The week in pictures

The Treasury Wine Estates team took part in last Saturday’s Thames Path Challenge – raising money for The Benevolent and The British Heart Foundation, in memory of Dan Townsend who passed away suddenly in March.

Ramón Bilbao inaugurated its new winery in Rueda and was joined by CEO Emilio Restoy, President José María de Santiago, President of the Junta de Castilla y León, Juan Vicente Herrera, and the Minister of Agriculture, Isabel García Tejerina. It is the first time that Ramon Bilbao, founded in 1924 with bases in Haro and Rioja Alta, has moved to another denomination of origin.

Harvest begins at Château de Tracy in the Loire. “We began picking in fine weather on the 4 of September” explained Juliette d’Assay. “The crop is very healthy with well-balanced, promising, and top quality juice, and a low yield caused by frost damage”.

Picture shows L to R: Sébastien du Boullay, food and wine promotions manager for Maison de la Région Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée with Francesca Gaffey, and presenter and wine travel expert Sorcha Holloway, both of #UKWineHourLive.

Sorcha Holloway hosted a 5^th anniversary celebration evening of Languedoc-Roussillon’s top 100 best wines. In addition to guests in London, the event involved Tweet tasters from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and north of England.

Runners assembled at Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey last weekend for the annual Bacchus Marathon. The course takes runners around the vineyards and estate at Denbies for a half or full marathon course. Fancy dress is absolutely encouraged and there are tasting stations along the way for those who choose to indulge.

Domaine Roger Groult began distilling last year’s cider and commented that this year’s harvest looks promising. Jean-Roger Groult explains: “We extracted significant volumes, even if we were worried about losing plenty of fruit because of this year’s drought, which broke the branches under the weight of the apples or caused the crop to drop off the trees too early because of their lack of water. The storms at the beginning of September had a positive impact, that of wetting the soil and of nourishing the orchards, but also a negative one: that of making the fragile drought-stricken fruit fall to the ground”.

Magners Original Irish Cider have teamed up with one of Glasgow’s best-loved bars, Malones, to create what they believe is Scotland’s first cider rooftop garden.

Denbies Wine Estate recorded its earliest ever harvest with picking of early-ripening variety Solaris started on Wednesday 6 September.

Bodegas Ostatu, a family-owned in Rioja Alavesa, posted this picture on Twitter this week as it continues its “maturation controls” ahead of the upcoming harvest.

Mark Pygott MW posted this shot on Twitter from his trip to the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

The East Anglian Vineyards Association posted this snap of vineyard cat Slipper surveying the vines atop a trellis pole.

Bodegas Torres put on a show as it presented the first vintage of the wine produced using the variety “Moneu”, an ancestral grape that has recovered after they located it in Querol (Tarragona) twenty years ago.

db’s Lucy Shaw and Phoebe French were lucky enough to be invited by Ben Smith of Concha y Toro to the Mercury Music Prize Album of the Year party at the Hammersmith Apollo this week, where a dozen talented artists, from Alt-J and J Hus to Ed Sheehan and the xx battled it out for the coveted prize while the db girls sat back and enjoyed flute upon flute of Cono Sur’s sprightly pink fizz.

Among the standout performances was Stormzy, who recreated his Gang Signs & Prayer album cover on stage, which bears a striking resemblance to Da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

But there could only be one winner, and the prize, presented by actor Idris Elba, deservedly went to Sampha for his debut solo album Process. Celebrating the wine, Sampha delivered a hauntingly beautiful performance of his single No One Knows Me Like The Piano to a standing ovation.

Continuing the fun this week, we headed to wine focused Les 110 de Taillevent, which came 11th in the drinks business’ wine list ratings guide Wine List Confidential with a score of 93. During dinner affable head sommelier Christopher Lecouflle pulled out all the stops, treating us to glasses of Selosse, Leflaive, Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage and Ornellaia 2009.

Lecouflle in action with his Coravin

The fun continued at the Louis Roederer Wine Writers’ Awards at the Royal Academy this week, where our very own Rupert Millar was up for the Feature Writer of the Year award. The night began with copious glasses of free flowing Louis Roederer Rosé 2010, which we made the most of.

And the winners were… among the popular winners on the night were Richard Hemming, who scooped the online writer of the year award, Andrew Jefford, who won the wine columnist of the year award, and Dan Keeling, who picked up the food and wine writer of the year award.

While the rain thrashed down, these bright bottles of Sherry added a splash of sunshine to SE1 at the Great Sherry tasting, which was rammed with fortified fans.

Among the exhibitors was the gregarious González Byass team, who were on hand to pour us the latest expressions in the Palmas range.

Also pouring his wares at the tasting was Doug Wregg of Le Caves de Pyrène, who told us the next big thing in Sherry will be unfortified wines from the region made from the Palomino grape for lower alcohol, more approachable sipping.

Our favourite Sherry of the day was a drop called As You Like It from Williams & Humbert, modelled here by the bodega’s charming winemaker Paula Medina. The medium-sweet expression came about almost by accident, as the 27 barrels the wine was resting in were found hidden within the bodega 30 years after Williams & Humbert moved premises.

db‘s Phoebe French was also lucky enough to be invited to Chase Gin’s seasonal supper club at The Running Horse in Mayfair, a pub owned by Chase’s head ambassador James Chase and Dominic Jacobs, former bar director at Sketch. Beginning with a G&T, Chase’s wines were also on show, produced in Aix-en-Provence at Maison Williams Chase by winemaker Dale Clarke. While the rosé is understandably popular, the Cuvée Amphorae, a blend of Grenache and Syrah part aged in both oak barrels and clay amphorae, was a real surprise, with delicate raspberries and blackberries balanced with spice and a hint of olive.