Pull-apart, quick on quick off spectacles - to look at a centenary bottle and sparkling blush wine from cantinepaulis in Sardinia, Italy

Video by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

He pulls the spectacles apart at the bridge of the nose and puts them aside. To replace the spectacles, he pushes them back together. Connected by magnets?

He said he bought them on Amazon. I saw these and looked them up once before.  I had thought they would be handy whether traelling or at home. If I remember rightly, the cheapest spectacles (now only fifteen pounds for a pack of two pairs) were those for eyes the same strength (or weakness) in both eyes. You can order online glasses from a prescription done by an optician, with both eyes different at a higher price. They are not - yet - available from my optician for varifocal lenes, and when I asked my optician he said he could order them, but they were not ideal for me because they did not come up with lenses to correct for eyes which had slight astigmatism

  

But if you have a separate pair of reading glasses used at home and when travelling, a handy idea.

I had such an entertaining time talking to him.

His company is on the island of Sardinia. The company name is cantinepaulis. Not Paul's canteen. A pauli is a marsh. the large marsh is a park with pink flamingoes.

I asked, 'Aren't all flamingoes pink?'

He answered, 'I don't know. But ours are, because they eat prawns.'

I used to eat pink prawns. I didn't turn pink.

Until I developed all allergy to shellfish.

I has stopped at his stand at the Real Italian Wine & Food, trade show, at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London on April 29th 2025. I was attracted by the blush wine he was displaying, and his welcoming smile. 

The blush wine is available as sparkling. It also comes in two shapes of bottles, straight-sided and curvy.

After I got home, I went onto their website and clicked on the little Union Jack symbol to read it all in English, quicker than my Italian from 6 months of learning Italian on Duolingo. However, their leaflet is in Italian, so I have translated some words below.

I learned that the winery is a co-operative. So, not a family business named after a Mr Paul. Instead named after a marshy area where there are lots of growers who formed a co-operative years ago.  That accounts for the large numbers of bottles, red, white and rose, and sparkling, and different bottle shapes.

The Co-ops

Co-ops operate like supermarkets. They bring together lots of suppliers giving you a big choice in one place. 

I went to the masterclass at the show, featuring Sardinian wines. The most memorable statment for me was that co-ops, although often considered suppliers are cheap everyday wines, not as good as the individual suppliers, perform a very useful service for their own members. The co-ops provide employment, sustaining their members through the bad years, economically and/or weatherwise, and promoting them in the good years. And offering reasonable prices within the budgets of tourists and locals alike.

I went onto their website and was able to find a blush sparkling wine for about ten Euros and another for twenty. I like sweet wines, but many people prefer drier.

Sardinian and  Italian

The co-op has operated for over one hundred years. One unique wine was launched with a special label to celebrate the centenary, celebrated in 2024. I had tried translating paulis in google and the Italian translation brought up nothing. But google went to AI, I kept googling. Eventually I found out the answer. The translation was marsh, but it was the Sardinian language. I had heard long ago that Italy had had many languages and Garibaldi united the country and made one of the many languages the universal Italian. I think of Sardinian as a dialect. Yet I find it confusing when the Chinese call their totally distinct languages dialects, giving status to Mandarin. Now I sympathise with the Chinese. From a foreigner's point of view, it's challenging enough to learn one language for Italy or China. Anyway, you and I now know one word of Sardinian. The word is easy to remember. It sounds like the name Paul. Pauli for marsh.

I have translated words from their leaflet, which will help any look at bottles and websites and leaflets in future.

Handy Translations For Wine Lovers, Wine Drinkers, Wine Buyers, Wine sellers

Italian - English

allieteranno - they will cheer up

antica - old

bianco - white

brut - dry

Cantine - cellar

caraterra - character

cari - dear

coi - with

cui - which

dal - from the

della - of the

di - of

dolce - sweet

e - and

enologo - winemaker

fondatori - members (the i ending is msculine plural)

giorno - day

Giulio Cesare - Julius Caesar

it - short for Italy

maestria - mastery

la (feminine) - the

nostra - our (feminine)

nostri - our (plural) nostro - our (singular masculine)

ogni - every

oltre - beyond

pauli - Sardinian language for marsh

per - for 

più - more

ricordi - memories

scorci - glimpses

soci - members

spumante - sparkling

Sardegna - Sardinia

sapore - flavour

scelte di vite - life choices (choices of life)

selvatica - wild

terra - earth/terrain

tra - between

uve - grapes

via - street

vigneti - vineyards

vini - wines

vitigni - vines

English - Italian

Useful Websites

wwwcantinepaulis.it

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Otcmuky-Magnetic-Presbyopic-Adjustable-multiplier_x/dp/B0C73NK6WW/

Please share your links favourite posts from my blogs on travel, and wining and dining.
 

