Home to berry crumble and wonderful wine

Not my words, folks, that guarantee came from our late, great poet Seamus Heaney. Alas, unless I’ve been looking in the wrong places, it hasn’t happened this year. In fairness to Heaney, perhaps the second finest poet in the history of Irish poetry, the rain has been conspicuous by its relative absence of late and, if we disregard the recent glorious heatwave, I don’t think we’ve had sun for a full week since he wrote his wonderful Blackberry Picking poem back in 1965.

Almost as magnificent as Heaney’s poem is my own annual blackberry crumble which, in accordance with Gleug traditions, I bake for my darling wife, the redoubtable Madame G.- who has finally returned from her adventures in her native France - and I to feast upon on the second Sunday of September at our lovely home, Rose Cottage. Alas, so far this year the slim pickings I’ve gathered have barely been sufficient to adorn a couple of bowls of our breakfast cereal. For our juicy blackberry flavours we’ve had to turn instead to a pair of fabulous bottles of red wine. Indeed, at this time of year a mature red with the plum and blackberry flavours of late Summer or early Autumn seems entirely appropriate.

First among equals but just about gaining the nod is today’s Wine of the Week is the bold, full-bodied yet very approachable and wonderfully balanced 2019 McManis Family Petite Sirah (£11.95, The Wine Society,visit www.thewinesociety.com or telephone 01438-741177). An impressive bouquet with lots of brambly dark fruit flavours leads to an opulent palate where big cherry and blackberry flavours mingle with backnotes of dark chocolate and caramel before a lengthy finish with hints of oak and black pepper. This proved an ideal match to the delicious selection of French cheese and grapes which my Madame smuggled back to us along with some other wonderful bottles which I can’t mention here because they’re not sold here and probably shouldn’t be here. Ssshhhh.

Elsewhere, I’ve also been very taken by the satisfyingly savoury, sumptuously smooth and intensely fruity 2017 Les Dauphines Cotes du Rhone Reserve (currently £7, Tesco). More of those seasonal plum and blackberry flavours dominate a tangy palate alongside more subtle strands of cherry, dark fruit and chocolate before a lingering finish which is perked up by delightful hints of lick-your-lips liquorice. We plan to have it again with my Madame’s legendary chicken, peppers and potato with coconut milk and coriander - a meal we traditionally feast upon on the second Sunday of each September before that blackberry crumble.

Lovers of white, fear not, just because the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is descending upon us does not mean that I have forgotten you. Can you imagine anything better than to watch the sun set beyond the horizon on a balmy sunny evening like the ones we’ve been having of late with the woman you love and a glass or two of today’s final selection- the ferociously crisp, fabulously fresh and unctuously heady 2020 Saleta Moscatel Sauvignon Blanc (£7.25, the Wine Society)? Of course you can’t! An extravagantly floral bouquet leads to a lively palate, full of citrus and orchard fruit flavours before a brisk, refreshing finish. One for seafood and salads.

Heaney lamented in his poem that the berries would always turn to rot. Each year he hoped they’d keep, knew they would not. The old maestro didn’t know how lucky he was to have had any berries in the first place. I’d have been happy to bake him a crumble, if he’d only asked. “You see, Seamus,” I would have said, “blackberries are a bit like life- they’re very good, if you can find a few, but they’re not fair at all. Maybe you should write a poem about them?” Wish me luck in finding some for our crumble this Sunday. Till next week, tipplers, sante!

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