As sweet as.....'37!

Over the past two decades I have tasted some amazing things, both food and drink, however my own personal beverage Nirvana was reached a couple of years ago and I have come to the conclusion since then, that no matter what I drink, I will never beat the experience. And that doesn't bother me one jot! I have decided to enshrine the moment for what is was, to except that it just doesn't get any better and to stop trying to find another moment to replace it. Some things just can't be beaten, no matter how hard you look. It is like a mountaineer, having climbed Everest, refusing to believe that a larger mountain just isn't there. I have found my Everest and have stopped the search!

I have always worked around food and wine and have been fortunate enough to have worked in some truly superb places. I have been afforded culinary opportunities that nowhere else could have done.

During my career I have enlarged my love for all things sweet, in particular sweet wines. Now, I am not talking about Blue Nun and Liebfraumilch, sweet wine indeed, but entirely the wrong kind of sweet. I am talking about the proper, sticky sweet, golden nectar known as pudding wine. I have sampled more wines than I can remember and, whilst the New World do have some great examples, I truly believe that for an exceptional pudding wine you must stay in Europe. To my mind there are only two places for the sublime. I'm not saying that I won't drink from anywhere else, however should I ever be offered my own choice of wine; I would have to go either straight to Bordeaux, to Sauternes and Barsac, or to Hungary to the Tokaj-Hegyalja region for Tokaji Aszú, a wine so great it is sung about in Hungary's National Anthem! I doubt many countries sing about Blue Nun!!

My own Everest came about four years ago when I was helping to run a Fine Wine dinner. With pudding we served Château d’Yquem 1937. Yquem is without doubt Bordeaux's, and therefore France's, finest pudding wine. The wine starts off very pale yellow in colour, the liquid, fruity and sweet. Over time it darkens to the colour of amber and the sweetness intensifies a thousand times. The 1937 was sublime. I can honestly say that my life became a little more complete in that moment. And yet, at the same time, I was touched by a mere hint of sadness, a sadness that can only come from knowing that you have just achieved perfection and that that example of perfection is now a thing of the past, never to be recaptured, never to exist again. It has become a yardstick. I have a colleague and friend who was with me that night, who regularly attends wine tastings. He often comes back saying "I had the most amazing this" and "the most sublime that" and depending on who gets in first, the next comment is either "but was it a '37 moment" or "but it didn't match the '37." That small shared glass will stay with me forever, a memory that can never be taken away or tarnished, in fact can only grow and mature with the years, just as if was still in the bottle!!

The difference a few years can make is incredible

Some people of influence in these matters would no doubt suggest the best pudding wines need the finest foie gras, the lightest soufflé or the most complicated and layered pudding that only the very finest pastry chefs in the world can create! Not necessarily!! I am a firm believer in place and setting. Why should the world's finest wines only be consumed in the world's finest restaurants? Who is to say that your own home, filled with friends, eating great food cooked by your own fair hands should not also be the ideal setting? Now, don't get me wrong, a slab of foie gras, pan seared, as crisp as a crème brulée top on the outside and as soft as candy floss on the inside, resting on a doorstep of toasted brioche, served with a warm poached pear and rich Madeira sauce is the very thing that I would walk over burning coals for. This, though, is not something I could recreate at home and should be left to the professionals. On the other hand, perfectly acceptable foie gras can be bought in jars from many good butchers and can be, and indeed has been, eaten at home, brioche in hand.

For me though, even if the entire culinary world was my oyster, I would have to go for Bread and Butter pudding and double cream with my pudding wine. A bottle of Château Doisy Daëne, a fantastic Barsac, not the cheapest of pudding wines I admit, but very reasonable nonetheless, would be the perfect partner for the B and B. I like having humble foods with lavish wines. The B and B is just bog standard and made by me. It doesn't need a 3 Michelin star Chef to lovingly cook it to look like a Bernini sculpture. It doesn't need bread made from flour milled between the thighs of vestal virgins, it doesn't need milk from Himalayan yaks or eggs from golden geese!! It just needs care and attention, some great chums and enough time to give it the due consideration that it deserves. It doesn't really even need the rest of the meal!! Seriously, try it one day, just a great pudding and a great pudding wine, either at a table or even better, sunk into a bean bag, the Sunday papers all around, like minded friends and maybe an old black and white on in the background, Kind Hearts and Coronets would be my choice. These are not moments to have before going somewhere else. These are moments to have for the sake of having a moment; they are memory makers and should be cherished.

Just keep in mind what American author Clifton P Fadiman said “A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover.”

As we are now in Lent, try my Easter Bread and Butter pudding. After years of painstaking self-sacrifice, testing all different kinds of breads and flavours, I have found that keeping it simple works. Hot cross buns work well, as do other white breads, your normal white sliced, brioche is superb, even baguette works. Brown bread should be avoided at all costs, it’s just doesn't work. Bread and butter pudding is not a healthy pudding option, it should never be, and using brown bread instead of white won't make it so. It's the eggs and cream that make it what it is and reducing the quantities of either will just ruin the pudding. There are certain expectations in life. If you drive a Rolls Royce you would be very disappointed to discover a 2CV engine under the bonnet. Similarly, your B and B must be rich, creamy and full of sultanas. Don't add overpowering flavours. Orange and apricot are complementary; chocolate is too much and will overpower the final result. The wine is not a necessity, however, if you are going to take the Rolls out for a spin, wouldn't you rather have Julia Roberts or George Clooney along for the ride?

I hope you have a great weekend, full of future memories!