The Prince of Prints

It has been on the cards since the start of the year, but you know how long it takes to sort anything out, particularly when you're in a full time job and many places are shut at weekends, but finally I have had some prints of my latest paintings made.

Seeing as I don't own any of my original paintings, and I can't seem to make them quick enough these days, I thought this could be a great way to keep my hand in the art scene, maybe try and get them in some galleries and sell them to make a few extra pennies. (..any takers?!)

Prom Print, Cheltenham, are responsible for these beauties; archival quality fine art Giclée prints, each in an edition of 10 (ignore the 50 in the above image, I was getting a bit ahead of myself!), signed and numbered.

The frames were made at Cotswold Framing in Knightsbridge, Cheltenham; plain black with a little spacer behind the glass, so that the print is set back ever so slightly. I'm absolutely amazed at how well the paintings have been translated into print, and the frame, with it's rich matt finish, brings it all together perfectly. 

It's early days, but now I've logged and blogged, they're officially out there. If you're interested, please get in contact!



Gin & Jelly Night

I've been to a fair few tastings in the past year - be it wines, gins, vodkas, etc - and have learnt that I much prefer premium spirits and the more unique distilled goods over the mass produced (alcohol snob, I know), and whilst my conscience feels a lot better for it, and my hangovers less severe, it is not so great for the bank account.

With this in mind, we decided to hold our own G&T tasting, a DIY Ginstock if you will (which you may have caught in London this summer on World Gin Day). We asked each of our guests to bring a gin of their choice, ideally something a little unusual, so we could learn about them, sample, compare and then score. Alongside this we'd be tasting the controversial Aldi Oliver Cromwell London Dry Gin, priced at an almost penny-saving £9.65, winning a silver medal at the International Spirits Challenge, beating the likes of two of the biggies, Bombay Sapphire and Hendrick's.

As we haven't staged 'an event' like this before, we were out to impress, so after much thought into alliteration and all things British, we made it a 'Gin and Jelly Night'; a boozy kids party, full of wobbly treats - gin based of course - and bunting, plenty of bunting.

We welcomed guests with Red Snapper shots, aka Bloody Mary's with gin, not vodka, made with lots of Tabasco to give it that fiery kick you get from a regular shot, and garnished with a teeny celery stick. Then after a few of those, we moved onto an 'English Garden' cocktail - gin, pressed apple juice and elderflower cordial - made into a punch concoction with the addition of vermouth, lemon juice, tonic, oh, and more gin. We served these in an assortment of jam jars tied up with string, and a stripey straw.

Now, on with the tastings. Firstly, tonics. We scoured the supermarkets in the past week trying to find various brands, and we found Schweppes, the pub favourite, Fevertree, the new classic, a supermarket own, of which we chose Waitrose, Fentiman's, and the local 6 o'clock tonic, made in Thornbury. Lack of glasses meant that we couldn't sample them all at once, but we were able to compare two at a time throughout. I took charge at this point, and let everyone else taste the tonics blind; after scoring, they had to guess which brand they were. Most were able to spot the obvious Fentiman's with it's lemongrass and herbal flavourings, alongside Fevertree's aromatic citrus version, which was a favourite amongst many. Schweppes was the least interesting, with pretty much no flavour at all, and everyone found the 6 o'clock too dry and overly fizzy. The surprise winner was the Essential Waitrose Indian Tonic Water; great value at 50p a bottle, and an all round clean tasting, refreshing mixer.

Being floral fiends, we also had a battle of the elderflower tonics; Fevertree and the brand new Bottlegreen one. With a much stronger taste, the locally produced Bottlegreen was the favourite of the two, and we all agreed that it would easily spruce up a cheap spirit.

At this point I cracked out the first of the jellies; Autumn plum jelly sweets taken from the latest Waitrose Kitchen magazine. High on sugar we hit the hard stuff, starting with our own purchase, Boodles Gin, winner of Ginstock 2013. "Famous for having one of the more understated juniper flavours among the top gins distilled in Britian", it unusually contains no citrus, but includes rosemary and sage instead. Alone, it was strong but smoother and sweeter than most, then with a splash of tonic, the herbiness made itself apparent.

