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Blind Tasting

April 11, 2010 3 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized


Arriving at Dans Le Noir restaurant in Clerkenwell for a blind wine tasting, my mum and I are told to leave our bags, coats, phones and watches in a locker.

‘No light must get into the dining room’ commands the owner.

A group of us are led in, conga style, hand on the shoulder of the person in front while our Italian waiter, Roberto, wearing big shades and an outfit more suited to a rave than a restaurant, leads us into the velvety pitch black interior.

‘Follow my voice,’ he says. ‘Feel the back of your chair.’

I’m obviously too slow, for he then pushes my bum onto my seat.

‘There are six glasses in front of you and behind that a water jug, glass and spittoon.’

We feel gingerly in front of us, the glasses are made of plastic, probably a health and safety requirement of this tasting. I hold my hand up in front of my face. I can see nothing. Voices are louder, there is a base note of panic in the air. Our waiter is blind, and in a reversal of the usual restaurant hierarchy, he is in control, for we are out of our comfort zone. Dans le noir is a restaurant where you eat and drink in absolute darkness. For this tasting, our preconceptions about drink, labels and flavour will be tested by the loss of the major sense: sight. I try to write notes on the wine. I dig my nails into the paper to mark where I have written, fashioning my own instant Braille. I don’t dare use the spittoon as I fear I might gob into my neighbour’s lap. Roberto claps but I can smell him coming.

‘Are you normal?’ he asks the lady opposite me

His voice comes near to me. ‘Are you vegetarian my pretty?’ he asks.

How does he know if I’m pretty, I wonder? I feel heavy plates thud onto the table. My mum says:

‘I want to take my glasses off. I’m not sure why. It feels wrong to wear them in the dark’

I fumble around with some canapés. I feel the rough texture of what appears to be tiny bruschetta. Are these rolls of wet vegetable courgette perhaps? There is also one mystery item that tastes suspiciously like paté. There are 4 tastes in wine: sweetness, acidity, bitterness and saltiness. One might add umami, the 5th taste. Other things to take into account are weight and wateriness. In the dark smell came to the fore. I have heard that even wine experts cannot tell the difference between red and white wine served at identical temperatures if they are blindfolded. However the difference seems obvious here; the reds are astringent, more tannin.

A female voice fades in, ‘I don’t mind food and drink in the dark, but not men.’

The hardest task is to pour the water into the glass. No, the hardest task is to put the jug down again without knocking over all the glasses. Finally the tasting is over, we are led out, my mum is relieved, she’d had enough. I feel relaxed. But then, as a photographer, I’ve spent years in darkrooms. The dim lights in the lobby area, where we emerge, hurt our eyes. We are asked to mark down which wines we liked best. I peer at my notes, they are scribbled on top of each other, like automatic writing. Upstairs it is revealed that this was a tasting of Jacob’s Creek wine. Would we choose the same wines in a supermarket as those we had liked without knowing the label? This blind tasting was a way of challenging preconceived ideas about taste. I prefer an oaky chardonnay or a full bodied rioja-like Tempranillo, light or no light, but others were surprised by the disparity. I like Jacob’s Creek wine, but imagine if you were given a tasting of Blue Nun or Liebfraumilch, wines that have a naff reputation? This was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. Highly recommended. Dans Le Noir
30-31 Clerkenwell Green
Clerkenwell
EC1R ODU Tel: 020 7253 1100

*Wine writer Anthony Hanson in his tome ‘Burgundy‘ states that “tasters can be divided into 2 groups, group 1 are… uncertain of their skills…anxious that lack of knowledge bars them from deciding for themselves…they remain dependant on others…often have an eye on names and labels and tasting scores, and …miss out on wines pleasures. Group 2 people are those who have made the jump, who look forward to putting their nose into a glass of wine as soon as it is poured. They know that finding words to describe or talk about a wine is difficult, but they will have a go”Coincidentally (?) we were divided into two groups, group 1,consumer press and group 2, trade press (or ‘normal alkies’ and ‘professional alkies’).

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Comments

  1. Sarah

    April 11, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    I've been wanting to go for ages and now reading your review I want go even more.

    Thanks for such a descriptive review.
    Sx

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    April 11, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    I enjoyed reading about your experience.

    When myself and a group of friends went we were all sat in a line which was disappointing as it was less fun with us not sitting opposite one another. Also, we did think the food was dreadful! Very cheap stuff.. Good experience I guess but for £40 you expect the food to be at least edible.

    Reply
  3. theundergroundrestaurant

    April 12, 2010 at 2:15 am

    Anonymous: I would feel annoyed by that too. I didn't pay, it was a press tasting and I only had canapes which were very nice. I haven't had a meal there.

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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