THIS time of year, when the sunshine actually shines, we begin daydreaming about long summer nights with barbecues, cold drinks and good company. So a call from a good friend to tell me he had purchased a full-sized Cypriot barbecue set complete with 14 skewer rotisserie had me drooling like Homer Simpson at a Krispy Kreme.
This is the kind of event many men long for – an event where they can all stand around flames, prodding meat, pretending they know what’s happening and then bring the hard-earned meal back for the family.
However as home barbecue technology has evolved so has man’s desire to deliver more. Men are quite often turning to wine instead of beer and the ladies are enjoying sparkling wines more and more. So why not combine the two and try a little sparkling red?
A quick call to my favourite wine merchants – Woodwinters – and I was sold on the Spanish Lobban La Pamelita, a sparkling red made by a Scottish lady by the name of Pamela Geddes. It’s a simple, fuss-free example which delivers all the fruit you would expect plus a great clean, dry finish, ideal for cleansing the palette and enhancing the food. It’s being delivered the next day, giving me plenty of time to chill it for the weekend.
As the men return to the table, generally set by our better halves with beautiful salads, pastas and well-made food, with our plate of blackened unrecognisable proteins, we can hold our heads high, as at least we got the wine right.
Graham Suttle is the managing director of Kained Holdings which has nine venues, including The Finnieston and Porter & Rye in Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here