Now look, I am falling on my sword here, tasting wines to recommend for Mother’s Day. You can see that the merest of tastes grew, much like Topsy, into a couple of glasses of the Sauvignon 2014. OK, not on my own, ‘him indoors’ removed the cork, so felt he was owed something. But this is the first of two wines I consider essential for Mother’s Day. They are both good hearted wines, both worthy of the best mothers in the world.
Max Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2014. The label says this red wine is from old vines grown in the gravel soils of the Valle de Aconcagua in Chile. It is a full and aromatic wine and its barrel-ageing causes a silkiness. Get them to cook lamb or beef with this, as it’s your day off. I have to say I did a double take at old vines, and feel it entirely suitable for an old but good ‘un of a grandma like me.
RRP £14.75 available from Waitrose and others.
Now for the Villa Maria Reserve Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. I love New Zealand wines. Clean and full of flavour as a rule. Is this? From the Wairau Valley, Marlborough this has been awarded the designation ‘Reserve’ which is reserved for wines of exceptional quality.
Indeed it deserves this accolade. This is bursting with the ripe fruit characters found in this sub region. Lovely fruit nose, and leaves a entirely satisfactory flavour of … gooseberry I think. Great stuff.
So once you have been fed and watered, how about unwrapping the gifts?
I like The Flower Year – an adult colouring book created by Leila Duly
It is hard backed, and a celebration of the botanical seasons. You could work through it month by month, or just pick and choose. I have been thinking of reworking the back garden so my thoughts are full of what to plant, once it’s dug. Quite who is to dig, is still open to discussion.
It is from the publisher that brought you Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest. Leila Duly is a textile print designer, and her work is inspired by old Victorian etchings. It follows her debut colouring book: Floribunda: A Flower Colouring Book.
The Flower year: A Colouring Book, pub 13th March hb £9.99
The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse
Inspired by her own miscarriages Prowse writes a novel around the subject.
With her 40th birthday approaching and the biological clock ticking Lucy Carpenter’s life seems set firm for happiness. Until the miscarriage. As the stresses of work, grief, uncertainty take their toll on her marriage the final straw seems to be the arrival of her step-daughter to live with them. She is adolescent (say no more). Is this the end of all Lucy has, or a new beginning? There will be lots of step-mother’s out there, who can relate to this novel. And Mother’s Day is for them too, isn’t it?
The Idea of You by Amanda Prowse. Pub 21 March. pb £8.99 and eBook £3.98