Take a peak at life on the ocean wave
With a million people expected to watch the 100 Tall Ships cross the finishing point as they sail into Hartlepool, Black Sheep will be the pint being poured in The Village, between PD Ports Victoria Harbour and Hartlepool Marina. With activities running from morn till dusk, from 7 to 10 August, visitors can not only watch the action, but go on board the ships and meet the captains and crew.
See Tall Ships 2010 for more information.
From grape to glass, from hop to heritage
Within striking distance of the big smoke, Kent has it all on the drinks front. For many beer lovers, it’s the home of hops, with now legendary tales of East Enders holidaying to pick the crop. For others, the cider apples are the fruit to applaud and appreciate, while more recently grapes have made a strong appearance.
Biddenden Vineyards already produces both cider and wine. To make the most of your Kentish day out, it has teamed up with the Hop Farm in Paddock Wood across the county for a combined group visit. continue reading…
Hampshire’s Food Festival is heading towards the half-way mark, but don’t let the word “food” put you off – there’s more than a few liquid events included on its list of activities.
Take Wickham Vineyards in Shedley for example, halfway along the coast from Southampton to Portsmouth. In the news this year for buying some of the former wine shops from the now defunct First Quench chain, it continues with its original business – an 18-acre vineyard complete with celebrity chef, Atul Kochar’s out-of-town restaurant, Vatika.
Working in a bar or restaurant and want to expand your beer horizons? Garrett Oliver, brewmaster for New York’s legendary Brooklyn Brewery will be speaking at Imbibe 2010 on Tuesday afternoon at Earls Court.
While you are there, check out the Hop & Apple Garden for a few other fruit and cereal-derived tipples. Taste your way around the globe, from Shepherd Neame’s iconic Spitfire Ale via a medley of world beers from adventurous suppliers like James Clay, continue reading…
How do you like your gin?
Gin is leading the charge for British drinks at Imbibe 2010, the new show from the guys behind Square Meal and Imbibe on 13-14 July at Earls Court.
Targeted solely at those in the bar and restaurant industry and covering all drinks types, with 13,500 visitors already registered, it’s likely to be a busy couple of days.
With half a dozen premium players – Sipsmith, Sacred, No 3 London Dry, Greenall’s, Geranium and Whitley Neill – there’s every chance to see what it is about these gins that is catching people’s eye – and palates. continue reading…
All the fun of the fair
Those of you within striking distance of Hampshire have a fun month ahead. Hampshire Food Festival returns for its tenth appearance throughout July.
With everything from watercress workshops to wine tasting, events kick off in earnest this weekend.
Head to Portsmouth for the Gunwharf Quays Festival, where the star turn will be Raymond Blanc in the food theatre, plus a 40-strong real ale festival, an Italian food market and regional food stalls. Open Fri-Sun.
If you are in Basingstoke, drop by Festival Place, where inimitable wine expert Olly Smith will be keeping chefs Ed Baines and John Burton Race chained to the stove for their cookery demos. Sat 3–Sun 4 July
The artisan innards of boutique brewery, Grain
A bit like the Easter Bunny, Tindall’s Summer Loving makes just one appearance a year and this year’s public sighting will be at Grain’s Summer Festival, Saturday 26 June.
Perfectly poised near the Suffolk / Norfolk border near the picturesque village of Alburgh (pronounced Arrbraa), Grain is one of East Anglia’s most go-ahead small breweries.
Full house: English Wine Week at Artisan & Vine
Over 40 people flocked to Clapham wine bar Artisan & Vine for its English wine tasting on Wednesday evening. Paying a tenner each, 29 wines were available to try, from the likes of top sparklers Nyetimber, Ridgeview and Camel Valley, through whites and rosés to a quartet of reds, including the one Jancis Robinson MW made her Wine of the Week a fortnight ago, the Biddenden Gamay 2009.
Parva Farm: a river runs below it
It may not be on quite the same scale, but vines have definitely taken root across the Welsh border.
The oldest vineyard in Wales, Parva Farm will be open during the whole of Welsh Wine Week. Located five miles from Chepstow, overlooking Tintern and the River Wye, Parva Farm also has a farm shop and picnic area for visitors. As throughout the year, visitors can take a self-guided tour and the new 2009 wines will be available to taste for the first time. Alongside other local produce, Welsh cheeses feature in the farm shop and will also be on taste during the week.
Wernddu Vineyard in Pen-y-Clawdd, Monmouth is opening its doors on Sat 5 and Sun 6 June, 11am–7pm, offering a taste of its new organic sparkling wine with free strawberries, plus a chance to say hello and feed Leigh and Frank Strawford’s friendly pack of alpacas. Wernddu also produces organic cider and perry.
Details
Parva Farm Vineyard, Tintern, Chepstow, Monmouth, NP16 6SQ; 01291 689636
Open from 10.30am–6pm
Wernddu Organics, Wernddu Farm, Pen-y-Clawdd, Monmouth, NP25 4BW; 01600 740104
Biodiversity rules supreme at Bothy Vineyard
For those who missed the tours and free tastings at highly sustainable Bothy Vineyard near Oxford over the Bank Holiday weekend, Sian and Richard Liwicki are opening their doors again on 5 and 6 June at 11am for English Wine Week.
