Silvia Altare, Picking in Piedmont

(this post was written a little over a week ago and due to technical problems with our blogging site we have only just been able to get it posted)

Here we are, back to the crazy days, when heart beats a little faster, finger nails get dirtier and sleeping hours get shorter and shorter! Nothing has changed from last year at the Altare winery, we have the same old…or I should say “expert” pickers in the vineyards, and in the cellar you have me, Tes-san the Japanese super manga hero, Robert the winemaker from Cullen’s in Margaret River and Sorin the Romanian Mr. Fix it and Mr. Reliable...and of course Elio supervising all of us.

We are doing much better with foreign languages this year so much so that we are all experts in swearing and giving orders in each other’s languages. Working for a vintage in a cellar is a cheap and fast way to learn a language; perhaps we should start a new trend and have people coming for free work just to learn the language!

We started picking Dolcetto last week, finally back to the usual time of picking.Yes, we are expecting a great harvest, I know I should talk about harvest only when everything is picked and safe in the cellar, but I cant help it, grapes look amazing, the weather is just how it's supposed to be, the picking crew is all excited, and we are all here ready to work hard to make some good juice! The first pressing we made 2 days after crushing.

Dolcetto literally spends only 2 days in the rotary fermentor, and it’s amazing how much color, tannin and aromas we can get after only 2 short days on the skins. We picked at 21-22 brix, less than usual, but we will finally get a light Dolcetto, exactly as it’s supposed to be.

Getting the juice out the rotary fermentor is easy, but to get the skins and the seeds out and put them in the press, that’s something else! Your hands turn purple and when you are among people there is not hiding that you are a winemaker!! At the same time we were picking the white grapes of Bosco and Albarola in Cinque Terre, Liguria, where Elio has started a little winery a few years ago. It originally started as a hobby, but is now turning into hard work…just what we needed!

We are planning on starting barbera by the end of this the week, in the meantime, so that we don’t loose the’ momentum’ that we have now, we are labelling, doing visits at the winery, delivering, and the most fun, which I get to do, running the office :-(

Harvest News - The pick of the bunch

Drumroll please...

The stage is set and a verdant hush descends over the vineyards of the Northern Hemisphere. Harvest is upon us with it the old world's wine world tenses in collective anticipation at this most heart quickening time of the year. Vintages can be made and lost in the coming weeks when the clemency of the early autumn weather is well and truly put to the test.

So it is with delight that we announce voices old and new to guide us through the trials and tribulations of the various harvests. From the bunch to the blog in the quickest time possible we have...

...from Bordeaux's right bank, the returning voice of Edouard Moueix, providing updates from Providence, one of the stars in their stellar collection of Pomerol estates. New to us year is Maxime Thienpont, son of Luc, giving us the left bank perspective from the vines of our much loved Margaux micro-property Chateau Clos des Quatres Vents. Lovers of Piedmontese wines will be delighed to hear that Buyers' Blog favourite Silvia Altare has kindly agreed to furnish us with more of her delightful reports from the frontvine, while further south Marco de Grazia has agreed to give us updates from the slopes of Mt. Etna and one of our estates of the moment, Tenuta delle Terre Nere. Last and by no means least, the extremely affable August Kesseler has agreed to keep us up to speed on events in the Rheingau.

There are more big names to come so watch this space, it is guaranteed to be something of a harvest festival...

Sheer Montrachet Magic

Its wines may well cost an arm and a leg, but Montrachet or "Le" Montrachet is one very special vineyard. Last night at an informative tasting and dinner with the hugely articulate and congenial Drouhin winemaker, Veronique Drouhin, a group of us tasted some lovely wines, red 2006s from both Cotes, a super Vaudesir Moulin des Vaudons 2008, not to mention a stunning barrel sample of 09 Clos des Mouches white but the star of the show was Montrachet Marquis de Laquiche 2007. Intense rich yet fine, taut and weightless, it totally flooded the senses and just went on and on and on... It does really take you to another level of wine enjoyment, too much of this and almost all other white wine would start to seem very ordinary.

