We've a lot to say about our fantastic new wine list so this has inspired us to start a blog about it and anything else we think you might find interesting! Our first blog is written by Shelley, Sam's Restaurant Manager...A little over five years ago, shortly before Sam’s opened it’s doors to the public, the new team of staff gathered for training… wine training, menu training, service training, reservations training, you get the picture.
One of my favourite training sessions was our first wine tasting with Charlie Boyd. As someone brand new to the restaurant industry and with little or no real wine knowledge Charlie was, to me, a genius sharing little nuggets of information we could use to sell wine to our customers. Some of it useful, all of it interesting.
“This is the wine that was served on the final night of the Olympic Committee’s visit to London before they announced that we had won the 2012 Olympics,” he said of the Mount Edward Pinot Noir. Whether it is true or not I can’t be sure, but I have used that bit of information on many occasions when recommending the Mt Ed Pinot.
“The closure on a bottle of real Champagne requires exactly six twists to release it,” he said. A genuinely useless piece of information I have shared with customers and staff over and over.
Five years later, and with an almost completely new wine list, save a few old favourites, we had Charlie back to train our old and new staff on our mostly new wine list. I had to smile as he opened the first bottle of Champagne, “The closure on a bottle of real Champagne only requires…,” he told our interested staff as he opened a bottle of Mailly Grand Cru Brut, a rich, dry Champagne with a biscuity nose and fresh bread and mineral flavours on the palate. It’s a perfect aperitif on the list at £38.
So perhaps not all of the patter has changed, but the wine list has, with a fresh new face and some interesting additions. Gros Manseng, a grape grown primarily in South West France, is something else Charlie taught us about. A varietal that is new to both Sam and me and that we are suddenly seeing everywhere (I suppose the sentiment in the cycle safety campaign on the telly must be true, “the more you look out for something the more obvious it becomes”). This grape, according to the Oxford Companion to Wine, is expected to follow Viognier’s path to popularity among white wine drinkers and at under £20 is a great value bottle that works on its own or with food. Try it with rich, creamy vegetable dishes, smoked fish or goats’ cheese.
Chile is, more and more, becoming a region of choice for lovers of good value Pinot Noir and we have found an example that won’t let you down. Sol y Sombra Pinot Noir Reserve from La Playa, a serious producer in the Central Valley. I love the name, say “Solly Sombra”, it just sounds like a bottle of fun – and for the most part, it is. A fruity, lightly oaked, medium bodied red that’s mostly Pinot with a little bit of Cabernet. On our list at £21 it is a must-try.
Putting the new wine list together was an interesting and fun challenge. We tried some great wines and in a lot of cases had a difficult time choosing one over another for a particular slot on the list. We couldn’t have done it without the help and guidance of our very knowledgeable suppliers, Charlie from Ellis of Richmond, Tom and Charlie from The Vintner, Lucy from John Armit and Nick Trower from Liberty.
There is plenty more I could say about our new wine, some serious, some just easy-drinking and delicious but, rather than taking my word for it, it’s probably best you just come down and road test our new wines for yourself.
Looking forward to seeing you all at Sam’s.
PS – before I go, I feel it would be remiss of me not to mention the Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Superiore which, I think, is one of the stars of the list – a delicious, plummy, spicy, robust Italian red that’s so luxurious it feels like silk sliding across your tongue. At £49 it’s more of a special occasion wine than an everyday wine, but oh what an occasion it will be!
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