THE GODALMING FOOD COMPANY AND WINE SHOP
- Name: The Godalming Food Company
- Adress: 99 High Street, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1AQ
- Phone: +44 1483 239891
- E-mail: hello@godalmingfood.co.uk
- Web: www.godalmingfood.co.uk
- The Godalming Food Company: Is an artisan delicatessen in the historic town of Godalming in Surrey, also with an online shop. They source only the best local and regional produce from small independent producers who, like them, have a passion for fine food. The Godalming Food Company is run by Kevin who has spent many years working in the food and retail industry after starting out as a chef. Kevin and his business partners are extremely passionate about locally sourced, unique and high quality food and drink which are sustainable and have a great story behind them. As a town, Godalming has a great foodie heritage, with some fantastic restaurants, the regular farmers’ market, and the hugely popular food festival.
For Kevin and his team of passionate, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable staff. With so many great food producers in Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire, choosing the best produce is always enjoyable and it’s great fun working with local suppliers and learning their story and being able to share this with customers in the shop. We hope that the range of unique and delicious produce that we have brought together will tantalize your taste-buds and delight your palate. Please let them know if there is anything you would like source for you and for sure they will do thier best!!
- New and Events: If you'd like them to keep you up to date with new products, offers in the shop, seasonal events and foodie news please fill out the form at their web page. Ttheir mailing lists is a great way to find out about a range of regular customer events such as weekly tastings. If you are looking to expand your drinking palate and repertorie, this is often where you will find the best combination of hard-to-get products ans expert service. They are always eager to hear from their customers about what they stock, or what they'd like us to stock. Pop into the store and tell them what you think, or drop a message at their address: hello@godalmingfood.co.uk
- Godalming: Is a historic market town, civil parish and administrative centre of the Borough of Waverley in Surrey, England, 4 miles (6 kilometres) SSW of Guildford. The town traverses the banks of the River Wey in the Greensand Ridge. A hilly, heavily wooded part of the outer London commuter belt and Green Belt. Godalming is regarded as an expensive residential town, partly due to its visual appeal, favourable transport links and high proportion of private housing. In recent years it has been ranked the UK's third most desirable property hotspot, and voted the fourth best area of the UK in which to live.
The borough of Waverley, which includes Godalming, was judged in 2013 to have the highest quality of life in Great Britain, and in 2016 to be the most prosperous place in the UK. In 1881, it became the first place in the world to have a public electricity supply and electric street lighting. Godalming is 30.5 mi (49.1 km) southwest of London and shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France and Mayen in Germany. Friendship links are in place with the state of Georgia and Moscow. James Oglethorpe of Godalming was the founder of the colony of Georgia.
- Urbina Winery: Bodegas Benito Urbina is a remarkable family owned winery in Rioja. Four generations have dedicated themselves to the cultivation of vineyards and the production of exceptional wine. Tired of seeing their exceptional grapes blended away, the bodega began to age and bottle their own wines in 1975 - and they haven't looked back. Harvesting by the Urbina staff and family ensures only the finest grapes are picked and they resolutely refuse to use pesticides, or even weed killer. Tradition is king at the estate. Their mature wines and vintages are a living testament to the time honoured techniques that gave Rioja its name. A red wine classics, aged to smooth perfection in barrel and bottle, it's a fantastic match with a roast leg of lamb or rib of beef.
- Matching Food and Wine: For just about as long as we´ve been eating and drinking, the relationship between food and wine has sliit opinion. When it comes to matching wine food and wine, there are several schools of thought. There are the traditionalist, whow keep things classic and pure by creating conventional pairings. There are the noncomformists, who'd rather break the rules. Then there's the new breed: Those who understand and respect the classic combinations, but enjoy pushing the boundaries, too. And, of course, there are those who couldn't care less. All of which are fine, no matter which camp you fall into, food and wine mathcing is subjetive and personal. Most poeple will love the classic combinations, but equally love being surprised by combinations than would never have expected to work.
- Food and Wine Matching Rules: Consider the weight of the food and the wine. as possible, in order to create the foundation for the match. Next, look for flavours that are similar or at least complementary to one another. Zoom in on texture and how the acidity, tannin, sweetness, and temperature of the wine will help or hinder the dish. Making this all work is one of the hardest parts, but often it produces some of the best matches.
Always consider the individual ingredients, the overall dish, and how you intend to prepare it. All of this will have a huge impact on the success of your match. Fish, shellfish, poultry, game, meat, and cheese. Each is simply a "gateway" to a more expansive and diverse range of products - each in turn with its own distinct set of aromas, flavours, and textures. Add a whole variety of cooking methods, accompaniments, and sauces to the mix, and you begin to realize that there's all number of variables to consider when you're looking for the right wine.
