Glastonbury and Wells

I did it .... I got to the top of Glastonbury Tor !

Not the easiest of climbs on a very windy day, a great laid path of steps winding it's way to the top. I tried to step up continuous to use both leg muscles but stepping up left first is still difficult.

Coming down was harder as I cannot lead with my left, there is not enought bend in my ankle so it was one step at a time.

Such great views from the top across the Somerset plains - the rain could be seen travelling across but thankfully we just got caught in a light drizzle.

Huge thanks to my Hubby for being my handrail up and down, as with many things I could not have done it without him.

It's a long way up (and down)

My fab Hubby

At the top with Hubby & Agnes

With Dave and Agnes
such a great view

At the top !!

We also visited Wells Cathedral, a stunning building that is so clean inside it looks new but is hundreds of years old.

Wells Cathedral 

It looks modern but is
hundred of years old

Beautiful tapestry coat of arms
on panels and cushions

Oldest working clock

Visiting Wells Cathedral

 A super day out with our friends; climbing the Tor was a fantastic feeling putting last year firmly behind me!

Burnham & Bristol

Burnham-on-sea is the destination for this year's Cuvèe Reserve Wine Weekend ..... yes I know it's only Wednesday but Hubby and I along with our friends who are also members decided to make it a week!

This time we're caravaning instead of renting a large house, it's lovely sitting on the decking watching the visitors pass and enjoying a glass of bubbly.

Yesterday we took a stroll around the town, very seasidey with plenty of fish and chip shops, a great rock shop and of course  inflatables hanging up outside the bucket and spade shop!

We walked to the top of the town to The Crafty Teacup Cafe  - a superb cafe decorated in a very crafty style. Our table was amazing.

Just across the road from the cafe is the town's church with a very unusual tower, it's not attached and looking straight at the main door you can see it's leaning too. The locals didn't seem to be bothered, they had set up a lovely home.

Today we've had a trip into Bristol; on the way in we had a great view of the Clifton Suspension Bridge and a glimpse of the SS Great Britain.

In Bristol we visited the Cathedral and Avery's - no surprise really that this is a wine shop. We did buy a couple that caught our eye, we could have bought more especially if we had bigger wallets as some were quite pricey.

On our way back we crossed the Clifton Suspension Bridge, it is a toll bridge but only £1. Finding a handy layby we were able to stop and take a stroll a little way along and pop into the Visitor Centre. It's surprising how high it is and amazing in its construction nearly 150 years ago.

What a great start to our Cuvèe Reserve holiday, we have enjoyed a few wines but I'll be blogging about those when we get home as I can then use my laptop - this was blogged by phone !

Everyday drinkers?

Everyday drinkers? Is that the wine or the drinkers? It's a phrase becoming more popular but is a wine ever an everyday drinker?

Certainly there are wines for special occasions and there are wines for any occasion but I'm not sure 'everyday' gives enough credit to the hard work of the wine maker.

Synonyms of everyday

average, common, commonplace, cut-and-dried (also cut-and-dry), 

garden-variety, normal, ordinary, prosaic, routine, 

run-of-the-mill, standard, unexceptional, unremarkable, usual, workaday

Words Related to everyday

regular, typical, unextraordinary, familiar, homely, plain, popular, vulgar

natural, customary, wonted, insignificant, trivial, unimportant

frequent, habitual, expected, predictable

So what phrase should we use for wines opened in the week for no specific reason other than to enjoy - I'm not sure any of the thesaurus suggestions above sound any more creditable.

Over the last week or so I have enjoyed a few wines that could be called everyday drinkers ......

Vinhas do Silvado Tinto 2016 - this was a wine we saw in Majestic in Cardiff Bay: my knowledge of Portuguese wine is limited so I have lots to learn.

Much like the French vin de pays this wine is made from a blend of grapes which can be any from a very long list. From the Saco river region near Lisbon it's classified as a Vino Regional.

I found it full of plums, dark cherries and bramble with a lovely smooth finish. I'm sure the winemaker took time to decide which grapes were included in this blend. some might call it an 'everyday' wine!

