Food & Drink

Friday 22 to Sunday 24 October Dartmouth Food Festival

Having grown from humble beginnings in 2002 into a firstclass feast of entertainment featuring workshops, seminars, tastings, competitions, demonstrations and over 120 handpicked exhibitors (70% of which are from Devon), it truly is the very best that the South West has to offer. The festival welcomes many special guests, from internationally renowned chefs to celebrated writers and critics, to provide a huge range of exciting, informative and downright delicious entertainment. Described in The

It’s Apple season and our annual Apple Day has lots of lovely apple crafts and activities in the Visitor Centre from 11:0016:00 - watch a spinning wheel yarn demonstration and make your own apple scented bath bombs and corn dollies. Bring some apples, watch them being pressed and taste the fresh juice. Visit the farmers’ market, take part in the harvest hunt, and watch the cookery demonstrations. Clovelly Cafeteria will be serving apple dishes and The Red Lion at the harbour has a selection of 10 different ciders. There will also be live music, apple bobbing, apple stamping and animal encounters with South West Animal Services. Normal entry fees to Clovelly apply (free for children under 7).

© Samual Fradley © Benedict Fothergill

Telegraph as a ‘heady mix of celebrity chefs, parties, food markets, tasting shacks and demonstrations’, the festival is now a landmark event on the culinary calendar. And we’re a free festival - anyone and everyone is welcome to come along and take part without being charged an entry fee.

Wednesday 27 October Clovelly Apple Day

Murder at the Manor

Saturday 6th November

Our fun filled Murder Mystery Evening returns. Start with a glass of bubbly on arrival served with canapes and mingle amongst fellow guests while the actors will start to set the scene. Dress code Black Tie. 7.00pm: Arrival with Bubbly and Canapés £85.00 per person

To chill or not to chill?

Dave Anning has the answers

There’s very little that’s more enticing than a delicious glass of chilled wine. But cooling wine can seriously mute aromas and flavours. We could have a science lesson here with formulas and everything, but I think you want to know WHICH wines chill well, not why - so here goes!

Serving wine at the right temperature can be important, but if the weather is hot, the temperature of your wine changes as soon as you pour, so keep it simple. Part-fill a container of water and ice, put it on the table and use it as required. To chill a bottle quickly, add plenty of cooking salt - this will chill a bottle from room temperature in about 15 minutes – or you can buy a simple wrap-around temperature band or other similar devices for a few pounds if you wish.

Lighter wines chill best, and low alcohol wines like riesling do especially well. But don’t write off reds! Wines made from gamay, pinot noir and cabernet franc are delicious lightly chilled - a great solution if you’re planning a meaty barbeque. Sicillian frappato is even light enough to drink with fish. Aromas are usually first to suffer when wine is chilled. Luckily there are ‘aromatic’ white wines worth looking out for. Sauvignon blanc, riesling, muscat and viognier you may well have heard of, but there are others such as torrontes and gewurztraminer. Good quality examples of these will normally remain enticing on the nose when chilled, and open up as you hold them. Treat rosé as you would white. Examples range from dry (eg Provence) through off-dry (a touch of sweetness) to sweet (eg American ‘white’ zinfandel). The only way to find out which you like most is to knuckle down and try a selection!

The ultimate treat is sparkling wine, and as Champagne is always expensive, take advantage of the opportunity to try some lesser-known sparklers. Cava from Spain is usually significantly cheaper than Champagne; prosecco is widely available (but buying the cheapest bottle can be disappointing); the French make ‘cremant’ outside the Champagne region (Loire, Alsace, Bourgogne, Bordeaux), and Australia, South Africa and Argentina aren’t obvious choices but make some truly brilliant fizz! In warm weather, lighter, fruitier sparklers come into their own. Asti, with its distinctive aromas of grapes (oddly not a common aroma in wine), is also low in alcohol and distinctly sweet. It is perhaps the most ‘lemonadey’ of wines and very refreshing - good job the alcohol is low! In summary the ‘rules’ are different according to the weather - keep ice and water to hand and if the wine isn’t cool enough pop it back in!

Dave Anning

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