The week in pictures

All eyes were on the rosé wines at the Sud de France UK annual trade tasting day 12 June 2018 in Manchester Square, London W1. It was co-hosted in the leafy garden square for the first time with 25 producers from the Languedoc, Roussillon and South-West France presented their latest vintages, featuring great diversity amongst the 200 wines, 40 grape varieties and almost 50 AOP and IGPs; plus many new wines not yet available in the UK.

Kicking off our celeb round-up, actor, comedian, Ab Fab cameo-tress and wine writing veteran Helen Lederer dropped in to taste new vintages and rosés with winemaker Jean-Loïc Gassier (centre) and Alix Nouaille-Degorse of Domaine de la Yole (left).

We’ll resume our celebrity photo programming after this remarkable story.

Also on Tuesday, an Italian restaurant in east London was descended on by police when a loaf of bread inside a brown paper bag was mistaken for a bomb.

Bombetta London, based in Wanstead, was opened up as usual yesterday (12 June) by the restaurant cleaner called Gina, who brought in the bread delivery left outside the shop.

However, shortly afterwards, six police officers entered the premises following reports of a “suspicious package”.

It later transpired that the bread supplier had shortened Bombetta’s name to ‘Bomb’ and had written it on the outside of the paper bag.

No, really.

Tinie Tempah and Harold Tillman

Never known to turn down a free drink, Tinie Tempah — spotted at Moet and Chandon’s pop-up members club in Mayfair last week — partied with former Jäger boss Harold Tillman during London Fashion Week’s closing party on Monday.

The event, hosted by GQ Editor Dylan Jones and Loyle Carner, took place at the recently opened Neptune Restaurant at The Principal London on Monday 11 June, bringing together guests including David Gandy, Diplo, Wiley and Tom Odell.

Rhône producer Les Dauphins provided the still and sparkling wines, while Belvedere brought vodka for the espresso martinis to keep the fashionistas and meedyah types perky till carriages.

Jason Atherton also dropped in, along with Winerist editor Helena Nicklin, who is appearing in her own Amazon Prime series all about whiskey later this year.

Brett Berish, CEO of flash wine brand Luc Belaire, sat down with Nigerian singer Yemi Alade earlier this week to discuss her rise to fame in Africa and the world at large.

After winning a Nigerian talent show in 2010, Alade launched a music career, smashing records with her hit single “Johnny,” now the most viewed Youtube video of any African artist.

Her career trajectory is marked in this interview, the 11th instalment of Belaire’s “Self Made Tastes Better” video series, which gets stars on sofas to talk about their own provenance.

Belaire, of course, is known for an executive team who keep their fingers on the pulse of pop culture. The brand has recently partnered with the likes of DJ Khaled, Rick Ross, and Steve Aoki.

(photo: PA Wire)

In Celebrity Drinks Marketing 101, Ryan Reynolds outdid himself literally and metaphorically on World Gin Day by walking out of an uncomfortable interview…with himself.

“It’s nice to see you again,” said his “brother” Gordon, who was interviewing the Deadpool star to promote his newly-acquired craft gin label Aviation.

“It’s like looking in a mirror. Five years from now.”

I could write all the burns here, or you could head to our original story and watch the video there.

Over at 67 Pall Mall, Kyle Maclachlan of Twin Peaks, Dune, Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives fame was at the members club on Sunday to taste the new vintages of his Pursued by Bear wine label, made from the fruit of vineyards in Walla Walla, Washington.

Our biggest story this week was about wine storage, apparently.

Wine Twitter lost its collective marbles over claims that we’ve been stashing our bottles in the cellar the wrong way for centuries.

Amorim’s director of R&D, Dr. Miguel Cabral, told us that the headspace of a sealed bottle of wine was so moist that there’s no need to place them on their side to keep the cork damp. We should be stacking them vertically, like this:

In case you haven’t noticed, Father’s Day is on Sunday, and based on the amount of whiskey-themed products hitting the market this month, there is an overriding stereotype which claims dads love drams.

