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Wine & Bubbly: Terrific Tipples for the Holidays
It’s the holiday season, and you know what that means. Parties. Excess. Indulgence. Unsuitable dalliances at the office Christmas bash…and morning-after remorse when you review the photos you posted to Instagram in a state of, shall we say, insalubrious celebratory inebriation.
The very least you can do for yourself is make the almost inevitable hangover worthwhile by cracking into a good bottle. Here are a few suggestions for enticing tinctures that won’t break the bank.
Calvet Crémant de Bordeaux Brut Rosé 2014
With its fruity notes, fine bubbles, and vibrant pink hue, this bubbling rosé is perfect as an aperitif, a cheerful cork-popping kick-off to a festive knees-up. After a flute or two, you’ll be seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses, literally.
It’s also a terrific multi-tasker. You can skip the rouge, because this blushing libation will bring the colour to your cheeks. What’s more, the aroma is so intense, it could almost double as a dab of perfume on your décolletage…although you do run the risk of reeling in a naughty neck-nibbler.
The tasting notes say it will complement “delicate tarts,” so if that sounds like you, then definitely give this a go.
Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot
Alcohol content: 11.5%
Normally £11.99, but it’s on sale at Ocado for just £7.99 through 3 January 2017 (more…)
California Dreaming: Capturing the Essence of Scent-sational Palm Springs
How to Custom-Blend a Perfume that’s like Sunshine in a Bottle
It was a particularly dreary winter’s afternoon in London, with cold winds and grey clouds that conspired to dampen the fledgling flames of holiday cheer. The sort of day when you dream of sunshine and warmer climes, of blue-sky over desert, of a “dry heat” that will bake the blues away. A day that makes you want to book the next flight out — one way, non-refundable — to a place like Palm Springs, California.
Photo Courtesy of Greater Palm Springs CVB
Fortunately, in a sense — or rather, in scents — California had come to London’s Haymarket Hotel. With the help of local perfumier Nicola Barron, the folks from the Greater Palm Springs’ tourism bureau unleashed a localized version of global warming in the form of nine specially-blended fragrances designed to distill the spirit of the region’s nine different cities.
Royal Audience: Meet the Cast of the E! Hit TV Series “The Royals”
A suitably regal entrance for the cast of The Royals, arriving on their London set
Two footmen in powdered white wigs and red and gold livery stand at attention beside a pair of French doors, through which Great Britain’s royal family is expected to enter at any moment to greet the press. But when those doors finally do open, it’s not Queen Elizabeth and her House of Windsor posse who parade through the regal portal. It’s the UK’s other royal family—Queen Helena, King Cyrus, Princess Eleanor, Prince Liam and their bodyguard, Jasper—stars of the E! hit television show “The Royals.”
The cast is here on an elaborate stage set near central London to promote the upcoming third series, which debuts on December 4. For those unfamiliar with the show, it’s like “Dynasty” meets Buckingham Palace, replete with scheming, bed-hopping, cheeky humor, gorgeous clothes…and Joan Collins, as an imperious matriarch.
Elizabeth Hurley stars as Queen Helena, Collins’ daughter and the mother of Alexandra Park’s Eleanor (a.k.a. Len), the rebel princess who never met a substance she wouldn’t drink or snort, and William Moseley’s Liam, a down-to-earth prince of the people. Jake Maskall is the deliciously devious King Cyrus, brother of Queen Helena’s late husband, King Simon. Tom Austen rounds out the main cast as the secretive Jasper, the hunk with the steely blue gaze who is keen to guard Len’s body in the most intimate way possible.
Tom Austen and Alexandra Park, with Rocky Marshall as Agent James Hill. Courtesy E!
Hurley takes the lead as they enter, working her way down a receiving line of reporters, with a beaming smile, a handshake (a familiarity which the “real” Queen Elizabeth would never permit), and a few friendly words. “Didn’t I meet you before on the red carpet?” she asks one journalist, leaving her slack-jawed with surprise. “Uh, no,” the woman stammers, both flattered and flustered. “That wasn’t me.”
While Hurley’s posh tones and impeccable elegance mirror that of her character, her manner is far from Queen Helena’s icy haughtiness. As I sit down for a chat with Hurley, who is pristine in a white knee-length lace dress, she’s quick to dish about some of her favorite moments on set, recalling one “killer line” from Season Two. (more…)