What Porter?

It's two in the morning; the reminence of a house party is strewn around you, your significant other is asleep on the sofa and someone just got out the cards for a quick game of poker. As your trying to remember the rules of poker and trying not to choke when cigars are lit. As if this machoistic ensemble of your own personl ignorance isn't enough someone gets a bottle of their 'father favourite port' out. Ignorance no more, heres my list of 5 things about port to blag your way into any gentleman's society:

1. Tawny ports are wines made from red grapes that are aged in wooden barrels using the Soleraprocess, exposing them to gradual oxidation and evaporation.

2 The continued English involvement in the port trade can be seen in the names of many port shippers: Cockburn, Croft, Dow, Gould, Graham

3 in the United Kingdom calls for port being served at a formal dinner to be passed to the left and the bottle must not touch the table on its way around.

4 Port should be served around 65 degrees, in a narrow wine glass, and the glass should only be half filled.

5. Port takes its name from the city of Oporto that is situated at the mouth of the 560-mile long Rio Douro or River of Gold.

Mulled Cider

Mulled wine is for Mugs. Mulled cider is the best thing you can crack out this winter (apart from a heafty cheque from your aunty norah); heres the recipie we have run in several of my bars so I know it works.

2 pints of cider (preferably something cloudy – old rosie athough its strong is perfect)

1 Pint of Cloudy organic cider

a dash of flat coke

a pinch of nutmeg

2 Sticks of cinnamon

1 vanilla pod

1 orange cut open and stuffed with cloves and tied with a little twine

½ a pint of wisebier (not essential but makes a huge difference)

2 tablespoons of honey (manuka honey preferably)

Add these ingredients to a pan and cook it to just below boiling and allow it to chill down to below 75oc and add 50ml of grand marnier and leave it to mull for a good 2 hours on a low heat while you go carol singing – return and watch your friends get jealous of your booze combining skills.

Sommelier's Choice; Wine of the Winter

Winter is all about full bodied and familiar expressions so what better example of this is there than a good bottle of vin rouge. There is little better than a Bordeaux / Claret so I present to you th

e Domaine du Seuil. This silky smooth red combines more of an oaky complexity than most other wines but does it in a way that makes it acceptable to every table. The ripe and spicy nose carries through to the palate and is beautifully balanced by plum and cedar wood flavours.

It also carries a pretty interesting story in that it is owned by a Welsh man Bob Watts who has a little vineyard in the French region but distributes all over the world. As a result the bottle carries the welsh dragon on the label just under the picture of the vinyard.

Buy it for: Yourself damnit!

Green and Red - London

We stumble out of the Diagio cocktail competition; a sureal masterclass event where the Maestro (Calebrasee) hugged me and Peter Dorellie called me a lier! Someone shouts tequila and I know this cool little place around the corner.

Green and Red is the brain child of a small indipendant company who have decided to set the difficult task of hitting a niche croud (tequila drinkers) and do it in a personal way. It's the bigest tequila bar in europe and obviously deserves the title with one glance of the huge bar.

Having met the General Manager three months previously I knew a few of the more select tequilas but still was massivley overwhelmed by the backbar; rabbit in the headlights moment.

I asked the bartender to make me something simple with his favourite white tequila, he made me a dry tiquini with an onion and a zest spray of lime. Quite possibly the best one I've ever had. They made a selection of tequila mojitos with an unusual twist of elderflower and apple.

What nocked me off my feet was not the knowledge or skill of the bartenders (juicing fresh lime as they go along and using jiggers to ensure that every drink is perfect) it wasn't the tequila selection but it was the bartenders welcoming nature. It really is incredible to walk into a bar and be welcomed by the bartenders over a crowd of people.

The food was very uncommon tapas which was clearly made fresh and importantly served hot (you won't believe how difficult some venues find this) and the drinks were universily accepted even by the members of our group that swore they didn't like tequila.

This bar is truely a pleasure.

Vanilla Rooms - Cardiff

There is something brilliant about a best kept secret. It makes you feel very special going there and telling people about it. So excuse the fact that this post is a little bit of kitch social masterbation.

I love the idea of phoning the bar, knowing the bar manager and taking a lovely something into Cardiff's only members club worth mentioning.

The current manager Christos, is one of Cardiff's finest; winning every competition he can and snapping up prizes left right and centre, not to mention being the only reason to go here.

I had a debate with a friend of mine in this venue; he said that the party was made by the venue first and by the customer second and that this was a bad example of how to run a bar. It was clean, the drinks were perfect and the atmosphere was subtle. My friend agreed with me and stated that he could easily see my point but in this fast paced, post 80s businessman generation where we don't need it now we need it two weeks ago, where is there a place for an unknown speakeasy.

This bar is a fine example of what a bar should be in an ideal world. It is the bar based equivilent of heston blumenthal; it is brilliant and clever, and interesting but it would never work on the grand scale. Christos has put forward a brilliant menu which compliments the space and the location but don't expect to get this in volume.

Cardiff's best kept secret - and personally I'd like to keep it that way... I've never waited on a Saturday and Friday night and I've never had a bad drink... Shhhhh... don't tell your friends...