The week in pictures

The Duchess of Sussex visited the Hubb Community Kitchen the team behind the Together: Our Community Cookbook written by local women displaced by the Grenfell Fire tragedy.

The proceeds raised by the book have enabled the community kitchen to have a complete re-design and re-fit, while the kitchen now has the funds to open seven days a week. The Duchess joined the women as they prepared over 200 fresh meals in just one day, accompanied by chef Clare Smyth. Smyth was the first woman in the UK to run a restaurant with three Michelin stars, and was recently awarded two Michelin stars for her first stand-alone venture. She also catered for the Royal Wedding in May.

Image: Alan Casling

In festive news this week: The Queen Victoria Inn in Priddy, Somerset has pulled out all the stops, constructing a giant 20ft snowman out of over 2,000 empty wine bottles. This sits alongside the pub’s gingerbread house display and bottle display (below) which pub pooch Wilson clearly approves of.

Image: Raymond Murphy @rayraymurphy (Twitter).

Not to be outdone, The Churchill Arms in London’s Kensington has once again put on quite a display. Renowned for its floral displays – spending a whopping £30,000 on them each year – this year’s display features 21,000 lights and almost 100 Christmas trees.

Image: Raymond Murphy @rayraymurphy (Twitter).

Pub manager James Keogh said that this year’s display features more decorations than ever before and required around three weeks of construction.

Curious Brewery held its ‘topping-out ceremony’ for its new brewery in Ashford, celebrating the highest piece of the new steel structure being secured into place. The new brewery is situated on a 1.6 acre site and includes a 5-vessel brewhouse which will be capable of brewing 4.5 million pints a year.

Attending the ceremony were Gerry Clarkson, the leader of Ashford Borough Council, Curious Brewery MD Gareth Bath, Chapel Down CEO Frazer Thompson and staff from across the businesses who all enjoyed a Curious Brew to mark the key milestone in the brewery’s building schedule. The site is set to open in March 2019.

Jon Bon Jovi’s rosé has been voted the top pink in the world in Wine Spectator’s coveted Top 100 ranking.

With a 90-point score, Bon Jovi’s Diving into Hampton Water 2017 rosé took the 83^rd spot on the list, and was one of only two rosés in the line-up.

“It’s an incredible honour to be on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2018, let alone ranked as the top rosé. It’s a testament to all of our hard work and I could not be more proud to share our excitement for, and love of, Hampton Water with people all over the world,” the singer said.

The Port of Leith Distillery, which is expected to start construction of its new £11 million site in March next year, launched its first drinks this week.

Its new Lind & Lime Gin was named after 18th century doctor James Lind who developed treatments for scurvy, combining flavours of lime and pink peppercorn.

The distillery is also launching a Sherry, sourced from Bodega Baron in Cadiz, Andalucía. The Oloroso Sherry will season the Port of Leith Distillery’s oak casks for 18 months in Spain before the casks are shipped to Scotland and filled with whisky.

In auction news, a bottle of Scotch has broken the £1 million barrier for the first time ever. A bottle of The Macallan 1926 60-year-old with a hand painted design by the Irish artist Michael Dillon, sold in London for £1.2 million (US$1.5m) yesterday.

Dourthe’s Nick Dagley and Le Soula’s Mark Walford co-hosted a French wine tasting in Westminster Gardens this week. Showcasing a selection of wines from Bordeaux and the Languedoc, attendees were treated to delicious wines, with a chance to see some of Emily Ponsonby’s artwork.

Champagne house Louis Roederer told dbHK this week that it may release still wines that it has made from the 2018 vintage. Joining the likes of Bollinger, which produces a still Pinot Noir alongside its fizz, Louis Roederer has made both a still Pinot Noir and a still Chardonnay this year. Cellar master Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon said of the Chardonnay:  “I think we made an interesting one. We worked for 10 years and wanted to copy Burgundy, which was the wrong direction. We don’t have the same concentration and balance that we want.

“We had to take another direction and it’s quite impressive this year. Super exciting,” he said.

Leonardslee Gardens in West Sussex, the site of the UK’s first Pinotage vineyard, has opened its 36-cover fine dining restaurant called Interlude, with tasting menus featuring ingredients foraged from the 200-acre estate.

Speaking at the time of the vineyard planting, executive chef of the new restaurant, South African Jean Delport, said he had ambitions to obtain a Michelin star.

The 36-cover restaurant will be open for dinner from Wednesday through to Saturday with a total of 10 tables available to book. Dishes reflect the chef’s South African heritage with plates including biltong, produced from deer grazing on the estate, as well as mosbolletjie, a traditional Afrikaans or Cape Dutch bread usually made with leftover grape must, but here infused with fennel.

Dr Paulo Lopes from cork producer Amorim’s R&D team held a masterclass this week at London’s 67 Pall Mall on wine faults. Lopes explored gave an informative presentation, spiking six different glasses with chemicals and compounds associated with different faults including ‘corked’ aromas (TCA and TBA), brettanomyces, oxidation and reduction. 

Romain Baillou of Ch. Couhins, Marion Merker of Ch. de la Dauphine, Caroline Artaud and Renaud Mommeja of Ch. Fourcas Hosten with Fiona Juby of the CIVB and Brinda Bourhis of Winevox.

The Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) has announced the addition of new approved programme providers in Kenya, Macedonia and Slovakia, with over 75 countries now offering its courses.

Pictured above is the Hospitality Competence Center East Africa which has now been granted approval to offer WSET Level 1 in wines and Level 2 in wines and spirits. Based in Kenya, the centre will open up its courses to the public but with a focus on those working in the hospitality sector. The centre also has plans to expand its offering to countries such as Tanzania, Uganda and the Seychelles.

Vincent Lafortune, founder of the sommelier-focused congress Somm360, told the drinks business that his main aim was “to help”. The event in Montreal attracted as many as 300 people in the hospitality trade, with around 25% of these attendees from beyond Canada’s borders.

Central Otago winery Domaine Thomson has solved the mystery of the wine bottle gift. The producer was informed that its Surveyor Thomson 2014 Pinot Noir was given as a gift by New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern to her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison at the recent East Asia Summit in Singapore.