The week in pictures

The oldest house in Champagne, Gosset, has teamed up with British chef Marcus Wareing on a bespoke blend for his restaurants.

Wareing, who presides over his Michelin-starred eponymous restaurant in Knightsbridge, visited the house back in July to put his finishing touches to the brut cuvée, which has a dosage of 7.5g/l for the bottle and 6g/l for the magnum, and focuses on freshness.

Northern Irish golf star and 2011 Open Champion Darren Clarke has teamed up with Loch Lomond Whiskies for a project that will celebrate next year’s 148th Open due to be held at Royal Portrush in County Antrim.

Clarke will work with Loch Lomond Whiskies’ master blender, Michael Henry, to create The Open Course Collection: Royal Portrush Edition, a 19-year old Single Malt which will go on sale in early 2019.

Commenting on the project, Clarke said: “It’s a huge honour to join Loch Lomond Whiskies and to have the chance to create a single malt with the experts at the distillery.

“To mark The Open at Royal Portrush – a club that is so close to my heart – with my very own single malt whisky is absolutely fantastic. For me, a Scotch single malt is as good as it gets.

“I can’t wait to tee it up next summer and enjoy a wee dram with the fans!”

This week in the battle of the blingtastic bottles we present (above) Piper-Heidsieck’s limited edition of its prestige cuvée Rare, adorned with hundreds of tiny diamonds, and yours for £115,000 a bottle at Harrods. Or, below, is family-owned Champagne house Edouard Brun’s limited edition porcelain bottle, which it claims is the first of its kind in Champagne – yours for a slightly less eye-watering €8,000 a pop.

The Chancellor once again got his red briefcase out this week for the UK Autumn Budget. While the beer, cider and spirits industries will have a duty freeze next year, the chief executive of the WSTA, Miles Beale, has described Philip Hammond’s decision to raise duty on wine in line with inflation as a “hammer blow” for the industry.

Never ones to shy away from a dress-up day, the team at Ellis Wines once again pulled out all the stops for their Halloween-inspired attire, raising money for drinks charity The Benevolent. Special mention goes to wine buyer Megan Clarke for going green and marketing manager Louise Wishart for a cracking pair of socks! 

Hollywood actor Robert Redford’s sprawling Napa estate, set across 10-acres of St. Helena wine country, has gone on sale for a cool US$7.5 million.

Redford and his wife, painter Sibylle Szaggars Redford, purchased the property in 2004, and are now selling it to move close to San Francisco and family.

Connaught head somm Daniel Manetti shows off one of the larger bottles from the Quinta do Noval Collection at the hotel’s two Michelin-starred Hélène Darroze restaurant last night. Christian Seely assures db that Jeroboams are the perfect format for two – when one of you isn’t drinking…

You probably don’t want to know what this is. A museum dedicated to challenging perceptions of food and what society deems “disgusting” opened in Sweden this weeks, showcasing stomach-churning dishes such as maggot cheese, bull penis and mouse wine (above).

Picture Credit: Charlotte Graham

A vineyard in Derbyshire enlisted local volunteers with “no minging feet” for what it believes to be the region’s first grape treading, as it gears up to launch its inaugural Pétillant Naturel in time for Christmas.

Here volunteers Sheila Coles and Rosemary Slater help tread the Rondo grapes at Renishaw Hall near Sheffield, which is managed by winemaker and viticultural consultant Kieron Atkinson.

Pol Roger Portfolio has struck a deal with one of the top names in Spanish wine – Rioja renegade Bodegas Artadi – to distribute its wines in the UK. This week they hosted a taco-fuelled tasting at London’s Temper with founder Juan Carlos Lopez de Lacaille and his daughter Patricia as well as export manager Ana Rodriguez.

Bibendum has hosted its first mindful winemaking course covering topics such as organic, sustainable, biodynamic and natural winemaking with the aim to ensure attendees leave with an in-depth knowledge that can easily be passed on.

The Taphouse Brewpub is the latest destination announced for Hull’s regenerated waterfront fruit market area.

It will combine a working brewery with a high-quality bar offering an ever-changing choice of more than 30 draught real ales, craft lagers and ciders, as well as an extensive range of bottled and canned beers, quality wines and artisan spirits.

Tennent’s Lager, owned by C&C group, announced it is to open a revamped £1 million visitor centre in Glasgow at the end of November, with the ambition of becoming the UK’s biggest beer attraction by 2023.

‘The Tennent’s Story’ experience will be based at Wellpark Brewery, Scotland’s oldest brewery, and will expand upon the current visitor experience, taking visitors behind the scenes of the beer brand, first poured in 1885, as well as the origins of brewing at the site, which dates back to the 1500s.

Alongside some of the great vineyards of Bordeaux at the Best of Wine Tourism event at Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux, Domaine du Grand Mayne was awarded the Coup de Coeur for its achievements in developing and encouraging wine tourism. The award was given for a combination of the quality of the wines, visitor experience and successful crowd funding campaigns.

General manager Mathieu Crosier, said: “It’s great for our vineyard in the little known Côtes de Duras to be recognised alongside such illustrious names from both Bordeaux and around the world, and this award is a real credit to the small dedicated team at Grand Mayne. We look forward to welcoming more and more visitors to our beautiful estate as a result”.

Actress Ceila Imre headed to Trishna in Marylebone this week to celebrate the 10th birthday of restaurant group JKS, run by Jyotin, Karam and Sunna Sethi. The trio are behind some of the most exciting names in the London food scene, including Bao, Xu, Brigadiers, Bubbledogs and Gymkhana.