Chirk Castle

On our way to North Wales we visited Chirk Castle, a Nstional Trust property between Oswestry and Wrexham. It was quite a surprise to see these stunning gates and even more of a surprise that we kept driving uphill ... the castle, originally built as a border fortress, certainly had prime position.

It was quite a steep walk from the car park, although there was a courtesy bus if needed. The path took us behind the castle and led us past the round towers, in fact we walked along Offa's Dyke for a short distance. The round towers and gateway were quite impressive, the original castle was built in the late 13th century.

In 1595 Sir Thomas Middleton bought the castle, he planned to turn it into a grand home. He made his fortune in the sugar and becoming wealthy gave him an invitation to the Elizabethan court.

The castle has been owned by the Middleton family for over 400 years, there are many of their portraits hanging on the walls. The staircase was extremely grand, as were the ceilings in the grand staterooms.

The inner courtyard is very formal with the buildings being symmetrical, the top row of windows in the first photo is the long gallery, one room stretching the length of the building. 

It is possible to climb the tower behind the clock and see its mechanics but this visit I stayed on the lower ground. 

This carving surprised me as the words are split across the lines .... did the stonemason misjudge the lettering size or was this the only stone available so the words had to fit?

'This new building and the tower was built all in one year by Thomas Middleton Knight 1636'

The gardens were beautiful, often formal but with interest. The view across the border into England was stunning and highlighted how low the English land is. 

The small thatched summer house was so pretty, with the blossom out it made a chocolate box picture, one for a jigsaw maybe.

It was a lovely Castle with beautiful grounds, something we would not have visited had we not been National Trust members. 

Diolch Chirk Castle, it was a pleasure to call by.

White Castle

In mid April we had enjoying a few days away with friends in Abergavenny, a market town in Monmouthshire, Wales. We had a great time exploring the town with its traditional market hall, castle and museum, but the highlight of our stay was our tour and tasting at White Castle Vineyard in Llanvetherine.

Hubby and I met Robb and Nicola Merchant, the vineyard owners, a few years ago when our daughter 'adopted a vine' for us. We were the proud supporters of a Phoenix vine, you can see how delighted we were in my previous White Castle Vineyard post. 

It was a real pleasure to arrange a trip for our friends to discover the delights of this wine gem nestling in the beautiful Welsh countryside. Robb and Nicola made us all so welcome; Robb's tour was so informative about how they started in the wine industry and how it has progressed, taking them on an amazing journey and at times 'pinch me' experiences. 

Their next project is to have their own Winery so their wine is grown and produced on site. They are now crowdfunding, with support starting from £20, to make this dream a reality. Their crowdfunding page  has details of the various pledge rewards as well as the story of how it all began.

On the site of White Castle Vineyard is a 16th Century Croft Barn, a Grade II listed building that was once part of the Great Trerhew Eastate. The barn was derelict but with the help of various grants, support and hard work it has been restored with new weather boarding between the original 1581 wooden beams.  It's a stunning building that is now used for a variety of events including weddings. 

As I mentioned before we adopted a vine and our plaque was put on our Phoenix vine. Each row is numbered, as is each vine in each row so it was easy to find our vine. As our adoption year has finished Robb gave us our plaque as a keepsake and to my absolute delight a cutting which I have nursed all the way home and have everything crossed that it will take.

After a stroll around the vines listening to Robb's expert advice on growing, pruning and harvesting we returned to the Cellar Door for a superb wine tasting. Hubby and I have tasted most of the White Castle range and whilst the wines are slightly higher priced than our usual purchases we had no qualms in suggesting the visit to our friends. The oohs and aarghs accompanied by very smiley faces was evidence a plenty that everyone was very impressed and thoroughly enjoyed each glass. 

Our first tasting was Gwin gwyn which translates from Welsh to English as wine white. It's produced from the Phoenix grape and is my favourite White Castle wine. 

An invitingly clear wine in colour with aromas and flavours of citrus and elderflower and a clean crisp finish. Cellar Door price £20.00

Moving on to a wine I have not tasted before, our second tasting was White Castle Rosé. Its appearance in the glass a soft salmon followed by an abundance of summer fruit flavours and an elegant finish. Cellar Door price £19.00

I felt very very spoilt with our first red tasting. I am not a great drinker of Pinot Noir as I struggle to find a wine that I like, however on a previous visit Hubby and I tasted Robb and Nicola's Pinot Noir Precoce Reserve and fell in love immediately. This wine is really superb, full of vanilla and dark fruits with a hint of oak from it's barrel aging. 

Cellar Door price £32.00 

Our final red was Harry, named after Robb and Nicola's grandson. Produced from Rondo grapes this wine had a deep colour corresponding with the deep fruit in its flavour.  A medium bodied wine benefiting from it's time in oak to develop. 

