Our new 2016 wine list is hot off the press and after months of planning and preparation we are delighted with the results – so do let us know if you or a friend would like to receive a copy in the post.
Toby Ward - Yapp Brothers wine list 2016
Toby Ward joins a roll call of celebrated artists who have undertaken the challenge of illustrating our annual catalogue, which is in danger of becoming more of a book than a pamphlet. It was great fun collaborating with Toby and he has really managed to capture the esprit of our wines and wine-makers. You can see more of his work on his own website here: http://www.tobyward.net
Gérard Chave by John Raynes
It was my father Robin who began cajoling talented artists to illustrate our lists back in the 1970s and today we are proud to continue that tradition. Topping the leader board with an impressive eight assignments (1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2011) is our old friend John Raynes. He is equally adept at portraits and landscapes and knows the backwaters of viticultural France just as well as we do.
Merrily Harpur - Yapp Brothers wine list 2007
In second place is Merrily Harpur with three stints at the helm in 1997, 2003 and 2007. Her witty cartoons manage to evoke the joys of wine making and wine drinking in equal measure.
Quentin Blake - Yapp Brothers wine list 1986
Both Quentin Blake (1986 and 1999) and Glen Baxter (2009 and 2014) have been game enough to endure two tours of duty and lots of great illustrators such as Willie Rushton (1990), David Chandler (2013) and John Burningham (2009) opted to quit when they were ahead after a single commission.
Willie Rushton - Yapp Brothers wine list 1990
Your feedback suggests that you enjoy the combination of good wine and great art as much as we do so we best start planning next year’s production forthwith. We are delighted that our list has been short-listed for the International Wine Challenge’s ‘Wine List of the Year’ award for the last four years and live in hope that 2016 might be the year that we actually bag that coveted prize!
I had great fun composing the montage for this year’s list cover in homage to my Dad, Robin Yapp, loosely inspired by classic 1970s album covers such as (the inside sleeve) of Eric Clapton’s Slowhand and the Rolling Stone’s seminal Exile on Main Street. Appropriately I took the shot on the inside sill of Robin’s kitchen window which gets great natural light on a summer’s morning. The camera I used was a Nikon D80 SLR which made a stark contrast to Dad’s old Zeiss Iron ‘Contaflex’ that can be seen to the extreme left of the picture. He may well have used that camera to take the wonderful, sepia, mid 1970’s picture of my sister Arabella standing on a fully functional alambic sporting a providentially nostalgic Laura Ashley dress, that can be seen on the postcard on the left-hand side. The dark navy wine list in the centre dates from 1971 back in the days of 3 digit phone numbers.
The well-thumbed books and maps are all from the parental archive and I selected a view showing Valence and Tain L’Hermitage as that is undoubtedly the page that we have most traversed over the last 43 years. The wine labels are 4 personal favourites – Quentin Blake's inimitable Muscadet illustration, a classic, gothic Côte Rôtie from Jasmin and Cornas from Clape and ‘Le Vieux Donjon’ in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The frog ashtray (from Dijon) cicada tablecloth (from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence) and Ricard picher (can’t remember) are all Francophile ephemera accrued over many years. The grape key-ring is Robin’s own and comes from O & H Bour in Tricastin, the Jarraud glasses and Eifel tower key rings and ‘Usines du Rhône’ aspirin case were all junk shop finds.
To fully qualify for ‘anoraks’ corner’ I can tell you that wine in the glass was a Cassis: Clos Sainte Magdeleine 2009 and the restaurant bill is from the superb Hôtel du France in Saint- Pardoux-La Rivière but don’t all rush there at once. The spiral note books are my own and the open page records a visit to see Auguste Clape in Cornas. The fountain pen is a Parker 25, a design classic and the only model style-conscious schoolboys would be seen with in the 1970s. The calculator is my own Sharp Elsi Mate EL 392L – not an object I could in anyway endorse except for its tenacious longevity. The tooth-pick and matchbox are both originals from Le Gavroche – our old friend Silvano Giraldin must have got a good deal on a job lot back in the day. The corkscrew is a brass pocket model from Yapp Brothers’ burgeoning collection and the francs were kicking around at the bottom of a drawer in the office along with a vintage copy of Penthouse that is almost certainly Robin’s own although he is bound to deny that! There is no justifiable reason for including the packet of OCB cigarette papers (top right) other than they look good and the font is fabulous. On the subject of fonts (might need a second anorak here) I am deeply indebted to my annual collaborator graphic designer Andy Batchelor (at www.blackmore.co.uk) for unearthing the Albertus typeface from our 1971 list and adding the ‘YAPP 2012’ text as well as some very subtle toning which gives the whole image a warm, retro feel.
You can see from this early draft that a picture like that doesn’t come together in an instant and although I nearly drove myself bonkers trying to get the definitive shot I am now, several months later, happy with the end result.
Any (sensible) suggestions on how we illustrate next year’s list will be gratefully received.
The final leg of our buying trip begins in Faugères, an up and coming AOC that sits atop an impressive bedrock of schist, north of Beziers. Château des Estanilles is an estate that has recently changed hands and the good news is that the pioneering work of Michel Louison is being augmented by Julien Seydoux, an enthusiastic and independent-thinking young chap whose family have substantial vine-holdings in Costières de Nîmes. Julien is motivated to make the best possible Faugères and has invested blood, sweat, tears and a fait bit of dosh to make this happen. His 2010 vintage which we will ship in May will be certified organic, a rapidly growing phenomenon among ‘Yapp’ producers.
Our next visit of the day entailed a 3 hour drive across the Languedoc to the pretty Provençal village of Lambesc where Sebastien Ambrosio Collomb gave us a tour of Domaine Oullières and we tasted through his very good white and rosé 2010's, along with his ‘house’ red 2009 (a Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Syrah blend) – all three will feature in our forthcoming 2011 wine list. This estate is also ‘en conversion’ to organic and will gain certification in 2012.
Finally, and after a further 3 hours schleping across Provence and negotiating the Nice rush hour, we arrived at our final tasting of the trip. Domaine de la Source in AOC Bellet, the smallest domaine with which we work, is now run by energetic brother and sister team Eric and Carine Dalmasso. They have doubled the size of the area under vine in the past five years to a whopping 5 hectacres! Somehow, from this tiny patch of vines perched between the Cote d’Azur and Southern Alps, they successfully manage to produce a red, white and rose – total production 15,000 bottles. 95% of the wine is consumed by well-heeled Niçois chez eux or in the fashionable restaurants of Vieux Nice, but the remaining pallet finds its way to Mere (we are their sole export customer). We would encourage anyone that hasn’t sampled these fascinating wines to give them a try – preferably sur terrasse with porchetta nicoise, grillade au fenouil or wood-oven roasted rabbit with thyme. Oh, by the way, did we tell you that next year Domaine de la Source will be certified organic?!
