A Truly Memorable Meal at The Grove

A meal to remember ….

Despite the wine industry being in tough times, and with prophets of doom and gloom abounding, there are a couple of factors that would deter me from changing my profession for anything else … what other industry I ask, manages to make an occasion out of any meal.

And then you get those “truly memorable” meals of which you will savour the memory for ever. I had such a meal the other day when I was in England for the South African Wine Tasting , and was staying with John and Sarah Avery at their lovely Victorian house – The Grove, near Bristol.

There were six of us in all, with almost as many bottles of wine, starting with an Alsatian Riesling, through a Spatlese 1976, via 1992 Puligny Montrachet, on to a 2001 Felton Road Otago Pinot Noir and culminating in a 1953 Grands Echezeaux (Remoissenet) Burgundy . What a journey …. !

Totally co-incidentally on that day several of the major newspapers were carrying headlines such as “Middle Class Drinkers at risk” and reporting that a recent survey had found that the “middle class” were drinking too much.

Above a pic of Avery and Withington at breakfast the next morning (no – we did not have Marmite with supper ! ) with the line up of wines. The journey was worth the risk!