Paul Masson White Wine Carafe.

Well this is my belated entry to Wine Blog Wednesday. After much searching I finally decided to spend my hard earned cash on this monstrosity. Back when I was still too young to legally drink, and in fact probably before I even was aware of alcohol, Paul Masson introduced their wines into the UK market. They were kind of unique in that they came in these carafe like containers and many people actually used them as flower vases and the like after they had drunk the contents. This was a happy time in the UK when Mateus Rose was probably the best selling wine in the UK and Prawn Cocktail, Black Forest Gateau and Steak Diane ruled menus the country over.

Im slightly alarmed at the label which actually doesnt specify a grape variety, and several hours of digging on the internet have led to to believe that it contains Chenin Blanc. Im going to trust what I read on the net, because to be honest there really wasnt much taste at all, chilling it made it slightly more palatable, but barely. There was a faint floral smell on the nose which I could really identify. The only saving grace was it was cheap. I paid about three quid something from tescos for this, and even at that small price, it was a rip-off. By the time you take out the duty, vat and cost of the bottle, label etc, you are talking about £1 worth of wine. Take the supermarkets profit away from that and I reckon this is about £0.40 worth of wine. The old adage that you get what you pay for is most definately true here. I paid nowt, and got less.

This challenge brought out the snob in me, and I dont really like to think like this, but honestly this was truly awful wine, I suspect only the novelty of the "bottle" encourages people to buy it. Certainly if I ever needed a vase I would probably buy a bottle and throw out the contents. It would be cheaper and better for my palate. Ive been spoilt working here and getting the opportunity to taste some absolutely fantastic wines, and so I just think that you shouldnt have to drink bad wine.

Wine Blog Wednesday 31

Its that time of the month again, and this themes quite a challenge. Ive somehow got to find a wine that isnt conventionally packaged. So something like a bag in box, can, tetrapak and any other funky packed wines that might be out there. Sounds easy, but actually its not. While I admit I could go out and find any number of B.I.B. wines, I really dont want to hae to buy a litre or more of wine, particularly a wine that I wouldnt really drink. Im afraid this challenge is bringing out the wine snob in me. Check back tomorrow to see if I can manage to find something.

Henschke Keyneton 1986 Revisited

Its well over six months since I sold the last bottle, but by god this wine seems to have got better. Really richly intense fruity nose, berries quite dominant, with that spicy richness of shiraz jostling for attention over the currantly fruit of the cabernet and the damson and violet tones of the malbec. Still a very fine suspension of sediment in the wine, but I think this adds to the flavour and character, and it would certainly be clearer without it, but I think it would taste duller too.

Peer Pressure.

We've got a table of five in tonight that are all chefs. Well four of them are, ones the boss!! Its always interesting when you have "industry insiders" in for dinner, because I guess we are more conscious of being on show. Folks in the trade are notoriously picky about where they eat, and as such they can often spot the slightest of mistakes or errors that most people would realise. Besides which, because we are on show, we want to prove that we can be the best, so it raises our game a bit. All of which sounds like double standards, but it isnt quite like that. I know what I can be like on those all too rare occasions when I go out somewhere nice for dinner. Despite being off duty, my eye is constantly sweeping the room, watching the staff, checking out the tables, the decor, is everything in its place, checking the menus for mistakes, spelling mistakes, balancing the wine list, comparing the prices, all the while "enjoying" myself.

Chef has prepared them a special menu, and at Neils request, Ive paired wines off with each course for them. It gives me a chance to show off a little bit, and I know that Neil is quite knowledgeable about wines, so I want to give him something good, but that will complement the whole experience.

Five days and counting!

Im getting excited. In five days time Im off to Bordeaux for a jolly (erm work trip, honest!!) with Nigel from Rodney Densems. We're only going for a couple of days, but he's managed to pack a lot into a short space of time. We spending our time with Chateau Lamothe de Haux, but Nige has managed to arrange a visit to Yquem, Lafite-Rothschild, one of the main cooperages in Bordeaux, Seguin Moreau (?) and a visit to Ausone. Ive never been to Bordeaux before, so Im really looking forward to it, and especially the trip to Ausone and Lafite. Dessert wine isnt really my cup of tea, but it will still be really interesting to visit Yquem. Im charging up my batteries and stocking up on memory cards to take loads of photos.

