It’s been a while since my last entry but that does not mean I have been abstaineous. I should be writing about the London Wine Fair but to be honest I don’t think I can add much that has not already been written elsewhere. It was fun and I made lots of contacts with people in the industry and learned a lot at the master classes.
The countries that seem to be making a real push at the moment seem to be coming out of South America. Uruguay and Brazil in particular seem to be really moving on in leaps and bounds and catching up Argentina and Chile rapidly. Their wines are pretty good, excellent value and great talking points at dinner parties all around the world.
I was impressed with the wine knowledge at a local wine merchant recently. Handford wines on the Old Brompton Road near South Ken tube is the place to go (http://www.handford.net/). With an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of wines, grape varieties, soil, climate, terroir etc the manager there is outstanding. He recommended a great Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley and a white burgundy that was to die for. Much of his stock seems to be small parcels from up and coming producers and probably turns over very quickly. Take a look it’s a real treasure.
For my birthday my significant other treated me to a meal at Alan Ducasse at the Dorchester last week. A very disappointing tasting menu and service was almost redeemed by an indifferent Puligny Montrachet and an excellent Ch Frank Phelan 2003 from St. Estephe. This was a shame as I was expecting a wine list to compare with some of the great restaurants in London but maybe the captive audience of the Dorchester stimulates complacency and unjustified prices that other top quality restaurants would not dream of charging. I was tempted to contact AA Gill and send him in to give it the once over.
If anyone can suggest some countries that I should be looking at please let me know and I will report my findings at a later date. Bye for now.
Wednesday 17 June 2009
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