Posted by peter | December 31st, 2009 (by peter)
This year, Christmas day started at 5am. Thereafter followed many things, including feeding the pigs, basking in snowy Yorkshire sunshine, performing a Gruffalo song and some quite sumptuous food and wine. None of it in any particular order.
Pre-dawn, a snowy Christmas morning in north Yorkshire can seem hard and bitter. Especially where Black Sheep have been implicated in the previous night’s activities.
But then indulgence is a seasonal luxury at this time of year, and it’s
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Posted by peter | December 30th, 2009 (by peter)
Regular readers will know that I’ve been doing a considerable amount of research into Argentine and Chilean wine of late as part of a book project I’ve been working on.
Much of this has been in the form of tastings, so I thought it would be interesting to put together a review of the highlights of recent months which I’ve not covered elsewhere on the site. Prices relate to RRPs and the inevitable discounts taking place at this time of year (though to qualify for many of these
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Posted by susie | December 22nd, 2009 (by susie)
For last week’s filming of Saturday Kitchen I spent three and a half hours getting to (and then back from) a very, very chilly Ashford – but at least I got to meet Santa and his reindeer and I didn’t get stuck in any tunnels…
The show featured the legendary Michel Roux – giving a sauce master-class – and Galton Blackistone of the fabulous Morston Hall in Norfolk (if you haven’t been, put it at the top of your ‘to do’ list immediately).
Michel went for
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Posted by peter | December 21st, 2009 (by peter)
As part of our grand plan to get to know Hampshire’s gastronomic scene inside out, Susie and I have ticked three more names off our list lately: Vatika, the Woolpack Inn and cosy Winchester eatery the Corner House.
First up: Vatika. This was our office Christmas party, with an annual guest list of two (not including photocopiers). Having kissed the baby and briefed the babysitter (at least, that’s the way round I remember it), we drove about 20 minutes south-east of Winchester
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Posted by peter | December 12th, 2009 (by peter)
Just a quick post that’s nothing more than an excuse to blow Susie’s trumpet yet again (while slightly embarrassing her at the same time).
The Hampshire Chronicle ran a short story recently about Susie’s heroic MW exploits (already chronicled at length on this site), which I feel is a proud husband’s duty to publicise further.
The photo (right) says it all really. We’re very grateful that they chose to feature Susie and also very proud to be setting up
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Posted by susie | December 10th, 2009
(by susie)
This tasting took place on the 4th November 2009. That evening I was officially to become a Master of Wine and, given my mood, I allowed myself to be less rigorous than usual in my tasting. For once I gave myself the freedom to taste exactly what I fancied, which turned out to be 60 of the 124 wines on show. On arrival I headed straight for the First Growth room and then continued on, picking and choosing (mostly well-known names) as I went.
I’m sure you already know that
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Posted by peter | December 7th, 2009
(by peter)
Sometimes I wonder if our constant tweets and blogs give the wrong impression.
This is why I feel a clarification is in order. Susie and I are not ruthless hedonists. We are not constantly awash in spectacular wine and indulgent food. We are not on perpetual tour around the country attending glamorous bashes stuffed full of beautiful people.
If truth be told, we’re both quite home-loving people (the Spanish have a good word for it: hogareño). There’s nothing we like better
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Posted by susie | December 3rd, 2009 (by susie)
I have to admit I walked in to Corrigan’s feeling flustered and impatient. Prior to arriving I’d been standing on the concourse at Waterloo station desperately trying to get hold of the restaurant as I wanted to explain to my host that I was running late. After finally managing to speak to someone on reception, I was first put on hold, hold inexplicably turned into an answer-phone message, and the answer-phone message cut me off. After several more attempts I found
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Posted by peter | December 1st, 2009
(by peter)
I thought the best way to welcome our wine-trade friends, who were visiting us last weekend, would be to set up a beer tasting.
We’d been sent a three-pack of beer by the proactive people at the Purity Brewing Co, an independent brewery based in Warwickshire. In the press release that accompanied the bottles, they cite the 2009 Cask Ale Report by Pete Brown which found that, “there were 400,000 new cask ale drinkers in the last year and that the number of female drinkers has
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