The week in pictures

A somewhat unexpected exhibitor at London Beer Week’s Beer Edit last week, Bols Genever welcomed customers to their stand at Oval Space in East London. Michael Mann (left), UK Bols Genever Brand Ambassador, shows attendees how to ‘slurp’ at the event over the weekend. Attendees upgraded their craft beer to a twist on a Boilermaker with Bols barrel-aged Genever.

The ‘slurp’ is a centuries-old Dutch drinking ritual where drinkers sip Genever from their overfilled glass to avoid spilling it, before toasting with a beer.

L-R: Buster Grant, SIBA Chairman, Purity’s Director of Brewing Flo Vialan and Charlotte Taylor of category sponsors Beatson Clark.

Purity Brewing Company has picked up its first awards for 2017 at the SIBA National Independent Beer Awards and SIBA Business and Industry Awards. Its Longhorn IPA won gold in the small pack strong bitters and pale ales category, while Purity won the marketing implementation category for its work with Wasps Rugby and the Ricoh Arena.

Paul Halsey, Purity MD, commented, “We absolutely love our partnership with Wasps Rugby and Ricoh Arena, and engaging with fans via our social media has been a great way to share in the good times; a great game of rugby with your friends and a lovely beer or two. The award means a lot to the team, as does the latest honour for Longhorn IPA, a beer we are extremely proud of.”

Antics behind the bar by the GŌNG bar team, The Clumsies and bar manager Peter Dorelli.

GŌNG bar, the highest bar in Western Europe on level 52 of London’s Shangri-La Hotel in The Shard, announced its 2017 series of Star Bartenders. Fabio Dal Bosco and Christian Maspes of GŌNG co-hosted their first of the season with Vasilis Kyritsis and Nikos Bakoulis aka. The Clumsies from Athens.  They served cocktails from their own Genesis menu and new creations for GŌNG, and celebrated with a late night behind the bar with some bartender friends.

Once again the global wine trade upped sticks and decamped to Düsseldorf for ProWein, which once again broke records to become the biggest year yet, welcoming 58,000 visitors and 6,500 exhibitors. One of this year’s highlight was the Winemakers’ Winemaker Award event, hosted each year by the he drinks business and Institute of Masters of Wine. This year the accolade was handed to South Africa’s Eben Sadie of Sadie Family Wines. Eben was handed his award in front of a pack room of industry professionals at an event hosted during ProWein on the Monday evening.

Christian Wylie, managing director of Bodega Garzon in Uruguay, shows off its 2016 Albariño.

During the show Mauricio González Gordon, chairman of Gonzalez Byass, held a session to enlighten the trade on the trends currently taking place within the Spanish wine industry. Premiumisation was highlighted as one of the key trends contributing to shifting markets, with Gordon also hailing the turnaround of Sherry, which despite suffering through a number of tumultuous years is predicted to grow 18% by 2021 at the premium end.

Julian Chivite played a leading role in designing Chivite’s new Baluarte Gran Feudo range, with its bright floral graphics intended to pique the interest of younger consumers. The range includes “terroir-driven” wines from Rioja, Navarra and Rueda.

db caught up with Lenz Moser, consultant winemaker to China’s biggest producer, Changyu, who share with us his belief that China is the future, with the market currently exploding. “You are not going to stop China. They want to show that they have the right to be among the top players,” he said. “It’s unbelievable, the ambition that’s there. The Chinese wine culture was always there but it was always among the top upper classes. Now it has been democratised in a positive sense.”

db was particularly pleased to see Chile’s VSPT Group showing off its 2016 Green Company of the Year Award, received at the 2016 Drinks Business Green Awards.

Wine Australia’s ProWein presence was bigger than ever before with a total of 76 wineries, over 500 wines and a full programme of events. The stand had more wineries, more wines, more events and more meeting space than previous years.

Also this year, for the first time, it offered barista coffee, which proved extremely popular. During the three days of the fair, it served just over 1300 cups of coffee!

Andrew Steel director of Connoisseur Estates enjoyed a glass of Tohu wines with Danny Jones from McFly at the Wonderland Shop tasting last night hosted by Tohu Wines from New Zealand and Gauchezco Wines from Argentina with importer Connoisseur Estates.

French consultant winemaker Olivier Dauga, known as Le Faiseur de Vin, was at The Design Museum in London last night with Ivan and Alla Plachkova of Kolonist Winery from Ukraine, and Lionel Tonnerieux of Domaines Rollan de By from Bordeaux, to show the latest results of his collaboration with two extremely different wine terroirs.

