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TONY WINS HIS WEIGHT IN WINE!

June 2000

The Nurse’s Cottage, Sway’s multi-award winning Restaurant and Guest Accommodation, has brought yet another prize home to the New Forest, this time from the the major London International Wine Trade Fair held at the Olympia Exhibition Halls.

Already enjoying a reputation for matching food and wine, chef/proprietor Tony Barnfield took part alongside sommeliers and restaurateurs from across the country in a Menuquest competition sponsored by five wine companies and Hotel & Restaurant magazine. Competitors were required to visit stands at the Fair to select wines to accompany a set four-course menu, plus a tie-breaker. As well as Tony, winners came from Cheshire, Herefordshire and Bedfordshire, and Mark Hayes, Editor of Hotel & Restaurant, commented: “Regional restaurants really trounced the big London outlets in this contest. Not a single restaurant from the capital made it into the top ten entries, from which we selected the final five. Perhaps if you have to spend time and money to make the trip to London, you are more of an enthusiast and perfectionist than those who have the Fair on their doorstep.”

Tony’s selections included a Californian White Grenache to match Wild Duck Terrine with Cranberries in Balsamic Vinegar, and the prize was his Weight in Wine from its producers, Ernest and Julio Gallo, some sixty bottles!

The Grenache has promptly been added to the annually-revised Wine List at The Nurse’s Cottage which boasts a impressive range. Said Tony: “France continues to dominate the selection, although fifteen other countries are featured. Australia is acknowledged this year as an alternative market leader with three reds, three whites, three dessert wines and a low alchohol wine listed (sixteen per cent of the List), and we welcome the English Wine of the Year as our new sparkling wine. Over two-thirds of our sixty-one wines are priced under £20, with twenty-one available in half-bottles and twenty sold by the glass. One new feature that I hope guests will find interesting is highlighting the grape varieties used in the production of each wine on the List. Hopefully, this will help people gain a wider understanding of this most enjoyable aspect of a night out!”

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