wine | The grub worm

Wine talking: The meaty Arabella Reserve 2009 Shiraz Viognier

Posted on 15 April 2011 by The Grubworm

Naked wines Arabella

So, I got sent a free bottle of wine. There I’ve said it. I sold out for a bottle of booze. In return for writing a little something for the Jamie Oliver website about it. But you know what? It was pretty damn good and so, disclosure disclosed, I’m going to write about it here to.

Weighing in at a hefty 14.5% this is not something to take lightly and it definitely does not go with super subtle, delicately flavoured food. No sir. This is intense and brooding, complex and interesting. More Jonny Depp than Gerard Butler (oops, the strange analogies have started already). Continue reading →

Lunch at 28-50

Posted on 15 July 2010 by The Grubworm

Pork belly. Those two words open up vistas of pleasure for most carnivores. Who would have thought that something so simple sounding could deliver so much pleasure? The antithesis of the push for lean dry tasteless meat that blighted the menus and school lunches of my eighties childhood, belly is full of interest and excitement.

And at lunch, well, it’d be a sin to pass it up. Meemalee, Mr Noodles and I were trying out 28-50. Named for the latitudes between which most wine is grown, it’s the more casual, wine-focussed, sibling of Texture. With the stripped back simple wood tables and underground space, there is something of both Terroirs and Vinoteca about 28-50. Continue reading →