Glorious Clarets in Large Formats, Ideal for Christmas

You will have read, I’m sure, our Low Life correspondent’s account of the recent Spectator claret and clay pigeon shoot cruise along the Thames, which we ran in association with our mates at Private Cellar.

Jeremy Clarke described it beautifully and, in short, we had an absolute hoot. Forty or so readers joined us as we tootled down the river in stately style aboard The Will, a century-old Thames sailing barge. We moored up just past the Thames Barrier, radioed Wapping police station for permission to fire and proceeded to blast clay pigeons out of the sky – some more successfully than others. Amongst other weaponry, we used a pump action shotgun, a musketoon, a blunderbuss and “that bloody great gun that makes you crap yourself when it goes off” (according to someone not a million miles away from Jeremy Clarke).

We then repaired below for French 75 cocktails and G&Ts before lunching like kings on parma ham and buffalo mozzarella salad, pan-seared chicken with wild mushroom ragu and wild rice followed by a fine selection of cheese.