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Slideshow
The week in pictures
At London House in Battersea, the latest opening in the Gordon Ramsay stable, cocktails come with a sense of humour. While the Three Martini Lunch offers three twists on the classic cocktail, and the All The King’s Men features pink peppercorns and Dalmore Cigar Malt whisky designed to be sipped through a vanilla pod straw, Into The Dark (pictured) made with Zacapa 23 rum, vermouth, maple syrup and baked orange, comes with a pocket square spritzed with the Penhaligon’s scent, Endymion.
The Wine Explorers reached Zimbabwe this week as they continued their exploration of some of the most obscure wine regions in the world. Ludo and Jean-Baptiste took a horse ride through the Bushman Rock Estate, a 12-hectare winery located 60km East of Harare, believed to be the last winery in the country. It grows a combination of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, as well as more exotic grapes such as Perel, a white grape from Israel, and Hannepoot.
Quaglino’s restaurant and champagne bar in Mayfair celebrated its 21st year with restaurant group D&D London this week with the launch of its new rainbow Bellini Bar. The bar will run until July and will serve 21 varieties of Bellini such as orange marmalade, beetroot, black cherry and basil and mandarin. The venue’s legendary Cigarette Girls will also make a return offering guests Bellini flavoured meringue “kisses” from cigarette trays. The launch is part of a five-month programme of special events to mark the venue’s anniversary.
Chef Theo Randall hosted a special sparkling wine and food pairing evening at the Intercontinental Hotel in London’s Park Lane on Monday in partnership with Prosecco producers, Villa Sandi. Guests were treated to a sampling of five Villa Sandi wines and a selection of canapés prepared by Randall.
A new range of “artisan” seasonal beers were launched by Marston’s on 4 March at The White Horse on Parson’s Green. The Revisionist Range has been brewed at Marston’s five regional breweries in a variety of different styles to broaden drinkers’ experience of beer.
The entire Revisionist Range was available to try in cask, keg and bottle and used as the base ingredient in a variety of cocktails, specially created by Marcis Dzelzainis from Satan’s Whiskers Cocktail Bar.
Jean-Guillaume Prats and Jo Thornton of Moët Hennessy put their bottle opening skills to the test as the pair unveiled an ambitious new UK sparkling wine launch from the group’s Chandon operation in Argentina.
Scottish brewer Innis & Gunn released its limited edition smoked beer – “Smokin’ Gunn” – with an event at their headquarters this week. The 7.4%abv brew is a collaboration with David Ashton-Hyde, head bartender at Heston Blumenthal’s Michelin-starred pub, The Hinds Head in Bray.
Champagne Thiénot flowed at the official London screening of The Oscars at Soho House on Sunday night. The Champagne house was the official Champagne partner to the 86th Academy Awards.
Among those in attendance were the sound team from the film Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, which won a total of seven Oscars on the evening including best director for Alfonso Cuaron and best sound mixing.
New York-based artist Amelia Fais Harnas shuns the use of paint in favour of Côtes du Rhône and Cahors. In a series produced for PUNCH, she imagined her ideal dinner party guests and painted them in wine, with hip hop mogul Jay-Z (pictured), American writer Ernest Hemingway and French heroine Joan of Arc all making the cut.
To celebrate pancake day this week, the grandly titled head bartender at new steakhouse Strip Bar & Steak in Clerkenwell, Arminas Girtavicius, created the Griffin cocktail made with pancake-infused Amaretto, lemon juice, maple syrup, egg white, sugar and Angostura bitters.
Jumping on any excuse to drink fizz, db hot footed it to Copa de Cava in Blackfriars this week, where owner Richard Bigg (pictured) put on a tasting of over 30 top notch Cavas currently on pour at his basement bar that shines a light on the Spanish sparkler. Among the more unusual offerings were Kripta, housed in a quirky amphora-shaped bottle, and a Cava blended with palo cortado Sherry – olé!
The lovely team and Hammersmith-based Sipsmith, including the affable Georgie Woods, hosted a raucous evening talking tasters through the evolution of the Martini at Kettners in Soho, where for three weeks, guests will be able to try 100 different variations of the classic cocktail, each featuring Sipsmith gin. db’s favourite on the night was the variant featuring a dash of absinthe.
And finally… the PLB tasting this week took place in the grand surroundings of One Great George Street in Westminster, a grade II listed Edwardian building complete with soaring ceilings and shimmering chandeliers.