Vincent Pinard upgraded to two stars in the Revue de Vin de France

France's historic Revue du Vin de France has been published monthly since 1929 and is cited by Jancis Robinson as "France's only serious wine magazine". It carries no little weight amongst the wine making and wine drinking fraternity of France. So it is with delight that we announce the entirely deserved upgrading of the Vincent Pinard domaine to a two star estate. The revue goes on to say amongst other glowing praise, that “progress has been more impressive than in any other cellar in Loire’s central vineyards (Sancerre & Pouilly.)”

Sancerre praise indeed...

Would you give someone your last BaRolo?

Not judging by our customers response to the 2006s on Monday. Despite the strike, customers were scrummaging ferociously for a sip of the best La Morra, Serralunga, Monforte and Castiglione Barolos money can buy. This is proving a really classic, structured vintage yet with enough generosity and fruit to allow us an exciting glimpse of even greater things in store. Wines from Gaja, Voerzio(pictured), Altare Scavino and Clerico, to name but a few, must make this tasting of Piedmont's best one of a kind in the UK

Two other highlights were Terre Nere's 2008 Etna Cru wines, arguably their best vintage so far, and a flight of undoubtedly the greatest ever wines to come out of Toro, the 2009 Teso la Monja wines were extraordinary and surely await high critical acclaim.

J&B named IWC Specialist German Wine Merchant of the Year.

The German section of our wine list has long been an area very close to our Chairman's heart. Over the past 30 years his love of German Riesling has been transformed into our extensive listings from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, The Nahe, Rheingau, Rheinhessen and Franken.

So it was a delight to receive the award for the 2010 Specialist Wine Merchant of the Year. You could say it was just another riesling to be happy...

Doing it in Style...J&B House Red Burgundy featured in the Sunday Times

Both buyer Giles Burke-Gaffney and our house red Burgundy given two thumbs up by Bob Tyrer, Style's weekly wine columnist.



"Ever since a brute called Giles Foster tried to beat me for some schoolboy idiocy - the other prefects stopped him - I've had both a problem with authority and a wariness of Gileses. So it was a delight to come across Giles Burke-Gaffney, who shows no sign of beastliness. Perhaps that's because he has one of the wine trade's best jobs, as buyer for Justerini & Brooks, the royal wine merchants, and certainly one of its best views. From his desk, he looks up St James's Street towards the fleshpots of Mayfair. His Chairman, Hew Blair, sits opposite him with an even better vista down towards St James's Palace (and the black front door of Berry Bros & Rudd, the old rivals). On the day I popped in, the chairman was away, but he had left his dark-blue pinstripe suit neatly folded over his chair, facing our Giles. I swear I caught Giles bowing to it.

Justerini & Brooks has always been a bit of an enigma to me. Its fortunes rest on a popular whisky, J&B, yet the wine end of the business has seemed a bit aloof. When I dared to enter its splendid office as a mere punter a decade or so ago to ask about buying one of its wines, the responses ranged from nonplussed to sniffy. Things have changed, I think. Much of its trade is still with restaurants and traditional private clients, but it has a well-functioning website that, if you ignore the plutocratic bottles and search for JandB House, reveals a gem. Justerini & Brooks red burgundy, a house wine, costs less than £10 yet is much better than the price suggests. Giles won't say who makes it, but hints at an illustrious name who doesn't want to be associated with low prices. If I were the Queen, I'd cancel the Corton (about £500 a bottle) and serve this at my Buckingham Palace banquets with my own salmon or lamb.

I've been trying other cheap house wines from other independant merchants and I'm afraid that, so far, they've all gone down the sink. So, after St James's, it's off to Tesco and Waitrose for two more of the best bargains in the realm." Bob Tyrer, On the Bottle. Sunday Times Style, 05/09 2010

Cru Bourgeois - Comedy, tragedy and could be consigned to history...

The French are known for their flare in the kitchen and for producing scintillating wines. We should also add to this list of stereotypes a passion for bureaucracy. The lamentable Cru Bourgeois system has just been re vamped, and the latest incarnation looks set to be the most dysfunctional to date, although we wouldn't bet against future changes making it even more confusing for consumers...