Cellar Door price £24.00

Our final tasting brought us full circle with its name being connected to the Croft Barn. 1581 is a fortified wine taking its name from the age of the barn beams. A smooth and very moreish wine that would be a perfect match to a cheese board, poured over ice cream or enjoyed straight from the bottle.

Cellar Door price £27.00

Siegerrebe is White Castle's other white, we do already have a bottle at home. A delicious wine full of peach, blossom and honey flavours with a hint of spice on its finish. Cellar Door price £22.00

Our absolute favourite red is White Castle's Regent. We have enjoyed this with our Christmas dinner for the last few years, it's a great pairing. It's full of dark fruits with cherry notes and soft tannins giving a long lengthy finish. Cellar Door price £25.00

Although not included in our tasting at the vineyard I can say White Castle's Sparkling Wine is superb. It has an abundance of fine bubbles, is full of gooseberry and elderflower flavours and was perfect to celebrate our daughter's engagement in 2022 to her Welsh fiancé. Cellar Door price £32.00

Thank you so much Robb and Nicola for such a warm welcome, fun vine tour and fantastic tasting. I know we all had a great afternoon with plans to revisit discussed already. I wish you every success with your crowdfunding and will be watching with delight as your winery becomes reality. 

The Wine Society - Southern Hemìsphere & Americas

Back in March Hubby and I went to Leicester for a wine tasting with The Wine Society. We have been to a tasting with them before, having been members for a number of years, and we were delighted to find it was again held at City Rooms in the city centre making it an easy journey by train.

The Wine Society tastings are very informal with six tables around the room, each representing a different area of the world. This tasting was focusing on the Southern Hemisphere and the Americas with each table having five of six wines from the given region. 

Each wine was numbered which corresponded with the booklet we all received on entry, along with our tasting glass. Hubby and I started in reverse order and tasted all the whites on each table until we reached number 1; we then retraced our steps visiting each table again this time tasting all the reds ending back at number 30 the final wine. Tasting thirty wines in an evening was an enjoyable task although I did make good use of the spittoons and only finished a wine I really enjoyed. 

These are the wines, location and prices at the tasting:

Australia 

The Society's Exhibition Hunter Valley Semillion 2018 ... £18.00

Forage Supply Co. 'Spliced' Eden Valley Riesling 2022 ... £22.00

Xanadu Fusion Margaret River Chardonnay 2021 ... £10.95

Vine Mind McLaren Vale Shiraz-Cabernet 2021 ... £11.50

Vanguardist La Petite Vanguard 'Corsair' Riverland 2021 ... £15.50 

Argentina and Uruguay 

Juanico Teru Teru Albarino 2022 ... £11.50

Ben Marco Gualtallary Chardonnay 2021 ... £21.00

Pisano Progreso Tannat Reserve 2022 ... £9.95

Weiner Malbec Mendoza 2012 ... £15.50

Familia Deicas Gran Bodegon 2017 ... £29.00

Chile 

Undurraga Finca Las Lomas Leyda Sauvignon Gris 2021 ... £8.50

Undurraga TH San Antonio Reisling 2018 ... £14.50

Undurraga Cauquences Estate Msule Viognier-Roussanne-Marsanne 2021 ... £8.50

The Society's Exhibition San Julian Pinot Noir 2021 ... £17.50

De Martino Legado Reserva Carmenere 2020 ... £10.95

New Zealand

Anna's Way Nelson Gruner Veltliner 2021 ... £9.95

SPOKE 'Resolute' Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2021 ... £16.50

The Society's Exhibition Hawke's Bay Chardonnay 2021 ... £13.50

Neudorf Tom's Block Nelson Pinot Noir 2019 ... £20.00

Three Crows Bridge Pa Hawke's Bay Syrah 2020 ... £25.00

South Africa

The Society's Exhibition Chenin Blanc, Western Cape 2021 ... £14.50

Rustenberg Chardonay, Stellenbosch 2021 ... £12.50

The Winery of Good Hope Full Berry Fermentation Pinotage, Coastal 2021 ... £8.95

Simonsig Frans Malan Cape Blend, Stellenbosch 2017 ... £16.00

Kanonkop Estate Pinotage, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch 2019 ... £28.00

North America

Tawse Quarry Road Vineyard Vinemount Ridge Riesling 2019 ... £14.95

Tablas Creek Patelin de Tablas Blanc Paso Robles 2020... £21.00

Pedroncelli Triends Red Sonoma County 2019 ... £9.95

Wente Vineyards Beyer Ranch Zinfandel 2020 ... £14.95

Piedrasassi Sta.m Rita Hills Sebastiano/Patterson Vineyard Syrah 2017 ... £34.00

I didn't make tasting notes as balancing booklet, wine glass and pen was quite a task but we did add a few ticks here and there in our booklet. Our preferred wines, in previous list order, were as follows.

