The Parish of Plenty

I was talking to someone earlier about an article I wrote a few years ago when Otter Brewery’s Patrick McCaig and I visited a corner of Somerset I later called the Parish of Plenty. So I’ve dug out the old article from my files and placed it here - I do not know if all the people mentioned are still producing amazing food and drink - let’s hope so - but it’s interesting reading about this place anyway…

As more and more people become convinced by the idea that this region should be the nation’s premier, go-to, zone for quality food and drink, it is worth asking a question about proof…

Vineyard on the southern slopes of the Pennard Ridge

Is there, amid the plethora of regional foodie tales of wonder and success, a single story that shows the West Country is what Tuscany is to Italy, or Provence is to France? In other words, the food capital of the UK, if not Northern Europe?

Well, today we travel to a small area of Somerset which is a kind of microcosm that effectively and rather dramatically shows how the South West rules the British roost when it comes to home-produced food and drink.

In just a couple of parishes around a low eminence of hills called the Pennard Ridge there are an amazing number of producers making all manner of high quality edible or drinkable examples which show why the region can hold its head above the rest.

We are talking about quality wine, award-winning artisan cheeses and remarkable fruit liqueurs… 

This occasional series sponsored by Otter Brewery was meant to be only about drinks producers - but when poet and regional food and drink expert James Crowden came up with the idea of visiting the Pennard Ridge we immediately agreed to include the local cheese-makers as well. After all, cheese and wine do go hand in hand.

“People think about cheese and wine parties as being from the 1960s, but they do go extremely well together and here there is stunning wine and stunning cheese within a two mile radius,” said James as we travelled, first to the village of Wraxall a few miles east of Glastonbury.

“This is a food and drink hotspot,” he added. “There’s a reason… The area has good grazing, a good climate. The soils are good generally - grass grows really well here, and apples grow well too. 

Brian Shirley and Jacky Brayton who retired from the vineyard this year

“I’ve known about the local cheesemakers for years,” he went on. “I knew there was a particularly interesting cheesemaker and an interesting organic vineyard - but more recently I was taking a walk through Wraxhall Vineyard and I saw a guy pruning… That is how I came to meet Brian Shirley and Jacky Brayton.”

Which is where we began our foodie safari in deepest darkest East Somerset. Wraxall is located on the south-facing slope of the ridge as it marches east to divide the Vale of Avalon - home of the Glastonbury Festival - from the wider expanses created by the River Brue. 

The vineyard faces south across this great fertile vale and it’s a warm slope - on the morning we visited, my own West Somerset garden had been under frost while this place had been ice-free.

The vineyard was originally planted in 1974 and during the 1980s won many accolades, but by the mid 1990s it had become neglected. I have just phoned the vineyard actually and learned that Brian and Jacky retired this year but that it has been taken on by a couple called Lexa Hunt and David Bailey - anyway - I’ll continued with the old article I wrote some years ago…

“I didn’t know brambles could grow so big,” laughed Brian, who used to be a head-hunter working in California’s Silicon Valley before looking for a “retirement project”. 

By the time he and Jacky bought the place in 2007, all the original plantings - with the exception of the Madeleine Angevine vines - were lost. So the couple set about restoring the vineyard and planting new varieties.

“We were looking for somewhere to live in Somerset or Devon and one day we were in Sherborne and there was a vineyard for sale. You don't see that very often - and we bought it instantly,” said Jacky. “We kept saying we’d keep the vines that were here, but we would not restore the whole vineyard. But after three months we did. 

“Our wine-maker, Steve Brooksbank, trained at Pilton Vineyard so he's local to the whole thing,” she said, explaining that she and Brian concentrate on nurturing the vines while Steve does the actual winemaking. “Steve was already making for a number of vineyards and had invested in a very professional winemaking operation. He’s very local to here, so we couldn’t be luckier - we pick our grapes and half hour later they are being pressed.” 

The couple showed us how the vines are trained in a modern system known as the Geneva Double Curtain. “The Geneva bit is from the name of the university in New York State,” said Brian. “It’s about having a high canopy - that gives you more sunlight exposure and very good air movement, which is much better for vines in damper environments like the West Country.”

I can vouch that Wraxall Vineyards award-winning wines are superb. There’s a Sauvignon Blanc style; a Madeleine Angevine - a Loire-type grape that grows well in Somerset to make a fruity white; a Pinot Noir Rosé; a blend called the Somerset Dry; and last but not least a couple of sparkling wines which are fabulous. 

Fabulous with cheese, as well as fish, light meats and just about anything else summery. And talking of cheese we were off down winding lanes - past the big Barber dairy installation which, it must be said, makes a very good cheese - to meet a man with a wonderful name, who creates sublime hand-made cheeses that are the pot of gold at the end of a dairy rainbow.

Meet Philip Rainbow who he has been making artisan cheeses for longer than just about anyone else in the country. Philip can notch up just over half a century in the game, and for the past decade he’s been running his own outfit called the Somerset Cheese Company. 

The wonderfully named Philip Rainbow

Mr Rainbow is a modest man who operates out of a modest set of buildings. When he opens the door in the concrete block wall in what looks like a disused farmyard you wonder if your guide hasn’t made some mistake - but soon you find yourself in a rabbit warren where some of the best cheeses in the West Country are made. 