So after the debacle of the 2003 reforms and the subsequent law suits, the Cru Bourgeois system reverted back to its original incarnation (of 1932). It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't all bad. Now in an attempt to glam up the classification, l'Alliance des Crus Bourgeois du Médoc have decided to appoint a third party tasting panel to judge whether a wine meets the criteria to be awarded Cru Bourgeois status. A good idea in essence, but this tasting won't take place until the wine is in bottle. The first vintage to be affected will be the 2008s; wines that we sold en Primeur over 12 months ago. It is conceivable that some wines that have been sold en primeur will have been incorrectly advertised as Cru Bourgeois, we won't know until the results are announced in September. It is also conceivable that an estate will produce a Cru Bourgeois one vintage and then a simple 'Bordeaux AOC' the next. Call us sceptics, but these reforms look daft and moreover, incompatible with the en primeur system of selling wines...

2003 White Burgundies....

Lunch on Friday and once again an extremely good bottle of 2003 white Burgundy. OK, so they are atypical with their low acidities and somewhat high alcohol levels, but the good ones possess a richness that offsets these two qualities. Somewhat paradoxically (hot vintages with low acidities are not generally touted for prolonged cellaring) they also appear to be the vintage least affected by premature ageing in the past fifteen years. This particular bottle was a Jean-Noel Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chaumes 1er Cru 2003; ripe and rich, yet with a fine mineral component, sun warmed lemons, and a good deal of spice - it was extremely well received.

Rhone 2009 - The Septentrional Slog

After two days of Meridional marathon in the Southern Rhone, I embarked on an even more gruelling two days in the Septentrional North. I have visited 7 producers both yesterday and today(thursday)taking in the best of Cornas, Crozes, St Joseph, Hermitage, Condrieu, Cote Rotie and that well known Vin de Pays, Seyssuel! I have seen all of our regulars such as Chave, Domaine du Coulet, Domaine du Colombier, Perret and Rostaing to name a few, as well as keeping an eye on the regions young (winemaking!) talents, people such as Semaska, PJ Villa and Stephane Ogier. That makes 26 producers in 4 days. Now, before you all sarcastically get your violins out, actually this has not been such a tall order. Glancing at my schedule upon arriving late into Marseille on Sunday, I thought I had gone perhaps a touch o.t.t., but in fact the style and quality of this vintage has really made it feel rather effortless.

Whilst 09 is a small vintage in the south because of the very few bunches of Grenache that had formed on the vines, in the north it is a vintage of quality and quantity like 1999. Some producers in Cornas prefer the elegance of 08 to the richness of 09, remember that this appellation's sheer, exposed and well-drained slopes produced very good 2008s. 2009s in Cornas are enormously rich and intense, some top the charts at 15 degrees alcohol, too much wine for some people perhaps, but I am sure they will earn great critical acclaim in some quarters. Domaine du Coulet have made an incredible Gore Cuvee this year. St Joseph is particularly high performing, i think, perhaps some of the most balanced wines of the vintage, Perret's Grisieres is sublime and Villard has made the vintage of his life, in my opinion. Rene Rostaing was ebullient and rightly so, all three of his Cuvees were exemplary. Clusel Roch will be releasing a very serious Grandes Places aswell as a separate bottling of, for the first time, La Viaillere which that i thought remarkable and one of my personal favourites of the trip.

For anyone who remembers and still has examples of that great 1999 Northern Rhone vintage, I tasted a Grandes Places 99 with Brigitte Roch. On the basis of this 99s are every bit as wonderful as they were on release. Really impressive, one of the greats, but worth holding onto for at least another 5 - 10 years, it is still so young.

Hew's Views - The Final Roundup

All the 2009s have now been released; so it's verdict time. How has the market reacted to the Bordelaise's new pricing strategy? What should we buy from 2009? Our Chairman, Hew Blair has watched the campaign unfold and now gives his judgement in this, the final instalment for the Bordeaux 2009 campaign of Hew's views.

