Crispy chilli lime squid with edamame bean and coriander salad and pinot gris

Having picked up a heavy cold a couple of days before flying to New Zealand last week I arrived unable to taste a thing but this delicately pretty wine from Brick Bay Winery in Matakana managed to penetrate the fog.

It undoubtedly helped to have drunk it at an outdoor table at the winery cafe underneath their pinot gris vines.

It went perfectly (I’m pretty sure) with my dish of crispy squid and edamame bean salad and I suspect would have gone equally well with my neighbour’s chicken salad*.

Although sauvignon blanc still totally dominates the New Zealand wine scene pinot gris appears to be becoming increasingly popular, not least because of its versatility with food.

* Undoubtedly true - I had a similar Asian-style chicken salad with a pinot gris at Wairau River in Marlborough which was equally good.

Chicken salad and real apple juice

Yesterday finally felt as if spring had come. After weeks of unsettled and unseasonably cool weather it was warm and balmy, rich with the scent of blossom. We went out with friends to the village of Wrington just outside Bristol to follow an ‘art trail’ of exhibitions by local artists. (Yes, I bought something - a delightful picture of radishes by a talented collage artist called Anne Carpenter)

We had lunch in a cafe in Barley Wood walled garden which wasn’t amazing apart from the heavenly setting but they did serve a really fabulous artisanal apple juice made from their own fruit (a mixture of Bramleys, Blenheim Gold and one other variety I can’t remember). It was perfect with a chicken salad - fresh tasting and tart.

Afterwards we wandered through the apple orchards which were full of pink and white blossom, the ground studded with clumps of bluebells. After a sad week last week attending a memorial for a very good friend it felt great to be alive.