Next we had the famous Williams Chase Elegant Crisp Gin, "a single estate apple spirit re-distilled in small batches in their own Copper Gin Still." Being made from apples, and including Bramley's and both orange and lemon in the botanicals, this is a bold, sharp tasting gin, which might be best used in cocktails over a traditional G&T. Nevertheless, it was a crowdpleaser and scored highly. 

Luckily for us, we had a couple of drink connoisseurs round, and were treated to a sneak preview of the new Cheltenham Gin, Brennen & Brown. Made using a complex vacuum distillation method, the gin is classed as having a 'hint of ginger' and notes of orange and lemon. As much as we wanted it to be great, unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointment for everyone. No one managed to get any ginger whatsoever, making it a really non-descript gin.

Following that, we had the mighty Plymouth Gin. We had visited the distillery last month, where we took the tour, and sipped some mean Aviations in the bar, so from experience and reputation, we knew this would be a firm favourite. With an interesting history dating back to 1793, Plymouth is a blend of 7 botanicals giving a fresh juniper taste, and an aromatic corriander aroma. Another high scorer, this a versatile gin which would work just as well in cocktails as it would simply with tonic.

By now we were feeling the effects of a fair few drinks, so it was time to bring out the show-stopper jellies; I needed to make sure everyone remembered them, didn't I? A White Lady jelly - gin, lemon juice and Cointreau - made pink with the aid of food colouring, and put into hollowed out strawberries and lemon peels. Clearly clinging onto the summer with British strawb's and pink lemonade jelly wedges, both of which went down a treat. 

Venturing into the more unusual, we tried Zuidam 5 Year Old Single Barrel Genever. "Distilled from malted barley, rye and corn, then infused with botanicals such as juniper, liquorice root and aniseed, the genever is then aged in a whisky barrel." The smell and taste of whisky was so strong that no one was able to tell that it was in fact a gin based spirit, and with a rich caramel colour, it would be easy to mistake it for one of those Scottish barreled drinks. It had an oaky vanilla-y finish, which was great for the whisky lovers, but scored very low for the haters (like me!), though a bit of ice did help it go down.

Greenall's London Dry was next, a gin you'd probably be able to find in most supermarkets, and actually produced in the same distillery as the Boodles we had bought. Weirdly they don't give any information about botanicals or product history on the bottle, other than the fact it was established in 1761. Clearly it must be a closely guarded secret, but nothing out of the ordinary stood out, so I'm guessing its a blend of the usual juniper/citrus suspects. As it's branding suggests, its a good everyday gin.

Last jelly of the night was an elderflower, lemon and gin combo, topped with blueberries and served in vintage crystal sherry glasses, which I forgot to photograph - I'll blame the booze - and rounded off with a taste of the Aldi Oliver Cromwell, that was used in all the jellies and cocktails served that evening. The verdict? An incredibly cheap gin which doesn't taste cheap in the slightest. Sure, it hasn't got any unique selling point - it does look very much like a Gordon's rip off - but as a clean, well rounded drink, it is one which most of us would be happy to keep by for when we get home after one of those hard days at work.  

All in all, a bloomin' good night was had. We learnt that everyone had different favourite gins but were able to appreciate the range of botanicals and qualities of each - apart from the whisky one.. That really did divide the room. Bottlegreen has come up trumps with it's new Elderflower Tonic; I'm intrigued to taste it's other new addition - pink pomegranate - so very girly. And probably is the best tonic around at the moment is Fevertree, but at a third of the price, the Essential Waitrose one seems like a no brainer for your G&T.

SO much gin, and not a single tear was shed, so maybe it's not Mother's ruin after all..

Chase me to Hotel du Vin

It was months ago that I spotted an advertisement for a Chase Distillery dinner at Hotel du Vin Cheltenham, though at £65 per person it seemed a litle steep. Nevertheless, bills and mortgage aside, the fact that Chase is responsible for making some of my favourite drinks meant that I had to go. After much anticipation, a few Thursday's ago, just before the last Bank Holiday of the year, it finally took place.

