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Symphony, Ironstone vineyards, 75cl. 12%. California, USA |
Bread, bread wine: quite a double act!
It may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but finding a quality loaf is becoming more difficult under modern ‘baking’
FOR thousands of years wine has provided mankind with nourishment and pleasure. As part of a double act, it starred alongside the equally amazing – loaf of bread.
Like wine, bread is a simple thing. Grapes and yeast make wine; flour, yeast, water and salt produce bread.
“The greatest thing since sliced bread” was an accolade, now the sliced loaf symbolises the worst excesses of contemporary food production.
Courtesy of EU food labelling regulations, we can peruse the ingredients of our sliced loaf – thanks to food journalism we can interpret their meaning. Recently the situation seems to have improved and the sliced loaf is being supplanted by a range of breads produced by in-store bakeries.
Cuisine de France is a major supplier of this type of product. An Irish company, their bread is produced at a “state-of-the-art facility” located in a Dublin suburb. The mass-produced dough is formed, and when almost fully baked, the bread is frozen, and then transported to the UK, Europe and North America.
Once in a shop, the bread is put into a special oven – supplied free by the company – a button is pushed, the baking process completed and a so-called freshly baked loaf is produced.
There is no label on this bread and, consequently, no list of ingredients. But there will be more than the traditional flour.
Baker and Spice is four London cafés and a small-scale bakery. Skilled bakers make dough and bake the breads locally each day – only traditional ingredients are used – there are no flour improvers (to speed the baking process) or other additives or preservatives. The dough is given time to ferment and the bread is slowly baked.
Paul is a French chain, with a bakery in Acton. A company spokesperson tells us they bake bread on a 24-hour basis and deliver fresh – additive free – produce, twice a day to their shops in London.
Le Pain Quotidien is an international chain which has opened bakeries in 18 countries. Founded by Alain Coumont, it opened its first UK bakery/café recently in Marlybone High Street.
On a recent Sunday morning, we sat among well-heeled women who appear to be its clientele.
“The bread here is excellent and freshly made,” one lady declared. “Yes and it’s better then the bread in their Santa Barbara branch,” added another.
“It’s the same bread, it all comes frozen from Belgium,” a third punter volunteered. The ladies were shocked. Nobody connected with Le Pain Quotidien claims their bread is fresh. Customers just assume it is.
We have begun to think about our food. We are learning that simple, fresh and natural is best. We have yet to learn that the values of those who produce it and the methods of production are equally as important.
But if sophisticated women of the world can not recognise genuine fresh bread, what chance we wine drinkers distinguishing an honest bottle of wine from a fabricated product promoted by clever marketing?
One to watch...
California’s hidden secret, made from the Symphony grape, a genuine American varietal. Born in the nifty 1950s, thanks to the obsession and skill of American wine scientist Dr Harold Olmo, aka the Indiana Jones of the wine world. Its parents were Muscatand Pinot Gris.
Described as off dry, do they mean sweet? The sweetness is curbed by the balanced acidity. Complex with a range of balanced flavours, it gives the mouth a clean, fresh, mouthfilling taste experience. For those who like wine described in fruity metaphors, melons, peaches, grapefruit and slightly spicy with a hint of nuttiness should do. But it is its complexity and balance that make it.
This is not a typical UK supermarket wine – its way too good.
Where to buy? Presently, nowhere, we got ours in Morrisons but they appear to have run out. We paid £2.79, you may have to pay a bit more, but it will be worth it.
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