Italian Summer White

A Summer White:

After the grueling task of hiking around Excel in the Docklands for the London Wine Fair I have to say that I didn’t come away with an awful lot this time. Apart from a cracking lunch on somebody’s yacht that is! The one wine that did hit the spot was a perfect “Summer White”. It is also from Lugana which I have to confess without looking at the map quickly I wasn’t 100% sure which part of Italy it was. It is on the southern shores of Lake Garda and due West of Venice. My main criticism of many Italian Whites is that they can be too distinctive, too medicinal, too concocted, and occasionally just downright odd. In amongst they can and do make some cracking whites, just not enough for my liking.

Cento Filari 2010 Cesari

Lugana, Veronese, Italy

at £ 14.00 per Bottle (£ 13.50 by the case)

Such a subtle, gentle, and minerally wine that I cannot see this causing offence to anyone.

Just the epitome of an easy drinking summer white wine.

95% Turbiana & 5% Chardonnay

In stock.

Bordeaux 2010 – the saga continues…

I am sure most if not all of you that are genuinely interested in “En Primeur 2010” have already received my musings or let me know if their interest. My detailed notes were e-mailed out earlier today, if you feel you are missing out in life and wish to be added to this loop, let me know. Now out of the closet – Angludet; Beaumont; Gazin; Haut-Marbuzet; Lafon-Rochet; Sociando-Mallet.

Weekly indulgence:

Okay so this is one hell of an indulgence but if you have a chance to read the “silly season” below plus a look at the current Lafite-Rothschild prices then this is perhaps not so insane.

12 Bottles of:

Château Haut-Brion 1988

Pessac-Léognan 1er Grand Cru Classé at £ 3,500 ex vat the case

Silly-season:

Well, rather fortuitously Evangelist Harald Camping didn’t get it right on his prediction for the end of the world. Phew! We at least have until October the 21^st. In the meantime, back to the real world, or maybe not. I have always found many things pointless in life, like traffic wardens; golf; smooth peanut butter; wasps; and personalized car number plates. Now some of you I’m sure will try and defend Golf but I am sorry, if you dress-up like Billy Bunter in striped trousers, a Battenberg patterned sleeveless sweater and spats, I am not going to listen to you. And I know many of you do indulge, if that is the right word, in personalized car number plates, many friends, even my brother has. Let’s look at the evidence shall we?

£ 285,000 paid by Roman Abramovich for “VIP 1” in 2006

£ 440,625 paid by Afzal Khan for “F1” in 2008

£ 7,100,000 paid by Saeed Khouri for “1”

Now personally I would have painted the figure 1 in the finest of gold plate all over Saaed’s motor and left him with a good seven million in change. If you want your initials on your three wheeler, why don’t people just do what they did in the 18^th Century to their carriage and get a signwriter to paint the name, number, initials on? I could probably get Lucian Freud to do it for you and still save you a bob or two. 

A Week in Wine...

Next week we will have a lovely Austrian Grűner Veltliner from the impressive Anton Bauer to re-introduce. Something we stocked a few years back but the current Vintage is terrific and this is really a timely Summer wine be it on its own or with food. It’s lovely and a bit different. We have also tried a few tip-top reds this week but angling more at some easy everyday Whites to offer next week and onwards.

A very popular and sought-after wine is the Boekenhoutskloof Estate from Franschhoek in South Africa. We get such tiny quantities (six bottle of one cuvée and eighteen bottles each of two others, including Chocolate Block) that it is hardly worth listing anymore as it doesn’t even hit our shelves. The Importer sent us an e-mail yesterday ending thus: “Going forward I cannot sustain things if you are only ordering Boekenhoutskloof wines.” I would like a multiple of what they allow us to have but they restrict it to such nominal amount. It is almost like you asking me: “Tuggy, can I have 10 cases of Lynch-Bages please?” and I say I can only let you have 1½ cases but follow-up our next conversation with “well if you are only going to buy Lynch I don’t really think I can look after you”. I want more, you won’t sell me more, why should I, or you, have to buy something else to maintain that business? Paragon Vintners used to play that insidious game with Cloudy Bay and Veuve Clicquot and the Bordelaise are currently chipping in with their version and not only at the Lafite and Latour level but now amongst the Cru Bourgeois. More of that in my Detailed En Primeur notes which should follow this Sunday to those in that loop. If I want Duhart-Milon-Rothschild I have to also buy Rieussec but at about twice the price I think it should be. The games that people make us play. Alas the next time Boekenhoutskloof releases its new vintage, we shall already have moved on. And having tried just yesterday Chris Mullineux’s Swartland Syrah 2009 and Chenin Blanc 2010 I think we can easily fill that gap. The new vintages of Mullineux are both wonderful and we are probably going to ship them directly so we expect not only better wines but could even be cheaper. In amongst that was Mullineux’s renowned “straw wine” – a truly fabulous sweet wine that will give many a Tokaji a run for their Forint.