2009 - High Spirits in Chateauneuf du Pape

Monday and Tuesday have gone remarkably quickly and smoothly despite the crammed schedule. Chateauneuf is starting to feel like my second home now, my visits have inlcuded pierre usseglio, pegau, barroche, versino, vieux telegraphe, rayas, beaucastel, cros de la mure, clos des cazaux cayron, and clos des papes. Phew, thats a lot of grenache! Everyone seems really very content with their 09s if a bit rushed because 2010 is behind schedule and there is lots to do in the vineyard. The 09 wines our gorgeously lush open and fruity, even the usually more reductive styles are showing well. This is clearly a very good vintage,different to 2007 less black fruit and in many cases less alcohol, which was a pleasant surprise, though still quite high nonetheless, domaines like usseglio have produced wine at about 14.5 alc versus 15+ in 07.No doubt some 09s will be much higher than this, however. The profile of the 09s are rich incredibly smooth more red fruit perhaps than the black fruit of 07. There is definitely tannic power but this is hidden by glycerol and fruit sweetness. However tannins and minerality do seem to give the impression of freshness, for the best wines are certainly not heavy or sickly. Many growers, namely Vincent Avril of Clos des Papes, consider it as in between 2007 and 2005 in style, the sweetness of the former and the structure of the latter without being as rigid or austere as 2005. Mourvedre, Counoise and the cooler grenache zones have done particularly well

A word on 08s. Dismissing this as another 02 is plainly wrong. My tastings in bottle of the southern rhones over the last two days reaffirmed my barrel tastings. Ok there will have been some bad wines in this challenging vintage, but it is surprising how lovely the wines from the good growers are. Ripe, floral, refreshing acids and decent mid-weight smooth structures. Not one of the greats but as good as very nice vintages such as 1999 (or better for some like Vincent Avril)

Aalto 2007 and Ossian 2009

Aalto is the impressive collaboration between former head of the Ribera DO Javier Zaccagnini and Vega Sicilia's winemaker of 20 plus years, Mariano Garcia. It is the result of blending the best parcels from 7 different communes in Ribera del Duero, vine age a minimum of 40 years old. Not only does each commune have its own unique terroir, be it sand limestone or clay soils but just as importantly, if not even more so, each commune tends to have its own very unique clones of the Tinto Fino grape that make totally different wines to eachother.

Ribera has had a wet,cool Spring and early summer, the landscape looks so lush, green and floral, such a difference to the desert I visited this time last year. I am here to see the restless Javier Zaccagnini and taste his 2007, to be released in September this year. It was a very extreme year, really dry but cool aswell, no bad thing for this usually rather hot climate. It did mean a great deal of work in the vineyards to ensure proper maturation of the grapes, but ripen they did. There is no PS in 2007, it has all gone into the main Aalto blend, which is as a result incredibly complete silky and complex, with a very moreish and refreshing acidity so typical of this cool vintage. 2007 might not have the blockbuster richness of a 2005 but the balance, refinement and drinkability will make for a very serious bottle that can be approached early or after several years bottle age and it should work tremendously well with food.

We then head south to Ossian in the southern zone of Rueda. I used to call this one of my favourite whites outside of Burgundy, now i just call it one of my favourite whites. 2007 and 2008 were phenomenal vintages, cooler years perfectly suited to the style of wine made here. 2009, though a richer vintage, clearly betrays the benefits of Ismael's (pictured in one of his 250 year old vineyards) and Javier's experiences since their first Rueda vintage in 2005. The continuing refinements and improvements they have made has resulted in a sublime, silky, long and concentrated wine. The scary thing is they are still learning. No where else in the world does the each barrel of the same wine taste so different (according to the vineyard plot it comes from) and they are still trying to understand why. The wine is 100% anicent vines Verdejo yet the barrels range in flavour and style from Riesling, to Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc depending on the plot you taste. This makes for an unforgettable and incredibly harmonious blend.

Follow me to the Rhone next week, where I will be casting and eye on the 2009s.

