After another year of dedicated devotion to duty in 2013, 8 of the gentlemen members of the Pie Club gathered together on 27th February 2014 for a formal presentation to the Landlord at The White Lion, Soberton of the 2013 Pie of the Year certificate. Unfortunately Doug wasn't able to join us for this special occasion, but the rest of us carried on without him, certain in the knowledge that it's what he would have wanted.
We have fond memories of the outstanding Chicken, Ham Hock and Leek Pie that we were presented with on that happy day in July when we last visited the White Lion, and it was with mounting excitement that we entered the bar. It seems that Allen, the landlord, and Katie, the barmaid, had also been looking forward to this occasion as they were obviously very pleased to see us.
But never mind that. We were more than very pleased to see the tempting array of fine ales that were on offer: The ever-reliable Sharps Doombar 4%, and 2 excellent ales from the local Bowman Ales Brewery including our favourites Swift One (3.8%) and Wallops Wood (4.0%). Once we'd quenched our thirst with the first pint, we got on with the serious business of the day and presented Allen with his well-earned certificate. Congratulations to Allen, and all the hard-working staff at the While Lion!
After another pint we moved into the dining room to sample another one of their excellent pies. As we took our seats at the table we noticed a very dangerous-looking object sitting on the table, of which, more later. We were slightly taken aback when we learned that we were not going to have another Chicken, Ham Hock and Leek Pie, but our fears were groundless. We were presented with a Steak, Mushroom and Stilton* Pie that was every bit as good.
This was a pie that was perfect in every respect, but unfortunately this was a special celebratory meeting of the Pie Club and therefore, according the rules of the constitution, we were unable to do a formal assessment of the pie. This was probably just as well, because if we had then this pie would probably be the winner of the 2014 Pie of the Year award, but we have to be fair to other pubs and give them a chance to win. The thrice-cooked chips were perfect as well (yes, those are chips in the photo, not roast potatoes).
After such an excellent pie, only Stephen* felt able to have a pudding. He had a Treacle Tart and Custard, which was, apparently, very good. Notice how the custard was served separately, in a jug. It's attention to little points of detail like that that wins our approval. It was a big jug as well.
Then our attention turned to the very dangerous-looking object sitting on the table, which turned out to be a decanter of fine port, courtesy of the house!
Now, we're not normally port drinkers, but it would have been rude of us to have declined such a generous offer, so with a great deal of effort we managed to polish it off between us (and as a consequence there were a few sore heads the next morning!). Only when we'd finished the port did Allen demonstrate to us the correct way for a gentleman to decant port into glasses, and we all felt a bit chastened when we realised that perhaps we're not all real gentlemen after all.
So, congratulations once again to all who work at the White Lion. Long may you continue to offer such good pies! And no doubt we will be back again to sample more of your excellent wares. And we must bear in mind the special offer available on Mondays:
* Unfortunately, Stephen has a strong dislike of Stilton cheese, and was unable to fully appreciate just how good this pie was. He made up for it by having some pudding.
For the 2013 Annual General Meeting of the Pie Club we chose to meet at the pub which won our coveted 2012 Pie of the Year Award: The Wheatsheaf at Shedfield. In truth we were keen to meet there as it was a good excuse to sample one of their pies again, but more on that later.
Pieman has asked that we do not disclose most of what was discussed at the AGM as it was a private matter, for members only, and many of the items on the agenda were of a sensitive nature. However, he has allowed us to report on one item: the decision regarding the winner of the 2013 Pie of the Year Award. This is clearly a matter of great interest to many people. Pieman felt that we should show some compassion for the contenders and put them out of their misery by announcing the winner straight away, so here we go.
