Champagne: a drink for all seasons

Elder flower champagne cocktail

As the festive season careers towards us, I thought it a good time to post some recipes for champagne cocktails. The Classic Champagne cocktail (brandy,  sugar cube, Angostura bitters, champagne) is a great favourite of mine as its easy to make with a rich aromatic flavour – great in the winter. Apparently we Brits drink so many of these at this time of year, that we were a major factor in the Great Angostura Drought last January – basically we snaffled the last of the supplies just in time for Christmas….

Drink horizon

Vista's vista

The  last place you’d normally want to be during a cloudburst would be huddled under a parasol on an open rooftop. Surprisingly, not only was this where I was last Wednesday, but I was absolutely relishing it.

This unusual display of stiff-upperness on my part (and about ten other foolhardy individuals), was no doubt thanks to our spectacular location at the Vista roof bar in the Trafalgar Hotel – the photo above really doesn’t do it justice – and their very splendid hospitality.