Libby’s Naked Wines Diary: Even students can enjoy great wines
I feel for final year University students right now. When the world is just waking up to those stirrings of spring and longer, sunnier days, they are finishing lengthy dissertations or beginning to cram for exams.
Undoubtedly, having left it until the eleventh hour, the next few weeks for many will be spent tangled in nerves and regretting their frequent nightly escapades until the small hours. Perhaps this will then reassure them.
When at Bristol University, I would not have laid bets on my friend Jonny becoming one of my most successful friends.
In my entire University career, I can only ever recall seeing him at pubs, bars, clubs or the short stumbling walks between them.
I also only ever seemed to meet him in drag. In the post-graduate years, this has become a running joke between us, as it turns out this was not his regular attire – but whenever her would don a sequinned dress, he would invariably run into me. My only memories of Jonny are him in fluorescent wigs, stuffed bosoms and feather boas, lipstick smeared with sweat from the dancefloor.
It was a change of gear then, to be invited to his house for dinner and to arrive at a very upmarket area of Northwest London, to one of those smartly looming, double-fronted, white town houses with pillars on either side of the front door.
I looked for the flat number, but no, it was the whole house. Please don’t misunderstand, Jonny had always been clever and had gone on to Harvard Business School, settling down and starting a family in America, before moving back to London.
All the same, if someone had asked me where he would currently be twenty years ago, I would probably have pointed to the closest karaoke booth.
Opening the door, Jonny appeared with a heady waft of spices. Yet another surprise, Jonny could cook and had spent hours preparing a series of curries from his mother’s recipes – even making the curry pastes from scratch.
I had not been familiar with the menu, so my wine selection may not have been the ideal pairing, but at least I was confident in the quality.
Had I have known I would have probably picked the Borgo delle Oche Traminer 2022 (Naked Wines £22.99 Angel Price), an aromatic spice-balancing Gewurztraminer but I had chosen Villebois Pouilly Fumé 2021 (Naked Wines £21.99 Angel Price £19.99).
Pouilly Fumé is the Sauvignon Blanc grape from France’s Loire Valley and this was slickly textured, complex, balancing orchard fruit with minerality and the tell-tale delicate smokiness that gives it its name.
It would have been a dream with fish, but it managed fairly well with the prawn curry and spiced aubergine.
Jonny’s wife Nicole came downstairs, having put the children to bed and we were joined by another couple, a lady I had met with Jonny at Wimbledon last Summer and a chap looking slick in a bright blue suit, pocket watch chain and rings on each finger.
It turned out he was a musician for Punch Drunk, an immersive theatre company I adore, as well as a portrait painter.
I am always reassured when there are Creatives at a dinner party, as they tend to have so many debaucherous stories. He then produced a bottle of champagne with the security tag still on as they both emphatically insisted that they had paid for the bottle.
They didn’t look too shifty, and I doubt anyone from this neighbourhood needs to shoplift their champers, so I believed them.
Plate upon plate of curries, rice and breads arrived. Sizzling lamb, creamy chicken. The conversation turned from teenage embarrassments to politics, parenting, patriarchy and which theme park Jonny was thinking of buying now. As I mentioned, he has done alright despite the numerous nights in front of the DJ booth.
To end the evening, Jonny continued to prove himself as a man of hidden depths by bringing out a homemade chocolate cake. Having served it with a 1983 port, my own vintage and a neat hosting touch, we were sent on our merry way – and with not a rhinestone or neon wig in sight.
Pairing
Roussanne & Cods Roe
Roussanne is one of those beautiful grapes that never seems to get its own time in the spotlight. This is undeserved as this textural, aromatic white wine offers a balanced, subtle richness that is ideal for so many dishes from white meats and pork to seafood and cheeses.
It is especially good with creamier seafood dishes, as I discovered while enjoying a chilled glass with a dollop of cod’s roe on top of a crispy potato rosti.
The weight of the wine echoes the fulsomeness of the roe, the salinity complements the saltiness of the dish, and the crisp acidity underpinning everything brightens the dense fried potato.
The Simpsons of Servian Low Yield Roussanne 2022 (£11.99) with its subtle caress of delicate oak age is the ideal, food-friendly Roussanne. Consider this light bite moreishly elevated.
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