Dauga has been working with Kolonist Winery for over 10 years, and in 2007, he was tasked with reinvigorating abandoned vines in the Odessa region with the aim of producing premium wines. Signature wines from Kolonist include Sukholymansky white and Odessa black.

Dauga first worked closely with Domaines Rollan de By over 20 years ago and was instrumental in creating their premium cuvée Château Haut Condissas AOC Médoc. Today he is consultant winemaker for this Bordeaux group which owns 200 hectares comprising Château Rollan de By, Château Haut Condissas, Château Tour Seran, Château La Clare, Château La Rose de By, Château Greysac, Château de By and Château du Monthil.

It’s finally happened – the launch of the Buckfast tonic wine easter egg took place this week, after being unveiled by Northern Irish store D-Bees. The boozy egg includes a miniature bottle of Buckie and other merchandise including a matching white pen and lighter.

Whilst the egg cannot be purchased by those under 18 years of age, the packaging also advises that ‘portions should be adjusted for children of different ages’. We’re hoping this refers to the egg!

Cool cat Tequila brand Patrón hosted a Secret Dining Society dinner party at MC Motors in Dalston this week in a concept due to be rolled out to other key cocktail cities like Paris, Madrid, Israel and Cape Town.

Proceedings kicked off with a beer and melon cordial laced with Patrón silver that got guests in the mood to party.

Creator of the cocktails was Ian Griffiths of White Lyan and Dandelyan, who devised the drinks specifically to pair with the dishes whipped up by Douglas McMaster of Silo in Brighton.

Another of Griffiths’ quirky concoctions was ‘Strawberry Wine’ laced with Patrón.

The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase took place at Cheltenham this week. The Gordon Elliott-trained 4/1 Cause Of Causes created history as the gelding became the fourth horse ever to win three different races in succession at the festival, emulating Flyingbolt, Bobs Worth and Vautour.

Pol Roger Champagne has strengthened its equestrian ties with a new partnership with Hugo Palmer Racing.

Leading horse trainer Hugo commented: “I’m delighted to welcome Pol Roger on-board as our new sponsor. To have such a prestigious brand supporting our yard is testament to the success we, as a team, have enjoyed. Let’s hope we will have reason to toast many winners with a few glasses of Pol Roger over the course of the season”.

This year’s Benevolent Ball took place at the swanky Dorchester hotel on Park Lane and raised a whopping £42,000 for the drinks trade charity. The evening began with a drinks reception hosted by Benevolent president David Cox (left) which drew the great and the good of the drinks trade including cocktail historians Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller.

No drinks trade bash would be complete without the sight of David Cox strutting his stuff on the dance floor, and he didn’t disappoint at this year’s ball.

db headed to new Japanese restaurant Sakagura on Heddon Street to road test its tasting menu. Each dish was paired with a different saké, from sparkling to oak aged, and one served hot, and a couple from magnums, showing off saké’s impressive diversity of styles. We were in the capable hands of restaurant manager and saké sommelier Mimi Tokumine who boasts and encyclopaedic knowledge about the rice wine.

We also found the time to visit one of France’s most adorned Michelin-starred chefs, Anne-Sophie Pic’s new London venture, La Dame de Pic, at the new Four Seasons hotel in Tower Hill. The night kicked off with drinks at the hotel’s opulent, Art Deco rotunda bar where the cocktails are pleasingly punchy. The innocent looking Ivory blended mezcal, bergamot, walnuts, shiso and charcoal.

Head sommelier Jan Konetzki took us on a liquid journey of the Rhône among other regions. Among the wines we tried was this refreshing biodynamic blend of Roussanne and Viognier whose label tickled us pink.

In honour of the Four Season logo, Anne-Sophie Pic’s Jerusalem artichoke canapés were fashioned into exquisitely detailed leaves served on a log.

With the sun out, it felt only right to celebrate with a twist on a Margarita, created by the lovely Sophie Bratt, assistant bar manager of the Oxo Tower restaurant.

Created for Patrón Tequila’s Margarita of the Year competition, the English Garden Margarita blends Patrón Silver with Patrón Citronge orange liqueur, an earl grey tincture, green peas and Rinqunquin peach liqueur. Rimmed with salt and pumpkin oil, it tasted like a freshly moved summer garden in full bloom.

Patrón’s chief marketing officer, Lee Applbaum, was in town to launch the brand’s Secret Dining Society series in London. He met up with us at the Oxo Tower restaurant for multiple Margaritas and a Margarita granita served with frozen mint leaves dipped in sugar.