The week in pictures

This week, in Luc Belaire Courts Hip-Hop Artists:

The flash French fizz brand — whose entourage of brand ambassadors includes the likes of Young Thug, Rick Ross and DJ Khaled —has struck a new, $20 million (that’s TWENTY MILLION)  partnership with multi-platinum, Misissippi rap duo Rae Sremmurd.

Comprised of brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, the group are now repping Belaire Gold, a Burgundian brut made with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

The news comes just a few months after the pair released their third studio album SR3MM in May.

It wouldn’t be a signing without a little initiation, so Belaire got its crew to say how they felt about Rae Sremmurd joining the team.

Khaled said: “congrats in advance…we’re doing it big here. it’s going to be great.”

#luxbois

Back on this side of the Atlantic, the news is a bit less glamorous, but no less bizarre.

In English wine related-extraterrestrial news: a bizarre face-shaped cloud was spotted over the vines in Kent, causing the manager of Sandhurst Vineyard to quip “I presume he was shocked at how much we were picking”.

Winemakers say the darnedest things.

Atom Brands, the company responsible for That Boutique-y Drinks Company, has launched a new vertical dedicated to rum.

Created with the help of rum expert Peter Holland, the That Boutique-y Rum Company (TBRC) collection features a range of limited-edition small batch rum releases from long lost distilleries and extremely rare casks, available throughout Atom Brand’s distribution and importer Maverick Drinks.

In cheffing, Ex-Noma and Gordon Ramsay Group chef Tilly Turbet revealed plans to open a new restaurant in Mayfair next month, inspired the former King’s Road restaurant Pucci Pizza, which opened in Chelsea in the 1970s.

Pucci will open on Maddox Street in mid-November, and will serve a “vibrant modern menu of small plates showcasing flavours from across the Mediterranean”, specifically Italy, Turkey, and Lebanon, as well as the thin crust pizzas that its former namesake was known for.

On Tuesday Le Club Des Grands Domaines, Vignobles & Signatures — a collective of 16 heavyweights in the French winery world — held its first UK tasting at the Library of the University Women’s Club.

The Club has become a strong economic force in the French wine industry: 1,600 hectares of vines; 11,100,000 bottles; 365 employees and a turnover of 84,000,000 euros, with members belonging to leading family wine producers from France’s key appellation areas.

It looks like party season is well under-way in the capital, if whisky label Johnnie Walker’s latest event is anything to go by.

Stanley Tucci at The Welsh Chapel (Photo: Dave Benett/PRNewsfoto/Johnnie Walker)

VIP guests joined renowned actor, director and producer Stanley Tucci (He of The Children Act and The Devil Wears Prada fame) as Johnnie Walker launched its new Blue Label Ghost and Rare Port Ellen bottles at London’s Welsh Chapel on Wednesday.

(Photo: Hatch Communications)

Tucci addressed the audience with a reading of Borealis on the Bay, an ode created for the occasion by Scottish poet Jon Plunkett that pays homage to the history of Kilnaughton Bay, the home of Port Ellen, the world famous ‘ghost’ distillery which shut its doors in 1983. How’s that for some branded storytelling?

Why is that man holding his chair like he really doesn’t want anyone to see the back of his trousers?

Well, Shepherd Neame, Britain’s oldest brewer, has struck a very useful deal with The City of London Corporation; a Primary Authority Agreement which gives the pub chain access to tailored advice on food safety management, environmental health, trading standards and fire safety across its whole portfolio. It means CEO Jonathan Neame can invest with confidence in new products and sites knowing that the resources they devote to compliance are well spent.

Jon Averns and pub manager Steve Berry.

Beneficial? Yes. Headline-worthy? Sadly not. And this is where the trousers some in.

So the Corporation is famous for its archaic but essentially harmless traditions. The new deal was marked at the Samuel Pepys, on the north bank of the Thames, with a “traditional ceremony,” dating back to the 13th Century, in which Shepherd Neame beer was endorsed by Ale Conner Jon Averns (pictured) — the Corporation’s official beer quality controller. 

The traditional ceremony involves Averns sitting in a pool of beer, which if it’s any good should stick to his leather trousers. He then has to shout: “” declare this beer to be a fine ale and ready for human consumption.”

Avers also moonlights as the City of London Corporation’s head of trading standards. The more you know.

In ‘tenuous links to drinks’ news, American actor David Schwimmer has responded to an appeal by Blackpool Police after beer was stolen from a restaurant, insisting that “it wasn’t me”.

Blackpool Police posted an appeal for witnesses on Facebook on Tuesday after a man stole a pack of beer from a local restaurant.

The post has since been shared over 111,000 times and received over 169,000 mostly from fans of US sitcom Friends.

Schwimmer himself has intervened with an ‘alibi’.

He wrote on social media: “Officers, I swear it wasn’t me. As you can see, I was in New York.

“To the hardworking Blackpool Police, good luck with the investigation.”