Things that time forgot.

[mangerton]

Harvey's Bristol Cream isn't British sherry. Spanish sherry (Falstaff's sherris sack)was popular in Britain from the sixteenth century century....

That brings back memories of my English Lit O level, and Prince Hal's "Pint of bastard in the Half-Moon".

[Nick Armstrong]

Harvey's Bristol Cream

Yes, Bristol Cream was the tipple of choice in the mangertonian parents' household.

Oh yes, and time honour'd at home too - and it is still the taste of Christmas late morning. It's been many a decade since I tackled Christmas lunch without being more or less under its nutty-sweet influence

Apart from dispatching the bottle during the twelve days if required, it's never touched outside the festive season.

[mangerton]

How true!



In the Glasgow of my youth a bottle of heavily-fortified wine called Lanliq was overwhelmingly the preferred tipple for rather more granite-throated D/E consumers, and which tended to last considerably less long.

Trust you to lower the tone! It was a popular drink in Greenock too, and on a per capita basis more wine was consumed there even than in Glasgow.

Other drinks of choice amongst the denizens of Greenock's Marine Bar (which opened at 8 am) and similar establishments included VP, Four Crown, and Eldorado.

[vinteuil]

In our local shop, distant childhood memories of

Wincarnis

and

Sanatogen Tonic Wine

(very popular with the villagers at Christmas).

[Nick Armstrong]

The Bottle of Sherry? I don't suppose it was the same in all families, but we had a bottle of sherry that came out at Christmas and then went back in the cupboard till the following Christmas. Lasted for years. Sherry was either British or South African.

I have realised that my earlier response did my grandmother a disservice. Among some recently-scanned old family photos, I've found this testament to a typically exuberant Christmas feast at my Newark grandmother's, from c. 1971/2



My recollection that The Bottle of Sherry ("Celebration Cream") was British or South African was unfair (despite its name) - in fact, it's by Domecq, one sees, and very much from Jerez.

And - Saint Nicholas preserve us, and it! - you can still buy a bottle of the '71....

[vinteuil]

And - Saint Nicholas preserve us, and it! - you can still buy a bottle of the '71....

... I did not know that sherries had vintages. Still less that the year of the vintage wd be embossed on the glass at the bottom of the bottle.

Someone is selling uno perrillo methinks...

[french frank]

My recollection that The Bottle of Sherry ("Celebration Cream") was British or South African was unfair (despite its name) - in fact, it's by Domecq, one sees, and very much from Jerez.

And I'm feeling definitely miffed - outraged even: as Jean touched on, Harveys were one of the great wine importers (along with Avery's) of Bristol. Although Bristol Cream and Bristol Milk became commonplace, ubiquitous even, they're the real deal in terms of sherry. Not yer Emva Cream.

I wonder now, though, why some people turn their noses up at the 'mereness' of sherry; perhaps they had bad sherry when they were young? Like gin (and port), sherry is a connoisseur's drink.

[Anna]

I wonder now, though, why some people turn their noses up at the 'mereness' of sherry; perhaps they had bad sherry when they were young? Like gin (and port), sherry is a connoisseur's drink.

I think it was 2 Christmas' ago, someone on the Wine Thread recommended Williams & Humbert 12 year old Oloroso ....... well, it was so awful it had to be very diluted to make it halfway drinkable! Harveys Bristol Cream however is the perfect partner to walnuts.

Does anyone remember the Sandeman cloaked and masked man? Growing up we had a wine merchants who had a display of him in cardboard cutouts in the window, it used to scare the daylights out of me and I was told if I was bad then he would come after me ....

(why did Cali's Granny serve the Christmas pudding at the same time as the festive bird?)

[french frank]

(why did Cali's Granny serve the Christmas pudding at the same time as the festive bird?)

Don't know that it was the pudding - but don't you love the little Christmas tree alongside the bottle of sherry?

[Anna]

Don't know that it was the pudding - but don't you love the little Christmas tree alongside the bottle of sherry?

Is it meant to make up for the lack of crackers?

[Nick Armstrong]

Harveys Bristol Cream however is the perfect partner to walnuts.

Or in my case, salted jumbo peanuts. (I cannot abide the walnut )

(why did Cali's Granny serve the Christmas pudding at the same time as the festive bird?

She didn't. That thing at the back is a joint of pork (I think)

Does anyone remember the Sandeman cloaked and masked man? ...it used to scare the daylights out of me

Don't go to Porto then, Anna!! You'll freak out!





Excuse further Caliphotography....



.

Is it meant to make up for the lack of crackers?

We were quite crackers enough!!



.

PS: ff you are right about the 'pudding' and the little tree... I wish I'd still got the latter.

[Roslynmuse]

Does anyone remember the Sandeman cloaked and masked man? Growing up we had a wine merchants who had a display of him in cardboard cutouts in the window, it used to scare the daylights out of me and I was told if I was bad then he would come after me ....

Yes!!! There was an illuminated sign outside an off-licence where I was growing up - this would be late 60s/early 70s. The bogey-man...

The annual outing for the sherry bottle (and I think it was Emva Cream) was something I witnessed too. I rarely drink sherry now, and was surprised to read recently that it only keeps a few days once opened!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

APS film
Single 8 film
126
110
620
Kodachrome

[vinteuil]

Don't know that it was the pudding - but don't you love the little Christmas tree alongside the bottle of sherry?

... looks perhaps more like some roast pork with good crackling rather than a christmas pud?

Yes, the tree is rather sweet.

What is lurking among the sprouts in the vegetable bowl?

We had the identical blue-lined white crockery - various pieces still survive...

[Nick Armstrong]

... looks perhaps more like some roast pork with good crackling rather than a christmas pud?

Yes, the tree is rather sweet.

What is lurking among the sprouts in the vegetable bowl?

We had the identical blue-lined white crockery - various pieces still survive...

I was wondering about the sprouts too - then, and now

Re: pork - see below