It is a new twist on an old theme of unabashedly, self-indulgent sybaritism: Cruise around some of the most gorgeous bits of the English countryside in a classic sports car of yesteryear, stumble upon hidden delights you never knew were there, submit to the cosseting of superbly trained staff in intimate luxury hotels on five successive nights and enjoy stunning cuisine prepared by Michelin award-winning chefs.
Five English hotels, all members of the marketing group Small Luxury Hotels of the World, have combined to put together this novel package. While the crass aim of it all, of course, is to separate mostly well-heeled tourists from their money, this scheme is well-conceived and works as nearly flawlessly as can be expected.
The luxury sports car is an optional and frighteningly expensive extra. Alternatively, you can drive your own car, or a more modest rental car, or take advantage of the service offered by some of the hotels of a chauffeur-driven ride to your next destination.
But the emphasis in the package is on cuisine. It’s billed as a Gourmet Trail, and it would not be without charm even if it took place in the dankest corner of England. But the pleasure is magnified by the fact that three of the hotels are set amid beautiful gardens and parkland that are like scenes from Old Master landscape paintings.
The 81-room Stafford, a jewel of a hotel located on a quiet street in the heart of busy London, is the nominal starting point for the tour, although, in fact, you can start at any of the five. In any order you choose, there are Studley Priory, an Elizabethan manor house set in 13 acres about 5 miles northeast of Oxford; Lords of the Manor, an 18th Century former church rectory located on eight acres in the idyllic Cotswold village of Upper Slaughter; Homewood Park, a largely Victorian, intimate country house 9 miles south of Bath, and the Vineyard, a modern luxury hotel in Stockcross, 2 miles west of the Berkshire horse-racing town of Newbury.
For 300 pounds ($460) a night at all but the Stafford, a couple can enjoy bed, breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner–service and most liquor are not included, but a chaffeur-driven car transfer between hotels is.
Not everyone is likely to have the stamina to endure five consecutive nights of dining on the rich cuisine that is available, nor do the hotels involved expect them to do so. The assumption is that most participants in the Gourmet Trail, which was inaugurated in June, will select two or three hotels.
For a recent tour, my wife and I started at Homewood Park, went on to the Vineyard and finished at Lords of the Manor. We covered about 350 miles, including the drive from London to the first hotel (110 miles) and diversions along the way.
Homewood Park bills itself as a “stylish Georgian house” but is, in fact, mostly Victorian, and the kind of small (19 rooms) English hotel that gives you the feeling of being not in a hotel but a private house–which, of course, it once was.
Our bedroom, looking out on the hotel’s heated swimming pool, was beautifully decorated in traditional English country hotel style and had a large, four-poster bed. The bathroom, with two wash basins, a modern version of an old claw-footed tub and a separate shower stall (rare in Europe), was nearly as large as an average hotel bedroom.
Homewood Park sits on a rise between the villages of Freshford and Hinton Charterhouse, and from its award-winning garden commands a breathtaking view stretching for miles over the green Limpley Stoke valley.
While most of the staff in all of the hotels is French, and imbued with impeccable Gallic charm, the chefs are all English. Cuisine is British Modern with some French influences, especially leaning to French at Homewood Park.
“Several of us were sitting together about a year ago and talking of ways to pool together,” said Alan Moxon, a director of Homewood Park who is credited with the idea for the Gourmet Trail. “We realized we all had extremely good restaurants and thought it would be a good idea to put them together in a tour to promote the recent upsurge in English cooking.”
Homewood Park’s chef, Nigel Godwin, took over only last April from Andrew Hamer, but there is no reason to doubt he will retain the Michelin star that Homewood Park has held for the last seven years. His cooking is superb and innovative, and for the Gourmet Trail he offers guests a magnificent six-course dinner, served in a pretty dining room overlooking the garden.
Our dinner began with foie gras–not the usual pate, but an entire liver of goose–and moved at a stately, inexorable pace to the main course, a squab cooked rare. It ended with two desserts, the most interesting of them a small, light souffle flambeed in Sambuca.
The perfect accompaniment to foie gras is a sweet wine, but which one? At the suggestion of Cedric, the French waiter, we tried a glass of Loupiac, an excellent French wine that is less sweet than a Sauterne and just right for the foie gras. From there we moved to a 1994 Chateau Cantemerle ($65) that was also very good, if perhaps not the best year for a Bordeaux. Each individual dish was done to perfection, but as an ensemble it was far too heavy. Groaning as I rose with difficulty from the table after dinner, I was put in mind of the late New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling and his lyrical descriptions of consuming meals in France that went on for hours and seemed in each case adequate for a family of four. Liebling eventually died of gluttony, and I began to wonder if this would be our fate at the end of the Gourmet Trail. We almost dreaded the next stop, but felt marginally recovered the next morning.