David Duband Vosne Romanee 1999

Ive blogged about Davids wines before, but I hadnt had the Vosne Romanee at that stage. Well tonight I sold a bottle, and it didnt disappoint me or the customer. Slight bit of bottle stink upon opening, which soon disapated to leave quite an earthy nose, with dark stone fruit aromas wrapped around an almost ethereal violet like floral tone. This grew and grew in the glass as it opened up, and the raspberry aromas became slightly more pronounced and separate from the others. For what is essentially a village level wine, this knocks the spots off many premier cru bottlings, and considering it is a mere youngster, I reckon this wine will get better with a few more years of cellaring. Its kind of tempting to take it off the list for a while to let it improve a bit, but hell its so good now, I dont want to deny anyone.

Shiny Baubles

Theres an old adage, never to judge a book by its cover. After many years in this industry Ive just about managed to get myself out of that habit. Although, like any normal human being, I often relapse and make a snap judgement about somebody or a table based on a fraction of a minutes worth of contact. I'd like to say that Im getting more accurate, but I'd be lying, Im probably right as often as Im wrong. Anyway, this particular adage sprung to mind a few weeks ago when I recieved some samples of a Cognac from a house called Godet. We had young Cyril Godet attend a gourmet dinner last year in his role as Brand Ambassodor from John E Fells for Mouton Rothschild. It turns out that he descents from Cognacias distillers who happen to make quite a wide range of cognacs. Anyway to cut a long story somewhat shorter, we needed to get a few bottles in house for the immenent arrival of one of the senior Grosvenor directors. So after swapping numerous emails with folks, we managed to track down a guy called Roshan who is the UK importer. He managed to hook me up with some samples and we were ready to rock and roll.

I was quite surprised to see what turned up on my desk just a few days later. Altogether I think they send me five bottles of cognac, and it was this that prompted me to thing carefully about judging by appearance. Im often wary when I see bottles of any kind of beverage, but especially spirits in really fancy and ornate bottles. I remember having a really rather rotten experience with Grappa that a friend had brought back from a holiday in Italy. The bottles were really intricate with sculpted fruit within the bottle and really delicate necks. What was inside however was pure firewater!! I have never in my entire life, before or since had a hangover as intense or long lasting as the one I had after we had consumed about three of these bottles between us one night. ( I ought perhaps to add that the bottles were 50cl bottles, so that equates to a bottle each.) And Ive had my share of rough nights on Southern Comfort, Pernod (thats a blast cause you can get pissed again the next morning drinking a glass of water!!), Jack Daniels and until the grappa, my worst was after a night of Guinness, which brings its own terrors to the hangover!!

The XO came in a teardrop like bottle, and actually had quite a smoothness about it, with rich raisined fruit flavours. The VSOP Selection Speciale was in a tall, slender bottle and again showed really well. I suspect that this gets a good dose of caramel for the colour, but it didnt show that in its sweetness. The Excellence is also in a tall slender bottle with a small badge at the neck to distinguish it, and silver labelling. A bit richer, more pronounced on the nose with an almost cherryish note, before a floral character became more dominant. Apparently this is an XO with the average age of the eaux-de-vies being 25 years.

The one that really picqued my interest was a pure folle blanche cognac. More delicate and refined on the nose, with white flowers, a kind of golden sultana aroma and a very lightly spiced apple note. The bottle isnt anything special to look at, and in all honesty it would probably be overlooked on a store shelf. But it goes to show that you cant judge a book by its cover, because if you do, you would have missed out on this stunning blockbuster.

On the subject of Cognacs, Ive been invited to a special tasting of Cognacs on the 19th April down at the Lanesborough hotel. David Baker from Brandy Classics is hosting a special tasting in association with the Lanesborough and he is planning on showing off some of his pre-phylloxera cognacs on the day, including an 1810, and possibly some even older than that! Im getting my holiday form in for that one, it will take a pack of wild horses to keep me away!!!

Paulee at the Devonshire

At the beginning of the week Jeremy Rata held his annual Paulee over at the Devonshire Arms. Basically about 30 people from the trade are invited to a spectacular blowout to which they bring a couple of bottles of cherished wine from their collection/cellar/store. Its usually a slightly worrying time for me, because my MD and Rata and David Nicholson from Holbeck Ghyll have this kind of schoolboyish rivally thing going on where they try to outdo each other with what they bring. This has led to trying to find something so obscure and left-wing that no-one will be able to guess what it is when its served blind. Weve had a really obscure white burgundy that is made from Pinot Blanc, Champagnes made from Arbanne, Petit Meslier and Pinot Gris as well as the three "traditional" varieties, and several other oddities. I have to confess that looking at the list of wines that were shown afterwards I get a twinge of jealousy at the blockbuster wines that are consumed. Im eagerly looking forward to reading this years list and seeing what was on offer.

