It's early evening in mid September. It should have been a balmy evening as we wandered down the Uxbridge Road from Shepherd's Bush Green but it wasn't. It was absolutely tipping down with rain. Real rain of the cats and dogs variety. Being a Crystal Palace supporter means visits to some far flung football grounds in all corners of Britain and some fairly dodgy pubs - I don't suppose that many Farr Vintners customers have been to Burnley, Port Vale or even Millwall. Anyway September 15th was QPR away and a rare London Derby so that's why we were getting soaked in W12.
It was still pouring with rain as we entered the pub. "No football colours" said the sign in the window and Ben quickly zipped up his jacket to hide the red and blue stripes. Spirits were lifted by a splendid line up of hand-pumped real ales on the bar which included Harvey's of Lewes, Hop Back Summer Lightning from Salisbury and the legendary Timothy Taylor Landlord from Keighley in West Yorkshire. Whoever chooses the beer here knows his stuff.
We sat down with our pints of Landlord (delicious) and some wonderful home-made pork scratchings and examined the bar snacks menu. Pork cheeks, potted crab, oysters....wow, this is no ordinary pub. This was confirmed a few minutes later when the food started to arrive. I think that I can safely say that this place serves the best pre-match pub grub that I have had in my 40 years of following the Eagles around the country. And that's a lot of pub grub.
The next thing to investigate was the wine list. Blimey, hold the pints lads, they've got Coche-Dury! With Puligny Montrachet Les Enseigneres on the list at £125 per bottle it's going to be hard not to order that, but look at the next line, it's only Corton Bloody Charlemagne. In a pub! For those who are not in the know, Coche-Dury's Corton Charlemagne is pretty much the holy grail of white Burgundy. Normally impossible to find and if you do, nearly impossible to afford. A London broker currently offers the 2006 vintage at £1000 per bottle and that's excluding duty and VAT, and it would probably be snowing by the time they delivered it. Here it is, served at your table in a decanter, with proper glasses at £220. No discussion, we order it, well it would be crazy not to wouldn't it? Just as the wine arrives at the table the friendly barman tells us that the match has been called off due to a waterlogged pitch. As we take our first sips of this fabulous wine, Joss (a fellow Palace fan who has just taken 2 hours to get here from Basingstoke) says "so what". Suddenly football's not a matter of life and death any more and we order another bottle.
Moral dilemma: keep it a secret or tell everyone about it? Well it's not really a secret anyway, so, alright then. It's The Princess Victoria and it's my new favourite pub in the world.
For further details, go to The Princess Victoria and Timothy Taylor
