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Slideshow
The week in pictures
Tom Harrow (aka WineChap) holds court at the Thomas Pink store on Jermyn Street during a preview of its Autumn/Winter 2013 collection, having cherry picked the wines for the evening. Credit: Teresa Harrow.
db’s Lucy Shaw was treated to a paella making masterclass by the head chef of the Asia Gardens hotel in Alicante this week. Shunning the more popular meat and seafood medley, we were instead taught the easier and quicker veggie version. Originally from Valencia, the dish takes its name from the Catalan word for pan, after the shallow pans used in paella making. db can confirm that the veggie version is as delicious as the original.
During her visit to Alicante, Lucy got the chance to try some of the local wines at Bodegas Mendoza, run by the affable Enrique Mendoza. Specialising in both Monastrell and Moscatel, the estate’s top 100% Monastrell, Estrecho, proved a charming example of what the fragrant red grape can achieve in the right hands.
Klein Constantia’s handsome young winemaker, Matt Day, was in town this week to launch the 2008 vintage of the estate’s crown jewel – sweet wine Vin de Constance. Held in the expansive cellar of The Stafford hotel in St James’s, guests were also treated to a tasting of back vintages of the elixir.
Cornwall estate Camel Valley”s chief winemaker Sam Lindo begins the 2013 harvest of his Reichensteiner grapes. Lindo told db earlier this week that the estate was due for its largest harvest since it started making wine in 1992. Credit: SWNS
Family-owned importer and distributor Coe Vintners hosted its first large scale wine tasting at Lords cricket ground in St John’s Wood this week, where Nick Gillet (left), John Coe (centre) and Steven Gerard (yes really), were momentarily distracted by the match going on behind them.
db took a moment to drink in the view at the Absolutely Cracking Wines from France tasting hosted by Sopexa at Paramount in Tottenham Court Road this week, spotting Renzo Piano’s colourful Central St. Giles building in the foreground, a thimble-sized Gherkin in the distance, and, to the far right, Piano’s splinter-like Shard.
One of the more daring labels on show at the Absolutely Cracking Wines from France tasting reminded db of the infamous wrestling scene between Oliver Reed and Alan Bates in Ken Russell’s 1969 film, Women in Love.
Italian winemaker Pierluigi Lugano checks a bottle containing 27 litres of sparking wine brought up by scuba divers in Chiavari. Lugano is experimenting with ageing a selection of his sparking wines 60m under water to see what effects the environment has on the development of the fizz. Credit: Olivier Morin – AFP/Getty Images
The Moscow Mules were flowing and caviar in abundance at the launch of new Russian-themed drinking den Ruski’s Tavern in Kensington the week.
Providing the entertainment for the evening at Ruski’s Tavern was a grizzly brown bear, who kept revellers amused with his invisible piano party trick.
To mark the debut of Sofia Chardonnay the Francis Ford Coppola Winery hosted an event at Buvette in New York City’s West Village. In attendance were Sofia Coppola, with husband Thomas Mars, mother Eleanor Coppola, cousin Marc Coppola and winemaker Corey Beck.
The team at Innis and Gunn brewery take time out from its 10th birthday celebration in Edinburgh to pose for a photo.
Chris Maltman, the international opera star, entertains Hine’s 250th anniversary guests at Vintner’s Hall with Flanders & Swann.
Bernard Hine congratulates and thanks Chris Maltman, international baritone, at Hine’s 250th anniversary.
VDP producers gather at the German Embassy after a successful VDP Rheingau tasting