The week in pictures

Wine distributor Matthew Clark this week announced the date of its annual portfolio tasting, which is to take place at London’s Tobacco Dock on 8 March. Following on from last year’s #Whywelovewine tasting (pictured), this year’s “Discover Love Inspire” 2016 portfolio tasting will be its biggest event yet.

With over 500 wines selected by Matthew Clark, this event is billed as “the greatest wine portfolio tasting the company has ever held”.

Beefeater master distiller Desmond Payne and Beefeater MIXLDN Global Bartender Competition Champion Evelyn Chick

Beefeater has announced Evelyn Chick from Harbord Room bar in Toronto, Canada as the winner of the 2015 Beefeater MIXLDN Cocktail Competition. The culmination of the global finals in central London this saw great female success with half of the countries in the last round represented by women.

Louis XIII Cognac this week celebrated the release of its short film starring John Malkovich, which will be stored in a safe and not released until 2115. The film was inspired by the time it requires to create LOUIS XIII, as each decanter takes four generations of cellar masters over 100 years to craft.

A new gourmet hot dog restaurant The Dog Haus has launched at Brighton’s seafront venue Patterns. To celebrate, the restaurant this week held  a celebration of sausage with a sausage dog fancy dress competition, hot dog eating contest, and half price hot dogs for all.

Twelve Japanese producers of Koshu flew in to London this week for the Koshu of Japan annual tasting. The event was held at the Halkin Hotel, where a room of sand-filled hanging test tubes made for a striking setting.

Showcasing the country’s best-known variety, Takao Uchida, owner of the L’Orient winery in Yamanashi, was one of the producers on hand to talk guests through Japan’s offer.

L’Orient Winery was founded in 1928 by Uchida’s grandfather Kunitaro Uchida. Today it cultivates Koshu, Chardonnay, Muscat Bailey A and Merlot, producing 1,500 hectolitres of wine a year. 

db were treated to the seven-course Kaiseki cocktail and paired food menu at Shochu Lounge at Roka in Charlotte Street on Tuesday. Pear sake, piles of smoked duck, melt-in-the-mouth tuna sashimi and wagyu beef tempura sushi rolls stand out highlights, as was the bar’s giant block of ice used to carve ice cubes. 

Watching our bartender work his magic from the bar’s Shochu table, as close to the action as you can get, we were given these pretty paper umbrellas. They were however intended for a more practical purpose – shielding us from any wayward ice cube shavings as bartenders carved chunks of ice from a crystal clear block of ice on the bar.

Anton Mangaro – Head chef at 195 Piccadilly (Photo: BAFTA)

Champagne Taittinger and Villa Maria are official Champagne and wine partners to the BAFTAs and on Monday they held an event at the Grosvenor Hotel where they launched the menu for the awards ceremony.

Above is BAFTA’s head chef Anton Manganaro and below, the starter of beetroot cured salmon.

Wednesday brought the Louis Latour annual portfolio tasting to The Hospital Club in London’s Covent Garden. The event included a masterclass from Champagne Gosset oenologist Hermine de Clermont Tonnerre, who presented an intriguing selection of wines designed to highlight the house’s Grande Reserve range.

Three of the wines, all samples from the 2007 vintage, revealed the distinct organoleptic profiles of Champagne’s three main varieties – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. It was interesting to see the different rates of evolution of the three grapes – the lower-acid Meunier showing much more development; the Chardonnay fresh, floral and light on its feet; the Pinot just as fresh as the Chardonnay but still markedly closed despite its age.

A further three wines showed the Grande Reserve – which Gosset, unusually, produces without malolactic fermentation – at different stages of development, with 2010, 1985 and 1982 vintages chosen.

Naturally at a portfolio tasting of one of the world’s foremost drinks agencies, there were one or two big cheeses present (these particular ones representing The London Cheese Board).

The Louis Latour tasting also gave the drinks business the chance to see Clare Valley winery Wakefield’s new ‘Optimum Drinking Temperature Sensor‘ technology.

The winery’s Wakefield Estate and Promised Land ranges will feature an such handy temperature-sensitive labels, designed to help consumers to ensure they are drinking the wine at the correct temperature, from April.

db towers had a visit from young entrepreneur Noah Geeves this week, who came in to show us his new frozen cocktail brand Lic. Designed to be enjoyed at festivals and summer events, among the flavours he’s created are Piña Colada, Mojito and Strawberry Daiquiri, all of which contain a shot of barrel-aged rum.

We were also visited by Argentine wine pioneer Susana Balbo’s son, José Lovaglio, who recently launched his own boutique wine brand Vaglio.

Each of the four wines in the Vaglio range is made from grapes grown on different soils: Chango on sandy soils, Chacra on clay soils, Aggie on alluvial soils and Temple on loam-based soils. With the wines, José aims to illustrate the extent to which Malbec can differ in style depending on which soils its planted in.

db jumped at the chance to visit the new Big Easy in Canary Wharf this week, which is fast becoming the City boys’ favourite playground. In addition to giant shrimp and gargantuan steaks, the restaurant boasts a rum bar specialising in barrel-aged drops.

But we were there to taste Jefferson’s barrel-aged Bourbon cocktails mixed by head bartender Andy Pearson, who gave us samples of the cocktail to try during different stages of barrel maturation to show how the elements mellow out to form a dangerously drinkable twist on an Old Fashioned with apricot liqueur.

We are also treated to a tasting of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wines, including big guns Romanée-Conti and La Tâche. During the tasting, co-owner of the estate Aubert de Villaine told db that he was priming his nephew Bertrand to take the reins in the next few years and admitted that the 2013 vintage was “disastrous” in terms of quantity.

The decadence continued at The Ritz, where we met with Mouton Rothschild’s new president, Philippe Sereys de Rothschild and Frederic Mairesse, managing director of Champagne Barons de Rothschild, who talked us through the five-strong Champagne range.

Among the highlights was the 2006 vintage – the company’s prestige cuvée, of which only 4,000 bottles were made from grand and premier cru sites in the Côtes de Blancs. de Rothschild told db that he was keen to make Chardonnay his focus as it is “the white truffle” of Champagne.

The night before, Philippe hosted a decadent dinner in one of The Ritz’ private dining room attended by the great and good of the wine world, including The Wine Advocate‘s Neal Martin and Serena Sutcliffe MW of Sotheby’s.

The wine highlight of the night was a magnum of Château Mouton Rothschild 1989, which is just coming into its prime.

Among the dishes we devoured were turbot with black truffle, venison with chestnut and apple, and this pretty pud made with meringue, raspberries and raspberry & lime sorbet.

English sparkling wine producer Sixteen Ridges sponsored a dinner called Glos at an art gallery in Broadway this week in collaboration with royal artist in residence Jeremy Houghton, and Cotswold rapeseed oil producer Charlie Beldam. The 10-course tasting menu was created by chef Tobyn Excell, with dishes paired to Sixteen Ridges wines. Among the attendees at the dinner was the estate’s business development director Liz Waltham.

One of the more jazzy labels spotted at the Jascots tasting at 8 Northumberland Avenue this week – a Garnacha from Montsant, a grape which the on-trade supplier believes has the potential to be the next Pinot Noir.

db’s Chloe Beral headed to the increasingly popular and über cool “Bloodshot Supperclub” in the small hours on Saturday to see what happens when a group of competitive chefs get together to collectively cook on their night off.

Hosted by chef Chris Trundle at The Dairy in Clapham, among the dishes on the menu were polenta with mandarin (above) minestra nera and anchovy, Stitchelton with truffle and rhubarb with rapeseed oil and custard (pictured).