2009 Toro and some smart Rioja

Nothing like a nice Rioja to revive the senses after a 4 hour drive from Priorato. Well, certainly, if its one of Marcos Eguren's. The Egurens are the vinous Kings of Rioja, if not all of Spain. Their wonderful San Vicente was one of the original modern Riojas, hand made from a low yielding single vineyard La Canoca in the Rioja Alta zone, which produces the region's most subtle, elegant wines that combine fresh acidity with fine fruit and tannic backbone. It is regularly voted best red wine in Spain, by the Spanish great and good, and you can see why.

2007 was a small, cool and late harvest, picking did not finish until the beginning of November in some vineyards. An absolutely wonderful vintage not a rich blockbuster, far from it, but intense, fine and fresh. I always have a soft spot for San Vicente Rioja, i don't think there is better value wine in Spain, the 07 exemplifies its typically sophisticated, nuanced style. However for sheer quality Amancio was something else. Another single vineyard wine but most of the fruit goes into other cuvees, only 8% of the vineyard's grapes, the creme de la creme, are used for Amancio. All flowers, high notes, minerals and forest fruits, understated yet so powerful. It will be a wine for ageing, if a still far too young but equally impressive 2002 is any indication.

Further south in Toro the Egurens have been busy fine-tuning their Teso La Monja wines. They sold their Numanthia Termes estate in a bid to make something more elegant. Their idea was to buy only high altitude, mainly north facing vineyards ranging from 40 to 100 years old, with a view to prolonging the vegetative cycle and make a more refined style of Toro. 2009 conditions were great and combined with the experience gained from the two vintages already under their belt, has made for staggering results. They are not as massive, thick or extracted as the Numanthia Termes wines were but they are even more intense, more floral finer and longer. In general the best Toros taste like very good wines but without any particular identity that marks them out as specifically being Toro. This is where Teso la Monja excel, they are quite simply sumptuous seductive and unique. Dios mio! their top wine, Alabaster, left me breathless - smooth silky floral but with a marathon finish. As soon as journalists and wine trade professionals have had a chance to taste, it will surely not being long before its consider one of Spain's true greats.

Nou Wave Priorato

So to the land of El Bulli and FC Barcelona, Catalans show as much flair in the kitchen as they do on Nou Camp's glorious turf, the region has become a must visit for the most serious of gastronomes. The wine is catching on, too. Home of Priorat and its rugged, slate-rich hills. A unique land where red grapes are grown on dangerously steep, crumbling hills of slate.

The region is rediscovering its identity after the unwieldy, heavily oaked Cabernet Syrah and Merlot influenced wines of the nineties. Over the last 10 years the region's top producers have concentrated on the land's more traditional grape varieties, in particular the area is awash with seriously old vines Garnacha and Carinena (Grenache and Carignan.) Ok so the wines of Priorat are never going to be shrinking violets, but from today’s top producers they are definitely unique, potently moreish wines with an unmistakebale mineral streak running through them. There are about a dozen top flight producers and I have come to taste three of my favourites: Vall Llach, Mas Martinet and Mas Doix.

I am here to taste 2008s and 2007s. Two very different vintages. 07s remind the contagiously enthusiastic Sara Perez (of Mas Martinet) of the 2004s, full of richness , velvet texture with a nice but very gentle thread of acidity running through it, wines for hedonists. 08s are altogether more ethereal, in one of her more artistic moments Sara describes 2008 as a “clouds” vintage, by that I think she meant a vintage of high tones, as opposed to the more obvious but immediately seductive 07s. I adore the finesse and terroir complexity of Sara’s wines, characteristics that are perhaps more marked in 2008 than 2007, they don’t always wow the journalists because they are not all upfront, but how incredibly fine they are and they age wonderfully. The glorious, wild cherry-infused 2000 Clos Martinet that I tried at the estate will attest to that. The Vall Llach and Mas Doix offerings were exquisite, too, albeit in a slightly different style to Martinet, super sumptuous and silky yet with wonderful bright mineral lift. I believe that a certain someone across the Atlantic concurs, both of their 2007s are in the Wine Advocate’s top 10 of the vintage.

Viva the revival!

2009 Update

Apologies for the recent lack of blogs. After weeks of inactivity we have been inundated with releases in the last few days. Prices have resembled the weekly salaries of some of our under-performing football players, but the market has decided that they offer much better value for money. In fact it's now a race to see whether the campaign will finish or the England squad will return home first. My money's still on the England team...