This year I decided to try and focus on something extra-ordinary, a top-end Burgundy from one of the undisputed masters of the region. So I sent the boss along with two bottles of Armand Rousseau's Charmes-Chambertin 1996 Grand Cru. 1996 was the vintage that they introduced the stainless steel vats into the domaine, and I think that this shows in the smooth silky elegance of the wine. Quite floral, with notes of Violets and a background earthyness that I smelt last weekend, as I potted my seeds in the garden, with the rich earthy loam I was using as potting compost. At first the fruit character is quite restrained, but as it opens out it starts off with almost under-ripe black cherries, with alpine strawberries and a touch of redcurrants. The aromas grow into a kind of black-forest gateaux richness of cherry, red sauce and a touch of chocolate about it too. This wine charms the pants off you, quite literally, and it is that smoothness, elegance and yes, I suppose charm, that helps me to identify it. I understand from the boss, that until he left at around fourish (pm not am!!) it was undisputed star of the event. Im glad, but Im saddened at the possibility that this might be the last one he attends. Apparently there is only so much fine wine and food one can manage, and the event has grown into such a spectacle of one-upmanship that it has become difficult to appreciate all that is on offer.

Oh well I shall have to see what was on offer this year when the list becomes available, and who knows what the future may hold.

New Menu night tonight

Tonight we are running with a new a la carte menu. The menu looks really good, with some interesting dishes. Chefs sense of humour is evident in the names - one starter is called Pond Life and is a watercress espuma with 2 snails persillade, frogs legs beignets, red cress, chard and poached crayfish tails. I reckon it will be quite popular, despite the quirky name!

Late night last night

Im absolutely shattered today. Yesterday was my first day back after a week off having fallen down stairs, and it ended up being a sixteen hour monster of a day. I left the hotel sometime after three am this morning and crawled into bed for about four hours of fitfull sleep. So why was I so late?

Last night we had the second of this years gourmet evenings - Chateau Bauduc. We had the owner/winemaker Gavin Quinney come and talk about how, why and some of the trial and joys of what he and his wife Angela do in Creon. Unfortunately Angela was unable to join us having busted her knee, but she missed a great evening. Despite running over his alloted time (to the consternation of Ross, Paco and the Chef) Gavin kept everyone amused with witty anecdotes (some at the expense of Gordon Ramsay's team of sommeliers!!), tales of some of the trials of being a novice winemaker in Bordeaux and some of his aspirations for the future of Chateau Bauduc. I dont honestly think weve ever had such gushing praise from the guests about the speaker before. The wines were very well received too which is always a bonus. The rose we poured at the start was quite popular, 100% merlot with overnight skin contact, we were pouring the 2004 which isnt the most current vintage, but still packed fruit flavours with a deliciously savoury edge which I think set people up nicely for the starter.

For the starter we poured the Bordeaux blanc, which is 95% sauvignon and 5% semillon for a bit of depth and body. Everyone raved about this wine. Crisp, fresh and lip-smackingly good it worked a treat with chef's crab raviolis. The next wine was a love or loath wine. Roughly half the people loved it, the other half didnt. It was the Trois Hectares 2004. 100 % semillon from a small three hectare vineyard (and the cause of much hilarity when Gavin recounted the story of one the Ramsay sommeliers (a Frenchie no less!!) asking why it was called Trois Hectares!!). Its barrel fermented again for depth of character. Much less expressive than the Savvy, I loved this wine, but for sure its a food wine. I think this would have been great with the intermediate course of Seared Scallop on a bed of cauliflower puree with carpaccio of cauli and a parmesan brittle. Anyway, the next wine was the Clos des Quinze a bordeaux blend dominated by merlot (60%) with the remainder almost evenly split between Cabernets. Coming from a walled vineyard of about 15 hectares. I had double decanted it earlier in the afternoon, so it was showing very well indeed. Again everyone seemed to rave about it. That was paired with a saddle of roe deer and pumpkin spatzle. Everyone raved about that too!
With the cheese souffle we poured a more limited cuvee, the Trois Etoiles which Gavin told us was actually selected by the Ramsay team to be bottled into a separate cuvee. Hence the name - Trois Etoiles- Three stars in honour of Royal Hospital Road and Gavins first customer in the UK. This is a pure merlot and I loved it, for me it was the highlight of the night. But again it seemed to divide the room, some loved it, others loathed it. That was the end of the Bauduc wines, but as we had dessert still to come, we had to throw a ringer into the mix. We chose a Graves Superieures from Haut-Bergeron, which also received mixed reviews, but then a lot of folks dont like sweet wines, myself included.

