Recipe Collection – Gazpacho

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Perfect for warm evenings, straight out of the fridge and fresh as a daisy!

Suggested Ingredients:Gazpacho

  • 6 big, plump, ripe tomatoes
  • 1 large white onion
  • 3 spring onions
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 red pepper
  • 1 green pepper
  • bunch of flat leaf parsley
  • bunch of basil
  • 1 good glug of olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 splosh of white wine vinegar
  • chilli to taste

Method:

I always like to use the BBQ, so skewer the quartered onion.  Skewer the spring onion heads and stick a peeled garlic clove in between each one.  Plonk them on along with the peppers and tomatoes, turning them so they get a good roasting but don’t turn to mush.  Approx 20 mins.  Take them off, and have a refreshing glass of Pinot Gris whilst cooling.

Once you’ve finished your glass…I mean once the vegetables have cooled, peel them as best you can – don’t get too fussy, it’s all edible!

Wizz the veg along with all other ingredients into a soupy pulp and add a little water if you end up with baby food – it needs to pour.

Celebrate with another glass of Pinot Gris and refrigerate.  The soup that is.

Before serving, add some sliced of spring onion, fresh herbs, even some chunks of cucumber and serve with a chilled glass of Santiago Pinot Noir.

Villa Wolf Pinot Gris

Villa Wolf Pinot Gris

Santiago Pinot Noir

Santiago Pinot Noir

Delicious!

View our Drought Buster mixed case which will keep you refreshed in this warm weather!

South African Wine Tasting – the canapés

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South African Summer Tasting title

27th June 2018 @The Polka Theatre, Wimbledon:

50 of you descended on the Polka Theatre for an evening of ‘lekka’ South African wines and delicious canapés.

By all accounts a fun evening was had by all.   We had many recipe requests, so see below for the first, the Mushroom Risotto.

Also a little reminder about our next wine tasting event:

Wine, music and food pairing in conjunction with the Jigsaw Players – Friday 19th October 2018 at the Merton Arts Space, Wimbledon Library.  More info to come soon.

And now, for my first recipe:

Mushroom Risotto – with white truffle oil 

Wine pairing – Olifantsberg Blanc – white blend (Rousanne, Grenache, Chenin, Chardonnay)

First you’ll need to pop to the shops:

  • 50g of dried mushrooms (Waitrose have a pot in the spices section)
  • 1 vege. stock cube
  • A good splash of olive oil
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 BIG cloves of garlic, don’t hold back
  • 1 pack of chestnut mushrooms
  • 300g risotto rice
  • 1 glass of white wine – ideally a nice one but don’t waste the good stuff!
  • 1 good sized blob of butter
  • Parsley leaves (which I sadly forgot but I  do think would add to the dish!)
  • 50g ish grated parmesan (fresh)
  • A good splash of white truffle oil

My Method:

Soak the dried mushrooms with 1 litre of boiling water and leave them for 20 mins or so, then squeeze the water out of the mush but keep it for stock.  Chop the newly plumped mushrooms.

mushroom risotto spoonGlug of oil in my biggest frying pan and get the onion and garlic softening – don’t burn the garlic – it tastes nasty.  Then throw the dried and fresh mushrooms into the pan.  Get your salt and pepper out – again, don’t hold back.

Put the rice in the pan once the mush mix is soft and give it a good stir.  After a minute or so pour in your glass of wine (from the ingredients, not the one you are drinking at the moment!).

Get your mushroom juice on the boil with your stock cube in it.

Now, add in the stock about 1/4 at a time, don’t add more until the rice has totally absorbed the previous dose – could be 5 mins in between each addition.  Keep stirring slowly, no sticking or burning allowed.

Once you’ve added all the stock the rice should be cooked.  If it isn’t, mine wasn’t, add some more boiling water – I ended up adding about 200ml more last time.

All of that takes about 45 mins.

Then stir through the parmesan and parsley and save a little cheesiness to sprinkle on top.

Delicious!

Hay Festival 2018

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Hay-on-Wye, Wales.  24th May – 3rd June 2018
“Empathy, ingenuity and resilience – the core of our humanity and hope.  That’s what we’re going to celebrate in Hay in May.” Peter Florence, Director, Hay Festival

We are very proud to be one of the select few chosen to take a trade stand at the fabulous Hay signHay Book Festival.  Last year was fascinating and lots of fun so we are looking forward to hitting the road again and heading up to Hay-on-Wye and meeting lots of lovely people.

We will be showcasing our literary range of wines so as to demonstrate the personalised Hay Wineslabel design arm of Hannibal Brown.  We welcome any new ideas for wine names which are a play on famous books.

