The multi award winning Crown Inn in Chiddingfold, Surrey (awarded 5 stars by the AA with a special commendation putting them among the top 11 inns in the country and recently voted Conde Nast Johansens Most Excellent Inn in Great Britain) in association with its sister hotel The Ship Hotel Chichester and The General Wine Company held a highly successful Italian versus Spanish Wine Tasting evening on Wednesday 21st July.

Hosted by Alan Snudden from General Wine over 100 guests sampled specially selected wines for the evening.

Alan, Chris and Charles, with Master of Wine Mike Ritchie presented 25 wines from Spain and Italy. As well as some well know names, Riojas and Chiantis, we tried some of the great, but lesser known wines from each country. One of the stars of the night was the Brindisi Reserva, 2007,  Rich with plumy fruit, a blend of Negroamaro and Montepulciano, a lovely spicy finish.

"The most controversial table was Chris McCann’s Sherry offering. 4 sherrys from Hidalgo. A dry salty refreshing Manzanilla, the Oloroso Abocado, the sweet syrupy Pedro Ximenez (great over Vanilla Ice cream) and also the Palo Cortado 20 year old which had a nose of nuts and honey, but was incredibly dry, one to tick off as tasted, but judging from Dan’s reaction, it won’t be appearing on the list!" - Alan Snudden, Managing Director - The General Wine Company.

Highly original tapas were created by Kevin Stuart Head Chef of The Crown while Mark Evans Head Chef of The Ship countered with speciality Italian canapés.

The evening was rounded off by ‘Mr Sinatra’ himself Jack Valentine singing live whilst many attendees decided to continue eating and drinking and sampling The Crown Inns brand new menu.

Daniel Hall, owner of The Crown Inn, said ‘We started The Crown Wine Club some months ago and like to put on an event every so often which is open to members and non members alike. Both hotels entered into a little bit of healthy competition with staff from each supporting their country. I believe our guests really enjoyed the evening and we had some excellent feedback particularly about Alan’s choice of wines, its great to have the support of The General Wine Company as we can always keep our lists fresh and have some fun with these Wine Club events’.

For further information on

The Crown Inn call 01428 682255 or visit www.thecrownchiddingfold.com

The Ship Hotel call 01243 778000 or visit www.theshiphotel.net