As Homewood Park is so near Bath, many of its guests undoubtedly go on there to visit its fine Roman baths and admire its splendid Georgian architecture. But, having been to Bath many times, we decided to proceed to our next stop, the Vineyard, and look for interesting places to stop en route.
The first appeared just 4 miles away, Farleigh Hungerford Castle. Dating to the 14th Century, it is mostly a ruin now but there is an intact chapel containing impressive tombs bearing effigies of members of the Hungerford family and a rare surviving example of early English Christian art, a faded but still recognizable St. George slaying the dragon.
About 10 miles distant, and just off our route, we discovered another unexpected delight, Westwood Manor. Not the usual sprawling English stately home, but a compact little house that dates to the time of the Saxon King Ethelred the Unready in 983. Among other things, we learned there about virginals, small, spinet-like keyboard instruments in which the wires were struck by raven feathers. Westwood Manor’s virginals are now in too delicate a state to be played.
The Vineyard, about an hour from Homewood Park, is different from the other hotels on the tour. Just over 2 years old, it is unmistakably a modern hotel and not a country house. When we stepped from the car, we saw five gas-fed flames leaping from a shallow pool in front of the hotel. This was sculptor William Pye’s “Fire and Water,” and while it is part of an extensive collection of art and sculpture at the Vineyard, my immediate thought was not of art but of Las Vegas.
The Vineyard is the handiwork of Sir Peter Michael, a wealthy British businessman and art collector who, among other things, owns a small winery in California. Originally he intended to offer a small selection of California wines in the restaurant, but his Italian head sommelier, Edoardo Armadi, persuaded him to make the Vineyard a showcase of California wines in Britain.
Armadi visited 30 small, family-run wineries to make his selections, and today the Vineyard is known, perhaps above all else, as the repository of the widest and best selection of California wines to be found in Europe. There are 600 of them, many not sold elsewhere in Europe, and 1,000 other wines from around the world.
The Vineyard wine cellars contain 23,000 bottles, the oldest an 1875 Madeira and a 1921 Chateau Cantemerle.
The Vineyard has 33 air-conditioned rooms, of which 15 are suites, and they are the most beautifully decorated of any on the tour. Britain’s Emily Todhunter is responsible for the decoration, using expensive chintz bed covers and matching curtains, and for the design of the hotel’s striking restaurant. It features a balustrade that, in the words of the hotel’s publicist, is “wrapped around the bar area like the luscious vines of California.”
Each restaurant table was adorned with lilies in a very tall, very slim vase, a well-thought-out detail; no chance here of a bouquet coming between you and your dinner partner.
The Vineyard also contains an indoor swimming pool, a steam room and sauna, a gym and a beauty treatment center, all done to a high standard. The hotel walls are replete with modern works of art. Among the most interesting are Doris Zinkheisen sketches of costumes she designed for various British theater productions.
The Vineyard is very much a celebrity “in” spot in Britain and, despite the vast investment that obviously went into it and the attention to detail, it is not to everyone’s taste. I warmed to it somewhat before we left, but the initial impression was jarring after the quiet, understated atmosphere of Homewood Park.
Chef Billy Reid, formerly of London’s L’Escargot restaurant, won his first Michelin star this year with his modern British cuisine. Although he offers a five-course menu degustation on Friday and Saturday nights, with a fusion of food and wine that is popular in many California restaurants, we were relieved to be given a simpler a la carte menu.
But getting served was something of a problem. This was a particularly busy night at the Vineyard and, after being ignored for some time, we eventually had to collar a waiter to get pre-dinner drinks and a menu.
We both started with a sumptuous lobster salad that in each case appeared to be composed of an entire lobster, with green beans on the side. My wife’s main course was a roasted skate wing with spinach, fondant potato and caper jus, while I opted for fillet of sea bass with spinach, boulangere potato and woodland mushroom cream.
Everything was cooked beautifully except the spinach, which was oversalted, as another nearby diner also attested.
My dessert was summer berries in a champagne sabayon with a raspberry sorbet. My wife had a poached pear with a chocolate ice cream base and a vanilla cheesecake crumble. Both were first rate.
Our wine was a 1993 Clos du Ciel chardonnay from Michael’s own Napa Valley winery. The sommelier touted the 1996 vintage as a better choice but, through a misunderstanding, I opted for the 1993 and therefore take responsibility for the fact the wine was not up to our expectations. It seemed overpriced at $78. Unlike the other hotels on the tour, the Vineyard does not have extensive grounds, but its guests have ready access to a nearby golf course, and the hotel is always full on racing days in Newbury. About 7 miles away and open to the public is Highclere Castle, the home of Lord Carnaervon.
