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You make me feel like Lanson…
July 1st, 2009

Much excitement in my pocket today, where my new iphone proudly sits. Far from being just a tool for chats and tunes, this is the camera I was waiting for! I can sip a little Lanson Rose, take a picture and then email it to myself all in one swift movement. The it’s up on the blog a mere instant later! YES! LOVE IT!

Anyway, an impromptu Lanson tasting in the office this morning provided the occasion to test and taste. And neither the wine nor the technology disappointed. Lanson is a House I first came across when the Bottoms Up I was working in came across a magnum of 1989 that seemed to have been mis-priced at about £30. Snapped it up and sat on it for a while before the right occasion presented itself - and when that came, kerpow! What a complex, fascinating wine.

Well since then Lanson has had its price promotion trials and tribulations in the off trade (completely beyond their control), but there is no doubting the quality of the wines.

The Brut NV is a blend of 50-60 Crus, and like the rest of the range, led by its Pinot Noir content. None of the wines go through malo-lactic fermentation which means that they deliberately tend twards fruitiness and freshness rather than biscuity yeastiness. This is fine by me at 11 o’clock in the morning! It’s fresh and floral with an explosion of fine bubbles in the mouth. Great for an aperitif or with some scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for breakfast.

Showing its beautiful new packaging below, the Rose is a Wimbledon dream come true. It’s a very pale salmon colour and is equally delicate in the mouth. Light, fresh red fruit with buckets of strawberries, red cherries and redcurrants. Have a sip and let your mouth take a cool shower on a scorcher of a day.

Finally the Vintage 1998. Still no malo-lactic fermentation but this wine achieves significantly more complexity and richness through the use of reserve wines and a minimum of 5 years of ageing before release. It’s more biscuity, with caramac, toffee and hazlenuts on the nose. Citrus and some savoury, mushroomy elements come through as it assaults the tastebuds. Serious wine for the right occasion.

So if like me, you hadn’t experienced Lanson in a while, it’s definitely time to get back to it. It’s 32 degrees outside people….drink up!

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America’s Next Top Bottle
June 30th, 2009

Last week Bibendum played host to the hottest American wine tasting of the season. Our man on the red carpet, Gareth, was there to assess the best hemlines, haircuts and  Cabernets…

Tyra Banks may have been replaced by a bearded winemaker called Ray, and as far as we could tell there were no backstage tantrums, but apart from that our ‘America’s Next Top Bottle‘ tasting last week was pretty similar to the smash hit reality TV programme that inspired its name.

Our vinous catwalk was packed with glamour, elegance and style in abundance as we showed off 43 brilliant wines from Washington State, Oregon and California. We just don’t see enough great American wines over here in the UK. It is only when you get to try the likes of Forman, Staglin, Calera and Corison side by side that you realise what we are missing out on.

As usual the Napa Cabs and cooler climate Pinot Noirs stole the show – a quick straw poll around the team showed many people thought Josh Jensen’s Calera Jensen Vineyard Pinot Noir was the wine of the day. It was just a shame Josh couldn’t make it over this year - he’s a huge tennis fan and tries to time his visits to the UK to coincide with a day or two on Centre Court in SW19. If anyone knows an easy way to get tickets for next year, please drop Josh a line. We know he’ll appreciate it.

However, it wasn’t just the reds that showed well. On such a warm day, it was great to see so many refreshing, crisp whites on show. Cathy Corison’s Corazon Gewurztraminer was a great example; a lean, mean mango machine that was fresh, bright and elegant with a lovely citrus-infused finish. Following close on its heels, Charles Smith’s Kill Bill inspired Kung Fu Girl Riesling was utterly gorgeous. If you are going to watch some tennis this year, then grab a bottle of this. Juicy fruit, squeaky clean acidity and kick-arse fruit make it the ultimate thirst quencher.

Finally, some praise for the Chardonnays. In years gone by, American Chardonnays have tended to be slightly top heavy with butterscotch oak and sweet caramel flavours. Not the ones we tasted at ANTB. Led by the Ojai Vineyard’s Bien Nacido Chardonnay and the Benziger Sangiacomo Chardonnay, these new wave wines were perfectly poised with racy acidity and no excessive oak. As the ever-succinct Willie Lebus put it: “It is great that so many producers have not forgotten that wine is a drink not an item of torture.” Well said, Willie.

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Art Attack No.15: Breakfast at Tiffany’s
June 12th, 2009

I’m slightly hijacking Art Attack this Friday. The brilliant canvas below was selected not because it has much to do with wine or Bibendum. It’s not even for the quality of the penmanship (which is very good).

