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February 8, 2012 0

Valtentine Wine 2012

By in Occasions, The Butler Wine-Show

It’s that time again…

After last year’s pink shorts, Henry takes to his bed to read out your (sometimes wine related) Valentine messages and recommends three wines to try on the dismal day:

Prove your love with a £75 bottle from Molly Dooker in Australia, Carnival of Love.

Stay in Oz for Double Love Trouble from the Some Young Punks – winners of our favourite label prize.

And if you want pink and frothy, an excellent, grown up sparkling from Ferrari in Italy.

But let’s be honest, the wine pales next to your messages of er…romance. Hey, we just read out what we’re given – and even these have been through an editing process – some of you are lucky to be in relationships at all!

Approach with caution. Contains strong language. But hell, that’s love for you!

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February 1, 2012 0

Sherry with your food

By in Questions, The Butler Wine-Show

When we caught up with Richard Hemming who writes for JancisRobinson.com he suggested that food and sherry could be the next big thing.

Then a book comes through the post of top chefs marrying recipes with food; then Pelham House Hotel asks us to host a sherry and food night.

For those that can’t make that, here’s a brief overview of the three main sherry types and how to serve them with starter, main and pudding.

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January 27, 2012 0

Dave Broom on buying whisky: How much? As a present? Like wine, like whisky?

By in Tasting, The Butler Wine-Show

A final word from Booze Admiral Dave Brown while we had him. Something we find in the shops is people balking at the price of some lesser known or rare spirits: but some of them, as Cameraman has found out every night since we made our Rum special, are worth throwing in the extra penny for.

The worry is obviously paying a large sum – say £40 + for a bottle – only to find its not to your taste. Ask your friendly local independent retailer for advice. We can find out what your palate does like and steer you in the right direction.

But Dave makes a good point: a bottle of whisky should last a hell of a lot longer than a bottle of wine…should I said…

If our videos with drinks legend Dave Broom have whetted your appetite to try whisky, then the next question will be: where do I start?

Dave helped develop the Malt Whisky Flavour Map, and you’ll find it in most supermarkets, or easily online. It divides the basic flavours of whisky into four categories: smoky, delicate, fresh and rich – and plots whiskies onto a graph for these four.

But those four flavours are applicable to wine as well, so as Dave explains, if you like a zing fresh Riesling you’ll like a Cardu or Linkwood for example – all detailed on the maps.

Over to Dave to make more sense of it all…

“I’ll get him a bottle of Scotch.”

We’ve all heard that. Cameraman wanted a bottle for a work mate who did him a favour and pinched a bottle of Hanky Bannister out of the cellar, poisoning the workmate and his family.

So if you want to truly say “thank you” to someone, will a bottle of Teachers cut the mustard?

Whisky maestro Dave Broom answers the question with options including membership to Whisky Clubs, Japanese Whisky, Independent Distillers, and the new wave of top notch Irish Whiskies – all of which would be very much appreciated by anyone with palate.

Its a fine line between wine and whisky so our hope is Dave encourages some of you to try a new breed of tipple alongside the old.

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January 24, 2012 0

Burns Night Whisky with Dave Broom

By in Occasions, The Butler Wine-Show

It’s Burn’s Night: which means a sheep’s stomach filled with oats carried in by a man saying unintelligible sentences. Its also apparently means me wearing Cameraman’s kilt which he claims to have never worn with underpants, nor to have washed it for 14 years.

We went to the laboratory/home of Whisky Dave Broom, one of the world’s leading writers and thinkers on all things distilled.

We asked him a few questions to get us into the wonderful world of whisky, and started with: what’s the best, easily obtainable, scotch to have with your neaps and haggis on January 25th?

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January 3, 2012 0

National Toss-A-Fruitcake Day

By in The Butler Wine-Show

Out with the old and in with the new – that’s the idea of National Toss a Fruitcake Day. It sort of works: shouting “piss off” to all the stodge and spice of the festive season by hurling the greatest symbol of it across a park accompanied by a primal scream.

It being Pantomime season we found a giant and made him stand on a box while we hurled mince pies, stollen, fruitcake and pudding at him. But what to drink as you do it?

