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Slideshow
The week in pictures
This week, during what he thought was a regular business meeting in his London office with Haig Club global whisky master Ewan Gunn, David Beckham was surprised with a unique 40th birthday birthday gift.
In celebration of this milestone year, the Haig Club team created a one-of-a kind, handcrafted crystal decanter containing rare 40-year old Haig Club Single Grain Scotch Whisky.
Champagne consultant and photographer Victor Pugatschew was named the Errázuriz Wine Photographer of the Year this week at a reception in London. His winning image, Pinot Noir Being Pressed, was described by the judges as “a stunning and original composition”.
Scooping the Taittigner-sponsored Food for Celebration award at the Food Photographer of the Year awards this week was designer Mark Benham for ‘Obidos Mediaeval Festival, Portugal’. The top prize of £5,000 was won by David Griffen for ‘Smoked Wings’.
Pub gardens in commuter belts across London, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton, Cardiff, Manchester and Leeds have been given the colourful Bulmers makeover using colours reflecting the Bulmers range, which includes the brand new Zesty Blood Orange variant.
Emma Sherwood-Smith, cider director at Heineken said, “We’re investing in great pubs with quality, permanent items that will premiumise their outdoor space and improve their customers’ summer experience.”
This outdoor activity builds on Bulmers #LiveColourful campaign, which launched in 2014.
Team db was sent samples of an intriguing new product, Ohayo, this week, which claims to be able to prevent hangovers by replacing essential vitamins that alcohol takes away. Now on sale in the UK, Ohayo contains vitamin B, magnesium, potassium, electrolytes and milk thistle. We’re looking forward to seeing whether the elixir works…
Dom Pérignon showed signature swagger this week with the launch of an incredibly posh pop-up, Les Trois Etages, within a Georgian townhouse in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Holborn. Aiming to showcase the Champagne’s three life stages, dubbed “plenitudes” by the brand, DP has hooked up with chef Skye Gyngell, who will be cooking a series of intimate lunches and dinners of dishes designed specifically to pair with the flavours found in the fizz during its infancy, adolescence and middle age.
As part of the glitzy launch event, we were asked to step inside the Matrix-like “contemplation room” on the third floor of the townhouse.
Within the townhouse monk Dom Pérignon’s signature phrase, “I’m drinking the stars”, was up in lights, that he allegedly uttered when drinking the sparkling wine he’d created for the first time.
Chef Skye Gyngell enters the contemplation room / one of the launch party’s more colourful guests, up and coming singer “Petite Meller”.
Jo Thornton, managing director of Moët Hennessy UK (left) enjoys a glass of the recently released 2005 vintage of Dom Pérignon with its maker, cellar master Richard Geoffroy.
Beside Jon from L-R are Fiona Mottershaw, Villa Maria brand manager, Amanda Berry OBE, BAFTA chief executive, and Patrick McGrath MW, Hatch Mansfield MD
Villa Maria wines from New Zealand, official wine partner to BAFTA, hosted a lunch for journalist and news anchor Jon Snow at the Corinthia Hotel this week in honour of his upcoming “Fellowship”, during which he will be presented with at the House of Fraser British Academy Television Awards on Sunday 10 May. Jon was joined at the lunch by close friends and family.
Harveys was an exhibitor at The BFT (Big Fortified Tasting) and also was one of the fortified wines featured in certified dates sherries master class this week, including the Harveys Very Old Oloroso Blend Medium 30 Year Old VORS.
The brand also showcased six other wines: Fino; Signature, 12 Year Old Cream Sherry; Very Old Amontillado 30 Year Old VORS; Palo Cortado Blend Medium 30 Year Old VORS; Very Old Oloroso Blend Medium 30 Year Old VORS; Pedro Ximénez 30 Year Old VORS.
Among the numerous treats on offer at this year’s Big Fortified Tasting in London was a Madeira masterclass led by wine writer Rui Falcao, who was introduced by Dr João de Vallera, the Portuguese ambassador to the UK and an enthusiastic supporter of his country’s wine.
Not your traditional Madeira label. These shady gentlemen are not the only unusual element here – this is the first Madeira to be labelled as Tinta Negra, a variety that until a change in regulations last month was not officially regarded as being sufficiently “noble” to appear on the front label, unlike the category’s better known Sercial, Verdelho, Boal and Malvasia grapes.
On Wednesday 6 May, exclusive members’ club Home House hosted an intimate cognac and chocolate pairing for London’s top sommeliers. Mr Bernard Bouyer Dubosquet, CEO of award-winning Maison Plantevigne-Dubosquet, presented an exclusive Cognac, paired with English chocolatier Paul A. Young’s specially-crafted chocolates.
Pol Roger UK hosted a “biodynamic breakfast” on Thursday this week to showcase its biodynamic agencies Josmeyer, Drouhin and Robert Sinskey Vineyards, as well as its spanking new bespoke Pol Land Rover Defender, which you can read more about here.
After breakfast (above), Pol Roger Ltd managing director James Simpson MW (below) proudly showed db his Zalto glass collection at the company’s new office in Battersea.
Dave Broom entertains and enlightens at a tasting of the Craigellachie distillery’s whiskies at the Craigellachie Hotel during the Spirit of Speyside Festival which came to a close on Tuesday this week.