Wine Tasting - Quirky Wines

WASP (Wine Appreciation Society, Penrith), Roundthorn Country House Hotel, Penrith. Thursday 26-October-2023.

"Wine Tasting with Sam Jary of Black Hand Wines": Sam is our local independent wine merchant who literally had his shop up our street but has now moved to new premises right in the center of Penrith. Black Hand Wines is the place to go if you want something better than your average supermarket wine. He specialises in small independent, organic producers.

There wasn't a theme to the wine tasting as such just a quirky collection of wines that Sam wanted to introduce us to.

Wine Vintage, Origin. ABV, List price.

• Sam's description
• Mary's notes and ✱ star rating.

Wine 1 Altolandon Orange 2022, Manchuela, Spain. 12%, £15.50

• Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris. Aged in neutral oak (greater than five years old) or amphora; wild yeast. One of the highest yards in Spain, at the same altitude as Skiddaw in the Lake District. Pigs are allowed to graze in the vineyards to keep the weeds down. Good with cheese.
• Slightly oxidised. Cider like notes. ✱

Wine 2 Rallo Al Qasar Zibibbo 2023, Sicily, Italy. 13.5%, £17.50

• Zibibbo/Muscat d’Alessandro, Pantelleria. Muscat d’Alessandro comes from North Africa. Also found on the island of Pantelleria [Note: which makes one my favourite sweet wines]. Low yield, bush vines; six months in steel tanks, sugar: 1.6 gm/lt (anything less than 6 gm/lt is considered dry). Match with seafood and blue cheese.
• Fishy/olive nose, floral, lemony,sweet pepper?, slight prickle, grapey. Good acidity, good length. ✱✱

Wine 3 Domaine St Remy Pinot Gris 2022, Alsace. 14%, £19

• Full bodied white, gentle press leading to more tannins, long fermentation. Wild yeast which produces fewer amines which means less hangover unlike commercial yeasts; left on lees, nine months in neutral oak. Granite soil. Sugar: 0.5gm/lt = dry. Match with chicken or Asian food. Orange logo on label indicates a Biodynamic wine. 
• Little nose, clean, smooth rich. Very pleasant but few distinct flavours. ✱✱✱

Wine 4 Domaine Roche-Audran Blanc 2023, France,. 13%, £19.50

• Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Clarette, Boulabonc. Cote du Rhone. 1/3 oak barrels, 2/3 stainless steel. 
• Slight spicy nose. Peppery/green pepper. ✱✱.

Wine 5 Altolandon Malbec 2022, Manchuela, Spain. 13.5%, £14.50

• Stainless steel, skin contact 2-3 weeks. Remontage: pumping over for five weeks, no sulphates, third use French oak barrels, aged four months. Malolactic fermentation. Would age 3-4 years.
• Peppery, leather, chocolate, sweetish nose, chocolate, dark fruit, tannins. ✱ ✱½.

Wine 6 Domaine de Roquemale Meli Melo 2022, France. 13%, £17.50

• Tintura (means a grape where the flesh is red not just the skins). South of France / Languedoc / Bassin de Thau. Low yield.
• Rich, dark fruit, smooth, rich, Cedar, plummy, some tannins. ✱✱.

Wine 7 Les Cadets Graves de Viaud 2020, Côtes de Bourg. 13%,  £19. 50

• 40% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon 30% Merlot. Biodynamic producer. 10 months on lees. Aged in tank and sandstone amphora. 
• Blackcurrant, leeks? Smooth, peppery, green, tannic..

Wine 8 Franco de Porc 2020, Bourgueil, Loire, France. 13%, £22.00

• Domain Du Chevalier (close to Chinon). 100% Cabernet Franc. Grown on Tufo soil. Old oak barrels (leading to gentle oxidation). Very good for aging. 
• Green, metallic? Bit thin, typical Cabernet Frank, metallic, good texture.

The last two wines were not rated because Mary really does not like Cabernet Franc!

At the end, there was a buffet preceeded by a dash for the leftovers to wash it down.

I made a beeline for the Spanish Malbec as my favourite of the reds.

We did the usual: drive up and abandoned the car for retrieval the next day but this time didn’t have to walk home. As you might expect there is quite a demand from people who do not want stay sober enough to drive home. Normally this event soaks up all the local taxis. For the first time ever we had remembered to order a taxi home well in advance and were whisked home in double quick time and fell into bed.

