Queen Elizabethpasses on wine — at least, her own wine.
The 93-year-old monarch visited the National Institute of Agricultural Botany near Cambridge on Tuesday to celebrate 100 years of crop research, where conversation turned to the rising popularity of English wine.
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Just before lunchQueen Elizabethreportedly has her first cocktail of the day, agin and Dubonnetwith a slice of lemon and a lot of ice, according to Darren McGrady, a former royal chef.
The late Margaret Rhodes, theQueen’s cousin, claimed that the Queen will also imbibe in a dry gin martini with lunch for good measure.
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The Queen then balances out her day during afternoon tea, where she sips on an herbal drink and enjoys a sweet, such as a slice of pie or chocolate biscuit cake.
Finally, she ends her day with a light dinner and follows a “no starch” rule if she’s dining alone, according to McGrady. She then finishes it all off with an elegant glass of champagne before heading off to bed.
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Meanwhile,Queen Elizabeth’s mother — born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon — enjoyed a“steady, rather than excessive” consumption of alcohol during her life.
The wife of King George IV started things off with a glass of Dubonnet and gin before lunch, which was usually served in the drawing room or out in the garden when weather permitted at Clarence House, where she lived from 1953 to 2002.
The Queen Mother then enjoyed wine with her meal.
Major Colin Burgess was responsible for mixing a martini or two before dinner for the Queen Mum, and she sipped Veuve Clicquot champagne as she ate.
Burgess previously recalled working for the royal for theDaily Mail,noting her “fondness for red wine, particularly heavy clarets, which she loved” and drinking a bottle and a half at his first meeting with her.
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“Later came the ritual observed at 6 p.m., deemed the earliest acceptable time for an evening drink,” he recalled. “‘Colin, are we at the magic hour?’ the Queen Mother would invariably ask, and I’d mix her a martini. After a couple of these, she would sit down to dinner and drink one or two glasses of pink champagne.”
source: people.com
