July 2005 : A spoonful of sugar? Bad medicine for Champagne!

Last month I told you about the physicists from Bordeaux University developing a method of dating wines by measuring radioactivity. This is extremely topical again this month as news from France in early July informs us that three managers of a Champagne house have been indicted for fraud after allegedly mislabelling tens of thousands of bottles!

According to the police, the Esterlin Co-operative was fraudulently labelling wines under false vintages and had been doing so for many years. Investigators are also examining the possibility of an illegal level of chaptalisation - the adding of sugar to the fermenting must.

I hate to say "I told you so", but last month's predictions were right! Champagne co-operatives specialise in supplying BOB brands - i.e. buyers own labels. For instance, a group of shops, restaurants or hotels will usually stock their own in-house Champagne purchased from a co-operative. It is the buyer's responsibility to ensure the product is of good order. However, BOBs are often less expensive - giving the buyer the opportunity to maximise their profit.

"Who cares about the quality?" You may well ask! I am not suggesting that this practice is the norm, what I am saying is to be cautious when purchasing house Champagnes. The benefit of buying proprietary brands e.g. Moet, Taittinger, Bollinger etc is continuity of quality and style. The choice is yours.

Still, it’s not all gloom and doom for the French – Champagne imports to the UK continue to increase at a dramatic rate!

Happy & Healthy Drinking!
Kenneth Harry Putt

This month's recipe : Gazpachio of strawberries with a chive and crème fraiche ice-cream

I have just been on holiday to Mallorca, having a very relaxing time away doing little except eat and sleep. We were staying near to Port Andratx; we ate dinner most nights on the harbour and experienced some interesting things, one of them being strawberry gazpachio. With the ice-cream it really was a tasty dish and ideal for this type of weather - it will cool you down when feeling hot.

It does sound unusual but I suggest you try it - your dinner guests will be very impressed and it really is very simple to make. Remember, the most important thing is to serve it very chilled. Enjoy this slightly unusual experience!

Ingredients: (serves 4)
- 2 punnets strawberries
- Raspberry vinegar (about 2-3 tbsp)
- Caster sugar (optional)
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil (drizzle for about 5 seconds)
- 1 small tub crème fraiche
- 1 bunch chives, finely chopped
- 4 spring onions, top ends discarded and finely sliced
- 1 bunch basil

Method:
Hull the strawberries, cut into halves (does not need to be exact) then place into a food processor and blitz till smooth.

( You may need to do this in two batches, depending on the size of the machine - in which case halve the quantity of oil and vinegar for each batch in the processor. )

Once smooth, keep the machine running and add the olive oil, counting to 5 seconds, then add the raspberry vinegar. Add this slowly and taste as you go as we all have different taste buds - add more or less - it's up to you. You can also add some caster sugar if you have added too much vinegar or if the strawberries are not sweet enough - it's all down to your personal taste.

Add salt and a good grinding of pepper but be slow with this - adding just that little too much of one thing will ruin the taste - the flavours are quite delicate.

Pour into a bowl and place in fridge. Leave for a good few hours for the flavours to come together.

For the ice-cream, place the crème fraiche into a bowl with the chives, spring onions, salt and a good grinding of pepper and a little olive oil. Taste and place into a plastic container and then into the freezer. You can do this in advance (and take it out to defrost until soft enough to scoop) or you can freeze for 3 hours and it should then be frozen enough to use. There is no need really to keep stirring this as it freezes, if you have an ice-cream maker then do use that.

When ready to serve, shred the basil very finely. Take the soup from out of the fridge and ladle into your bowls. Your ice-cream should be at scooping consistency. I use a tablespoon to serve this out as the balls will look more rustic. Place a scoop/ball into the middle of each soup bowl and then sprinkle over the shredded basil - a little turn of pepper over and there you are - ready to serve. Surprise your guests and their taste buds! Enjoy.