No this week, Audrey Hepburn is selected as a tribute to my beautful fiancee, Gemma. who is marrying me next week. She’ll be donning all her diamonds, digging out her cigarette holder and putting on her little black dress - or whatever the wedding equivalent of these things is. And it also happens to be one of her favourite films. Here’s to you… x

Holly Golightly: I’ll tell you one thing, Fred, darling… I’d marry you for your money in a minute. Would you marry me for my money?
Paul Varjak: In a minute.
Holly Golightly: I guess it’s pretty lucky neither of us is rich, huh?
Paul Varjak: Yeah.

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South Africa and other foodie tales
June 11th, 2009

For weeks i’ve been meaning to post on some of the wonderful meals i’ve had the pleasure of eating. Well today I’ve finally managed to get round to it. I’m still not a natural when it comes to taking pictures of dishes, but here are the best of the bunch. At least posting them up here justifies all the stick I got from my other half for constantly whipping the camera out at the table.

South Africa was a treasure trove of brilliant food at the sanest of prices. In fact, I’ve never felt so able to choose ANY restaurant in the country and not fear too badly for my wallet. You don’t even need to go to the top end most of the time because the affordable spots usually have such high standards.

Rust en Vrede was the choice for our final blowout and we weren’t disappointed at all. The food is superb and always beautifully presented. Check out the Risotto of Tiger Prawn and a mild Cape Malay Curry with a Mango and Cashew Salsa below:

Tokara, also in Stellenbosch, has a great restaurant and provided one of my favourite dishes - thinly sliced raw beef topped with raw oysters and served with a pile of salmon tartare. The Tokara White is a bit of a star as well.

The Showroom in Cape Town (which I believe has now closed down) provided one of the more surreal meals as diners are sat in the middle of luxury car showroom - all white and chrome. The food was similarly OTT but there’s no doubting the quality of the cheese platter.

On our road trip to Plettenberg Bay we stopped off in Albertinia, which is apparently a bit of a mecca for good meat. Three huge T-bones came in at about £2 each and they all went on the barbie. Delicious and shaped surprisingly like Africa!

Dinner with the Newton Johnsons in the Hemel en Aarde Valley saw Dave cooking up a storm of lamb chops on the bbq while Gordy opened about 10 bottles of Pinot to try. This tasting, coupled with my first taste of Springfield Estate Pinot Noir a few weeks later, has inspired my latest crusade to put South African Pinot Noir on the map. The Newton Johnson Domaine Pinot Noir 2008 is world class in my opinion - remarkable given that this is the first commercial vintage coming from the vines just outside the winery. That night we drank it alongside Bouchard Finlayson Galpin Peak Pinot which was another highlight.

They also make some cheese, which we tied that night as well - funky stuff. It matures in the barrel cellar and adds a pretty interesting smell into the heady mix of wine and oak barrels.

The view from the deck is worth the 11 hour flight alone.

Back in blighty and great fun was had at MsMarmiteLover’s Underground Restaurant. If you’d like to find out more about it visit her blog - http://marmitelover.blogspot.com/

And one shameless plug for some of my home cooking. My brother and I cooked up our first ever Beef Wellington for my dad’s 60th. Bit of guesswork involved in the timings but I think we got it about spot on. It was delicious, especially washed down with a phenomenal bottle of Domaine de la Grange des Peres.

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Art Attack Friday No. 14: Let’s do politics
June 5th, 2009

Is it my imagination or has the world just gone politics crazy? For a spell back there, dodgy expense claims had even made politicians quite hip to talk about down the pub. Cue 24 hour news coverage. When will we learn the lesson of ‘too much of a good thing’? Never, apparently…

The political world has moved on from chat to full on implosion. MPs are fighting each other to get to the door and those that remain are tending to look a little shell-shocked.

So the big question this weekend is…will Gordon Brown come over all a bit Chemical Brothers and ‘Push the Button’?

All of our Friday canvases are taken from our Handmade Annual Tasting and reflect the hard work and creativity of our customers and staff. We salute you!

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The Power List comes to Primrose Hill
June 4th, 2009

(from left to right: Denis Dubourdieu, Philippe Dry, Jancis Robinson MW)

Tuesday afternoon saw a plethora (well 2) of the wine world’s most powerful people gather at Bibendum for a superb tasting: ‘Sweetness without sugar’ - Denis Dubourdieu on the great dry white wines from Bordeaux to Alsace.

If you haven’t the foggiest what I’m on about then let me explain. Denis Dubourdieu, who is a professor of oenology and also consultant oenologist for Cave de Ribeauville in Alsace, was this week named at No.30 in the Decanter Wine Power List. On his left sat Jancis Robinson MW who jumped in at No.8 in the same list - lofty company indeed! That said, Jancis is probably the last person to be interested in such a list, especially as she is sandwiched between Dan Jago at 6 and Nicolas Sarkozy at 9. What a place to be!

