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.