A friend of ours had a significant birthday this weekend. She organised a masked ball, for this weekend, in the local Town Hall. It said on the invite, that masks were obligatory, so a babysitter was booked and we got dressed up. The sun was out and it was a warm evening, as we processed to the Town Hall. We were met by a crowd of bystanders, probably wondering who all these masked "Chippy Set" people were. There was a fire eater, who kindly offered to switch places with me, I think he was enflamed, when I refused.
The hall was full of people and decorated perfectly. It would not look out of place as one of the famous Venetian Masked Balls.The Champagne was flowing, always a good sign. The husband of the birthday girl, told me later that the independent house, that made the champagne, was one of his finds, several years before.
The myriad of bubbles, soothed the palette. There was biscuit, brioche and gentle lemon.I could tell, it was not from one of the big houses. What it lacked in finesse, it made up for in flavour.
Our hosts image, was printed on each bottle, which I felt was a great touch. When we sat down for dinner, the Jazz band struck up. They were very good, even though they told me off for singing along.
I did try the red, a gentle fruity little number, from the Loire valley. It is made with Cabernet Franc. The dark grapes giving quite a dark wine. There was loads of red fruit on the nose and pallet. A great wine, from an area I wish to find out more about.So, as the evening came to a close and the guests started to become un-masked, there was barely enough time to drink more Champagne and have a dance, before carriages came at Midnight.
It had been a wonderful evening and our hosts had taken care of us, well.
I hope to look half as good as our host, when I reach that magic number.
No comments:
Post a Comment