Real Italian
Wine & Food
Experience
It’s a leisurely amble through the shouting wealth of Woodford Green, the London neighbourhood where I'm staying. You know the sort of place? Houses that demand their own post code with electric cars tethered outside like expensive horses, and owners constantly popping inside their opulent homes to count their exclusive blessings.
I head to Excel, and after changing to the Docklands Light Railway, the journey seems to stutter as the regular parade of trains dries to a trickle, and as you look at the noticeboards, you're informed that the next train will be sometime before the end of the year!
Finally, as hope, and the Red Cross parcels start to vanish, I make it, and it’s my first time in a venue that combines all the charm of a submarine pen and shed on steroids. Surprisingly, I’m quite impressed by the array of food vendors and the cleanliness, which almost seems anti-British, and this makes topping up my step count almost worthwhile. I shamble from one end to the other, and my Apple Watch cheerfully tells me that the amount I've walked is 12 000 steps more than this time last year. That would be cause for celebration, but last year I was in Las Vegas and walked from one end of The Strip to the other!
I’m not going to lie. I'm expecting a lot. This is an Italian event, and if you've been paying attention you'll know how much I love Italian events. Don't blame me, blame Italy for setting such a high standard. I also know that every offering is always accompanied with a history that involves nature, nurture, a family member, an Italian humour. Now if they could include Italian pop music from the sixties they'd have me captured for life!
The shame is that it's mainly an appointment driven event, along the lines of VinParis, but I'll forgive them that as this is my first time. I’m here to plan and observe the event for next year. This groundwork will also help me to make more informed choices that stumbling optimistically from one vendor to the next.
The room is so cavernous that a large plane could get lost, and areas have been cordoned off with light purple damask curtains that offer slight, seductive glimpses of what is on offer (that's the second time I've used the word seductive in an Italian article in this edition. I'm sure it's no accident). It actually reminds me of one of those swinging sixties films, and I'm expecting Ursula Andress to come along swaying to a soundtrack by Burt Bacharach before After the Fox plays on various television screens.
I don't think that Bacharach and Andress
Now where did I leave my Jumbo Jet
While my wine radar is fully tuned, I’d forgotten that a large part of this event is dedicated to food, and small tables groan under the weight of large offerings of what Italy does best, as reps chat happily with visitors while offering them bites of tasty treats. Perhaps I should have booked after all because I’m starving, and the arancini looks so tempting.
I’m stopped by a rather charming gentleman who lives in England, but who is here representing an olive oil producer. I gladly accept his offer to try two samples as we chat happily about life as though we are old friends, indeed, an any Italian seems to be born with the dual ability to make you feel as though you got dressed in the dark, and feel as though you've known them for all your life, and before I know it, I'm sharing information about my wife, my shoe size, and where I'm hoping to go on holiday.
The first olive oil is too green, too rough for my tastes, and the pepper is ramped up to a level that makes talking in anything other that a husky grunt, a difficult prospect. It’s okay, but I think that the riot police might find a better use for it at demonstrations. The second sample saves the day and is balanced with quite a gorgeous taste. The pepper behaves itself and the oil is not too resinous. I'll have a bottle please.
I continue walking, and it is not long before the human dynamo, that is Francesco, lures me to the Chiorri area for a tasting of his Umbrian wines, and a brief history lesson about the producer.
He is so much a representation of the Italian male, that I feel shabby and ill-dressed in comparison, and I’m wearing a Savile Row jacket suit!
The wines are a mixed bunch, and while I find a few that are average and lacking in the sort of depth I enjoy, there are others that really show this producer at his best, and they should be rightly proud of these little beauties.
I spend a long while with Francesco and he is such good company, but I realise that time is limited, and I want to experience some more of this event, but I’m soon stopped by the displays for Bastiano Ligios, a producer from Sardinia, and the statuesque beauty of Maria Teresa keeps me company and nurtures my interest in the wines they are displaying.
She is the marketing arm of the operation, and her brother is the winemaker, since having taken over the business from their father. Once again, Italian style is on display, and I’m not surprised to learn that she firstly wanted to work in the fashion industry in Florence, but tailoring’s loss is the viticultures gain, and as we sit nonchalantly talking, the wines are enjoyed, and I find with one or two evocatively enticing. I vow to find out more about this vineyard.
The Rosé is a mixed blessing, with a taste that doesn’t quite match the excellent story behind it, but the last two wines are so welcome that I’ll be seeking them out as soon as I can.
All too soon, Maria Teresa's charms can hold me no longer. It is time to mooch around some more, and include a food stop on my itinerary. This is at the portable restaurant where a rich focaccia holds me hostage until I’ve wolfed down four or five pieces, and then I’m on to the triangular parcels of pesto that I cannot stop eating.
After another walk around, and a promise to visit for both days next year, with appointments aplenty, it is time for me to leave, and I am so happy that I sampled the event this year, because it will make planning the event so much easier the next time.
Chiorri - Titus.
I was just expecting a pleasant taste, but this is a real surprise that beds down with yellow apples, melon, lots of minerality, citrus, pear, apricot, and makes way for a slice of papaya.
It's a wine of intense flavours and an elegant bouquet that repays attention by giving you ripe, exotic and tropical fruit, as well as yellow flowers.
Another Italian food-friendly wine and this will go well with mature cheeses, boiled meats, and a bowl of penne with an Umbrian sauce.
Bastiano Ligios - To'
I love the label, and I was walking away until the word Vermentino was mentioned and then I just had to taste it.
The colour is straw yellow and in the glass there's a brightness, but it's on the nose that the magic starts, because this wine is intense, with floral odours coming to prominence.
I'm getting a dryness that is not unfriendly, and then the fruit rides in like the cavalry with apples, pear, and peaches waving the welcome flag.
I was told that this will go well with fish dishes, particularly seafood, shellfish, and stewed lobster with chilli pepper.
