wine Archives - ET Speaks From Home

How does Chinese Wine Compare with French Wine?

With a burgeoning middle class, the Chinese have quickly developed a taste for fine wine. French and Italy for the last decade or so have made a lot of inroads into China and have a huge market to sell to.

As China develops their taste for wine, they have surely realized that it makes more sense to grow their own grapes and develop their own industry. Why import wine when they can simply do it themselves?

And they have started to do just that. Chinese wineries are growing all the time and now they seem poised to overtake their European competition. In this article, I will go over how different Chinese wine is from French to get an idea of the landscape in the wine world in China.

The Wine List Review

We might be entering into the next phase of lockdown, but this doesn’t mean we are safe yet. Why not take this time to learn more about wine from your home? The Wine List is a discovery and education-focused wine subscription box aimed at amateur enthusiasts who are looking to level up their knowledge.

Choosing Food And Drink For Your Wedding

The Heart And “Sole” Of Your Big Day: Choosing Food And Drink For Your Wedding!

The happiest days of your life can be, in many ways, one of the most stressful. In the lead up to your wedding day, you have so many things to keep track of, that the overall stress can wear you down. This is why it’s important to make it an enjoyable process, and if you are in heaven when the topic of food comes up, choosing the ideal food and drink for your wedding is one of the most pleasurable aspects of wedding planning. On one hand, tasting the food is enjoyable, but while you have to think about it purely relating to you and your partner, don’t forget you have other people to please too. So, with that in mind, how can you get the right balance to pick the right food and drink that pleases not just yourself, but everybody?

Personalised Alcohol Gifts with GiftsOnline4U

With Mother’s Day approaching next Sunday 11^th March 2018, are you still struggling to look for gifts to buy for your mother or wife? If you are running out of ideas, I have a few gift ideas under my sleeves! Have you ever considered giving them personalised wrist watches or personalised alcoholic gifts like Personalised Moet and Engraved Champagne Flutes?

Afternoon Tea at Chi Kitchen

If you’ve had a hard day of shopping at the Birmingham Bullring, why not treat yourself to a nice Afternoon Tea at Chi Kitchen on the 3^rd Level inside Debenhams!

Frexienet Cocktail Party

Last year, I wrote a post about celebrating the little things for Freixenet and won a mixologist party. So last week was my birthday and I invited a few of my friends over for my cocktail party. It also tied in nicely with the blog I wrote not long ago about how I am going to plan my cocktail party. Do check them out!

The bartender, Luke came an hour early to set up his cocktail table before we started the party. I was amazed how he managed to set up his counter so quickly and neatly. He had plenty of supplies and even had a cocktail menu!

Sip & Learn Wine Tasting Box Review

Have you ever wanted to learn more about wine but don’t have time or people to go with? There are so wine tasting courses but what I find it hard as a mother of two with no relatives around is that I can’t go without having to organise babysitters or feeling guilty about not spending time with them.

So recently, I got in touch with this lovely company called Sip & Learn with this concept of every month receiving two bottles of wine as well as a comprehensive (but fun and superbly designed) educational booklet to start learning all about wine. Now in the comfort of my home and no need to get a baby sitter, my husband and I can enjoy drinking great wines whilst learning at the same time.

Celebrating the #LittleThings Freixenet

Freixenet, the UK’s leading sparkling wine brand have been inviting the nation to celebrate the #LittleThings in Life. So they invited a few bloggers to join in and document the moments that give us that secret ‘yes’ feeling. Whether it’s grabbing the last Frozen toys, managing to save your toast from burning or finding the last car park space in an event! They are all worth celebrating!

Oi1 Olive Oil bread

Last week, I invited friends over to play Anki DRIVE and after playing, we all settled down for a nice glass of wine from Frontera (click to check out my Vibrant Chicken in Creamy Wine Sauce recipe and Rich Mushroom Wine Sauce), my homemade olive bread made with Oi1 olive oil and a hamper of cheese that I won from Connage Cheese.

Rich Mushroom Wine Sauce

This is a blogger challenge with Frontera Wines.

