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My Whiteleys

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Autumn is the season for...

	Restocking the wardrobe.
	Eating & drinking (again).
	Hoarding Books etc.
	Gathering your nuts.

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Food Inc. Wine

Peruse the 250 individual labeled bottles of specialist wines or the wonderwall of Food Inc house wines and you feel you have been transported to a fabulous restaurant. At your elbow will be a member of the wine team – all bona fide ex-sommeliers – whose passion for recommending personal favourites, sharing knowledge, uncorking a new find for a sampling and matching dishes with vintages is gloriously undimmed.

Vino Paradiso at Food Inc.

Here’s a challenge to all wine-lovers. Ian Anderson, wine buyer at Food Inc, reckons you can’t get through July without trying…

Dobogo Furmint, 2006, Tokay, Hungary, £16 – “I can’t believe it’s not Burgundy,” enthuses Ian.
Vina Ardanza, Rioja, £20.50 – “A genre-defining wine. Decant for a truly religious experience.”
Castellani Vernaccia, 2007, £9 – A Tuscan white that goes beautifully with almost everything. “Try it with crab linguini and chilli.”
Primrose Hill, Bacchus, £18.50 – An English wine, fresh and clean tasting. “Imagine you are sipping it in a deckchair after you’ve cut the grass.”
Domaine A, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tasmania, £31.50 – A dinner-party winner. “Will stand up against a top claret, and the label looks like an electric record into the bargain.”

Actually, having sampled Ian’s recommendations, we think you shouldn’t get through summerff without treating yourself to a glass or two of the above.

Few things surpass great wine as a reliable and adventurous life-enhancer, and you can’t go wrong at Food Inc. Every one of the 250 or so bottles of wine available has been sampled and chosen for ultimate quaffability by a team with sophisticated, perfectionist palates – and with a mission to share their passion. Ian, along with sales staff Nicholas, Li and Alistair, comes from a sommelier/restaurant background, and their knowledge of the tastes and quirks of diners in high-end restaurants informs the selection.

“Our list is heavy on Old World wines. Most of the wines we stock our ‘old faithfuls’ from wine lists, ones we know that people love, but we also like to introduce our new-found personal enthusiasms,” says Ian.

“I would say the distinguishing characteristic is that they are mostly wines that need to be drunk with food, though we do stock a few easy-drinking wines.”

Look out for the daily wine tastings. You might look at a bottle of Portuguese vinho verde on the shelf and shrug, but taste it under the guidance of Ian and his team, and you realize it’s ‘green’ as in young – and a remarkably crisp, refreshing summer wine too. Exit stage left, en route to the fishmonger, carrying beautifully wrapped bottle.

“The thing that has surprised me most about wine retail is the power of tasting,” says Ian. “For example, we had a sampling session with Pink Muscat – Stella Bella 2007 – a dessert wine, low in alcohol. We added strawberries as accompaniment from the fruit and veg stall, and people were amazed. We sold out of the wine in a day.”

The Food Inc wine store is fast becoming the must-visit destination for wine-lovers. Ian and his team love sharing their knowledge and contagious enthusiasms. Listening to their recommendations is both enjoyable and enlightening. If you thought Pinot Grigio was a byword for paint-stripper plonk, try Franz Haas, Pinot Grigio at £11. “The label looks a bit nu rave, but it’s an eye-opener.”

If you’ve opted for a particular wine, then Ian and co will happily suggest what you might buy further down the Food Inc market to complement your choice. A melt-in-the mouth fillet of steak, a light piece of fish, a selection of charcuterie or cheese. Once ingrained, the sommelier instinct of matching food and wine never goes away.

If you are simply after good, easy-drinking wines – and price is a factor – Food Inc have a wonderwall of house wines: white, rose and red from the Navarra region of Spain, just north of Rioja.

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