Chocolate brownies and Lustau Moscatel Emilín

The picture says it all really: chocolate brownies and luscious sweet sherry. I've often sipped treacly sweet PX with chocolate which works well, but can be too much of a good thing (and dangerously calorific). Lustau's Moscatel Emilín is a little less sweet with 195g sugar per litre (Pedro Ximénez contains as much as 500g per litre) and worked fabulously with the brownies. The wine's complex caramelised orange and dried fig aromas, rich, yet fresh and tangy, melded seamlessly with the brownies with their bitter dark chocolate and touch of salt. They truly flattered and enhanced each other. You don't need much – just a few mouthfuls to round off your evening. A decadent little treat.

Available from Berry Bros and Rudd for £9.75 (37.5cl) and Slurp for £16.35 (75cl).

Beaujolais: a neglected French classic

It's not so long ago that every year in late November we were awash with Beaujolais Nouveau, whether it was the local offie, restaurant or wine bar. If you worked in wine retail Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé campaign involved grumpy, bleary-eyed early mornings. One year at Oddbins in Camden, once the cases were off the lorry and a bottle uncorked, we each devoured two Big Breakfasts from McDonald's across the road – surprisingly good with the fruity young wine. (Talking of food, charcuterie is the obvious choice for Beaujolais which is why I've included this lovely picture of saucisson instead of anything from McDonald's; a sausage McMuffin just isn't the same.)

Anyway, I digress. Despite its popularity back in the 1970s and '80s and the fact that, along with wines like Muscadet, Beaujolais helped introduce many Brits to French wine, it has lost its appeal here. Younger drinkers may not be that aware of it and older consumers perhaps view it as a bit retro (and sadly not in a cool way). I've heard people admit to disliking Beaujolais (and the Gamay grape generally) because of the sweet bubblegum flavours – often the result of whole bunch fermentation/carbonic maceration and heavy-handed use of sugar by winemakers. This is a shame. There is so much more to Beaujolais, especially from individually named villages or 'crus' in the northern part of the region (granite based in contrast to the clay in the south). Here you find more concentrated, age-worthy wines with distinct personalities, ranging from light, fragrant and youthful to dense and brooding that become earthy, gamey and burgundian with age. Low-yielding old bush vines (maybe 70 years old) generally produce the best results.

But maybe it's time for a reappraisal. Beaujolais is enjoying a run of good vintages and there are a number of great value, delicious wines available in the UK. The recent Beaujolais trade tasting in London offered great examples from 2011 and 2010 as well as interesting older wines (especially beautifully mellow Moulin à Vent Grand Clos de Rochegrès 2000 and 1999 from Jadot). What's more, with Bastille Day coming up at the weekend, I can't think of anything more suitable. Here are few favourites:

Beaujolais-Villages, Combe aux Jacques, Louis Jadot 2011
Juicy, aromatic, fresh and tasty. Lovely summer drinking, especially served cool.
(£9.99 Waitrose, Tesco, Budgens, Spar, Booths) 

Chiroubles, Domaine de la Chapelle des Bois 2011
Pretty name, pretty wine: juicy, fresh and fragrant. A charming example of lighter style Beaujolais, yet with plenty of personality.
(£11.25 Stone, Vine and Sun) 

Brouilly, Henry Fessy 2011
Lively fragrant fruit with satisfying depth and stern dry finish. A great choice for charcuterie.
(£9.99 Waitrose)

Chénas, Les Carrières, Paul-Henri Thillardon 2011
Complex and concentrated, appetising and juicy with an interesting savoury finish.
(£14.25 Christopher Piper Wines)

Moulin à Vent, Cave du Château de Chénas 2010 (enjoyed recently at home)
Tasty, succulent and quite sturdy – fabulous with our sausages, mash and caramelised onions.
(£10.99 Waitrose)

Moulin à Vent, Clos de Rochegrès, Château des Jacques 2011
Lots going on here: juicy, perfumed, deliciously satisfying and complex. Seriously good (and the price reflects this). Another great Beaujolais from Jadot.
(£23 The Wine Society)

Morgon, Côte du Py, Jean Foillard 2010
Lots happening here as well: fresh and pretty, yet slightly rustic and farmyardy and with an elegant mineral finish. Beautifully crafted, completely enjoyable wine from one of the region's leading producers and best sites.
(£22 Les Caves de Pyrène, The Sampler)

Visiting Beaujolais
If you're travelling to France this summer, it's worth noting that the Beaujolais region takes some beating for its relaxing bucolic charm. Densely vined rolling hills are punctuated by pretty villages and, if you're a city-dwelling Francophile, it'll tick a lot of boxes. There is also a clearly sign-posted Route des Vins and many producers welcome visitors. A helpful Guide de l'oenotourism is published by the generic promotional body Inter Beaujolais.