Brunswick Road 15 - Four Portals

Penrith, Cumbria. March-2024. Money Pit II, Season 2, Episode 3 - Entrances and Exits. 

After the major works of the living room strip-and-rebuild that left some snagging list items that needed to be done. In this case four portals: front door, back gate, loft hatch and bedroom door.

Portal one: the front lobby. The carpet between the front door and the inner door was very grubby following all the works tramping plaster dust everywhere. So Mary decided she would pull it up with a view to cleaning it.

Underneath it seemed a little musty so she continued (with my assistance) to rip up layers of plywood to reveal a recess, obviously intended for a doormat.

The revealed floorboards were part woodstained so Mary sanded then revarnished the whole vestibule. Research online revealed that even today you can buy a coir mat of exactly the right dimensions to fit into this Victorian doormat niche.

Portal two: back gate. In order to re-concrete the backyard our Builder had to remove the gate into the alleyway that runs behind the row of houses.

So that obviously need reinstating with a couple of posts screwed to the walls and the old hinge fittings recycled. The posts are still awaiting their final coat of paint.

Portal three: The loft hatch. Previously, I had to use a stepladder to lift the skylight and access the loft while precariously perched over the stairwell.

The original carpenter who was scheduled to do the work hurt his back so a mate of our builder, who did the skirting boards and picture rails, did the work.  They installed a loft hatch together with the concertina ladder that we supplied.

We like this design of loft ladder. I first installed one in Mary‘s mum‘s flat. Then we installed one in Benson Row. And now here.

It has a small footprint in the loft and expands to provide a very sturdy ladder.

Portal four: Bedroom door. We wanted to be able to lock our bedroom door because of doing house exchange. So we could put all our personal stuff and valuables in a lockable room. The existing lock had a century of layers of paint and even when freed up was still a bit tricky to operate. So I went down to B&Q to buy a replacement. the white lock on the left is 125 years old. The black one on the right is what you can buy today in B&Q! The dimensions have not changed in over a century and a quarter.

That's it apart from the odd dab of paint. 

Winter Droving 2024

Penrith, Cumbria. Saturday 27th-October -2024.

Our eighth winter driving and the first time as a participant rather than a spectator. This year we helped organise and staff a stall for Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths. We were allocated a good pitch next to the Melodrome in King Street where they hold the Drovers Cup competition. We were figured that it would attract a good footfall and we were not wrong.

We were there early to set up the stall using our old garden gazebo which we donated to the Friends as we no longer have need for it. There was a last-minute panic because Eden Arts only informed us at the start of the week that we had to have at least 25 kg per leg in case hurricane Betsy swept through Penrith and whisked the gazebo away. This meant an emergency purchase of extra weights and bags of cement to meet their exacting requirements. What a pain!

We had two tables at the front of the stall: one for our merchandising and one for the tombola prizes. We actually had nearly 200 prizes generously donated by all manner of people, so many that we could only put a fraction of them on display. 

I had not realised how much organisation is required for a tombola with that many prizes. Other volunteers had created a list of all the winning numbers and corresponding prizes with the non-display prizes in boxes labelled e.g. Blue 50 to 200, so when somebody won a prize not on display we knew what it was and which box to look in. 

The Winter Droving programme was remarkably similar to previous years. A number of stages for the bands, a variety of food stalls around the Musgrave monument, aka clock tower, with craft stalls along the streets radiating out from Cornmarket.

A number of fellow volunteers took it in turns to staff the stall so Mary and I were able to have a lunch break and wander around the town.

Most of the day was pretty frenetic. Although we sold a number of tea towels and other merchandise, the main attraction was the tombola. At times we had people queueing up to buy three tickets for a pound. Any ticket ending with a 0 or a 5 won a prize so the odds were reasonable and almost everyone walked away with something. Occasionally some unlucky soul drew a run of dud tickets but they were the exception.

It was my first experience of using the SumUp app which we used to record all our sales and tombola takings. Fortunately almost everyone wanted to pay cash as we were unable to connect our phones to the card reader widget.

By the time it was time for the big parade we were almost completely sold out of prizes so called it a day, especially as it had started drizzling. We retired to Fell Bar for a quick drink and to watch the parade from the comfort of our window seat.

It was the usual parade of giant animals, marching bands of drummers and general merriment.

