Last week Tom and I had the pleasure of meeting up with the other representatives of the Bunch – www.bunchwines.co.uk – in the salubrious setting of the Paramount Club on the 25 floor of the Centre Point Tower, London W1. This fabulous locale offers the finest view imaginable of the Capital but is not a venue for those suffering from vertigo – which happily none of our party did.

Paramount Club, Centre Point Tower, London W1

On the relatively rare occasions when the Bunch confrères convene we nearly always bring along our own wines and although this always makes for a convivial atmosphere there is a certain degree of one-upmanship. As ever the banter was lively and gossip scurrilous but I was intruiged when my neighbour (at table not post-code) Adam Brett-Smith the genial MD of Royal Warrant holders, Corney & Barrow opened a bottle of (I think) Corton Charlemagne Bonneau de Martray 2003 at the upper tier of the ridged flange on the bottle-neck. I expressed my surprise and bemusement but Adam gently explained that that was, of course, the ‘correct’ way to open a bottle. Moreover, when quizzed, he averred that he was pretty disdainful of any other approach to the matter.

My interest was piqued. As someone with a marked preference for the lower tier, had I been opening capsules on bottles incorrectly for over 2 decades of professional service?

My own (quite dearly held) feelings are that the lower tier offers some upward purchase with a corkscrew and a cleaner more aesthetically pleasing appearance – so is therefore the best option. It was clearly time to solicit opinions from the other distinguished diners. Simon Berry, chairman of Berry Bros. & Rudd, prevaricated  but was outed as a ‘topper’ when he generously opened a magnificent bottle of 1961 Domaine de Chevalier Graves. Just as the ‘top ridge’ party were beginning to dominate proceedings Charles Lea of Lea & Sandeman pitched in with a bullish plea in favour of the lower option. Perhaps unsurprisingly my co-director Tom also came out in favour of the bottom ridge but Robert Boutflower of Tanners then induced gasps of amazement when he declared himself to be an unashamed ‘ripper offer’. Once decorum had been restored other colleagues conceded that they ‘ripped off’ in private but favoured the top or bottom options for more formal imbibing.

Clearly this is a subject about which people feel passionate. Subsequent quizzing of journalists and sommeliers has elicited strong opinions and at the time of writing the ‘bottomers’ just have the edge in terms of numbers. I’ve only discovered two other variants. The outrageous and uncivilised ‘pull the cork through the foil’ manoeuvre and the overly fanciful ‘double cut and wrap the cork’ option. Perhaps I should stick to screw-caps in future lest I cause offence!

Having had a barnstormer of a break in North Wales in June (The Welsh Connection) we’ve just returned from our last visit up there this year and this time the Yapp machine was fully ‘prepped’ for this 2 week break.

Jeremy (the Francophile mentioned in my previous blog) had, probably unbeknown to his family, planned their break to cross over with ours so we were set and had planned our wine well in advance. Seafood is normally the order of the day on this rugged coast line and I’d packed a fine selection for the duration, including a favourite Rose wine, the Vin de Corse Sartène: Domaine Saparale 2009 in anticipation of sharing this impeccable pairing.

Seafood Menu

The coastal road to Aberdaron was the first step to getting it right – signs for fresh sea food, sea bass et al were spotted by my daughter, so within minutes were stocking up on fresh crab. The Saparale had been cooling in the caravan all day so with great aplomb we were ready.

Good ideas spread fast, as we sat down to enjoy our gotten gains, on the other side of the country (Cromer in Norfolk to be precise) my parents were on a similar mission. This photo arrived literally as we were about to eat, they had found a sea food restaurant where you could bring your own wine. Keeping it in the family so to speak they were also well stocked with Yapp wine and it was with a wry smile I saw that they had gone for another of my favourites, the Chinon: Château de Ligré 2009

Chinon and prawns

So, this is I’m sure becoming Pavlovian but after all these years of associating North Wales with a combination of sun, rain, beaches and sea, I now associate it with good company and carefully selected  wines!

Restaurant du Port, Rolle

I am always in favour of restaurants doing one thing very well, rather than carrying too many dishes all of which are mediocre.  The ‘Restaurant du Port’ in the Swiss town of Rolle (nothing to do with the grape variety found in white Bellet) exemplifies such mastery.  Maybe there are a couple of other dishes on the menu, but everyone comes to this pretty restaurant (situated 50 yards from Lake Geneva) for the speciality ‘filets de perches meunière’.  The Lake delivers the perch, which are pan-fried in butter and garlic and served with excellent, thin fries. Thankfully we were forewarned by our hosts that you receive two generous helpings, the second of which is kept warm and then served once you have cleaned your plate first time around.

