The week in pictures

Actor, writer, producer, rapper, singer, songwriter and DJ Idris Elba has launched his own wine label, called Porte Noire.

The wines, a Provence rosé and blanc de blancs Grand Cru Champagne, are produced by Chateau Sainte Marguerite and Champagne Sanger respectively.

The Château Sainte Marguerite was created in 1929 and was acquired by the Fayard family in 1977. Situated between Toulon and Saint Tropez, this estate now covers 91 hectares around the village of La Londe, much of which is Cru Classe rated, and all of which owner Jean-Pierre Fayard tends to with organic viticulture practices.

Sanger, meanwhile, is not so much a Champagne house as a college. It is run by the students and faculty cellar masters at the Avize Viti Campus, the region’s viticultural school founded in 1927. The school produces Champagne from the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims, including a number of Grand Cru plots.

Asked what his favourite fizz is on a normal day, Idris said he’s a Veuve Clicquot fan. “I like something that’s easy drinking…so you can have a few glasses and be ok”, he said, adding he considers his Porte Noire champers a good “party fizz”. Chin chin.

In more celebrity drinks, having rapped about gin and juice back in 1994, hip hop star Snoop Dogg has released his own gin brand – a strawberry-infused expression called Indoggo.

The gin is distilled five times and features seven botanicals, including orange, coriander and cassia, infused with “all-natural” strawberry flavour. The purple bottle features a white logo with upturned ‘G’s in a hat tip to the fruit-infused gin being a remix on the classic juniper-dominant style.

To bring the brand to fruition, Snoop partnered with Keenan Towns of celebrity drinks incubator Trusted Spirits, and spirits importer Prestige Beverage Group.

And in the THIRD celebrity drinks launch of this week (we are struggling to keep up at this point), British supermodel Cara Delevingne has launched a premium Prosecco brand with her sisters Chloe and Poppy.

The Della Vite range includes a Prosecco Superiore DOCG and a Treviso Prosecco DOC. Both are made in collaboration with Foss Marai, which is well known in Valdobbiadene for making Prosecco as well as Cartizze, thought to be one of the most hallowed vineyard areas for the fizz.

A new website has been set up to provide more exposure to black and minority ethnic people working in the wine trade.

The website, called BAME Wine Professionals, features people working in all corners of the sector, including sales, hospitality, marketing and PR, wholesale, winemaking, buying and logistics, as well as wine educators and communicators.

It was created by Mags Janjo of MJ Wine Cellars and Jancis Robinson MW, months after a survey of hundreds of people working in wine revealed a significant lack of diversity and problems with inclusivity across the industry.

Janjo said that diversity is “an uncomfortable and much-avoided topic” in the wine trade.

“I strongly believe the industry will be richer and better for more diversity.”

(Photo: Jon Craig)

In lofty ambitions, a flotilla of hot air balloons delivered a musical and visual experience in surround sound to people in Bristol on Tuesday (1 September) as part of Sky Orchestra; a creative project masterminded by Bristol artist Luke Jerram and BAFTA-winning composer Dan Jones.

The line-up of Bristol musical and artistic contributors joining forces for the project included: Grant Marshall, founding member of Massive Attack, Stew Jackson, current writer and producer for Massive Attack, and Adrian Utley, founding member of Portishead, who were all involved in either creating or playing on the soundtrack.

(Photo: Jon Craig)

Jerome Gamble (pictured) who is mentored by Stew Jackson and Grant Marshall – played guitar live from a balloon. Adrian Utley and Stew Jackson attended the balloon launch.

As the official fizz partner to BAFTA, Champagne Taittinger supplied their own hot air balloon for the event.

Speaking of lofty ambitions, restaurateur Adolfo Suaya has secured US$35 million to fund a seven-storey whisky-themed hotel in Hollywood, complete with whisky fountain and a rooftop bar.

News of Suaya’s project first broke two years ago, and the site was cleared in preparation for construction in February this year, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

Called the Whisky Hotel, the building will house 134 guest rooms, each boasting a mini bar filled with a selection of whiskies from around the world as well as a whisky fountain in the lobby.

In other whiskey, representatives from the Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) pedalled their way over to one of our reporters’ neighbourhoods for a socially-distanced whiskey tasting on Thursday.

We tried amber elixirs from all over the country to get a feel for regional differentiation. Whiskeys included an accessible straight bourbon from New Hampshire’s Flag Hill Distillery, a curiously herbaceous rye from Blinking Owl in California, a smokey and very traditional rye from Virginia’s Catoctin Creek, a seriously cool and lovable single malt from Oregon-based Westward Whiskey (we can still taste the baked bananas), and last but not lead, the OG, Woodford Reserve’s double oaked bourbon from Kentucky.

Budweiser-maker AB InBev has relaunched its “Know when to say when” advertising campaign to promote responsible drinking, as people head back to the bar and fail try to navigate social distancing after a few too many.

The original “Know When to Say When” ad from 1982 was AB InBev’s first major responsible drinking campaign.

In remote judging, the annual Italian blind tasting competitions 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls, organised by the people that brought you Vinitaly, went ahead against all odds this week, with panellists liaising over Zoom.

The “agile” edition of 5StarWines & Wine Without Walls saw 52 international judges, over 2,100 samples belonging to more than 700 companies, and resulted in 847 wines selected to feature in 5StarWines – the Book 2021.