Jim's Loire: Roger Jones

Showing posts with label Roger Jones. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 March 2020

Harrowing times @ Little Bedwyn

On most occasions it is sad to say Goodbye and this is certainly the case with the closure on Saturday 28th March of the Michelin starred The Harrow restaurant in Little Bedwyn. The Harrow has been one of the UK's most exciting restaurants – great food and service and a remarkable wine list. After 21 great years Roger and Sue Jones will be moving on to new projects. Understandable that after 21 years it makes sense to turn the page, while you are still on top of your game but it is still of course a big loss.

With so many good memories we naturally had to go one last time and managed to secure a table for three last Friday (28th February) for lunch. An occasion to go the whole hog, so we went for the top menu @£85 for eight courses and selected two fine wines to form a partnership.

2018 The F*****g Marvellous Chenin, Ken Forrester
Ripe and finely concentrated
a top South African Chenin

Fine bread with delicate tasty hummus

Foie Gras and Salted Caramel Macaron

Cured Kinglas Salmon, Wasabi Pearls, Crème Fraiche

Welsh Beef Tartare, Indian Spices

Shrimp Burger, Foie Gras, Black Pudding, 1927 PX Caramel– an amazing dish(not yet available thru Burger King.....)

2015 Kupe Single Vineyard Pinot Noir, Martinborough
by Escarpment. Larry McKenna

Having finished Ken's FMC it was time to move onto Larry McKenna's lovely, complex and delicious NZ Pinot Noir from the southernmost part of North Island New Zealand. As Sue Jones said 'a classic NZ Pinot Noir'.

Wild Orkney Skrei Cod, Champagne Beurre Blanc, Spinach

Guineafowl Ravioli, White and Black Truffles, Artichoke

Optional dish: Five British cheeses

Harrow's signature dessert dish:
soft meringue with mango sauce

Raspberry soufflé

All in all worth every penny!!

Still European and hoping for
EU Associate Citizenship – svp M. Michel Barnier !!

Saturday, 17 December 2016

2016 Chenin Blanc, The Jones Family Collection

2016 Chenin Blanc, The Jones Family Collection

During our excellent dinner in November at The Harrow, Little Bedwyn, Sue Jones very kindly gave us a bottle of their Jones Family Collection 2016 Chenin Blanc to try. It comes from the Stellenrust winery in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The 2016 is very typical good South African Chenin Blanc with rich tropical fruit and attractive texture.

Sunday, 8 November 2015

The Harrow: "A foodie paradise in the middle of nowhere with an amazing wine list" The Sunday Times Top 100

The Harrow

Press release:

'The Harrow at Little Bedwyn climbed up to number 48 in the Sunday Times top UK Restaurants and was placed in the top 5 for the South West and for their Wine List.

Sue Jones; “ Today’s accolade in The Sunday Times together with retaining our Michelin Star for the 10th year in a row and recently winning The Harpers Best Wine List makes all the hard work that the team put in worth it. Our dedicated team of John, Marcin, Emily, Lee and Chris are passionate about their work and its great to share these accolades with them. Roger & I are also very aware that its the quality of our suppliers that get us to the top, and are of course so pleased to have such a great group of artisan suppliers behind us. We look forward to sharing our success with our great customers”.

Note that The Harrow will be spreading its wings this January with a range of Pop Up Restaurants in South Africa, promoting The Tri Nations Wine Challenge, which will also go to New Zealand in February 2017.'

See meals here and here.

Sunday, 9 August 2015

Two briliantly creative meals – part 2: Roger Jones@The Harrow

The Harrow in Little Bedwyn

As promised this is the second part of a double post on a couple of brilliantly creative meals we enjoyed in July: one in Lisbon at André Magalhães at his tiny Taberna da Rua Flores, Lisbon and this one at Roger Jones' The Harrow.

Amuse bouche – olives, garlic cloves and

the famous foie gras macaroons

2008 Chenin du Puy, AC Saumur Blanc, Frédéric Mabileau

(above and below)

Roger and Sue Jones kindly invited us to bring one or more bottles (BYOB). We took one – the 2008 Le Puy, Saumur Blanc from Frédéric Mabileau. Sadly we only had one bottle left as this one was delicious, very attractively evolved with honey and pineapple notes along with brilliantly clean acidity underlining what a fine vintage 2008 is for dry whites in the Loire. This was Frédéric's second vintage from his small plot of Chenin Blanc at Le Puy Notre Dame.

Pure Chenin this 2008 was picked in two tris – the first on 11th October and the second on 22nd October.

We chose the six course menu for £50 a head

Crab & pea cocktail

(above and below)

Classy olive oil

Sashimi of yellow fin tuna, caviar rocks, crème fraîche

with a stunning beetroot sorbet with wasabi

– dish of the evening against very tough competition.

The tuna was wonderfully fresh and Frédéric's Saumur

was a perfect match

Memorable decanter for a memorable wine

The Harrow has an excellent wine list reflecting the Jones' enthusiasm for the wines of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in particular. The Pinot Noirs from Felton Road (Central Otago) are one of the specially featured estates. We chose the 2010 Block 3, Pinot Noir, which was delicious and finely balanced, silky texture and lovely complexity with good freshness in the finish.

Line caught turbot, Périgord truffle risotto

New season Welsh lamb, Isle of Wight tomatoes

Mango, passion fruit and clementine parfait

After opting for a tasting plate of cheese, we finished the meal with this

fine dessert - 'Berry' - based on soft summer fruits

Not only was the food delicious, the service was impeccable, relaxed and friendly. We'll be back soon!!

Saturday, 1 August 2015

Two brilliantly creative meals – part 1: Taberna da Rua Flores, Lisbon

Fortunately André Magalhães was released
from his beer prison to cook for us this evening

At André's Taberna you order a series of

small dishes from the blackboard

Readers of previous posts will know how enthusiastic we are over André Magalhães' brillantly inventive cooking at his tiny Taberna da Rua Flores, Lisbon. Each time we are in Lisbon we try to eat there – we were back there in mid-July.

This will be a two-part post as more recently we made a wonderful dinner at Roger Jones' The Harrow in Little Bedwyn. I don't know whether Roger and André know of each other or have met but I suspect that they may well have a lot in common.