The week in pictures

This week in the world of drinks: Ferrari Trento celebrates its 120th anniversary, Douglas Blyde visits the Veneto with Pasqua wines, and we head to Cocktails in the City.

Ferrari Trento celebrated 120 years since the foundation of the winery by coming together in the recently renovated sixteenth-century Villa Margon for two days of celebrations on 6 and 7 July.

Douglas Blyde went to the Veneto with Pasqua wines. Given their support of artists locally and internationally, as evidenced on their well-subscribed Instagram account @pasquawines, the visit took in ‘The Milk of Dreams’ at the Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani, the first female in the exposition’s 127-year history to hold that role. Accordingly, 80% of artists are female, including Simone Leigh whose ‘Brick House’ bronze acts as the showcase’s unmissable frontispiece. Leigh is also the first black woman to have curated the North American Pavilion. Nearby, the Italian Pavilion is, depending on the onlooker’s interpretation, a melancholic requiem to Italian industry.

Later, the tour took in the 23-hectare Montevegro vineyard facing the Val d’Illasi, close to morello cherry trees and olives, where up to 6,000 vines with an average age of 25 years are sown in the basalt-calcareous soil. Partially netted against hail are the traditional red grapes of Amarone, being Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, and also, being a new discovery for Blyde, Oseleta. The latter once neared extinction, according to chief winemaker, Giovanni Nordera, given its meagre output, being around four tonnes per hectare. Indeed, finding clusters of the blueberry-sized grapes proved a brief challenge even for Nordera, who insists on including 10% in Mai Dire Mai, being an elegantly linear Valpolicella Superiore and the highly concentrated though never blowsy, Amarone, on account of its enticing polyphenols and enriching colour. ‘We can’t live by it alone, though it allows us to make more make more personal wines,’ he said.

Indeed, on its own, the very tannic Oseleta is the last variety harvested here, often well into November, as well as being slow to mature in the bottle. Nordera, who has bottled varietal examples to monitor them, likened the ‘precious’ grape to Petit Verdot.

We visited Cocktails in the City for a balmy evening of superb mixes. The event returns for dates later in the summer: 11-13 August and 8-10 September.

BuzzBallz Cocktails have arrived on the scene in the UK – first in Manchester at Bunny Jackson’s.

The fun, ball-shaped cans of cocktails are behind the bar now at the city centre dive joint with six varieties to try – Choc Tease, Tequila ‘Rita, Strawberry ‘Rita, Lotta Colada, Chili Mango and Espresso Martini – before they launch across the UK on- and off-trade later in the summer. 

Served in British-designed stemware by Richard Brendon and Jancis Robinson MW, the collection of traditional method sparkling wines from the local Hundred Hills wine estate on the steep chalk slopes of the Stonor Valley took pride of place at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons on Bastille Day.

Raymond Blanc, the self-taught chef-patron of the idyllic venue, which has held two Michelin stars since it opened in 1984, displayed the Legion d’honneur and OBE medals on his cheffing jacket. Blanc, who has worked and resided in the UK for half a century, welcomed 200 guests to the lavish garden party, which also included mimes, acrobats, walking topiary figures, an orchestra and an opera singer and an ice sculpture of the coq gaulois. ‘All my life at Le Manoir has been about bringing the cultures of France and England together,’ said Blanc in his address, adding, ‘I feel a better Frenchman in England.’ Before a triumphant, sing-a-long rendition of La Marseillaise, Blanc said of Bastille Day that its true meaning is about ‘égalité, democracy, and of men and women being equal in the eyes of the law and God.’

Alongside the sparkling wines, amplified in the well-proportioned glassware, canapés realised by head chef Gary Jones and his 50-strong brigade which includes his daughter, featured tuna kimchi with chilli shiso and sesame, lobster tarts with lobster ketchup, and scallops on oyster leaf with caviar and dashi. The Oxfordshire destination restaurant, hotel and anthology of gardens, including extensive produce plantings and orchards, has recently been granted planning permission for a vineyard intended for both wine and table grapes, to be planted with advice from Stephen Duckett, co-owner and winemaker of Hundred Hills. The resulting releases will no doubt include a Blanc de Raymond Blanc…

Have you been out and about this week? Let us know where we should visit next.