A Culinary Delight at the Knockderry Hotel
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7 February 2011
I am no writer – probably a testament to my engineering back ground, but I am going to try and do justice to a meal that I was lucky enough to experience towards the end of last year. The meal in question was at the Knockderry House Hotel in Cove near Helensburgh. We had kindly been invited down by the owners Beth and Murdo Macleod for their Wine Lovers Dinner Night, a biannual celebration of food and wine.
The evening started off with delicious canapés including what was my favourite, a venison pastie, but all were uniquly created and originally presented. The meal was to take a game orientation, both in the food and the activities. As we sat down we started with a game of wine mans bluff; three wines were presented with Beth trying to convince us that they were one variety with our wine expert, Mike Cottam from Inverarity Vaults, trying to persuade us otherwise. Both seemed to have the silver tongue and teams were genuinely baffled.
Following the game we got into the meal proper as we kicked of with a grouse bree followed by seared quail breast and confit quail leg. Accompanied by a Pinot Gris from Alsace, I thought I would be quite happy at quitting at this point but was equally delighted by the next two dishes that came out. The first was a partridge dish followed by wild venison loin which was simply fantastic. Again wines were carefully chosen to match and despite the hilarity and downright rowdyness from some tables, we learned one or two things about pairing wine with food.
After this we were treated to two deserts teamed with a very interesting Hidalgo Triana Pedro Ximinez sherry which is apparently is ‘known in the trade’ as PX. It was cleverly knick named Castrol PX and in appearance it did have more than just a passing resemblance to the well known motoring lubricant. The wine itself though was a delicious sweet sherry wine which complimented the deserts beautifully.
All in all it was an amazing experience; great fun and great company. Head Chef Johnny Aitken and his team produced an excellent array of dishes and a real treat for anyone who is lucky enough to eat there. The hotel itself is extremely comfortable with great wines and a great malt collection! Location wise it is ideal for trips up Loch Ness and further into Crianlarich, Tyndrum and Killin or if you are on the hunt for the big smoke you are about an hour away from the bright lights and shops of Glasgow.
Oh and after all these ramblings you will no doubt be wondering who won wine mans bluff – well actually our team did but due in no small part to Stuart of Cruise Loch Lomand who at the last minute had an insight that one of our answers might be wrong!
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