Today Henry is at The London Wine Fair in Docklands and I will be there all day tomorrow. If we make any terrific discoveries, these will of course follow tomorrow.

  

Weekly indulgence:

Just 12 Bottles (by the case or individually):

Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru “Les Rouges” 2002 Jean Grivot at a special £ 42.00 per Bottle

(This is on our shelf at £ 52.00)

Weekly rant:

Kensington & Chelsea Councillors. Well, after the M.P’s came in for a right royal grilling over their expenses I felt that Local Councillors were next in line for scrutiny and perhaps swiftly followed by the chopping block. Private Eye best tackles the worst of these. Our local ones are not exactly on my Christmas card list. Back in mid March I wrote to head of the Council Leader and indeed copied in all fifty two Councillors including the more recognizable names like Merrick Cockell; Nicholas Paget-Brown; Daniel Moylan; and Tim Aherne. The topics were three local issues. The first was the extraordinary decision to locate bicycle anchors right at the exit of Notting Hill Tube. All in favour of aiding bicycles as a mode of transport but to site this at what is the narrowest stretch of pavement anyway at the exit to the Tube and thus, when bikes attached (though that is the point) reduce the width by about half strikes me as dumb and dumber and then somewhat dumber again. The others about the Olympic Games and about Holland Park Comprehensive, so all pertinent. Out of the fifty two Councillors I had one reply. And that was from a Councillor I already knew saying that he was on holiday. With such a lack of response I duly forwarded the e-mail to all fifty two Councillors for a second time. Again just one response, but at least a basic response from Councillor Judith Blakeman of the Notting Barns Ward. I don’t know if any of you locals have had any good or bad success with our illustrious Councillors when they have to remotely think out of the box?! Anyway, I didn’t vote for them this time. www.rbkc.gov.uk. On the Home Page fourth down in the list click on “Council and Democracy”; then under “Roles & Responsibilities of the Council” further click onto “Councillors” then “find your Councillor” and this will bring up the separate Wards and list all of the individual local Councillors e-mail addresses. Whether they will actually bother to reply to you, I personally doubt but if you have a local issue that needs attending to, start there. You just might need to try and try again.

I didn’t mention it before because it seemed such an obvious and cruel target, Princess Beatrice’s Telly Tubby type hat. What was Treacy doing? Was the fitting April the first? It looks like the sort of design that I imagine would be on the handles of the Beckhams bedroom suite. Louis Hotel it is commonly called. And common it is. I think this fashion for teeny weenie hats perched on the forehead is quite frankly daft. The offending hat in question is currently circa £ 20,000 at auction. Finally makes a case of Château Lafite-Rothschild look awfully cheap.

Euro Trash. Aka The Eurovision Song Contest. Well that’s still alive and well. Jedward, how embarrassing. Sweden was atrocious too, how can that come third? Pub acts, Cabaret, they all seem to have equal merit in the musical mess that is Europe. A total utter taste bypass does at least offer highly amusing and mostly predictable viewing. Spain, Italy and France all vote for each other. Scandies for Scandies. Germans for anyone bad. And the Russians (that well known part of Europe) for their old friends. It is a wonderful show, it just isn’t music. Another wonderful show but at least with a reasonable dollop of music unlike the Euro Trash was Pink Floyd last Thursday. I say Pink Floyd as that was with a guest appearance from David Gilmour, a cool, clipped silhouetted figure standing 40 feet up in the air strumming his “comfortably numb..” as the eccentric figure of Roger Waters confined beneath Gilmour and in front of his own creation, The Wall, meandered somewhat like a caged animal. That was a real treat and I did see a fair few customers lucky enough to attend that one-off night.

Summer White - House Champagne - Bordeaux 2010 - California Dreaming....

Well with this swelter of weather; holidays; weddings; state sponsored assassinations; sporting highs and lows it has been a positively (or not) momentous few weeks. As such I thought it best to keep a low profile and let you sip in peace upon your Piña Colada upon some perhaps overpriced European tiled terrace where the weather was probably not as good as here. Back with a vengeance however. Summer white; House Champagne, as ever, Bordeaux; Californian, and on.

