December 2009 Archives
Thursday, December 31, 2009
End of another year, end of another decade, end of another bottle.
A couple of pints of Hawkshead bitter started the evening’s celebrations. A good beer – nice and bitter. Then back to cook a Thai green curry which was washed down by a bottle of Chilean Gewürz. Not quite the real Alsatian, but went well with the curry.
Bubbles are essential to see in the New Year. This year it was a rosé cava. To be honest I only bought this one because Tony Laithwaite told me it was drunk at the opening of the Scottish parliament. Maybe I should have realised that this wasn’t the best of recommendations. It wasn’t that great to be honest, but I did feel good about supporting a smaller producer who still riddles by hand.
The early hours were topped off with a malt. Good night.
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Shopping today, restocking for New Year. And of course a visit to the pub afterwards. The Shepherds Inn today – great place and now with Hesket Newmarket beer. I went for Santa’s Winter Blonde – I thought I should try it while it was about.
Lamb chops tonight. I try to serve Rioja with lamb, so it was another Rioja tonight. Just one bottle but a 1999 gran reserva no less.
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Tuesday, December 29, 2009
We went for a walk today. The snow was quite a bit worse round Ullswater than we had thought. Some of the older people in our party couldn’t make it back to catch the ferry and I had to drive four miles down the icy Howtown road to pick them up. It’s enough to drive you to drink.
After a very cold walk, we warmed up by the fire at the Yanwath Gate. Two pints of High Pike were very well received. It was then an evening of Rioja. I had quite a number of glasses to celebrate the safe return of all concerned.
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Monday, December 28, 2009
It’s my birthday today – not such a celebration when you are just past 30 like me. In liquid terms it started off with an afternoon pint of Brampton Bitter. It was the first time I’ve tried a beer from the Geltsdale Brewery and I really enjoyed it (now there’s a surprise!)
The evening at the George and Dragon kicked off with a pint of the Warwickshire Beer Company’s Christmas special ale – I can’t remember what it was called for some reason but it was pretty good, if not exactly local. We then moved on to wine with dinner. A bottle of 2004 Graves and then a West Australian pinot noir.
Back to base then to round off with a sloe gin – this year’s vintage and a suspicion that someone (not me!) may have harvested damsons rather that sloes this year! I liked it anyway.
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Sunday, December 27, 2009
Travelling north today, so limited legal opportunities for consumption. But I did crack open a bottle of Californian Cabernet Sauvignon on arrival. Unfortunately I had to share it, so only a couple of small glasses for me.
I do like American wines – Californian cab sauv of course but also from Washington, and Pinot Noir from Oregon. But why is it so expensive?!
Today marks the end of the second week. 39 units this week – that’s just one more than last week and this was Christmas week. A remarkable achievement.
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Saturday, December 26, 2009
We actually did make it out of the house today for a chilly walk round Virginia Water. It was pretty slippy in places but there was absolutely no sign of Prince Charles out clearing the snow. Not sure what I got for my 62p this year.
It was a day of admirable restraint on the drinking front. Just a quick glass of the hard stuff.
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Friday, December 25, 2009
We gave up on turkey this year – well it just doesn’t go well with my choice of wine!!. It was a seafood Christmas, and it turned out to be very relaxing. It was well into the afternoon before the drinks were served which was quite an achievement. It started this year with a small glass of sherry, a dry amontillado and it soon became quite a few small glasses but who’s counting (oh yes, I am! – I think I can work it out from what’s left in the bottle).
With the meal, I served an Alsace Riesling from Paul Zinck. Superb. I have a special fondness for Alsace – it was the place where I started to fall in love with wine and it is such a fascinating blend of French and German – yet somehow greater than the sum.
The break with tradition ended after the main course. Christmas pudding, of course, is renowned as a great accompaniment to fine wine. We managed to polish off a bottle of the delicious 2001 Recioto della Valpolicella with multiple helpings of pudding. And once we moved on the Christmas cake any thought of a healthy seafood Christmas were fading fast. But I suppose I did drink a lot of anti-oxidant.
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
Got out early this morning, the roads were still slippy but much improved and the Christmas food shopping was done and dusted by 11am. This left plenty of time to relax and prepare for Christmas. And what better way to prepare than with (no doubt you have guessed!) a few drinks.
