Calais Encore !!

Last weekend saw us and our good friends Rob & Kathy and Dave & Agnes pop over to Calais for the weekend. Obviously wine and beer purchase were top of our list but we were also there to enjoy being in France and having a mini break.

Our drive round London on the M25 was amazingly uneventful, even crossing the beautiful Queen Elizabeth II bridge (although it's a bit pricey now and you have to pay online before you cross). It's an amazing structure with great views westward towards Canary Wharf and eastward on the Thames Estuary.

Queen Elizabeth II Bridge

After meeting at Medway Services and driving on to Dover we were very lucky to be allocated an earlier crossing. A fairly smooth P & O sailing on the Pride of Canterbury soon had us arriving on French soil, with a quick hop along the motorway to Pidou Supermarket - well there's no point in delaying our shopping.

Pidou has a vast array of wine, mainly well known brands sold in the UK supermarket; Echo Falls, Blossom Hill, Hardy's VR, as well as spirits, bottled beer and matching beer glasses. Our favourite easy drinking Cotes du Rhone is Celliers des Dauphins and is best priced at Pidou.

Our favourite Cotes du Rhone

Next stop Majestic, probably our favourite shop and checking our receipts now we're home most of our purchases were made here. It's great to see a shop full of all the wines we see at home but at a much more appealing price. The exchange rate at the moment is fantastic making the prices even better. I'm not going to include tasting notes this time - plenty of blogs to follow as we enjoy our buys.

Leon Perdigal (another Cotes du Rhone) was a must, as was a bottle of our favourite champagne Nicolas Feuillatte. Majestic have a great selection of Luis Felipe Edwards, Oxford Landing, Yalumba and Brancott Estate wines; it's a hard choice to decide which to bring home but they do have a tasting station for the obligatory sampling. Duc de Belmont was a red recommended by our friends, it's always good to try new wines.

Majestic Calais - tasting station

And so onto the third of our shopping trio (they are all next to each other) Calais Wine. This shop is amazing, so many offers and so many great wines. I love Otra Vida Viognier and at 3 bottles for £6 it could not stay in France. A new wine to me but recommended by one of our friends was Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc; I'm looking forward to trying this well chilled on a sunny evening.

Calais Wine - an amazing place

One of my favourite wines

Shopping done we drove in convoy to our hotel - Ibis Calais Tunnel Sous la Manche. It's in a great position, easy to access from the autoroutes and is next to Cite Europe for all the bars and restaurants. Our Friday night meal was at 3 Brasseurs, a micro brewery that has chains in Northern France, Belgium and Canada. I had a pallet de degustation which is four small glasses of their four main beers; the others had a beer cocktail, red wine and a little something to share !!

3 litres to share - fabulous idea

My set of four - the darkest was my favourite

The food there is always good, I had their version of a pizza, Flammekueches. For dessert we had Cafe Gourmands which are a great idea. There is a selection of mini desserts, usually about 4 or five and an espresso coffee or cup of tea. It's always hard to choose which dessert is the nicest. We had one Saturday night too when we had another great meal at one of the others restaurants in Cite Europe.

Friday night's Cafe Gourmand - all delicious

Saturday Night Cafe Gourmand with an additional glass of wine

Saturday morning we all squeezed into our 7 seater and set off south, not far, just 30 minutes to Montreuil-sur-Mer. This medieval town was the inspiration for Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. and unknown to us held their markets on a Saturday! After squeezing round the tiny streets we managed to park and take a walk along the town's ramparts. The views stretch far and wide, almost to the sea. It's very evident that the town had a moat as some of the ramparts are steep walls with banks on opposite sides.

Montreuil is where The Wine Society has it's french shop and being as we're members we called by. Unfortunately the wines they stocked were not the ones we or our friends were hoping to buy but we did find Duo des Deux Mers which is one of our favourites. It's a good place to call by if you are in the area.

Montreuil's Ramparts

The Wine Society Shop in Montreuil

Duo des Deux Mers

Moving on from Montreuil we travelled towards the sea and stopped for lunch in Etaples. Nick and I have had three holidays in this harbour town with fishing it's main trade. The weather was beautiful if a little windy but warm enough to have a small picnic on the harbourside watching a few boats sail back in and some small planes taking off from the airport opposite.

