I was privileged enough to have been invited by our transport company Geodis to attend the annual International Wine Challenge 2011 Awards dinner at London Hilton Park Lane Hotel a first time for me to attend an event like this. When I initially received the invitation and noticed the dress code was 'Black Tie' a […]

I was fortunate enough to spend last Thursday lunchtime at Le Gavroche selecting the wines for our forthcoming Spring lunch. I took the opportunity to buttonhole the head sommelier David Galetti, who presides over a list of biblical proportions, about his personal recommendations of wines to accompany asparagus. When English asparagus is in season, as […]

Over the last 2 or 3 years, roughly coinciding with the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (which we used to naively call the ‘Credit Crunch’), there has been a growing ground swell of interest in ‘natural’ wines. One might assume that as wine is made from fermented grape juice it essentially a fairly natural […]

Last month we received the sad news that Isabelle Barantin had finally succumbed to the circling sharks and sold the iconic monopole vineyard of Château Grillet to François Pinault of Château Latour. I spoke to Isabelle on the phone shortly afterwards and made the mistake of congratulating her on the sale - the property had […]

Being an inveterate fan of Citroën’s marvellous ‘cube utile’, or H-van, as well as a discerning coffee consumer I was chuffed to be invited to the launch of  ‘Claud the Butler’(www.claudthebutler.co.uk) in my home town of Frome last weekend. Claud is the brainchild of Lee and Helen who are the next door neighbours of my […]

The start of our trade event season for 2011 began this week with our hosting a stand at The Specialist Importers Trade Tasting event (SITT) 2011 in Manchester (Monday) and London (Wednesday). We have worked at this event for the past couple of years and watched it grow into an already much talked about interesting […]

Working at Yapp HQ has always been an interesting experience and there’s never a shortage of recommendations about new vintages, new wines and particularly new food and wine pairings. As a man who came from the cider and cheese school of thought it’s been a real eye opener – not that cider doesn’t go with […]

It is interesting how authors, actors, artists and musicians can arrive on the scene by breaking barriers and pushing people out of their comfort zone one day and then, in what seems like no time at all, they are perceived as National Treasures who are fondly regarded by one and all. What challenges the established […]

As I mentioned back in November I’m a sucker for a ‘soft’ restaurant opening because there is a wonderful feeling of dining before the critics descend and pronounce the received view of an establishment, of virgin piste if you like, and, even better, you tend to get a benign bill when it’s time to call […]

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 […]