In the second of our series on personal styling, Christina Kautzky looks at the art of entertaining
“Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself,” begins Virginia Woolf’s classic Mrs Dalloway, documenting the main character Clarissa’s preparations in advance of a dinner party.
While the many steps hosts and hostesses take to ensure the perfect setting and perfect meal haven’t changed, times have.
Showing guests a good time, preparing a home-cooked meal, and sharing time around the table have always been the recipe for a successful dinner party. Unfortunately, budget considerations and not appearing to be ambivalent about the state of the world are chief concerns as well.
Without taking the joy out of entertaining, how do hosts walk that fine line between maintaining standards and elegance, and paying careful attention to the financial side of the equation?
The food
Entertaining at home is a personalised experience, and homemade touches are often what big-city dwellers miss most when meals are consumed in high-end restaurants or in front of a computer. In the same way that a rainy day in September conjures up images of curling up in front of the television and eating a bowl of hearty soup, the dreary mood set by newspaper headlines on a daily basis demands a cure in the form of comfort foods from around the world. Both guests and the wallet will appreciate it.
“I hosted a number of my husband’s colleagues the other week,” explains one corporate wife, “and we had ham imported from Spain, cheeses imported from France… all of these quite expensive ingredients for dinner. But it was the huge apple crumble I made that went down the best. It was gone in minutes; and it was incredibly cheap compared to the rest of the meal.”
Simple but well-loved classics are often much kinder to the bank balance than elaborate and exotic dishes with hard-to-find ingredients. And a beautiful roast chicken, a whole grilled fish, or time-honoured desserts never lack elegance or appeal.
The wine
The wine element is often the most fretted over, and with a desire to spend less, choosing drinkable bottles that are still of high quality is a goal more easily achieved than one might expect.
“There is a trend at the moment of focusing on the more ‘clever’ buys, which reflects the current sentiment (in the business world),” explains Alex Cox, managing director of Farthinghoe Fine Wine (www.farthinghoefinewine.com), a UK-based wine broking business with a history of serving the Asian region.
“I believe there is a particularly good case for ‘second’ wines, made by all the top properties. These are wines made from grapes from the Chateau/Domaine’s own estate, but of a slightly lesser quality, usually from younger vines or vine grown on less good soil,” he says. “However, they are made by the same wine-maker, under identical conditions as the ‘first wine’, or Grand Vin, and with the same level of investment, expertise and analysis. I believe that at one-third to one-sixth of the price of the Grand Vin, but for 70 percent of the quality, they represent excellent value. I buy quite a few.”
Cox recommends the 2003 Bordeaux vintage and 2005 Cru Bourgeois, both of which were excellent years for the lesser-priced wines on account of the rich, concentrated nature of the vintage, and represent excellent value and quality for “second wines”.
Similarly, Henry Hariyono, general manager of Singapore’s Artisan Cellars (www.artisan-cellars.com), says: “There’s an interesting movement in which the growers in the Champagne region, who normally sell their grapes to the big names like Veuve (Clicquot) or Dom Pérignon, are keeping the grapes for themselves and making their own champagne at significantly cheaper prices to the larger houses. And the quality is just phenomenal – just as good, if not better.” Those looking to celebrate with bubbly at home should look out for names like Pierre Gimonnet, Diebolt-Vallois, De Sousa and Nicolas Maillart, he adds, for excellent value for money and bubbles that still tickle the nose.
When choosing wine, Cox recommends famous vineyards for less. The Tuscan vineyard of Sassicaia offers a 2006 Guidalberto for around £220 (US$305) per case, versus a pricey £850 (US$1,175) per case when it first comes out. Additionally, some regions are inherently good value for money, like Rioja in Spain and Rhône Valley in France. Cox recommends 2004 Bodega Contino from Rioja and Domain Roger Sabon 2005, both of which cost less than £200 (US$276) per case.
The touches
Meat, wine and flowers can all add up, but smart hosts know that there are ways to cut costs without compromising on the quality. Second cuts of meat offer cooks the opportunity to turn less-expensive cuts into mouth-watering dinner options. Medallions cut and trimmed from the thin end of the oyster blade have less gristle and fat, and make excellent steaks. Similarly, teardrop skirt steak and medallions from the rump muscle can served with just as much confidence as their more expensive sisters, the rib eye and tenderloin.
Whether purchasing flowers for the table, or bringing them to a dinner party, beautiful stems are available for less. Florists in Hongkong, for example, charge bouquets with orchids and lilies for up to HK$700 (US$90), but Calla lilies and Gerbera daisies come in at half that price.
The key to entertaining with all the personal touches of a bull market, but the mindset of the bear, is to consider all options. Guests will appreciate a simple home-cooked meal, whatever the menu, and drinkable wines as an accompaniment. This will go further to ensure a successful dinner party than worrying about using the finest ingredients or bottle of wine that money can buy. Today’s gatherings are about appreciating the good things in life while being mindful of the world outside.
Building a cellar
There are those dinner parties and celebrations that deserve a beautiful bottle of wine. Alex Cox of Farthinghoe Fine Wine offers tips on how to build a wine collection in a fashion that doesn’t break the bank.
• There’s no rule of thumb in terms of how to build a collection, though the obvious start point is to buy the wines which will take longest to mature, and leave the whites until just three or four years before one would like to start drinking. Our clients often have a 10-year view, or even longer. That is a realistic timeline to build up a broad range of wines on a realistic budget.
• When I meet a client for the first time, I like to find out what they definitely don’t like rather than what they do, so I know what I shouldn’t be encouraging them to buy. There’s no point banging on about red Burgundy if they simply don’t like Pinot Noir. We can then focus on the rest and gradually offer suggestions that they may not have previously explored. It’s an evolving process, especially as a client’s taste tends to develop over time.
• I encourage clients to be open minded and a little adventurous. Building a broad range of wines over time is both interesting and fun, and is most clients’ aim. Generally, people start with the well-known regions like Bordeaux and Burgundy and then we branch out into more varied regions and varietals.
• Wine should be kept in a bonded warehouse, preferably Octavian Bond in Wiltshire, for several reasons. It guarantees ideal, long-term storage conditions for the wine, and it defers the payment of duties and taxes until the time of delivery – in many cases, that will be a number of years after it was bought. In addition, the wines are more tradable if ultimately a sale is made, and for clients wishing to ship overseas, the UK duty and VAT is not applicable if we ship the wine “In Bond”. This is a service we are very happy to provide overseas clients with.
• Everyone’s circumstances and objectives are different. Some clients want to focus on investment wines, others purely on wines for future drinking and pleasure, or often a bit of both – so it’s very helpful to have a good relationship and understanding of every client’s aim to guide them effectively. That is one of the main reasons we visit clients
in the region twice a year, so we can simply look after
them properly.
• As a rough guide, if one can put £2,000 to £4,000 (US$2,700 to US$5,500) into wine every year, you’d have a very decent cellar to enjoy after 10 years. I joined my father in the business 12 years ago, and having taken his advice at the time, I’m now enjoying well-stored, properly matured wine at home, which, if I were to buy, would cost me a lot more money.