            Talking of Euro Trash I remember sailing around the beautiful coast and waters of Costa Smeralda on the north east edge of Sardinia. If you stayed on or in the water it was beautiful. The second you stepped onto terra firma, basically natural beauty with an unwarranted face lift. Shame. Nonetheless I did come across Sardinia’s greatest red wine, Turriga from Argiolas which is at t’other end of this rugged island. Being the best it is expensive (£ 43.00 for the 2005 Vintage) but thankfully Argiolas indulges us at the other end of the scale with a delightful and well made (and very well-priced) summer white, a Vermentino called Costamolino.

Costamolino Vermentino 2009 Argiolas, Sardinia at £ 12.00 per Bottle

£ 11.50 per Bottle by the Case

£ 11.00 per Bottle for 2 cases

Lovely, simple, clean, but with great mouthfeel and with impressive minerality.

Perfect summer offering, sufficiently textured to cope with food but smooth, easy and will slip down so easily on its own.

Stock is due in tomorrow.

Thursday 11^th May – EARLY CLOSING

A tad unorthodox but we will close early tomorrow (6.00 p.m.) as both Henry and I happen to be going to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” at the O2 tomorrow.

An indulgence I know but had to be done! I will make up for it with later openings another day.

  

R. & H. Lamotte Premier Cru Champagne from Champillon

Arrival of our newest and latest House Champagne (one of three!) in Bottles; Magnums; and Half-Bottles, all in stock from tomorrow.

Bordeaux 2010 – En Primeur

My Initial Tasting Notes will be e-mailed out to those regulars or those who have expressed an interest tomorrow.

We still have an incredibly long way to run in this En Primeur Campaign so trust me, no rush, yet.

  

Weekly indulgence:

A separate e-mail has gone out today entitled “California Dreaming” and that is an expensive but tasty offering, four red and four white, including such exalted names as Duckhorn Vineyards; Kistler; Peter Michael Winery; Stag’s Leap, amongst others. These range from £ 22.00 to £ 80.00 a Bottle. A bit beyond the realms of our weekly e-mail but if tip-top New World numbers are your bag, please advise and I’ll duly forward this one off e-mail.

Weekly rant:

Well pip pip for Pippa Middleton, except that I don’t quite get it. Yes she acquitted herself very well on the big day and I can’t fault her for that and yes a teeny weenie bit racy rear view for two billion prying eyes but let’s be honest about this, one is surely going to find just as attractive a Sloane at each and every Sloaney party across the land. Or is sychophancy because she is a Royal-in-law? Henry was also at Marlborough College and I would love to tell you what Pippa did but alas Henry has just slapped a super injunction on the topic! And I have only ever twittered once. So you’ll have to fill in the blanks I’m afraid. Or ask Henry yourself.

Sitting on the 28 Bus with the great unwashed commuting into work one does overhear some engaging but more often tedious and tawdry little stories as someone with a low I.Q., and occasionally even modestly intelligent, is prepared to blurt out every little detail of their or someone else’s realtionship. After Osama Bin Laden was double tapped by some seals, obviously ones that hadn’t been clubbed by some Canadians, it was staggering how many people believe in a conspiracy theory. Overhearing would be the wrong word but being forced to listen to some 16-17 year old girl struggling in English (though her native tongue) to tell her mate that she don’t believe it that Bin Laden’s dead. Let’s think about this for a second. Osama is alive and kicking and his biggest coup would be to appear holding a newspaper dated 2^nd of May onwards. A digital image, a Polaroid even. Utter humiliation for America and the World would find it hard to trust any official line for perhaps the next twenty years. Any photograph...? Next, that he was already dead and this was just staging due closure. Possible but if you are going down that route, to choose a property inside of Pakistan, minutes from the Capital, in pretty much a military zone with so many variables (as we know from Jimmie Carter’s Tehran attempt), that could only be described as dumb and dumber. A remote cave would have been the choice. Obama acquitted himself well, though I think he badly delayed when he should have been emphatic and immediate about categorically not showing images of Osama’s demise, unlike the dumb and even dumber wish of the Head of C.I.A. in wanting to show the world. No shadowy pictures of the Yeti or Elvis Presley flipping burgers in Croydon but a simple full-on picture of Been Laden’d holding a current daily newspaper. If he is not actually dead, surely not that difficult is it? Now J.F.K., that’s a different...

            Now A.V. might work in a restaurant. If you don’t have the sirloin I’ll have the loin chops... What a pointless exercise otherwise. It was hard to find anyone to eloquently express the merits. Even on the B.B.C. where on expects a certain gravitas and minimal standards at least, one lady (I think politician, can’t remember) said that A.V. is really worthwhile because “some people might want to vote for a second person”. “...some people...might...” Some people might not. That is not a reason. I think the words Apathy and Vague spring to mind. Which Countries have this again?