Anyway, I digress (what…again?). Denis took a group of collected sommeliers and press through his white wines from Bordeaux (including Chateaux Reynon, Doisy Daene sec and Clos Floridene), the Rieslings from Cave de Ribeauville, and then a final flight of classic Alsatian varieties from Ribeauville. The point he managed to very successfully make is that white wines do not need unnecessary levels of residual sugar in order to offer sweetness and flavour. Through proper processes in the vineyard and winery you can achieve the sensation of fruit sweetness without perceptible levels of residual sugar (made up of fructose and sucrose).

Towards the end of the tasting he left us in no doubt as to which side of the fence he stood on. “In the future, the enemies of white wine are: oak, alcohol, sugar and oxidation.” Now he’s not advocating that we grab our rotary fermenters, gather in lynch mobs and hunt down blockbuster wines, but it’s very clear when tasting the delicious Ribeauville wines that he strongly values freshness, dryness, fruit character, lively acidity, terroir and ageing potential.

Some of the wine highlights for me were:

Cave de Ribeauville Riesling Terroirs 2008 - complex nose with soft citrus, white stone fruit and vanilla hints. Tonnes of zingy fruit - really bright up front with great structure. It’s dry yet there is an abundance of sweet fruit character.

Cave de Ribeauville Grand Cru Osterberg 2007 - nose is less obvious and intense than the Terroirs but much more complex again. Lemons, oranges, musk and white flowers. Incredibly elegant, structured and long, long finish. Super concentration. He wants to see the sugar come down again in the future, which is really strange for Alsace, especially at Grand Cru level - retain the Riesling finesse, but turn up the intensity further. The lower sugar level means it’s great with food and will age well.

Cave de Ribeauville Pinot Gris Prestige 2008 - Strong, spicy nose. Savoury and dry on the palate. A serious wine which is quite austere at the moment. Give it time to develop in the bottle and it will be incredibly interesting. Perfect with food.

Cave de Ribeauville Clos du Zahnaker 2008 - this is the wine that Ribeauville and GM, Philippe Dry, are most proud of. From a 1.2ha vineyard they have pieced together through purchases over the years, the blend is one third each of Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer. Vanilla, musk and spice on the nose. The components are blended and then fermented together . Sometimes you see the citrus of the Riesling coming through, sometimes the musk of the PInot Gris - fascinating stuff. Rich, yet finesse-driven and with a neverending finish. The acidity is in check so this could be drunk now (”Life is short” says Denis), but my suspicion is that this could age beautifully for years, adding layer upon layer of secondary characters.

The tasting amply illustrated that the wines of the Cave de Ribeauville are better now than they have ever been. This is sexy Alsace that is trying to break the shackles of tradition and leave behind the reactionism of its peers. This is ’sit up and take notice’ stuff.

Next time you’re in a restaurant try an Alsatian wine - the styles will go well with your food and the value you’ll find compared to France’s other great whites will be phenomenal.

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Social Media invades the ExCel’s ring of steel
June 1st, 2009

As those early morning journeys down to ExCel for the London International Wine Fair recede into distant memory, it’s time to stand back and take a look at what happened  on that fateful middle Wednesday. The first thing that happened was that I woke up with a headache - dinner at Hunan will do that to you. If you haven’t been there before, then go! The food is spectacular and it really feels like a family business…because it is. Dad runs the kitchen and mum and son run the front of house. Michael also manages the wine list which is great fun - lots of big names but only meagre mark-ups, not something you usually find in the Sloane Square area.

As I said, the food is good enough to make you find space in your stomach that you didn’t realise existed. Witness the whole lobster below (roughly course no. 20!), which nearly killed us! Softly. Anyway…I digress…

After the Wednesday headache was banished and wifi connections were checked and double checked, about 170 wine trade professionals squeezed into Galleries 11 and 12 at ExCel for the industry briefing: ‘Wine and the Web: the business of getting Social’, presented jointly by Rob McIntosh, Ryan Opaz and myself.

There was a very serious message to this briefing and you can find full details of it in the press release we sent out. I won’t repeat it here becasue it’s quite long - but what a read it is!

The most important thing to decide is…where to next? So we shared our thoughts with the great and the good of the wine trade…what of it?

No doubt many people were there to tick a box and say they’re looking into it. I’ve read some commentary by one attendee who couldn’t stand the subject topic. He understood that wineries etc. might feel the need to take a spin on the bandwagon because everyone else is, but that it left him so cold that surely no one can actually think this is fun, useful or a clever use of time.

But he’s missing the point. It’s here to stay, deal with it. Twitter may come and go, but if it does something will replace it. Social media tools are questioning the whole way that information is shared and distributed. Don’t abandon your traditional strategies and put all your eggs into the social media server. Use as many or as few of the free tools as you want to communicate with suppliers, journalists, friends…and most importantly, customers. It’s free and it’s easy and you never know, you might learn something.