Here are the results of our investigations to date. Out of interest we show the scores of all the pies that we have sampled since that historic occasion in 2011 when we had our first outing, although obviously only those pubs that we visited in 2013 are eligible to be considered for this highly-coveted award.
| 2011 |
DATE |
O/A |
PIE |
O/A |
PIE |
|
|
|
SCORE |
SCORE |
RANK |
RANK |
|
| The Brickmakers |
20/01/11 |
16.33 |
7.50 |
6 |
5 |
|
| The Rising Sun |
01/03/11 |
19.25 |
7.13 |
5 |
6 |
|
| The White Horse |
31/03/11 |
16.20 |
7.10 |
8 |
7 |
|
| The Hampshire Bowman |
21/04/11 |
21.50 |
9.00 |
1 |
1 |
|
| The Barleycorn |
23/06/11 |
20.38 |
7.73 |
2 |
3 |
|
| The Black Dog |
28/07/11 |
19.65 |
7.98 |
4 |
4 |
|
| The Farmer's Home |
27/10/11 |
16.30 |
6.63 |
7 |
8 |
|
| The Bugle, Twyford |
24/11/11 |
20.30 |
8.23 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2012 |
DATE |
O/A |
PIE |
O/A |
PIE |
|
|
|
SCORE |
SCORE |
RANK |
RANK |
|
| The Robin Hood |
23/02/12 |
19.63 |
7.63 |
6 |
7 |
|
| The Bugle |
29/03/12 |
16.60 |
6.90 |
8 |
8 |
|
| Southampton Arms, |
26/04/12 |
19.10 |
7.70 |
7 |
6 |
|
| The Wheatsheaf |
29/05/12 |
22.71 |
9.20 |
1 |
1 |
|
| The Brewery Bar, |
28/06/12 |
20.50 |
8.58 |
5 |
3 |
|
| The Brickmakers, |
26/07/12 |
21.78 |
8.78 |
2 |
2 |
|
| The Black Dog |
27/09/12 |
20.98 |
8.25 |
3 |
5 |
|
| The Dog & Crook |
25/10/12 |
16.11 |
4.82* |
9 |
9 |
* crusty |
| The Hampshire Bowman | 29/11/12 |
20.60 |
8.44 |
4 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2013 |
DATE |
O/A |
PIE |
O/A |
PIE |
|
|
|
SCORE | SCORE |
RANK |
RANK |
|
| The Queen Inn |
31/01/13 |
20.83 |
8.20 |
4 |
4 |
|
| The Wheatsheaf |
28/02/13 |
award |
event |
only |
|
|
| St James Tavern |
28/03/13 |
19.10 |
6.51 |
8 |
10 |
|
| The Barleycorn |
25/04/13 |
19.37 |
7.59 |
7 |
7 |
|
| The Crown |
30/05/13 |
16.71 |
7.00 |
10 |
9 |
|
| The Cricketers |
27/06/13 |
19.63 |
7.37 |
6 |
8 |
|
| The White Lion |
25/07/13 |
21.24 |
8.82 |
1 |
1 |
|
| The Brushmaker's Arms |
22/08/13 |
21.22 |
8.76 |
2 |
2 |
|
| The Bush |
26/09/13 |
20.64 |
8.50 |
5 |
3 |
|
| The Fox & Hounds | 31/10/13 |
18.38 |
7.87 |
9 |
6 |
|
| The Baker's Arms |
28/11/13 |
20.91 |
8.04 |
3 |
5 |
|
It was an easy decision to make. The White Lion at Soberton is a clear and deserving winner. Our hearty congratulations go to Alan, the landlord at the White Swan, who must be feeling pretty pleased with himself now. Reading the report of our visit to the White Lion (which can be seen here) brings back many happy memories for all who were there, and even brings a few tears to our eyes. We hope to visit the White Lion in February to formally present Alan with our prestigious Pie of the Year Award. We're hoping that we can persuade Pieman to join us for this outing and present the award to Alan in person, but he is becoming increasingly reclusive these days. Hopefully we will be able to entice him out of his secret underground bunker (somewhere under the streets of Bishops Waltham) with the prospect of sampling a truly excellent pie.
