best white wine for afternoon tea
Match white wine with food A guide to help you pair white wine with food.I have sampled many, MANY, afternoon teas in my time and I can honestly say that right now Ariel House is hard to beat Rosanne Hewitt-Cromwell, blogger and author of Like Mam Used To Bake Enjoy a mouth watering selection of home baked treats Indulging in Afternoon Tea at Ariel House in Dublin is one of the most pleasant ways to spend a relaxing afternoon. Enjoy a mouth watering selection of home baked treats, each lovingly prepared using only the best of IrishOur expansive menu includes sweet scones, warm banana bread, strawberry shortcake, coffee-walnut tray bake and delicious vanilla melting moments. Coupled with tasty home baking, you can enjoy a selection of specialty teas and our house blend of SwissYou could even add a glass of champagne, sparkling wine or chilled white wine if desired. At Ariel House, we truly offer the best afternoon tea in Dublin. Soak up the atmosphere in our tranquil dining room
China cups, bite size savouries and elegant sweet treats – it really is one of my favourite
best rated wine booksMonths later I’m still
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best wine that's cheap you never knew existed, comes along and makes all your inner Downton fantasies come true and all without breaking the bank! Kat Laing - The Purple Page Their chef is always trying out new recipes, so you get to test all the latest baked goods coming out of their kitchen. Emily - Confetti Online The brilliant afternoon tea setting of fine china & lovely flowers is
customer service you receive from the minute you walk in. Beyond The Wild Garden Blog The whole experience is Saturday outing and forfeit Nollaig B - Fascination Food The food we were enjoying was not only made with love, it was made with pride... Will we be back again? sooner rather than later Aoife B - The Dining Room The perfect setting for a girlie celebration or a much needed catch up. In the dining room Private bookings for large groups available on request Contact Us to Discuss Or Book Did you know that we have our very own recipe books? You can download our Afternoon Tea recipes here and all our other delicious Treats recipes here. Did you know that we have our very own recipe books? You can download our Afternoon Tea recipes here and all our other delicious Treats recipes here.On being handed a wine list and asked to choose for a table I sometimes feel as bewildered as Alice in Wonderland faced with the Mad Hatter’s riddle: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”
I give it up,” says Alice. “I haven’t the slightest idea,” responds the Hatter. The last time this happened the answer turned out to be sauvignon blanc. I didn’t deduce this from the wine list, it came from the consensus around the table when one of those drinking asked if there was any and everyone else fell in line. I wasn’t drinking, so choosing to suit myself and persuading everyone that they agreed wasn’t an option. Picking a wine in a style that pleases you is just as important, arguably more so, than picking a bottle that is objectively good. I often provide navigational guidelines for those trying to steer a course through clean, crisp whites from picpoul to gavi to young Hunter sémillon to aligoté. I recently opened an email from Charlotte Morgan, the web editor of a monthly food magazine, asking for a bit of vinous satnav assistance. I thought it might be useful to share because the style of wine she likes is a bit under-covered in this column. Plus, she had triangulated her taste very clearly – and I reckon she must be quite an adventurous drinker to have unearthed these three excellent, but very different, whites.
•The allure of the Loire: why it's time to celebrate chenic blanc “Three white wines that I absolutely love are: Albourne Estate’s white pinot noir 2013 (Sussex); Kung Fu Girl riesling (Washington State); and Warwick Estate White Lady chardonnay 2011 (Stellenbosch, South Africa),” wrote Charlotte. “I enjoy smooth and creamy white wines. I don’t particularly enjoy acidic wines, or those with too much fizz. I love still, fruity wines, especially those that taste of peach/apricot/pineapple/chardonnay.” The key here is the liking for warmer flavours – tropical and stone fruit – and succulence, but without tipping over into gigantically thick, oaky monsters. These wines do have refreshing acidity but, critically, they aren’t austere. My first instinct was to suggest chenin blanc from South Africa. Grown in the Loire, chenin blanc has piercing acidity and a tendency to taste of green apples, beeswax and wet wool. In South Africa, the grape is often more mellow. You still get beeswax but also a kind of soft glow, as if through a pearl light bulb, of apricot kernels and quince and dry honey.
Adi Badenhorst’s Secateurs Chenin Blanc 2014 (swig.co.uk, £11.95) is a good place to start, before moving on to barrel-fermented South African chardonnay (Chamonix is fab) and other South African white blends. Examples: Mullineux Family White Blend 2013 (swig.co.uk, £16.95), which is based on chenin blanc but also has a splash of viognier and of waxy, white blossom-scented clairette; Rall White (also from Swig.co.uk – Swig is a happy hunting ground for these wines), maybe thinking about roussanne and marsanne, for their creamy texture and gentle almond paste flavour. •The best wines to drink this summer Charlotte was one step ahead of me, though. “I tend to pick South African bottles, just because I’ve had the most success with them.” Following the peachy trail leads you in a few directions. To the albariño of Rias Baixas, where some winemakers are turning a light, peachy wine more textural by leaving it in contact with the lees. Zárate is a name to look out for. Viognier is another grape renowned for its apricot (and honeysuckle) fragrance and is also low in acid.
A fine Condrieu might be out of budget, but Yalumba Viognier 2014 Australia (Waitrose, £12.99) is glorious. I considered grenache blanc. It makes highly textured wine: a shaggy, Dougal-dog of a grape. But a bit of it in a blend might be enough. Also dry jurançon (made in the foothills of the Pyrenees from a blend of grapes), which does have bright acidity but also a sunflower-seed warmth, like golden autumn light. And suggested pinot blanc: a lightweight wine, but often fruitily suggestive of oranges and orange blossom. The Wine Society has a gorgeous one made by Josmeyer. Bigger, but not big, whites are also found in the south of Italy – there is falanghina (orange-scented, again), fiano (almonds, mimosa and straw), greco di tufo (more mineral, possibly too acerbic). A grape that makes beautifully rounded, sunny white wines. Or albillo (see right). Failing all that, I said, she could just do what I do and never go out anywhere except to the Curzon Victoria cinema, where they serve that very nice Kung Fu Girl riesling by the glass, and you can take it in and drink it during the film.
•Why red wine is the sizzling star of barbecues I caught up with Charlotte a few weeks later to see how she was getting on. She had joined the Wine Society. Been to the Curzon Victoria. Fallen in love with South African chenin blanc (she is drinking Cullinan View at Ronnie Scott’s – this is a girl who likes to go out) and, to my surprise, found a New Zealand sauvignon blanc (Te Pa) that she liked. I had thought sauvignon of any sort would be too acidic, but some are, indeed, very fruity, and if you can find a New Zealand producer who likes to pick very ripe rather than very green then they taste of nectarines and passion fruit rather than sweat and barbed wire. Victoria Moore's top three white wines Ermita del Conde Albillo Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León 2013 Spain (13%, The Wine Society, £10.95) I hadn’t even heard of this unusual white grape before tasting the one that Pierre Mansour has bought for The Wine Society. He’s rightly pleased with this rarity, which is made from very old vines and matured with a gentle level of French oak.