Secret SAMPA offers cutting edge Brazilian fusion and grape revelations
The underground world of SAMPA Chef’s Table is full of exotic flourishes. A Brazilian wonderland of toucan water jugs and vivid pink flamingo receptacles for your pre-dessert cashew apple ice lolly. That’s before chef patron Caroline Martins’s signature abstract expressionist finale – scrawls of coconut yoghurt, basil custard and mango across a slate, to be topped with meringue. That this performance takes place in a penumbral secret location in Manchester’s Northern Quarter adds to the sense of delightful disorientation.
A further mind scrambler. Where else in the UK would your pairing consist entirely of Brazilian wines? Former Great British Menu contender Caroline proudly flies the green, yellow and blue flag of her native land in the quality of ingredients she imports, so why not do the same with the wine list?
Compared with South American cousins Argentina and Chile, Brazil as South America’s third largest wine producer is almost as much a mystery as the new SAMPA venue. Hard to remember a bottle on our supermarket shelves – despite Brazil boasting more vineyard area than New Zealand.
A vinous voyage into the dark
Book a SAMPA dinner and you’ll get the location sent to you just pre-arrival. Presumably the same applied to the intrepid wine lovers who had signed up for a tutored tasting in the afternoon ahead of our evening meal. It was hosted by Go Brazil Wines’ Nicholas Corfe, who later poured his wares for us. He has championed the cause – along with national spirit cachaça – from his Suffolk base for 15 years. He cherry picks from small producers in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Vines were first planted in Brazil by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Then, in the 19th, came Italian immigrants, mainly from the Trento and Veneto regions of the north-east. In the Seventies an international player, Moët & Chandon, arrived to introduce modern vinification techniques.
There was nothing rustic about the four wine matches at SAMPA. What did I make of them?
The dinner was bookended by two sparklers, Amadeu Laranja Nature Traditional Method 2020 and a Don Guerino Moscatel NV 2022, the former on the orange spectrum, the result of extended maceration, refreshing and surprising complex, the latter a sweetie with counterbalancing acidity, weighing in at just 7.5. per cent ABV.
I enjoyed both, but had less joy from Pizzato Sauvignon Blanc 2024. Grassy on the nose, it promised more than it delivered, its tropical fruit muted, the mouthfeel quite coarse.
In contrast a red from the same Serra Gaúcha-based winery, the Pizzato Nervi Reserva Tannat 2020 was a terrific example of a heady grape variety associated with Madiran in South West France. Uruguay has proved a natural home for it in South America, but, based on this example, Brazil is giving it a run for its money.
From the great 2020 vintage, it has been aged for 11 months in new French oak barrels. Result: concentrated dark fruit and spice, soft tannins, a hint of leather perhaps. It would have coped well with a meatier main than Caroline’s (delightful) galinhada chicken.
Pizzato own 45 hectares of vines split between their original Vale dos Vinhedos (Valley of the Vineyards) estate and the newer Dois Lajeados. The vines for Nervi are 25 years old, from the first plantings after the family switched from supplying grapes to big wineries to becoming an independent producer. Such a wine vindicates that bold decision.
Has maverick Martins found her perfect base?
Caroline Martins has made quite an impression since landing in Manchester some five years ago with husband Tim (who marshalled the troops brilliantly at the latest launch). She famously swapped a globetrotting career as a plasma physicist to go on Masterchef Brazil and train at Le Cordon Bleu in London. Check out the highs and lows of her career path in my recent interview with her, ‘Why female head chefs are flourishing around Manchester’.
A trajectory that has encompassed numerous Brazilian-British fusion pop-ups led her to the unlikely Northern Quarter combo of Calcio Sports Bar on Dale Street with Chef’s Table experience for just eight folk in the cellar. It was a fine dining homage to the food of São Paulo (Sampa is its colloquial name). Now she has found a new home for her project, spacious enough to almost double her covers and include its own art gallery. The current exhibition, ‘Saudade’ is by one Pete Obsolete (below).
Caroline continues to refine her playful food offering. I particularly loved the laranja lima (a chalkstream trout carpaccio) and the ‘Garstang white cheese with fig leaf and Dan and The Bees honey, both evidence of our immaculate British sourcing.
PS Beware the potent Brazilian chilli that lurks among the snack starters of pineapple and pickles. Diito the fiery yellow dip with the pichanha tartare. Oh and prepare for a slight fuggy atmosphere in the underground lair. Caroline does love blow torches and smoking dishes!
A 12 course tasting menu comes in at a remarkably good value £58 (£69.60 inc VAT). The drinks pairing is £48. For £30 you can bravely match the dishes with a range of Cachaças. Book here.
