Ted goes a la natural …

You were all hoping for a naked picture weren't you!!  I might not be naked (it’s winter here for goodness sake) but I am getting back to nature for sure.  On one of my recent forays to Borough Market I decided I would try Elliot’s restaurant and totally lucked out when they gave me a very nice table and yet another lovely Welsh waitress gave me a menu and a wine list.

 I decided that I would start with mussels, fennel and morcilla (blood sausage) and follow on with a roast Texal lamb loin with all the roast trimmings. I should just say right now that both dishes were delicious, but what I had really come for was to take a look at the wine list, and partake of some of the offerings, as they do mostly “natural wines”.

Now I don’t know about you but I find myself rather uninformed about what exactly “natural”, ”organic”, “bio dynamic” and “sustainable” wines are in reality.  So I went and talked to a wine merchant who I know is well versed in it all - Sustainable Wines UK.  With approval I purloined these explanations from their website for us all … ready …

“Natural” wines are defined as coming from those vineyards where nothing is added either during the vine growing process or the wine making process, making these wines a pure expression of their terroir.

“Organic” wine is “wine made from organically grown grapes”. Organically grown grapes are produced without the use of fungicides, herbicides, pesticides or chemicals in the vineyard, and in the winery the wine is made with less chemicals, e.g. sulphites, than conventional wines.

“Bio Dynamic” involves growing the grapes without the use of herbicides, insecticides, systemic fungicides or soluble fertilisers. It incorporates the use of special herbal, mineral and animal preparations and teas and includes a deep understanding of the complex cosmic rhythms which affect these daily activities.

.. and last but certainly not least … "Sustainable" wine growing schemes promote environmentally and economically sustainable vineyard and winery management.

I thought I’d better try something from their well selected range and chose a sustainable Ohau Woven Stone Rose 2014, and what a lovely mouthful of delicious pink wine it is, fresh, juicy, and bursting with lovely red berry flavours, a super sipper indeed.

If you are in London this coming Tuesday evening (20 January) and fancy checking this out for yourself you will find Sustainable Wines UK along with lots of New Zealand Wineries at the Ultimate NZ Wine Tasting.