Come fly with me
Dinner at Forza Wine with Folias de Baco
It will come as no surprise to anyone who either knows me or has ever read this newsletter that I am a big fan of Forza Wine. I could make some kind of self-effacing joke here about the Salomon-wearing, sighthound-owning, Creative-Directing types and their companions that Forza has built its empire on catering to. But a) that’s been done to death and b) it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that somewhere with reliable and comforting food, good wines and cocktails, friendly service and cracking views has become such a reference point (not to mention, it offers genuinely good value when compared to many of its counterparts).
So when my friend and fellow craic-haver, Steph, invited me to the launch of Air Forza, the restaurant’s new series of events pairing wine flights with a set five-course menu, I took to the Overground to head south, faster than one of your aforementioned sighthounds (sorry).
The menus for each Air Forza event are created by Forza’s junior chefs. I really love seeing bars and restaurants putting their trust in more junior members of their team, those who are earlier in their careers and who might not have the opportunity to flex certain muscles they’re looking to build or try out something new otherwise. I know that for me, I wouldn’t have been able to get to the point I’m at in my career without the trust and support of people who’d been doing it for a lot longer than me – so big props to the team at Forza for coming up with the concept and executing it so well.
But onto the wine. A quick scroll through the snaps of various bottles of wine in my camera roll from the last few years gives a good insight into how much I enjoy the wines from Folias de Baco, a Portuguese estate based in the Douro Valley. You’ll likely recognise the wines and their labels, prolific across the shelves of many of London’s best bottle shops. The wines are often labelled ‘Uivo’, translating to howl, – a nod to the biodiversity and resulting furry tailed visitors that winemaker, Tiago Sampaio, encourages in the vineyard.
The wines are largely in line with the sort you would expect from Forza (complimentary) – easy going, juicy and sessionable. But that’s not to suggest the wines are simple, or lacking character. These are wines with a real sense of place and tradition behind them, both of the Douro and the Sampaio family. The estate has belonged to the family for generations, but it was 1999 when Tiago convinced his father to begin making wine again, before starting Folias de Baco in 2007.
While the wines stand out from others in the region, on account of Tiago’s preference for regenerative farming, the location of their estate (considered somewhat marginal, due to the high elevation and difference in soils to the rest of the region), and the lightness and freshness of the wines, Tiago honours the traditions of the region in other ways. He chooses to make wines in the style that farmers would have made for themselves in decades gone by – including a Palhete, a field blend made from a blend of red and white varieties – as well as rehabilitating varieties that have fallen out of fashion with other winemakers, despite the quality of the wines they can produce.
Ultimately, though, Tiago believes that the importance of wine is that people enjoy it – with friends, with good food, and without pretence.
We were welcomed with a glass of the Curtido Pet Nat, made from 100% Moscatel Galego. As you would expect from a wine in the Muscat family, this was an apricot bomb, with a soft and furry texture to match. The fizz is gentle rather than searing, which does fall off after a while – though given that the Curtido began as a still wine before they decided to make a sparkling version, this didn’t massively bother me. A perfect aperitivo option, and definitely one to be reaching for once the temperature outside starts creeping up again.
The first course arrived – a combo of torresmos and plates of rainbow pickles. After lobbing a particularly beautiful but – excuse me – very fucking hot slice of pickled jalapeno in my gob, I was very relieved to see the next flight arrive at our table.
The first white wine of the evening was their Rabigato, a variety commonly planted in the Douro but not often made into a single variety wine. Vinified in stainless steel, the wine is a pure reflection of the fruit and the terroir – in Tiago’s words, “I grow grapes, not oak”. There’s a cool, steely minerality to the wine, reminiscent of oyster shells, which paired with its persistent saline finish, made it a refreshing pairing for the salty and flavourful torresmos, as well helping to ease my singed taste buds after being humbled by the chilli. A great option for fans of Albariño or unoaked Chardonnay.
We were then brought the second flights of wines – the Vinhas Velhas Branco, a field blend of over 15 local varieties, both white and pink, from 80 year old vines. The fruit was fermented and aged for a year in chestnut barrels, in line with more traditional Douro wine making, with the chestnut imparting a more discreet and delicate influence on the wine than if it had been vinified in oak.
The table was then presented with plates of butterflied sardines in francesinha sauce – a rich and lightly spiced sauce made with tomato and beer – along with charred wedges of hispi cabbage on a bed of chickpeas stewed in blood orange and paprika. Both dishes happily straddled the line between comfort and refinement, hearty without ever straying into overindulgent, and the gentle intensity of the dishes played nicely with that of the wine. In comparison to the previous flight and course, both were distinctly punchier – but there was an elegance and subtleness to both, with the combination leaving you feeling warmed and nourished, rather than reaching for the Gaviscon.
Next up, we had what was (along with the chickpeas) my favourite dish of the night – bitesize hunks of rare roasted beef on a bed of mashed broad beans, topped with a dollop of salsa tinto. I’m not usually arsed about beef, but there was something about the crispy charred edges, the tenderness of the cuts, and the way that the bright orange disks of salsa sitting on top of them made them look like strange fried eggs that totally won me over.
As you might expect for a roast beef pairing, the accompanying flight was a red with a bit more oomph behind it. Another field blend, and a new addition to the Folias de Baco portfolio, but this time made with 10 local red varieties, which are foot stomped and fermented in old ‘lagares’ – large, open-top vats – before being matured for more than three years in various old barrels. There was plenty of fruit on show – a mix of raspberry, cherry and blueberry – but also a hint of dark chocolate and balsamic. Tiago described it as an approachable wine with personality and presence – enough character to keep you intrigued and match the richness of the beef, but relatively light and low enough in alcohol to stand up to the heat of the salsa. Something of a shapeshifter, making it an ideal choice for pleasing fans of a natty chilled red and more traditional red wine drinkers alike.
The final course was an ever-winning combo of chocolate mousse, sea salt and olive oil, with the added twist of a touch of mint. Having previously regaled the merits of pairing a dark chocolate mousse and a chilled red, I was practically beside myself to see this combination on the menu.
The dessert was served with Folias de Baco’s Renegado, the first ‘outside the box’ wine that Tiago made for the estate. The ‘palhete’ style wine was inspired by the kind of traditional wine that farmers would make and drink at home, through harvesting a field blend of red and white varieties, before fermenting, bottling and then drinking soon after harvest. Served chilled, the wine was all strawberries and cherries, with a fine earthy edge – blinded, I would have been in Beaujolais or young Pinot territory, which is no bad company to keep.
A cold and grey Tuesday evening in the middle of January was always going to be improved by drinking wine and sharing food with friends. But the combined effect of the unfussy and unpretentious menu successfully designed and delivered by two of Forza’s junior chefs, tasting a range of wines from across Folias de Baco’s extensive offering, and learning more about the wines from Tiago himself made for a really enjoyable and novel way to go out for dinner. The next Air Forza date has yet to be announced, but Peckham’s premier small plate vendor has many more junior chefs and winemakers lined up to deliver more dinners to get us through the worst part of the year. Short of a Ryanair flight abroad, you could do a lot worse.
This visit was kindly gifted by Forza, but views are all mine.