The week in pictures

Kristin Scott Thomas, star of Electra, lent her penmanship to the Old Vic Theatre Trust by signing a Jeroboam of Champagne Taittinger’s classic Prestige Brut NV. Champagne Taittinger has donated a number of Jeroboams for the forthcoming 2014/2015 season with every lead actor or actress in each new play at The Old Vic asked to sign one to create a collection that will be auctioned off at a fundraising event next year to raise funds for the Trust.

John Matheson, of Drumsara Wines, sets a world record for the world’s highest-altitude wine launch in front of Mount Everest.

A New Zealand winery broke a world record by staging a wine launch at 17,000 feet in the shadow of Mount Everest. Central Otago winemakers Drumsara Wines officially launched its vintage 2012 Ventifacts Block Pinot Noir with the help of high altitude rescue pilot Jason Laing. The team captured the wine’s launch at the Kala Patthar landing in the Mahalangur Himalaya mountain range at 17,323ft, smashing the previous world’s highest altitude wine launch on Mount Ararat in Turkey by 470ft.

Twitter: @CourteneyCox

Friends’ star Courtney Cox demonstrated her love of wine by tweeting this picture of her and some pals tasting through the selection at the Silver Oak winery in Napa Valley. The actress tweeted: “Starting early 11am Silver Oak!! Amazing!”

Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTS, with David Frost, chief executive of the SWA

On Monday The Wine and Spirit Trade Association launched its Drop the Duty campaign calling for a 2% cut in duty on wine and spirits, which it says would result in a £1.5 billion boost to public finances in 2015. Supported by the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), the campaign was unveiled at The Punch Tavern in London.

The Wines of Germany ladies have been getting into the festive spirit showcasing their Christmas social media competition prize, while sporting the association’s trademark green glasses.

Scottish brewer BrewDog opened its first Finnish bar in Helsinki bar. With a capacity for 90, the bar will feature 18 beers on tap from breweries all over the globe including guest beers from Sierra Nevada and CAP, as well as Finnish breweries such as Maku Brewing and Sori Brewery. It’s the twelfth bar to be opened by the brewer in 2014.

The New Zealand Cellar hosted a pop-up shop in Brixton last week with more than 250 people turning up, no doubt to pick up a selection of New Zealand wines ahead of Christmas.

Rich Ellis, assistant winemaker at New Zealand winery Greywacke, shows off his wares.

British boxer David Haye has teamed up with the Chino Latino Restaurant & Bar in London’s Southbank to launch the Hayemaker Punch – a nutritious, post-workout mocktail for its new year detox menu. Made using fresh fruit, vegetables and dark chocolate, the mocktail is being marketed as the perfect “post-workout refreshment”.

David Haye with a Hayemaker Punch

Here is how to make a Hayemaker Punch at home :–

Ingredients:

• Four pineapple chunks (fresh is best but can be tinned) – full of vitamins and minerals, as well as bromelain which works with ginger to reduce inflammation
• 1cm of fresh ginger (add more to taste)
• 1Ž2 large carrot – rich in beta carotene for promoting good vision and immunity
• 10mg dark chocolate – full of heart healthy flavonols
• 1 pinch of rocket– packed with quercetin to reduce body ageing
• 100ml pineapple juice
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla syrup

Chop the pineapple, carrot, ginger and chocolate into small chunks and add to blender. Pour in pineapple juice, add more in necessary. Whizz up in the blender until only a liquid remains. Add vanilla syrup to sweeten, and whizz up again. Pour the liquid into a glass through a sieve to remove any strands of ginger. Add lots of crushed ice and garnish with thin wedges of pineapple and a pineapple leaf.

In the Christmas spirit, db was invited to a lunch hosted by Jean-Christophe Mau of Château Brown (centre) at L’Etranger in Gloucester Road this week attended by wine writing glitterati Robert Joseph (left) and Margaret Rand. In addition to a feast fit for a king, we also enjoyed a vertical tasting of Château Brown going back to 2005.

 We spotted these adorable Santa Lanson bottles doing the rounds on Twitter this week.

We also spied this wine-themed lip art on Twitter

db was invited to Merchant’s Tavern in Shoreditch this week to try out its new cocktail and bar snack offering. Housed in a former Victorian apothecary, chefs Angela Hartnett and Neil Borthwick oversee the food offering alongside Canteen founders Dominic Lake and Patrick Clayton-Malone, while some of the cocktails have medicinal twist.

Among the cocktails we tried were the Just What the Doctor Ordered (left), featuring Maker’s Mark, Courvoisier Exclusif VSOP, mint, lime sherbet and Dale de Groff Bitters, which hit the spot. The similarly citrus-laced Great Eastern Promise meanwhile blended Arrack, Goslings Black Seal and lemon loaf sugar with a citrus soda top. On the food front, bar snacks shunned the likes burgers and chips in favour of delicious deep-fried Jersey rock oysters served in their shell.

Chomping on, the smoked cod’s roe on sourdough came in an unctuous cream dusted with paprika, while the oxtail and bone marrow kromeskis were devilishly good and disappeared quickly from their tin cup. We ended the night with a winter warmer – Tawny Port served warm with cinnamon syrup and orange bitters: Christmas in a glass.