Bring your photos to the stand – we are designing and printing labels on the spot so we can send you away with all your gifts for 2018 done and dusted!

If you are coming to Hay Festival then please stop by, taste our delicious organic, vegan, biodynamic and award-winning wines.  Last year the Hannibal Brown stand was buzzing with friendly folk enjoying a glass and chatting about the fascinating topics which are raised every year at the festival.

If you have never been to the festival I urge you to go.  There are comedians such as David Baddiel and Dara O Briain, IMG_7896music from Laura Mvula, Imelda May and many more.  Illustrators, Poets, Politicians, Scientists, Broadcasters – you name it, they’ll be there.

Visit their website and see the full listings: hayfestival.com/home

Fingers crossed for sunshine – see you there!

 

 

Wine and Spice Pairing – Coriander/Cilantro

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It’s mentioned in the Bible and written in Sanskrit, it’s believed to have been used for over 6000 years – perhaps food back then wasn’t as bland as one would expect!Corriander

Coriander, as we know it, is known in North America as Cilantro, well that is used to refer to the leaves and stalk, which makes sense as the seed gives an entirely different flavour.

Corriander is thought to have originated in the Mediterranean, although we associate it with Asian and Mexican cuisine.  In Chinese cooking it is referred to as ‘Chinese Parsley’.

With an aromatic sometimes soapy flavour it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I love it!   Due to its pungency a wine pairing that we would suggest is a fragrant Gewürztraminer or Chenin Blanc – at our wine and spice pairing event (Pinot & Paprika) we made a Snapper Cerviche with Coriander Chutney and paired it with our Sauvignon de Touraine by Guy Alion.

For the Cerviche:

Take a fresh Red Snapper filet and cut into 2cm pieces.  In a pyrex dish add finely diced red onion (1/2 an Onion), a cup of chopped, seeded tomatoes, a finely chopped red chilli, 2 teaspoons of salt.  Cover with lemon and lime juice – about a cup in all, and add some ground oregano and a splash of Tobasco.  Give it a jiggle every hour to be sure all the fish is exposed to the acids.  After several hours the fish will turn white as it cooks in the acid – it’s amazing!

For the Coriander Chutney:

Basically blitz the lot together and eat it nice and fresh – a brilliant dip or accompaniment to Indan food too – adds a lovely breath of freshness.

  • 1 cup chopped Coriander
  • 1/2 inch Ginger – chopped
  • 1 green chilli chopped
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
  • Pinch os sea salt
  • a few mint leaves
Hannibal’s Helper

Hickstead – Longines Royal International Horse Show

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Team Hannibal Brown packed up our travelling wine stand and headed to Hickstead, Sussex, for the Royal International Horse Show.  Needless to say, it was very, very wet!  We still have some great Personalised Wine orders for winners which we designed on the spot.  A great gift or prize for any event.

We took a great range of wines, which varied from a classic Ribero del Duero through to a Biodynamic Gruner Veltliner from Austria.  The latter being our best seller!

We do love our hardy outdoor customers.  Adorned with sensible boots, good solid waterproof hats and a willingness to enjoy their day whatever the whether, the crowds came to enjoy the show and get stuck into the shopping and food offerings.

 

Our favourite food stand was undoubtedly The Curry Squad – fantastic Indian Street Food to go!  www.currysquad.com  Their Gluten Free Onion Bhajis went brilliantly with our Villa Wolf Pinot Noir Rosé from Germany – try the combination to believe it!

We’ve included some pictures of our personalised label designs and general scenes from the event.

It’s not just at our outside events that we design fabulous labels, you can order online by clicking here, or you could visit our wine shop hannibalbrown.com to view our full range of wines – it’s free delivery on 12 bottles and no minimum order!  Enjoy!

Cheers!

BNI Kingston – Summer Wine and Food Pairing

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Wednesday 19th July 2017 in sunny Raynes Park BNI Kingston and some plus 1s put their palates on the line and enjoyed a delicious wine and food pairing hosted by Hannibal Brown team Pamela Gregory and Jude King and the very talented chef, Elliot Johnson Paul of JP Dining.

Elliot produced a selection of canapés and bowl food to make your mouth water.  Each accompanied and complemented a different wine.  The list of the wines and canapés can be seen below along with some photos of the evening.