Today’s apperitif was a kir using a Muscadet base, then followed by a couple of glasses of the same Muscadet. I love Muscadet – it never seems to feature much in Decanter – perhaps it lacks snob value – but I find it goes down well. And today’s bottle was no exception.
Glazed ginger ham this evening. Delicious and washed down perfectly by quite a few glasses of The Back Shed. If you are looking for flavour over finesse, this is the wine.
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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Another day, another battle with the snow and the trains. Hold on, I hope this isn’t going to descend into some kind of Leonard Rossiter style commuter blog – what am I becoming?!?!
Let’s move on to the serious business. This was my last day at work before the Christmas break and so a great excuse for lunch-time beers with the team. I had a pint of Wye Valley bitter and a pint of Landlord. Have you tried any Wye Valley beers? – so far I’ve tried the IPA and the bitter. They definitely share a similar flavour which I can’t quite place. I wasn’t sure I liked the IPA when I had it before, but I did enjoy today’s bitter immensely despite the similarity! An acquired taste perhaps. I will need to try a few more to confirm.
This evening I had two glasses of very fine Fleurie. Definitely my preference for a pre-dinner red. And with dinner I moved on to tap. Very healthy, although the two pieces of Christmas Rocky Road may have tarnished any attempted healthy eating claim.
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Tuesday, December 22, 2009
It was another day of failed restraint. I made it to work but the trains were not so industrious, and it was a frustrating journey home. Of course this meant that I needed a drink when I got in, so what better that a Swiss wine to to cheer me up. It wasn’t bad actually but I kept to just two small glasses again as I am trying to save some units for the festivities to come!
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Monday, December 21, 2009
It’s always easier to contemplate abstinence the night before. It wasn’t possible as it turned out – I blame it on the snow. But restraint was my watchword with just a small glass of kir and a small glass sans cassis. I’m not a massive Pinot Grigio fan but I nearly always go for a Sicilian one when I buy it – here’s tonight’s – the pear aromas are much better defined for me.
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Sunday, December 20, 2009
The end of the first week of my alcohol consumption review. To celebrate, I went for an eclectic mix: 1 G&T, 1 bottle of Coopers Pale Ale, 2 glasses of 2005 bordeaux and finally a glass of M&S Islay malt. A good day!
When I include the two pints of Hesket Newmarket High Pike from Monday before I started this tale, that makes the grand total for the week 38 units. That’s worse than I thought as it has been a fairly restrained week. Maybe some days of abstinence are required before the festivities really commence.
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Saturday, December 19, 2009
It was meant to be a curry tonight at the Sultan Balti with tales of cobras and kingfishers, but life’s baggage got in the way. Specifically, the salt-of-the-earth Heathrow baggage handlers who took a magnificent 2 hours to unload the cases from my son’s flight.
We missed our reservation and picked up a takeaway instead. Maybe the beer benefited from this mishap as I had two bottles of the excellent Hawkshead Lakeland Gold. After dinner I had a small glass of tawny port. When I say small, I mean compared to a glass of wine. I’m never quite sure which glass to serve port in – liqueur glass, wine glass? And how much to serve? Any instruction welcome.
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Friday, December 18, 2009
Worked from home and drank from home today – it’s the snow you know. Had a bottle of Taglag from the Barngates brewery (I mean The Drunken Duck) and three glasses of Portuguese red (I don’t mean port).
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
It was meant to be drinks with Fergal who likes a drink, but it was cancelled due to impending snow. In a way this was a relief as I was still knackered after my affair with Richard Branson.
So I headed for home and did the usual macho thing of sharing a glass of rosé with a young man. Well, we had one glass each actually.
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
It was my work Christmas Party tonight at Brookes Brothers wine bar off Holborn. I was still shattered after the previous day’s early start and late-ish night so was very restrained and managed to resist the wine list (true self control!). Although I did manage to fit in a flying pint with Sir Chris beforehand.
So today’s alcohol count was just a pint of Ryedale Winter’s Tale, a glass of champagne (presumed genuine) and a pint of Guinness.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tonight I kicked off the seasonal drinks catalogue with 3 fine pints of Adnams Southwold Bitter at the The Last. It’s only the second time I’ve been to this pub and I wouldn’t have rushed back as the last time they had no real beer, so I was on the next best thing (Guinness). But tonight’s brew was very acceptable and I might have stayed longer if I hadn’t been up since 5am doing battle with the shambolic Virgin Rail.
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