On returning to Calais we did our final shopping at Auchan, one of the large supermarkets. Although wine was on my list I do buy many other things in France and this trip had a must - a new Raclette cooker. Our previous one was in much need of being replaced and we found just the one in the electrical department. A new t-shirt, hand wash (refills), shower gel, smoked garlic, cheese, olives, pate, vanilla sugar, coffee and cordials were all happily added to our trolley before we had just a quick look in the wines. We do also bring beer home, namely Belgium beer and this time the brands included Rince Cochon and Kwak. Our best find in Auchan was a Sauvignon from the Ardeche which I had enjoyed last holiday and a great Cremant de Loire which is one of our favourite sparkling wine.

Cremant de Loire

As mentioned we dined in Cite Europe Saturday night, there are plenty of restaurants and bars and although inside it actually feels like you are outside. After two nights at the Ibis and a great two days in and around Calais it was time to travel home. The Pride of Kent cruised us back to Dover over an almost still Channel.

A brilliant weekend with great friends - one I'm sure will be repeated. If you'd like more details about visiting Calais there is a separate page at the top of my blog - definitely worth a trip.

And if you like to chat about wine why not join my online forum Cuveé Reserve, where members share tasting notes, upcoming events and other wine related tips. Please mention you found the forum through my blog and I'll authorise your membership - Cuveé Reserve.

The Wine Society

I've been looking at The Wine Society website for a little while, wondering about their vast variety of wines and contemplating joining. I was delighted at Christmas when our grown up children bought us membership and my drooling, contemplating and pondering could at last have the final stage of ordering and most importantly tasting.

The Wine Society first began at the Great Exhibitions in 1874 when a co-operative company began to buy good quality wines and sell them to members. Over 1500 wines are sourced by nine buyers and sold to members; the Society is non-profit making with surplus monies being used to enhance service and supplies.

Membership is a one-off fee of £40 giving you a unique share number. Our membership came with a £20 voucher off our first order which was an added bonus.

And so to choosing wine - what a task ! We decided to choose a random selection as opposed to a mixed case, although we were tempted by Top Society Sellers - a case of the top selling Society wines, 6 red and 6 white. 

Our 'name-the-day' delivery arrived as arranged and we opened our box in eager anticipation. All the wines looked tempting however we dutifully laid them in our rack ready for selection as required, and as we have now tried a few I thought it time to blog our findings (all photos are from The Wine Society page) - tasting notes are always subjective but here's what we discovered.

Duo des Deux Mers - France 2013 I was very intrigued with this wine, and I loved it.

It's from the south of France but as the name suggests from two regions. The duo refers to the two grapes in this white, sauvignon from Gascony and viognier from the Languedoc; Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean being the two seas. 

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A lovely pale yellow colour with a nose full of gooseberries and pineapples, with a background of crisp green apple. It had a slightly syrupy palette with a smooth finish. A pure dry tasting wine full of  kiwi and gooseberry flavours - but without being sharp or acidic.





The Stop Gap Chardonnay - France 2013  Another wine that interested me because of its origins, fruit from the Languedoc and Beaujolais, and another I loved.

This white burgundy had a deep yellow colour which matched its creamy vanillaness. It was full of pears, peaches with a spicy tingle to its finish. A lovely unoaked wine with a nose of red apples and just a hint of vanilla.







The Society's Ruppertsberger - Germany 2013  Not our usual choice of grape but this German Riesling caught our eye; it's blended with silvaner which is a new name to us.

Very sparkly in the glass, its straw yellow having striking highlights. We were expecting an oily nose but this Riesling was full of green grass and apples, quite refreshing. It's palette was smooth and cream, with some vanilla; a little like a chardonnay but with a crisp sauvignon finish - not at all as we expected but very much enjoyed.

The Society's Cotes du Rhone - France 2103 A favourite red grape and a part of France we love so we were keen to try this wine.

A beautiful deep red colour with scarlet highlights led to a nose full of damsons and cherries. Our mouths were filled with the same damsons, sour cherries but joined with a smokey dryness that had a smooth finish. An really enjoyable soft Cotes du Rhone that was without oak and full of fruit.

This will be on our favourites list - a lovely example of a smooth french wine.






Malabarista Tempranillo-Granache - Spain 2012  This wine again is not our usual choice, we are not keen on Rioja but this is from the neighbouring region of Navarra.


It's nose was full of dark fruit but yet quite light, unlike it's colour which was a deep, almost claret-like red. Quite acidic high notes were immediately evident on tasting followed by damsons, plums and a slight aniseed/liquorice note. It was certainly full flavoured with slight tannin and long finish.





