An Evening at Red Lion Wine House

Rich and I love wine. For me, at least, you can keep your beer any day. I want a nice glass of red, rioja in particular. Rich loves beer too though, mostly wheat German beers like Leffe and his favourite, Franziskaner. So when a Living Social deal came up to try the Red Lion Wine House charcuterie, cheese platters plus wine for two it seemed too good to pass up.

A cold drizzling evening yesterday brought us to the venue, it looked cosy and inviting the camera on my phone does not do well in the dark but you can get the impression from the photo.

I completely fell in love with this place soon after sitting down, it was quiet yet hugely relaxing. We both opted for a glass of carmenere which was very nice indeed. They have around 10 wines, red and white by the glass and all at varying prices. For the more keen wine buff they have some a fine wines selection menu, by the glass, to look over.

There is a deli counter at the back of the pub so you can go and have a browse at all the wares before you graze. The cheeses are from Trethowan's Dairy and Arch House Deli and some of the meats and pates are from Castellanos. We had 3 cheeses and 3 meats they came on big wooden board served with a mound of bread and oil with a sage herb mix for post oil dipping. Although I loved the brie, the blue was my favourite the Stichelton from Trethowan's Dairy, like stilton but much creamier totally delicious. The cured pork loin rolled in herbs from Castellanos won us over hands down it was luxurious and totally indulgent, easily the best charcuterie I have had in some time. We were also given some french cured sausage and some spiced chorizo, both went with the wine perfectly.

We stayed for another glass of wine, a Malbec this time enjoying the cocktail piano jazz playing in the background. I was quietly buzzing about the Red Lion, it has me very excited. I definitely will be making it one of my new regular haunts it is relaxing enough to make it perfect for a midweek cosy romantic treat but interesting enough for a chilled Friday or Saturday night out with friends.

Sunday I shall be enjoying my actual birthday, finally, with a visit to Lahloo's Pantry for afternoon tea and dinner at Wongs, a first time visit. Cannot wait.