Madeira, Murano and Northcote: the Perfect Blend

CHEF PATRON of Murano, Angela Hartnett, opened her doors to friend and colleague Nigel Haworth, of Northcote, Lancashire, and to French-born, Madeiran-based Benoît Sinthon (picture) this weekend, inviting them to participate in a Sunday lunch event to showcase Portuguese wines. As the guest from abroad, Sinthon was asked to choose his dishes first and Hartnett and Haworth then worked around him to create a fabulous autumnal menu. The food itself wasn’t Portuguese-style, since none of the three chefs specialises in Portuguese cuisine, but the fact that it still paired so well with the Portuguese wines casts an even better light on the versatility and enjoyability of these Iberian varieties.

As guests began to arrive, canapés of warm and salty truffle arancini and crisp and light parmesan tuiles were brought out, accompanied by Colinas Rosé from the Bairrada region between Porto and Lisbon, a well integrated wine with notes of almond and butterscotch, blended from two Portuguese grapes (Touriga Nacional and Jaen) and the French grape Pinot Noir (but harvested from Portuguese soil).

A bread basket with rosemary grissini and a crumbly, cake-like focaccia followed with platters of delicately fragrant coppa di parma. Hartnett, whose maternal grandparents were immigrants from Bardi in Italy, clearly infuses her cuisine with influences from the Mediterranean country.

The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly and guests were chatting and laughing, both amongst themselves and with the chefs and sommeliers, who made regular appearances front of house. The wines – all apart from the final Madeira, that is – had been selected by Antonio Lopes (from the Conrad Algarve), who, together with Murano’s own sommelier Matteo Ramazzina, presented each bottle as it was opened.

The first starter course was Haworth’s wood smoked Kilnsey trout loin, sourced from a small fishery near to Northcote. With the loins cut from a 2kg fish, he coated them in salt and sugar for 50 minutes before slow cooking them for ca. 5 minutes at 46ºC. Finishing the loins with a blowtorch left them with a ‘raw and cooked’ texture, with a subtle barbeque effect. The fish was served with fennel pollen, sweet onion puree, sweet onion bulbs and ‘hints of the garden’ – dehydrated nasturtiums from the Northcote garden, a delicacy which should be left to settle on the palate and then chewed to release the flavour. This was paired with Esporão Resrerva 2013 from Herdade do Esporão in the Alentejo, one of the biggest Portuguese wineries, producing 1 million bottles a year (although this figure highlights the relatively low production of Portuguese wines in international comparison – it’s certainly a case of quality over quantity!). A blend of four grapes – Antão Vaz, Arinto, Semillon and Roupeiro – the wine was served in bell shaped glasses to allow it to fully open out. Sweet on first encounter, it contains lots of citric, fruits, some minerality and a hint of smokiness at the end, which complemented the barbecue taste of the fish.

Hartnett’s course was a delicious pheasant agnoletti with rosemary jus, white onion puree and black truffles. A hearty portion of five pieces, this dish marks the arrival of pheasant back in season. It was accompanied by Villa Oliveira from the Dão region, one of Lopes’ personal favourites. A very special limited edition of just 1500 bottles, this Encruzado is nicely complex, with a butteriness and heady concentration due to the age of the vines, leaving a nutty aftertaste. 

Sinthon now took over the menu, offering another game course of medaillons of peppery venison served with a celery and Port wine reduction and a side dish of figs, quince, mixed berries, chestnut and pata negra – a real taste of autumn. This was accompanied by a mature Baga red, Quinta das Bágeiras Garrafeira, again from the Bairrada region, with dark berries and earthy flavours, a nice complex finish, a pleasant acidity and mature tannins to cut the proteins of the venison.

After a lemon sorbet palate cleanser, Sinthon brought out his pièce de résistance: a temptation of tainori chocolate, Madeira banana and passion fruit. The mixture of bitter cocoa flavours, sweet banana, and perfectly balancing acidic passion fruit gave the dessert a tropical feel, conjuring up the Madeiran island in the minds – and palates – of the guests. And what else could be drunk with this but a Madeira wine? In this instance, Sinthon had selected Blandy’s Verdelho Single Harvest 1998, served chilled to 14-17ºC. A dry wine with nutty flavours, less sweet than many a Madeira, also perfectly tropical. His one Michelin star restaurant on Madeira, Il Gallo d’Oro at the Cliff Bay Hotel, unsurprisingly has a long list of Madeira wines, ranging from an 1879 vintage to just 20-year-old bottles. ‘The acidity you can have in a Madeira is incredible,’ Sinthon explains. ‘You never imagine you can have such acidity in a sweet wine. Also you can keep a bottle for 30 or so years. It ages well if kept at the right temperature. You won’t be disappointed when you open it, like you can be with some other older wines.’

Coffee was accompanied by a special Madeiran sweet of honey (from sugar canes) and nuts. As guests began to leave, the chefs breathed sighs of relief. ‘I thought it went really well,’ Hartnett smiled. ‘All the guests seemed happy and that’s the main thing, you know?’ Haworth concurred: ‘I actually thought Madeira, Murano and Northcote blended perfectly. For me, it was the absolute best lunch we’ve ever done. It was a real pleasure.’

The event attracted a lot of regulars, but also some new customers, which pleased Hartnett. Murano hosts a lot of similar events with chefs and hopes to do so even more, perhaps one Sunday every couple of months. And the good news is that the restaurant will now be adding some Portuguese wines to their list. Ramazzina has already spoken to Lopes and is sourcing some of the limited edition white and the red. ‘It will be an honour and a pleasure to have them on my wine list,’ he says.