The week in pictures

The Cannes International Film Festival has kept the thespian world entertained, and winery Mouton Cadet — the event’s official wine partner for 27 years — welcomed some of the biggest names in the directing world to its new rooftop bar at the venue, which re-opened this year after a refurb.

Spike Lee, Woody Harrelson, and Christopher Nolan all rocked up to take in the sea views, alongside cinematic heiress Katharina Kubrick, daughter to A Clockwork Orange director Stanley.

Sean Bean

From the big screen to the small, the British Academy Television Awards 2018 took place at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, where TV royalty gathered to hear news of the winners. As official Champagne and wine partners to BAFTA, Champagne Taittinger and Villa Maria added sparkle and elegance to the evening.

Certainly, neither Aleisha Dixon and Amanda Holden appeared to have any complaints about the fizz.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, staff at Wolfgang Puck’s Changi Airport needed a long lie down in a quiet room after the celebrity chef surprised them with a visit over the weekend.

Puck dropped into The Kitchen, as he is wont to do with many of his venues, for a meet-and-greet with guests where he signed cookbooks, sampled dishes and even got stuck-in in the kitchen, adding flourishes to dishes which the chefs will now keep on the menu.

Michael Gove is no stranger to sticking his head in the sand on Brexit, but this week he had the luxury of sticking it in Surrey’s rich terroir when he attended the Surrey Rural Economy Conference with Albury Vineyard, which is one of nine local businesses to be awarded the Trade Mark Surrey Hills.

Gove said that the rural British economy is still going “from strength to strength, with food and drink exports soaring, farm incomes increasing and rural enterprises thriving.”

The class of 2017

Champagne Louis Roederer has marked its year as presidential house of the Champagne Academy – a yearly programme that invites select candidates to immerse themselves in the world of Champagne – with a gala dinner at The Savoy on Monday.

The Champagne Academy was created in 1956 and is a unique collaboration of 16 Grande Marques houses who recognised the UK and Ireland as key markets and decided that if they worked together to champion the region and educate the trade in all aspects of Champagne it would be to the benefit all producers. Each year 16 candidates are selected to attend the Academy, one for each of the 16 houses represented, with the aim of improving their knowledge of Champagne viticulture and winemaking, and to encourage them to become ambassadors for the region. The group of successful candidates travel to Champagne to attend a week-long course during which they are immersed in the world of Champagne, visiting numerous houses across Champagne.

Each house in rotation provides a President for a one year term during which their prime responsibility is the organisation of the Academy Course and its associated events. This year it was the turn of Louis Roederer, with the great and good of the Champagne trade joining together for a fizz-fuelled event at The Savoy on Monday.

Among the Champagnes on pour with dinner were Ruinart Blanc de Blancs NV, Louis Roederer Rosé 2012, Louis Roederer Cristal 2009 and Pommery Cuvée Louise 2002, while the NV Magnums of all 16 houses were available to taste beforehand. While guests were given the chance to enter a charity prize draw to win a magnum from each of the houses represented.

Cecily Chappel and Ben Howkins of The Last Drop presented a pair of colheita Ports at a pop-up for the brand in London’s Piccadilly Arcade, which will run until the end of August. The Ports are 100 years apart – one from 1870, the other from 1970 – and represent the latest release from The Last Drop, and the first one that isn’t a spirit.

The 1870 is also the oldest product yet released by the brand.

This week in “things that shouldn’t go together but do,” Martini announced it’s hosting a spin-cycling programme at Digme Fitness in Moorgate this summer.

Honouring its rich heritage with the sport of cycling, the Martini Racing Ciclismo is designed for those in the industry, specifically bartenders, just in-time for everyone to get their beach bodies.

Classes cost around £5 for trade professionals, and run from this week until 31 July.

At the other end of the fitness spectrum, the drinks business spent the weekend at Emirates Stadium competing against the likes of Majestic in a five-a-side football tournament, hosted by Chilean wine producer and Arsenal F.C. drinks partner Santa Rita.

Make no mistake. We came dead last.

Fortunately, there was a wine tasting featuring Cab Sav and Carménère from Santa Rita’s 120 label. We may not know the offside rule, but we can spot tertiary aromas at 30 paces.

Charlie George (right) gives us his best advice after decades of football glory.

The author got chatting to Arsenal legend Charlie George before kick-off to get some last-minute advice, but the best he could come up with was to go to the loo before you start playing.

“We were playing a friendly against Oxford, and I had to literally run off half-way through the first half because I needed a wee,” said the ex-premier league athlete.

We couldn’t do the Week in Pictures without mentioning London Wine Week.

Pol Roger kept the party going all week with a bespoke pop-up bar dedicated to French fizz, showcasing not only its sparklers and also the still reds and whites in the Pol Roger UK portfolio, including Burgundian producer Joseph Drouhin, California’s Robert Sinskey Vineyards and Staglin Family Vineyard, and Josmeyer from Alsace.

Meanwhile, there were (and are) events happening all over the capital, from Flat Iron Square to Berry Bros & Rudd. Be sure to check out our round-up so you don’t miss any of the good ones.

Collaboration is the buzzword of 2018, and in the spirit of teamwork Kentish Copper Rivet Distillery welcomed the arrival of freshly disgorged Jim Beam barrels from Kentucky this week. Shipped within a week of being emptied, the barrels are used once in the bourbon industry for a maximum of 4 years. Now they’ve passed them on be filled with Copper Rivet Distillery’s Masthouse Whisky as it matures.

Joe Fattorini with Villa Sandi’s Flavio Geretto, Frederica and Andrea Rinaldi, president and vice president of the UK Sommelier Association.

This week Villa Sandi celebrated the rising stars of the world of wine by hosting its own Best UK Sommelier Awards in partnership with the UK Sommelier Association, presented by The Wine Show’s Joe Fattorini.

The event saw 25 of the world’s most talented sommeliers battling it out to be crowned the best in their field, and were judged on how well they decant a wine, make cocktails, serve wines, and answer the judges questions.

Congratulations go to Julien Sarasin, head sommelier of London’s Club Gascogne, who took home the top accolade and won a trophy, £1000, a jeroboam of Prosecco Valdobbiadene, and a two-night stay in Venice for two people, including flights, plus a VIP visit to the Villa Sandi estate.

Villa Sandi first began hosting the awards in 2015 when the winery partnered with the UK Sommelier Association in a bid to raise the profile of its premium Prosecco.

You know what’s a really underrated beverage? Mead. And of course, there’s a brewery in Peckham which has started producing 5.5% ABV bottles of the honey elixr, and believes it could take ground from ever-popular Prosecco.

Mead sales in the UK and the USA are buoyant, with the American Mead Makers’ Association estimating that a new mead maker opens every other day worldwide.

Founder Tom Gosnell said mead’s time “has come.”

“We’re aiming to build on our success with this new format and continue to drive sales in the UK and abroad.”