Tequila is big news in 2018, so it comes as no surprise that two giants of the premium goods world, tequila-maker Patron and Fortnum and Mason — the rich man’s Debenhams — are joining forces to hold a FREE aged agave spirit tasting at the department store on Saturday 16 June.

It’s the perfect way to ween your dad off the whisky and convince him to try something new.

The tastings take place on the third floor, 12-4pm.

At the other end of the socioeconomic scale, Tim Martin, head of pub giant JD Wetherspoon, said he is ditching Champagne and swapping it out for English sparkling wine in his bars during the run-up to Brexit.

Champagne will be replaced with fizz from Surrey winery Denbies, as well as Hardy’s Sparkling Pinot Chardonnay from Australia.

The company has no plans to take Prosecco off the menu.

A lot of people, including MW Charles Crawfurd, wondered how much money Wetherspoons make (or lose) on stocking Champagne in its 880 pubs.

Who the hell buys champagne in Wetherspoons in the first place?! https://t.co/A4CWncwPvJ

— Dan Lambden (@DannyBlahBlah) June 13, 2018

The company declined to share sales data on Champagne, Prosecco and global sparkling wines with us.

This week in double entendres, New Hampshire-based Tamworth Distillery has launched a limited edition whiskey flavoured with beaver secretions.

The distillers source castoreum, the chemical found in a sac under the animal’s tail, from a local animal trapper called Anton, who is a dab-hand at extracting beaver secretions.

On the distillery’s website, it states the sac excretion “exhibits bright and fruit qualities (raspberry) and rich leathery notes along with a creamy vanilla aroma. These notes are also very common among barrel aged spirits, so a natural progression took place.”

We’ll take your word for it.

db‘s Phoebe French headed over to Hurlingham last Friday for the annual Chestertons Polo tournament. Guided by Champagne Lanson PR supremo Penny McDonald we were treated to Lanson’s Rose Label and 2008 vintage Champagne, as well as the Black label which was a new addition to the polo this year.

Champagne Lanson MD Paul Beavis and event organiser’ Sportgate MD Rory Heron welcomed guests to the Lanson hospitality tent.

With the sun shining, sales took off during the three-day event, with total value sales up 7% on last year. Large formats also proved popular, with volume sales up by 12% – on the opening day, both Methuselahs were ordered by one person who requested one immediately and for the other to be put on ice. When at the polo…

Celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr was tickled pink to find out that his two Michelin star Le Gavroche came high up in our Wine List Confidential guide, which tastes and rates the best wine lists in London. db caught up with Roux at at dinner at Roux Parliament Square celebrating the wines of Bordeaux fourth growth Château Branaire-Ducru in Saint-Julien.

Among the wines we were treated to during the dinner were the 2000 vintage of second wine Duluc-Ducru and the 2003 vintage of the grand vin, which was the wine of the night and was showing incredibly well despite the searing heat of the vintage. The food to pair with it was equally exquisite.

Javier Galarreta, founder of Spanish fine wine company Araex, celebrated the firm’s 25th birthday with a lavish two-day event that kicked off with dinner at the three Michelin-starred Azurmendi, headed up by Basque chef Eneko Atxa. The frivolities continued the next day at Baigorri in Rioja Alavesa where Galarreta was joined by his partner in wine, renowned consultant Michel Rolland.

After an epic tasting of the wines in the Araex portfolio, including old vintages from Baigorri, Luis Cañas and Pazo de Señorans, partygoers were treated to a spot of aeronautical acrobatics at the James Bond-like Bodegas Baigorri, which descends 32 metres underground.

Gin-maker Hendrick’s celebrated World Cucumber on Thursday with a travelling ‘Cucumber Curiositarium‘, shining a light on curious cucumber specimens which have been placed in display jarsat airports around the world for travellers to marvel at.

“World Cucumber Day is yet another example of the innovative, quirky, and unusual marketing ideas that we have come to expect from Hendrick’s gin and brand owner William Grant & Sons,” said Ann-Kathrin Fürer,Head of activity management at Gebr. Heinemann, which operates a chain of duty free retailers in international airports.