Shepherd’s Market in Mayfair is one of the most charming places in the capital. It’s totally unique.
By contrast, Turkish resto Sofra, has a number of branches across London. My myopic view of restaurant chains is that they totally lack flair and employ cooks rather than chefs to dish out someone else’s imagination…poorly.
So when invited to Sofra (Mayfair)Â I attended with some trepidation, that turned out to be totally unwarranted.
Do you remember my post about Grand Cru Chablis?
I finally got round to sampling the Premier Cru from the same stable albeit a different year (2004 vs 2002). Perhaps the most important difference is the price. The Grand Cru at £24.99 and the Premier Cru at 13.99. So the question is, should one pay the huge difference for the Grand Cru?
Is Channel M the future? As I sat in my living room in Leeds I pondered the segmentation going on in the digital TV market. I have a foot either side of the Pennines so frequently flick to Channel M to find out what is going on in Manchester. I could equally be living in Spain and watching the aptly named Living in Spain channel, or enjoying a glass of plonk whilst watching Wine TV. However, as a Man City fan there is fat chance you will find me subscribing to MUTV (no hyperlink – I don’t want to promote that channel).
So it seems that whatever your interest, you can find a TV channel to suit. So why not specialised wine dealers, I thought. My next business plan may be to open a wine shop that specialises in unfashionable Bordeaux wines.
La Réserve du Grand Plantier 1990 is a Côtes de Bourg wine that I have never heard of, so this is not a good start to my business idea.
I’ve just been watching one of my favourite TV programmes, Grand Designs. Every episode is a tale of hope and of human triumph in the face of considerable adversity. Best of all it shows that if you have a big plan it is always ten times more difficult to deliver than your worst possible estimate.
Kevin McCloud looks on and commentates in his laconic and smug, but laid back and highly entertaining style. The thing about “reality” TV is that we can all sit back and smile with the expert, at how dumb the subjects are for not realising that they needed building regs approval for the step they are replacing with one that is 1.5 inches lower than the incumbent broken one. Meanwhile we are led to believe that the whole project is in jeopardy as a result.
Does your tongue sweat? I think mine might. Here’s the science bit. I did a bit of physics and chemistry at school but no biology – my dad didn’t want me to get an ‘ology and I am not really into science so I sometimes wonder what makes me ask such pointless questions as “does my tongue sweat?”.
Sport is another matter though, and I have always tried to stay active despite my overweight status. So I often follow Gillian McKeith’s advice to exercise before eating to “earn my meal” …and wine in my case. Admittedly, I am taking a liberty here since Dr McKeith specifically prohibits alcohol consumption from her diet plans.
On opening a bottle of Château Laroze 1998 that I have been carefully keeping for a while, I was at first delighted to find the cork and wine in apparently perfect condition.
Just a very quick one tonight on a nice Médoc. This is yet another very impressive effort from the Wine Society’s own brand.
At first it was slightly thin but opened up quickly to a smooth Crème brûlée flavour. Haven’t I tasted this somewhere before?
If you haven’t yet sampled the Wine Society‘s own brand wines I commend you to do so. If you are not a member or you don’t know anyone who is, then look out for one of the joining offers they occasionally put out.
Staying at the Headland Hotel on Fistral Beach in Newquay you have to just sit and imagine how grand it must have been when first built. The Edwardians must have enjoyed travelling from London and judging by the elegance of the dining room they dressed for dinner. They probably dressed for surfing I suspect….
We didn’t exactly dress for dinner but we did feel compelled to look fairly smart.
I have been on a bit of a mission to persuade anyone who will listen to try French Sauvignon Blanc and in particular the Loire appellations of Pouilly Fumé and Sancerre.
In the 1990’s the Loire wines lost focus and, some say, attention to detail. The rise of the New Zealand SB with its bright zingy flavours stole the limelight. I am still a big fan of Cloudy Bay and many of its Kiwi imitators. However, the French have fought back admirably in my opinion and the price difference (at least for us Brits) is no longer an issue.
This 2005 Pouilly Fumé (pwee foo-may) from Domaine Cailbourdin at less than a tenner is a good example of why the French should be given a second chance.
On pouring is was pale straw coloured, like one’s urine should be (but mine never is). At 12.5% it is probably the average strength of my urine though. It smelt peachy like a bellini (the wine I mean) but tasted of gooseberries. For me it had the zinginess of Cloudy Bay but with less fruit and somehow more subtlety.
I’ll be drinking more of this one over the summer.
Somewhere roughly east of the Eden Project in Cornwall you may stumble across Newquay and Watergate Bay. Here you will find another highly commendable charity establishment. Fifteen Cornwall is Jamie Oliver’s project to give young (and often disadvantaged) young people the opportunity to make something of their lives, by learning how to cook very very expensive food.
As it was the first anniversary of the opening of Fifteen Cornwall and this marked the graduation of the first batch of trainees we thought it would be rude to turn down the opportunity to try the highly popular place. OK then it wasn’t exactly a personal invite from Jamie but it was nice to be there.
A few days in Newquay, Cornwall had me looking and talking like a surfer dude in no time. Fistral Beach is the centre of all (cool) surfing activity in England., So seeing as we were staying at the Headland Hotel next door, why not skip down to the beach and Fistral Blu, a trendy eatery, we thought.
It claims to be fine dining but falls a bit short of that. In fact I was left unsure as to what exactly it was trying to achieve. Do they want surfers fresh from the beach, or the rich and famous of Newquay to drive down to eat?
Stumble It!