Saucisson image copyright bbc.co.uk and many thanks to Inter Beaujolais for supplying the other three images.

J Lohr Wildflower: a summery red from California

I used to have quite a soft-spot for this wine and recently had the chance of tasting it for the first time in nearly two decades. In May I was representing some Californians at the London Wine Fair and just along from us was the J Lohr stand. It was great to have a chat and be reacquainted with a wine I'd enjoyed selling at Oddbins in the early 1990s. Back then it was called Wildflower Gamay and was a Californian alternative to decent quality or 'cru' Beaujolais.

It's a distinctively juicy wine with soft gentle tannins, but it's not made from the Gamay we know from Beaujolais, but a grape called Valdiguié or Gros Auxerrois (originally from southwest France) that used to be referred to as Napa Gamay. To avoid any confusion (it's not made from Gamay and it doesn't come from Napa) the wine is now labelled Wildflower Monterey County Valdiguié.

Anyway, I was thrilled to see it again and last week we enjoyed the bottle I was given at the fair with some sausages, mash and sauce diable from Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen cookery book (more about which another time). The wine's generous ripe aromatic fruit was delicious with the hot cayenne pepper in the sauce. Chilled briefly, with its refreshing acidity and fairly moderate alcohol (12.5 abv), it turned out to be an ideal choice on a warm summer evening. Time does fly, however, I look forward to enjoying Wildflower again soon.

Enotria is the UK importer and it is available for about £11.50 from Great Western Wine and various other independent merchants.

Rosé de Provence: a glamorous taste of summer

I've been waiting too long to write this piece. After an endlessly cold, damp, dreary spring, we are now basking in bright sunshine and temperatures in the high 20s. Back in April, on a cool evening, I braved it through heavy rain to the Bistro du Vin in Soho to taste some Provence rosé. These offer a chic and refreshing contrast to the deep coloured, powerfully flavoured rosés that dominate supermarket shelves. I've always been drawn to delicately hued, restrained Provence rosé, while visualising lavender fields, olive groves and yachts bobbing up and down on glinting water (without a noisy jet-ski in sight). There aren't many wines more perfectly suited to summer.

At the Bistro du Vin we heard about the work of the Provence-based Rosé Research Centre (apparently the only organisation in the world dedicated to this style of wine). The emphasis is on careful, controlled winemaking to produce such pale, clean, fresh wines and to preserve the fresh acidity. Three wines were presented that reflected this approach (and all of which I really liked):

Côtes de Provence Tradition 2011 from Domaine Sainte Marie (Baume les Mimosas, near Saint Tropez): a blend of Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Cabernet and Mourvèdre. Creamy strawberry fruit, aromatic and fragrant, with a whiff of minerality. Refreshing and stylish. (8 Euros ex cellars. Not available in the UK.)

Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence, Cuvée Aix Rosé 2011 from Domaine de la Grande Séouve. This Grenache dominated blend (Grenache 60%, Cinsault 20%, Syrah/Counoise 20%) has a tasty savoury complexity and aromatic fragrant fruit – a great food wine. (Majestic Wine £12; also available in magnums.)

Coteaux Varois en Provence, Perle de Margüi Rosé 2011 from Château Margüi. A Cinsault/Grenache blend, very pale (from 90 minutes' skin contact), dry, crisp, aromatic, with a particularly fragrant finish. Subtle and chic. (11.50 Euros ex cellars. Not available in the UK.)

We enjoyed these three wines with canapés and more Provence rosés were served with dinner. Although rosé is a versatile option, I selected lighter dishes at dinner for these subtle wines: firstly Cornish crab with toasted sourdough (although there was a lot of dark meat, so quite an intense flavour to take on), followed by fillet of bream, crab potato (an inspired idea) and parsley velouté.

Crab struck me as an ideal match for Provence rosé and some shone: Château du Galoupet Côtes de Provence Cru Classé 2010 (£13.08 for 50cl from London Wine Shippers) and Domaine Ott, Clos Mireille Coeur de Grain 2010 (£27.95 from Roberson Wine). I've always regarded Ott as a bit blingy, but here it was very dry and deliciously savoury. It tasted serious, as it should for the price. With the cheese, Vignelaure rosé (£11.95 Wine Society) did a good job, especially with the creamy, slightly tangy cabécou. Perhaps demonstrating rosé's versatility, further along the table, it was enjoyed with steak. With dessert we had another smart dry rosé Côtes de Provence (Château d'Esclans 2011 from Sacha Lichine £21.50 Bibendum Wine). This was not flattered by the redberry sorbets, shortbread and cream which made it taste bitter. For me, the fish and seafood and canapés were the best matches.

