The week in pictures

Frédéric PanaÏotis, chef de cave at Ruinart, hosted a Blanc de Blancs tasting in South Kensington, London, on Thursday. Guests were treated to a tasting of the Champagne houses’s Blanc de Blancs NV in bottle, magnum and Jeroboam, before being led through a vertical tasting of its 2004, 1998 and 1988 Dom Ruinart vintages. The 100% Chardonnay grapes for both wines come predominantly from vineyards in the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims ­Premiers Crus for the Blanc de Blancs, and Grands Crus for the Dom Ruinart.

Panaïotis joined Champagne Ruinart as Chef de Caves in 2007. His roots are very much in Champagne, as his grandparents had vineyards in the region where he spent much of his time as a child. His professional career began with a compulsory training period at the CIVC.

db attended a sumptuous dinner hosted by Oldenburg Vineyards in South Africa’s Banghoek Valley in Stellenbosch at Somerset House in London on Tuesday. The winery, owned by Adrian and Vanessa Vanderspuy (pictured), is sponsoring the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair opening this week, at which artists from all over Africa are exhibiting. Guests were treated to a private view before sitting down for a dinner prepared by chef Tom Aikens paired to a selection of its wines, which included a Bordeaux-style Rhodium blend, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chenin Blanc.

db‘s very own Wine Show Chelsea kicked off this morning (Friday 16 October) at the Chelsea Old Town Hall in a (rather cloudy) West London. The show will go on all weekend, and you can still buy a ticket for any of the three days here, or you can pay on the door! With masterclasses and tastings across the whole weekend, it’s not something to be missed.

London Cocktail Week swept through the capital this week, setting up its thriving hub at Spitalfields market and celebrating the cocktail in all its forms, as you’ll see on the next page…

The Café Italia pop-up at the London Cocktail Week hub in Spitalfields showcased fine Italian spirits and coffee, as well as celebrating the traditions of the Aperitivo and Digestivo this week. The pop-up, presented by Giuseppe Gallo and Bar Termini, held cocktail masterclasses on each of the three days it was present at the hub.

A one-off performance from performer Lethal Bizzle, Hollywood composer David Arnold and rising star Sinead Harnett at One Mayfair took place this week as part of the Bulmers Live Colourful Live campaign.

O2 London venue The Brooklyn Bowl has teamed up with Northamptonshire-based Nene Valley Brewery to create their own line of beer. The Brooklyn Bowl has named the new beer Knock Down Punk – in-keeping with the bowling theme – and the beer will be available exclusively at the venue from 23 October.

The beer has been described as a “refreshing and easy drinking pale lager”, and the tap (pictured) is a rather creepy bowling pin with what is called a “carnival punk doll” design.

The Harveys Remix bartender competition at the home of Harveys in Jerez, Spain took place this week. The competition took place at the Harveys bodega and three finalists, Joe Macbeth of Rub Smokehouse & Bar (Nottingham), Robyn Wilkie of Mash (London) and Georgia Billing of Looking Glass Cocktail Club (London), visited the vineyards, the historic town and tasted the range of Harveys sherries. The bartenders also had the opportunity to sign a Harveys barrel.

Our new team member Darren Smith spent the week in Sicily on the northern slope of Etna to work on the grape harvest. The harshness of the 7am starts to pick these Nerello Mascalese vines was compensated for by the view of the smouldering volcano above. 

Normally an impressively poor take of pictures, Darren seems to have got lucky with this one showing the flotsam of several skeletal fir trees caught up in the lava flow from Etna’s last major eruption.   

Young vines planted in the grounds of Vino di Anna in the village of Solicchiata, just a short distance from the winery of Frank Cornelissen. Vino di Anna is owned by winemaker Anna Martens and Les Caves de Pyrene owner Eric Narioo. It includes a renovated palmento – a traditional gravity-fed winery building made form the local lava rock. They also have nine Georgian qvevris – large terracotta vessels – used for the fermentation and maturation of some of their wines.   

No visit to a traditional Sicilian palmento would be complete without a bit of pigeage à pied.

Underground Soho bar Cahoots is keeping the spirit of summer alive this autumn with the launch of a Sunday afternoon “Squiffy Picnic”. Starting on Sunday, 25 October, guests will be whisked to a tranquil garden party complete with vintage picnic hampers filled with British classics and retro cocktails. Picknickers can also look forward to a jolly knees up with live jazz, swing, lindyhop and sing-a-longs around the piano.

We were lucky enough to be invited to The Savoy this week to try out their new “Temptation Wheel”, which pairs decadent digestifs with different desserts. Separated into four sections: light, medium, rich and indulgent, each section of the wheel suggests a chocolate, cocktail and pudding pairing but guests are free to mix and match their own combos.

Having decided on a cocktail, our trusty mixologist got to work on creating it at a stunning Art Deco drinks trolley, which was theatrically wheeled to us in the same glass domed room where afternoon tea is enjoyed, complete with an ornate gazebo.

My Kings & Quince cocktail, which blended Woodford Reserve Bourbon with quince liqueur and almond syrup, paired fantastical well with a hunk of caramel honey chocolate, which was dramatically cracked by our waiter with a tiny hammer.

And finally… our Williams pear pud with hot chocolate sauce reminded us of a Lichtenstein painting – kerpow!