Julia Trustram Eve of the English Wine Producers conducted a tasting of seven English wines at the Harrogate Speciality Food Show on Monday 27th June 2011. Jenkyn Place Brut 2007: Predominantly Chardonnay (60%) with the rest made up of the two Pinots. Too acidic, short with no consistency or flavour. Difficult to imagine paying £24.99…
A Nuthatch in the garden first thing in the morning, uninterrupted cricket through the day and Heidsieck Gold Cap 2004 in the evening.
Beautiful, still, sunny spring morning. It is very quiet. It’s Rani’s birthday. We sip coffee in bed as Rani opens her birthday cards and reads out the greetings. The telephone relays more greetings and good wishes. In the conservatory, the oleander is flowering. We have Mung bean Kiribath and black tea for breakfast and set…
A Sri Lankan New Year party was held in Leeds on Sunday. Over one hundred Sri Lankans and some of their British friends enjoyed traditional Sri Lankan festive fare, played ‘New Year Games’, sang and danced to Sri Lankan music late in to the night. This remarkable annual event was organised by a remarkable Sri…
Unwanted political meddling cost Sri Lanka the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Baffling team selection, atypical fielding lapses, strange bowling changes are some of the things that surprised viewers. The position of the captain and selectors has become untenable.
On a warm, sunny spring day, I drank a bottle of old champagne with a dear friend. I have been feeling out of sorts for over a week and the Jacquesson Grand Cru Avize from the very good 1995 vintage was the perfect pick me up. It was one of several from a visit to…
I like to drink champagne mostly as an aperitif and some times with seafood and white fish. Chardonnay based wines from the Côtes des Blancs fit the bill very well. The big Champagne Houses in Reims and Epernay make excellent non-vintage blends and prestige cuvees using their vast and varied reserve wines. The good smaller…
Ever since I first read Ernest Hemingway‘s “Sun Also Rises” as a schoolboy, I have been fascinated by the July feria in Pamplona. I have been devoted to Hemingway and his writing since encountering the Nick Adam Stories.When I finally I got to Pamplona in 2005, it was only for a quick look and ‘running with…
Back home in Yorkshire after ten weeks away in Sri Lanka eating mainly fish and drinking only beer and Black Label, I have been relishing the Reds – both meat and wine. Even wines I did not care for very much like Rockford’s Moppa Hills 1999 tasted pretty good. Pontet-Canet 2002 was sublime. A bottle…
Rumassala Hill near the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle is well known for exotic plant life and the Japanese Peace Pagoda. It also has a splendid, isolated beach the locals call the Jungle Beach. A foot path from the Peace Pagoda takes you down through dense vegetation to the small, sheltered sandy beach facing…
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