We have enjoyed our first few wines from The Wine Society, not only tasting but discovering more about them and adding notes to our tasting book. It's great to have the catalogue to mark wines we've tried - a book that will be travelling with us next weekend as we're visiting France and will have the opportunity to call in at Montreuil-sur-Mer and the Wine Society's french shop.

Thirty Fifty at Leicester

I was very lucky to win two tickets to Thirty Fifty's wine tasting at Maiyango Hotel in Leicester. We have been to a Thirty Fifty wine tasting before - their weekend at Bosworth Hall is amazing, you can read about it here - Bosworth Wine Tasting.

We had not been to Maiyango before but will certainly be visiting again - on arriving we went in to the restaurant which is street level, the lovely barman directed us outside again just along the street to a glass door and advised us to take the lift to the third floor. Although thinking this a little a little strange we did as instructed and were amazed. The hotel have very cleverly allocated the first and second floors as bedrooms and their top floor as their reception area, bar and function rooms, with amazing views over the skyline of Leicester.

The reception/bar area had floor to ceiling patio style doors that lead our to a decked balcony with tables and seating - perfect for summer evenings.

Hotel's photo of their decked balcony

Leicester Cathedral spire

Maiyango's reception and bar

Our tasting host for the evening was Rob Golding whom we had met at Bosworth, and after introduction Rob led us through to Maiyango's function room, with again views over the skyline. The tables were laid with tasting glasses, notes, water glasses and water, and sharing platters. It looked very inviting, professional yet relaxing.

Rob is very good at not only explaining about each wine but his knowledge of the wine industry, human anatomy and the world in general added even more to our evening. Thirty Fifty do make wine tasting fun and as we've experienced before add in a little bit of competitiveness amongst the tables with a quiz and bonus points being available during the evening.

I will be sharing our findings on the wines but if you are looking for some of Rob's knowledge, answers to the quizzes and how to earn bonus points I suggest you book a place on a tasting evening or on their fantastic weekend breaks - Thirty Fifty Wine Tasting Courses.

We enjoyed seven wines in total but two were blind tastings so all I'll say on those is 'Yes' we got the white and were very surprised by the red - it's great fun to test your palette.

So here's our tastings:

We started the evening with Chapel Down English Rose 2013 - a light sparkling wine with a wonderful nose of strawberries. This was followed by a wine we had tasted before at Bosworth, again a light wine but this time a sauvignon blanc from the South of France.

La Serre Sauvignon Blanc Vin de Pays D'OC 2013

After the blind tasting we had two lovely red wines, one from Portugal and one from Califonia. Throughout all the tastings Rob suggested various items from the sharing platter to go with the different wines, we had a beautiful Red Leicester cheese with the Sauvignon Blanc and some gorgeous spicy sausage with the red, as well as olives, bread and ham.

DFJ Vinhos Vega Douro 2011 - Portugal 

Delicato Old Vine Zinfandel 2012 - California

To finish our evening we enjoyed a sweet dessert wine from Chile, it's an usual sweet wine as being a Sauvignon Blanc grape it has flavours of grapefruit which gives expectation to sharp sourness but it is beautifully syrupy and sweet.

La Playa Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2013

We had a great time; an amazing venue, great guests, good wines and a knowledgeable host - thank you Thirty Fifty for a wonderful evening.

The 'Best of'

After the success of our 100 Wine Tasting last year the leaders at Nuneaton North Scouts asked if the wine nights could carry on .... no question about it - YES!

So to start this year off we decided to do a 'Best of' tasting. Looking back over the 100 we tried I decided on 20 of the favourites - well 18 actually as I added in a couple of newbies. It was quite tricky as some wines had been donated last year and I wasn't sure of where to buy them. The budget for our 100 challenge was quite tight so I did some careful shopping before and not all wines were still on offer, but after searching supermarket shelves we had our 'Best of' wine night !

'Best of' ready to go 

A slight change as we started off with the rose wine, I have to say not my favourite style of wine but it is amongst the ladies at the tastings. The rose wines were followed by four whites before we took a short break:

Mateus Rose - in it's unmistakable bottle this wine has been a favourite  for many years

Echo Falls White Zinfandel - a slightly sweeter wine which is a firm favourite with the ladies

Oak Leaf Chardonnay - this Californian wine is a smooth easy drinking chardonnay

Hardy's VR Chardonnay - this can always be relied on, served well chilled it is a refreshing wine

Liebfraumilch - another blast from the past but a favourite with those who prefer a sweeter white

Yellow Tails Pinot Grigio - a popular range from Australia, this pinot grigio is bright and crisp

A great selection to start the evening off - light wines that are coming into their own as we move away from enjoying reds on cold cosy winter evenings and start thinking about chilled whites sipped on summer evenings in the garden. 

