Do you consider yourself  a real foodie? Do you love nothing better that preparing your favourite menu and choosing that wine to share with your friends?  Why not drop us a line with your favourite recipe along with the wine of your choice? The winning idea will be published in our next newsletter and receive a luxury hamper worth £85.00 !

Read on for some of our favourite bar-b-que ideas…………………With the driest spring in a long time, you can already smell the bar-b-ques firing up on many of these warm evenings and. There is a flurry of activity in the garden, pruning , cutting, trimming and sweeping and giving the garden furniture a good clean and best of all an excuse of inviting those friends around for a bar-b-que and a good old gossip over a few delicious glasses of wine.  Here are  some great bar-b-que  and wine pairing ideas.

Steak with grilled skewered vegetables and cous cous

I think you would find it difficult to match anything better than our CDC Rosso (a beautiful blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Nero d’Avola) to compliment a nice juicy steak from the Bar-b-que , but a great alternative for those of you who prefer a heartier red – try our Cristo di Campobello Syrah.

Chicken Marinated in Jerk Seasoning with orange slices, sweet potatoe mash and green salad.

Great with either the Cristo di Campobello Syrah to compliment the spices, or for those of you who prefer a crisp white wine, try our CDC Bianco (a beautiful blend of Grillo, Chardonnay, Insolia and Cataratto)

Skewered Lamb and / or pork kebabs with mushrooms, peppers and tomatoe, with home made cole slaw, savoury rice salad and green salad with grated apple and sultanas.

A great match with La Prince (a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc) or La Rouge et Noir (a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon)  or for white wine lovers and our Cristo di Campobello Adenzia Bianco (Grillo & Chardonnay blend)  offers a great companion to the fruit. Also delicious is a our robust and juicy merlot rose – Bel Ami!

Skewered Prawns and monkfish kebabs marinated in lemon and chilli, served with savoury rice salad, green salad a yougurt and mint dip.

Or Tuna or swordfish steaks, new potato salad, green salad and stuffed grilled red or green peppers.

Delicious with our crisp Princess de Cleves (a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle) and equally great with Bel Ami or CDC Rosso.

Don’t forget to send us in your ideas – you could wine that luxury hamper!!

We have just recovered from the weekend where Merchants of Vino ran a stall for 3 days at the Henley market festival.  It was great to see many of our old friends there as well as meet many of you for the first time.

This was our first outing with the delicious Sicilian wines from our wonderful Cristo di Campobello vineyard and the wines all received a magnanimous  thumbs up as well as our ever popular Ukrainian white wines the Traminer and the Aligote and of course, always popular – the Clos d’Yvigne wines from Patricia Atkinson’s vineyard in Bergerac.

We are busy boxing up the cases of wine that many of you ordered ready for despatch. For those of you were unable to join us, or perhaps considering ordering some more of these amazing wines, we are extending our offer of 20% off these wines when you order online by entering the spring promotion code SP080411

all of these wines are from small independent vineyards who produce low yield but high quality wines, using traditional hard harvesting methods. The wines are produced with the skill and passion necessary to achieve the highest quality in their making. The vines are pruned severely in winter and spring which reduces the yield of the grapes but increases the concentration of fruit. Careful husbandry in the vineyard combined with natural farming methods and the minimal use of chemicals produce clean, healthy harvests. During the vendange,  our producers taste and test the maturity of their grapes, carefully choosing the best moment to pick them. Their close management of their hard harvesting process ensures that the grapes are picked when they are fully ripe, ensuring high quality grapes arrive at the winery ready for vinification

So why not order you wines for the Easter weekend or that street party to celebrate the Royal wedding – my choice would be a mixed case of Aligote, Traminer, CDC bianco, Bel ami, CDC rosso, Adenzia rosso, Cristo di Campobello syrah and Nero d’Avola….a case to satisfy everyones taste buds!  Offer on discount is valid until the 31st May. Minimum order 6 bottles and restricted to 2 orders.

Whatever you are celebrating, enjoy it with a beautiful hand harvested wine!

We are pleased to announce a very special find – check out our 6 unique wines from the wonderful Crist Di Campobello in Sicily.

These wine are all hand harvested, made with loving care and really are unique, smooth and full bodied.  My favourite is the Lusira which of course is a full bodied Syrah but if you prefer a floral delicate white wine – check out our CDC Bianco at only £9.50 a bottle.

Watch out for special promotions – this is the first of our shipments from the wonderful vineyard – and YES – we are planning on making a return visit to see them in May and search a few other vineyards in Italy…its a hard life !!

