The week in pictures

The new Riesling Fellows, from left to right: François Langbeen, Martin Lam, Max Gerstl, and Peter Kuhn

Wines of Germany’s Riesling Fellowship took place on Wednesday at the Vintners’ Hall, London. The award recognises those that have made “outstanding contributions to making Riesling popular in the UK.” Pictured above, the new Riesling Fellows for 2017 are Belgium importer François Langbeen, UK food and restaurant consultant Martin Lam, Swiss wine importer Max Gerstl, and Swiss merchant Peter Kuhn.

The evening included seminars and tastings, followed by a dinner. Previous Riesling Fellows were in attendance along with German Riesling producers.

Anne Krebiehl MW hosted a masterclass on German Sekt.

From back left: Sebastian Thomas, Peter Kuhn, David Motion, Hew Blar, Martin Lam, Max Gerstl. From front left: Stuart Pigott, Francois Langbeen, Hug Johnson, Nigel Blundell

The Riesling Fellows, old and new.

From Back left: Martin Steinmann (Schloss Sommerhausen), Martin Winterling (Wein & Sekt Winterling), Moriz Just (Weingut Herzog von Württemberg.) Middle from left: Anna Spanier (Sekthaus Krack), Melissa Lohmeyer (Wine & Sekt Braun.) Front row from left: Christian Krack (Sekthaus Krack), Christoph Graf (Schloss Vaux), Sylvain Taurisson-Diel (Schlossgut Diel.)

Riesling producers travelled to London from Germany to attend the event.

A very busy week for Wine Australia, who hosted their annual Australia Day Tasting in London on Tuesday and in Edinburgh on Thursday. The Dublin tasting will take place next week on Monday 30 January. The ADT in London is the UK’s biggest trade tasting of Australian wine, with nearly 1100 wines from 230 wineries on show.

Australia’s big annual trade tasting came as Wine Australia’s December 2016 Export Report revealed a record-breaking year for exports of Aussie premium wine.

Popular wines from ADT on Social Media included:

Quealy Wines, a favourite of wine writer, Jane Parkinson.

Sarah Ahmed’s selection of Mclaren Vale Grenache.

Sarah Ahmed hosted a masterclass, in which she stated that Australian Grenache has better ageing potential than Shiraz.

Anne Krebiehl MW was a big fan of Tolpuddle Vineyard’s Pinot Noir.

During the tasting we talked terroir with Kim Milne of Bird in Hand, while tasting through his impressive range.

We also caught up with Imogen Taylor of Swig, who represents BW Wines in the UK – one of an exciting new collective of fired up young producers in the Basket Range region of the Adelaide Hills.

We were also lucky enough to meet Nathan Waks of Kiliksnoon and try his ethereal 2009 Grenache, which knocked our socks off.

At the Bancroft Wines stand we caught up with the lovely Sophie McClean, who talked us through the Petaluma and Ten Minutes By Tractor ranges.

And finally… likely lads Rory Lane of The Lane Vineyard and Damian North of Journey Wines treated us to a tutored tasting of their wines.

The Jascots trade tasting and insights briefing took place on Thursday at the Royal Society of Arts, London. Jascots revealed their top wine trends for 2017 including a record year for English wine, Rhône wines challenging those from Bordeaux and a move towards shorter and more accessible wine lists.

The insights panel: James Ramsden, owner of michelin-starred Pidgin restaurant, Anne Krebiehl MW, Jon Kleeman, head sommelier at Social Eating House, and Adam Porter, Jascots head of buying and marketing.

Miles MacInnes, John Charnock and Andy Slaughter MP

Jascots managing partners Miles MacInnes and John Charnock speaking with local MP Andy Slaughter

Also in town this week was Warren Gibson of Trinity Hill who hosted a rare vertical tasting of his top drop Homage – a cool climate Syrah made in the Gimblett Gravels sub-region of Hawkes Bay in New Zealand. Hosted by Liberty Wines, we tried the 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013 and current release 2014, which Gisbon believes is his best yet. His winemaking style is inspired by the Syrah’s made in the Côte-Rôtie, the wine itself paying homage to the late Gerard Jaboulet.

The tasting took place at Will Lander’s Michelin-starred Marylebone restaurant Portland where we were treated to an array of tantalising dishes including pickled shiitake mushrooms with soy and ginger; whipped cod’s roe with shallots and chervil (pictured); and Cornish beef rump with hasselback potatoes.

db celebrated Burns Night in style at Roux at Parliament Square where Michel Roux Jr himself was resplendent in tartan. Rather than the usual haggis and neeps & tatties we tucked into Orkney scallops with brown crab mayo and apple dashi; and roast guinea fowl, leeks and savoy cabbage in a menu devised by Roux to pair with a selection of wines from The Royal Tokaji Company.

Among the wines on pour were an unctuous Royal Tokaji Late Harvest 2015; mineral The Oddity Dry Tokaji 2014; Royal Tokaji Ferment 2010; and rich Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos 2009 (pictured). We ended the evening decadently with medicinal spoons of tooth-tingingly sweet and utterly divine Essencia.

The Goring Hotel played host to the André Simon Awards on Tuesday. John Szabo MS’s book on Volcanic Wines was the winner of the drinks book, with publisher Jacqui Small accepting the award on Szabo’s behalf. There were three awards in the food category with Fuschia Dunlop’s book on Chinese cuisine scooping the top prize.

Mike McGinty of The Voyage of Buck bar in Edinburgh was crowned the winner of the ‘Patrón Perfectionists Cocktail Competition’ in Jalisco this week; impressing the judges with his ‘Bell of Jalisco’ concoction.