chantek offer:

bonarda wine: february offer and tasting notes

in february we invite you to try a bottle of our new argentinian bonarda, for the price of our house wine, a £3 discount, no voucher needed, just order at your table. how to enjoy this wine? we are of the opinion that it is up to the taster to decide how a wine should be enjoyed; we have chosen all of our wines to compliment pan asian cuisine, but please make up your own mind. here are some of my tasting reflections to guide you on your way. the bonarda grapes hang below the canopy and are harvested late, after a long hot summer at altitude; this produces an intense fruit concentration which compliments hot and spicy food. you might notice some plum on the nose of the wine and plum is indeed a popular asian flavour; from the tart japanese plums to the sweeter plum sauces in used chinese cooking or even our homemade dips at chantek.

you then might notice subtle notes of quince marmalade and vanilla pod. the aromatics of vanilla have long been sought after in asia and if you have travelled in indonesia you may have seen them layed out to dry in such islands as sulawesi. the sour notes of quince marmalade you will find in thai cuisine balancing out the sweet and the hot, for example in our papaya salad or spicy beef salad.

after a big helping of forest fruits, you may even notice notes of tangerine. now, not many people would associate orange citrus with asia, but in the chinese kitchen, orange peel is dried in the sun and then stored to be used as a flavouring. in fact the medicinal properties of orange peel, particularly the volatile oils, were held in such esteem, that 2000 years ago, on the chengdu to chongching road, buyers of oranges paid a deposit for their orange peel, which was refunded once the contents were eaten. ( tip - you can rip orange peel and ignite the oils given off with a lighter!)

these two cities have always been important, and even 2000 years ago this road was covered in a canopy of vines to provide shade! the chinese have lagged a bit behind in matters of the grape, so if you are after something chinese i would recommend our tsing tao beer - however if you are looking for a wine, then i hope you will like this new offering from argentina. please let us know if you find it as enjoyable as we do.