The biggest news is that Lafite, Mouton, Latour and Margaux have released. Due to unprecedented demand the Chateaux have released only a fraction of their production onto the market. We will continue to buy on the secondary market and wait for further traches before we offer at an amalgamated price. There is no real prix de revente for the first growths, but we can tell you that the first tranche has been around 550 Euros per bottle to us. We wait with apprehension for the further releases...

Recent headlines from the campaign include:

- Magnificent La Mission is out at £6200.
- Palmer releases this morning – Second tranche is released after lunch...
- Leoville Barton sells out in one afternoon; we await a second tranche.
- Big hitters, Leoville Poyferre, Montrose, Pichon Baron and Conseillante are out and will be allocated.
- Rauzan Segla and Troplong Mondot are approaching the end of the first tranche.
- Second tranche of Beychevelle now available at £650.
- Bordeaux negociants arrested for working a 35 hour day.
- Hindsight is a beautiful thing - bag a 2008 bargain. `08 Clarence Haut Brion £430/case.

Domaine Clos de Tart

How time flies. It is now twenty years since Justerini & Brooks first became involved in supplying and developing the Singaporean fine wine market, and over those years it has become increasingly filled with very serious connoisseurs and some genuinely world-class cellars. Though we meet with our customers in restaurants and private houses all over the city, the private dining room within the Jiang-Nan Chun Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel has been J&B's prime venue of choice for entertaining throughout this whole time. There have been many spectacular dinners held here over the years, and a few days ago we added another. Sylvain Pitiot, from the Burgundy Domaine Clos de Tart, flew out to join us for two dinners focused on the vintages made under his stewardship of this Grand Cru monopole estate. It is no longer a secret that since his debut in 1996 this ancient estate has been producing its finest flight of vintages in decades, and the dinners more than proved that point.

The 1996 was drinking beautifully , with mature wild plum and cherry flavours and silky tannins giving the wine a wonderful complex finish.

The 1999 was still very youthful and firm , but packed with ripe, luxurious and explosive fruits.

The 2001 had a beautiful pinot noir definition; fresh, seductive aromas and a perfect balance of fruit and minerals. A real star.

The 2002 was still a baby. Tight, concentrated, intense and pure. It is waiting to show its real colours.

The 2003 was big textured, rich and sweet, and seduced with damsons and black cherry, yet had that Pinot Noir structure to counter the wonderful bold ripeness.

The 2005 was glorious; that simple. Full of rich, ripe, dark fruits, yet balanced by a powerful minerality. A truly complete and grand Clos de Tart.

2006 is a vintage Sylvain rates particularly highly. Youthful yet harmonious and refined; a terroir-dominated vintage. Subtle , complex berry fruits, fine tannins and a haunting sweet yet mineral finish.

2007 is lovely, seductive, ripe Pinot. Fleshy and sweet black cherry and sloe fruits follow through. A real charmer.

The 2008 was cool, refined and with a purity of fruit that would be hard to match outside the best Grand Crus. Quite simply it is a great wine and even in its youth reflecting the best of a grand terroir.

What was so special about this flight was that without exception each wine was true to the conditions experienced during the growing season and harvest, and to its unique Grand Cru terroir. What is evidently clear to us is the talent of Sylvain Pitiot in both the vineyard and cellar in guiding Domaine Clos de Tart through a new golden age.

Helmut Donnhoff: Dry whites and Soil Diversity

Legendary Nahe winemaker Helmut Donnhoff took a few minutes to discuss with us the impace of the warming weather on acidities in his dry wines, and the relative effects of his slate and volcanic soils.

Loving the Loire!

A trip to the immensely diverse Loire valley provides a welcome respite to the rife speculation surrounding Bordeaux 2009 prices and England's chances in the World Cup. I am here to taste the new red white and rose 2009s and take another look at some of the red 2008s in bottle. My (already very great) admiration for some of the Loire's top growers has just got greater. Not only does their fervent passion see them produce excellent wine in even the most challenging of climactic conditions but they also have a distinct awareness of market realities and the standard of competition that exists in the form of Bordeaux Burgundy and the new world. I can't think of any other region that has so many growers who know so much about the top wines from the Cote d'Or or the Cru Classe of Bordeaux!

