Some friends of ours encouraged us to play hooky from our usual Friday activities and we took the train out to Whitstable for a leisurely lunch at the Sportsman Seasalter. It was a perfect day for it, too, beautiful blue skies filled with puffy white clouds giving us fantastic views from the train.
My friend knows the chef at the restaurant, and he very graciously allowed us to bring a bottle of bubbly with us. We chose a bottle of Bruno Paillard NPU 1990, part of my Christmas gift last year from my husband. We decided to drink it as an aperitif while we were reviewing the amazing menu and making our choices. Rather worryingly, the bottle opened with a soft 'pfft', but thankfully demonstrated enough fizz and mousse once it was poured. Everyone marvelled over the colour of the champagne, a rich, brownish-honey-colour that you often see with aged calvados. The richness came through in the flavour, too, which had just a touch of oxidation that added depth to the acidity in the champagne.
It was a great start to a meal that included a main-sized portion of home-made pork terrine as my starter followed by some wonderfully fresh lemon-sole fillets in pea puree. We also had some fantastic still wines from the restaurant's list with our food - I would recommend both the Albarino Vionta Rias Baixas 2008 (loads of flavour but clean and crisp) and the Châteauneuf-du-pape Domaine du Vieux Lazaret 2007 (juicy fruit without any tannins) that we drank to the non-bubbly drinkers out there.
It will be so hard to go back to real-life following a Friday afternoon like that.
Many thanks to our friends for organising the day and to the chef for allowing us our bottle of bubbly!!
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