17 August/18 August 2019 ★ FT Weekend 19Food & Drink
I
t was raining in Cornwall. We were
having dinner by the beach in St
Agnes. Looking out to sea, we
watched volunteers from the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution
launch their boat at Trevaunance Cove,best table in Cornwall. The lifeboat crew
we’d seen the previous night were there
as well. It had been a false alarm, appar-
ently: a reported fire turned out to be an
illusion caused by a helicopter just
beyond the horizon.
Ben and Sam’s theory is that magic
happens when good people and good
food come together. We can testify that
it works — and that a good seaside loca-
tion doesn’t hurt either.
So make sure there are good people
around you and that you source really
good fish still on the bone. Give your
guests bread to mop up the sauce and
bowls for their fingers, something good
to drink and the nicest setting you can
manage. Magic is sure to happen.
Makes dinner for fourIngredients
2 whole sea bass (each about
600g- 700g), gutted and
scaled
2 tbs flour
2 tbs semolina
½ tsp salt
1 tbsras el hanoutspice mix
100ml plain oil for frying
4-5 sticks celery, thinly sliced
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 green chilli (remove the seeds
to moderate the spiciness)
1 tsp salt
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and
crushed
40g parsley, chopped
40g dill, chopped
80g coriander, choppedMethod
cUse a strong pair of scissors
to remove the fins from the fish.
Using a really sharp knife, cut
through the bone to remove the
head. Then cut the fish into four
or five pieces and set on some
kitchen paper to absorb any
moisture. Repeat the process
with the second fish.
cMix the flour with the semolina,
salt andras el hanout, and coat
the pieces of fish. Heat the oil in
a frying pan and sear the fishpieces all over, until they are
very crisp. (Do this in a couple of
batches to avoid overcrowding
the oil and bringing the
temperature down.) Remove
with a slotted spoon to a plate
lined with more kitchen paper
and set aside until the sauce
is ready.
cTo make the sauce, heat
two tablespoons of the oil you
used for the fish in a large
skillet, and sauté the celery,
onion and chilli slices for two
minutes on a high heat. Reduce
the heat to medium, add a
teaspoon of salt and the
crushed garlic and continue
cooking for 10-12 minutes or
until the vegetables soften and
start sticking to the base of the
pan. Add a litre of water and
bring to a slow boil.
cCook for 15 minutes on a low
simmer, then add all the
chopped herbs — it should be
a really large quantity of
herbs and don’t be afraid to
use all of them. Let the herbs
wilt a little in the liquid and
pop in the pieces of seared
fish. Spoon some sauce all over
the pieces, cover, reduce the
heat to low and cook for 20
minutes. Remove the lid and
serve hot.Recipe: sea bass in a herby green sauce
FT Weekend Festival
Come to our Food & Drink stage
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on September 7 in London,
where Sarit Packer and Itamar
Srulovich of Honey & Co will be
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Simon Schama’. Book now at
ftweekendfestival.comGlacial
recognition
T
he boundaries of wine
regions follow political and
cultural lines. That’s not
nature’s intent. Burgundy’s
Chablis, the Aube district
of Champagne and Loire’s Sancerre, for
example, are all close together and
share similar conditions. In an
alternative wine universe, they would
be a single region, not three. The
“Rhône valley”, by contrast, makes
bedfellows of two wine strangers: the
coolish, Syrah-dominated and often
granite-soiled north (which has most
in common with Beaujolais) and the
sunny stone fields of the south, where
Grenache-dominated blends prevail.
Italy’s Collio and Slovenia’s Brda should
be a single region, as local winegrowers
acknowledge.
Cross to North America, and you’ll
quickly see that Ontario has more in
common with New York’s Finger Lakes
region than it does with its fellow
Canadian province, westerly, dry-
summered British Columbia, over the
wall of the Rockies. These two eastern
regions, subject to plumes and claws of
polar air, are a land of killing winter
chills for vines. If they survive January
and February to produce grapes in
September or October, then it’s only
thanks to the vast bodies of water
neighbouring the vineyards, which
have a moderating influence on
local climates. Those lakes share
glacial origins: the landscape of both
regions is a mere 14,000 years old. The
growers of the Finger Lakes
have a tougher time of it
than those of Ontario,
because their bodies of
water are far smaller.
Not that anyone in either
region has an easy time. The
winters of 2014 and 2015
were abnormally cold and in
February 2015, 85 per cent
of the surface of the Great
Lakes was frozen. “One of
the few places it didn’t
freeze,” recalls Angelo Pavan
of Ontario’s Cave Spring,
“was the western end of
Lake Ontario. That’s why
we’re still here.” A protective
hill of soil has to be
mounded up around every
unpruned vine in the Finger
Lakes each winter, and the vines often
have multiple trunks as
an insurance policy; the first spring
job is to assess some vine wood in
the warmth of the laboratory in order
to see how many buds have survived
the winter.
Summers aren’t necessarily any
easier in either region, even if they are
dependably warm: in July and August,
temperatures are higher in Niagara
than Beaune. Humidity, and thus
disease-pressure, is high, torrential
rain possible. Parts of the east side of
Seneca Lake endured an astonishing
228mm-381mm (9in to 15in) of rain
in a 24-hour period on August 13-14- Winter comes swiftly. Tasting
rooms have braziers outside — and
blankets inside.
