The week in pictures

(Photo: Anthony Upton 2018)

Not sure if anyone noticed, people barely talked about it, but there was some kind of London-based wine fair at Kensington Olympia at the start of the week.

And boy was it a doozy this year, so we’re going to talk about it for the next three slides (for more photos of celebrities, go straight to no. 4).

In spite of our mid-brexit gloom, the London Wine Fair saw a remarkable 17% boost in visitors this year. Notable faces included The Wine Show‘s Joe Fattorini, who is due to head up the London sales team at Fields, Morris & Verdin next month, Benevolent CEO Chris Porter, Hatch Mansfield MD Patrick McGrath MW, and WSTA chair Dan Jago.

(Photo: Anthony Upton 2018)

The 2018 show was the first under the leadership of Hannah Tovey, who joined as Head of Fair in July 2017.

The increased footfall has been attributed to refreshed content, with new feature areas like the Innovation Zone, Education Zone, and Drinks Britannia, which celebrated not only English and Welsh wine beers, ciders and spirits.

English wine was certainly a big hit this year, with sparkling producer Nyetimber shelling out for a double-decker bus-cum-fizz bar.

Oh also, we held our annual Drinks Business Awards in the grand London room, which was a smash hit thanks to an inspired playlist devised by our Editor-in-Chief and resident MW Patrick Schmitt. We’ve posted the results on our website, so make sure to check them out.

Not to mention our inaugural Wine List Confidential Awards, which celebrated the very best sommeliers and wine cards London has to offer. Click this link to see the winners.

Ok back to the stars. While the UK’s drinks world did its thing, well-connected winery Mouton Cadet welcomed the Jury of this year’s Cannes film Festival to its Wine Bar on the rooftop of the Palais des Festivals on Saturday.

After announcing the winners, president Cate Blanchett and her jury, Chan Cheng, Ava Duvernay, Robert Guédiguian, Khadja Nin, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Denis Villeneuve & Andrey Zvyagintsev gathered for a squad photo at the bar.

While we’re still on the continent, Californian Stone Brewing opened its first Berlin site this month.

Founder Greg Koch greeted the bright young things of beer at his new brewhouse and kitchen, which boasts a global street food menu and a whopping 27 beers on tap.

Back in London, those who couldn’t get guest-list to the London Wine Fair settled for drinks at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Ian McCulloch, owner of Silent Pool Gin, seemed to look unsure about sharing a G&T with Ed Balls (of “Ed Balls Day” fame) and Piers Morgan in his brand’s botanical garden. Perhaps the sun was in his eyes?

Philip Scofield, meanwhile, got chatting to designer David Neale, and was papped admiring his water feature.

Last weekend co-founder of the Isle of Raasay Distillery, Bill Dobbie, took to the West Scottish waters for the annual Scottish Islands Peaks Race. The race was a caper on land and sea around the beautiful west coast and comprised of sailing and fell-running stints.

Bill was one of the runners, and he was joined by 4 intrepid team mates, racing under the name ‘Raasay While We Wait’.The boat’s namesake is Raasay While We Wait, the single malt whisky that the brand has created as a prediction of the flavours they hope to create on Raasay.

And speaking of maritime pursuits, environmentalist and No Country for Old Men star Javier Bardem made a surprise appearance at a Spanish port to meet Chivas Venture alumnus Sea2see and local fishermen to find out how they’re making waves in the global fight against ocean plastic waste.

Sea2see – the Spanish winner of the 2017 Chivas Venture – upcycles ocean plastic waste collected by fishermen at Puerto de Blanes on the north-east coast of Spain and transforms it into luxury eyewear.

On the Southbank, Jamaican rum specialist Wray & Nephew had the honour of serving rum & ting in Oxo Tower Wharf at the launch of Windrush Portrait of a Generation, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush at Tilbury docks in 1948. The ageing merchant ship brought 492 young hopefuls, nearly all of them Jamaican men, to help rebuild Britain in the aftermath of the war.

Photographer Jim Grover followed the lives and traditions of this first generation of Caribbean migrants who settled in south London for around a year, to learn more about this part of his vibrant community.

db was lucky enough to spend a glorious few days in Porto with The New Douro winemaking collective sampling some of the best dry wines Portugal has to offer. We were put up at the gorgeous Pestana Palacio do Freixo, which boasted manicured gardens, a fountain and a blue and gold drawing room that makes Marie-Antoinette’s taste look understated.

During our visit we spent an amusing evening at Ramos Pinto where we were shown around its quirky museum by CEO Jorge Rosas, who became temporarily distracted during his tour by some striking tile work…

During our three days in the Douro we slurped our way through 200 dry reds and wines made by the likes of Niepoort, Do Crasto and Symington that showed how far the Douro’s dry wines have come in such a short space of time. This quartet from Niepoort was among our favourites.

We also found the time to catch up with the indefatigable Adrian Bridge of Taylor’s, who told db about clinching Barack Obama as a keynote speaker at his climate change conference, which will take place in the Douro on 6 July with the aim of getting the wine world to tackle the topic together.

Fresh from the Douro we kept the Portuguese spirit alive with a visit to Londrino in London Bridge, headed up by Portuguese chef Leo Carreira, where we tried some stunning drops including a Bical white made by Filipa Pato that could give top white Burgundy serious competition.

The decadence continued at a lavish dinner at La Dame de Pic at The Four Seasons where two French culinary heavyweights – Anne-Sophie Pic and Alain Passard of L’Arpege (pictured) went head to head with a joint menu of dishes created specifically to pair with Billecart-Salmon Champagne as part of the house’s 200th anniversary celebrations.

We were particularly taken by Passard’s super fresh, sweet and summery starter that paired strawberries with mint and garden peas.

The dish paired a treat with Billecart-Salmon’s limited edition Bicentenary Cuvée, of which just a tiny amount of magnums and jeroboams have been made to mark its 200th birthday. The fizz has already nearly sold out, but can be found at Hedonism Wines in Mayfair. Full of energy and vigor, it has a long life ahead of it…