Week in pictures

© 2013 RPM London Ltd

Ahead of the second Ashes test, Wolf Blass hosted a match between retired legends of the England and Australian cricket teams. Held in the stunning setting of Paul Getty’s Wormsley cricket ground, players included Andrew Strauss, Devon Malcolm, Darren Gough, Tom Moody, Kim Hughes and Ian Harvey.

© 2013 RPM London Ltd
Andrew Strauss receives his man of the match award from Treasury Wine Estates managing director Andrew Carter. The former England captain not only piled on runs with his bat, but took two wickets to help his team to a comfortable victory. Treasury also donated £10,000 to each team’s players association for them to pass on to a charity of their choice.

Away from the main action in the field, spectators queued around the block to sample wines from the Wolf Blass range and talk to chief winemaker Chris Hatcher.

Also enjoying the UK heatwave was Champagne Pol Roger, which invited 30 of its customers to take part in the Pol Roger Cup. The event was contested on the Solent in six 34-foot Figaro racing yachts, each skippered by graduates of the Artemis Offshore Sailing Academy.

Credit: Rob Lawson Photography

Staying with the sailing theme, Tower Bridge opened up to allow the John Walker & Sons Voyager yacht to arrive in London in the latest stage of a tour to mark the launch of John Walker & Sons Odyssey. Having started in Asia, the yacht began its European voyage in Genoa, taking in Cannes, Monaco, Athens and Barcelona, with Hamburg, Copenhagen and Edinburgh next on the route.

 Sipsmith threw an impromptu rooftop party near London Bridge to take advantage of the good weather. There was miniature croquet, Sipsmith’s summer cup in plentiful supply and these two playing swinging gipsy jazz.

And the slightly ominous Shard towering over it all.

db joined journalist Sarah Jane Evans MW, Anita Jackson from Wines of Chile and Caroline Park from Santa Rita Estates on the Chilean producer’s table at the International Wine Challenge 30th Anniversary Ball, which took place last night at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Santa Rita sponsored the Large Independent Merchant of the Year, which was won by Cambridge Wine Merchants.

Alexandre Ricard, deputy CEO of Pernod Ricard, tries his hand at harvesting agave as part of a visit to the group’s Olmeca Tequila distillery in the Los Altos highlands of Jalisco in Mexico. Joined by Pernod Ricard CEO Pierre Pringuet, the visit signalled the group’s intention to capitalise on the growth opportunity for super-premium Tequila, especially in the US market.

Didier Cappa from UK importer Les Caves De Pyrene with Home House’s head sommelier, Jacques de Savary de Beauregar at a Loire tasting organised by the London private members club. The event brought together sommeliers from the UK capital’s top restaurants, including Le Gavroche and The Ledbury, to try wines from along the length of the Loire Valley, from Muscadet to Sancerre.

Members of heavy metal band Skreamer pose with staff from Wychwood Brewery in Oxfordshire ahead of this year’s Bloodstock festival. The band won a “Metal 2 The Masses” competition run on special Bloodstock edition bottles of the brewery’s Hobgoblin brand, which gives them a slot on the New Blood stage at the festival in Derbyshire this August.

G.H.Mumm supported the second Jenson Button Trust/Help For Heroes triathlon last weekend in the grounds of England’s Luton Hoo Hotel where Jenson presented winner Gavin Noble with a G.H.Mumm jeroboam, and runners up Bryan Keane and Lawrence Fanous with G.H.Mumm magnums.

And finally… as wealthy visitors from the Middle East flock to London for the summer, their bespoke supercars provide a mixture of envy and entertainment. db spotted this £300,000 glow in the dark Lamborghini Aventador parked outside the Dorchester Hotel just days after gleeful media reports that the police had impounded it for being driven without insurance.