An evening @The Lahore Kebab House + a new view of the Shard

 The grey Shard 

 

The Shard with Canary Wharf in the background

The Shard on a grey London day taken from the dining room close to the Decanter tasting room in the Blue Fin Building. I have spent the day tasting reds of various vintages from Saumur, Saumur Le Puy Notre Dame and Saumur-Champigny. Apart from saying that we – @chris_kissack , @LaurePatry and I – tasted some good wines, the results will be out in Decanter in early May. 

Last night Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor, and I were at The Lahore Kebab House. We rather pushed the boat up running up a bill for two of £40 and a few pence. Still stunning value and I can no longer go to the Lahore without ordering the wonderful starter of grilled chops, so I fancy that the days of three of us eating there for less than £40 are over. Chris spotted the chicken wings, which were a very good choice as I hadn't tried these before, and you get four pieces for a bargain price of £3!

We took two wines with us:  

The rich and impressive 2013 La Part des Anges, Chinon Blanc, Domaine de la Noblaie

(above and below) 

able to stand up to the spicy food and, in doing so, 

revealed more acidity than has been apparent when drunk by itself 

 

 2005 Les Grézeaux, Chinon, Bernard Baudry

Sweet soft fruit unfortunately scalped by a dubious cork

Not as good as it should have been 

     

Another soirée de la modération with #winelovers @Lahore Kebab House

2012 Premier Cru La Mission, Mercurey, Château de Chamirey 

Saturday night was another good evening at the famous Lahore Kebab House, which is half on and half off the Commercial Road. This time I shared a frugal and moderate dinner with Panos Kakaviatos, Wink Lorch and Brett Jones. 

We kicked off with the excellent 2010 sparkling Vouvray from Jacquelin Rouvre (Domaine de la Joubardière) before moving onto Panos' white Mercurey, which had a touch of oak but otherwise was elegantly intregrated. Although drinking well now might well acquire more complexity with a couple of more years in bottle. 

With Wink we naturally moved into Jura territory. Starting with an attractively fresh, crisp and easy 2012 Nature, Côtes du Jura from Domaine Berthet-Bondet. From there we moved to the challenging 2004 Savagnin from Stéphane Tissot – quite golden colour and marked oxidation on the nose but not carried through to the fresh and clean palate – fascinating!  

Next up the 2009 Cuvée Reserve from Château du Petit Thouars – 100% Cabernet Franc. We finished the evening with a glass of 2008 Vin Jaune to delicately prepare us for the journey home. 

As usual we ordered a little more food than we could eat and run up a bill for £69 between the four of us – we are negotiating to pay this off by installments .... 

  

Dinner @refurbished The Cinnamon Club

 The library bar

 Library bar: a cocktail of books

Last night we celebrated a trio of birthdays – two recent and one looming – at the very recently refurbished Cinnnamon Club in Westminster. We started with some complementary Bellinis in the Library Bar – two of the Proseccos with mango juice and one flavoured with cinnamon. Both worked well.     

 The first new Saturday night was not fully booked 

out despite appearances

2011 il Molino di Grace, Chianti Classico £41

As you might expect while the wine list is interesting and has some tempting bottles it is easy to broach a £100 and more, it takes some searching to find reasonable value. We opted for the excellent 2011 il Molino di Grace, Chianti Classico at £41.  

 Tandoori breast of Anjou squab pigeon, pumpkin chutney and peanut £15.50

Absolutely delicious!

 Spiced herring roe on toasted cumin brioche £7.50

 Railway style vegetable cake with beetroot and raisin, kasundi mustard (v) £7.50

 A Chianti view of the refurbshed Cinnamon Club

 Shared dish: whole rack of Romney Marsh lamb, corn and yoghurt sauce, 

black lentils, pilau rice and hot garlic chutney £75

(above and below)

 Sorting out the rack of lamb – which was wonderfully succellent 

and just to the right degree of pink

 Cabbage and kale porial £5.00

 Rajasthani sangri beans with fenugreek and raisin £7.00

 Menu design

Celebratory finale: two recent birthdays and one looming

Overall: the three of us had a very good evening and were looked after very well with our little 'Birthday Cake' a good surprise. We were almost too well looked after as there were a lot of staff on as we were told that before they closed for refurbishment they did twice as many covers on a Saturday night as they did last night – around 300. We had a succession of staff offering to fill our wine glasses at frequent intervals. I assume that on a busy evening this would not have happened. 

The Anjou squab pigeon was truly delicious – perfectly cooked and pink in the middle. It reminded me that it is too long since I cooked pigeon. The rack of lamb was equally a standout dish – roasted just as we wanted. 

The bill came to around £200 for three – so clearly to be reserved for special occasions. Is it around four times better than the Lahore Kebab House? Very difficult to compare! I don't think the food is four times better, although it is considerably more ambitious. The Lahore's cadre is basic without anything like the same number of staff – though they are often admirably efficient. Also the Lahore is BYOB so naturally the bill is very substantially reduced and if you want wine glasses you have to take your own. 