Wandering Bird - this superb Sauvignon Blanc from Lidl was at the incredible price of £2.99. I wish I had purchased more, not because of the price but because it was an excellent New Zealand white.

Made by Mudhouse Wines this had all the expected characteristics of a New World Sauvignon Blanc - crisp nose of gooseberries & melons with citrus continuing in its full palate of  flavour with a sharp, clean finish.

L'escargot 2014 - another wine bought from Lidl at the same amazing price,  I'd say yes to more of this wine too. Although a French Sauvignon Blanc it is not from the Loire Valley but further south; Cotes de Gascogne.

It was full of citrus but not as sharp or acidic as the Sauvignon Blanc grown further north. Full of a clean crispness its finish was medium bodied and quite long, served chilled it really was a refreshing wine that was very easy to pour and enjoy!

Friday night at our house was Indian night with friends, not a takeaway although a couple of dishes were from the supermarket. Hubby cooked tandoori lamb and chicken, and dill salmon. I made Tarka Dhall for the first time; lentils are not to everyone's liking but it must have been good as the dish was emptied!

Another first when it came to dessert, pistachio kulfi (ice cream) made with condensed milk..... it was delicious, very creamy.

To accompany the spicy food I opened a bottle of German wine. It was a bottle given to us a few years ago as a gift and one I thought would pair well with our dinner .... and it did!

Brennfleck Silvaner 2013 - pouring from it's bulbous bottle the yellow/green wine had a similar look to a good olive oil, in viscosity as well as colour.

In the glass it had a very inviting glow as the light shone through it. Gooseberries were my initial though from it's aroma, followed by white stone fruits.

This followed through in it's flavour, although the gooseberries soften into the background and peachiness came to the fore with its hint of slate adding to the wine's clean, smooth, elegant finish.

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I had to stop writing this and pop out for a few minutes .... a rare sight was about to happen. The Flying Scotsman passed through our station on it's way to London -

My photos were taken very quickly on my phone and our station has so many stanchions it was hard to get a clear photo - I was focusing on actually looking at the train to, not taking the photo - but you can see just what a superb piece of engineering she is. It was so good to see her in full steam.

Home and away

If you're a regular visitor to my wine, food and travel blog you will have read about my homemade Chateau Hearnden tea wine, it's bubbling away nicely.

And if you follow me on Twitter (@Aimetu) you'll know all about the bag of frozen peas that have been a much needed companion over the last year.

Putting those two statements together and what do you have ..... homemade pea wine hee hee

I no longer need my 'ice pack' and not liking waste I decided to have a go at pea wine !!

I have no idea if it will work or what it will taste like but it's been fun so far starting it off.

4 weeks in the bucket 

After straining

Let the bubbles begin

This weekend we popped to Cardiff and as Hubby was given quite a few Majestic gift vouchers when he retired we called into Majestic Cardiff Bay.

It's always nice to visit a different store as all stores are laid out differently which for some reason makes us spot new wines as well as recognising old favourites.

We had of course to buy 6 for the mixed price offer but somehow we ended up with a few more, as we enjoy each one I'll blog some tasting notes and add a review on Cuvée Reserve. 

I'm looking forward to trying Mon Plaisir De La Vallee and La Belle Angele as they are both French Sauvignon Blancs, and seeing how the Krasno Sauvignon Blanc from Slovenia compares.

Our Majestic buys

We have often driven past Fine Wines Direct UK when in Cardiff, driven past because of time not because of lack of interest. As we had a little spare time this time we stopped by.

Fine Wines Direct UK supply the trade and are open to the public. They had some familiar labels and some new, they also had some very expensive bottles that Hubby and I can only ever look at!

Franschhoek is a label we've seen in other wine shops but never tried; we opted for the Chenin Blanc and Merlot from the range they had. On a recent visit to Cardiff Bay I had enjoyed a bottle of Siglo Rioja (yes I really did) in La Cha Cha so by mutual agreement a bottle was added to our buys.

