February's final week

It's been a very strange week this week, life in the last two and a half years has felt in many ways like we're living in a dream or a movie. 

The events in Ukraine are unbelievable, I cannot begin to image how the Ukrainian people are feeling having to leave their homes with just a few items, what would you take, where would you go ... and all in fear of bombs and attacks. My prayers are with everyone affected by this conflict and I pray peace will soon return to their lives. 

This year I am hoping to blog every Sunday to record our wines and adventures. My blog is more about a diary for us to enjoy the memories. I'm very surprised sometimes when I look back for a specific wine or moment how long it actually was. Today I've included the wines we've enjoyed but only as photos as it's been a sad week for us. 

Wednesday night Hubby and I walked to our local Greene King pub, we haven't been for nearly a year. Sadly just as our food arrived Hubby received a call with the devastating news that his Mum had passed away. She lived in a nearby care home and was quite well, it was so sudden and so unexpected with the added trauma of it being the same day 32 years earlier that Hubby's Dad passed away.

This weekend has been a little lighter as our daughter and her partner are here. We could not visit her in Cardiff earlier this month to celebrate her birthday as she caught Covid, this weekend was her birthday celebrations. We did enjoy a lovely sparkling rose wine and a lovely meal, I of course made a birthday cake, but understandably we've been a bit subdued. 

Our wine this week was two whites and three reds, although I didn't have the Faustino V or McPherson Andrew's Reserve. 

So like I said life has been very surreal this week, hopefully the next few days and weeks will be better for us all. Hubby and I have a week away booked mid March ... fingers crossed we can go. 

Valentine's week

It's been a super week, if not quite our original plans. Valentine's Day we took a drive to Stowe Gardens, a beautiful place which you can read about in my dedicated post - National Trust - Stowe

Hubby has treated us to a super picnic basket, we have a backpack picnic set but it doesn't have much food space. This has two insulated food bags, plenty of utensils, plates and most importantly wine glasses! 

 After our 4 mile walk around the gardens we enjoyed our picnic in the back of the car ... why in the car? I think the second photo says it all!

Back home we had a lovely sharing steak with a bottle of Bodega Matsu wine. It's one of Hubby's favourites, there are three red wines in the range with El Viejo, the 'old man', being the most matured. I bought a bottle to celebrate Hubby's retirement a few years ago and another for his big birthday. 

Although I'm not a fan of Tempranillo wine, especially Rioja, this is quite nice and was perfect with our steak. From the Castilla Y León region this full bodied red is full of dark cherries and blackcurrants with a lovely depth of spice and hint of cedar.

Our dessert was something I haven't had in ages, brandy snaps. I filled them with cream and dipped some strawberries in chocolate ... delicious with our bubbly.

My wine this week has been a bottle of Sancerre purchased on our holiday there in 2019. It was nice but not lovely, to be honest I think I drank it just at the right time

My other white was a favourite from Majestic, Abbotts and Delaunay Viognier. It's a lovely aromatic wine with plenty of peach and apricot flavours. A superb example of a creamy floral French wine from the Languedoc.

This week brings light week days with party time at the weekend ... exciting! 

National Trust - Stowe

The magnificent arch at Stowe stands high on an incline, it's very impressive driving straight towards it. The Corinthian Arch is very similar in design to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

However the road turns right, giving a glimpse of Stow House through the arch, and leads to the National Trust car park. 

Stowe Gardens is huge with meandering paths, lakes, waterfalls, bridges and of course many temples and structures. Although we walked 4 miles we still did not cover all the grounds which, as this National Trust map shows, are extensive.

Even on a dull rainy day these grounds in central England were amazing. So many beautiful views, the structures were all purposefully built with the surrounds landscapes to present them at their best. 

Palladian Bridge

Pebble Alcove

Cascade and Artificial Ruins

Rotunda

Nine Muses

Temple of Ancient Virtue

Temple of British Worthies

Although in the same grounds Stowe House is not a National Trust property, in fact this Grade I listed building is an independent school and is owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust. 

The house's history is quite complex with the original owners being farmers, long before the magnificent house we now see was built. Over hundreds of years the various family members bettered themselves by buying titles and ensuring they were mixing with the right circles. 

In the 1800s the debt was so high all the families possessions were sold by auction, held on the grand steps at the front of the house. The house was in danger of being dismantled but was saved and preserved so today we can appreciate the grandness of this beautiful property. It is a working school but tours can be taken through some of the magnificent rooms.

The grounds and the house are both stunning and certainly worth visiting although maybe in the summer taking a picnic to enjoy in these glorious gardens.

A mixed week

This week did not start off so well, I had my 4th vaccination on Sunday and felt a little under the weather on Monday. Hubby saved the day as always by coming home from town with cake!! 

Delicious! 

We've been trying to walk more often and include a long walk once a week. It's a bit boring walking the same places around where we live so we try to give our walk a purpose. This week we decided to walk to a local butcher as he has a large range of pork pies. The shop is just over two and a half miles from home, I hadn't realised they were all up hill. 

Thankfully the butcher also had pork and stuffing batches which we enjoyed on our route home ... all downhill yay! We bought pies for dinner, I had a scotch pie and the chaps had a Stockingford pasty (named after the area of town). We also bought a pork and stilton pie and a traditional pie - all tasty but the pastry wasn't quite right for me. My favourite pie comes from a butcher in Oakham, maybe we'll have a day out on the train to get one. 

