It always surprises me how different most people’s approach to wine is from their approach to food. While we have an apparently insatiable appetite for new ingredients and recipes, there seems to be much less curiosity around booze. If I were talking to you about how to become a better cook in 2017, I’d suggest making a commitment to try at least one new recipe a month, so why not make it a goal regularly to try a drink you haven’t had before?
It’s easy to fall into the habit of thinking you don’t like certain drinks, such as beer or whisky, when it’s probably more a question of not having found one you like. If you’re a whisky sceptic, say, why not try a younger, fruitier kind that has none of the peaty notes that are characteristic of many bottles of Scotch? I don’t know if I’m being unduly fanciful here, but I definitely picked up mango in Rampur Select (£40.95 The Whisky Exchange; 43% abv), a new single-malt whisky from India, as well as a touch of apricot and dried apple. It would work beautifully (well diluted) with a good chicken curry.
Put aside your prejudices about packaging, too. Many interesting beers, and even wines, now come in cans. I was very taken with the refreshing, semi-sparkling white wine Quello (£15 for six cans; 11% abv) I tried from a stall run by Bristol retailer More Wine recently. And I think Aldi is on the right track for younger drinkers with its new “craft wines”, which are bottled in squat, beer-style bottles with brightly coloured labels, even though there’s room for improvement with the contents. If you’ve a sweet tooth, I hazard that you’ll enjoy the No Monkey Business White Moskato (£2.49 for 50cl; 5.5% abv), which I’d serve ice-cold.
So far as wine is concerned, the fact that you haven’t heard of something is in my book good reason to order it from a wine list or as part of a mixed case. German reds, for example, such as the vibrantly fruity Aldinger Lemberger 2015 (£11.95 The Wine Society; 13% abv), are relatively undiscovered gems. (For the geeks, lemberger is the same grape variety as Austria’s blaufränkisch.)
My own resolution is to get better acquainted in 2017 with three drinks that have already been on my radar: sake, kombucha and good-quality tea. You could start with the fragrant Chiyomusubi Oyaji Gokuraku Junmai Ginjo Cup Sake (£8.95 souschefdirect.co.uk; 16% abv), which I found was an unexpectedly good partner for a plate of emmental cheese (which will please my emmental-loving editor). And it’s sold in a jar. Now how on-trend is that?
• Fiona Beckett’s new ebook, 101 Ways To Enjoy Cheese And Wine, is out now at £4.50.