It was such a beautiful evening, and as we arrived we were informed that we would be dining al fresco in the hotel's 'secret garden'. Crisp white clothed tables were laid out in a semi circle with the pop-up style bar, lined up with Chase spirits, taking centre stage. There weren't many attendees, probably around 15, and with a 'Chasing Elder-bubble' cocktail in hand, we chatted whilst being served canapés and having photos taken by the Gloucestershire Echo.

Chasing Elder-Bubble: Muddled cucumber, William Chase Gin, lemon juice, elderflower syrup, topped with Prosecco. 

When seated, we were introduced to James Chase, son of William, the founder of the distillery, and the hotel's bar manager Ben, who was giving us various master-classes throughout the evening. We heard about how it all began, from farming to Tyrrell's crisps to making vodka, and how important it is to them to be producing hand-crafted spirits in the UK. This led nicely to our first course with cocktail pairing; smoked duck breast, black mission figs wrapped in prosciutto and a leafy salad, alongside 'Honey I Smoked the Kids'.

Honey I Smoked the Kids: Chase Smoked Vodka, fresh honey, créme de figue, vanilla syrup, pineapple juice topped with ginger ale.

The smoky salty food matched wonderfully with the refreshingly sweet drink; with so many flavour crossovers, it was clearly well thought out. Moving on, we heard more about the Herefordshire based Distillery, the processes that occur from field to bottle, and how they create their typically British single-estate spirits and liqueurs. Main course was an oven roast pave of stone bass, sat on a bed of herby risotto and a beurre blanc sauce, with 'The Passion of Lady Marmaduke'.

The Passion of Lady Marmaduke: Chase Marmalade Vodka, fresh orange juice, homemade orange marmalade, passion fruit syrup, lime juice and a white peach and passion fruit foam.

The making of this cocktail was quite tricky - a good ten minutes of shaking in order to transform an egg white and added extras, into a voluminous foam - so it seemed a bit of an odd choice considering it needed to be made for a large group of people. When they appeared at our tables, they didn't look as slick as the one that was demonstrated to us, instead, frothy white mountains piled high above the rims of each martini glass - however, comedy white tashes were enjoyed by all. This one, whilst rich in fruit flavours, was again pretty sweet, but an interesting contrast to the delicate fish/risotto combo, which unfortunately may have been sat out a little long, as the beurre blanc had a slight skin on top. That aside, it was still a pleasant dish.

The pre-dessert drink was the one which I was most looking forward to; 'Earl of Rhubarb' with a pear and lemon 'Naughty Jelly'.

Earl of Rhubarb: Chase Rhubarb Vodka, Earl Grey syrup, elderflower liqueur, fresh lemon juice and elderflower syrup.

Being a massive lover of the rhubarb vodka (I have been known to have a cheeky tipple over ice after a long day), with Earl Grey being my tea of choice, and elderflower being a Summer favourite, I knew it was going to be good, and being served in a cute little jam jar made it even better. I've got a high tolerence when it comes to sour things, so if I was being picky, I'd have preferred it to have a bit more lemon juice, but the addition of sharp edible apple blossom made up for it. The jelly was nice, but felt more like an accompinament to the lovely cocktail.

As darkness fell, and tables were lit only by candles in chic lanterns, our final course was served. 'It's not Terry's, it's William's' paired with Crepes Suzette generously sozzled in orange and cognac sauce.

It's not Terry's, it's Wlliam's: Chase Seville Orange Gin, Grand Marnier, double cream and Mozart Gold.

Reading the ingredients of this cocktail, and even watching it being made, with plenty of cream and chocolate liqueur, I expected it to be quite sickly. However, as I sipped it - from a cup and saucer no less - I was surprised to find that it was probably the strongest tasting drink of the night, packing a bitter orange gin punch. That, with the gorgeously marmalade-y crepes, was a match made in heaven.

After a very boozy dinner, we did what anyone else would do - drink more. Hours later, we meandered home with extra knowledge in our minds and goodie bags in hand. Next stop, Chase cocktails at home courtesy of the lovingly packaged miniatures we were given, and inspirational cocktail ideas.