A super puzzle from Gozo that I did not find easy. Thank you Gozo.
The solutions to all the across solutions are drinks, mostly wines. Reading all these names has made me thirsty and there is at least one bottle of the aforementioned unfinished in the fridge, but it is still early in the day and I have stuff to do. What should I do?
| Across | ||
| 1 | DOCTOR | Old brown sherry will corrupt fish, on reflection (6) |
| ROT (corrupt) COD (fish) all reversed (on reflection) – old slang term for brown sherry | ||
| 4 | SAUTERNE | Sensible case for brewing true wine (8) |
| SANE (sensible) containing (case for) TRUE* anagram=brewing | ||
| 10 | MARTINI | Cocktail taken in one swallow for starters (7) |
| I (one) following (with…for starters) MARTIN (a swallow) | ||
| 11 | CHABLIS | Somewhat rich, a blissful Burgundy (7) |
| found inside (somewhat) riCH A BLISsful | ||
| 12 | ROSE | Written work, page missing on table wine (4) |
| pROSE (written work) missing P (page) | ||
| 13 | PETER-SEE-ME | Liquor in safe? Teachers demand (5-3-2) |
| PETER (safe) with SEE ME (teacher’s demand) – a Spanish wine jokingly named after the grape variety Pedro Ximenez | ||
| 15 | SHIRAZ | A red blouse shortened, taken to literal extremes (6) |
| SHIRt (blouse, shortened) with A and Z (taken to literal extremes, the most extreme letters of the alphabet) | ||
| 16 | SIDECAR | Poor Cressida dropped small cocktail (7) |
| anagram (poor) of CRESsIDA missing S (small) | ||
| 20 | MADEIRA | Cheese being rejected, Gershwin produced wine (7) |
| EDAM (cheese) reversed (being rejected) than IRA (Ira Gershwin) | ||
| 21 | BEAUNE | Old airline with a French wine (6) |
| BEA (British European Airways, old airline) with UNE (a, French) | ||
| 24 | CHARTREUSE | Liqueur exemplified by environmentally friendly map- readers? (10) |
| CHART RE-USE – environmentally friendly map readers reuse their charts | ||
| 26 | SEKT | Arranged shock treatment – no Montrachet – another wine (4) |
| anagram (arranged) of SHOCK TREATMENT missing MONTRACHET | ||
| 28 | REAL ALE | All are drunk on English beer (4,3) |
| (ALL ARE)* anagram=drunk then E (English) | ||
| 29 | AUSLESE | A custom imbibing the French and choice German wine (7) |
| A USE (custom) contains (imbibing) LES (the, French) | ||
| 30 | RIESLING | Chips topped with fish and white wine (8) |
| fRIES (chips, topped) with LING (a fish) | ||
| 31 | PASTIS | While in training is given alcoholic drink (6) |
| AS (while) in PT (physical training) then IS | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DEMUREST | Most sober dissent is coming from Paris (8) |
| DEMUR (dissent) with EST (is, French, from Paris) | ||
| 2 | CHRISTINA | Rich satin fashioned for popstar Aguilera (9) |
| (RICH SATIN)* anagram=fashioned – singer Christina Aguilera | ||
| 3 | ODIN | Apparently quiet god (4) |
| O DIN (zero noise, apparenltly quiet) | ||
| 5 | ACCREDIT | Attribute good character to a church leader (8) |
| CREDIT (good character) following (to) A Church (leading letter of) | ||
| 6 | TRANSFEREE | Fees involved with errant one being moved? (10) |
| anagram (involved) of FEES with ERRANT | ||
| 7 | RILKE | German poet may show anger about ending of limerick (5) |
| RILE (anger) caontains (about) limericK (ending of) | ||
| 8 | EASTER | Served up Greek wine, but not in European festival (6) |
| RETSinA (Greek wine) missing IN then E (European) all reversed (served up) | ||
| 9 | CIDER | Drink police presented to royalty (5) |
| CID (police) with ER (The Queen, royalty) | ||
| 14 | PAPER TRAIL | Documentation making office assistant get saucy and protest (5,5) |
| PA (office assistant) with PERT (saucy) and RAIL (protest) | ||
| 17 | AMUSEMENT | Fun as a goddess intended? (9) |
| A MUSE (goddess) MENT (intended ?) – not sure why MENT is intended | ||
| 18 | BREEZE IN | Arrive casually, light wind having gathered? (6,2) |
| BREEZE (light wind) with IN (gathered) | ||
| 19 | FEATHERS | Worries about the birds’ protection (8) |
| FEARS (worries) caontaining (about) THE | ||
| 22 | SCORER | Scratch player or statistician? (6) |
| definition/cryptic definition | ||
| 23 | ASSAM | Sort of tea service aristocrats initially rejected (5) |
| MASS (service) and Aristocrats (initial letter of) both reversed (rejected) | ||
| 25 | ADAGE | Saw girl, huge, being cut in half (5) |
| ADA (girl) then huGE (half of) | ||
| 27 | ASIA | Article detailed Thailand and its location (4) |
| A (indefinite article) and SIAm (Thailand) missing last letter (detailed) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
ment sounds like meant (intended), but you’re right that there was no indication that we should be looking for a homophone
I wondered about 17d too, but otherwise enjoyed this puzzle. There were some really good surface readings and the theme was one about which I found I knew quite a bit! 13ac was new to me, but easily gettable from the wordplay – nice clue.
Thanks to Gozo & PeeDee.
Thanks, PeeDee.
What a lovely puzzle! – though one to be savoured in the evening, with a nice glass of two of 11ac [which I think I would stick my neck out and call &lit 😉 ] rather than prior to defrosting the freezer! [But I did then go out to lunch.]
PETER-SEE-ME, SEKT and AUSLESE were new ones on me but I confess to being familiar, in varying degrees, with the rest.
Great cluing throughout – top favourites, I think, were 26, 28 and 30ac.
PeeDee, in 15ac, you need an A with the Z, to give the literal extremes.
I don’t usually like this modern version of ‘Thank you’ – but Cheers, Gozo – I loved it!
‘glass or two’, of course.
Thanks Eileen, fixed now. I wondered at the time why extremes was plural but for some reason the penny never dropped.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Impressive – every across solution being a theme answer … with a few down ones thrown in for good measure.
Must have been right on his wavelength with this one, as I was able to complete all bar BEAUNE and SEKT on the half hour train ride home with these other two polished off quickly after getting there. Or maybe it was a theme that was a little too familiar for me ! 🙂
A few new wines after all – DOCTOR (which I discovered was a brown sherry made with boiled mosto stock (another new term)), PASTIS, PETER-SEE-ME, BEAUNE and SEKT. They were all so well clued that they could be derived from the word play and just checked off as a wine afterwards.
A good fun puzzle. Hopefully the sun was close enough to the yardarm when you finished the blog for you to have enjoyed one or two from the theme, PeeDee !!!
Thanks PeeDee and Gozo.
Refreshing dare I say.
SEKT and PETER-SEE-ME were both new to me but gettable from the impeccable clues.
1ac had to be DOCTOR but I totally failed to find any reference in my mobile on-line guides so thanks for the explanation which is now filed for future use.
Nothing like an enjoyable puzzle to build up a thirst.