Whenever I am in London and have a few hours to spare, I do the things I love the most here: walking and looking at art. I am always uplifted and inspired by these experiences.
Yesterday, I walked in Green Park and captured this daffodil laden view of Buckingham Palace.
Daffodils are one of my favourite flowers. Partly because they are cheerful, yellow harbingers of spring and partly because they bring back my childhood memories of playing in a spring garden at dusk, inhaling their lovely scent. Seeing them in full bloom in Green Park surfaced all these connections.
For my art fix, I came across a magical small exhibition of mainly pastels with some oils by the Impressionist artist, Degas (18 34- 1917) at the National Gallery. This collection on loan from Glasgow in Scotland, features Degas’s well-known subjects of ballerinas, racehorses and women attending to their toilette. If only one could draw or paint movement as he did!
I have also been inspired recently hearing about a new vineyard in Buckinghamshire: Dinton Wines, which was started in 2013.
Dinton Folly, an English sparkling wine, is the brainchild of retired countryman Laurie Kimber, who planted 15 acres with the classic varieties of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier on a south-facing slope with chalky soil and temperate climate. The neighbours of Mr. Kimber, and his family including his children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren harvest the grapes. The first harvest was ready in 2016.
Dinton Folly is so named because of its proximity to the ruins of a nearby castle and also refers to the idea of taking on such a challenging project later in life. Dinton Wines is an inspiring testament to the fact that it’s never too late to start making wine!
Dinton in Buckinghamshire is close to the Chiltern Hills, a famous place for hiking in the English countryside with picturesque villages and friendly pubs!
Grape picking neighbours of Mr Kimber introduced me to this wine recently. I was delighted by the refreshing, dry, balanced, sparkling wine with its appealing lower range alcohol level of 11.5% ALC.
Perfect to enjoy on an English spring day: Inspirational!
References
Dinton Wines dintonwines.com
National Gallery: Nationalgallery.org.uk
Maps courtesy of Dinton Wines and local tourist information.
Tried a Meyer family gewurtz, which was on sale in the relatively new Save On wine store in Penticton. Liked it a lot. Purchased one of the reds as well and will keep it for a year or three.
Hi There! Glad you liked the Meyer gewurtz. I am sure you will enjoy there red too.
So we go full circle as the harbingers remind you of your childhood years, we started our married life up the road from Dinton Folly in Chinnor and enjoyed time in the Cotswold. In my view low alcohol wine has more to offer for oldies. The better balanced Aus/NZ/Arg wines can take 14.5% ABV but that’s almost Madeira, and who drinks that by the bottle?
So interesting that you know the Dinton Folly area so well. I agree about low alcohol wines and think this is a good direction.