jamie goode's wine blog: Bank holiday boozing

Monday, May 07, 2007

Bank holiday boozing

My twin sister, Anne, her husband Dominic and their two nippers came to stay for the bank holiday weekend. We had a really good time, helped by the fact that our kids and theirs got on very well. Yesterday we headed up to London, spending a couple of hours at the Imperial War Museum and then heading over to Kensington Gardens for a picnic, lubricated with some Lindauer fizz. They live just round the corner from Trent Bridge in Nottingham, so we'll try to arrange a trip up there to correspond with a suitable game (we're talking cricket here). Dominic still hasn't quite forgiven me for taking him to see City play at Notts County (we're talking football now) several years ago when City were travelling the divisions. He's a rugger man, and so wasn't really prepared for the experience of being in the away end with the hardcore City boys. If I remember correctly we drew that one 1-1, with Goater getting one of his three yard specials to equalize and the city captain getting sent off quite early on.
Some nice wines over the weekend, of which my favourite was Henschke's Louis Semillon 2005 Eden Valley (£13 Waitrose). It's complex, tight and minerally with just a hint of struck match reduction and some richness as well as the lemony fruit. Stylish stuff.

We also had a bit of an impromptu beer and cider tasting, including a really weird Marzen Schlenkera Smokebeer from Bavaria that smelled like salami. I really enjoyed the Aspall Dry Premier Cru Suffolk Cyder, which is fresh, light and precise with zippy acidity. Almost Champagne like. Their website is www.aspall.co.uk, and you can get it in Asda and Sainsbury, I believe.

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7 Comments:

At 5:33 PM, Blogger Aidan said...

Yes, Aspall's is pretty nice for such a widely distributed cider; if you ever get the chance, I've found Whin Hill, Cassel's, and Gwynt y Ddraig (Welsh) are in a similar league of sharpness and complexity (if not distribution - except for the Gwynt, I found these mostly just 'round Cambridgeshire). Personally, I think a good cider tends more towards a super-funky Vouvray Sec, but that's just my call :P.

 
At 2:49 AM, Anonymous Malcolm Williamson said...

Aspall's Grand Cru cider is discounted to £1.39 in Waitrose until June 3 2007.

 
At 7:44 AM, Anonymous mySupermarket said...

Aspall Premier Cru Suffolk Cyder (500ml) is sold online by Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's and Ocado. It costs £2.15 at ASDA and £1.79 at the others (when in stock). You can find the best price for this and all other ciders at mySupermarket

 
At 10:31 AM, Anonymous Keith Prothero said...

your twin sister is a real beauty Jamie--------amazing how twins can be so different facially!!

 
At 2:55 PM, Anonymous as maurer said...

Hallo Jamie

The name of the "Rauchbier" (smoked beer) is " Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier" and the first word "aecht" means "true"!

And the beer isn' t coming from Bavaria but from Frankonia. The region Frankonia belongs political to Bavaria but is cultural something different. Also the style of beer is very different.

Btw. The region Bamberg has the highest amount of breweries/resident in the world, mostly small ones, that are working just for the residents of the villages and the own pub. So Frankonia is also a very interesting region for the friends of local and individuel beer

 
At 12:36 PM, Anonymous BOSHart UK said...

Great blog - love it!!

www.boshart.co.uk

 
At 10:01 AM, Anonymous Honeymoon in Hong Kong said...

I really enjoyed reading this and i'm definitely going to have to try some of these. Thanks guys.

 

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