The week in pictures

The Meantime Brewing Company in London opened the capital’s first permanent hop farm in more than 100 years after turning a construction site into a Thameside garden oasis. 

Designed by landscape gardener Kate Lonergan, a total of 48 hop roots have been planted into 12 hand-crafted wooden planters creating a hop garden complete with wood-chip flooring, hay-bale seating and empty beer kegs which overlooks London’s Canary Wharf.

The Dizzy Blonde’s at the Start Line – (L-R) BDM John Hughes, Jacqui Ward, Joshua Bradley, Daniella Martin, Craig Fairfield, Paul & Jed Hulme and Sam Kennerley

An intrepid team from Robinson’s Brewery in Stockpot raised more than £800 for Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team by successfully crossing the Welsh Menai Straits on a make shift raft. The 8-strong team, dubbed the “dizzy blondes”, navigated the 6.5 mile stretch in just under an hour.

Their Royal Highnesses The Earl and Countess of Wessex paid a visit to one of Somerset’s oldest cider-making firms, Thatchers Cider, to mark the opening of the company’s new Jubilee Building by unveiling a plaque in its orchards. The new, state-of-the-art packaging and warehouse facility at Myrtle Farm in Sandford is the culmination of a 12 month, £3m project to meet increased demand for its ciders in the UK and overseas.

During her visit to Thatcher’s Myrtle Farm the Countess of Wessex took to the wheel of a Thatchers Cider lorry.

(L-R) Oxford captain Caroline Gough and Cambridge captain Nikhila Ravi.

The captains of Oxford and Cambridge University Women’s Cricket Clubs posed with a bottle of Pol Roger and Glenfarclas to announce the brands’ official sponsorship of the teams’ upcoming Varsity match on June 20.

More than 2,000 events took place across London last week as part of international Sherry week in what was a global celebration of Spain’s unique Sherry wines.

Organised by an independent group of Sherry educators, the 2014 campaign was designed in partnership with the regulatory council of Sherry Wines to promote the beverage worldwide and coincided with Jerez winning the title of European Wine City 2014.

Photo credit: Samuel Hauenstein Swan

The tables were turned for some of the UK’s top food critics as they served up a feast for a group of top chefs in aid of Action Against Hunger. The event was sponsored by Champagne Taittinger, which hosted a reception before dinner as part of its long-term support for the charity.

Dom Pérignon cellar master Richard Geoffroy and guests raise a toast during lunch at Simon Rogan’s new Claridge’s hotel restaurant Fera to the impending launch of the house’s 1998 “P2”, or “second plenitude”. He also confirmed plans to lay down a greater proportion of stock for inclusion in this rebranded version of Dom Pérignon’s late-release, recently disgorged Oenothèque programme.

Bodegas Tobía founder Oscar Tobia dropped by the db office to show some Viura cask samples from his alternative barrel trial, which involved maturing five different Riojan white grape varieties in four different types of wood: traditional American oak, ash, chestnut and acacia. The producer hopes to release a single white blend from this experimental project at the end of 2014, with chestnut proving particularly promising at the moment.

The French ambassador opened up his residence in Kensington Palace Gardens to provide an opulent setting for this week’s Sud de France annual tasting of wines from Languedoc-Roussillon. Around 50 producers, large and small, including a number of newer wineries seeking to expand into export markets, showed off their wines to the UK trade.

Rémy Martin’s outgoing cellar master, Pierrette Trichet and her successor Bernard Loiseau held a lunch in London to mark this handover, as well as offering a preview of Centaure de Diamant, a new Cognac created by Trichet that is due to launch in the UK next month to help the house meet a growing demand for luxury expressions.

And finally, as the FIFA World Cup finally kicked off, Boteco Brasil Soho opened its doors in London for a month-long celebration of Brazilian cuisine, design, music, art, fashion and, of course, drinks. Guests at the launch party got the party started with Ypioca cachaça cocktails.