Piers Morgan a fan of this Bordeaux producer

Bottles of red wine from one Grand Cru Classé producer keep cropping up in photos posted on Instagram by the former newspaper editor and television personality, db has noticed.

Former editor of The Mirror and Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan took to social media to document a dinner with friends last week, with a bottle of Bordeaux wine taking centre stage.

Morgan, who met pals at The Swan pub and restaurant in West Malling, Kent, shared that he had bought his first home with his dinner companions, who are his “oldest and best village mates”.

One photo showed a decanted bottle of Château Batailley 2017, a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon with 17% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, described by Berry Bros & Rudd as giving “an array of coffee bean, mocha, damson and olive notes”, which Morgan enjoyed alongside steak and chips.

The 2016 vintage by the same producer features on The Swan’s wine list priced at £120.

Penchant for Pauillac

Château Batailley is one of the oldest properties in the Bordeaux appellation of Pauillac, and is named after the battle that took place in 1453 between the French and the English on the land which would become the prestigious wine estate. Acquired in 1924 by brothers Marcel and Francis Borie-Castéja, the pair decided to divide the property in two in 1941, giving rise to Château Haut-Batailley, owned by Francis, while Marcel kept Château Batailley.

Hugues Mathieu joined Château Batailley as head winemaker and cellar master in March 2023, and Mathieu also looks after the winemaking at fellow Grand Cru Classé Puillac property Château Lynch-Moussas.

Eagle-eyed followers will have noticed that Morgan also poured bottles of Batailley at his mother’s 80th birthday celebrations in June.

Morgan frequently shares his wine choices with his followers, and it seems he has a penchant for French reds, with bottles from Pauillac frequently cropping up. The total Pauillac vineyard represents only 7.5% of plantings in the Médoc’s 1,200 hectares, and Château Batailley owns just 60ha of these.

On 14 August Morgan posted a 2019 Pauillac on Instagram (see below) with the caption: “This would be my preferred last meal on earth: a good bottle of French red wine, perfectly cooked Spaghetti Bolognese, and a pointless side salad that I obviously wouldn’t eat because who cares about calories at this point…”

He has also shared photos taken at a “fine wine lunch”, where he tasted the 1953 Grand Vin from Château Latour, one of only three Premiers Grands Crus Classés in Pauillac (alongside Châteaux Lafite-Rothschild and Mouton-Rothschild). At the same dinner Morgan also tried the 1959 Grand Vin from Petrus.

In August Morgan posted a picture of a bottle of single-varietal Tuscan Merlot Poggio Alle Vipere 2019, which he sipped at the Crotto Dei Platani restaurant in Lake Como.

And earlier in July he noted that upon visiting Avra in Beverley Hills for dinner he couldn’t recall which wine he had ordered last time he visited the restaurant, upon which the waiter produced the receipt from Morgan’s previous visit.

“I was trying to remember what wine I’d had last time – a delicious Pouilly-Fuissé – and the waiter suddenly appeared with my last bill (from January) and showed me! Loved that.”

The outspoken broadcaster also enjoyed bottles of both Sassicaia 2008 and a 2011 Amarone by Dal Forno Romano during a recent meal at Little Italy in St Andrews, Scotland, and washed a dish of clams down with a bottle of Is Argiolas, a Sardinian Vermentino, while dining at Il Portico in Kensington High Street.

In June he celebrated Father’s Day with a magnum of Veuve Clicquot, saying that his Dad had only given him two pieces of advice over the years: “always be polite to police officers and always drink the best French wine (or Champagne) you can afford…both have stood me in very good stead.”

Morgan’s chosen wines are often accompanied by Montecristo cigars.

 

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