunately, Stuart and Simone let me inaugurate one of their bedrooms and I slept like a lamb. Stuart even made me a bacon sandwich ‘to go’ in the morning. I can’t wait to revisit the Gunton I just wish it was much nearer here!
There are few wine tasting venues that can match the regal splendour of Vintners’ Hall in the City of London and we are inordinately grateful to the Vintners’ Company for allowing us to visit periodically. Bedecked in oak panelling and dazzling with silverware amassed over 6 centuries this is a great setting for a wine tasting especially when the wine makers themselves are present.
On Monday evening last week 6 of our long-serving (possibly long-suffering) suppliers joined us in London to show off their wares.
Laurent Bunan, from Domaines Bunan in Bandol, was showing off his superb white and rosé wines which are little-known on these shores but are hugely popular on the terraces of the Côte d’Azur; where they make an ideal accompaniment to freshly caught seafood. Laurent also exhibited a brace of Mourvèdre-based reds. The Mas de la Rouvière 2004 is beginning to soften with bottle-age and is packed with briary, hedgerow fruit that puts one in mind of warming stews and braises. Laurent’s flagship ‘Cuvée Charriage’ is a belting great blockbuster – approachable now, if decanted, but a wine that will mature well over a further 5 years.
At the neighbouring table Christine Campedieu was dispensing samples of her inimitable Collioure. Her white ‘Les Canadells’ is blended from 70% Grenache Gris and 15% each of Grenache Blanc and Macabeau. It is slightly resinous with wild herb notes and a long, elegant finish – enough to transport one to the Catalonian coast at sunset as the waves lap against the shore... Christine’s red wines named ‘La Pinède’ and ‘Puig Oriol’, after the vine plots, are blended from Grenache mixed with Carignan and Syrah respectively. Both have a strong sense of terroir and a fine concentration of fruit. I thought the ‘La Pinède’ was the slightly more forward drinking of the two but if I can convince ‘her indoors’ that the kids don’t need new winter coats I might invest in both for the Cave Personelle. Not to be overlooked is Christine’s seductive, sweet, dark Banyuls Réserva. It is infused with complex raisin and fig flavours and is one of very few wines that can cope well with chocolate – or Christmas pudding for that matter.
Patricia and Olivier Luneau met at wine school in Beaune and honed their craft in New Zealand. They run a forward-thinking vineyard in Mentou Salon producing fruit-accentuated wines of enormous charm. Simon Hoggart recently described their Menetou Salon Rosé wine in the Guardian as being: “So delicious – fruity and rich and round and yet with a real strength.” Their white wine, made from pure Sauvignon, was also showing very well in the current 2009 vintage. They must have mixed feelings about that as they lost three-quarters of the potential harvest to summer storms - fortunately they’ve generously agreed to uphold our usual allocation. Patricia and Olivier were also exhibiting their delightful red Menetou Salon Pinot Noir that has a bright berry-scented bouquet and a savoury palate of ripe red fruit and supple tannins. It would make a splendid partner to a plate of charcuterie or crusty bread and a good coarse pâté.
Bruno Ribière, who has the privilege of working with small parcels of ancient vines in the Roussillon, drew quite a crowd with his characterful range of wines that are incredibly evocative of their sun-kissed locale. Encouragingly, Master of Wine (and aide-de-camp to Jancis Robinson OBE) Julia Harding even put in a personal order for some of Bruno’s dry white Catalan Grenache. It is highly distinctive with an almost sherry-like palate and a long, mineral-edged finish. Bruno is equally well known for his dark, earthy, reds as testified to by a trio comprised of a brooding Carignan (from 130 year-old vines), a rugged Côtes du Roussillion ‘Cuvée Tradition’ and his dense, age-worthy ‘Cuvée Cana’.
Our only ‘no show’ of the evening was young Nathalie Margan from Château la Canorgue on the Montagne de Luberon. Sadly Nathalie was laid low by a virus on the eve of our tasting and was unable to join us. Fortunately her wines spoke for themselves and were well received in her absence. Château la Canorgue has pioneered organic viticulture since Nathalie’s father Jean-Pierre first set up here in 1978. Their white Côtes du Luberon, blended from Rhône staples Grenache, Clairette, Roussanne and Marsanne is grown at quite a high elevation and is fresher and zestier than most. Their delicious coral-pink Luberon rosé wine (from a blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah) is also clean, crisp and palate cleansing – it works well with or without food. An intriguing Vin de Pays called ‘Béret Frog’, made from (almost) pure Syrah (with a notional dash of Grenache) drew the attention of veteran wine scribe Malcolm Gluck who observed: ‘Plump yet very gripping tannins provide solid buttressing to svelte, mellow fruit.’ The more senior Château la Canorgue red (40% Syrah, 30% Grenache and 30% Carignan) has more complexity and length but reflects the same diligence and skill in the cellar and will be drinking well this winter.
