Fave Friday

No picture this week, sorry - I was too busy drinking it.

I've just returned from a lovely evening out with Parpy Jo. We went to a Champagne vs English sparkling wine tasting event at the Hotel du Vin and the English sparkling wine won.

It was Camel Valley wine, made in Cornwall by Bob and Annie Lindo. They were there to introduce the wines and talk us through their history and background, with some really great anecdotes. The Champagne producers, Ruinart, were there also and they had a lot of stories to tell. I learned from the evening that Champagne needs a good chalky soil and that the Chardonnay grape is very difficult to grow; that roughly 330 million bottles of champagne are produced a year but that before the banking crisis there was almost a world shortage; that land in the Champagne region goes for about €1 million/hectare; that during WW2 their cellars flooded and the Champagne was produced on rafts.

The Champagne was nice, but the Camel Valley was just exceptional. I am not a particularly good wine taster - it always just smells of wine to me - but I do know, for example, that I prefer Prosecco to Cava. And now I know I prefer English sparkling wine to Champagne. I think I might need to do a taste test against Prosecco and Cava though, to be sure. That can be my Christmas holiday task. I'll put it on my to do list.

The Camel Valley website is full of information about their wines - my favourite was Annie's Anniversary 2009 - and they even have holiday cottages! Win.