Debra and I have been having great fun this week compiling our gift catalogue and updating our website with some of our most popular gift ideas.  Ranging from the classic to the fun – my favourite is the Bridget Jones special including everything a girl could need – chocolates, scented candles, wine, toffee vodka and of course the copies of the Bridget Jones DVD’s, soundtrack plus other lovely things to indulge a girl!

with this drab weather I am giving up on the garden for this weekend and I am curling up with Bridget Jones, a glass of dessert wine and some delicious Roquefort cheese!

Congratulations to our wonderful friend Caroline Parkin who was the lucky prize winner in last months competition. Caroline’s name was picked out in our draw from the correct answers to our cryptic clue who was quoted as saying “wine is bottled poetry”  The answer of course is Robert Louise Stevenson. A mixed case of fine wines is on its way to you Caroline …..I will be over later to help you taste them if you are in need assistance, especially as this must be the 3^rd case we have delivered to your house in under a week – not that we are your family’s intake!!

Look out for next months competition in the newsletter next week – you could be a lucky winner of something lovely!

I love this time of year and am inspired to cook delicious home cook food with ingredients picked straight from the garden (minus the chicken as if I did have chickens roaming in my garden I am far to squeamish to kill anything that is likely to run or flap)

This is the season where you can go out into your garden and pick fresh herbs, tomatoes, chillies and sweet peppers and even onions and cook yourself something delicious to accompany a gorgeous wine of your choice.

I have been waiting for the excuse to try a delicious red wine sent to us from Paticia Atkinson’s winery Clos d’Yvigne.  Patricia, as many of you will know is the author of the amazing book “the ripening sun” and if you haven’t read it ……….all I can say is YOU MUST, order a copy now, it’s an inspiring story and a lovely read.  The wine I am sampling tonight is one of her reds –  Prince 2007 which is 90% merlot with cabernet franc which produces the fruity aromas of cherries and blackcurrants plus with the cabernet franc a hint of spice. It is a wine that is powerful on the nose and supple in the mouth. Having spent last week in hospital and subjected to NHS hospital food and lack of sleep on a busy surgical ward I am celebrating my escape with getting a couple of friends around to thank them for their support last week and create something delicious! (any excuse)

So to complement the delicious wine,  I have decided to cook chicken with, onions, ginger, grated lemon peel, plus, fresh from the garden – red and green chilies , and tomatoes, garlic and coriander.  To finish it off, I made a raita with fresh mint from the garden and delicate basmati rice with a touch of saffron (bought back from Egypt by my sister). It just makes cooking even more fun when you have grown half the ingredients yourself, plus they taste so much better.

The delicate spices in the food complimented the spice in the wine which was a  fantastic find – dark and austere in the glass, a first whiff reveals a velvet suppleness and cherry aromas. This wine holds its own against many clarets and the good news is we will be placing our first order with Patricia in the next couple of weeks so you can enjoy them too – look out for a news bulletin to let you know when they have arrived. Her white wines are superb and I have to say, whilst I am not usually a rose fan – her rose is to die for and is not just a summer wine.

Enjoy your garden and at the very least, if you do not grow your own, you can get amazing fresh locally grown vegetables at this time of the year, there is nothing better than creating something delicious to enjoy with friends, a great wine,  good fresh food and great company – what more can anyone ask for !!

  Well the Spanish have a lot to celebrate in recent sporting events – first it was the wonderful and truly amazing Rafa who having had a fantastic Clay court season,  reclaimed his Wimbledon title only to be followed by Spain winning the World cup at the weekend.  Rafa Nadal must bring luck to his football team, last time he won Wimbledon,  Spain won the European Football cup title.

To celebrate our Spanish friends successes we should raise a glass of Spanish wine with a delicious tapas……..for those of you who enjoy a Rioja, we have a delightful Rioja Reserva which is a meduim to full bodied, beautifully balanced wine grown from vines at least 35 years old. We also have a Rioja Crianza which is very popular and for you white wine drinkers a vibrant Rioja Blanco.  As a special celebration, we can offer these at a 20% discount for the rest of July when you buy a case of wine.  If you are interested in this offer, email sales@merchantsofvino.com and let us know what you would like to order, your name and address and we will contact you – simple as that!!

And for those of you who are not interested in sports and breathing a sigh of relief that its all over………maybe you are girding your loins for the school holidays …………looking forward to going away on holiday or just enjoying the summer, well who needs an excuse to enjoy good wine. 

