Chomondeley opens for the first time on Christmas day!!

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 Ships in his first ground breaking Red wine for Christmas and New Year!!

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..

Local Louis is our Annual Gin Appreciation Champion!!!

The crowds flocked to the Cholmondeley Arms on Tuesday evening for the first (and by no means last!!) Annual Gin Appreciation Championship!! Sixteen Gins featured from the Sloe variety to the Damson variety. I am told by Bob and Louis from Brockman’s Gin, (who sponsored the event) that the quality of the Gin was really ‘top drawer’!!

As I write this update I am still waiting for Steve our Cholmondeley Landlord to emerge from the judging!!! He had to lie down afterwards for some reason!!!

I am joking of course we are just waiting for photos but I can declare that our very loyal customer Louis (not to be mixed up with Brockman’s Gin Louis) won the Championship with what the judges called  a Gin that would rival Plymouths Damson gin!!! Louis proudly calls his ‘special blend’ of gin ‘the Hounds testicles’ or words along those lines!!!

In second was Richard’s ‘killing me sloe –ly’ Gin (the name alone is a winner!!!) and finally in joint third was Sarah’s special reserve and Tony’s Herb gin!!! Congratulations to everyone.

Louis was presented with his own unique crystal Gin glass which will be engraved with his name and will take pride of place on our back bar ready for Louis to use when he visits us.  Louis also wins a bottle of Brockman’s and a trip to the distillery where Brockman’s is distilled.

We would like to thank everyone who took part at very short notice when considering the gin making process and Steve for setting it up and the team for helping him.

A big thank you to Bob and Louis from Brockman’s for all their help!!

Pictures will follow soon but here’s one of Steve and Brockman’s Louis getting to grips with the judging!!!

‘In Out’ shake it all about!!!

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??!

Bring Inn the Gin

Here at the Cholmondeley Arms we are building a fine reputation for our famous Gin collection. We opened with forty Gins and are rapidly moving to the fifty mark already. The expansion of Gin distilling and the creation of different gin types is growing and already we are planning volume two of our ‘Gin Bible’.

While reviewing our growing Gin collection we all came up with a great idea. We have many customers who like gin, who also like to travel and may find gins we don’t stock on those travels…. so…….we have come up with ‘Bring Inn the Gin’ and here’s what you have to do.

  1. Find a gin and make sure we don’t stock it.
  2. Buy the Gin and keep the receipt, this can be in Sterling, Euros (while they last!!) and American dollars
  3. Bring the Gin to the Inn.
  4. Present the gin and if we don’t stock it already we will pay you the value of your receipt. (The seal on the bottle must be intact of course)
  5. As a bonus we will also give you a £10 Cholmondeley gift voucher for each bottle of gin brought Inn!!
  6. So for the new ‘Gin Supplier’ it’s a ‘win, win’ on the ‘gin, gin’.

So what are you waiting for all you budding gin suppliers!!?? Tim, Steve and Stru are waiting!!! 100 Gins by our first anniversary???

A49 opens at last!!

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…!!

The Cholmondeley wins the Pumpkin competition!!!

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!!!

 

 

Girls go Pumpkin shopping!!

Sophie and Mary (pictured) had a great night out shopping last Thursday!!!

Now all you girls(and guys for that matter) may have thought they were off to Manchester city centre or to the Trafford Centre!!

But no they went to Chelford Market to get a supply of pumpkins for both the Bulls Head and the Cholmondeley Arms ready for Halloween.

Fifty (yes 50) pumpkins were bought and already adorn the two pubs ready for certain members of the team to start carving them into various funny and spooky faces for this coming weekend.

How the two of them loaded up the car with all the pumpkins???……….hilarious to see them pull in outside the Bulls Head with a bright orange interior to the car!!!


Pumpkin also features on both menus and may well be doing for some time to come!!

Anyway happy half term and here’s to a great Halloween weekend where there will be more treats than tricks here at the pub.

The Cholmondeley Arms appreciates the recognition!!!

The Good Pub guide have included us in their 2012 edition.

We are very proud of our team who have achieved this success, however the most important thing for the Cholmondeley Arms is to deliver great service consistently year after year and that is our goal. Thank you to our customers for putting us in the book so to speak!!

We will always endeavour to deliver a great experience for all here at ‘the Chum’

Cheer yourself up at the Cholmondeley Arms

The National Institute of Economic & Social Research (NIESR) has warned that the economic recovery will be “the weakest of any since the First World War”, after its first estimate for GDP growth in September suggested that the economy grew by 0.5% in the third quarter.

The NIESR warned that GDP is still 4% below its pre-recession peak, which means the recovery will be the weakest of any since the First World War and said that although the UK is likely to have departed the recession, we are in a ‘depression’.

So that should change the conversation here at the pub….the good news? We aren’t in a recession anymore!!! Yippee!!……The bad news?? We are now in a depression!!!

Well for us there is no need for depression of any kind when here at your favourite pub a great pint of cask ale, a glass of warming red wine, home cooked wholesome comfort food and a lit fire await you but most importantly all with a smile!! They say the best tonic has a large gin in it!!

So if your recession has just become a depression pop in a cheer yourself up!!