The week in pictures

We couldn’t very well do this week’s round-up without mentioning the London Marathon, now, could we?

Asahi-owned beer label London Pride celebrated its 13th year  sponsoring the annual race on Sunday.

(Photo: notcub/Creative Commons)

It ran a competition in January for fans of the brew, and of running, to win a place in London Pride’s team, asking entrants to tell them what makes them run with pride.

db‘s team may not have attempted it ourselves (you must be joking), but our spies informed us that Alastair Rimmer, cellar master at Kleine Zalze, joined a team from Hatch Mansfield to take on the challenge, raising money for Rhino Conservation Botswana.

(Photo: Hatch Mansfield)

Rimmer (centre) got round in 3.59, wearing his Sunday best.

On Monday, team db schlepped to Iberica in London’s Marylebone for Sherry label Tio Pepe’s 10th birthday party.

Judging by the noises coming from everyone around the table, the 2019 was a roaring success.

Martin Skelton, González Byass’ managing director, regaled us with the story of Tio Pepe’s launch, listing on the Wine Society for the first time back in 2009. The buyers, he said, were getting cold feet about this new, unfined Sherry that was about to be listed on their website in two weeks, and Skelton panicked when he saw it wasn’t online on the launch day. Thankfully, it was because the whole lot had sold out in three hours.

Skelton said that buyer Toby Morrhall, sent the Spanish producer a letter following launch, from a thoroughly disgruntled customer saying that “I was able to get some Chanteau Lafite this year, but no Tio Pepe!”

English fizz label Nyetimber has named equestrian stars William Fox-Pitt and Alice Plunkett as brand ambassadors for 2019.

Plunkett, a former eventer and National Hunt jockey, is now a lead presenter for ITV Racing, having previously hosted equestrian events for Channel 4 Racing, Eurosports, Radio 5 Live and SkySports.

Three-time Olympic medal-winning Fox-Pitt, meanwhile, will be competing at the 2019 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials. His appearance marks his 20th at Badminton since his career began in 1984.

In other sparkling wine-and-middle-class-sports news, Champagne Pol Roger, the official Champagne of the Barbarians women’s rugby team, supported the Baa-Baas to victory in their historic first international match versus the United States.

Welsh-born Jasmine Joyce scored four tries including the last-minute score that snatched a 34-33 victory. I don’t know anything about rugby, but I’m reliably informed this is a good thing.

The team celebrated with a Magnum Pol Roger Brut Reserve. That is definitely a good thing.

And in yet more alcohol-and-middle-class-pursuits news, some Brakspear pubs are apparently offering customers a new, limited-edition pair of socks over the coming months.

Anyone buying eight pints of any Brakspear ale, such as Brakspear Bitter or Oxford Gold, will be able to claim a free pair of striped socks, embellished with the Brakspear bee.

Finance director David Nathan; non-exec director Peter Furness-Smith, and business development managers Gavin Mansfield and Steve Head modelled the garments at the Brakspear Golf Day in Henley.

Luckily for the pub bosses, this time there wasn’t a hole in one (sorry).

Scottish brand Tennent’s lager trolled Carlsberg this week after the latter stuck up a billboard advertising its new Danish pilsner outside the former’s new visitor centre in Glasgow.

C&C Group-owned Tennent’s fought back with a sign of its own, calling itself “Scotland’s favourite beer”, and adding that its lager is only ever brewed in Scotland, while implying that Carlsberg’s “danish” Pilsner is probably brewed at the beer giant’s UK headquarters in Northampton. Which it is.

It was a big week for Big Pink Gin.

First, William Grant & Sons UK announced it’s expanding its gin portfolio with the launch of a new label, Verano.

The premium-positioned gin is available in two flavours; Verano Watermelon, a “luscious, sweet and refreshing flavour, made for sharing with friends this summer,” and Verano Lemon, “a revitalising and zingy blend of Spanish lemons infused with extra lemon peel creating a zesty citrus flavour.”

Verano is currently available in Stonegate bars, and will hit shelves in ASDA on 7 June.

It follows a series of “international” gin acquisitions over the past six months. Pernod Ricard, having already secured the distribution rights for Canadian gin label Ungava in 2018, signed a deal with Biggar & Leith to acquire its premium Italian flavoured gin brand, Malfy, last month.

Edinburgh Gin also launched a full-strength version of its Rhubarb and Ginger pink gin, alongside a “fortune-telling gin ball” activation into bars, which predicts eighteen separate Edinburgh Rhubarb and Ginger-based cocktails your patient bartender will then make for you.

And now, even Swedish cider-brand Kopparberg is getting in on the act. It’s launching a strawberry and lime-flavoured pink gin, and hinted that more spirits could be in the pipeline.

On Thursday, db made the arduous, 50-metre journey to Borough market to grab a few cocktails with the team at Roast, which has just opened its spanking new cocktail bar to the public.

Bar manager Aly Roshdy pulled out all the stops, and the vessels, for this addition to Southwark’s meaty stalwart. The Big Ben, a very sensible mix of vermouth, vodka, absinthe and more vermouth, came in a reclaimed biscuit tin and some very foggy dry ice (geddit? foggy London?). This photo would have been a lot more impressive had our intrepid server not got lost on the way over to our table but, honestly, it was very foggy at one point.

Trade charity The Benevolent has launched a new campaign this year, an annual day for the trade to wear red, white or rosé to celebrate its work.

Its part of a project to raise awareness of the ‘It could be me’ campaign aimed at getting as many members of the drinks industry to sign up to donate £5 a month.

Industry folk are advised to make like the PRs at Dillon Morrall, emma wellings pr, Limm Communications, Phipps Relations and R&R Teamwork.

A Bordeaux based winemaker and fan of the HBO series Game of Thrones has created his own version of ‘Dornish wine’ from the blockbuster franchise.

But is a Bordeaux red really the best option for recreating Dornish wine? Our fine wine editor Rupert Miller took time out of his busy schedule to tackle this extremely important topic, which you can read here.

And finally…

Regular readers will know that we held our Wine & Spirits Show last month, welcoming 1,500 drinks-lovers to One Whitehall Place.

Well, if you attended, you may have noticed we were handing out comment sheets so you could review the products on display, and we can find out the consumers’ favourite.

The results are in, and Soto Sake, a premium sake formerly only available in US markets, came on top in our New Products Zone.

Soto was launched in 2015 in New York, and has since expanded to 15 states, and now, it’s in the UK.

A spokesperson for the label told db that the brand has successfully capitalised on the growing number of consumers who spend more, but prefer to opt for lower ABV and lighter drinks.

“With consumers drinking less and more quality products, Soto is a perfect fit, as it’s 15.5% alcohol by volume and the most premium type of sake, Junmai Daiginjo.”

“There’s a trend across the world with consumers searching for lower ABV options and cocktails,” she said.