“As a relative newcomer to Yapp Brothers and the person behind the recent drop in ‘average age of employee’, I felt I should make myself known and heard by contributing to the blog.  Having joined in September 2009, I have since been trying to come up with a valid reason to post something here, as, being only 20 years young, I have not had the exposure to the wonders of wine for very long.  Despite this, I now have a reason, and while it may not be completely wine related, I still felt it was worth mentioning.

Due to a recent birthday in the family, we decided to celebrate by having dinner at The King John Inn, a ‘pub’ (if only there were a word that combines pub, bistro and restaurant in one) in Tollard Royal, a village just 7 miles south-east of Shaftesbury. Steeped in history and within a beautiful setting, the King John may be one of these modernised eateries, but it has character and is ideal for its location, with the Rushmore Estate and Larmer Tree Gardens, just minutes away, attracting the target clientele.

Leaving the dark, cold night behind us, we were welcomed and seated at a table next to the open fire, welcome on such an evening. To start, ox tongue fritters, black pudding, fried quails eggs and brown sauce.  I had never tried, or even had the opportunity to try, ox tongue before, but I recommend it.  Warming without being too heavy with the presence of the black pudding, it was a perfect start. For my main I had chosen duck breast, chorizo and tomato cassoulet. For someone to be lucky enough to have a chef for a father, I have had my fair share of duck, so it came as a shock to have the best I had ever tasted that night.   Cooked to perfection, the duck was delicious, its delicate texture offsetting the rustic quality of the cassoulet.  To accompany such a dish, I had used my limited but ever-expanding knowledge of wine and had chosen a glass of Rioja from Bodegas Navajas, its winter berry, tobacco and wood flavour working extremely well with the dish.

Fortunately, the weighty main had left me content, so dessert was not needed.   Instead, we ventured back out into the night and set off for home, where, naturally, cake was waiting!”

Jean-Louis Chave in his cellars at Mauves

At the tail end of February, Tom and I were privileged to take up an invitation to visit the Chave family at their H.Q. in the village of Mauves to taste barrel samples of forthcoming vintages and catch up with developments at this historic estate that has an unbroken father to son lineage dating back to 1481. Jean-Louis Chave greeted us in person and we clambered into his authentically vineyard-distressed  quatre-quatre for a tour of the family’s latest acquisition – the 4 hectare walled ‘Clos Florentin’ Saint Joseph vineyard which lies at the southern end of the village. Jean-Louis explained that he’d had his eye on this parcel of vines for several reasons. The key attractions are the location and the soil. Although the vineyard lies on flat land below Saint Joseph’s steepest slopes, it has a soil of decomposed granite washed downhill over millennia. The vineyard also lies in a sun trap being set beneath a gap between two overlooking escarpments. The former patron Dr. Émile Floretin was a Paris-based homeopath who eschewed the deployment of chemical pesticides and fertilizers so the mature rootstock has grown naturally and is untainted by interventionist farming practices. Further inducements were that the Chaves’ own the painstakingly re-planted vineyard immediately above Clos Florentin and the extreme proximity to their own base. As Jean-Louis pointed out it is much closer to their winery than Hermitage.

Jean-Louis relishes a challenge and he’s clearly on a mission to produce the best wine he possibly can in Saint Joseph and restore some of this much maligned appellation’s prestige. We can’t wait to taste the fruits of his labour.  

Back at base we were issued with tasting glasses and were escorted into the murkiness of the Chaves’ extensive subterranean cellars. Here we were treated to an extensive barrel tasting commencing with parcels of white Hermitage 2008, moving on to red Saint Joseph 2008 and then red Hermitage 2008 before repeating the exercise with the nascent and keenly anticipated 2009s. Time and space preclude going into details of individual climats here but we were hugely impressed by the 2008s in cask. Jean-Louis confirmed that 2008 had been a really tough vintage in the vineyard with heavy rains, at the time of blossoming, severely reducing yields. Fortunately, three weeks of sunshine prior to harvesting in September helped ripen grapes to full maturity. Jean-Louis told us that once in the cellars the 2008s have given him little cause for concern – volumes are low but they have great purity of fruit and delineation. 2009 was evidently an easier and more prolific vintage. The cask wines are still quite closed and tannic but there is a wealth of background fruit and a fine acidity that augurs well for ‘Grands Vins’ of great concentration and longevity. There might even be the possibility of a bottling of the rare Ermitage ‘Cuvée Cathelin’ which has only been produced 5 times since the inaugural 1990 vintage.

With broad smiles and blackened teeth we emerged blinking into the daylight to be greeted by Jean-Louis’ charming American wife, Erin, and their lively 3 year-old son Louis, who might not appreciate it yet but has got a lot of responsibility riding on his young shoulders.

