The Berkshire Branch in the Cotswolds
Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th July 2008
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The King's Arms Hotel, Stow on the Wold |
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Saturday 5th July 2008 saw 19 members of the IWFS Berkshire Branch converge on the Kings Arms Hotel,
located in the heart of the delightful village of Stow on the Wold, for a 5 course tasting dinner with bed & breakfast.
Peter and Jo Creek, together with Sam O'Kane, took over the 500 year old Grade II listed hotel some
18 months ago with the objective of delivering high quality food based on locally sourced produce.
Peter brought in his brother Tom as head chef and the combination is working very successfully.
For this particular dinner, Peter worked with Mark Neil of New Generation Wines, one of his main
wine suppliers based in London, to match the food with selected South African wines. In addition
Mark was there to talk us through the wines in a tutored tasting throughout the evening.
We started with canapés including salmon wrapped in ham, roasted Mediterranean vegetables in filo
pastry and tuna served with a large glass of Krone Borealis Brut. This wine comes from one of the
first vineyards established in South Africa located in Tulbagh, 80 minutes drive north of Cape Town.
This delivered a light nose followed by an attractive balanced palate filled with bubbles.
The menu offered a choice for each of the 3 principal courses. The options for fish were local
asparagus with blue swimmer crab accompanied by Reyneke bio-Dynamic Sauvignon from Stellenbosch or scallops,
black pudding & parma ham accompanied by BHK Semillon from Franschhoek. I chose the scallops which went
with the black pudding and ham perfectly as did the Semillon. Interestingly this turned out to be a
much more substantial and more complex wine than is normal with this cepage but it balanced the food very well.
The Sauvignon was light but the delicate flavours of the asparagus and crab would have been overwhelmed
by anything from New Zealand!
The choices for the main course were Dexter's beef with red onion marmalade or local breast of duck
with braised chicory. The wines served were BHK Syrah made by Marc Kent in Franschhoek with the beef
and Constitution Road Shiraz from the Robertson Winery for the duck. Two wines based on the same grape
could not be more different: the BHK Syrah was Rhone in style, heavy tannins and fruit whereas the
Constitution Road was, lighter, still with tannin but much more new world. Both were excellent and
both had their admirers - some guests admired both!
Both the strawberry pimms and fresh fruit terrine and the white chocolate mousse were served with
Robertson Almond Grove Dessert wine and to finish the cheese plate was accompanied by a glass of
Chocolate Block from the Boekenhoutskloof Estate.
A very pleasant and unexpected addition to the evening's proceedings was a draw by Mark with prizes
of copies of Platters, the must-have guide to South African wines, and a bottle of Robertson Winery pinotage.
This rounded off an excellent dinner served at the right pace, giving guests time to enjoy their wine,
listen to Mark Neil and converse with their dining companions.
The rooms at the Kings Arms provided a comfortable way to end the evening and when they say
the building is listed, that means nothing is parallel to anything else! Quirky but very English and comfortable.
Breakfast was, needless to say, full of fresh fruit, home made bread and the most delicious Eggs Benedict.
I don't think I saw one Full English Breakfast: I wonder why? No need to eat for a day or two!
(Chris Graham)