Once the parade had passed, it was time to break down the gazebo. The marshals were particularly strict and would not let us drive up the empty street even though the stated end time had passed. They maintained that since there was a band playing in the bandstand that Droving was still an active event even though we did not need to pass that way to get to our stall and back out again. 

Instead, we ferried all our equipment back to the car in the pouring rain. By the time we had finished my trainers were sodden so we squelched our way home for a supper of pizza and red wine.

At the end of the day when we came to reckon up it turned out to be our most successful fund raising event ever! The money will go towards paying for a detailed business plan which will then give us the evidence we need to apply for lottery funding and grants from English Heritage and other grant givers.

In summary: We had a hugely successful day at Penrith Winter Droving. The weather was kind to us for most of the day so Droving was busier than previous years. We talked to large numbers of people, some of whom knew about the baths, some had used them and bemoaned their loss, and many who did not know they existed. All were pleased to hear about our plans and we got several offers of support. 

Same time next year!

City Break - Berlin

Berlin, Germany. Wednesday/Monday 02/07-October-2024.

Yet again, parkrun is the inspiration for a city break.

Normally parkrun is on a Saturday but each year there are two days where event teams may choose to hold a parkrun on another day. One is New Year’s Day (January 1st) in all countries; the other is a ‘Special Day’ for each individual country - List of Special Days. In the UK the special day is Christmas Day, in Germany it is National Unity Day. 

We are grateful to the German volunteers for giving up some of their holiday to make this trip worthwhile.

This presented us with an opportunity to do a city break in a larger city that has two parkruns. We chose Berlin as it is one of the great cities of the world which neither of us had visited before and was on our travel wish list. 

Wednesday 02-October-24. Travel.

We booked an anything-but-low-cost RyanAir flight, Bari to Brandenburg Airport. We arranged accommodation through Home Exchange in a fantastic apartment right next to one of the two parkruns. In keeping with the tradition of the UK parkrun tourists FaceBook group we posted a photo of us at the airport including our Cow Cowell - the "masonic" insignia of this group!

Hassenheide had put out a call for volunteers but when Mary offered to be Tail Walker or Park Walker they had to turn her down - apparently the course is so complex that they wanted someone familiar with it, having lost a front runner and a tail walker in the past. They subsequently put out a call for cakes so Mary baked some tea loaf muffins and transported them from Italy like "Cakes On A Plane".

After a 30 minute Uber ride from the airport we arrived at the apartment. The apartment and a view of the park opposite:

Having arrived we explored the area looking for a supermarket for breakfast basics and spotted the Muted Horn, a nearby craft ale bar that was an ideal place to go for a drink before eating out. 

We do like a bar that does a paddle of beers. Normally bars offer three beers, this bar offered a four beer paddle and the barman was very helpful in suggesting beers to suit our respective palates.

We decided to eat local and went to Bloom's, the nearest restaurant to our apartment, which served a great selection of tapas and good beer plus great music that could have come from our own playlist! 

Thursday 03-October-24. German Unity Day.

We were hoping to do Hasenheide parkrun first because the park is right opposite the apartment and meant we did not have to familiarise ourselves with the German transport system in order to get to the more distant parkrun at Havelkanal on our first day. 

It was a bit of a nail biter as they only declared two weeks earlier having had to wait for permission from the council to be confirmed.

Unsurprisingly there were a large number of UK tourists doing the same as us, making a long weekend break of it and doing the two Berlin parkruns.

It was a lovely wooded parkrun, two laps, and level apart from an entirely unnecessary loop round a steep hill on the second lap. During his briefing in English and German, the Run Director, tongue firmly in cheek, asked if there were any tourists which got a loud, ironic cheer and lots of raised hands. However they were obviously expecting us as they had organised three first timers briefings, two in English and one in German. There were tourists from all over UK and further afield. We chatted to a visitor from Australia who we thought would win the furthest tourist but, as she predicted, there was someone from NZ! 

All 48 of the mini muffins were devoured and many compliments received. Then back to Bloom's for a huge brunch and more great music.

Friday 04-October-24. A day of touristing.

We spent much the day wandering about the town following a downloaded itinerary. Out itinerary started at the World Clock took us past lots of historic buildings including the Berliner Dom, through the Brandenburg Gate and ending up at the Reichstag.

The Marienkirche - the only building we went inside.

I was mightily amused by the Berlin pedestrian crossing green man sporting a jaunty hat. The Berliners obviously also have a soft sport for Ampelmann [traffic light man].