Bellamy’s enjoys an enviably secluded West End location on Bruton Place, isolated from the bustle of 21^st Century traffic. There is an aura of calm in the oblong dining room, tastefully decorated with vintage Parisian posters and it looks and feels more like a private members club than a public eating house. This is unsurprising as the fastidious and charming patron, Gavin Rankin, cut his teeth working for the late ‘King of Clubs’ Mark Birley. Few people in the capital can know more (or divulge less) about the social lives of the great and the good.

Bellamy’s core clientele are the well-bred, well-heeled denizens of Mayfair who like to be well-fed and well-oiled. Saville Row suits and uncultured pearls are de rigueur here but I like to drop by periodically to lower the tone. If anyone objects they’re far too polite to let on.

Bellamy’s menu is short, covering one side of A4 card with a similarly minimalist wine list on the reverse. Both are crafted with unerring good taste and disappointments here are exceedingly rare. This is not an address that likes to take itself or its customers outside of their comfort zones. Comfort is a word that could be applied to the cuisine at Bellamy’s in that it provides simple food that you want to eat. It was an obvious choice for a Friday lunch with a discerning oenophile friend.  

The waiting staff at Bellamy’s are courteous and attentive having been schooled by the boss who doesn’t miss much. Crisp white linen and excellent brown bread set a reassuring tone at the table. Through a mutual reluctance to commit to any single dish we asked to split two starters, a request that was obliged without hesitation. We therefore kicked-off with a superb (half slice each) of foie gras terrine and apricot compote with a glass each of Vouvray Sec 2007 from Domaine Aubert. [I should declare an interest in the wines we sampled - I'm a firm believer in combining business with pleasure.] The apple-scented Chenin Blanc married beautifully well with the rich pâté and my hard to please guest seemed contented. To follow we had whitebait served with muslin-wrapped lemon halves and a terrific coarse tartare sauce.  We accompanied this with a glass of Cassis: Clos Sainte Magdeleine 2007. The oily aromatic wine and crisp, flavoursome fish were another great partnership that vindicated our decision to share. To be fair all the starters here are good. The scrambled eggs with black truffle shavings is a personal favourite and the gravlax is legendary.

For my main course I opted for a veal burger which I requested with (exemplary) French fries rather than the suggested mashed potato, which struck a rare off note. A further surprise was that the burger lacked any kind of bun that I would argue was a trade description violation if I wasn’t aware of the patron’s superior menu knowledge. This is a minor gripe. The two pucks of tender meat were delicious as was an unexpected accompanying gravy and side dish of spinach. My sometimes uber critical companion opted for the Coq au Vin which looked, and was declared, to be a pleasingly faithful rendition of a much-abused classic. His only concern was the deployment of polenta pancakes as an unusual carbohydrate component for this French staple. Happily they were deemed delightful and soon disappeared. A bottle of Côte Rôtie 2004 from Champet was, we agreed, an underrated vintage from an underrated producer. Its refreshingly oak-free black fruit flavours and fine-grained tannins complimented our meaty main courses to perfection.

Feeling wonderfully sated we declined desserts but rounded off a very fine lunch with a large expresso and Minstrels® chocolates – the latter being a curious Birley signature to which one soon becomes accustomed.

Bellamy’s of Bruton Place   t 020 7491 2727
e info@bellamysrestaurant.co.uk

Heavenly Heathcote

A blog entry can’t be expected to do justice to a visit to world-renowned Jasper Hill, but I’ll try and distil the flavour.

Based an hour and a half north of Melbourne on an iron-rich, 100m wide, 2m deep strip of Cambrian soil, the Jasper Hill estate and its creators Ron and Elva Laughton, have been producing outstanding wines for thirty years.  The wines are biodynamically-farmed (but not even certified organic), not racked, filtered nor fined; only natural yeasts are used to initiate fermentation, the vineyards are un-irrigated and yields are between 10-20 hectolitres / hectare.  Ron modestly describes his non-interventionist methods as ‘lazy’, but his passion and expertise are plain to see.  In the course of our two-day visit we walked the 3 hectare Emily’s Paddock vineyard, 15 hectare Georgia’s Paddock and La Pleaide (a successful joint venture with Michel Chapoutier), Cornella vineyard (20 minutes north by car), as well as dining splendidly with Ron, Elva, their daughters Emily & Georgia and Emily’s husband & chef extraordinaire, Nick (all of whom are involved in this family affair).

In the cellar and at the dining table (in the house that they built themselves beside Emily’s Paddock), we tasted, drank and enjoyed a succession of fabulous wines as the family regaled us with tales of bush fires and vineyard encounters with red back spiders and lethal brown snakes (which made for a restless night at our remote digs, ‘The Hut on the Hill’).