Sitting on the sun-drenched terrace and washed down with a perfectly decent Pinot Noir rosé from the local Vaud canton, this was a wonderful experience of simple cooking at its best.

Tom and Isabel at half-time with clean plates.

International Wine Challenge Awards 2010

Back in July we blogged on this site about how pleased we were to be nominated in the prestigious International Wine Challenge Awards 2010. After much anticipation, we are delighted to announce that Yapp Brothers won two awards on the night – Rhône Specialist Wine Merchant of the Year, and Loire Specialist Wine Merchant of the Year. We were also shortlisted for the Regional France Specialist of the Year.

The International Wine Challenge Awards are entered by a wide variety of companies, including supermarkets, agents, on-trade suppliers, mail order, on-line, independent and high street retailers. The judges this year were IWC co-chairmen Tim Atkin MW, Sam Harrop MW, Charles Metcalfe and Derek Smedley MW, joined by Laura Jewell MW, Spar UK Ltd., Simon Thorpe MW, Negociants UK Ltd., David Cox, NZ Winegrowers and Rowan Gormley, Naked Wines.

Yapp Brothers directors Jason Yapp & Tom Ashworth collected the prestigous awards at the Park Lane Hilton on Tuesday night (7th September). MD Jason Yapp said: “It is terrific to have our core strengths acknowledged by the trade and is testament to our longstanding commitment to these two great wine regions.”

Jason Yapp & Tom Ashworth at the IWC Awards 2010

If you would like to see what impressed the judges about the Yapp Brothers wine list, then you can browse our wines online by region – Rhône wines here, and Loire wines here.

We have also just launched our Autumn Offers today, which include a hot offer on the Northern Rhône Côte Rôtie 2006 from Patrick Jasmin, a great deal on the Southern Rhône Côtes du Rhône Villages Rasteau Saint Gayan 2007, and our ‘Fall Favourites’ – a mixed case wine offer with a quartet of wines from the Loire, Rhône, Languedoc, and the Pyrenees.

A few years ago I had the good fortune to be introduced to the artist Glen Baxter after a rather long lunch (me not him) at the Academy Club in Soho. I am sure I gushed on at length about what a great admirer of his work I am but fortunately Glen has a tolerant disposition and I managed to procure (and not lose) his e-mail address.

I’ve been big on Baxter ever since I graduated with an enormous overdraft in the late 1980’s and found (almost) gainful employment delivering faxes around the vast offices of Arthur Andersen’s management consultancy on Surrey Street off the Strand. The up-side of working in such a capitalist stronghold was the chance to admire their superb collection of modern art as I toured the labyrinth of corridors delivering uber important missives and smutty jokes to the power-brokers therein. Andersen’s owned lots of Glen Baxter paintings and I loved their nostalgic imagery of cowboys, girl guides, and explorers in pith helmets – all in mad-cap scenarios coupled with hilarious captions in the distinctive Baxter font.

There is an old maxim that one should never meet ones heroes but after gingerly exchanging e-mails with Glen I soon discovered that he was a keen oenophile and Francophile and something of a kindred spirit. To cut a long-ish story shorter I eventually managed to cajole Glen into illustrating our 2008 wine list which he did with aplomb inspired by bottles of Picpoul de Pinet, Chinon, Saumur Champigny, Pic Saint-Loup and his personal favourite Christine Vernay’s ‘Le Pied de Samson’ Viognier.  The finished list, which was verging on being a graphic novella, was a great success and by popular demand we also produced a set of ‘Adventures in Wine’ postcards and a limited edition poster both of which are destined to become collectors’ items.

William Yapp & a big Glen Baxter in Poitiers

Glen’s distinctive and witty work is not only popular on these shores he regularly contributes to Le Monde newspaper in France and his paintings are widely exhibited all over the world. This summer the attractive University town of Poitiers, in mid-west France played host to a major exhibition of Glen’s work celebrating the rich gastronomic culture of Poitou-Charentes. Colourful images depicting all-manner of culinary specialities from Macarons de Montmorillon to Chevreau à la Poitvine were displayed in the principal libraries and galleries and huge monochrome images were hung to dramatic effect on the sides of municipal buildings. This Baxter-fest was too good an opportunity to miss so at the end of our summer holidays I re-routed our 700 mile return journey through Poitiers so that we could marvel at the biggest Baxters known to man. To have the tedium of a long drive broken by an artistic treat was terrific and I even managed to send Glen one of his own postcards to prove we’d made the pilgrimage.

