WINE & DINE WITH ANGELA LANSBURY

 The club meets regularly every month on Wednesdays and in 2026 Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday, so the club enjoyed tasting wines on the Valentine's Day theme in advance - and in time to be inspired to buy some for Valentine's Day. Angela Lansbury at the Central London Wine Society meeting. The Central London Wine Society met at a Civil Service Club meeting room for a meeting on the theme of Valentine's Day. We told the story of St Valentine, quoted Chaucer and Shakespeare on the subject. We tasted wines whose labels featured Romeo & Juliet, Champagne Jean Valentin, Sanct Valentin, and Château Valentin. Our starter wines were two sparklers, a Prosecco and then a Champagne. The Prosecco was a Prosecco Brut, but not to dry for me, 11%, maybe why it had less of a kick than the Champagne which followed which was 12.5% alcohol, and more pleasing to most of those in the room.  (I am a Prosecco drinker, easily satisfied.) Photo by Angela Lansbury. Please share links to...

  Italian Zonin History I went to the Zonin1821 event. Zonin1821 is an Italian company, in the wine business, founded by the Zonin family in 1821, long before I was born. They started in the Veneto area, famous for the port of Venice, and Prosecco wine, and the Zonin bottle label is associated with this region. They set up Zonin UK in 1998. How come I had never heard of them? This event aimed to put that right and it did.  They now have wines from Europe, France, Spain and Italy, and the Lebanon,  South Africa, Chile and Argentina, and going south, from South Africa and New Zealand. At a walk around tasting, I started with my favourite, Prosecco. From Italy. I compared a couple of them. Then I went on to Asti, from Italy. A couple of sweet Moscatos, muscats, sweet, of course. Then a couple of Champagnes, from France, of course, to compare with Prosecco. Wine Tasting The walk around wine tasting of their wines had the usual arrangement of a good event, spittoons scattered ...

  Sei Uno, Prosecco, white wine from Italy. Bellenda Prosecco My top favourite wines include several from Italy  Prosecco seems to be in every Italian restaurant in London and in European style restaurants, as well as in my nearest Tesco Express supermarket.  Here are two with the co-owner of a family winery. I tasted these at the Circle of Wine Writers Festive Party 2025, held early evening, the 4th wine event of the day at London Cru in London England. We started with English wines and ended with Italian wines. Sei Uno Prosecco Sei Uno is Italian for six one, or sixty-one. A significant date for that family. That's what this charming gentleman told me. Last year I was learning Italian on Duolingo. So reading a wine bottle label is like reading a signpost to the part of my brain storing Italian words. The Italians call Italy Italia. Prosecco is a protected name, so if this man is involved in a family business producing Prosecco, you know that he lives in North East Italy...

  Introduction To Italian Food Seeing Sicily Italy produces some of the world's best wines and foods. As a child under the age of ten I travelled half price on P & O cruise ships and we landed in Sicily to visit the Roman ruins. Then as a student in the Sixties I went with our car on a small plane to Italy, visiting Rome, and Pisa, enjoying the myriad types of pasta.  Sardinia Later I visited Sardinia. Best Prosecco My first wines were the lower alcohol sweet and/or sparkling wines such as Asti Spumante. Now I am a protagonist for Prosecco.  At the Real Italian Wine & Food show I shall be looking for the prosecco which has been awarded the title of best Prosecco ten years running, from the company Azienda Agricola Biasiotto. Our favourite lunch time meal every Saturday back in the sugar-laden Sixties was at the Italian restaurant Dino's in Edgware station where we had canneloni. We knew nothing about healthy food and had no idea that pasta was fattening as well as...

  Bonoo Indian Restaurant, flower-filled frontage. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. Bonoo Hampstead restaurant, in the Hampstead area of Northwest London, has an amusing and amazing  flower-covered exterior, plus inside walls and ceiling to match.  A touch of class, elegance, romance. What does the name mean? It is not the owner, but a word evoking an Indian chef's  philosophy, an instinct for natural harmonising flavours. Their website explains. A bit abstract, and I don't know if it is Sanskrit or Hindi, so to remember the restaurant's name I think bon, which is french for good, and OO - amazingly different. We saw a chef wearing a white hat. This restaurant is a favourite of other members of  our family because the restaurant staff are willing to discuss the spiciness of the dishes and get food made up less spicy which is what most of us want. My favourite dish was the potato starter, Aloo tikki chaat. I also liked the Crunchy mango salad. , and the flat ...

De Rada Brasserie restaurant in Mill Hill. Outdoor seating. Photo by Angela Lansbury. I have family in Mill Hill who know all the restaurants in Mill Hill. The family had enjoyed lunch here previously and suggested this place for a family dinner so I checked it out online.. The restaurant serves Italian favourites, Prosecco, Pizza and pasta. Not cheap - is anywhere nowadays, mybe some pubs at lunch time. De Rada is open all day until 10 pm for breakfast, lunch (sandwiches) and a la carte for dinner. First I looked at the drinks. Two kinds of Prosecco by the glass. One is extra brut which is extra dry so I made a note that I wanted the other. Both the same price. 7.25 (pounds sterling). My husband is a wine educator and was not over excited by the red wines, but conceded he might give one a try. However, I also liked the green reviver smoothie at five pounds. Maybe the smoothie as a starter. Their appetizers include olives with ham, and chicken liver parfait.  Olives. Photo by Angel...

  A-Z of of Names of Grapes To Eat and Drink Here's a handy alphabetical checklist of wine grapes and their meanings.  Auxerrois - from Alsace (the old name for Alsace) Champagne - from the Champagne region of France, north, river Loire region, near Paris Colombard - white from colombe, French for dove (white birds) Fer - French for wild (grape) like feral Glera - the new name for Prosecco grapes to distinguish them from the style of wine more widespread Madeira - strong alcohol, Portuguese island in the Atlantic, whose wine was transformed in long hot journeys stored for ages by ship in the olden days, storage conditions to enhance flavour and other qualities, now imitated on the island without the sea journey Mavro - Greek for black (name used in Cyprus) Merlot - from French for blackbird. Grapes used in France for wine and eating Monastrell - Spanish wine which came from the monastery (Latin monasteriu for monastery) Mourv è dre - French  from the Latin monasteriu mean...