Wine tasting at The Old White Bear, Hampstead

I haven't been to a wine tasting for a very long time - in Wiltshire we used to go to our local, The Lamb On The Strand, which according to my country sources is still serving good food and great wine & beer.

During our time, the wine tastings at The Lamb were quite rowdy affairs. The old (as in previous) landlord would make the tables guess the grape, region and price of each wine. The winners won a bottle of champagne and there was a lot of good-hearted cheating. We'd end up drinking far too much, then buying cases of the stuff on some wonderful pretext like, 'It'll keep until Christmas' (in May), or 'We can have a party'. Inevitably the pricier bottles would be drunk as every day plonk at home and the next time we'd fall for the same trick again.

Earlier this week, I was invited to go to the first wine tasting event of the autumn at a pub in Hampstead, The Old White Bear. This place, en route to The Heath from the Hampstead tube station, has gone through something of a transformation in the past few years. It now serves great food and is a restaurant as well as a pub.

The wines are sampled in an upstairs room, and served by friendly, knowledgeable staff. Instead of the dinner party atmosphere of The Lamb, here the wines were placed into an orderly line. The Hampstead set nodded sagely after swilling a small amount of each wine in their mouths. There was intelligent conversation about grapes and weather conditions in the various wine growing regions. And there was fantastic tapas to go with the delicious wines.

The bottles tasted during the evening were mainly from Italy, but there were some from more unusual regions too, including Hungary and Slovenia. Both old winemaking countries, I'm sure, but rarely seen in our household. At The Old White Bear I learned something new about wine during this refined occasion. At the same time, though, I found myself missing the noisy tastings of The Lamb. Perhaps I'm a country pumpkin at heart after all?

Afterwards, still feeling a little hungry, we had a Scotch Egg and a beer in the Duke of Hamilton - a pub which we don't seem to be able to pass without going in. (More evidence of my lack of 'townieness'?)

Wine tastings at The Old White Bear are £15-00 each and include freshly prepared tapas.
You can get details of the next event by signing up for their mailing list here.

(Helena paid for her own wine tasting - this is not a sponsored post)

Sick bed update

Yesterday I had a small operation under local anaesthetic which means that I have to rest for a few days, not operate heavy machinery, or sign legal documents (!) for 24 hours. (So I've resisted the urge to drive a digger.) I'm also not allowed to do any heavy lifting, or exercise for four to six weeks. I'm on painkillers which make me feel tired and woozy.

After the op I was so relieved that it went well that against all good sense, I decided to keep a previously arranged date to meet up with some great friends. We'd planned to go to our 'regular', the Duke of Hamilton in Hampstead. This has become our favourite pub; it serves good beer, the wine list is OK and they have tables outside both in the front and at the back. It's proper boozer rather than a restaurant, something which is very rare in Northwest London. (And they're on Twitter).

We hadn't seen our friends for weeks, and they were going to be in town for just a few days. When I asked Mr Consultant he said it would be OK, as long as I didn't do too much walking. A brilliant excuse for once to take a cab the short distance! (I immediately considered wearing high heels to the pub). My friend said, 'You won't have to do any lifting either, I'll hold the glass up and you sip.' So, you see, I couldn't refuse.

In the event I don't think I made very good company; I started to droop after the first bottle of beer. For once I was the one who wanted to leave first...and resisted the call of The Holly Bush, another favourite pub on our way home when we walk. Instead we hailed a cab and I had an early night. But I'm glad we went - it was great to see everybody.

In the same spirit of 'rallying around', today the Englishman and Daughter cooked a picnic lunch of onion pie, honey and mustard chicken and salad, which we shared with Son and Girlfriend in the garden. A lovely family lunch for which I didn't have to lift a finger.

Now I'm lounging in front of the TV watching Athletics (of all things) while the Englishman is tidying up in the kitchen.

I could get used to this....