Cheers!!

Its been a busy month with running various events, in particular a few fundraising events with great success, despite wrestling in the high winds last weekend, (where is summer!) to fix a gazebo over  our table of wines, I thought I was going to take off like Mary Poppins and leave Debra and Louise with the wines in the middle of a school playing field as I paraglided home, but we managed to erect it and hammer the thing down into the ground eventually.

In addition to running events this month, we have had some exciting developments and new editions to our wine cellar. These new editions come from Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.

Just as we added these new wines, the Decanter world wine awards for 2010 and the International wine challenge 2010 were announced , and some of our old and new wines picked up awards.  The winners were as follows:

The Decanter world wine awards

Gold medals;

Bodega Renacer Malbec Clasico 2008 from Mendoza Argentina

Fairview Cyril Back Shiraz 2007 Paarl South Africa

Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2009 Marlborough New Zealand

Silver awards were also picked up by  

Mount Horrocks Riesling 2009 Australia

Nytimber Classic Curvee 2005 England  

In the International wine Challenge 2010 

Gold awards

Domaine de Bel Air Pouily Fume 2009 Loire France (no surprise, this is one of our best sellers so you all have wonderful taste!)

Mount Horrocks Riesling 2009 Australia

Nytimber Blancs de Blancs 2001 England

Silver awards

Da Vinci  Brunello di Montalcino 2005 Italy

Fairview Cyril Back Shiraz 2007 South Africa

Kim Crawford Spitfire Sauvignon Blanc 2008 New Zealand

Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2009 New Zealand

Mount Horrocks Riesling 2009 Australia

Great to see many of our wines picking up awards, and isn’t it great to see England picking up medals – we seem to be better at making wine than playing football !!

Thank you to Andre Roy from Rickmansworth who sent us a lovely email with a delicious summer recipe to go with our Cavas de Chacras Rose de Malbec, which Andre reports was a hit at their bar-b-que last weekend. Apparently, the wine and the skewers complimented each other perfectly.

Grilled Pineapple & Strawberry Skewers

1 fresh pineapple
24 strawberries
40g butter, melted
5ml (1 tsp) balsamic vinegar
45 ml (3 tbsp) sugar
Maple syrup

Peel the pineapple and cut it into 36 cubes.
Stick the fruit onto skewers, 3 pineapple cubes and 2 strawberries on each.
Mix the melted butter and balsamic vinegar in a bowl, then brush onto the fruit skewers.
Sprinkle the skewers with sugar.
Grill the fruit skewers on the bbq, about 5 minutes, turning frequently.
Remove, drizzle with the maple syrup, and serve immediately with Merchants of Vino’s Rosé de Malbec!

Makes 12 skewers.  Serves 4-6.

Yummy!

Thanks Andre – I will have to try this next weekend.  Please keep sending in your ideas!

I invited a few friends around for dinner on Saturday evening and one of my friends who came put in a special request for a bottle of our special Argentinean Rose de Malbec.  She had tried it at one of our wine tastings with strawberries.  We always serve it with sweet English strawberries or similar fruits as the wine is sweeter than most Rose wines and it has become extremely popular as a great alternative summer drink to Pimms.

So, at Sarah & David’s request, I thought I would try a new recipe, for once a dessert, which I usually avoid as I am more of a savoury foodie and if I run to any dessert its usually strong cheeses.  However, I decided to make a fresh strawberry fool.  This was a perfect, refreshing dessert which cleansed our palates after copious helpings of seafood throughout the evening.

The ultimate judge was Sarah, who even said that the combination of this and the Rose wine was “better than sex”! Not sure how her husband Dave felt about this, but he seemed happy enough.

So with Wimbledon just around the corner, try this easy, quick and healthy recipe with a bottle or two of the Cavas de Chacras Rose de Malbec – Bliss!

Fresh Strawberry fool. 

 Serves 4

· 400g strawberries
· 1 tbsp sherry
· 1 x 75g pack low-fat instant custard
· 450ml boiling water
· 2 tbsps low-fat yogurt

 1. Place the strawberries and sherry in a small saucepan and heat until warm. Remove from heat.
2. Make up the custard with 450ml boiling water and allow to cool before folding in the yogurt.
3. Pour the strawberries and sherry into a smoothie maker or liquidiser and blend until smooth.
4. Combine the strawberry mixture with the custard and pour into glasses. Chill until ready to serve.
 

Top Tip

You can also use frozen fruit in this recipe.