LIVE24SEVEN // Wining & Dining
Swinfen Hall Hotel – STAFFORDSHIRE’S FINEST
Fine Dining and Fabulous Weddings in the Heart of the British Countryside Swinfen Hall Hotel is a magnificent Georgian manor set in 100 acres of parkland incorporating formal gardens, a private deer park, wild hay meadows and woodland. Despite being a fabulous haven of peace and calm, Swinfen is just 30 minutes from Birmingham city centre and easily accessible via the M6, M42 and M6 toll road.
My husband Adrian and I were delighted to be invited to review Swinfen Hall’s highly acclaimed Four Seasons Restaurant, which won a third AA rosette in January 2015.
We chose to make the most of the opportunity and combine an overnight stay, arriving on a crisp Friday evening in February, following a busy week at work. Turning off the A38, we approached Swinfen Hall along a beautifully manicured drive, the Hall standing grandly before us. We both beamed huge smiles and said, “Now relax” and from the moment we stepped inside the Hall, this is just what we did. The beautiful reception hall was warmed by the open log fire and surrounding Georgian grandeur – perfect on a cold evening. Swinfen Hall boasts 18 luxuriously-appointed bedrooms and suites; ours was located on the first floor and after the “Wow, how gorgeous” comments were over we relaxed with a well- deserved cup of tea before venturing down to dinner.
Pre-dinner drinks in the comfortable lounge area in front of another roaring log fire proved the ideal location to peruse the fine menu. It’s worth noting that never have we experienced such a wonderfully varied menu, diners are certainly spoilt for choice and the waiter thankfully aided our decisions; the knowledgeable, passionate staff deliver on every level for diners in a very calm, discreet manner.
The Four Seasons Restaurant was everything you would expect and more – full of Georgian grandeur and yet intimate and cosy at the same time. Soft music, candlelight and yet another crackling log fire set the scene for an evening to be remembered.
We selected a superb variety of dishes from the fixed price à la carte menu, opting for a flight of wines, however there is a seven-course Tasting Menu and Vegetarian Tasting Menu, which can be taken with or without an excellent flight of wines and give you a superb insight into the talents of the chef and his team. With each course we were thrilled by not only the description of the food before us, but also the description of the wine that had been expertly paired to complement the food, with each wine being the perfect partner.
Our starters included the bold dish of Staffordshire wood pigeon accompanied by garden beetroots, blackberries and hazelnuts married with a Montevannos, Robera Del Duero 2009 wine from Spain, a delicious soft blend of Tempranillo and Merlot which danced with the flavours of this creative dish. My Cotswold gold chicken wings, a less adventurous selection,
/ 80
but no less creative and impactful, consisted of deboned chicken wings pan-roasted and accompanied by wild mushrooms and Dashi, an Asian fish and chicken stock. The chicken crumb was wonderfully crispy and accompanied by horseradish shavings. The wine selected was a Riesling from Washington State, a 2013 and the fresh mineral tastes of the wine worked so very beautifully with the oriental flavours.
Swinfen Hall is home to its own deer park, with a very healthy and thriving herd of 80 Sika deer which roam very happily through meadows and woodland. The deer graze throughout the year and their diet is supplemented in the winter with hay and silage grown on the estate and root vegetables from the walled garden. To prevent excessive fighting during the rut and to ensure the herd is kept healthy and stress-free, a number of young males are culled each year, providing estate-reared venison for the restaurant. Sika deer provide the finest venison that you will ever taste, so it is no surprise that my husband selected the loin of Swinfen Estate venison for his main. Add a delicious pearl barley risotto combined with coffee, crème fraiche and toasted puffed barley with celeriac purée and toasted chestnuts to this seared loin, cooked pink and braised shoulder and you have a rich dish (worthy of a Forbes entry) that is the right depth of flavour, make that flavours, which were further drawn out by the big Clos du Val Zinfandel, Napa Valley 2013.
A delicious Norfolk pork belly with glazed cheeks was also a worthy main selection, served with a wickedly delicious smoked ham terrine with layers of sliced potato, with smoked ham hock running through it. If you like pork, you will love this dish; cooked to perfection and superbly presented, it was paired with a medium-bodied red wine [Cotes du Rhone, E Guigal 2011] so as not to overpower the pork, which was delicate yet flavoursome.
Freshly sourced, with an eye on quality and a nose for detail, all the ingredients were fresh and full of their own flavours that were interwoven so well by the team in the kitchen, some of the ingredients are grown at Swinfen Hall itself and you can almost taste the love and pride in them.
Pleasantly full and still savouring the journey of flavours, I opted for a lighter dessert; Garden Plum, an impressive plum compote with compressed pieces of plum and plum essence flavoured with Sake! Top this with a layer of meringue and fennel seeds and you have a dessert that vies for your attention and gets it! The dessert warranted a wine that wasn’t over sweet as dessert
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156