Flavours from the Cellar at Mercure Hotels
If there’s one thing we can always get excited about at Belle, It’s wine. There’s nothing better than sinking into a glass of delicious wine after a hard days graft.
So when we heard the Mercure Hotel was launching a delicious and affordable wine list in collaboration with the UK’s youngest masters of wine, Susie Barrie and Peter Richards, we certainly got excited. The wine’s launch event happened in January at the London Bridge branch of Mercure Hotel, with the help of Peter and Susie, who introduced the range.
Susie and Peter take their wine very seriously, and are renowned for their expertise. Becoming the youngest masters of wine in the world is no mean feat, both have built an impressive reputation as two of the UK’s leading wine enthusiasts. As well as their impressive masters title, Susie and Peter have been presenting BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen as wine experts for nearly a decade.
As Susie and Peter tell us they have chosen three wines, one white and two reds, we learn that each is chosen for it’s unique and exciting flavour. They explain the importance of learning your own tastes in wine and exploring those flavours, as experimenting is how new and exciting wines are discovered.
The first wine we tried from their ‘Flavours from the Cellar range’ was the Portuguese Special One. According to Susie and Peter, Portugal is the next big thing in wine, and with delicious flavours like this, it’s not hard to see why. This nutty wine is a subtle blend of four grape varieties including chardonnay. A delicious wine that is perfectly suited to fish, or even a full flavoured hard cheese, this white is a perfect full-bodied wine to enjoy over the winter months.
175ml £5.50 | 250ml £7.50 | Bottle £22
The second wine was titled I Want You, and is inspired by an Afrikaans love song. A soft and full-bodied red, this wine was described as dangerously drinkable (I can’t help but agree with her on that one. *Gulp)
175ml £5.50 | 250ml £7.50 | Bottle £22
The last wine we tried (but definitely not least) was the stand out wine of the evening for me. The Italian Stallion is a rich and velvety red, which is an absolute taste sensation. The unusual combination of Merlot and Corvina gives it a real unique and modern flavour. Susie and Peter recommend drinking it with game, casseroles, and wintery comfort food. A really special wine, we would recommend visiting Mercure Hotels to taste this especially. Yum.
175ml £5.95 | 250ml £8.50 | Bottle £24.50
What we liked about wine tasting with Peter and Susie was their unstuffy approach to wine tasting. It seemed clear that they believed wine was something that should be enjoyed by all, regardless of your level of wine knowledge. Although we’re no wine experts, it seems that these wines seem equally delicious and appealing to all, making it clear that the new ‘Flavours from the cellar range’ will certainly mark Mercure as a destination for delicious, and very drinkable wine.
