Cocktails - Cedar Court Hotel York

If you are ever in York we would recommend a stay at the Cedar Court Hotel, apart from being a great 5 star hotel, is has a pleasant bar, which has a great cocktail menu. While there we tried 4 different cocktails all prepared well and the staff clearly knew what they were doing. The service is very good with waiters to take your order rather than having to go up to the bar. It was a very relaxed atmosphere with great cocktails.

Jim Barry - The Lodge Hill Shiraz

Last night we had a bottle of Jim Barry The Lodge Australia Shiraz 2008. It was £12 from Portland Wines and has a Gold international award, which does not mean it is the best but does mean it will at least be OK. The vineyard the wine is from is the highest in the Clare Valley at 480m. We thought it was a jolly nice wine with a lot of tannin and flavour it was good with steak. We would recommend it with beef or game.

Holmfirth Yorkshire White Wine

Last year we visited the Holmfirth winery in Yorkshire and got a tour of the vineyard. We recently ordered their dry white wine made from the Solaris grape. The wine is a clear in colour, with a fruity green fruits nose and a crisp sharp taste. We thought it was similar to a Sauvignon Blanc wine, so if you are a fan of Sauvignon Blanc you will most likely like this wine. I think the only criticism we can make is that the bottle and label seem a little cheap for a £12 wine. We would recommend the wine would go well with fish dishes. 

Free Wine Journal Software

Here is a link to a web site where you can download a copy of BarMirror Wine Journal. It is a simple database application which allows you to store information on wines including any relevant tasting notes and images. Once you have created a large enough journal it allows you to filter and search for a wine.

http://www.barmirror.co.uk/wine-software.html

Swiss Wines

We recently went skiing to Saas Fee in Switzerland and had a great time. Switzerland is an expensive place to visit, with food costing a lot more than the UK. While we were there we managed to try some wine, like everything else the wine is expensive, they often have bottles in 50cl sizes which makes it a little cheaper. On average we paid about £15 for a 50cl bottle of red and £25 for 75cl bottles. Every bottle we tried was a good and would recommend that when staying in Switzerland to try their own wine because it is hard to find outside their country, they must keep it all to themselves.