On one of our periodic trips to Cornwall we paid a visit to Porthleven and were glad we did. Excellent nosh at The Square, exciting breakers rolling in outside the inner harbour soaking walkers with spray (fun to watch) and generally pleasurable atmosphere. They do say though that it gets rammed in summer with people some of which are pretty yobbish.
A short stroll up the hill we came across a so-called Bottle Shop 'Bolla.' No idea if this is named after the renowned Veneto producer of the same name but whatever, it looked interesting with people eating in the front and indeed, quite a few bottles on the side.
Among these there were three bottles under the heading 'English Red' that looked mysterious. The labels gave nothing away so we asked at the counter and were referred to a very pleasant lady who despite having the air of someone about to leave in a hurry kindly informed is that the bottle on the left was Cabernet Franc, the one in the middle was 'a blend,' she knew not what of and the one on the right was (wait for it) Samso! I asked if the Cab Franc and Samso were grown in England, maybe in Polytunnels but she wasn't sure. She was kind enough to give us a 20% 'End of Season' discount which was appreciated.
Even so these three were not cheap but we absolutely had to have the English Samso. Samso is a Spanish synonym for Cinsault by the way but never matter.
Further examination of the label was tricky. You needed a microscope but armed with a magnifying glass we were able to make out the words Ham Street Wines. Firing off an emeail to them we got a reply from 'Lucy' by return saying they didn't grow Samso and the wine was Pinot Meunier.
Pinot Meunier is one of our favourites so we were happy even though a Samso gown in England with or without a Polytunnel would have been quite something.
No comments:
Post a Comment