Week in pictures

What do you get if you cross Paul Symington with Chris Tarrant and Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men? Why, it’s the latest db week in pictures of course!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Symington (right) chats with one of his grape pickers at Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos. Alongside is Paul’s childhood friend, British sculptor Richard Hudson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Symington later joined the crowd treading the 2010 vintage at Quinta do Vesuvio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 David Gates, global category director for whisky at Diageo, inside the new Roseisle distillery in Speyside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Roseisle distillery is split into three distinct colour-coded parts to illustrate the three stages of distillation. The stainless steel end represents the initial mash and distillation, the turquoise represents the new-make spirit and the brown represents maturation in cask.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fascinating line-up of 27 new-make Diageo-owned single malts laid out for comparative nosing at the Roseisle distillery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annegret Reh-Gartner of Reichsgraf von Kesselstat talks tasters through the ’09 vintage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An impressive setting for an impressive vintage: VDP Mosel ’09 tasting at the Kurfürstliches Palais, Trier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because sometimes only a magnum will do…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The annual VDP Grosser Ring auction gets underway at the Europehalle in Trier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even older than the 1911 SA Prüm sold at the auction: The Porta Nigra provides an imposing reminder of Trier’s historic importance as the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highland Park unveiled its 50-year-old expression at a launch event at Harrod’s, London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A bar on the banks of the river Douro where John Major lunched with the Symington family during a summer break in the region while he was UK Prime Minister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A plaque to commemorate John Major’s visit was later added by the owner of the surprisingly simple café.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heaven: The lounge at Drummuir Castle in Speyside is home to a staggering array of fine, rare single malts, Cognacs and rums.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having had our fill of whisky, db took to the full-size snooker table. Two hours later we were still there, will to live ebbing away as a seemingly endless doubles match went on until the early hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Gates runs guests at Drummuir Castle through an overview of recent global marketing campaigns for Diageo’s whiskies around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner at the castle was followed by a tasting of the latest Johnnie Walker travel retail exclusive expression – Double Black.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

British TV star Chris Tarrant (centre) toasts Who Wants to be a Football Millionaire winners Simon Johnson and Craig Palfrey who each won big prize funds in the Heineken UK promotion, which ran nationwide across the on and off-trade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Late afternoon at the top of the breathtakingly beautiful Quinta do Vesuvio, with the river Douro below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2010 Landmark Australia Tasting participants line up at Yering Station. L-R: Diwen Qiu (Singapore); Fongyee Walker (China); Kenichi Ohashi (Japan); Karen MacNeil (US); Sarah Ahmed (UK); Lisa Perrotti-Brown (Singapore); Simon Tam (Hong Kong); Thomas Woolrych (UK); Joerg Sievers (Germany); Kim Bickley (Australia); Jon Troutman (US); Thomas Rydberg (Denmark); Dr Edward Ragg (China); Tony Love (Australia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Testing out the new set menu at Royal China in Baker Street, London. The wines on the menu were selected by Anthony Byrne Fine Wines, who paired the pan fried lamb chop with honest black bean sauce with Mindiarte Rioja Alta Tinto ’09 and the stir-fried dover sole with XO sauce and Szechuan sauce with La Fattoria Bianco Casetta NV. Other food and wine pairings on the menu inlide braised lobster with Steeple Jack Chardonnay ’09 and crispy aromatic duck wth Apaltague Gran Verano Merlot ’08.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diners at Camino in Canary Wharf, London, can forget about the stresses of city life by taking out their frustrations on the Fussball tables.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joey Medrington from Tigerlily bar in Edinburgh, has been selected as the Licor 43 UK brand ambassador for 2011 following a nationwide competition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill and Ben? Stuck in an early-morning traffic jam in Elgin, Scotland, a bleary-eyed db thought it must still be dreaming when it looked out the window to see these two flowery characters sitting outside the front door of a house.

db, 01.10.2010