We've certainly had mixed weather this week, some days have been quite warm but there's been a biting wind. For a change of scene and short walk we drove to Market Bosworth. A few years ago a group of us enjoyed a wine weekend with Thirty Fifty at Bosworth Hall Hotel, unbelievably that was 8 years ago and as you'll see in my blog post we had a super time, something to hopefully be repeated again soon. 

Our walk was around the country park opposite the hotel, it has a variety of trees as well as a large pond popular with ducks and geese. It was lovely to see the hedgerows beginning to show signs of spring. 

I have been sorting through my Grandfathers photos and documents trying to build up his life story. If I don't write what I know, and what I find out, down it will be lost. I'm at the research stage which is lovely as it means we're visiting relatives I haven't seen for many years. 

One of my relatives lives in Lichfield so we popped over for a visit. I was surprised and delighted to discover she knew the church where my grandparents married (second marriage for both) and who the other people in the photo were - her parents as my grandmother was her mother's sister. It was so nice to sit and chat and discover more about my family. 

After our visit we drove around a little and found the church, St Chad's. The doorway is still the same although the grave on the left of the photo has been moved to make way for a path. It felt quite surreal  to be there. 

After a quiet start to the week as I wanted to make sure the vaccination side effects had gone before enjoying a glass of wine. Yealands Sauvignon Blanc was my selection and what a good choice. A crisp wine full of flavour with an elegant lengthy finish, I thoroughly enjoyed every sip. 

Saturday we had an impromptu video chat with our quiz friends, no quiz just a chat whilst enjoying wines. We were very surprised that it was a year ago since we had our Virtual Cocktail Night - such fun, maybe one day we will have an actual cocktail night! 

Hubby and I had already opened a bottle of Les Dauphins Cotes du Rhone with our dinner. It's one of our favourite go to French wines, this was a gift from our friends for Hubby's birthday. Chatting is a social event, as is wine drinking and so a second bottle was opened, Laithwaites Cabalie, another super French wine.

Our chat went into the wee hours accompanied by a wee dram. We have quite a few whisky miniatures, it's a good way to try each style of whisky before deciding on whether it's nice enough to buy a full size one. 

Our first wee dram was Jura single malt 10 year old. I like Jura Journey and was looking forward to this, but oh I was initially disappointed when we discovered it was peated. As soon as I smell antiseptic I struggle, however this was very enjoyable as there was no antiseptic taste, just a lightness on the nose. It was a very smooth whisky which we would have again although maybe not buy a bottle.

Our second dram was not for me, it looked richer and as expected from it's colour it had a toffee aroma. However I really didn't like it's flavour, no toffee and very strong but not in a burning way. I was so looking forward to trying GlenAllachie but even with a few drops of angel tears (water) it just wasn't right. 

It just shows doesn't it that you never know from a label or how a whisky looks, they can be very different to expectations ... I guess that can be said for many other things including wine. 

This coming week brings Valentine's Day .... cheers! 

Chinese and Fondue

This week brings two super dinner nights. The first being to celebrate Chinese New Year, the start of the Year of the Tiger. 

At the end of last year Lidl had a super wine on their shelves, Taming the Tiger. This wine has very few reviews online, their Pinotage seems to be more readily available. We really enjoyed this and would certainly grab a few more bottles if they were in store again. 

It was great fun cooking our Chinese dinner, it's always a challenge to have everything ready at the same time, it's trickier than a Sunday roast. I served beef in black bean sauce and chicken in sweet chilli sauce with noodles and rice, stirred vegetables, prawn crackers and spring rolls ... lovely.

Our second super dinner was a treat for Hubby and I ... a very rich cheesy fondue. It all came about because I have been clearing out things and in the kitchen cupboards found not one but two fondue sets. 

Our lovely chunky red set was perfect for our cheese fondue made with greyer and emmental cheese with Vouvray wine and brandy. It was so delicious and moorish, good job we had plenty of dipping goodies

Our Vouvray wine was a gift, I think it's from Morrison's. We both really liked it, this is Hubby's review on Cuvée Reserve Wine Forum.

Slightly sweeter, slightly chalky nose white apple blossom, in the mouth a smooth honeyed melon or white fruits that I can’t describe, hedging towards Turkish delight, slightly sweet side almost oily texture and taste, some spice at the side of the mouth. 

As I said I found two fondue sets so after our cheese experience, with a bit of a breather, we enjoyed a double chocolate dipping experience. This set was one we bought in France quite a few years ago, it's great having two sections but the centre can easily get too hot and the chocolate burn at the edge. I think the grapes in the dark chocolate were my favourite, although strawberries in the white were delicious too. 

To accompany our chocolate delights we opened a bottle of Pillitteri Ice Wine, it's unbelievable that wine is made from frozen grapes although I have heard grapes taste nicer frozen. 

The colour of this Canadian wine is amazing, so deep and inviting. It is a very elegant wine, sweet, rich and luscious, a real treat. It was superb on it's own and delicious with our dessert. I have put the bottle in the freezer for the last two glasses. 

Finally a quick note on another wine we received as a gift, well Hubby received. We both really enjoy Cotes du Rhone wine with Plan de Dieu being one of our favourites. This Extra Special wine from Asda was a great example of the dark fruit and spice flavours we love, another one on our list. 

Another great week of good food and wine, I wonder what this week will bring. We have no plans so who knows what will inspire our choices ... it maybe another cupboard find!