As part of their commitment to cultivate grapes “in as environmentally friendly way as possible”, no insecticides are used, native grasses and trees have been planted to encourage biodiversity, 100% of the energy used on site is from renewable sources, and 95% of winery waste is composted on site.
This way for the chocolate and wine match
Chocolate and English wine – not obvious bedfellows it has to be said, unless you are talking perhaps an unctuous sweetie or a perky red sparkler from Down Under. But then, the chocolates have been specially made, and the wines of choice are from Stanlake Park, a winery that has always grown a wider variety of grapes than many an English vineyard, Gewurztraminer being one of their regulars, for example. And the chocolatier is the award-winning Nigel Rumsey, proprietor of coffee & chocolate shops in Thame and Wendover, inspired by, yes, you guessed it, the film Chocolat.
Everyone's involved at Kent Vineyard
In keeping with its “let’s get everyone involved “ ethos, the enterprising Kent Vineyard is holding its first May Fair on Bank Holiday Monday to mark English Wine Week, from 1pm at its Colliers Green Vineyard, near Cranbrook, just to the east of Tunbridge Wells.
With facepainting from Phizzog and kiddies games there’s something for the young ‘uns. continue reading…
Terlingham: overlooking the sea and above Newington's Millennium horse
England’s smallest vineyard with its own winery opens its doors for English Wine Week tomorrow at 2pm. Terlingham Vineyard is also known as the White Horse Vineyard because of its location, just above the horse emblem specially carved into the chalky grassland by Charles Newington to mark the new millennium
With vineyard tours by founders Penny and Steve Riley, a hog roast at 4pm – apparently Steve has a county-wide reputation as a mean cook – plus jazz continue reading…
Denbies: off to the fields with you
Want to find out one of the techniques for ensuring a good harvest? Known as bud-rubbing – or bud busting if you’re from Down Under – it’s the removal of unwanted baby shoots around the base of a vine and Denbies in Dorking would like to share the skills with you. Renowned for its Vine and Dine harvesting days in October, for English Wine Week this year it is holding its first Vine Bud Rubbing experience on Tues 1 June.
Camel Valley: Bob and Sam getting the vines tidied up for your arrival
More fun and frolics in the West Country with the news that Camel Valley have teamed up with the regions’s original foodie celebrity, Rick Stein, in a bid to keep you fit, fed and watered, and fulfilled with a touch of charity thrown in during English Wine Week.
The deal is: buy your picnic at Rick Stein’s Deli in Padstow, hire your bike at the Quay in Padstow and cycle the Camel Trail, which conveniently passes at the foot of the Camel Valley winery. continue reading…
Cheers to the Mercure
group: a selection of its hotels throughout the country are offering a free glass of English wine with meals to celebrate English Wine Week. So, if you are in the West Country for example, head to the Brigstow or the Holland House Hotels in Bristol, the Francis in Bath, the Queens in Cheltenham or the Southgate Hotel in Exeter.
With Holland House in Cardiff, a couple in London involved, seven in the North and Midlands plus a dozen others in the South, check out the English Wine Week website to see whether your Mercure is one of them.
It gives new meaning to “Make mine an English”. Nice one.
Roger White: It's all about making the right choices
Is the bug getting to you? Might you be the next to succomb to the ‘I want to make wine’ urge? If so and you are in the west country next week, take advantage of Roger White’s insight at Yearlstone Vineyard. As part of Devon Wine Week, he’ll be sharing his know-how with two talks, Making a Living from your Vineyard at 11am, Wednesday June 2, and Setting up your own Vineyard at 11am, Saturday June 5.
Live within striking distance of Guildford and got a spare couple of hours tomorrow, Wednesday 12 May? There’s still a few tickets going for Taurus Wines’ popular summer wine fair. Now in its ninth year, founder Rupert Pritchett welcomes 100s of people, putting on quite a show along the way.
Over 300 wines are uncorked ranging in price from £5 to £35, with representatives from as far afield as Chile and New Zealand present, plus appearances from award-winning near-neighbours Nyetimber, and – ash permitting – a clutch of continental winemakers flying in for the evening. continue reading…
An eclectic selection on offer
On Friday an unusual art event took place at the Market Gallery on Duke Street, in the increasingly trendy Denistoun area of Glasgow (not far, in fact, from the lovely Coia’s Cafe). Eric Steen, a Portland, Oregon based artist whose work could be described as “Beer-as-art-and-social-activism” had recruited thirteen amateur brewers to present their best beers to the public, in the concluding evening of the Glasgow Beer and Pub Project, part of the biennial Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art.
With St George’s Day fast approaching and one of the finest vintages under its belt in recent years, just how is the English wine industry’s strongest calling card faring? The answer, according to the first ever blind tasting of sparkling wines available to bars, pubs and restaurants appearing in Imbibe, is not bad at all.
Three years ago I had to pull in a few favours to gather my tasting crew to compare English wines – still and sparkling of all hues – with their global peers. This time, however, I had no such trouble. Yes, it was on the back of much hype following a pleasantly auspicious vintage, but we all know that one warm autumn does not a fine wine make. Even more so with sparkling wine. Fine fizz relies on good works being done over many years. continue reading…