Valpolicalla Italian red wines including sparkling

 Sparkling red wine was the joyful surprise at the Italian Valpolicella wine tasting promotion in London.

Sparkling red wine from Domini Veneti.

 Winemakers.

Valpolicella - named after the Valley, hence the syllable val in the name. Valpolicella (double l like the musical instrument, the cello).

You may know the wines and region from the map of Italy, showing two towns starting with V, the same initial as Valpolicella. Venice, romantic Venice, and Verona associated with Romeo and Juliet, opera, and Shakespeare's play Two Gentlemen of Verona.

My favourite of six sweet wines.

Another stunner sweet wine, my second favourite, was from Valentina Cubi.

Villa Canestrari supplied another delicious sweet wine. 

A fourth came from Colle Cere. Colle means Hill in Italian. 

The last sweet wine I tried was from the memorably named Cantini de Verona.

Useful Websites

www.dominiveneti.it

consorziovalpolicella.it

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Beautiful Food In The Botanic Gardens, Singapore

Moscato d'Asti.

Wild Mushroom.

Pork Scratchings.

Problem
Where can I eat Western food well for a celebration or farewell dinner, near an MRT station in Singapore?

Answer
Botanico Restaurant in the Botanic Gardens. Easy to remember, nearly the same name as the Botanic gardens.

Downstairs is the Bees Knees restaurant and you can see through the windows the cooks busily cooking. You can eat outdoors in good weather.

Up an outstairs staircase is the Botanico restaurant. I didn't see any lift.

Your choice of seating is indoors, or outdoors under the canopy. We chose indoors.

Absolute tops was my drink. Perfect muscat.

The food is unusual. I started with a mushroom soup. On the side was foie gras sandwiched between two small biscuits. Delicious.

The port scratching turned out to be a bit like puffy crisps, with a creamy dip.

(Why no amuse guele - compliments of the chef? At those prices I'd expect that, as I would get at a similarly pricey restaurant in London.)

My main course was chicken with avocado and polenta. The chicken was perfect, soft. Bland flavour.

Dessert - the fruit was divide. My chocolate dessert was good, although not outstandingly surprising. However, I also tasted the fruit. A mixture of peppermint and other flavours.

A very good meal.

Botanico Restaurant, Singapore. Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Botanico at The Garage
50 Cluny Park Road
Botanical Gardens
Singapore 257488.
Tel: +65 9831 1106.
MRT Botanic Gardens on the Downtown line.
Email: enquiry@thegarage.sg
website: thegarage.sg

Price?
Pricey. Even though we chose the least expensive starters and main course, it was pricey.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel wrtier and photographer, author and speaker.

Researching Umbria in Italy - wine and honey

I am researching Umbria in Italy. What do I know about Italy? Anybody from England will understand why I am already predisposed towards everything Italian. The Italians brought us ice cream. We recognise the Italian language (ciao), Italian songs (que sera, sera) and opera (la donna e mobile - preferably sung by Pavarotti), Italian food (especially cannelloni), gelato, and espresso (dopio con panne - double espresso with cream), Italian wine (Prosecco and Asti). I am learning Italian with the help of a free online website, Duolingo.

Umbria
What are the cities which we already know? Assisi, associated with Francis of Assisi. Byron came here to see the history. He wrote a poem about a landmark on the area. Nowadays, add Perugia, the university town with a fine square.

Umbria is also a centre for training cooks and chefs. You can get pizza in almost every high street in England, indeed the world, but what is unique to Perugia. That is what I hope to find out.

What about the history? The Etruscans.

Looking back at my last post on Umbria I find a quick checklist:

My top visits in the region would be:
Etruscan gate and cemetery.
Perugia - many museums, central square and sites.
The medieval synagogue.
A castle.
A winery.

