Put fruit in your wine

Don't think, just do it.

This piece was originally written for Glug magazine last summer. I have four monthly columns in Glug, and you can sign up for their wine club here.

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I’m telling you this for your own good—put fruit in your wine.

A friend of mine from northern Italy met me in the park one day and while I had a can of something sparkling in my bag, she had brought a jam jar filled with Gavi and sliced peaches. The elegance! The rusticity! I was in awe of her resourcefulness, and of her attention to the simple, finer things in life. I had felt the day required bubbles for celebration. Her version of celebration was a true indication of the season—ripe stone fruits, cold white wine. Even the jam jar, now I come to overthink it, seems a sly remark against the preserves and penury of winter. Jam gone, the jar was now a receptacle for summer sunshine.

So, we’ve established that Gavi and peaches are an excellent pairing. There are many more wines to choose from, and fruits to pick.

Slice lemons and freeze them. Add the frozen slices, like circles of stained glass, into glasses of white rioja. Do the same, but with lime, in a Gruner Veltliner. Select the tiniest, sweetest strawberries and drop them into creamy Blanc de Noir champagne, or into the leesy, vanilla-rich folds of an oaked Chardonnay. Muscadet likes pears and green apple slices. Pale salmon-pink rosés love raspberries, and deep, sugary rosés enjoy cherries or frozen blackberries. Blueberries, even.

All of these combinations are suitable for jam jar park walks, but if you’re in the garden, I’d be tempted to bring out the big jug and stir up a sangria. The beauty of a sangria in your own home—you can do whatever you like. Taste the wine. What does it want? What do you want? Add sliced fruits, juice (if you like—I always like orange juice in my sangria), sprigs of aromatic herbs, ice, and a dash of liquor. Smile.

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This week I’ve been suffering from a lingering chest infection, so my cooking hasn’t exactly been on-point. However I did make a riff of this pork chops and creamy mustard gnocchi dish on Tuesday—the weather has been wintery, so why not eat like it too?

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Other Stuff

• This week, Fred Garratt-Stanley wrote about missing pub pool tables and the changing uses of pubs for Pellicle

• A paywall-free archive version of Pete Brown’s engaging history of CAMRA

• A wonderful collection of vintage branded food clocks

• Apoorva Sripathi dives deep into the emotions she feels when looking at the perfectly bland and decanted pantries of the rich and famous

• In the Loudemile Substack, fantastic simple ideas for cooking for friends when you actually can’t cook

• Liberty Hodes wanders around Bradford to visit Fountains Cafe and take photos of the perfect 70s signs and typography

• I can’t tell you how obsessed I am with the video for Tove Lo’s banger Busy Girl featuring dancer Finnbar Love. Before you click let me warn you it’s NSFW and total art

My Stuff

• Wine Myths: Italian Wine is for Italian Food - for Glug

• Pellicle reached an all-time Patreon supporters high this week, meaning we’re closer to our goal of 500 supporters than ever. Please consider becoming one of them!

• An intro to the wine region of Lazio - for Glug

• ICYMI: My profile of a perfect pub, The Swan With Two Necks in Pendleton, Lancashire

• I redesigned my newsletter logo. It’s taken from a painting by an unnamed painter from the German school in the 19th century, of a maid downing a leftover glass of champagne in secret. Appropriate.