I mused the other week (to not many people’s interest – you lot do love a wine post don’t you 😂) as to the seemingly precarious position of the wine trade, with the younguns less and less interested in wine (and booze in general, although Friday night in Gotham aka Cardiff City centre would somewhat suggest otherwise).

In that piece, I mentioned State of Love and Trust in Lakeside, Cardiff, which to me is a sort of new breed of wine shop (pioneered in Cardiff by the Bottle Shop) with wine by the glass and beer on tap to drink in, reasonable corkage for off the shelf bottles to drink in and the ability to order in food from outside to eat in while you consume your choosen tipple (for oldies like me food with booze is increasingly essential). All of this on top of the traditional buy a bottle to take away option.

The chap who runs it is both knowledgable and engaging, a sort of “If you like that you should try this” kinda guy. I love that sort of attitude as to me one of the joys of wine is exploration. Trying new grapes, traditional grapes grown in non traditional areas (the Aussies seem to be particulary keen on this) and wines from regions new to me (was blow away by the quality of Azorean wines last year).

Drinking expensive, iconic, wine is great (when you are not paying full whack – beauty of being a member of a wine club like the Mystere in Cardiff), but can all become a bit of a “dick swinging” contest (i.e. drinking it for bragging rights rather than pleasure it brings).  To me, it is the discovery of new and interesting stuff you really like (that doesn’t break the bank) that excites me the most.

I have been a few times to State of Love and Trust for wine tastings (The Liberator tasting and Q&A was great) with a mate (fellow wine enthusist) and on our last visit we vowed to come back to buy a good bottle or two off the shelves and just sit back and drink it in the place. Add food to the good wine equation and I am generally a happy bunny.

First up we had our eye on a rather fine Spanish garnacha (from the very underrated – has always lived in Rioja’s shadow and thus is generally not on most people’s radar – Navarra wine region).

I love tempranillo, but to me garnacha is one of the most interesting and exciting red grapes being used in wines in Spain at the moment, with it offering a real diversity in style from the high attitude (almost pinot like) ones from the Sierra del Gredos to the brooding muscular beasts of Priorat.

Our first choice, a single vineyard 100% garnacha from 140-year-old pre-phylloxera vines, with tasting notes referring to a wine with “elegance and power, with stony minerality, fruits of the forest, earth and spice a long savoury finish.” did rather sound the business.

Regrettably all three of us thought it corked, with that trademark wet cardboard aroma that got worse, rather than blowing off, with exposure to air. As is the etiquette with corked wine, I approached the proprietor to ask his opinion and he confirmed our view it was corked. All dealt with quickly and efficiently, with no fuss, and a replacement bottle was duly offered. Exactly how it should be done in my view.

As it was the last bottle of that particular wine, we decided on another Vina Zorzal wine

I know it is superficial and is in no way indicative of the quality of a wine, but I love a funky wine label and being a garnacha from the same producer it seemed to fit the bill nicely as a replacement.

Of course, what is in the bottle is the important thing and I had been told (from reliable sources) that this wine would live up to the funky label’s promise.

At £28 off the shelf, the very reasonable £10 corkage made it £38 to drink in.

We left it to open up (with a sojourn in the fridge – my view is a lot red wine in UK is served too warm and conversely white wine here is often served too cold) and had an aligote (the other white Burgundy grape that few talk about) in the interim.

Decent drop this with apple and hay on the nose and a nice refreshing acidity (without being too sour), with apple, a touch of saline and lemon peel on the palate. Price wise I didn’t pay but think it was £30 ish on the shelf so £40 odd with the £10 corkage. If you think pubs can get away with charging £8 a glass for utter phish, 6 glasses for £40 for a quality wine is actually pretty good.

This wine went surprisingly well with a big bag of jamon crisps (Torres crisps are the absolute bomb)

After its bit of fridge time, the Vina Zorzal Golerga was ready to roll.

Very different expression of garnacha to that of our original choice, with it a much bigger and more muscular number.

Lots of rich black fruits ( blueberry and blackberry) on the nose, with a touch of black liquorice. This was followed by more liquorice, black fruit and well intergrated, soft, tannins on the palate. Enjoyed this, with it being a meatier, more Priorat, garnacha style than Sierra del Gredos’ more ethereal style (much to my friend’s disappointment, I on the other hand was happy enough) that was suggested by our initial choice.

A third bottle was bought into play (little more pricey at £40 + corkage – two of us managed to dissuade the other from buying a £90 bottle), being a really interesting Australian “natural wine” pinot noir from the Adelaide Hills.

Finally a natural wine that I actually liked, beware hell has just frozen over and the Rapture is imminent, with it having an intriguing earthy/forest floor nose and red berries followed by a distinct baked orange/orange bitters (as it lingered) on the palate. Plenty of acidity and grippy tannins. Reminded me a bit of a Jura Poulsard.

If wine is not your bag, I mean really are you mad, there are plenty of beer options. These include bottles and cans,

as well a good few on tap.

On the food front they have nibbles (nuts and crisps), but for more substantial repast they have a collaboration with Ballers Pizza (two doors down).

Just order (for pick up) from the QR code on the menu

and pop the two doors down to Ballers when they email to say it is ready.

We ordered three pizza, with our choices being El Clásico, El Espanol and (my choice, because I am a fun guy 😀) El Hongo.

As our orders were a little staggered, we decided to share each one.

Decent base and crust on the El Clásico and a nice marinera sauce with a good gooey cheese to sauce ratio. Not sure it needed the basil oil, which to me was a bit strong (prefer just a a few fresh basil leaves).

The El Espanol, was my least favourite.

More doughy than the clásico (and not cut into segments properly, which made sharing tricky  – someone needs a sharper pizza cutter), the extra couple of quid gets you (in theory) salchichón, chorizo, lomo (not much of it) and manchego. I was a bit skeptical as to the use of the latter (not least in terms of its meltability), but its nuttiness actually worked quite well. More generosity of meat required here to make me order this.

Toppings and flavour wise my white base El Hongo was the clear winner (at least to my mind).

Nice earthiness to the mushrooms and porcini crema, with the truffle oil building on the other flavours rather than dominating. The smoked provolone also worked very well, adding salty nuttiness and just a touch of smokiness. Whilst its crust looked the least baked, it was actually probably the least doughy of the lot. Didn’t (pizza rarely does) need the greenery.

The verdict

I really like State of Love and Trust. It has a really interesting selections of wines and beers and a proprietor who knows his stuff, but isn’t in any way a stuffy wine bore (like me), and seems an all round nice guy. He shared a bottle with us at the end of the evening, when he should probably have been kicking us out.

Being able to drink in, with a very reasonable corkage fee (fair few wine under £20, but with the very fair corkage it is worth trading up quality wise), with food to hand is great. We had a fun evening trying some rather nice and interestingly wines. I even discovered a natural wine I actually like rather than it being “Well this is a bit different, does the sink need cleaning!!!” wine (wonders will never cease).

The natural Aussie pinot was very different from what I normally drink, but I rather liked it.

Great little place this and it was nice to see it (and Ballers) busy on a Thursday night.  You are lucky to have it, Lakeside folks

The details

State of Love and Trust

Address: Amber Vista, Clearwater Way, Cyncoed, Cardiff, Wales, CF23 6DL

Website: https://state-of-love-trust.square.site/#Uyrafu

Ballers

Address: 19 Clear Water Way, Cardiff, CF23 6DL

Website: https://www.ballers.pizza/