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January 2011 - South Africa Visit

Here's a little montage of mine and Steve's most amazing trip to Capetown and the winelands. From top left (going right) we have Steve looking a bit overwhelmed at Meerlust, as we sampled the most amazing 1980 vintage of their flagship 'Rubicon', opened as you can see by winemaker Chris Williams. Next we have Capetown's tourist bus, looking amazingly like the tourist buses we have here in Chester! At the top right we have Steve, with Chris (head winemaker) and Wim (sales Manager) at Lourensford Winery, sampling some River Garden wines in the sunshine.

Below them we have me playing with a couple of the many dogs spoiled rotten at Meerlust, then to the left me posing in front of the goat tower at Fairview winery - home of our fantastic 'Goat's Do Roam'. Next along is Steve petting one of the Percheron horses at Biodynamic Waterkloof winery, one of a team which are trained to work the land instead of tractors - cool!

And finally, on the bottom layer, nestled in among the arty vineyard shots is the new state of the art Waterkloof winery and restaurnat. To the right is Steve in the restaurant which has amazing views, and amazing food too! Ands have a look at the bottom right picture - it's an African penguin! So cute, it took the biggest effort of willpower not to pick him up and give him a cuddle. Apparently they bite if cuddled, so I resisted! 

October 2010 - Burgundy Tasting

We were very excited before the Burgundy tasting having heard that our speaker  Vincent Delcher from Bourgogne Vigne Verre was a bit of a dish.  Was it a coincidence that most of the audience were ladies? Well, we weren't disappointed! And Vincent certainly knew his stuff, filling our heads full of Burgundy stats whilst also tempting our tastebuds with some top notch wines.  He was determined to convince us that all Chardonnays are not the same and aptly demonstrated his point.  Sadly some of the wines were priced more as treats than "Tuesday night wines", and although he explained the costs behind producing wine in Burgundy they are perhaps something for the Christmas list?  Wine of the night - well for me its a tough choice between the sparkling Cremant (all the taste of champagne without the price tag!) or the luscious Morey-Saint-Denis 2004. 

July 23rd 2010 - Sam wins UK Vineyard Association English Wine Prize

I won the UK Vineyard Association English Wine Prize earlier this year, and part of the prize was an invitation to the UKVA annual prizegiving ceremony in the House of Lords, so I was very excited at rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of the UK wine world. Here's me sipping an award winning fizz by the Thames. It was actually a lot sunnier than it looks! There was about forty or so wines on taste, and most of the producers were there too so I was able to pick their brains on their top wine tips.  Great wine and lovely food - no wonder all the politicians are snoozing in the House of Commons in the afternoon....

Louise headed over to France following the Tour de France this August.  Conveniently the route included a day racing up the Medoc in Bordeaux, so she took a day off from cheering on the British cyclists to visit Hugues Duboscq at Chateau Haut Marbuzet in St Estephe.

Chateau Haut Marbuzet is one of the last family owned vineyards in the Medoc and grandson of the original owner Hugues made sure Louise and her husband were thoroughly spoiled.  He showed them round the vineyard, waxed lyrical about the brilliance of the 2009 vintage (best since 1961 according to his father) and let them sample a lovely selection of their wines.  Not only does Hugues make Chateau Haut Marbuzet (£42.50 a bottle), but he also makes our Chateau Lalande (£19.50 a bottle) and our Chateau Martinens Margaux (£21.00 a bottle) - Clever lad! 

Hugues describes the Martinens Margaux as elegant and feminine, the Haut Marbuzet as more masculine and the Lalande as being a bit of both, in his words "the Margaret Thatcher of the range"!  Hmm!  But he is very proud of the fact his wines are served in the House of Lords - I should have checked when I was there.