Bring the Brini.

Hee, hee!  I had forgotten all about this bottle of Lambrini that I had brought back from England with me last April.  Marketed almost exclusively to women, Lambrini is a cheap, sweet, low alcohol, sparkling perry that is produced in Liverpool.  A lot of good things have come out of Liverpool over the years.  However, Lambrini isn't one of them.
I had meant to do a blind tasting of the Lambrini with Vinomaker this summer whilst Thud was visiting, but I forgot.  I thought it would have been an entertaining tasting for me and Thud to share the Lambrini with someone who had never tasted it before.  Then I completely forgot all about the Lambrini again - until just yesterday when I spotted it in my wine-stash (whilst looking for a particular vintage of something altogether more serious).  Time for some Lambrini-larks.
Well, it wasn't much of a test for Vinomaker, as he immediately deduced that the tipple in his glass was not made from grapes.  He's good. Still, I wasn't altogether disappointed in my quest for cheap entertainment at Vinomaker's expense: his face upon first tasting the perry had to be seen to be believed.  He very quickly poured himself a glass of a 2015, Miner Family Viognier.

Perry refreshing.

I am enjoying my hols.  The weather has been pleasant the past few days (shocker!) and, as a result, the evenings have been quite mild.  A few evenings ago, I decided I wanted something refreshing to drink in the way of an adult beverage, so I raided Thud's fridge.  And it just so happens that Thud had been shopping for something he thought I might like.  Good lad. 
Rekorderlig sparkling pear cider, with passion fruit, is actually what in England we would call a perry.  Perry has been popular in England for centuries and is made from specific pear cultivars - much in the same way that cider is made from apples.  But it isn't cider, is it?  It is perry.  Regretfully, the name perry is increasingly being discarded in favour of the label pear cider in the apparent campaign to dumb down society further and save people from bothering to have to learn a new word (and, God forbid, some history and geography).
In theory it all sounded quite delicious until Tenbellies, my sister-in-law's sister, said that she had had the passion fruit Rekorderlig before and it was lovely.  Thud was immediately sceptical.  He has a long-running joke with Tenbellies about her questionable choice of alcoholic drinks.  The brand name Lambrini - a perry which, despite its Italian sounding moniker, is actually made in Liverpool - was bandied about in jest.  In all honesty, Tenbellies doesn't really drink, so with its fruity character I could see how the Rekorderlig perry, with only 4% alcohol, might appeal to the casual drinker.  But it wasn't even a particularly good rendition of a perry - very low acid and the passion fruit component wasn't very passion-fruity.  Oh well, I still have a passion fruit yoghurt to try.