They had a very good offer on Chateau l'Avocat Graves 2012 and in their bin end basket we spotted le Versant Viognier 2014 and La Di Motte Pinot Grigio 2012. Such good wines, such great prices we couldn't resist!

As with the Majestic wine I'll blog tasting notes and reviews on Cuvée Reserve.

Fine Wines Direct UK

I didn't expect to come home from Wales with more wine but looking at our collections I'm very glad we did and am looking forward to opening a few new discoveries!

A weekend in Guildford

Our reason to visit Guildford was to attend Love Wine Festival - a very good afternoon which you can read about in my previous post. We decided to make our stay a long weekend so we could visit the town and stay longer to enjoy the hotel pool and gym.

I was delighted to discover that Majestic Guildford were holding their Old World Showcase on the Friday evening, It's always good to start a weekend with wine! Our hotel, Holiday Inn, was just outside the town centre which was easy to get to by bus, something we don't take very often.

Guildford town centre is a mixture of old and new, But Friday night there wasn't much time to look around .... long enough though to see High Street was on a steep hill! Our choice for dinner was All-Bar-One, a popular place with a retirement party upstairs and a cocktail masterclass in the bar.

We had a lovely meal and as we were going to a wine tasting I started the evening with a Seedlip Garden cocktail. Seedlip make the world's first non-alcoholic spirits. My drink, Seedlip with Fever Tree tonic, was delicious, quite herby and very refreshing.

It was quite a walk to Majestic, the furthest I have been since my accident, good job I had my walking stick. It was a very warm welcome when we arrived, quite a few people there and plenty of Majestic staff to help and advise.


Bollinger special cuvee was our first tasting and what a delicious tasting it was, lovely fine bubbles floating to the surface with a clean citrusy flavour. A very very nice glass of champagne.

There were two white wines: Vaux St George Touraine and Passimento Bianco. It will be no surprise that I favoured the Touraine although the Passimento was very refreshing.

The two reds on offer were Matsu El Picaro and Loron Beaujolais. It was no surprise either that Hubby preferred the Matsu and I the Beaujolais.

The final two wines were both fine wines: Vaucoupin Chablis and Chateau Musar 2006. These were superb, the Chablis so elegant with a richness of peaches with a hint of minerality, and the Chateau Musar just needed a sofa to be scooped up in; plums, licorice, spice .... mmmmm execptionally nice!


Silent Pool Distillers are a Surrey based company specialising in gin, eau de vie and alcoholic cordials; they were also at Majestic for the evening. There are many new gin distillers in the UK with each one having a totally different flavour, Silent Pool was too. I really liked its strong juniper flavour, nice neat but better with tonic. I also tried their alcoholic Strawberry and Gin Cordial .... ohhh just add ice-cream!

Friday night at Majestic was where we first met Jeremy from Surrey Wine School, it was a pleasure to meet him again at Love Wine on Saturday. At Majestic he had four blind tasting and we're always up for a challenge. The first white I knew, definitely German/Alsace but not Gerwurstraminer as there was no Turkish Delight so must be Gruner Veltliner ..... and it was.

After a slightly wrong guess Hubby sussed the second white ... Chenin Blanc. The first red was unmistakably Malbec and being lighter we correctly decided the fourth wine was Pinot Noir. All the wines were in Majestic's Definition range and all very good.

Thank you Jeremy for a great blind tasting, and thank you Majestic Guildford for a lovely evening - hopefully we'll meet again.

Surrey Wine School's blind tastings 

Saturday morning, after a very enjoyable breakfast at the hotel, we again took the bus into Guildford town centre. As I said it is on a hill so lots of steep walking. We wandered around the Castle Gardens, one of the overlooking houses is where Lewis Caroll wrote Alice in Wonderland and there are many reference to Alice and the White Rabbit in the town.

Town Gate

Guildford Castle up on high

I loved all the layers of different stone used in the  castle wall 

Town walls

Castle Gardens

'I'm late, I'm late for a very important date'

Hospital of the Blessed Trinity

The Almshouse in the inner courtyard

Such history 

We had a really nice weekend in Guildford, such a historic town with so much to see and I'm sure we'll be back again.