Another strategy operates under the truism that "opposites attract" and brings together food and wine that have contrasting traits such as a crisp, acidic Sauvignon blanc and a fish with a creamy lemon sauce. The crisp acidity of the wine serves as a contrast that can cut through the creaminess of the sauce and give a different, refreshing sensation for the palate as opposed to what a complementary pairing, such as a creamy, buttery Chardonnay, would bring. For most of history, the "complementary strategy" was the prevailing thought on food and wine pairing. In the 1980s, as more people started to discover and experiment with pairings, the idea of using contrast started to gain more favor. It follows the same idea that the "salty/sweet" pairing does in cooking (such as salty peanut butter with sweet jelly).
Beyond the basic guidelines listed above, food pairings can dive even further into matching several layers of texture and flavors. The term "bridge ingredients" refers to ingredients and flavors that have certain affinities in wine pairing (such as slow-cooked onions with creamy wines, etc.). It can also refer to using particular herbs and spices perceived in the wine (such as rosemary in some Cabernet Sauvignon) and adding them to the dish as an ingredient. Their presence in a dish may increase the likelihood that the certain wines will pair well.
- How to Match Weight: The weight or the "feel" of the food or wine in your mouth is the key to food and wine matching. First and foremost, you want to try to match the weight of your food and wine evenly, so that one doesn't overpower the other. As the food gets heavier should the wine too. Balancing weight is the key. This way the subtleties and best parts of each are highlighted, rather than pushed to one side and ruined by a "heavier" partner.
When we talk about weight, we're not talking in "grams" or "kilograms", but rather the "feel" of either the food or the wine when it's in your mouth. For example, steamed piece of chicken is much lighter than the same piece of meat stuck in a casserole dish and roasted with a bottle of red wine and a whole block of butter. For example this are some wine weights. Light (Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Gamay). Medium (Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Pinot Noir). Heavy (Oaked Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz/Syrah).
- How to Match Flavours: Understanding complementary flavours will usually mean the difference between a good match and a great match. Those of you with an above-average knowledge of food have a real head start here. Being able to identify specific flavours is one thing, but knowing which flavours will complement those you've identified is another skill altogether. This is where chefs have a real advantage. Start by looking for common flavours, or "hooks", between your wine and food. Some of these will be more obvious than others. Let's use a good old roast chicken as an example, with its sweet, full-flavoured meat that becomes richer thanks to time spent in the oven.
Assuming we have already got the "weight" thing under control, you should be looking for a wine style with a richness of flavour to match. Next, take it a step further by thinking about complementary flavours. Chicken is very good with lemon, thyme, garlic, butter, and mushrooms, all of which has some of us thinking of a full-flavoured white wine, probably with a bit of oak, and more than likely Chardonnay. Watch out for lemon and lime, chillies, and other heavyweight spices. Also, some wines will challenge certain dishes. For example Gewurztraminer, Viognier, and other aromatic styles.
While it is often said that "taste is subjective", there are quantifiable taste characteristics (like bitter, sweet, salty or sour) that can be perceived and measured as low, moderate or high, such as measuring the sweetness of honey or the saltiness of oysters. Flavors, such as butterscotch, char and strawberry, are more personal and can't be quantifiable. Flavors are either perceived to be present or not. The perception of flavors is linked to our sense of smell, while tastes come from the sensory glands of the taste buds. Though individual sensitivity to the different taste "senses" can vary, wine experts will often recommend pairings based on these more objective measurements rather than the more subjective concept of "flavors".
In wine there are three basic tastes-bitter, sweet and sour. These three tastes can each be identified with a primary component of the wine-tannins (bitter), residual sugar (sweet) and acidity (sour). A fourth component, alcohol, is identified in wine tasting with a perception of "heat" or hotness in the back of the mouth and is the primary factor influencing the body of the wine. The residual heat of the alcohol can be considered in food pairing with some ingredients minimizing the heat of the wine while some will accentuate it.
- How to Match Acidity: All wine contains naturally occurring acidity that´s an essential part of every wine´s make-up. Acid helps to balance a wine's flavours, adding a crisp, sometimes mouth-watering character to it. As a natural preservative, acid also plays an important role in helping wine to age. You can't smell or taste acidity in wine, you simply feel it. It registers as a "pins-and-needles" sensation that you pick up on either side of your tongue. How to match acidity Beyond flavour and texture matching, other essential ingredients in the marriage between food and wine are "tools". Acid is one of these.
Often described as "sour" or "sharp", acidity is a naturally good tool for cutting, cleansing, and refreshing. Think salty battered fish washed down with a nice cold glass of bubbles. The acidity in the wine helps to cut through and strip away any oily y textures left behind, while cleaning and refreshing your palate at the same time. In the grand scheme of things, finding a wine with the right tools is just as important as finding a wine with the right flavours and texture. Acidity in food usually comes via a squeeze of lemon or lime, or a splash of vinegar somewhere during the preparation. While a little bit is fine, too much acidity in a dish can make your wine seem flat and dull. The same thing goes for wine, too much acidity in your wine will kill off the flavours of your meal. Finding a balance is the key.
- How to Match Tannin: Tannin in wine comes from the skins and pips of grapes and is one of the best tools for matching "meaty" food. Tannin helps to improve the colour, texture, and structure of wine. This doesn't apply to all wines, though, as tannin is far more common in reds where the skins spend more time in contact with the juice. Like acidity, tannin has no smell or taste. Just texture, which at its most obvious registers as a bitter drying character on the back of your tongue. It can feel coarse and grainy, or silky and smooth, much of which depends on the grape variety and how it was handled in the winery.
