Thursday 23 November 2017

Don't buy Grandpa a bottle of drink for Christmas

Here we go again: campaigners are are urging young people not to buy their grandfathers a bottle of drink for Christmas. Why are they bothering with this nonsense? A huge majority of the population know that if you drink too much then you can damage your physical and mental health.

It is patronising, in the extreme, to both young and old that they should  should be persuaded to change their behaviour in this roundabout way.

Christmas is a time for sharing and it is quite likely that your grandpa will share out the bottle of wine that you have brought with you. Most grand parents are not alcoholics who hide away their bottle of gin or whiskey. They are just as entitled to drink a glass of wine or a shot of whiskey over the Christmas period as anyone else. What are they supposed to do? Sit down and drink a glass of fruit juice whilst everyone else is enjoying some sociability with a bottle of wine?

Some people drink too much for a number of reasons and if they are affecting their health by boozing too much then they should be helped; not patronised or nagged.

One of my best friends was an alcoholic and he smoked too much as well. This ultimately led to his early death from throat cancer.  We spoke about and discussed his addiction a number of times. He was an intelligent man and knew what his addiction meant. He chose not to seek treatment. Would any nagging and patronising from me have made any difference to his predicament? No: it would not have.

The agencies which try to nudge us in a particular direction should consider carefully what they are doing.  We are being bombarded with blandishments that we should not eat particular types of food and that we should not drink a glass of wine with our dinner. Most of their recommendations fall on deaf ears but if we were to follow their path we could end up leading unsociable and miserable lives.

We are all going to die and there is nothing that the health authorities and drink aware etc. can do to stop this. If sharing some rib of beef and drinking half a bottle of wine with it, every now and then, results in me dying six months earlier then so be it.  Life is about balance and making the correct decisions to protect your well being whilst you are alive. It would be better if we all all made an effort to assess the facts rather than rely upon blandishments to behave one way or another.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dont-buy-grandpa-drink-for-christmas-plead-campaigners-wq8krwmjq

Saturday 11 November 2017

Squerryes English Sparkling Wine

A few weekends ago I paid a visit to the Squerryes Estate Tasting Room in Westerham Kent with my wife and family. My wife and I live nearby and we have driven past their  winery and tasting rooms, in Beggars lane,  so many times that we can't remember; but always with the intention of going in to taste some English bubbly. My sister and brother-in-law were with us and we had an hour to spare to taste some decent wine.  The tasting rooms were well worth the visit as they also house a small brewery and a restaurant.

https://squerryes.co.uk/sparkling-wines/

Squerryes wine production is part of the Squerryes Court estate which is set in 2,500 acres of the the Kent country side. The House and the major part of the estate are located just south of Westerham. The winery and tasting room is located a mile or so away to the east of Westerham and there is a vineyard to the north of Westerham near the main road to Biggin Hill.

The estate planted 35 acres of pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier grapes  in 2006. The vineyards are located just below the rolling slopes of the north downs. The geology is based on chalk deposits and is very similar to that of the Côte des Blancs champagne producing area in the Marne. The Squerryes estate geology and climate are well suited to the production of English Sparkling Wine or dare I say it "English Champagne". My wife is from Champagne and she has no objection to my use of the term "English Champagne".

The growing conditions here in Kent are, of course, different to the Côte des Blancs. In Kent the winters are warmer and the summers are cooler and there is more rainfall. The climate in Champagne is semi-continental. The vineyards in Kent are a couple of degrees further north than the vineyards of the Côte des Blancs. Nevertheless the Squerryes vineyard is capable of producing wines which are similar in taste and quality to the vineyards in Champagne.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B4te_des_Blancs

We tasted three " English Champagnes" the 2013 Vintage Brut, the 2013 Rosé and the 2010 Vintage Brut. The winery does not make non-vintage bubbly. My wife and I thought that the 2013 cuvées were a little light but they had all of the attributes of a good and well balanced sparkling wine. We thought that the 2010  vintage Brut was of much higher quality with a lovely biscuit taste, it was savoury with a taste of cider and, of course, fermented yeast. It had a taste of its own and this marks it out as good wine. It was well balanced for acidity and sweetness. This wine is well suited for opening on a special occasion with its fine bubbles. The 2013 vintages can be laid down and they will improve with age. The wines compete well with other English Sparkling Wines and for taste and quality with many Champagnes.

The Squerryes bubbly does not in anyway compete on price with Champagne even with the pound plunging. Our bottle of 2010 to take away cost £50. If you think I am rich then I am not; just an enthusiast for good wine. You can still buy a bottle of Pol Roger Non-Vintage Brut for less than £40 in Waitrose. We can buy top quality Chamapagne direct from the makers in France for 16 Euro  a bottle - with the falling exchange rate and commission our favourite Champagne has now gone up to 16 quid a bottle.

Even with such high prices I still think that it is worth supporting English Wine producers who have to contend with a very variable climate, the lack of demand and the high unit cost of production. The quality of English Sparkling wine is much higher than any still English wines that I have ever tasted.

If you are in the Westerham area then why not give yourself a treat and visit the Squerryes winery. It is obvious that the staff and management are just as dedicated and skillful as their counterparts in France and that they have pride in their product. All this shows through.

Westerham is a charming town where you can go to visit some good pubs and Quebec House. Chartwell, the home of  Sir Winston Churchill, is also nearby.