The week in pictures

In food pairings, Champagne Bollinger is partnering with some of the UK’s top chefs this year on a series of recipes celebrating a single ingredient and designed to pair with its recently released La Grande Année 2008.

This week, Kochhar at Kanishka in Mayfair stepped up to the hot plate and served up a dish of Classic Assamese roast duck Purahah, served with potato salad and creamy rice.

Spices are notoriously tricky to pair with wine, but Kochhar’s dish, which is loaded with turmeric, ginger and red chilli, fits the bill and “brings a new depth to our taste buds,” according to the chef.

“As this dish is very fresh and vibrant with complex spice undertones, its pairs perfectly with Bollinger Le Grand Annee 2008’s spicy, fruity and floral notes,” he said.

(Photo by Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Hampton Water)

In celebrity rosé news, Jon Bon Jovi, his son Jesse Bongiovi and French winemaker, Gérard Bertrand, have joined forces to launch their premium wine label, ‘Hampton Water,’ in the UK.

“Creating this wine with Gérard was just as creative as collaborating with another songwriter, Gérard uses his talents and wine knowledge just like a gifted musician,” Bon Jovi said.

“And working with my son on this has been an amazing experience.”

At the other end of the musical spectrum, Peter Andre has swapped the microphone for a shovel and teamed up with cider producer Bulmers to restore a derelict orchard in Manchester.

The I’m a Celebrity veteran took part in the day-long restoration project which marked the anniversary of a five-year partnership between Bulmers and The Orchard Project, a charity that recovers and rebuilds orchards in the UK.

Loire Valley Wines began its summer campaign with a tasting of Crémant de Loire atop Tower Bridge last weekend, where guests needed a head for heights if they dared to look down but were also rewarded with some exceptional views of the capital.

In celebrity custody battles, Ed Sheeran has won the right to keep a 16-foot pub sign dedicated to his wife hung up at his £1.5 million country estate in Suffolk.

Sheeran was ordered to take down ‘The Lancaster Lock’ plaque he’d put up without planning permission outside a Grade II-listed barn on his property, having turned the barn into a secret drinking den in 2017.

But council planning bosses had a change of heart and this week announced that Sheeran was allowed to keep the pub sign hanging at his home.

The late TV chef Anthony Bourdain was more than a culinary whizz. Bourdain was also an avid writer and artist, and now, his graphic novel series Hungry Ghosts is being turned into a TV series by Sony Pictures Animation.

Created by Bourdain in collaboration with writer Joel Rose, Hungry Ghosts is a four-part series that tells the story of a Russian oligarch holidaying on Long Island with a troop of helpers, packed with hauntings, magic realism, and plenty of food.

Australian golfer Marc Leishman has applied for national distribution of his Leishman Lager across the US and hopes to have the beer available in his motherland within two years.

Leishman, who teamed up with Virginia’s Back Bay Brewery in 2016, is hoping to sell his beer outside of the state. Having first released the lager as a limited-edition to be served at a gala in aid of the Begin Again Foundation, a charity he runs with his wife Audrey, it has proved so popular that it became a year-round core beer. Earlier this year, it was put into cans for the first time, with the official launch scheduled for 27 June.

In lucrative sports sponsorships, Nyetimber has become the first ever English fizz partner to the Cowdray Park Polo Club, meaning the estate’s sparkling wines will be served to social members and visitors, and presented to victorious teams throughout the polo season this summer.

Erc Heerema, the winery’s owner and CEO, said Cowdray Park is “one of the most historic properties in our home county of West Sussex.

“We look forward to working closely with Cowdray Park Polo Club during the world-famous summer season, as well as throughout the year to showcase the perfectly British nature of both Nyetimber and Cowdray Estate.”

In sustainability, chefs Chris and Jeff Galvin are collaborating with Uncharted Wines of Bethnal Green to introduce a sustainable solution to wines by the glass.

Confessing he was sceptical about the tap concept at first, Chris Galvin ensured that a bottle was on hand to compare before sampling the wine.

He said the wine from the tap “was at least as good, sometimes better than from the bottle.”

Jeff and Chris Galvin are introducing sustainable wines on tap. (Photo: Jason Alden)

“As we all know wine always tastes better in magnum than in bottle. Well, this container is 20 litres so imagine how happy that wine is. And every glass is served at optimal temperature, not from a bottle that could have been standing on a shelf for half an hour.”

In summer vibes, Chase Distillery have just sent through some very idyllic snaps from its annual Rock the Farm festival on 3 June.

The main, highly anticipated event at the festival was the final of the Chase Cup, a global cocktail competition pulling in 13 talented finalists from far and wide to shake, stir and pour it out to become the winner of £2500 cash, a guest ambassadorship at BCB Brooklyn or Berlin and a year’s supply of Chase spirits.

Each competitor was given their allotted time in front of the esteemed judges: drinks author Simon Difford, Merlin Griffiths (of First Dates fame), Healthy Hospo founder and mental health advocate Tim Ethrington-Judge, and The Cocktail Lovers founding editor Sandrae Lawrence, with the distillery’s own James Chase presenting.

After two rounds of re-creating their original entries and a mystery box, George Cook of Dinner by Heston in Melbourne was crowned the winner of the Chase Cup 2019

Meanwhile in Shoreditch, there was a queue flying out the door of music venue Kachette on Tuesday evening for the launch of the Ardbeg Masters of Smoke bartender education programme.

Five guest bartenders from around the world were there to help showcase some smokey creations.

Bobby Hiddleston from Swift, London, served up a cocktail called ‘Foster’; a twist on a traditional old fashioned served in a glass smoked with walnut and Cherrywood.

Amy Powell of Promo Veritas (Photo: Promo Veritas/Portman)

The following morning, ad compliance consultancy PromoVeritas and the Portman Group held a breakfast briefing on the dangers of mixing influencers with alcohol and the rules of drinks marketing.

Amy Powell, PromoVeritas’ compliance manager, said there are more “complaints about alcohol ads than ever before.”

“If alcohol brands aren’t careful things will go the same way as the cigarette industry with strict government regulation and a complete ban on advertising.”

Kicking off in Liverpool on Tuesday, Bacardi Brown Forman Brands launched the third instalment of its annual education series Jigger Beaker Glass 3.0, with a brand new format focussing on the themes of creativity, hospitality and productivity.

The team will explore creativity in the industry alongside Joe Schofield – formerly of the Tippling Club and The American Bar at The Savoy, who, rather conveniently, is also opening his new Manchester site, Schofield’s.

Krug winemaker Jérôme Jacoillot presented two new cuvées from the Champagne house at a press tasting in London on Tuesday this week.

On the same day, but in the evening, Champagne Palmer unveiled ‘Grands Terroirs 2003’ at London’s La Dame de Pic restaurant, where the wine trade and press gathered to sample the fizz for the first time.

Meanwhile, over in London Fields on Tuesday evening, members of the trade were invited to an artist’s studio to enjoy a special dinner paired with Chablis. Paired with an all-seafood menu, prepared by chef Merlin Labron-Johnson, the evening saw Chablis from village to premier and grand cru level matched with pickled vegetables, lobster and brill.

Less than a year after a warehouse containing over 18,000 barrels of Bourbon collapsed, another distillery in Kentucky has suffered a similar fate with around 4,500 barrels caught up in the incident.

A barrel storage facility at the O.Z. Tyler Distillery in Owensboro suffered a partial collapse, with a “small fraction” of the 4,500 barrels affected suffering damage, according to a statement from the producer.

Shortly after midnight on 17 June, the northwest quadrant of the Rickhouse H facility collapsed. No employees were at the distillery at the time and there were no reports of any injuries.