Last year we also had 100 cheeses (20 at each tasting) but this year we've moved away from cheese. Nachos and dips had everyone moving round to try new flavours, the garlic and onion dip went really well with the Yellow Tails Pinot Grigio; the cheese and chive with the Hardy's VR Chardonnay. 

And so back to tasting:

Rose and White Wines

Cono Sur Viognier - not a usual grape for most but a lovely wine from Chile

McGuigan Classic Semillon Blanc - this Australian wine was the overall favourite white

Touraine Sauvignon Blanc - a dry crisp wine from the Loire Valley in France

Cheverney - another French white, a sauvignon blanc with a touch of chardonnay

Two new wines graced out tasting table - I didn't include these last year but added them for a little fun. The name and label always cause a giggle - the wines were a surprise to some as both the white and red are blends of three grapes, most tasters were used to drinking single grape wines (chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, merlot). I think both wines will be drunk again as everyone loved them. 

Quirky Birds

Pork and stuffing batches were served in our next break - very different from cheese and biscuits but very much appreciated. I'm not sure if anyone tried to match a wine to the batches but I enjoyed the Quirky Bird Shiraz, Mourvedre, Viognier with mine. batches eaten it was time to pour the reds.

Cepa Lebrel Rioja - a deep Spanish wine which we had decanted a few hours earlier.

Hardy's VR Merlot - a regular wine chosen by one of our tasters, always a good pour.

Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon - a deep red wine from Chile, one of the most popular reds

McGuigan Classic Cabernet Sauvignon - this deep fruity red was another wine liked by most

Kiwi Cuvee Pinot Noir - a lovely french wine made by a New Zealander

Cellier des Dauphins Cotes de Rhone - a mellow red with deep undertones

Trivento Malbec - deep ruby red with hints of cherries and chocolate

The Paddock Shiraz - this is the top red in all our tastings, so deep, so smooth

Quirky Bird and the reds

It was another successful wine tasting night finished with pudding, a ginger trifle cake. It was great to revisit some of the wines and taste again firm favourites. All the wines this tasting were from Asda, Lidl, Sainsbury's or Tesco (apart from the french ones from our own cellar). The supermarkets have some great offers at times, it's just a case of knowing which wine you want and keeping an eye out for a good price. 

Our next tasting will be a little different - beer !! Any suggestions or offers of donations will be very much appreciated. 

Next tasting is BEER

Valentine's, Cardiff, 21st Birthday and Cake !!

We had a lovely Valentine's Day meal at Saints Bar in Nuneaton. Our son is the Bar Manager so we do visit quite often, We love their food - it's all freshly cooked, a lovely restaurant. For Valentine's Day they had a special meal which was amazing.

Glass of Proesecco each

Platter including salmon fish cakes, chicken bites and flatbread to share

Sea bass served with fries and veg

Chocolate fondue with sweeties and fruit to share

Chocolate sharing fondue

We had an amazing night enjoying their Prosecco for just £9.99 a bottle and superb cocktails made by our busy son. He's very good and does make a mean cocktail.

Saints Bar Cocktails

Monday we traveled to Cardiff to see our daughter who's at Uni. It was her 21st birthday on Tuesday but we took her and her boyfriend out for a meal Monday night as she was going out with friends on Tuesday (more about that later).

We stayed right in the city centre at The Thistle Parc Hotel. Our stay was lovely; clean,comfy rooms with a great breakfast. As Tuesday was Pancake Day the chef was making them fresh - delicious. 

Back to Monday night - we went for cocktails first, although I can't remember where they were lovely.

Cocktails in Cardiff

We went to Las Iguanas for dinner, Hubby and I had not been before although we have been out for a Mexican meal. It was lovely food, not too spicy and quite filling.

Tuesday morning (after our pancake breakfast) we visited our daughter with her gifts and a cake I'd made. Her boyfriend made us pancakes - well it was Pancake Day - for lunch. I was very pleased with the cake - my friend has a printer for icing and printed some photos for me. 

The cake I made

Our daughter thought we were going home but actually her friends had arranged a surprise party at Lab 22 (another cocktail bar) and had invited us too. We had a lovely afternoon in Cardiff before going for a meal at Cote Brasserie, a french restaurant chain we have not visited before.