White wines:

Forage Supply Co. 'Spliced' Eden Valley Riesling 2022

Ben Marco Gualtallary Chardonnay 2021

Undurraga Cauquences Estate Msule Viognier-Roussanne-Marsanne 2021

Anna's Way Nelson Gruner Veltliner 2021

Tablas Creek Patelin de Tablas Blanc Paso Robles 2020

Red Wines:

Weiner Malbec Mendoza 2012

De Martino Legado Reserva Carmenere 2020

Kanonkop Estate Pinotage, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch 2019

Pedroncelli Triends Red Sonoma County 2019 

Wente Vineyards Beyer Ranch Zinfandel 2020 

We both had a super time exploring new wines, the only disappointment was the servers were not from the wine industry so there wasn't an opportunity to discover more about the wines or winemakers, something we have noted before at a previous Wine Society event. 

Nevertheless we did have a super night, we tasted some delicious wines and did chat with fellow wine lovers who all seemed to be enjoying the evening too - thank you The Wine Society.

Blandy's Wine Lodge - Funchal, Maderia

On our recent visit to Maderia we spent the day in Funchal happily wandering around soaking in the island life. Nestling amongst the many buildings housing bars, shops and restaurants we discovered Blandy's, a wine shop ... or so we thought.

We are not drinkers of sherry or sweet wine so although we have tasted Maderia wine before we had not heard of Blandy's. Entering the cobbled courtyard we amazed to discover it was actually where they made their wine .. and just how old the Wine Lodge was. 

Our tour and tasting took us through the old timber buildings learning so much about the wine as we travelled through time. Surprisingly we had heard some of the names before and as we moved through this stunning old Lodge we began to appreciate how special Maderia wine is. 

It all began in 1808 when John Blandy arrived from London, he moved to Maderia because of ill health and in 1811 began trading in wine with his brothers Thomas and George. He started producing this unique wine which was soon to be known all over the world.

John Blandy bought many small holdings which became Blandy's Wine Lodges, their structure making the perfect temperature for producing Maderia wine. The Wine Lodge in Funchal had high attics with high heat and humidity where the Maderia wine is aged, a very different way of aging to wine which is kept in cool cellers.

Maderia wine is made from a variety of grapes, most of which came from mainland Portugal, although Malmsey is from Crete. The grape varieties include:

Tinta Negra     Sercial    Verdelho   Terrantez    Buel    Malvasia (Malmsey)

There was so much to learn at the Wine Lodge, it was steeped in history with so many old beams, equipment and of course barrels. The smell in the cellar room was amazing, quite a surprise as we had gone upstairs to an attic not downstairs into a cellar.

After the tour we had a tasting of two very different wines, nothing like the Maderia wine we had previously tasted which had always been quite sweet. These wines were very complex, rich in flavours and varying in style. It was whilst tasting these that Hubby remember that Nelson was supposedly brought back in a barrel of Malmsey wine ... thankfully not the one we tasted!

It was lovely sitting in at the wooden tables in the old rooms surrounded by bottles of aged Maderia Wine dating back many years. So lovely we decided to stay a while and shared a four wine tasting with a cheeseboard. Each wine was matched to a cheese although we preferred the blue cheese with the oldest wine, it certainly opened our eyes, and palates. 

And to our surprise since returning home we have seen Blandy's in quite a few supermarkets although we have yet to add one to our drinks collection. I would certainly return to Blandy's if in Funchal again, you can have a tasting without the tour and so next time we'll try a different selection - thank you Blandy's for a great afternoon of discovering Maderia Wine. 

Brancott Estate - Sauvignon Blanc

 Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc, Majestic £7.00

Spring has sprung with sunshine and flowers and the long awaited opportunity to sip in the sun. I have been greatly anticipating a cool glass of Sauvignon Blanc in the garden on a sunny day and this crisp white wine from Morrisons is perfect. 

So clear in colour, highlighted in the rays, this wine is full of tropical aromas and it brings gooseberries, lime and zestiness to the palate. A super Sauvignon Blanc with a super acidic length that encourages you to take another sip - no encouragement needed, it's delicious!

Brancott Estate is the first Marlborough vineyard in the Montana wine portfolio and its Sauvignon Blanc sits high on the list of New Zealand producers. It has all the classic characteristics, along with added crispness expected from a New World Sauvignon Blanc. 

Perfectly paired to an afternoon relaxing in the sun but it would be equally as enjoyable with a herby chicken dish, a prawn salad or a plate of cheese. 

Brancott Estate also produce the following wines: 

Rosé    

Pinot Gris       Reisling      Chardonnay 

Pinot Noir      Merlot