January's pick...

Jancis Robinson has just written rather favourably about “our” Jean Daneel “Signature” Chenin Blanc. She e-mailed yesterday from high above Australia to say that it she sufficiently enthusiastic about it to make her top wines of January. On the weekend a customer was similarly enthusiastic about the Ken Forrester Meinert Chenin Blanc, called “The FMC”. It is undeniably seductive in comparison with its creamy new oak hit but I think not as complex (and probably not as age worthy) as the Jean Daneel. Still, we will pitch the two against each other one night next week and have them open for customers to drop by the Shop and decide for themselves.

Id est, strongly worth re-visiting:

Jean Daneel “Signature” Chenin Blanc 2009

Swartland, South Africa

at £ 20.00 per Bottle

“Fermented and aged in Napier in French barriques. Very vibrant nose in which honeyed fruit uttery

triumphs over any oak. A light touch. Very concentrated flavour but not at all heavy. Great balance.

Drank well over three nights! And if anything was better for decanting. Refreshing and succulent.

Long and complete. 17/20 points – Jancis Robinson.”

Silly Season:

Well, as I see it, Harry Rednapp has just two options. Take the England job, win the World Cup and Arise Sir ‘Arry. A true legend. Or he doesn’t win the World Cup and eventually the U.K. Press will grind him down, do him down at every turn and he will end up like Glenn Hoddle, Kevin Keegan; Sven Göran Erikson; Graham Taylor; Terry Venables; Steve McLaren.

Congratulations Rupert Murdoch. I concede that you are perhaps the single biggest influence in giving the Premiership giving us a visual feast, certainly compared to the muddy hacking that much of 1970’s English Football was. Yet I firmly believe that the other side of that very same coin will mean that Glasgow Rangers will be one of many. A truly mixed legacy.

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the Preview of the comprehensive Lucian Freud Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Not because of the great and the good who were there but because most of the suits (as opposed to the arty set) were huddled in the front foyer sipping Champagne. That freed up the paintings to be viewed in relative peace and ample space. Repeatedly I even found myself alone in a room of a dozen or more Freuds and what utter luxury to view without peering over Japanese tourists or rows of anoraks. Miss Middleton arrived to a major assault of paparazzi flash bulbs and in a similar vein I emerged a few hours later to a blaze of flickering lights but alas dull orange that was merely the back end of a City of Westminster dumper truck. Therein lies the subtle difference! After the first half-a-dozen portraits, my guest paused and said “this is so potent and intense, I could leave fully content right now”. I agreed, it was a treat just to see half-a-dozen. There were another a hundred to go. Freud has a reputation of often being harsh and coarse and in isolation at best unflattering to the sitter, at worst, cruel. Viewing this weight of pictures and in sequence I would have to say that I no longer agree with that common view. Historic portraiture was primarily to flatter. Freud simply draws out and pin points the individual or multiple insecurities and let’s be honest, if it was of me, it wouldn’t be a pretty picture either!! One of God’s little ironies: a painter can paint any face in the world but the only face that they will never ever see (only a mirror image or facsimile) is their own. Every day you are with your face, yet you won’t ever see it. In that, I think Lucian never actually fully nailed his self-portraiture. A few of his sitters I know and to me he unmistakably nails them. Of himself, I am not convinced. Staggering though that they still are. Just a tiny difference. Whatever preconceptions you carry of Lucian Freud, this Exhibition should go some way to changing your view. In a sense so simple but for that a monumental and forceful body of work and quite frankly, you’d be an idiot to miss it! To save you looking it up, call 0844 248 5033 for tickets (£ 14 or so).

Toodle pip.

Tuggy Meyer