We’ve done it. We’ve traded London and our beautiful little terrace house for more space, fresher air and a longer commute… We’ve moved into ‘project renovation’ where the to do list is longer than our driveway but there is light at the end of the tunnel: our kitchen, which makes Rachel Khoo’s Little Paris Kitchen look lavishly equipped will be redesigned, knocked down, and rebuilt which means I can create a space perfect to host a wine fridge of serious proportions.
In the mean time however we are here in Surrey like fish out of water, the area is missing a decent pub and a decent wine bar; forget our house I can feel a village renovation of the wine sorts is needed as well. I’m yet to find out whether people here are wine drinkers. Are they classic connoisseurs or plump for plonk sort of folk, would they embrace the new or stick to their safety wines? And would the sense of wine adventure I was used to in London be a distant memory here or could I take a bottle of Turkish wine to a neighbour’s house and be welcomed back or never invited again?
I empathise with Turkish wines here in the UK, they are a bit like a fish out of water too, surrounded by reliable sorts that have been here for years, will they ever be part of the in crowd and get the friends they deserve?
If Barudi’s Syrah from Turkey’s Aegean region is anything to go by then the answer should be yes, especially at the very reasonable price of £8.49. It’s a mixture of the familiar (Syrah) and the not so familiar (the region) the brand logo is familiar too (think Scouts) and the wine inside is plump, attractive, well built and smooth. Something we all look for in a good neighbour…. and a red wine it seems.
As the Scouts say ‘be prepared’ have a few bottles of this on your wine rack to make new friends feel at home.