Pedro Ximenez is sometimes dressed up as Sticky Toffee Pudding wine to peddle to those who have fallen out of love with sherry. More fool them: this is a fantastic and versatile drink. And our example from Lustau is a safe choice.

You can get Hungarian Tokaji (sounds like Popeye) that is so sweet it makes your teeth itch, but look for bottles that say 5 Puttonyos for one that strikes a safe balance between sweet and zesty.

Finally, I found a Prune Eau De Vie that I was going to take round Cameraman’s for New Year but his seasonal bowel is already responsible for much of road works on the Hove borders, so felt this would tempt fate.

The first one will strip the skin from your throat, but thereafter its a joy – just remember that Eau De Vie is a 40% spirit, not a wine, so sip don’t gulp or you’ll have a hangover until Easter.

As for Giant Will and the fruitcake tossing: we will post the the results of the industrial tribunal soon.

Happy new year!

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October 28, 2011 0

The Halloween Electric Wine Quiz

By in The Butler Wine-Show

Christmas has come early for Cameraman this Halloween as boss Henry agrees to enter novelist Peter James’ torture chamber and be strapped to the remarkably painful electrocution device.

Henry has to answer as many questions as it takes to reach a total of 8. There are two points for a correctly answered Halloween based question, and one point for a question answered on wine.

Quizmaster is played by Britain’s Favourite Crime Writer, Peter James, for whom murder, shock and punishment are daily bread and butter.

Play along at home, or just revel in Henry watching his chances of reproduction diminish before our very eyes.

This might be the best format we have ever created…

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October 26, 2011 0

Halloween Special II – with guest Peter James

By in The Butler Wine-Show

WOW. The much anticipated Halloween Special II (as it is our second one) with famous crime fiction novelist Peter James as our special guest. Expand the player, lean back and enjoy, but don’t get too cozy; you might put that Gewurztraminer down the wrong pipe!

OOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

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September 16, 2011 0

A Pirates Guide to Rum

By in Tasting, The Butler Wine-Show

Yaarrr! The 19th September be Talk Like a Pirate Day so it was good fortune that blew Toby Cutlass our way with his booty of rums.

I got into the spirit by dressing up as Katy Perry and we met at The St James Tavern – an institution in the world of rum as they keep over 80 behind the bar. Sign up to their facebook group (Rum Club) to keep on top of their activities.

I love Rum. Whiskey makes Cameraman shouty, but rum keeps him smiling but there is as complex a world out there as with fine whiskies or sipping tequilas.

Toby gives all we need to embark on a voyage of discovery: what its made of, what colour denotes, what countries are good for entry level.

The ones he bought in (Mezan) are fantastic but very rare: only one batch from each distil. We have a selection in the shop now from Panamanian to Bajan.

It be a fine way to set sail towards Hangover. Avast matey!

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September 12, 2011 0

Indian Wine at Waitrose

By in Tasting, The Butler Wine-Show

The New World is expanding. A wine from China picked up a sizeable gong at the International Wine Awards last week, and Indian wines have hit the UK high street.

We had an Indian wine in the shop last year and it was pretty undrinkable so we were intrigued when Waitrose became the first of the UK supermarkets to stock two: Ritu Voignier and a Shiraz/Syrah with the awful name of Zampa.

The latter was on offer (£8.49) so we got a bottle and drove to India to try it.

On the label it claims the wine is “crafted to reveal your inner being,” so cameraman wisely kept the toilet paper in the fridge.

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September 12, 2011 0

Competitive Henry shows his Riojas

By in Tasting, The Butler Wine-Show

I have unearthed a fantastic modern Rioja, and its under £10.

La Vendimia comes from master winemaker Alvaro Palacios who sells bottles for up to £400 so this is a great way to get your hands on some classy wine at a realistic price.

So pleased am I with this Rioja that I made it my entry in the Make Your Case evening at the Brighton and Hove Food Festival. Six wine folks presented a wine each (under £15) to a tent full of punters who got a bottle on each table to taste and score.

I was confident of success…

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