We did not go there because we were headed in another direction to Lords of the Manor. About 12 miles south of our destination, we saw a sign for a Roman villa 3 1/2 miles away, so turned off the highway for a look. It was well worth the detour, one of those exquisite historic sites in Britain that many might pass up because they often get little publicity.
Down a wooded country lane we found the ruins of a Roman settlement, believed to have contained 40 rooms with some still being excavated. Some of the mosaic flooring in the dining room and baths remains intact, and the villa as a whole is a wonderful example of Roman building in Britain.
Lords of the Manor, about two hours from the Vineyard, has the most beautiful setting of any hotel on the tour. The medieval villages of Lower Slaughter and Upper Slaughter, named for the Slaughter Brook that runs through them, are built of honey-colored Cotswold stone and look like sets for a movie with a Middle Ages theme.
The name of the hotel may seem pretentious, but it has a historical basis. Originally it was the home of the Witts family, rectors of the parish and therefore entitled to claim the title of “lords of the manor.” It looks out on a blissful vista, eight acres of manicured parkland stretching down one hill and up another, with a small lake in the distance.
Most of the 28 rooms have a dated, 1960s look but are gradually being refurbished by new manager Iain Shelton. Each room is provided with a decanter of sweet sherry, perhaps palatable to elderly ladies but unlikely to appeal to anyone else.
Lords of the Manor has had a Michelin star for five years, three of them since John Campbell became head chef. He produced a seven-course menu that was lighter and better balanced than the Homewood Park menu. Each course was accompanied by a different wine (included in the degustation menu), most of them white and all pleasant but not exceptional.
The dinner started with a delicious terrine of foie gras and included a main course of filet of beef with a truffle ravioli. Not the best-quality beef we have eaten recently, but good. It was served with a 1996 Cousino Macul Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile.
One of the courses was a homemade black pudding. I am perhaps overly squeamish about black pudding, a sausage made of blood, so chose as a substitute a boudin blanc, a light concoction of chicken and truffles. It was excellent. The two desserts were a passion fruit panna cotta and a glorious warm chocolate fondant with pink grapefruit sherbet.
Although we did not stay at Studley Priory, it was only a few miles off our route home so we stopped for a look at the rooms and the dinner menu. In the corridors and public rooms the walls have dark wood wainscoting, only to be expected in an Elizabethan manor, but they give the rooms a rather gloomy tinge.
The bedrooms, however, particularly the two facing the extensive garden and parkland behind the hotel, are beautifully decorated, and the bathtubs all have Jacuzzis.
Chef Simon Crannage offers a cuisine that is more traditionally British than those of the other hotels. He does not have a Michelin star but has received British culinary awards.
Comparison of the three hotels where we stayed is a tricky business, for all are different. But this is how I would rate them: Best cuisine, Homewood Park with the one reservation that the selection was too heavy. I would not disparage the cooking at any of the hotels, despite the minor lapse at the Vineyard; this was all seriously good cuisine. Best bedroom, the Vineyard, worst Lords of the Manor. Best bathroom, Homewood Park, worst Lords of the Manor. Best exterior ambience, Lords of the Manor, worst the Vineyard. Overall best experience, Homewood Park.
Overall, for anyone accustomed to travel at this lever, the Gourmet Trail is good value for money, especially if you take advantage of the chauffeur-driven transfers between hotels. If you drive your own car, you can book the same services individually–bed, breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner–for about $30 less per hotel than you pay for the package. But the car transfers (valued at $230 each) make the package a real bargain.
IF YOU GO
RESERVATIONS
The Gourmet Trail package, which is open-ended, can be booked through the Small Luxury Hotels of the World reservation number: 800-525-4800. An online search and reservations service also is available on the SLH Web site: www.slh.com. The site has photos of the hotels.
Rates are 300 pounds ($460) a night per couple, including breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner (liquor and service extra), and transfer. Nightly rates at the Stafford Hotel are 200 pounds ($300) for a double and 330 ($500) for a suite. Dinner is extra and runs about 80 pounds ($125) for two without wine.
PRICEY DRIVING
We did not take up the option of a classic car nor, at the time of our tour, had anyone else. The cars on offer are an E-type Jaguar, Jaguar Mark II, Aston Martin, Triumph Stag, Ferrari and Bentley Continental S1. The costs are colossal. At the bottom of the range, the Triumph Stag rents for $738 for four days, plus 61.5 cents a mile plus gasoline (at least $65 a tank in Britain). At the top end, the Bentley rents for $2,615 with similar mileage and gasoline costs. Those hiring the cars also have to put down a refundable insurance deposit, $770 in the case of the Triumph and $2,308 for the Bentley.
Should you start the tour at one of the country hotels and want a classic car delivered there, the delivery and collection charges begin at $370 for the Triumph Stag.