Last but by no means least we were delighted to welcome Emilie Boisson from the acclaimed Domaine du Père Caboche in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Emilie and her father Jean-Pierre (who is serving his third term as mayor of the town) produce a fresh, racy, consistently pleasing white Châteauneuf-du-Pape from a blend of 40% Roussanne and 20% each of Grenache Blanc, Bourboulenc and Clairette. It is vinified in stainless steel and the malolactic fermentation is blocked by a combination of chilling and filtration. It is one of few whites from the appellation that is zesty enough to be drunk comme aperitif and is a personal favourite. The Boissons, however, are best known for their Grenache-based red wines that have been described variously as ‘sexy’, ‘seductive’, ‘hedonistic’ and ‘voluptuous’ (you get the idea) by no lesser personage than Robert Parker. The entry level ‘Petit Caboche’ is a cracking Vin de Pays, packed with red berry flavours over supple ripe tannins. It is a failsafe ‘crowd-pleaser’ for dinner parties and people suffering withdrawal symptoms from Downton Abbey. ‘Château la Côte’ is a precocious, (new to us) fruit-accentuated Côtes du Rhône Villages in the awesome 2009 vintage that proved very popular on the night and is a shoo-in for our next annual list. 2007 was a historic vintage in Châteauneuf’ so it was a treat to taste the Domaine du Père Caboche red which is drinking really well right now with a lovely warming palate of black berries and cherries and subtle briary undertones. I managed to cajole a swan-song 100 magnums from Emilie when she was still on a post tasting high - if you’re wondering what to drink this Christmas you could do far worse. Finally we finished the evening sampling the flagship ‘Cuvée Elisabeth Chambellan’ again in the magnificent 2007 vintage. It is deeper and darker than the ‘regular’ bottling and comes from 100 year-old vines on La Crau plateau. It made for a terrific finale to a wonderful evening. The general consensus from all parties being that we should do that more often!
I'm not sure if it was my idea or Rowley's. A bit of both probably. It was certainly hatched over a fine lunch with some good bottles open for inspiration. The concept was pretty simple really - to host a Provençal feast partnering classic dishes with local wines. Obviously, this was to be a summer celebration and we had to select a date before schools broke up and mass migration from the capital began. So last Friday lunchtime some 40 diners sat down for the inaugural 'Grand Aïoli'at Le Café Anglais. In fact we started off standing up, enjoying a glass of a white Coteaux d'Aix 2009 from Domaine des Oullières, that was served as an aperitif with some excellent sardine pâté, saucisson sec and black Niçoise olives. This dry, herb-tinged wine is a new discovery of ours that is grown at altitude on the southern slopes of the Chaînes des Côtes and it is fresher and fruitier than many of its peers. It hails from an unusual blend of Grenache Blanc and Rolle and is très Provençal. The same estate bottles a decent rosé too but it is the scrub-scented white that really transports one to La France Profonde.
As we were seated a second wine was being poured - the Cassis: Clos Sainte Magdeleine 2008. This inimitable white wine comes from the Mediterranean coast between Bandol and Marseilles and is produced, by the Sack family, from a blend of Marsanne, Clairette and Ugni Blanc. It made for a marvellous foil to pungent bowls of freshly-made aïoli that accompanied hard boiled eggs and crudités of thinly sliced fennel, peppers and carrots along with peppery radishes and sticks of celery. My lunch guest, outspoken, wine-writer extraordinaire, Malcolm Gluck kindly provided me with his tasting note: 'This is one of France's great undiscovered 'secret' whites, preferable to many a soi-disant 'great' white burgundy in feel and fruit. It is beautifully textured, like ruffled silk, and it has a genteel finish of gooseberry and citrus.'
Things took on a distinctly piscine theme with the next two dishes to be served. Large platters of lightly-salted (wonderfully flaky) cod with new potatoes, and sea bass cooked with artichokes and olives were passed around all accompanied by lashing more aioli and a delicate,coral-pink Côtes du Luberon rosé from Château la Canorgue. Fortunately we were blessed with a lovely warm day and the high-ceilinged, light and airy dining room and friendly chatter really helped evoke a Provençal ambience to this most relaxed of lunches.
Some more robust cuisine was called for to partner a chest-thumping red Bandol: Mas de la Rouvière 2003 that, with bottle-age, was beginning to show the forest floor scents and game and mushroom tastes that define a good Mourvèdre. Le Café Anglais rose to the occasion with beef brisket served with chickpeas, and a superb roast ham with French beans. Once again Malcolm waxed lyrical: 'Astonishing coal-edged tannins, quite remarkably gorgeous and roasted, clinging to fruit which is seems as if it has been pressed in a coffee grinder. There is a herby element, perhaps cinnamon, certainly a touch of white pepper, but more sensually there is chocolate. Altogether a wine of momentous, almost heady, richness.'
Fortunately, I still had the stamina to toy with some lovely mature Brie de Maux
(chef's licence: 'there aren't many cows in Provence') and a budget-busting glass of Domaine de Trévallon 2006 that was just beginning to show its full potential and earthy garrigue flavours.
While we could have all departed fully sated at this juncture a divine peach and almond tart proved irresistible. Not too sweet with a nice grainy texture, served with small glasses of cold, golden Muscat de Beaumes de Venise from the peerless Domaine de Durban. A perfect finale to a perfect repast. Those wishing to attend next year's event would be prudent to contact us and get their names added to the waiting list!