I attended the event as a guest of Provence Wines.

Top pic: courtesy of Provence Rosé/Hachette.

When cooking goes wrong

Cooking can be a hit and miss affair. Over the years I've got much better at following recipes, particularly to expand my repertoire and to get a better technical understanding. But you still need to keep pushing boundaries and take the odd risk.

Not long ago I had a misguided experiment with some duck. I roasted the bird and then deglazed the pan with a generous slug of Campari, stirring in redcurrant jelly. To say this didn't work is quite an understatement. My husband who is not the greatest fan of Campari anyway (I love it!) observed all this, grimacing. I thought the aromatic bitterness would make a perfect foil to cut through the rich duck fat. But no, it just tasted bitter. Horribly bitter. And the bitterness seemed to intensify. So much so that I had to replate my food. Sensibly, my husband already had already done this by that point. I even recall blotting my duck with some kitchen roll to remove all traces of the sauce. (Bizarrely, it had tasted fairly balanced and interesting when I sampled it from the pan.)

The subject of when cooking goes wrong was suggested to me by my friend Ginny who lives in Greece who sent in the picture of the burnt loaf. She's a keen cook, very ambitious and (obviously) couldn't wait to try out a wood-fired oven that came as part of her family's new built-in barbecue. It looks like a lovingly prepared loaf and it's almost heartbreaking seeing it like this. However, she tells me that after much hilarity, her sons removed the charred crust and 'scoffed' the rest of the loaf. The flavour must have been fabulous. Not surprisingly, they are now on the look out for a decent oven thermometer – and still keep laughing about it!

Do please let me know if you've had similar experiences. We can learn from each others' mistakes...

Brunswick House Café: a gem in Vauxhall

There is something unlikely about the Brunswick House Café in Vauxhall. Even on a cheerful, sunny day Vauxhall can seem a bit dreary (until you snatch a glimpse of the river). It's certainly not at its best in pouring rain, so on a cool, wet, grey late April day I came upon the unexpectedly cheerful delights of the Brunswick House Café. I was there for lunch with a rather special friend who worked nearby and who is moving to France with her family. She works for a notable wine company and she told me that, as well as being a customer, the Brunswick House Café had practically become a work canteen. (My only grouch with the place – and I'll flag this up now – is having some very decent wine served in a tumbler. It always strikes me as an affectation, so I wonder if her colleagues take their own glasses. Call me a purist, but I do prefer a stem on my glass!)

Brunswick House is home to LASSCO, the architectural salvage company, so, basically, the café is located within an extraordinary warehouse and the display starts before you walk in. You pass through a bar which looks ideal for early evening drinks or just a morning coffee and end up in a room full of interesting period furnishings.

Simply prepared seasonal food is order of the day prepared by chef, Jackson Boxer (grandson of food writer Arabella Boxer), so there were some early spring treats on the menu. My friend ordered a main course, porcini, artichoke and nettle risotto and I ordered two starters. My fennel and celeriac soup with wild garlic and buttered almonds was decadently creamy, garlicky, but not overwhelming so, and with a nice little crunch from the almonds. It was garnished with some garlic flowers and looked like spring in a bowl. Served with plenty of tasty sourdough bread and butter, it would have been ideal for lunch on its own. However, I was keen to try more from this tempting menu.

My second dish was smoked cod's roe, radishes, soft boiled egg and toast. I have a bit of a weakness for egg yolk, so could not resist the sound of this. And it was gorgeous. Again, another perfectly judged lunch dish – rich, unctuous, yet offset by the firm, tangy radishes. It was served with more of their delicious sourdough, this time toasted. My friend wasn't drinking, but I sipped some Semillon from Provence which worked well with both dishes - freshly and gently aromatic, with enough weight to tackle that egg yolk.

If I'd had longer, I'd also have gone for the white sprouting broccoli with romesco and anchovies. I've recently made romesco sauce, so was tempted to try their more expert version. These starter-size dishes cost about £5 and mains are from about £7. Great value for money. My glass of wine was £2.70 (£16 per bottle) from an excellent short list, with plenty of options under £30. Europe dominates and, if you are celebrating you could treat yourself to a bottle of Jacquesson Cuvée 734 for £55 (Champagne really doesn't get much better than this). Alternatively, they offer a Prosecco for just £21.20 which would be a versatile choice for spring. I do hope they have proper flutes for these. There are also some interesting beers and a Breton cider.

I'd love to go back for dinner. I imagine it's probably quite romantic in the evening, that's if you like vintage bits and pieces and the mellow tones of old wood. If not, there are always meatballs and lingenberry sauce at Ikea.

Brunswick House Café
30 Wandsworth Road
London SW8 2LG
Tel 020 7720 2926
http://www.brunswickhousecafe.com/