      

Bottles from the Circle of Wine Writers BYOB @Lahore Kebab House 27.4.2015 + Alex Dowsett Record

The Circle of Wine Writers held a BYOB at the Lahore Kebab House in East London on Monday 27th April. As usual at the Lahore the food was good as well as copious and as you might expect there were some very interesting bottles to try.   

 Laura Semeria: 2010 Cour-Cheverny, Domaine de Montcy

I took along a couple of Loire wines that proved to be popular. Firstly the 2010 Cour-Cheverny from Laura Semeria's Domaine de Montcy. The appellation has to be 100% Romorantin and this is just really getting into its stride. Romorantin, like Hunter Valley Semillon, can often be quite bland and uninteresting in when young but with bottle age becomes complexity and interesting. The 2010 had a fine balance of rich, honeyed fruit and acidity making it a delicious way to start the evening.

2012 Charlouise, Sancerre Rouge from Vincent Pinard was my second wine. With its wonderfully vibrant and silky red fruits this proved to be one of the stars of the evening – surprising some by the quality of Pinot Noir now comimng out of Sancerre and other Central Vineyard appellations like Menetou-Salon and Reuilly.

 2009 Moulin à Vent, Domaine Benoit Trichard 

2009 was a very good vintage in Beaujolais

This showed why some are now reassessing Beaujolais

The back label below

 Line-up of a few of the wines – including 2002 Brokenwood Shiraz, 

which was their first screwcapped vintage. It has aged well and is still quite youthful

 The sole example of a Chenin Blanc: 

the fine 2012 from Doran Vineyards, South Africa

 2008 Riesling from Château des Charmes (Canada)

 Scenes from the evening

 2010 Dry Riesling, Marlborough, New Zealand

 Stunningly good Palo Cortado from Fernando de Castilla

••••

Many congratulations to Alex Dowsett on breaking the hour record today. See the brief highlights here. Will Bradley Wiggins break this new record and if so by how much when he tries in June in London.

Post CWW Committee BYO@Lahore

Ernie Loosen's Dr L 2013 Riesling: 

opened the evening at the Lahore 

In case you thought that being on the Circle of Wine Writers Committee is all work and no play, here is a report on our agenda post-yesterday's-meeting from late-afternoon into the evening.

After the committee meeting held at the Institute of Masters of Wine, which started at 2pm and was fuelled by nothing stronger than water, six of us repaired to the nearby Iberica Marylebone, Five of us opted for a reviving glass of sherry, while one of our number went for a glass of Cava – Raventós i Blanc L’hereu Reserva Brut 2011. Initially we opted for a bottle of the Fino Una Palma (£40) – more expensive than the also listed Tio Pepe (£34) but worth trying something we didn't know. However when the bottle arrived we discovered that it was only a 50cl, making it substantially more than Tio Pepe which was 75cl, so TP it was and a nicely fresh bottle.

It would be helpful if Iberica listed their bottle sizes. They do list the size of wines by the glass but not bottles.  

Around 6.15 it was time for three of us (bit like an Agatha Christie novel without the deaths!) to head eastwards to the Commercial Road and The Lahore Kebab House. Iberica Marylebone is ideally placed being a short step from Great Portland Street tube station and the Metropolitan Line to Barking. Getting off at Algate East we made our way down the Commercial Road past a number of wholesale hat shops displaying a wealth of hats and signs warning –  'no retail'  and 'minimum purchase' £100 plus VAT. 

The Lahore Kebab House, 2 Umberston Street, London E1 1PY 

Dr Loosen's door bell@Bernkastel 

We started on the 2013 Dr L brought by Lindsay, while we waited for the two sparkling wines – Michael's kind offering – to chill down. With its touch of sweetness and crisp acidity Ernie's 2013 Riesling made this a good transition from the Tio Pepe as we cracked and nibbled our papadums, while waiting for Kathy, our fourth commitee member to arrive.         

2004 Cuvée Josephine from Joseph Perrier 

Just in case anyone thinks I weakened and tasted a banned substance – a Champagne – please be assured that instead I had a fine glass of the single vineyard Masottina Contrada Granda (see below). 

2011 Gewurztraminer Turckheim, Domaine Zind Humbrecht

As you expect from Zind Humbrecht the 2011 Gewurztraminer was rich and delicious that worked well with the butter chicken.

2009 Cabernet Franc, AC Touraine, Château du Petit Thouars 

The combination of Loire fruit and acidity makes Cabernet Franc a good bet with food at the Lahore – worked for me particularly well with the Methi Gosht.  

1992 Coteaux de l'Aubance, Vin Noble, 

Domaine de Bablut (50cl)

Eschewing any desserts we turned instead to the 1992 Coteaux de l'Aubance, Vin Noble, Domaine de Bablut. 1992 is not a great vintage. Coming after the very severe frost of 1991 it was a big generous vintage. Although attractive to drink and we finished the bottle, the nose – typical bruised apple Chenin (Lindsay) was more interesting than the palate that was sweet but without much complexity or rich texture. Very interesting to taste but rather confirmed my preconceptions about how this 1992 might taste. Having said that it was a good effort for the vintage.