48 HOURS IN PARADISE AKA WALES OR LAST NIGHT A DJ SAVED MY LIFE

SiP

Welcome To SIP, our new regular column devoted to every delicious thing we can sip; wines, cocktails and non alcoholic delights.

Written by our journalist Maroulla Paul who is a self confessed nerd when it comes to wines and spirits. Maroulla has WSET Wines and Spirits Level 3, WSET Sake Level 1 and Capstone Level 1 (so far!)

If you thought wine talk is simply story telling, it's time to think again because one man is on a quest to explain the science and to answer the ‘why?’ that is so rarely asked. We speak to Sunny Hodge, founder of Diogenes The Dog and Aspen & Meursault and author of ‘The Cynic’s Guide to Wine’ to hear the facts behind the fiction and the science behind the art.

Human beings are naturally curious. ‘Why?’ is a word that is frequently heard coming out of the mouths of children whose hunger to understand can be insatiable. In every aspect of our lives we have a thirst for knowledge, a real yen to really get to grips with the answers to questions. Our careers are generally built on knowing the ‘whys’ of specifics and using them to help others. To simply accept without interrogating and understanding is not really part of our DNA.

Then there is the world of wine.

We wax lyrical about the black fruits and vegetal characteristics of a Cabernet Sauvignon or the distinct smell of petrol in an aged Riesling yet how much do we question why a drink made from nothing but grape juice can possibly have aromas of everything but that fruit itself?

Diogenes the Dog is a wine bar in Elephant and Castle which exists in order to challenge and to explain - as well as to delight, of course. The wine list is full of wines even the most experienced sommelier has probably rarely tasted. This is a deliberate choice by the founder, Sunny Hodge, who designed the list so that the customer has to engage with their server in the bar - and thereby give that server the opportunity to tell you a little bit of fact and truth about what it is you are about to sip.

I arrived to meet Sunny one warm summer afternoon at Diogenes and he greeted me with an orange wine from Puglia, made by the Morasini winery from the muscat grape by a young female up and coming highly educated winemaker called Svena who is one of the few people in her area practising regenerative farming. This delicious wine spends two weeks on its skins and is fermented all the way through so there is no residual sugar.

Already, in that one paragraph, there are a lot of questions that spring to mind - what is orange wine, how is it made and why is it suddenly everywhere? What is regenerative farming and what does this mean in the wine industry? What are the characteristics of Muscat?

As well as buying Svena’s wines, Sunny also buys some of the fruit she grows and he and his team go out every year to help harvest the grapes and to be involved in the production of what then becomes Diogenes’ house wine.

Sunny is a scientist through and through. He originally studied mechanical engineering at UCL and simultaneously worked in hospitality to help fund his education. He wasn’t really into engineering - but loved hospitality. He worked at Nandos and loved the whole social aspect. When he finished his degree, he decided to stay in hospitality and quickly moved up the ladder at Nandos, soon being responsible for opening their new restaurants and managing large teams of 60 to 80 people, most of whom were way older than him.

He then made the move into more fine dining at Gaucho and then at Margot in Covent Garden. Soon he decided he wanted to open his own place but he felt he had one weak chain in his armour - his knowledge of wine. He did what many of us do when wanting to understand more about wine and undertook some WSET courses - but still felt there were a lot of unanswered questions. He voraciously read every book he could lay his hands on and really educated himself - which is now what he wants to pass on to others.

Diogenes - what a great name right? (and I say that with not an ounce of cynicism!) is an uber cool place where whilst you are sipping delicious drops of gold, knowledge is seeping through without you consciously realising. Sunny - and his fine tooth comb selected team - will enchant you with explanations around methoxypyrazines and terpenes that you had no idea you were desperate to hear but somehow you will find yourself listening with baited breath as though he is telling you the plot of the next season of Slow Horses and you will enjoy your wine all the more for knowing - and leave wiser!

What made Sunny name a wine bar after a Greek philosopher?

“He was one of the lesser known philosophers and, essentially, homeless because he chose to be so. He lived in a big ceramic jar and could be described as a little crazy! He went around with a lamp looking for the good men - and he founded cynicism. He questioned how things worked. He challenged the norm. In exactly the same way I want to challenge the world of wine as we currently know it.”

Sunny wants to educate. He chooses his staff by asking them three questions to determine how much they understand about the how of wine. If they get through he then trains them - they are not let anywhere near a customer until they know their flavanols and their esters. They have to sit a three hour exam on the anatomy of the grape before they are ever allowed to serve their first pour. Yes. Sunny really takes this stuff seriously.

Now if you are starting to think maybe this is all a bit highbrow, nerdy, geeky or just plain boring, think again. Diogenes is one of the most fun evenings to be had.

It is truly a super cool place; very chic, very chilled. There is a small but perfectly formed selection of food to pair with your wines which are all served by the glass so you can experiment and experience a few. The knowledge you will get will creep in very surreptitiously and probably leave you with a desire to scurry further down that rabbit hole you will have unearthed.

This is why you need Sunny’s book; ‘The Cynic’s Guide to Wine’ which is published by Academie du Vin Library. OKs, as you all know, I am a bit of an addict and I have read hundreds of wine books but trust me when I tell you this one is a page turner. I could not put it down. It is literally fascinating. It answers, in plain English, all the questions you have never dared ask. It literally answers the ‘why?’. It debunks all the myths and stories and actually false assumptions that have been perpetuated forever in elite circles that want to keep the world of wine a very small one.

And Sunny is not stopping there either. He is setting up a series of wine qualifications called “The Science of Wine Course’ which is going through all the Ofqual procedures now so watch this space.

I was once in a wine class where someone asked a question that was most definitely a ‘why?’. The teacher answered saying that we don’t need to understand why, we just need to learn the text and pass the exam.

Sunny is putting an end to that sort of attitude. With his precise, engineering focussed mind he is removing the fairy tales from wine stories - and, in so doing putting in even more magic - real magic - for us to enjoy.

Sunny also has a passion for eating healthily and for farming in a way that is kind to our planet which clearly leads him to be a supporter of low intervention wines.

“We are all so fussy with foods these days questioning how much they are processed, how they are grown and so on. But with wine, we seem to be the opposite. We don’t care - and we even turn up our noses at natural wines. I want people to understand how and

why these wines are better for us and for the world as a whole - then we can begin to make a difference, whilst enjoying their deliciousness.” ν

Follow Sunny on on Instagram @sunnyhodgewine

Visit the two amazing wine bars;

Diogenes the Dog

96 Rodney Rd

London SE17 1BG

https://www.diogenesthedog.co.uk/

and

Aspen & Meursault

96 Westbridge Road

London SW11 3PH

https://www.baraspen.co.uk/