Chicken Marbella (page 229 in Ottolenghi’s ‘Simple’ cookbook) is excellent if you’re looking for a dish to have with an older wine. The baked sweet/salty combination of dates, molasses, olives and capers is rich and gentle and pairs very well with soft, mature reds. Prepared ahead and baked in one dish, it’s so easy to make, leaving you free to enjoy the wine and the company on the night.
We received a note from Steve & Bea (friends and customers on our mailing list) recently, telling us they had opened a bottle of the 1997 Reserve Cabernet the previous night and thought it was still looking pretty good. It was a long time since we’d tasted this wine and so we were prompted to get a bottle from the cellar to see for ourselves. We stood the bottle upright for 24 hours to let any sediment settle whilst we assembled the chicken dish and put it in the fridge to marinate overnight.
The cork came out without difficulty and the colour looked deep on decanting. There was some youthful fruit flavour remaining in the wine, which was quite soft and fully mature but still good to drink. The finish showed a twinge of crisp acidity suggesting it’s time to drink up any bottles left in the cellar.
At 28 years of age this wine (or more precisely, this bottle) looked terrific.
1997 Noon Reserve Cabernet, a back vintage from our museum cellar.