Tasting Liverpool washed down with Bordeaux at The Liverpool Food & Drink Festival
What I loved about it:
So many excellent local restaurants all around the city took part in The Liverpool Food & Drink Festival, which ran from 2nd to 5th June 2022.
Location:
Suitable for:
Value for money (out of 10):
Website:
When Scouse food & French wines collide - blooming magnifique!
My May Bank holiday weekend was engulfed (in a delicious and thoroughly enjoyable way) by a host of events, all part of the Liverpool Food & Drink Festival, organised by Visit Liverpool.
Saturday night was all about wine tasting at Liverpool Town Hall; an absolutely breath-taking building inside and out, steeped in history and amazing architecture, and the perfect setting for an all-out Scouse meets French affair.
No sooner we were over the threshold of this fine building, we were handed our first glass of posh plonk from some of Bordeaux’s world-famous producers.
We (my partner and I) meandered around the building in awe of our surroundings, all whilst sipping different wines from no less than six regions of Bordeaux.
I’m no wine connoisseur but I know a good Rose when I slurp one and the Rose Crémant de Bordeaux was an absolute delight. Mark on the other hand, discovered his new favourite red wine.
We were each given six tokens for six tastings of wine, which was great value for an event that was ticketed at £18 a pop per person. I’m not a huge Vin de Rouge fan, so I left Mark in charge of sampling the reds, and I focused my efforts on sampling the whites and rose’s.
We had the opportunity to chat to the world’s finest wine producers too, which was a great opportunity to learn about the wines, the regions and where to head to when we book our little court voyage to Bordeaux – I want to sample more of these beautiful bouquets whilst I dance through the vines in the French sunshine. For now though, sipping them in the breath-taking surroundings of Liverpool Town Hall was pretty epic.
Martins Bank Building, right next to Liverpool Town Hall was the venue for Sunday afternoon’s gastronomic pop-up extravaganza courtesy of Chef Paul Askew.
The building opened its doors for the first time in over twenty years for Taste Liverpool so Mark and I felt pretty smug when we got our invite to this converted event. Once again, marrying Scouse grub with more delicious wines from the Bordeaux region
Paul Askew said – “This is about the story of Liverpool and Bordeaux Wines coming together to create something truly magical in the city and setting the path for years ahead too.”
Transformed into a bar and brasserie for Taste Liverpool, Martins Bank Building has never really caught my eye before – in fact I’m ashamed to say I’ve never heard of it, even though I’ve walked past it what must be a gazillion times.
This building really is a hugely important piece of Liverpool’s history. Did you know that it had 280 tonnes of gold stashed away in a vault during World War II? Sadly, it’s not longer there, after being shipped to Canada from Liverpool mid-War to keep it safe.
Anyway – less about the history let’s talk food…
The carefully curated menu featured locally sourced ingredients from across Liverpool; it paid homage to the amazing producers we have right here in our awesome city;
We tucked into:
Art School marinated Gordal olives, 8yr old balsamic, Castorani extra virgin olive oil & breads
James Peet’s Southport potted shrimps with samphire and cherry tomatoes on Rye bread bruschetta and cherry tomatoes on rye bread bruschetta
Sauté of Mr Askew’s Singapore style tiger prawns and Loch Duart salmon with spring onion, bok choi & fragrant wild rice
&
Slices of Seared salt-aged Cumbrian fillet of beef with red onion, rocket & Jersey royal potato, a soy & wasabi dressing and shallot puree
I washed the lot down with more Crémant de Bordeaux.
REVIEW
Handy links list
Read more of my blogs and articles
CLICK HERE
