Wines...

We are using the current restrictions to spend time doing DIY and maintenance around the house but we seem to be taking one step forwards and two steps back.  A quick five minute job this morning to remove the tiled 'step' that we have in the shower to prevent the whole floor become awash (and put there because the stupid bloke that did the bathroom didn't get the water run to the plug-hole correctly) ended up becoming a right old headache as we realise stupid bloke put little to no grout between the tiles and so now most of it is missing which means that John will have to scrape out the remaining grout and re-do it - fortunately we do have the smallest shower-room in the world so it is not as big a job as it could have been.  The trouble is that now isn't a good time for things like that to dry as the house it getting colder.

The weather is very changeable as you can see from this morning's sunrise.  In the sun, when it is out, it is very pleasant but otherwise there is no mistaking that we are mid way through November - it is only about 5 weeks until Christmas and I just cant begin to get my head around that - I have done no shopping at all save for a few little bits for Mum.  John and I really don't need anything and with a lot of the larger shops currently closed can't get the things we might want anyway!  I am awaiting a couple of things in the post but fear that they may now not arrive until the New Year.

As regular readers will know we are massive supporters of the local Vasilikon winery - their red Agios Onoufrios was my Dad's favourite and ours too but we have recently been introduced to a new tipple thanks to Lakis and Argy.  

Grifos wine from the Vlassides Winery, Koilani, Limassol is very nice - we have tried Grifos 1 which is red and Grifos 2 which is white and there is also a Grifos 3 Rose which we have yet to sample.  John and I toyed with the idea of going to visit the Winery before all this new lockdown came into force but it was a bit of a drive plus they didn't do meals just nibbles.  I thought I would contact them to find out if there was anywhere locally I could purchase the wines and they came back with the name of a cava in Peyia and actually phoned to make sure that there was stock.

When we passed by last I called in and picked up a couple of bottles of the red and the guy serving said that the winery had phoned and he would always get stock in for me if I let him know in advance.  This wine is a little more expensive than Vasilikon but makes for a very nice change on special occasions like Christmas or when we have friends for dinner - which isn't easy at the moment as they have to be home by 8.00pm!  We are planning a takeaway supper with Rob and Di tomorrow so will have to collect it from Fitos with enough time to eat it and then get home!!!

Not really very much else to report - dark by 5pm, curfew at 8pm means that we are eyeing up going to bed by 9pm at the latest and that does mean we save on fuel!!!!

Actually tonight for the first time we actually lit the gas fire for an hour or so.  The temperature in the lounge had dropped to 17 degrees and so after our supper we snuggled on the sofa with the fire and a glass of wine.  John had an old bottle of Kolios Maratheftiko 2014 which he thought we should try or use to make a stifado.  We had absolutely no expectation that this would be anything other than a cooker.

Generally Cypriot wines don't last more than 2 years and thereafter turn rather brown and sicky and full of tannin but this one was surprisingly smooth - very surprisingly so.  It was not consigned to making stifado rather we drank it and when I looked it up on tintyweb found that the 2014 (although not as good as the 2016) was a good wine and generally retails at around €18 a bottle!!!  Bloody hell and we expected this to be gopping!  Just goes to show what we know.  It did go down very well with the remainder of the chicken, bacon and leek casserole from yesterday and now we know why!