Wine - it's a shared love amongst us all here in the baresca tapas family.
As you can see from the breadth of options available across our menu, we care a lot about what we pick. And to help us pick and source the finest flavours from around the world, we go to one incredible wine guru - Peter Bamford, owner of Modern French Wines
This is the first of a series of interviews with our suppliers, because while we spend so much time getting to know all of you - it's only fair that you get to know the talented team behind that tapas experience you have with us!
1. What is it that you love about wines that got you into working with them?
It’s the infinite variety of experiences that wine offers – that’s just so exciting; something that makes work a pleasure. And I don’t just mean the number of different wines which exist: it’s great fun to experience how flavours change as wines age, and even as they warm and breathe within one evening!
2. What is your favourite thing about working with the baresca tapas family?
Easy: their never-ending quest to improve. That doesn’t just keep me on my toes, it’s been a good model for me in my business. It’s meant there’s been a great sense of transparency in our relationship: always asking questions, knowing we’ll both respond honestly and constructively.
3. Any recommendations on what pairs best with the vast variety of tapas dishes on our menu?
One of the things I love about wine is how it’s part of regional culture and history: wines often evolved hand in hand with local food. So the easiest starting point for pairing with Spanish food is to drink Spanish wines! That said, we all learn our own lessons about which drinks work best for us with particular foods, so we’ve ensured that the baresca wine range has a good spread of international favourites too.
4. Any favourite dishes from the baresca Menu?
I suspect that – like most regular guests – the thing I like most about eating at baresca or escabeche is the variety on offer: we can create our own new experience every time. If pushed, maybe I’d go for the crispy fried squid with garlic aioli. So many textures in one dish!
5. What is your guilty pleasure go-to fast food?
I’ve long held on to the memory of eating a particular takeaway pizza on the night we moved into our first house. I still order the same set of toppings. They’re not very healthy, and I think I’m finally on the edge of talking myself out of it!
6. What is your favourite wine, personally?
In an ideal world, I’d be drinking red and white Burgundy. In my real financial world, I’ve cultivated a nerdy interest in the best wines of Beaujolais – an unfashionable, affordable region. I like the wines of a tiny area called Moulin-a-Vent in particular. But really I like wine for its variety, so I drink things from everywhere.
7. What is your favourite song and why?
Tempting though it is to say ‘Red, red wine’, by UB40, the reality is that with music – as with wine – tastes usually keep evolving. Recently I’ve been very surprised to find myself enjoying some piano music by Bach; something I found very un-musical indeed in the past. The Aria to the Goldberg Variations, played by Igor Levit, is something I keep going back to Youtube to listen to again.
8. Do you have any advice for anyone who would to like to work in your field?
The cliché about how to make a small fortune in the wine industry is: to start with a large fortune! That’s to say that loads of people go into it for reasons of passion, so it’s a crowded, competitive place. So, accept that the money won’t be good, but, yes, the journey is stimulating and rewarding.
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