Bibendum will be following up this seminar with another session later in the Summer. All a bit hush-hush at the moment but I’ll post details as soon as they’re finalised. In the meantime, thank you for reading this blog, you’ve just been socialmedia’d.

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Ray, when someone asks you if you’re a god, you say “YES”!
May 29th, 2009

Now I know it looks a lot like the Gatekeeper and the Keymaster have got together to have a little party, open an interdimensional portal and and unleash Gozer again on the unsuspecting Ray, Egon, Peter and Winston, but this light show doesn’t end in a visit from the Marshmallow Man.

These incredible photos were taken just off the coast of Cape Town. The electrical storm perfectly lights up the Waterfront and Table Mountain. Pretty awe-inspiring stuff - thanks to Tom (who’s sitting there in Stellenbosch right now with a hangover) for the photos.

Have a great weekend. Take pity on me - I have to go to Westfield Shopping Centre tomorrow…(shudder…)

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Art Attack No. 13: sticky-back plastic please!
May 29th, 2009

I’m not sure that I understand all the elements of this 3-D canvas but I think there’s a strong clue as to its provenance on the bonnet. Big thank you to all the folks at Park Inn - a brilliant effort. I’m going to just call that one….abstract….

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Art Attack Friday/Thursday 12: the sun is often out
May 21st, 2009

As I write this I’m preparing to head off on a very quick weekend holiday to Burgundy to rescue my completely non-French-speaking friend, Tom. Catching up with Pascal Marchand tomorrow morning and then having dinner at Ma Cuisine - the best restaurant in the world. And then back to the wedding diet…I promise!

After the general outrage due to missing editions of Art Attack on my previous trip away, I thought i’d get it up early this week.

With the sun shining down on Primrose Hill, I thought it was time for Art Attack to reflect this. Long may it continue.

Did you do this for the ‘Handmade by Bibendum’ Annual Tasting? If so, let us know.

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A quick look at Springfield Estate
May 20th, 2009

At last week’s LIWF event at ExCel I reckon I only had time to try about 20 wines…in 3 days…out of thousands! Being busy is a good thing, I kept telling myself. Sweating a bit is less good but acceptable in the circumstances, I also told myself. Perhaps I just spent too long telling myself stuff…

Anyway, I did manage to escape the Big Brother stand for long enough to see the lovely Jeanette Bruwer. Springfield Estate is a Bibendum legend (appearing on the Wines of South Africa stand) that has been wowing drinkers in this country for years with some of the most zingy, linear whites and full-flavoured reds that the Cape has to offer.

The Firefinch Sauvignon Blanc 2008 is a mouthful of crisp, appley fruit with gorgeous texture. It’s like having a thousand tiny dancers on your tongue - could drink this one all day.

Next up was a blind red which was immediately unmistakeable. After my recent trip to South Africa I’ve learnt the important lesson of actually expecting more and more from South African Pinot - and this glass just confirmed it. Along with the new and delicious ‘08 Domaine Pinot Noir that Newton Johnson has produced, this ‘06 Springfield version was extremely flattering as well. It is savoury, with mushrooms and earth poking through the soft red fruit blanket. The volume is turned down on this one, with the wine seeing 18 months in mostly 2nd fill oak. It has really lovely weight.

Ripe Red 2006 has a nice, sweet fruit nose with a spike of minerality and a fresh quality to it. Wholeberry Cabernet 2007 is funky with tobacco, cedar and blackcurrant notes competing with fresh mint leaves on the nose. The fruit is pure on the palate though with good Cabernet fruit character. The 2003 Work of Time Bordeaux blend wasn’t my cup of tea, but this was the only slight blemish in this tasting - I tend to think that some of the more recent red vintages have shown more exciting fruit.

And then to completely blow that idea out of the water we finished with a rare treat - the 1998 Methode Ancienne Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s still black in colour with a deep and concentrated nose. Lots of savoury elements mingle with blackcurrants and bramble. The grainy tannins are nice and ripe and as such it has a beautifully integrated, subtly, layered texture. Elegant, with a longer tail on it than West Indies batting line-up.

Out in South Africa, Springfield popped up on just about all the wine lists I saw, and for good reason. See it, buy it…that’s what I keep telling myself.

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Art Attack No 11 I think
May 15th, 2009

Many of you have noticed (and commented!) that Art Attack has gone AWOL in the last couple of weeks. Well, don’t worry, AA has recovered its mojo and is good to go again.

It’s also worth pointing out that the canvases made an absolutely huge impression on the London International Wine Fair stand this last few days. What a resource they are!

You may recognise the canvas below as the face belongs to Drinks Business ‘Man of the Year’ - well we couldn’t really put any other one up today could we?! Thanks to Brian Rawson for this stunning (beardy-period) likeness…

A picture of the canvases on the stand:

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