Local wine and beer

Today I spent far too much cash at the Colchester Food and Drink festival on alcoholic beverages - we went with Toni's cousin Heidi, her husband Scott and their two children. This splurge was understandably not appreciated by my lady wife, who has banned me from drinking them between now and the arrival of Junior! In my defence I was supporting local producers and keen to find out if I can further cut back my food miles on wine. I also blame the fact I tasted everything before purchasing it, which - when added to the half of cider Scott thoughtfully bought me at lunch - no doubt clouded my judgement...

Still, the "cellar" now contains four more bottles of wine. I picked up an Elderberry and Rose Petal from West Sussex-based Lurgashall (see here), plus a medium dry white and rose from literally just up the road (Carter's Vineyard is on the A134 to Sudbury, around five miles from Colchester itself - see here).

On its own this would probably have been fine, but I also managed to pick up two bottles of cider from Carter's, plus six bottles of beer (three organic ales and three honey stouts) from St Peter's Brewery, which is based in Suffolk (see here).