“We do three different goats’ milk cheeses,” said Philip. “The Pennard Ridge, which is a Caerphilly-make. The Pennard Vale which is in the cheddar style. We also smoke that. Then we did another one because I realised all goat cheeses were white, so I made a red one - basically a Red Leicester only made with goats’ milk.

“Then we do a sheep’s cheese - the milk comes across Somerset from Carhampton. That’s a cheddar style. We also have a water buffalo cheese which people with milk intolerances can eat.”

Finally Philip got on to the cows’ milk cheeses: “You can see six churches from this hill so our Six Spires is a cheddar-style. Being different to everyone else we make all our cheese into wheels rather than big trucks,” he explained as he showed us the system he uses.

“Finally we have a Channel Island cheese which is matured and then washed with a beer solution twice a week, and that is called Rainbow's Gold.”

The Somerset Cheese Company also does a range of flavoured cheeses, which are all delicious. 

Now, for more twisting lanes - and another cheesemaker. This time it was Fred Gould whose family has been making cheddar cheeses in the area for decades at East Pennard. A unique recipe handed down over the generations is used and the cheese is matured for anything up to two years to give it flavour.

If you like plain and simple cheddar (who doesn’t?) the Gould cheese is as good as anything on the market. We met cheerful Fred, who looks after the farm side of the operation - but alas his sister Jean Turner, who’s in charge of making the cheese, wasn’t around. 

So we bought supplies and continued to our final stopover, the Avalon Vineyard. After having witnessed the neat efficiency of the Wraxall Vineyard, this place was a bit different. Both the land and its owner, the inimitable Dr Hugh Trip, have a relaxed laid-back air that seems to suggest life, the vineyard, and everything else can look after itself. 

“What brought me here was escaping London in the 1970s,” said the retired zoologist. “I didn't have any ambition at the time. Having an extra bit of rough old land I couldn’t think what to do with it, but I'd been picking grapes at a local vineyard and I thought: if they can do it, why can't I?

“I had no idea I'd end up doing this years later, but it evolved and grew. The grape variety I liked best was the Seyval, so I thought - that's what I am going to plant, and I am not going to spray anything. Everyone threw up their hands, but in my arrogance and foolishness I stuck with it. So I carried on without spraying and the vines looked fine, the grapes were fine, and we had bumper crops.

“We planted in 1981 and they've never been sprayed. So we thought: right - organic wine - at a time no one had heard of organic wine. Compared to most vineyards we are very hands off,” said Dr Hugh. “I just let the vines get on with it. They don't seem to mind. We are not after massive crops - we just want enough to have bit to sell.”

But Hugh’s best sellers are to be found in the range of fruit wines he makes. “We have things like gooseberry, tayberry, raspberry, cherry. Everyone seemed to love them so I got into buying honey to make mead. In fact, Glastonbury is the mead drinking capital of the world. Then I encountered other people's liqueurs so I thought I could do that too.”

Avalon Vineyard’s fruit liqueurs throw a fruit filled punch - but if I had tasted any more than a single tiny sip, I wouldn’t have been able to end my day long food and drink safari in what I now call the Parishes of Plenty.

Later Patrick McCaig, of Otter Brewery, commented: “This series is all about quality producers mixing the West Country’s natural resources with a little imagination to make delicious and distinctive drinks. 

“Today’s two vineyards are a great example of just that. The resurgence in British winemaking is great to see and this little pocket of Somerset is clearly setting a very high standard. Just like our brewery, both of these vineyards have been real labours of love. But you could see the sense of pride on their faces as they poured the end result of all that hard work. 

“Matching each of the wines with local cheeses, as we’ve done today, is a great way for anyone to taste the local landscape, support these small artisan producers and be reminded just how lucky we are to live in the West Country.”

RECIPE

Wherever my food pages go we attempt to find a recipe - and this is Jacky Brayton’s favourite way of cooking with her excellent sparkling wine. Of course, buying a bottle of the Wraxall vineyard would be best, but any sparkling wine will do… 

FILLET OF SALMON WITH CREAMY CHAMPAGNE (Wraxall Sparkling Wine) SAUCE WITH TOMATO GINGER SALSA.

SAUCE

200 ml fizz (use sparkling wine - still white wine will not do as you need a delicate taste)

2 tubs 280 ml fresh fish stock ……1 fish stock cube will do or those little concentrated pots.

2 spring onions

Few sprigs parsley

double cream

season to taste 

Put fizz, stock, parsley, spring onions to in pan, boil for about 20 mins until much reduced.

Add double cream. You want a good amount of sauce and I play this by ear and taste - but I take the parsley and spring onions out just before serving..

SALSA

4 – 6 tomatoes depending on size.  If using cherry or small plum toms use a few more – finely chopped

1-2 shallots peeled and finely chopped

1 level tablespoon root ginger, grated

½ teaspoon dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

I usually put a little bit of caster sugar in – but only a tiny bit.

2 level tablespoons fresh basil or parsley or 1 of each.

Mix ingredients together and leave for at least ½ hour

SALMON

1 fillet of salmon per person about 6 oz each

 Slug of dry white wine, lemon juice, olive oil.  Bake for 15 mins. 

Assemble.  A good puddle of sauce, add cooked salmon and top with salsa.