Oysters, Champagne, a singer on the ‘Minstrels Gallery’, our team, (who were ‘dressed to impress’) and of course a lot of special guests made our first New Year’s Eve Party a terrific success.

Having started the day early preparing for the Cheshire Hunt the team, led by Steve, carried on in to the early hours of 2012 as everyone enjoyed fun and chatter in a real pub atmosphere. No tickets required just a great night out to see in the New Year.

Thank you to the team for working so hard all day and night and to all the loyal customers who ‘rocked’ up to the Chum!!

Here’s to the next time!!

New Year’s Eve began with a bang at 11am yes A.M. with the ‘Cheshire Hunt Meet’. Our landlord Steve and the team did a great job pouring port and feeding the odd hot sausage or two to the many people (and the odd hound or two!!) who turned up to see the really splendid horses as well as the colourful riders!!!

Thanks to the team for all their help and thank you to the hunt for choosing ‘the Chum’ as the starting point for such a great event. Thanks too to our locals who helped share the odd glass of port with visitors and riders alike and to Johnny who made the best use of all the manure left over!!! It can be a crappy job you know!!!

Happy New Year!!! Click on an image below to view full size gallery

Our landlord and his girlfriend Claire(pictured) with the superb assistance of Steve’s mum (on sausages) and dad (on fire lighting) opened the doors of the Cholmondeley Arms for the first time on Christmas day!!

The tradition of a pint of ale/glass of fizz and a ‘pig in blanket’ nibble at the ‘Chum’ on the 25th December has now been set and everyone who visited thoroughly enjoyed the occasion.

Children arrived by pony with their family in tow and the ponies tied up outside the pub made a great Christmas day scene.

Thank you to Steve and family for swinging the pub doors open and thank you too to all the locals for making it special.

Steve, our Cholmondeley Arms landlord, has worked with wine supplier Bibendum who have discovered a great Chilean Red to enjoy over the festive season. The wine is contained in old champagne bottles with the tops of the bottle sealed with wax, so already you can see the uniqueness of this ‘boutique’ red wine.

Bibendum Director of Buying for the Southern Hemisphere, Iain Muggoch, has challenged Chile to move away from predictable branded pyramid ranges and focus on the country’s potential to produce exciting, terroir-driven wines that can rival the best in the world.

Speaking after a recent visit to the country, Muggoch said: “Chile is currently at a crossroads. For a long time, it has played to the UK, US & China’s demand for large volumes of low priced but clean varietal wines. There was no other country that could produce this quality at the bulk prices and availability being offered.

“However, the consequences of the 2010 earthquake and rising costs throughout the supply chain mean that the Chile is simply no longer able to produce enough good quality juice to meet global demand for entry level wine.

“Chile now has a fantastic opportunity to change the way people around the world perceive it, by focusing on its old vines, exciting, varied terroirs and talented, innovative winemakers. It needs to break out of the boring pyramid that starts with varietal wines and moves up through ‘Reserva’ and ‘Single Vineyard’ to ‘Icon’ and produce more wines that really excite consumers.

“We are now working with a number of boutique producers and independent winemakers in the country, and I have never been more excited about Chilean wine.”

One of these producers is the Garage Wine Company from whom Steve has shipped in this latest batch from , (with Bibendums help). We are not telling you anymore. If you appreciate beautiful reds then pop in and Steve or Stru will explain the latest ‘shipped in‘ wine further and let you try it..

We were very proud when the editor of ‘In Out’ magazine approached us with the view to putting the ‘Chum’ on their front page.

We think it looks rather good and already many guests here at the Chum have run away with their copy!!

As you can see some guests simply settle by the fire in the ‘wing backs’ and have a good read over a pint of fine ale or a glass of Elderflower Prosecco!!

Who is this mystery guest we wonder??!

Firstly a very big thank you to all our customers that have braved the diversions and in some cases rather misleading diversion signs and made a visit to see us since our re-opening following our major investment in to the great Cholmondeley Arms.

We have all been delighted with the response even with the A49 closed!!

Anyway the road has finally opened…!!

As everyone knows Mary and Soph acquired 50 pumpkins for the Bulls Head and Cholmondeley Arms of which some became salad, some became soup and some were carved really well by members of both teams. The winner overall for pumpkin carving was The ‘Chum’ with Rob our industrious Kitchen Porter as individual Champ and Steve our second chef at the Bulls Head in second place overall!!

Thank you to all the Ghouls that supported us over Halloween never sold so many spirits!!!