InterWined is happy to report we had a coffee.
This coffee, in fact, was consumed at Fitch Rating’s offices in Moorgate. Nice, filter coffee, made from a pot, some grinds and hot water. What could be simpler?
InterWined had two cups.
Tomorrow will find InterWined having another coffee. This time with the manager of the Pret a Manger […]

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Each week, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

Sticking with the bread theme from yesterday, why not start the week right with some Sun-blushed Tomato & Goat’s Cheese Rolls?

Sun-blushed tomatoes and goat’s cheese make another great match for the the 2005 Remole Frescobaldi (12.5%), £7.49 from Oddbins, made from a blend of 85% Sangiovese/15% Cabernet Sauvignon. The tomatoes and cheese provide a slightly savoury balance to the tannins of the Remole (especially if opened the previous day with InterWined’s Olive & Parma Bread).

InterWined’s Own Recipe in Full

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Each week, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

There are few things nicer than a warm slice of bread and a good glass of wine. So, this week, ‘Blow the Bank’ brings you both with its very own Olive & Parma Bread.

I’ve made this bread several times and in many different ways, as a bâtard, as a baguette, and as a kind of stromboli. This recipe makes the stromboli-style.

Accompanying the stromboli is a simple glass of Italian wine in the form of the 2005 Remole Frescobaldi (12.5%), £7.49 from Oddbins, made from a blend of 85% Sangiovese/15% Cabernet Sauvignon. Oddbins describes the wine as a mini-Super Tuscan and it’s hard to disagree. The flavour is earthy and tannic with a nose that smells of cherries and summer fruits. Together, the two work well and find balance — the bread with its strong olive, salt, and cheese flavours smoothing the tannins found in the wine.

InterWined’s Own Recipe in Full

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InterWined loves children’s birthday parties in London. At such an event last weekend, a terribly talented performer named ‘Betty Boo’ (no, not that Betty Boo) entertained the children…while we adults were provide with some liquid refreshment.
There was the Champagne, and there was some beer…but the most enjoyable moment came from sipping on the delicious and […]

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Each Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week, ‘Blow the Bank’ brings you two of InterWined’s favourite pizzas.

Pizza with Parma Ham, Basil, and Red Onion

Feta & Butternut Squash Pizza with Ricotta and Pine Nuts

The 2006 ‘Taste the Difference’ Primitivo del Salento, from Italy and available exclusively to Sainsbury’s for approximately £5, is made by Cantina Due Palme, an Italian co-operative from Apulia known for their award- winning Primitivo. So, it doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it slightly astounds. For £5, this is one of the best wines that I’ve had in months; it’s also great for pairing with all manner of foods.

This wine is rich and flavourful, with a complexion that’s something of a cross between black cherries and dried blood. Thankfully, you can only taste the cherries. But even if wine could taste like blood, this wine would pull it off brilliantly. There’s such a good balance to it.

It’s also the perfect mix of spicy and sweet to match both pizzas. The sweetness really marries well with the squash and adds a little bit of a zip to the mellower flavour of the baked feta. Likewise, the sweetness helps counter any saltiness from the Parma ham, while the fresh basil, red onions, and ample cranks of cracked pepper help compliment the spice. A perfect threesome: 9.1.

InterWined’s Own Recipes in Full

Pizza with Parma Ham, Basil, and Red Onion & Feta & Butternut Squash Pizza with Ricotta and Pine Nuts

Click on the post to view and download the recipe

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Ever ordered a dish off a menu at a restaurant or café and found yourself thinking, “I could make that”?

Well, InterWined did last weekend, while sitting outside Carluccio’s, the popular Italian café chain, and trying to make the most of the sporadic sunshine that fell along Market Square near London’s Oxford Street. The dish was a simple Emilia-Romagna-inspired serving of parmesan cheese with balsamic vinegar.

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The 2004 Maccari ‘Templaris’ Merlot was picked up, on a whim, from an independent grocer in North London, called Woody’s, for £7. Woody’s also has a kebab shop next door, so how dedicated can they be to wine? Well, they do alright. The Templaris Merlot is kind of a rare find. As a wine, not […]

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Each Friday and sometimes Saturday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week, ‘Blow the Bank’ continues InterWined’s All American, a month-long celebration of some of American cuisine’s greatest dishes from classic comfort foods to the unsung greats of American soulfood, with InterWined’s Own New Orleans King Prawn Po Boy.

The Po Boy is something of a culinary institution in the city of New Orleans. And whether you believe its name comes from the Franglish quip “pour le boy” or a bunch of striking streetcar drivers, two things are clear. You will find it on the chalkboards and menus of corner stores and cafes, bistros and banqueting halls, across the city of New Orleans and the southern United States, and it is definitely not a submarine sandwich, hoagie, grinder, or Hero/gyro.

Leaving New Orleans for London in 1997, there are few things that leave me with greater nostalgia than the simple pleasure of a naked Shrimp Po Boy with hot sauce. My favourite Po Boys, from which InterWined’s Own recipe derives, came from a small corner grocery on Magazine Street, where the Vietnamese shop owner served them naked, or dressed on French bread stuffed with a choice of shrimp, oyster, or roast beef and covered in sauce or debris. For those unfamiliar with the lingo of New Orleans, dressed means with salad, naked without, and debris is a kind of hot gravy for roast beef akin to that found on a drip beef sandwich. (For those unfamiliar with drip beef, we’ll leave that description for another day.)

The 2003 Ronco del Gnemiz Sauvignon from Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Eastern Italy, available through Cadman Fine Wines and reviewed here and here is the perfect companion, ably managing to match the heat of the chilli pepper, paprika, and hot sauce with its “kick-ass hint of jalapeño pepper” as well as subtly of the king prawns.

InterWined’s Own Recipe in Full

New Orleans King Prawn Po Boy

Click on the post to view and download the recipe

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The 2006 Donna Fugata Sedara Nero d’Avola should cost around £7. And it’s everywhere. Maybe not the Sedara, but any Donna Fugata red is likely to be decent and well-priced. The wine is a pleasant violet colour, but not as deep as you may think. Most notable is the heavy blackberry and cherry presence that seems to dominate this wine, year in, year out. It’s light and delicious body equals plenty of good fun. There is also a touch of vanilla, and, inexplicably, rotating hints of pine pulp. Unusual, since the wine is aged in cement tanks…how’s that for thinking? 8.5 points

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A political battle over the regulation of Italy’s famed Brunello di Montalcino has blocked the shipment of hundreds of thousands of bottles of wine and effectively holds the region’s leading producers hostage in a paperwork prison. Brunello di Montalcino is a popular wine from Tuscany, though it is unloved by some, for its smooth tannin […]

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