Emily & Ron Laughton

So how good are the wines?  Like many in the wine trade, I’ve been asked countless times what my favourite wines are and I can sincerely say that Jasper Hill Emily’s Paddock is right up there with the best from Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône and elsewhere that I have had the privilege to enjoy.  To try and express this rather more objectively, I looked at the average Wine Advocate score for Emily’s Paddock over the past five vintages 2003-2007.  OK, perhaps not the basis for an MW thesis but, as you’ll see, it sits firmly amongst those Second Growths that aspire to First Growth status. Bearing in mind that only 400 cases are made every year (so the UK gets maybe 15-20!), at under £70 per bottle, its definitely a wine to try before you die (and, indeed, features in Neil Beckett’s “1001 wines you must try before you die”).

For the record, we tasted:

• Georgia’s Paddock Shiraz 2007, 2008 & 2009 (latter in barrel)
• Emily’s Paddock Shiraz 2007, 2008 & 2009 (latter in barrel)
• La Pleaide Shiraz 2007, 2008 & 2009 (latter in barrel)
• Occam’s Razor Shiraz 2007, 2008 & 2009 (latter in barrel)
• Georgia’s Paddock Viognier 2009 (first vintage, soon to be shipped to UK)
• Georgia’s Paddock Riesling 2009 (still not available commercially due to ‘drought’ volumes, but should be available in 2010 vintage)
• Georgia’s Paddock Riesling 1989
• Georgia’s Paddock Shiraz 1996
• Emily’s Paddock Shiraz 1996
• Georgia’s & Friends Shiraz 1988 (which combined GP fruit with that provided again by friends of the family following the bush fire devastation in 1987)
• Emily’s Paddock Shiraz 1988

As you will note, our dedication to QC was exemplary and we can report that the 2007 and 2009 vintages are magnificent, with the 2008 a little lighter but still very good.  In tandem with the wines, the Laughtons’ generosity and unfailing good humour rounded off a truly memorable couple of days in the Victorian countryside.

Jason Yapp

I am surprised at the chutzpah of some UK merchants trying to ‘talk up’ the 2008 Rhône as a ‘superior’ vintage that merits buying en primeur. The cold facts are that the 2007s (many of which are still available) are better across the board and the keenly anticipated 2009s should (on the basis of our early tastings) also be far superior.

If one takes a look at the prognostications of leading pundits they seem to concur with our sentiments:

Jancis Robinson ‘Rhône 2008 – The Overview’   jancisrobinson.com   November 2009

‘You must come back and taste the 2009s’, was the common refrain when I visited the Rhône Valley last month. I was there to taste the 2008s, which was a strange exercise as, the more I tasted them, the more I realised that most sensible wine buyers will want to stock up on the exceptional 2007s while they wait for the eagerly anticipated 2009s. Overall the general characteristic of the 2008s in both northern and southern Rhône is that they are decidedly muted – especially after the super-concentrated 2007s.’

John Livingstone-Learmonth   Decanter Magazine ‘Rhône 2008: Buy With Care’   April 2010

‘The 2008 vintage in the Rhône came as a jolt to many growers…It was a marked departure from the free-wheeling seasons that nature delivered for most of the 2000′s. There are no blanket rules for buyers except caveat emptor: try the wine before buying it.’

Robert Parker    The Wine Advocate   eRobertParker.com

‘The 2008 southern Rhône vintage is reminiscent of 1999. While challenging in many cases, the good estates and serious vignerons who performed a heavy triage because of mildew in late summer, have produced good to very good wines. As in every challenging vintage, there are some outstanding efforts. To reiterate, the good news is that 2009 is looking like a potentially superb vintage. Even if you miss out on the 2007 vintage, 2009 may come close to rivaling that stupendous year, but the quality cannot be ascertained until the wines have finished their malolactic fermentation in late spring, 2010.’

 I can see very little incentive in laying out cash for buying these wines in advance although many of the top growers have produced wines of great delineation and charm. The 2008s will not have the aging or the investment potential of the 2007s and 2009s – so why fork out for them before they are bottled? Or to put it another way. Why make such song and dance about a journeyman vintage?

Jason Yapp                                                                                                               

Alan Limmer

There is a common misconception that all Syrah grown in the New World is known as Shiraz but in reality this is far from true. New Zealand wine-makers universally refer to this noble grape as ‘Syrah’, a policy for which one individual can claim the credit. Alan Limmer of Stonecroft vineyard in Hawke’s Bay was the first Kiwi wine-maker to plant Syrah in the post-war era when, in 1988, he propagated some cuttings from the national archive at the Te Kauwhata research station on the South Island. Alan was keen to differentiate his temperate climate offering from more blockbuster Australian wines, hence his decision to bottle his inaugural vintage as Syrah. Friends, neighbours and countless New Zealand wine-makers have since followed suit. Thus, in this part of the New World, at least you will find plenty of Syrah but very little Shiraz.

Former chemist Alan is still bottling some fine Syrahs over 2 decades since. The Stonecroft Syrahs exhibit classic black fruit tastes and supple tannins with a fresh finish – they’re a wonderful tribute to an outstanding pioneer.