What to eat? Honey from Perugia in various flavours, especially lemon.
Orvieto wine.

umbriatourism.it
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Amarone Italian Restaurant, Singapore

Amarone is an Italian wine. The main physical feature of this restaurant is the huge circular pillar with shelves of wine bottles.

The chef's free taster was good. Moist and moreish. Also good was the oil for dipping bread. the bruschetta starter was great.

My pumpkin soup was disappointing, oily, after the lovely mustardy potato pumpkin soup I'd had earlier at Halia restaurant (see previous review).

The restaurant is large enough for you to sit in an anonymous corner for a business meeting or tete a tete.

The desserts of the day were apple crumble and chocolate cheesecake. I love apple crumble, which has healthy sounding apple, as well as satisfying crumble but I have so often been disappointed by a crumble which turns out to be cornflakes that I opted for the chocolate cheesecake.

This arrived with a few raspberries. Full marks for adding fruit. (Still not a match for the over the top calorific New York style cheesecake at some delicatessens.)

Incidentally, there's a deli counter at the entrance which I did not have time to investigate.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Calabrian Wine Event At Fellini Restaurant, Hatch End - Tales From Calabria

From Fellini's Restaurant I picked up a flyer for their Calabrian wine event.  Calabria? Never heard of it. Is it where Andrea, who runs Fellini restaurant, comes from? I looked up Calabria. It's the south of Italy, the 'toe' of Italy. Mostly red wines. High alcohol and blended with other wines (like most - even Champagne is mainly two grapes, black skinned pinot noir and another). So many grapes.

Anyway, I diverted on with my research and discovered the area is famous for the wine having been drunk by real life legend in his now life time Milo, an ancient Greek wrestler, who was friends with Pythagoras, and supposedly saved and rescued Pythagoras from a falling roof. Pythagoras, the man with the theorem about the triangle, which everybody who knows mathematics knows Pythagoras, whose theorem we might not have known if Milo had not rescued him.

Those of us who are not mathematicians might be familiar with Pythagoras from the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, who misquotes Pythagoras, to prove he (the Scarecrow) has a brain. Hans Andersen also mentions Pythagoras. (How do I know all this? Wikipedia, my dear.)


Shakespeare mentions Milo in one of his plays.

Pliny the elder mentions Calabrian wine in his list of top wines. Pliny who, you might ask? Which one was the elder and which one was the younger? Pliny the elder (AD 23 – August 25, AD 79) was the one who wrote to Rome about the destruction of Pompeii. Pliny the elder was the senior in his family and the VIP of the area and he took a boat back to try to rescue people but drowned in the tsunami created by the eruption or disappeared in the lava, leaving his nephew and heir to publish the account and write on about Roman events, notably the eruption of Vesuvius. The Pliny writers were the chroniclers of Pompeii, like Pepys and the Plague in London.

So there you have it. Pliny's Calabrian wine, mostly red, does not seem particularly famous, except to Italians, but researching it sets you on a jolly jaunt though Roman and British history.

Fellini's restaurant in Hatch End featuring the Calabrian wine is well known locally. The Italian owner has a history of working in a major hotel, running a wine business, and is a familiar figure in Hatch End. He is a devotee of Italian film-maker Fellini, of Eight and Half and Sophia Loren films, hence the name of the restaurant.

If I get to the Calabrian wine event at Fellini restaurant in Hatch End, I shan't be short of small talk, with or without the red wine.

This is Fellini restaurant. I love the murals. The colourful flowers adorning the tables are such good imitations they fooled me until I felt them. In summer Fellini restaurant has gorgeous real flowers hanging in beautiful baskets outside.

Chocolate cake, some kind of chocolate sponge with gooey chocolate icing, pleased the person who chose it. 

More on Fellini food on their website.

Fellini Acaffe Italian Restaurant Coffee Shop Wine Bar ...

www.felliniacaffe.co.uk/

Fellini Italian Cuisine restaurant Hatch End middlesex.

2 Google reviews · Write a review · Google+ page

294 Uxbridge Rd, Hatch End, Middlesex HA5 4HR 020 8428 0111 I and others have reviewed Fellini restaurant on Tripadvisor. Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, cmic poet, humorous speaker, speech trainer. See Angela Landbury Author on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Toastmasters International, Lulu.com Amazon.

Angela Lansbury