This is my second recipe for my challenge. This recipe is to use as a sauce to drizzle onto any meat. Merlot is a rich dry dark fruits wine. This wine is soft and smooth with a 12.5% alcohol content. It is great to eat with pasta, cheeses, meat and chicken.

If you have not heard of Frontera before, in fact they are the world’s best-selling Chilean wine brand. The brand has refreshed the look and feel with its redesigned packaging. Now each bottle’s label has a fun and visual story all about the heritage of the wine, the poetry is told through the traditional Chilean method of ‘Lira Popular’ portraying the innovative spirit of Frontera.

On their redesigned packaging, the label on the Merlot bottle has the following:

It was a little blackbird

That gave me my name

Mirlo they called it

Beautiful and dark

Two things we share

Along with a joyful song

Grapes with magical roots

Vibrant Chicken in Creamy Wine Sauce

This is a blogger challenge with Frontera Wines.

Using wines for cooking is not something we tend to do as it’s more of a leisure drink for us. Last weekend, I opened a bottle of Frontera Sauvignon Blanc along with the Merlot (see my next post – rich mushroom wine sauce) to make a delicious dinner while enjoying the rest of the wines watching Strictly Come Dancing!

I must admit, I was not aware of Frontera before but in fact, they are the world’s best-selling Chilean wine brand. The brand has refreshed the look and feel with its redesigned packaging. Now each bottle label has a fun and visual story all about the heritage of the wine, the poetry is told through the traditional Chilean method of ‘Lira Popular’ portraying the innovative spirit of Frontera.

Lira Popular is a collection of printed popular Chilean literature, defined as the entire set of printed poetry sheets in tenths produced in Chile, since the mid-nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth. I think the labels look fantastic! The Frontera range is available at stockists nationwide RRP £5.99 and the range includes Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and the newly launched Cabernet Sauvignon Blush.

On their redesigned packaging, the label on the Sauvignon Blanc bottle has the following:

My name is French;

I am a traveller by nature but Chilean at heart.

Don’t be fooled by my youth;

it’s the secret of my freshness and flavour.

One stop cosy night in

It is not very often we have a cosy night in together but when we do, it’s nice to get a few treats. Instead of getting our stuff from our local Lichfield Debenhams store (read here about two fellow bloggers and me attended our local store VIP event), I now have the comfort of ordering a list of items online from Debenhams.

We don’t have babysitters so it’s not often we have a real cosy night together with just the two of us. For tonight, both children are upstairs asleep.

Festive Food and Drink Round Up

Our fabulous Cotton On’s blogger Zoe Lester very kindly organised us huge goody bags! To carry all the goodies, we’re thankfully to JoJoMaman Bebe who sponsored us each a navy JoJo Buggy Bag valued at £9 RRP. This is definitely a great value practical bag. It can be worn over the shoulder or clipped onto the handles of a buggy. It is very big (H36 x W51 x D11cm) and can fill a lot of useful stuff so is perfect for shopping. I have not used it on a buggy as Ms C is able to walk everywhere now. But I imagine it would be very handy for a picnic too! The large strap is quite long and the design is unisex which can be also carried by men!

Cocktails and Wine Party

Whenever there is a party, there is always drinking involved! I would like to thank all the companies who have kindly sponsored us for our bloggers night in weekend. Without them, we wouldn’t have had such an awesome gathering. Before our night in, I had read The Lazy Hostess for ideas of how to entertain and feed my guests without breaking the bank and barely lifting a finger! Following one of the seven habits of highly stress free hostesses, I asked Pippa Ainsworth to be my cocktail bar girl! She is in charge of serving my guests plenty of cocktails, wine and non alcohol drinks.

Blossom Hill Vie Rosé Delicate & Fruity

Party party party! We all love party! Yesterday, although we had thick snow, our lovely guests still managed to turn up for our Blossom Hill Vie Rosé Wine tasting party! We also had a curry takeaway. I think that Blossom Hill Vie Rosé is very light, sweet, fruity and easy to drink. As such, it is great with any type of food or on it’s own. We sampled it indoors whilst it was snowing heavily outside, but I would imagine it would be particularly refreshing during hot summer evenings when served chilled.