We saw a couple of shops devoted to his merchandising so that was the fridge magnet souvenir sorted.

The other parkrun was some distance away so rather than get up at the crack of dawn and make our way by public transport to Havelkanal parkrun we treated ourselves to one night in a nearby guesthouse, La Brigitte, so that we would only have a short walk in the morning. The host, Brigitte herself, spoke little English but was very friendly.

Researching food options in the area we discovered an interesting looking restaurant in an old train carriage right next door and with good reviews. Turns out it was the idea of Brigette and it is her husband who runs it in their back garden. 

Lovely setting, bit lacking in atmosphere once the locals had left but very convenient. The short menu had typical German dishes and a good choice of beers. We will gloss lightly over the healthiness of the food. 

Dinner was a very Germanic supper of beer, curry wurst and chips or potatoes. 

Saturday 05-October-24. Havelkanal parkrun. 

Unsurprisingly we bumped into a number of the people we had seen on Thursday who were doing the same double as us.

Beautiful and flat course, out and back along the side of the canal on a tarmac path. Apparently there are beavers in the canal. We saw signs of a lodge on the far bank but no creatures. One of Mary's fastest times lately, so perhaps beer and curry wurst was the answer. Lots of walkers and, as always, a friendly bunch of volunteers.

There was cake!

Back to the guesthouse for a shower and a return to the city apartment. Then we went out for more wandering about the local area where I admired the decorations on wiring cabinets.

That evening we ate at Restaurant Hasenheide as recommended by Barbara, a Berliner, we met while she was visiting Puglia.

Sunday 06-October-24. Sightseeing.

This was the day we did most of our tourist wandering. We started with a two and a quarter hour boat tour along the River Spree. It was cool so we wrapped up with many layers. Even so my fingers went white with the cold.

From the river we saw lots of fascinating buildings: the TV Tower (locally known as the Toothpick where we subsequently had lunch), religious and government buildings such as the Reichstag, the Berliner Dom, state libraries, many different styles of architecture. The trip took us on a canal through the industrial area where we saw old hospitals and industrial buildings. The factory on the bottom left dates from 1900. 

We went for lunch in the TV Tower, in the revolving restaurant 207m up; each rotation takes 30 minutes. We did not have a seat by the window but we still had great views all over Berlin, often spotting somthing different on each rotation.

After lunch we did the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie which were must see's on the tourist hit list. An open-air exhibition nearby gave a very helpful summary of what happened before, during and after the wall.

By then we were all walked out and went back to the apartment for our usual siesta.

We had been told about the festival of light so went back into town that evening to see spectacular laser light shows projected on a number of building along the Unter den Linden, an avenue running from the Berlin Palace to the Brandenburg Gate. 

The Berliner Dom all light up with changing static images.

The State Opera House.

Couldn’t resist. Had to go back to the Ampelmann shop to get the duck!

And, of course, we had to sample the beers in each place especially as it was Oktoberfest! That evening we went to Hopfingerbräu am Brandenburger Tor but were so full after lunch we were happy to see they offered soup on the menu. After starters, goulash soup for Mary and potato and sausage soup for me (plus beer) we had had sufficient so toddled off home.

Monday 07-October-24. Return.

Up very early, we Uber’d our way to the airport for a 09:05 flight back to Bari. As we didn’t fancy shopping for food we broke our drive home for a lunch at Osteria del Porto in Savelletri for a relaxed lunch. 

Then we drove home for a siesta, our parkrun extravaganza complete.

Everyday differences in Puglia: Threshing Floors

Puglia Differences: an occasional series on things that strike this Brit as so very Italian.

Scattered around the countryside you can see round flat stone areas surrounded by a low walls some 30 cm high. These are threshing floors (Italian: Aia). They are used for, literally, separating the wheat from the chaff.

Before mechanical threshing machines were invented, this is how the grains were separated from the stalks. An ancient farming technique that goes back millennia and is even mentioned in the Bible. The first biblical mention of the threshing floor is in Genesis 50:10. [Wikipedia].

These three examples are all from the countryside around Cisternino, but I have seen several others in my travels around the area.

There is even a local hotel (now closed) called “Aia del Vento” - Aia of the wind - named after this feature. The farmers would toss the wheat up into the air, the grain would fall to the ground and the wind would blow away the chaff. It doesn’t get much more mediaeval than that!