For example, if you put the kettle on. It boils. You make yourself a cup of hot tea but, before you have time to remove the tea bag, the phone rings. You answer it, you talk, and you forget all about what you‘d been doing previously. By the time you eventually return, your cup of tea is jet-black, luke-warm. and as bitter as anything you've ever put in your mouth. That right there is tannin.
Tannin is one of the true heroes of food and wine matching. Like acid, tannin is a really useful tool. Another good cutter, tannin is great at working to get through major obstacles such as protein and fat. Italy's red superstar, Sangiovese (the main grape in Chianti), is a good example. Hard going to drink on its own due to high levels of tannin, yet pair it with the right foods (meat, pasta, or anything a little bit fatty) and you'll struggle to find a better match. Example of diferent tannin levels in wine: Light (Most white wines, Gamay, Cabernet Franc); Medium (Tempranillo, Malbec, Grenache), High (Sangiovese, Shiraz/Syrah, Mourvèdre).
- How to Match Sweetness: Sweet food needs a wine of equally sweet proportions. Get that right, and you are heading for a match made in heaven. Sweet wines are made in a different way from dry wines, and can have varying levels of sugar in them. Instead of all the natural sugar being fermented to alcohol until the wine is dry, some is kept in the final wine. How much depends on the wine style being made, from off-dry to super-sweet.
Sugar poses a number of challenges for wine and, as a result, great combinations are likely to require a bit more thought. For example Gelato needs Moscato, Thai food needs off-dry Riesling, pan-seared foie gras needs Sauternes, sticky toffee pudding needs Pedro Ximenez, and Stilton needs port. Well, at least that's what the rule book says. Experiment for yourselves, but know that as the weight and intensity of your food go up, so, too, should the weight and sweetness of your wine.
Fruit comes in such a vast range it can make it hard to match. But, demi-sec fizz and Moscato work well with most fruit, slightly chilled light red wines are brilliant with summer fruit, while late-harvest Riesling, Tokay, and Muscat all suit tropical fruit. Keep port, Madeira, Marsala, and sweet sherries for dried fruit. Sometimes it is best to appreciate food and wine separately. Dark chocolate and rich chocolate dishes show off best alone, while the top sweet wines (Sauternes, German Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein) do also. There are a few partners for chocolate however, including southern French sweet reds (Banyuls and Maury), Amarone from Italy, and liqueur Muscats.
- Temperature: Temperature is key when it comes to both food and wine. You may found a wine with all the right flavours, the right texture, and the toots to match. And yet all that hard work can be let down by something that is completely within your control wich is temperature. Understandably, if the wine has been poured, of course it's easier to warm a wine up than it is to chill it down. But, if you are in a restaurant, you can ask for an ice bucket with water and ice for a bottle of white that is too warm, and don't wait to take an iced-up-bottle out of its bucket if it is freezing cold. The whole temperature debate can be further fuelled by mentioning that tastes change depending on the temperature outside, so choose your wine according to taste.
A heavy, warming red might not be the best option for a sweltering summer barbecue, while a super cool, racy white might not make the cut for a cosy night spent in front of the fire. Flavour will be less obvious if too cold or more obvious if it is warm because the aromas in wine are subdued or enhanced accordingly. Acidity is defined better when the wine is cold, it is key for white wines. Tannin becomes bitter and more aggressive in a red wine that is too cold, but softens as it warms. Sweetness is always better chilled. The colder a sweet wine is, the less obvious the sugar and more zingy the wine. Each season has a massive impact on the colour, the smell, the flavours, the weight, and the texture of food. Also indicates the type of wines customers, will order.
- Spring fresh: At this stage, you know spring is just around the corner. Chilly mornings, sunny days, the return of green to the garden, short sleeves for the overly enthusiastic. Even the odd smiling face during rush hour. Like a rush of blood to the head, the first signs of spring come as a welcome relief from the bleakness of winter.
- Summer sun: Summer dishes come to life with bright and vibrant flavours. Juicy Sicilian peaches with paper-thin slices of sweet prosciutto and a drizzle of good olive oil quite literally signal the best of summer on a plate. This is the time of year for light wines. In particular, crisp unwooded whites, dry fruity rosé, and lightly chilled reds.
- Earthy autumn: As summer wears into autumn, flavours became richer, earthier, and more intense. Heavy whites become light reds as those blue skies become grey. Autumn is the season when wild mushrooms, dried woody herbs, greens that come with the first of the season's frosts, chestnuts, rabbit, quail, pheasant, pigeon, partridge, and duck are officially ready to eat. And it's a time of year when certain wines really come into their own. In particular, some reds and fuller whites.
- Winter warmers: Winter cries out tor robust, hearty ingredients. Slow-cooked meats, thick soups, and roasted root vegetables. Dishes that can quickly make you feel warm again. Big gutsy reds shine, wines with weight and stuffing.