Having spent far too many birthdays in previous places of work where celebrations just seemed to involve some sub-standard cakes (a Swedish ball bearing manufacturer, an English Language School, a University and a larger B2B supplier to name just a few) it’s been a pleasant surprise to me just how much working at Yapp takes over your view of the world – and all for the better I should add!

I turned 44 last weekend – this is not really anything to shout about but I did base all the celebrations on wines from our list. As our house filled with various friends and family during the weekend, wine was always to hand and had been planned (with thanks to our Shop Manager) to, dare I say it, near perfection.

A fine selection of cheeses was rolled out to mark my specific birthday at Yapp HQ – and accompanied by quince cheese (that we’d tasted previously at our Christmas meal) – sadly, no wine as we were at work but it was certainly a good lead into the weekend. Friday night, before the deluge of people that descended I tried the first wine out with my wife (a regular event that she’s now thankfully become accustomed to) that was an often talked about match at Yapp HQ – Roquefort cheese, water biscuits and Jurançon 2008: Domaine Bellegarde – if ever I’ve tasted a perfect combination this has to be it – even Julie (my wife) was taken aback by the experience – strike 1!

After a day of, for want of a better phrase, “children” (mine and my nephew – all under the age of 6) we got them all tucked up and the adults ventured into the nearest town to our sleepy hamlet, where we devoured a fine Indian meal (The Sultan in Melksham if you’re ever down this way). With this we happily worked our way through a chilled bottle of Alsace: Pinot Blanc 2005 – all agreed (well, apart from my brother-in-law who refused to move away from his bottle of cider) that this was another hit – strike 2!

Sunday, we rolled out the big guns in both food and wine – we had a full rib of beef and, as an aperitif, we opened a cold bottle of the timeless Yapp Champagne (a not unexpected strike 3!) and then settled into the beef. A few of my tried-and-trusted ‘not for drinking on a school night’ bottles were opened – a Côtes de Provence: Domaine Richeaume: Cuvée Tradition 2008 and my last bottle of Brézème: Eugène de Monicault 2007 – perfect matches again, strikes 4 and 5 combined!

Then, to round it all off we re-ran the Roquefort cheese, water biscuits and Jurançon 2007 and a digestif of Bas Armagnac 1995 – our guests left full and with very contented smiles.

Maybe 44 isn’t as bad as I thought it might be. I could mention how I was due to get an iPad as a present but instead had to settle for a fridge freezer, but that I’ll save for another time…

Jasmin over a barrel

If the assembled wine-tasters from Baltimore-based asset management company, T Rowe Price, would rather have been in the park on the finest summer evening this year, they weren’t letting on.  Instead, shoe-horned into an upstairs room in this traditional City boozer, they proved to be a model audience and even threw in some tricky questions – what dictates the size of the bubbles in sparkling wine and is there a correlation with quality?  No, was the answer to the latter when you are talking about bottle-fermented (although the cheapest method of sparkling production which involves pumping C02 through tanked wine will produce large bubbles which will rapidly dissipate).  The Champagne Companion (Michael Edwards, Firefly Book 1999) notes that ‘bubbles should be uniform in shape, lively, and flow in a persistent stream toward the surface of the wine; Experts differ about the ideal size of bubbles. Most Champenois say that the smaller the bubbles, the better the Champagne, but large bubbles are not necessarily the sign of an inferior wine – your palate is a better judge.‘  If any one out there can convincingly improve on this thesis, we’ll send them a bottle of Yapp Champagne!

Highlights of the Rhone wine tasting (it was sparkling Saint Péray that attracted the effervescent debate) were Domaine Georges Vernay’s rare, single-vineyard Condrieu Coteaux du Vernon 2007 (400 cases produced) which was tasted (perhaps unfairly) against the Ardèche co-operative’s generic Viognier (eminently drinkable, but not in the same league) and Patrick Jasmin’s Côte Rôtie 1999.  This was Patrick’s inaugural solo vintage (following the untimely death of his father, Robert the previous year) and it proved to be everything one might hope for in traditional (rather than single-vineyard, super charged) Côte Rôtie – rustic-nosed, medium-bodied, supple, smoky and silky.

We departed into the balmy night and the discreet group never let on whether they managed the assets of a certain Baltimore-based wine critic.