What a busy and exciting week it has been! The week kicked off with a special Chateau Rauzan Segla Wine Dinner at The Grand Hyatt hotel, followed by 3 days of the Farr Vintners Fine Wine lounge where the Hong Kong Team and Stephen Browett were able to meet up with our long term and new customers. Then last but not least, a 2006 Bordeaux vintage tasting of 19 wines (more blogs to follow).
Last Saturday I flew into Hong Kong for a very special wine dinner that we had organized for one of Farr Vintners' longest-standing customers and his friends at China Tang restaurant. We are fortunate that Jean-Valmy Nicolas (whose family has owned Chateau La Conseillante since 1871) is now also the 'co-gérant' of Chateau Figeac. Thus we were able to source a fantastic range of vintages direct from the cellars of both Chateaux. We started with two great young vintages - 2010 and 2009 - and travelled back in time to two great mature vintages - 1959 and 1949. Valmy was with us for this special event, as was Hortense Manoncourt whose family has owned Figeac since 1892.
These past few weeks my book of choice has drawn a few raised eyebrows and inquisitive looks on the daily commute. The Concise Guide to Wine and Blind Tasting stands apart in a crowd of Game of Thrones and latest 'Books of the Week' on the train. Within Neel and James' book, designed as a primer for those wanting to delve further into the world of wine, are facts and anecdotes essential to any wine enthusiast's knowledge. Trawling through condensed details on the world's wine regions can seem a daunting task, but the rhythm and style from two friends who have been integral to my own wine education since I met them in Oxford a few years ago makes this a clear, interesting read, fortified by the thirst that these two clearly have for the subject. I have shared more interesting bottles with these two than I can count, and what I have always been struck by when discussing either an unknown entity in the glass, or the gems and pitfalls of a certain region or style, is both their in-depth knowledge and their passion to learn more, twinned with the a pure enjoyment that pressed and fermented grapes and time can bring.
It's not often that I get a chance to combine my two jobs but, as owner of Farr Vintners and co-owner of Crystal Palace Football Club, there are sometimes excuses to mix Football and Wine. The recent fantastic achievement of Crystal Palace FC - finishing in 11th place in the Premier League - was certainly deserving of a special celebration. Then we had further good news when our manager, Tony Pulis, won the Barclay's Premier League Manager of the Season Award. To put this into context, 11th in the top division is the second highest finish in the 109 year history of CPFC and 4 years ago the club was heading for bankruptcy and was one goal away from being relegated to League One (the 3rd division of English football).
In 1993 I was living and working in Beaune and after a morning showing some American guests around the vineyards of the Cote d'Or they presented me with a bottle of Ridge Geyserville 1990 as a gift. I had never heard of the winery or tasted any of their wines and seeing "Zinfandel" on the back label didn't fill me with great optimism! However the bottle was duly opened with friends the following weekend and it was without question the best non-French red wine I'd ever tasted at the time - a complete revelation. Ridge Vineyards' wines have remained among my favourites ever since and none more so than their flagship Cabernet Sauvignon - Monte Bello.