The wine profile of each region is still
quite different. Outsiders are often
surprised to learn that New York state
has the third largest vineyard area in
the US (14,973ha), behind California
and Washington but ahead of Oregon.
More than 80 per cent of this total,
though, is planted with either hybrid
vines or native American vines, and
their fruit is principally used not for
wine but for fruit juice. The Finger
Lakes have 4,450ha of vineyards, yet
even here grafted European wine vines
(Vitis vinifera) account for only a small
minority of plantings (about 15 per
cent). By contrast, 65 per cent of
Ontario’s 6,825ha are now vinifera.
That is by far the biggest distinction
between the two areas, since wines
made from classic vinifera varieties
such as Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot
Noir and Cabernet Franc have a purity,
classicism, authority and sapidity that
wines from hybrid and native vines
lack, with their coarse, gawky and
often childishly sweet flavours. The
main exceptions are dry wines made
from the hybrid Seyval Blanc, which
can be cleanly and freshly neutral, and
the sometimes magnificent sweet ice
wines made from the hybrid Vidal,
which are succulent, lush and
gratifying.
Ontario has raced ahead with an
effective appellation and sub-
appellation system and its best wines
now have striking nuance and
assurance. On a visit earlier this year, I
was taken with Hidden Bench’s 2015
Locust Lane Pinot Noir — structured
and deep, its complex fruits are lent
charm by floral freshness; Thomas
Bachelder’s undemonstrative but
intricate and compelling 2015 Wismer-
Wingfield Vineyard Chardonnay; the
magnificent 2015 David’s Block
Cabernet Franc from Tawse, with its
raspberry glow and singing poise; and
the meaty, textured, lusciously ripe
2014 Grande Reserve Pinot Noir from
Domaine Queylus.
If you want to compare the best of
each region, Riesling is the wine to
choose, since it is a significant variety
in Ontario and the most successful in
the Finger Lakes. Cave Spring’s 2016
CSV Riesling has typical Ontario
depth and sap to it, evoking plants
such as holly and ivy as much as fresh
orchard fruits.
From the Finger Lakes, the 2016 Dry
Margrit Riesling from Konstantin
Frank is more sheerly fruity, crisp, racy
and fresh, while the 2015 Ravines
Argetsinger Riesling is ample and
resonant, with citrus fruits in place of
the apple and stone fruit of the Margrit.Deepest and most developed of all is
the almost chewy 2016 Riesling
Classique from Forge Cellars, a
partnership between the Gigondas
grower Louis Barruol and local
partners Richard Rainey and Justin
Boyette. Barruol stresses that full
ripeness is essential to make balanced
dry wines in the Finger Lakes, and
eminently possible. “When you work
properly, you can see that it’s a great
region with a very old tradition.”
Will global warming make life easier
for winegrowers in Ontario and the
Finger Lakes? Barruol says it has
lessened the threat of winter kill in the
Finger Lakes, and it seems unlikely
that the current blossoming of Ontario
wine creation has no connection with
climate change. Debbie Inglis, director
of the Cool Climate Oenology and
Viticulture Institute at Ontario’s
Brock University, counsels against
simplistic assumptions.
“What we see is that climate change
is providing much more temperature
variability and erratic weather,
particularly cold snaps which come
earlier or later than usual,” she says.
This uncertainty worries Morten
Hallgren of Ravines in Finger Lakes.
“I’m not sure we will benefit from
climate change. It’s so
erratic... Budburst here doesn’t
normally come until late April or May.
If we gets buds starting to move in
March, we’re in real trouble.”For stockists, see winesearcher.com
Jancis Robinson is awayAndrew Jefford
Wine
‘These two eastern
regions, subject to claws
and plumes of polar air,are a land of killing winter
chills for vines’Toby Morisonjumping in as it hit the water and setting
off across the choppy waves.
It rained for most of the following day
but it cleared in the afternoon, just when
we needed it to. We headed back to the
cove with our friends Sam and Ben
Quinn, their Canteen Cornwall crew,
their grills and their long table. We
planned to cook on the beach, raising
funds for the RNLI.
Our spot was past a little stream, near
some caves, with a table set for 60
guests. It was still chilly as they started
to arrive, crossing the beach like baby
turtles, skipping over the stream but
still getting their shoes wet.
By now, the rain was a distant mem-
ory and the evening
sun bounced off the
Cornish water. Our
fires crackled, smoke
and sea air mingled
with our herby, gar-
licky sauce. There
were the sounds of
the wind and waves,
guests chatting,
drinking and eating,
breaking bread and
dipping it in the
sauce, picking meat
off the bones of fish.
That evening, we
must have had theCookery|Sarit PackerandItamar Srulovichof Honey & Co share a fish
recipe that worked like a charm for cooks — and a hungry lifeboat crew
Magic happens when
good people and good
food come together. Wecan testify that it works
That old bass magic
Photographs by Patricia Niven
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