Much ground has been covered already: Coteaux de Layon, Saumur Chanmpigny, Bourgueil, Chinon, Montlouis, Vouvray and some Touraine wines in Noyers sur Loire, so it makes picking out highlights difficult. One of them has to be the first day with the large and charismatic Jo Pithon (pictured.) After a rogue bat briefly interrupts our tasting in Jo's cellars I taste one of the Loire's great but unknown whites, 2008 Anjou Coteaux des Treilles, a vineyard with volcanic soils that has a strata of coal several metres below the surface. Seek it out. For me it is one of the Loire's top dry whites along side Taille aux Loups Remus and the Pouilly Fumes from Didier Dagueneau.

Another high point has been the reds, namely the 2009s,(surprise surprise!) but also the 2008s. The 09s are intense ripe and suave, dense but with finesse and what's more there is no talk of raising (already very reasonable) prices by 50 or even 15%! Yannick Amirault, Domaine de la Butte and Joguet have all performed extraordinarily well. Even all of their 2008s were showing quite brilliantly - all ripe fruit and silk - not as massive as the 09s but they are certainly no weaklings and are beautifully refreshing to boot. So 2009 is one of the "greats" for Loire reds like 2005 or 2003. It also looks very promising for the sweeties, too, the best since 1989 according to Huet's Noel Pinguet.

So much pleasure its almost exhausting, and I haven't even got to Vincent Pinard, Lucien Crochet, Francois Cotat and Didier Dagueneau yet, thats for tomorrow.

I'm putting my head on the block here, but what I have seen over the last few days underlines the huge strides the Loire has made in the last 5-10 years. The valley is the source of some of the world's great red and white wines whether from perceived "great" vintages or not, its now becoming foolish to ignore them.

Champagne Pommery: An antidote to football?

‘In victory we deserve it, in defeat we need it’. (Winston Churchill)

For every person wishing the England squad good luck for their coming few weeks, there will doubtless be another for whom the beautiful game holds no allure at all.

If you wish to escape the World Cup melée, the Sanderson Hotel’s top chefs and our champagne agency Vranken Pommery have come together to create a champagne and food matching extravaganza to give you an alternative evening to football. The first champagne dinner kicks off on Saturday 12th June at 7pm - probably just around the same time as the referee’s whistle. There will be a second champagne dinner on Friday 18th of June. And should England proceed through the stages, the dinners will continue...

In the UK we have a tendancy to only drink champagne as a celebratory tipple or an aperitif. The French on the other hand have long considered champagne as a perfect partner with food.

The evening starts, on the fabulous al fresco dining Terrace, with a tutored champagne tasting exploring the different combinations of grape varieties and cuvees that make up some of Pommery’s finest champagnes. The tutorial starts with Apanage , created by our Chef de Cave, Thierry Gasco as a champagne specifically for food; then Summertime, a refreshing Blanc de Blancs from our ‘Seasons’ range; a Pommery Grand Cru from 1999, and Apanage Rosé, the newest addition to Pommery’s pink portfolio.

After the tasting we will then combine the champagnes with a gastronomic dinner created by the top chefs at the Sanderson. We will look at why certain champagnes work wonderfully with certain foods, such as the Apanage with an ‘Amuse’ of Seared Scallop and Confit Suckling Pig Belly, or why a Blanc de Blancs has the structure and finesse to compliment a Halbibut Boulangere. If you think champagne and seafood are the only match made in heaven, we will take you through a meat course of roasted Bresse Quail , Mushroom Cannelloni and Albufera sauce matching with Pommery Grand Cru Vintage.

So if an evening of gastronomy and fine champagne is a welcome escape from hours of football call the Sanderson Hotel on 0207 300 1444. Tickets are priced at £90.00 per person, plus Service.

The Courtyard Garden

Sanderson

50 Berners Street

W1T 3NG