British weather, Cumbria and Fleurie

It has been an abysmal start to the new year with the weather. Rain, rain and chances of more rain seems to be the terminal forecast. So it was with hesitation that I booked my anniversary stay away in Cumbria, Crossthwaite to be precise, at a charming hotel called The Punch Bowl.

I have some specific interests in my life; fine food and wine and walking, so Cumbria ticks a lot of boxes. From my days of owning and operating delicatessens, I would regularly drive up the M6 to junction 36, the start of the South Lakes.

From here you are only a hop and a skip from Kirkby Lonsdale and Bowness/Cartmel. It was in Kirkby Lonsdale that I came across the fantastic Mansergh Hall Farm. An idyllic farm set on the fields adjacent to the River Lune.

Back in the mid 2000s they had moved over to organic meat. They specialised in local hand-reared beef with a minimum 28 days hung. The steaks were crimson in colour. The taste was sublime. I was often told that my steaks looked 'off' because they were not bright red like the supermarket meat which had never been matured and thus had not yet developed the rich more full bodied taste that well hung beef attains.

From Kirkby Lonsdale I would drive over to Low Sizergh to a fantastic little (it has since quadrupled in size) farm shop specialising in organic cheese and milk. Having collected all my fresh goods I would set off back to Rochdale.

This time, however, I could relax and enjoy the scenery and some locally produced food and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

We had lunch in Cartmel and were planning on walking the Cartmel Fells, which is approximately a three hour walk. However, the weather was taking a turn for the worse again. The skies were grey and foreboding and the ground was waterlogged. So the only thing for it was to make a hasty retreat to the hotel and prepare for our evenings treats.

I decided on the local black pudding with poached egg for starters and the shin of beef with garlic mashed potatoes for my main. The big issue was what to choose for the wine. The wine prices started quite steep and went to very steep so I kept to the first couple of pages.

It was obviously going to be a red but which red, that was the question. A perfect partner with red meat would have been a Barossa Valley Australian Shiraz. With some serious tannins it would work wonderfully with all the red meats. However, this restaurant specialised in lots of French wine.

French wine has had somewhat of a bashing this last few years with the emergence of new world wines. These new wines are typically higher in alcohol and fruit and are very drinkable on their own. Also they have very easy to read labels. If you want a Cabernet Sauvignon that is what it says on the label. This is not so of French wines. Tradition dictates that it is the village and wine maker that should show off on the front off their bottle. The difficulty is knowing how to decipher what on earth you are drinking.

One of my favourite wine regions at the moment is Beaujolais, famed in the UK in the 1990s for its Beaujolais Nouveau. This incredibly young drink was ultimately its demise and had left people with the wrong impression of the quality of their wines (see also Blue Nun for German wine demise).

Beaujolais is one of the five Burgundian wine regions situated approximately 45 minutes north of Lyon in the Rhone region. It has a beautiful warm summer climate with the sun's heat radiating back from the granite based soil. The predominate grape variety is gamay. This is a lovely fresh red berry, kirsch, bubblegum style wine which can be drunk very happily on its own.

Fleurie is one of the villages within Beaujolais and is very proud to offer you wines that only come from their village. This is why they put their name on the bottle. Brilliantly well cultivated grapes and a short amount of oak ageing (8-10 months) produce a juicy red fruit, floral and silky wine.

Because of the price of this wine, £35, we had just the one but what a fantastic choice. The shin beef was to die for. Falling away as soon as the fork looked at it and the rich red fruit from the wine made for a perfect meal.

It was finished off with fresh (Yorkshire) rhubarb and custard and a dessert wine.

It was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. And it's also great to have staff who know their menu well adding to a memorable experience.

We ended our short getaway the following morning with a full English breakfast which was a knockout. Well presented with great quality local meats.

All in all it was a great twenty four hours. The Cumbrian landscape looking even more dramatic with the British winter weather.

Food & Wine by Paul Sheerin
Pshearse@gmail.com