Hubby and I both had mussels for starters and decided on a bottle of  Lande Blanc 2014 Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne which was absolutely delicious. Hubby has a steak and I had a chicken salad which was huge, with toasted walnuts, avocado and croutons.

Mussel starters

Chicken salad & steak frites

After the meal we met with her friends at Lab 22 and all got ready to surprise our daughter!!  Her friends had decorated the room with the theme of masquerade - it was beautiful. We all wore masks too, she was surprised and pleased to see us as we were supposed to be at home.

Masquerade table

Cake I decorated for the surprise party

We had put together some photos of her growing up and her friends had added some from Uni. The club had them on a loop on the big screen - it was a lovely idea, as was the renaming of some of their cocktails to things to do with her - Gamesmaker, PH, Hearnden - it was an amazing evening.

On the way home Hubby and I stopped by the original Severn Bridge. We followed a small lane and to our surprise we were right underneath the bridge.

Severn Bridge

Under the bridge

Another lovely trip - surprisingly little wine but so many cocktails - well it's not everyday your daughter turns 21 !!

A Tale of three Cities

Accor Hotels is a chain we use both in the UK and in Europe - good value, good service and plenty of choice. So when I saw their competition 'A Tale of three Cities' I wanted to enter straight away.

Just one problem ... which city to choose:

Paris - Cardiff - Lille - Brussels - Birmingham - London - Bergen - Rome - Leicester - Athens

to name but a few we've visited over the last 30 years. So which was my favourite and what three things could I say about them. The competition ends tomorrow and I was still thinking ....

.... until yesterday and our day trip to London -  walking around the city in the winter sun made me realise that London was actually my favourite place. Why? well here's my three reasons:

Atmosphere: typical answer I hear you say but seriously it is. The streets were full of people from so many different places, backgrounds and reasons for being there. And yes you can say that about any city but where Paris would be special, London is a treat, a treat for everyone.

Families were enjoying a stroll along the South Bank, children on scooters, parents talking to grandparents - a treat to be altogether.

Couples young and old enjoying time in the city, oblivious to everyone else just enjoying their treat time together.

Students in groups, laughing and joking, enjoying some treat time away from their studies.

Special times for some but visiting the city is an affordable, accessible treat for everyone to share and enjoy the hustle and bustle noise.

History: It's everywhere - you cannot walk more than a few metres before another piece of history jumps out. The fire of London, trading in tea and spice from India,  parliamentary uprisings, royal coronations, royal weddings, Jack the Ripper, Shakespeare plays, beheading at the Tower, bridges being bought ship shipped to America - there is so much history all around in many genres.

London's events are filled with tradition; State Opening of Parliament, Changing of the Guard, The Lord Mayor's Parade, Remembrance Sunday - history is all around.

It does not matter what your interests there is something for everyone all evident and linked by my third reason....

Buildings: What a collection, what a skyline, old and new overlapping each other in a comforting not conflicting way.

Monument was once one of the tallest buildings, standing near Pudding Lane where the great fire of London started and not far from Samuel Peeps London, now it's almost invisible with modern glass fronted office blocks all around. Just along the river is Greenwich with it's imposing buildings linked to the nautical aspect of London with it's tidal river providing an inlet for trading - which leads to the breath taking Tower Bridge. Standing ornately as the river entrance to the City, confused in the past with London Bridge, now a replacement as the original was bought and shipped to America with the buyer thinking he has purchased the stunning opening towered structure.

Sitting alongside is the Tower of London, in itself a collection of buildings spanning many centuries, just across the Thames on the South Bank are examples of old warehouses converted to modern shopping galleries and restaurants. Further along the Oxo Tower and Shakespeare's Globe theatre, so very different but sitting so comfortably looking across the Thames to the magnificent St Paul's Cathedral.

The Royal and Parliament buildings stretch right across the city, magnificent in their architecture and brought to life on not just on special occasions but hourly with the unmistakable sound as Big Ben strikes.

The Shard and Southwark Cathedral

In the midst

Riverside pub on cobbled streets

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

St Paul's from the South Bank

Amazing skyline down river

Nelson and Westminster Abbey

The Thames and Millennium Eye

Modern architecture

HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge

The Tower of London

Tower Bridge

London is such a full city, every changing, ever moving, a place for everyone to be anyone, with anyone. It feels a treat, it feels expensive yet affordable, you feel part of the city and it's mix of people. London is amazing as you can see from my photos taken yesterday - definitely my favourite city.