If you want to find out more about the weird world of Glen Baxter then I would heartily recommend that you pay a visit to his website: www.glenbaxter.com

‘Adventures in Wine’ postcards are available from Yapp Brothers at £4.95 per pack of 10 postcards (including postage and packaging) and signed ‘Adventures in Wine’ posters are available at £45 (including postage and packing).

Here at Yapp Brothers we love our staff tastings but it is sometimes, in these days of multi-tasking and role covering, quite difficult to muster a respectable turn out. However last Friday was one opportunity when most of the Yapp team were present in Mere, so we made full use of the time to further our vinous education with a tasting based around a theme of aromatic wines. These make for wonderful summer drinking and are generally lighter, cool climate wines, usually unoaked, but big on bouquet. We tasted a flight of three Rieslings – two from our Australian producers and a classic example from the Alsace.

Our Neagles Rock Vineyards’ Riesling 2007 from the Clare valley (an area renowned for Riesling) is bottled under Stelvin® screwcap and comes in at 12.5% abv. We’ve just finished the 2007 vintage which was superb with a few years bottle age, and the 2009 compared well. This was very lively with the classic kerosene aroma, tight and minerally with plenty of lemon and lime characteristics. This would be perfect with spiced Asian cuisine (with chilli and coriander) but also ideal as a bracing aperitif.

Next up was the Jasper Hill Riesling 2009 (12%) from Heathcote in Victoria. This originates from a much warmer area of Australia, and is not currently commercially available as it is ‘dry-grown’ without irrigation and yields have been hit hard by drought over successive recent vintages. The reason wine-maker Ron Laughton doesn’t want to irrigate his vines is because as water gets ever scarcer, there will surely come a time when there will be a hefty financial charge for its use. If winemakers are already irrigating, they will either have to pay for the privilege in the future, or their vines will die because their root systems will be too shallow to reach any moisture. Again, the wine displayed a strong lemon and lime character, less minerally than the Neagles and a little more honeyed with an elegant petrolly finish.

The Alsace Riesling 2004 (12.5% abv) from Charles Schléret was much darker in colour and very interesting to note that it was much fuller and more concentrated on the nose that it’s Australian counterparts. So often it’s the other way around with other grapes. This is a much bigger wine all round – fruitier, richer, more honeyed, mellower and full of flavours of mango and lychees. A perfect food wine.

Now to the Viognier comparisons. A tricky grape to grow but well worth the effort.  Even though its heartland is in the Northern Rhône, it doesn’t mind the heat, so the Jasper Hill Georgia’s Paddock Viognier 2009 which we have available for the first time at Yapp, thrives in the warmer climes of Victoria. It had a golden straw colour and it showed a very concentrated nose, with some oak influence and mango and peach notes prominent. A big wine (15% abv) – muscular and buttery but still nicely balanced.  We then tried the Condrieu Terrasses de L’Empire 2008 from Domaine Georges Vernay located in Viognier’s spiritual homeland. Georges’ daughter Christine took over the wine making here in 1997 s and still retains the exacting standards set by Georges when he, virtually single-handedly resuscitated the appellation during the 1970’s. Lighter in colour than the Jasper Hill, but showing the typical white flower and soft fruit nose of peach and pear. A decidedly fleshy palate of minerals and mango – very elegant and more restrained.

Two other wines which were very appropriate for the aromatic category were also from Charles Schléret – his Alsace (Tokay) Pinot Gris 2007 (14%abv) and the Gewurztraminer 2007 (14.5%abv). The former is made from the same grape that gives you the blandest versions of mass-produced Pinot Grigio, this was the opposite with a deep straw colour and a very rich nose of dried fruits and marzipan with a hint of yeast. The palate was typically Alsatian – oily and unctuous with a complex minerality in the finish. An ideal partner to foie gras.  The final wine of the tasting was one of Charles’ finest – a terrific example of what Gewurztraminer should be like. A big, rich, but well-balanced wine, full of the classic aromas of turkish delight, rose petals, and lychees with a fine minerality and a hint of white pepper. Again foie gras or the pungent local Münster cheese would make for fine accompaniments.

Our taste buds were so stimulated by the aromatic wine experience, that some of us promptly ordered a Chinese that evening to experience the various flavours with food. The wines paired up extremely well with a variety of dishes. I wonder if I can book that out on expenses?