With the business of the AGM out of the way we got on with sampling once again the ales and pie which had been thoughtfully provided for us. Of course we were eager to see if the pie would be as good as it had been on previous occasions, and we weren't disappointed. This time it was a Steak & Kidney Pie:
This was our AGM, so we didn't do a full formal assessment of the pie (for that you should read the report of our visit in 2012 here) but our informal judgement was that this pie was every bit as good as the pies we've had before. As you might expect, the ales were mostly from the Flowerpots Brewery in Cheriton, and all in very good condition, although we did observe that prices have gone up a bit since our last visit. The ales now range from £2.70 to £3.00 per pint. This is still exceptionally good value. To put these beer prices into context, you can have 4 pints here for less than the price of 3 pints in certain other pubs in the area.
Looking at the scores achieved by The Wheatsheaf in 2012 and The White Lion in 2013, The Wheatsheaf is still our overall highest scorer. We are thinking of making The Wheatsheaf our club headquarters.
In a radical break with tradition, Paul T decided that for our next outing we should consider visiting a pub and using a taxi to get there. So far, we have limited our visits to places that we can walk to, or get to using public transport (i.e. the bus). The trouble with this policy is that it excludes several fine pubs in the Meon valley which are simply not reachable by public transport. And anyway, a taxi is a form of public transport.
The first of the Meon valley pubs to be visited in this way is The White Lion, at Soberton, just a few miles from our base in Bishops Waltham, and not very expensive to get to with us all sharing an 8-seater taxi.
We were given a warm welcome by Alan, the new landlord who took over from Andy about a year ago, and his staff, one of whom can be seen above, cleaning the entrance way especially for us. Once inside, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the place had been given a bit of a make-over and was looking very smart, especially in the eating areas, but of course, never mind that, we headed straight for the bar in the drinking area.
The ales they had on included a selection of always-excellent Bowman Ales, and another of our favourites, Doombar 4%. Most of us opted for a pint of Swift One 3.8% to start with, but after the first few pints had been drawn the barrel ran out. Oh no, we thought. So we moved on to Wallops Wood 4%, and all agreed that this was a very acceptable substitution.
Unsurprisingly, we all ordered Pie of the Day, which we were informed was a Chicken, Ham Hock & Leek Pie served with vegetables and a choice of saute potatoes, hand-cut chips, or mash.
We didn't have to wait long for the food to arrive. The saute potatoes (above) were overdone, but some of us like them that way. They were certainly very tasty. The mash potato (below) was smooth and creamy, just the way it should be.
We each had an individual pie, which had a short-crust base and sides, and was topped with flaky pastry. Inside, it was packed with meat and leaks. The sauce was served as it should be, in a separate jug, and was delicious. It was a creamy mustard and tarragon sauce, which was very tasty, and made a welcome change from the usual (unimaginative) gravy. The sauce was a perfect accompaniment to the pie.
At first glance the portions looked not over-large, but as it turned out, they were probably just right. The landlord may have noticed the looks on our faces as we saw the size of the portions because later, in a clear and brazen attempt to influence our judgement, he presented us with 2 free side-dishes of chips (which were very good). We needed the extra chips to help mop-up the left-over sauce. We were well satisfied by this meal, but some of us still had room for pudding.
Puddings are not taken into account when assessing our meals out, but these puddings were clearly up to the same high standard as the main course, and very enjoyable.
We still like the look of this pub. It's traditional style, recently refurbished, with no music or dartboard or other unnecessary distractions suits us very well. It's clean, the service was good, and the staff were friendly. Value for money was reasonable too, with the pies at £9.95 each, and the ale at £3.40/pint. We should have come on a Monday, because Alan tells us that all ales are £2.50/pint on Mondays. As Alan presented the bill to us there was another clear attempt to influence our judgement when he offered us each a glass of port on the house. We don't have any objections to having our judgement influenced in this way.
Scores (max. 5 in each category, 25 overall):
- Pastry 4.179
- Filling 4.636
- Beer 4.186
- Ambience 4.386
- Value 3.857
- Overall 21.24
And so The White Lion leaps into 1st place out of 6 pubs visited so far this year. This pie is a worthy contender for the Pie of the Year 2013 award, but, of course, there's a long way to go yet, as we still have another 4 pubs to visit. The only problem we have with this pub is that it is relatively inaccessible - we suggested to Alan that he should provide a free shuttle bus service for people like us, but he didn't seem keen.
