Lunch at Cheltenham Beach

The weather has been so delicious all weekend I can't quite believe it hasn't just been a dream! After a very late rising yesterday we eventually made up our minds to go to Pyrenees in Devonport (thanks to Charlotte for the reference!). We spent a while just drinking in the incredible atmosphere of this beautiful French deli and then wandered away with some Venison & Cranberry Terrine, Comte cheese, Port L'Eveque cheese (sorry about the lack of special characters), a delicious, still warm baguette, and to the absolute amazement of my friends who have lived in France, some genuine French saucisson! (sp?) And just as we remember it from France. We drove a few hundred meters further along the road and then walked down to Cheltenham beach and had a decidedly delectable picnic by the beach before paddling (I could not believe how good the water felt!) and wandering along the beach for a bit. Took a few photos. Understatement. I think I have photography addiction problem in fact. I take far far far too many photos. Ah well, never mind. Here's a couple taken from the picnic seat. More always on show at my flickr page.

Coopers Creek Hawkes Bay Rose 2007

It was a beautiful sunny day today, so we decided to invite some friends over for afternoon tea on the deck. To accompany our afternoon tea we opened up a Coopers Creek Hawkes Bay Rose 2007. According to the bottle this is 50:50 Merlot/Malbec.

I wasn't overly fussed with it, but did help out in finishing off the bottle (in fact I probably drank over half).

So in terms of this wine:

• Colour: Lovely light guava pink
• Nose: Very light strawberry
• Palatte: Light strawberry with a reasonable balance and a bit of acidity
• Overall: I thought it was just ok and nothing special that I wouldn't rush out to buy again. Then again I'm not a big Rose fan. Jane on the other hand (along with our guests) really liked it and would definitely buy again.

Long time no Post

Well, the joys of Flickr have thoroughly distracted me from posting anything here of late! Thank goodness Simon has been drinking lots of wonderful wine and blogging that otherwise you'd all (hmm, all being a relative term) be wondering where we'd got to!

Suffice to say I have been having a huge amount of fun taking my camera places, snapping loads and loads and loads (and I MEAN loads and loads and loads) of photos, deleting about a third of them, not deleting at least another third that I really probably should and then loading about a tenth up to Flickr. :) All in the name of learning!

We had a lovely weekend down in Huntly and Hamilton, catching up with my folks and with friends in Hamilton. I snapped this beautiful web-encrusted lime blossom at a friend's place in Pukete.



See my flickr page for more http://www.flickr.com/unplain-Jane

Tokar Estate Tempranillo 2004

For some bizarre reason I chose yet another Australian red wine to accompany dinner tonight. Yet again I decided I wanted to drink something a bit different so chose the Tempranillo from Tokar Estate in the Yarra Valley.

Jane & I picked this wine up when we over in the Yarra Valley over New Years a couple of years back and it (along with all the other wines we purchased) managed to survive the flight home. We decided to actually put a dozen wine through as normal luggage and risk it and it survived. Yay!

So in terms of this wine:

• Aroma: Lovely Tobacco / Cedar smell
• Taste: Quite fruity, big mouthful, very smooth, short-medium length, medium complexity, well balanced
• Overall: Good but nothing super special. It is however very drinkable on its on or with Venison (as we had tonight) but is not so good with something a bit sweeter (like the kumara (sweet potato) and orange mash I decided to make that was just a bit too orangey. Oops). It is drinking well now, and to me it feels like now is in fact about the right age to drink it.