They say Rome wasn’t built in a day and boy can this adage be applied to the work by Insole shops on Waun-gron Road (at the top end of Pencilly Road) in Cardiff. Impressively, they have managed to make an area capable of parking 15 cars into one with space for 7 (I think they call it an inverse tardis) and all in a timeframe measured in light years!!

I suspect the Chinese, in the time it has taken to build said 7 parking spaces and a pedestrian area, would have built four  nuclear power stations, 20 coal fired ones, a maglev train line from Beijing to Aksu and 20 mega factories each the size of Cardiff. They did add two benches (take that China) to the 7 parking spaces, which will probably explain the incoming Council tax (no doubt, whopping) increase.

Week after week after week I have watched and thought bloody hell are they laying the foundations for the Dairamids or  the Taj Myfanwy and God I would have been pxssed if I owned one of the retail units the work has blighted since seemingly the start of the Mesozoic Era

One such unit, Moura, I noticed had had a bit of a spruce up (very nice it is too) and were doing an evening of Welsh wines paired with a tasting style Welsh focussed 5 course menu. I thought well that is right up my street (once the Council eventually finished it) and J and I booked a table.

The menu had a nice look to it,

although my initial thought was I would swap around the order of service in terms of the venison faggots and the mussels.

As for the wines, Welsh wines (particularly the fizz) has been making great strides in recent years and this seemed a good opportunity to gauge where it is at.

We started off the evening with a glass of fizz, in the form of the Ancre Hill’s blanc de blanc.

Made from 100% chardonnay, this had a gentle mousse (not too aggressive on the bubbles) and was searingly dry (with it being a zero dosage wine), with a citrus heavy nose. On the palate, I got tart apple (granny smith), as well as more lemony citrus.

I can see a lot of people liking this, but for me (I am not much of a fizz drinker if I am honest, as it tends to give me heart burn and unlike wine in general seems to get me very drunk) the acidity was just a bit too much. If I am honest I also struggle with the £50+ price tag for this wine. Nice, but £50+ nice I am not so sure? Not being entirely convinced as to its merits at that price as an aperitif, I thought perhaps the food would mellow its rather acidic edges.

Food wise, first up was a very good, uber crisp, leek croquette.

Lots of cheese in the mix here, with it working well as against the quite zingy alium of the leek. The croquette was surrounded by a parmesan foam, which was a bit light on both parmesan and aeration.

The richness of the cheesy croquette worked to temper the acidity of the fizz and brought out biscuity and bioche notes from it.

It definitely benefited from being drunk with food.

Next up was a venison faggot,

which came on a bed of sweet potato and were topped (rather intriguingly) with candied grapefruit.

More a meatball than a faggot to my mind as there was no lung in the mix here, it had a pleasingly yielding texture and a good gamey flavour.

I was worried about the candied grapefruit, with dark fruits more a traditional match for venison, but they retained a fair bit of acidity that worked to cut the richness of the venison.  Without the wine (see below) these may have been a bit unnecessary, but they did work with the wine pairing here.

As to the wine pairing, this (somewhat off piste as I would generally serve a robust red with venison) was a rosè from (just down the road St. Hilary Vineyard – £24 retail) made from a blend of pinot noir and pinot meunier (the latter a red grape most commonly associated with champagne).

On the nose, this has a nice aroma of strawberries and cream, but it was a tad neutral (initially) on the palate (touch cold perhaps) when drunk on its own. With the meatball/faggot, having warmed up a bit, it worked as a nice foil for the citrus of the grapefruit and the gaminess of the venison with raspberry and crunchy pomegranate coming through on the palate. Worked because of the zinginess of the grapefruit (without it, I would have gone red – a good Côte du Rhone, I think, like a Coudoulet de Beaucastel).

A slight menu change next, with the advertised chantarelles substituted for king oyster mushroom.

The  meatiness of the mussels and the king oyster mushrooms worked well together, with a nice hit of anis from dill

The wine with this was Gwin Gywn from Whitecastle Vineyard (again from the Vale – £26 retail), made from a blend of phoenix (created by a (mad?) German scientist in a lab in the 1960s) and seyval blanc (another hybrid grape variety).

Dry, but quite aromatic with honeysuckle and elderflower on the nose and citrus on the palate, it made for a pleasant quaffable and refreshing number.

A dish labelled lamb cawl was probably not for the purists (of which I am usually one),

but I enjoyed it. Good amount of tender and flavoursome lamb

bathed in an intense lamb jus with sweet garden peas and al dente carrots (don’t recall any other root veg).

A topping of crispy potato added a nice textural contrast to the spoon tender lamb.

The wine pairing with this was a red from Tair Gafr Wines, near Cowbridge,

in the form of their Gafr Coch red (£22 retail) made from 100% regent grape (another hybrid)

Red fruits and a touch of cranberry on the nose, it was quite light on the palate with a touch of green steminess to it. This carbonic maceration wine reminded me a bit of gamey and beaujolais.

Pudding was billed as crempogs (which were what I, being a Sais, would call pikelets)

Topped with a rhubarb and grapefruit compote and a generous blob of clotted cream. I enjoyed this, with the sweet, richness of the cream working as againt the tartness of the rhubarb and grapefruit. J was less convinced as she felt there was too much bite to the rhubarb, which had me boring her with tales of days of yore when (in my youth) sticks of rhubarb dipped in white sugar (along with sugar sandwiches using white sugar and placky white bread) were a staple.

No Welsh wine pairing with this, but they had a very pleasant late harvest riesling (Paul Cluver, I think) of which I partook of a class (regrettably in a copa, which I loath due to me being a finickity tx@t when is comes to wine glasses and life in general).

This went down a treat (copa glass aside), with sweet pineapple to the fore yet a tempering line of citrus acidity which kept it nice and fresh.

The verdict

An enjoyable evening, which was good value for the £60 price tag,  particularly when you look at the retail prices for  Welsh wines (all of which were £20+ and the fizz £50+) and the 3 x mark up often applied in the UK.

I don’t drink much Welsh wine, but based on these it certainly shouldn’t be discounted. Economies of scale means prices can be a little high, but arguably the same can be said of a lot of local products (i.e. Welsh lamb). Quality is increasing exponentially and this makes Welsh wines worth a punt and you will also be supporting local. Welsh Wine Week may be in June, but you can get them all year round from the likes of Moura, as well as online.

As for Moura, it is certainly worth considering both in the day and the evening for food and wine (good corkage offer, – £10 I think  on the retail price of wines bought in their store). Another good place in the Llandaff/Victoria Park area to eat and there is a wine shop too (which I tend to forget about and that is something I must remedy going forward). All the Welsh wine from the dinner and lots more besides are available to buy in their shop (from their website).

The details

MOURA

Address: 6 Waun-gron Road, Llandaff, Cardiff, CF 5 2JJ

Website: https://www.moura-restaurant.co.uk/

ANCRE HILL

Website: https://www.ancrehillestates.co.uk/

ST. HILARY VINEYARD

Website: https://sthilaryvineyard.wales/

WHITE CASTLE VINEYARD

Website:  https://whitecastlevineyard.com/?ref=GBVG

TAIR GAFR WINES

Website: https://www.tairgafrwines.co.uk/