Let me start by saying that, wine being my favourite thing in the world, in my world the grape is far from humble, the grape is queen. I was kindly invited to Humble Grape Canary Wharf to enjoy an informal wine tasting and food pairing, and while I am the furthest thing from a wine expert (despite being a regular consumer), I will do my best to do it justice.
Humble Grape, Canary Wharf is the fifth addition to the wonderful wine bar family (the first on was Battersea), and has opened on the waterfront with a lovely terrace that I bet will be beautiful in the summer. The interior is bright, with a central dusty dark pink banquette, hanging plants and lights, and accents of rose gold throughout (including the cutlery which I loved!)
To start with let me tell you a little bit about Humble Grape’s wonderful ethos. They have approximately 400 wines by the bottle, which are constantly rotated, and their focus is on small family-run wineries, making sure they get the recognition they deserve that they might not get from other wine bars. Not only are the wines made with love but they also come from sustainable, biodynamic and organic vineyards (guilt-free wine I hear you say?) All of this would usually intimidate the hell out of me if it wasn’t for Humble Grape’s entire ethos being about making wine accessible. They are all-inclusive wine bars that import directly, cutting out agents, importers and distributers that works to break down the snobbery surrounding wine– pretty great right?
Our brilliant Italian waitress was exceptionally knowledgeable about all the wines and also really friendly, which made the experience feel more like a friendly chat rather than being talked at about the wines. To start the experience off we tasted Cremant d’Alsace Rosé Allimant-Laugner from France, made in the same way as Champagne from 100% Pinot Noir it is a delicate, clean and elegant wine with a really beautiful colour to it. The wine comes from a winery of 12 generations of winemakers, which is pretty incredible, all their wines are vegan and fermented in stainless steel. This beautiful wine was paired with chickpea fritters with a delicious lemon aioli, a bowl of crostini (so morish I would love these with a bottle of wine on the sofa for a night in…) BUT let me just tell you the star of the show, the star of my whole life in fact, was the Burrata (surprise surprise). The creamy ball of heaven is a mozzarella ball injected with indulgent stracciatella, with smoked confit tomatoes and basil oil. Yum. Yum. Yum.
Once we had got over the Burrata (sort of), we tasted a white wine called Hellenthal Kellerei Gruner Veltliner 2018 from Austria. The Hellenthal Kellerei winery is owned by two best friends, one who gave up his financial job in the city and a winemaker who knows the terroir of the Retzerland. This was paired with aubergine & ricotta ravioli with a rich tomato sauce, crisp aubergines, this went beautifully with the wine (which is obviously the point). We also got to try the roast sweet potatoes with feta, pecans and fried sage, four things I would never have put together (mostly because I can’t cook), but that worked deliciously well!
I am a red wine girl at heart so I was very excited about this next one. The red wine we tasted was Pico Cuadro Vendemnia Seleccionada, 2016, Ribiera del Duero, from Spain. With a smooth and silky finish, Humble Grape describes this wine as ‘hedonistic’, so of course, it was exquisite. This my favourite of the winemaker stories that we heard, founder and winemaker Filipe Castrillo Martin started his venture in a temporary garage on his parents’ front lawn, he now has over 25 tiny plots of vines and has built a winery on his parents’ front lawn…watch out mum and dad, I’m en route home to start a winery! Humble Grape then made all my dreams come true, bringing me cheese to pair with my hedonistic rouge. It was paired with Oxford Isis cheese, cornichons and more crostini (yay). Oxford Isis is a soft cows cheese with a washed rind, with a creamy consistency and a pronounced flavor. Luxurious wine and creamy cheese…my idea of heaven!
Finally, we tasted the Dutton-Goldfield Chardonnay Rued Vineyard, 2014, Russian River, from California. This aromatic and floral wine is produced by a 5th generation farmer Steve Dutton who had worked on vineyards since he was 5 years old, and Dan Goldfield an equally seasoned winemaker. Our final wine was paired with luxuriously rich handmade chocolate truffles, the perfect way to end a truly memorable experience.
Discovering the stories behind the wines that we sampled, and the all-inclusive manner in which the wines are presented, set Humble Grape apart from any wine-bar or winetasting I have been to before. I have also heard great things about their bottomless brunch and you better believe I will be trying this out for myself…watch this space.
Humble Grape have kindly gifted me a similar wine tasting and food pairing experience for me to give away in a competition for my Instagram followers, so if you like the sound of what you’ve read, watch out for the competition this week and enter enter enter!