Wine Food
Sacchetto Spumante Blush NA
Ciu Ciu Croque Monsieur
Casas del Bosque Sauvignon Blanc Goats Cheese Cream, Beetroot chutney on Chilli Crostini
Sula Viognier Authentic Anglo Indian Samosas
Casas del Bosque Pinot Noir Duck Spring Rolls with Coriander and Tamrind Chuntney
Rioja Reserva Gavanza Charred Lamb Cannon, Smoked Aubergine and Roasted Piquillo Peppers
Casas del Bosque Carmenere Sausage and Chorizo Cassoulet

You can find out more about what Elliot has to offer on his website jpdining.co.uk.

If you fancy holding a wine tasting event in your own home, at work or with your sports club then please don’t hesitate to give us a call on 0203 876 8008.  Wine tastings are a great way of getting people together, you don’t need a fancy location or to be a connoisseur, you just need to enjoy great wine, company, food and having a bit of fun!

Personalised Wine HQ just got bigger

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Hannibal Brown World HQ…. in our dreams!

As things hot up this autumn, our personalised wine gifts become ever greater in demand, here at Hannibal Brown we decided to take the steps to seek out new and improved – and bigger – premises.   And here they are…

OK, so maybe not quite as grand, but nonetheless they are ours and we are proud of them (the real pictures will follow once the outdoor painting is complete).  We are busy creating a collage of some of our personalised wine designs in the main office, so if you fancy visiting us in Worcester Park, then the wine fridge is up and running and you never know… twist Hannibal Brown’s arm hard enough and he may just offer you a wine sample or two.

But do not fear, all of our contact details remain unchanged.  You can still call us on 01372 253170 for all your personalised wine gifts or you can contact us via email 24 hours a day.

Dare I mention Christmas is just round the corner, so where better to shop with us – we’ll sort out all your personalised wine gifts for all your family and friends.

Success at The Old Curiosity Wine Tasting Adventure

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The Mayor attends our Wine Tasting

In what was the first of the ‘Hannibal Presents…’ series, we struck up a wonderful collaboration with local charity, Wandsworth Oasis last month and together, put on an evening of wine tasting, food and musical entertainment, raising £1,500 for the charity.  The top prize in the raffle was a magnum of personalised wine –  this had been specially designed for this event!

Among the 100 attendees from across south west London and Surrey, we popped bottles for local business owners, residents and general wine fanatics, making for a relaxed networking opportunity as well as a great social event.

Those in the ‘know’ will have heard of the Oasis – a highly respected local charity, doing great work and supporting folk living their day to day lives with HIV.  Their charity shops need to be visited to be believed – we chose their flagship ‘superstore’ in Tooting as the somewhat unusual venue for our latest event.  Believe me, if you haven’t visited it, you must – it’s the biggest and best charity shop I have ever visited, packed to the rafters with all sorts of temptations at ludicrously great value.    One of our guests walked away with 3m x 3m framed image of the New York skyline for a mere £20!

We chose 25 of our more unusual wines to fit the theme of ‘Old Curiosity’.  The evening’s top choice was a relatively new wine to our portfolio. Parpinello’s delicious Vermentino from Sardinia was closely followed by Chateau Ksara ‘Prieure’ – which is a classic red that comes from this ancient Lebanese winery.  Our guests embraced the ‘unusual’ theme and we were delighted! It seems that, by all accounts, a great evening was had by all.  Our good friend Mark Ferguson also joined us – representing the award-winning Exton Wine Estate.

Oh, Wandsworth’s very own Mayor was also in attendance!  We were thrilled to have her there  and the coverage we received in the local Guardian  was the cherry on top of a fabulous cake!

You can view all of Hannibal Brown Wines by going to our online store>

Hannibal Brown PR: Data Breakdown

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data page

At Hannibal Brown, we conducted a survey to find out what influences which wine(s) people buy and how much they spend on a bottle of wine. With possible answers varying from occasion to age and £0-£4.99 to £20 and over, we wanted to find out more about Britain’s wine buying behaviour.

We asked 10,000 Brits to give us their insight and we’ve recorded the results below – segmented by gender, age bracket and location.

What influences which wine(s) you buy?

Topline results:

● Cost: 50.4%
● Occasion: 27.2%
● Origin: 20%
● Packaging/branding: 17.2%
● Age/vintage: 12%
● Organic: 7.2%
● Other: 5.6%

Males:

● Cost: 51.5%
● Occasion: 30.7%
● Origin: 25.7%
● Age/vintage: 14.9%
● Packaging/branding: 9.9%
● Organic: 4%
● Other: 3%

Females:

● Cost: 50%
● Occasion: 29.5%
● Packaging/branding: 27.3%
● Origin: 18.2%
● Organic: 10.2%
● Age/vintage: 8%
● Other: 8%

18-24s:

● Cost: 61%
● Occasion: 41.5%
● Packaging/branding: 29.3%
● Age/vintage: 19.5%
● Origin: 12.2%
● Other: 7.3%
● Organic: 4.9%

25-34s:

● Cost: 38.8%
● Occasion: 26.5%
● Packaging/branding: 22.4%
● Origin: 16.3%
● Organic: 10.2%
● Other: 8.2%
● Age/vintage: 6.1%

35-44s:

● Cost: 54%
● Origin: 32%
● Occasion: 30%
● Packaging/branding: 14%
● Age/vintage: 10%
● Organic: 4%
● Other: 2%

45-54s:

● Cost: 55%
● Occasion: 25%
● Origin: 20%
● Other: 10%
● Age/vintage: 5%
● Packaging/branding: 5%
● Organic: 5%

55-64s:

● Cost: 48.2%
● Origin: 42.9%
● Occasion: 25.1%
● Age/vintage: 14.3%
● Packaging/branding: 14.3%
● Organic: 3.5%
● Other: 1.8%

65+:

● Cost: 44.4%
● Occasion: 33.3%
● Origin: 33.3%
● Organic: 19.2%
● Age/vintage: 11.1%
● Packaging/branding: 11.1%
● Other: 3%

England:

● Cost: 48.7%
● Occasion: 31.1%
● Origin: 18.7%
● Packaging/branding: 16.6%
● Age/vintage: 13%
● Organic: 6.7%
● Other: 5.7%

Scotland:

● Cost: 58.1%
● Packaging/branding: 16.1%
● Origin: 16.1%
● Age/vintage: 12.9%
● Organic: 12.9%
● Occasion: 9.7%
● Other: 3.2%

Wales:

● Cost: 50%
● Occasion: 28.6%
● Packaging/branding: 28.6%
● Origin: 28.6%
● Age/vintage: 7.1%
● Organic: 7.1%
● Other: 7.1%

How much do you spend on a bottle of wine?

Topline results:

● £0-£4.99: 35.4%
● £5-£6.99: 29.9%
● £7-£9.99: 21.1%
● £10-£14.99: 7.5%
● £15-£19.99: 0.8%
● £20+: 5.3%

Males:

● £0-£4.99: 32.7%
● £5-£6.99: 27.1%
● £7-£9.99: 20.6%
● £10-£14.99: 9.3%
● £15-£19.99: 1.9%
● £20+: 8.4%

Females:

● £0-£4.99: 41.6%
● £5-£6.99: 27%
● £7-£9.99: 22.5%
● £10-£14.99: 4.5%
● £15-£19.99: 0.4%
● £20+: 4%

18-24s:

● £0-£4.99: 32.3%
● £5-£6.99: 27.9%
● £7-£9.99: 18.2%
● £10-£14.99: 8.8%
● £15-£19.99: 2%
● £20+: 10.8%

25-34s:

● £0-£4.99: 45.5%
● £5-£6.99: 22.6%
● £7-£9.99: 25%
● £10-£14.99: 0.5%
● £15-£19.99: 2.3%
● £20+: 4.1%

35-44s:

● £0-£4.99: 28.7%
● £5-£6.99: 30.9%
● £7-£9.99: 24.1%
● £10-£14.99: 8.3%
● £15-£19.99: 0.3%
● £20+: 7.7%

45-54s:

● £0-£4.99: 42.5%
● £5-£6.99: 29.5%
● £7-£9.99: 22.1%
● £10-£14.99: 4.5%
● £15-£19.99: 0.2%
● £20+: 1.2%

55-64s:

● £0-£4.99: 41.7%
● £5-£6.99: 16.7%
● £7-£9.99: 8.3%
● £10-£14.99: 25%
● £15-£19.99: 0.4%
● £20+: 7.9%

65+:

● £0-£4.99: 19.6%
● £5-£6.99: 46.8%
● £7-£9.99: 27.5%
● £10-£14.99: 2.5%
● £15-£19.99: 3.2%
● £20+: 0.4

England:

● £0-£4.99: 38.2%
● £5-£6.99: 25.5%
● £7-£9.99: 20.7%
● £10-£14.99: 8.4%
● £15-£19.99: 1.1%
● £20+: 6.1%

Scotland:

● £0-£4.99: 39.4%
● £5-£6.99: 26.2%
● £7-£9.99: 21.2%
● £10-£14.99: 3%
● £15-£19.99: 1.1%
● £20+: 9.1%

Wales:

● £0-£4.99: 11.1%
● £5-£6.99: 43.2%
● £7-£9.99: 21.9%
● £10-£14.99: 1.2%
● £15-£19.99: 0.4%
● £20+: 22.2%