At the end of the night as we cleared all the glasses, Danny and myself chatted to Gavin, Danny using the opportunity wisely to increase his knowledge of Bordeaux and winemaking. But he wimped out at 1am leaving me discussing future ideas that Gavin has for moving Bauduc more into the UK market, and ideas for further developing the range of wines that he has available. Next year hes got a monbazillac coming out, from a winemaker that he knows who cant get his product onto market. He talked about developing Bauduc into a brand again using contacts who again cant find a route to market in France. Imagine a Bauduc Pomerol, Pauillac or St Estephe. Anyway, I really enjoying chatting to him, and getting involved in helping him reach a wider audience. For great easy drinking Claret you cant do any worse than check out their website and order yourself a case or two of wines. www.bauduc.com

Trophy Ruinart

Yesterday was the regional finals of the Trophy Ruinart competition and I was due to compete in the Midlands final down at the Hotel du Vin in Birmingham. I decided to pull out earlier last week, as I wasnt "match fit" and felt that if I wasnt able to give it 100% then I ought not to go. Especially as the hotel was paying for my accomodation and travelling expenses. I had a few friends competing, ironically at Birmingham too, and it would have been good to catch up with them, but I'll get plenty of opportunities over the coming year. Ian didnt win, as he was stuffed up with a cold, and so he blew the blind tasting part. Apparently some dude named Cyrille from the Manoir won the brummie round. Good luck to him on the grand final!

Back to work

Well Im back to work today, after a week off sick with a sore back. The swelling has all gone thanks to anti-inflamatory tablets prescribed by the quack and the bruise is now a multitude of colours and slowly starting to fade. My right side is still a bit tender and hurts a bit when i cough or yawn, but I need to get back to work for my sanity. Besides moving around will probably loosen it all up a bit and make it better. Ive got loads to catch up with, so many things to get done before the end of march and our financial year. Weve still got a lot of money to move out of the cellar before April 2nd. Then we've got new racking being installed into the cold store for the white wines, so thats going to be a logistical nightmare!! Mind you once it is done we will have storage there for four thousand bottles, which will mean that I can move a lot of stock out of the holding cages and into stock, get them onto the wine-list and help get rid of some more value from the cellar. Not thats there is much in the way of white wine, a bit of white burgundy, loads of meursault and some puligny from Sauzet, but its enough.

Im working on an idea that Roger from Gerrard Seel gave me for our final gourmet of the year. We were originally looking at doing five decades of bordeaux, but seeing as we are overloaded with burgundy and grand cru burgs at that, we are now going to have a month long burgundy festival culminating in the gourmet dinner at the end of the month focussing on Grand Cru Burgundies. Batard Montrachet, Criots, Chevalier, Corton Charlemagne and of course Le Montrachet for the whites, Corton, Echezeaux, Grands Echezeaux, La Tache, Romanee St Vivant, Charmes Chambertin, Clos de la Roche, Clos St Denis etc etc for the reds. Ive spoken to Chef and he's on board to tailor the gastronomic menu around burgundian dishes, we can match wines to the menu for an all inclusive price and take a hit on the margins to move some of the stock. Im quite looking forward to it, and so are quite a few of the guests. Ive still got to finalise the rest of the years events, but it looks good so far.

So Ive got a lot to do, and Ive got the feeling that there may be some significant changes in the air soon.

Swept off my feet on Valentines Day.

Well the years biggest Hallmark holiday has just been and passed and I missed it. I spend Valentines Evening in the Accident and Emergency Dept at the Countess Hospital in Chester after having a wee tumble at work and falling down some stairs. When I go down, my god do I do it in style!. So Im currently lying in bed at home, drugged up on painkillers for the second tine this year, with an enormous bruise on my arse (last night the swelling was as big as a subway 6" sandwich!!), a very bruised back and agony whenever I move, breath, laugh, sneeze, cough or in fact do pretty much anything.

Ive got an appointment at the quacks tomorrow, so we shall see what happens. I may be off the web for a wee while.

Wine Chemistry and Flavo(u)r - Bakker & Clarke

On the subject of books, this tome is one I have had my eye on for a while. Its a serious geek book with an equally serious price tag - £120. Basically the authors are a pair of Food Analysts who have studied the various bio-chemical attributes of wine flavours and presented it in this weighty book. Its interest to me lies in the breakdown of the various flavour components and what causes them. For example pyrazines are responsable for a raft of flavours particularly that sharp green peppery aroma often found in warmer climate Sauvignon. For a winemaker to know how they are produced might enable him/her to suitably locate their vines in order to produce the right conditions for production of pyrazine components in the wine. Alternatively they could cheat and just add pyrazines to the wine as allegedly happened in South Africa nearly two years ago. Anyway, whiel surfing around Amazon looking for a couple of books on Italian wines to crib up on I came across the book again, and its on sale at a vastly reduced £59.40. I might have to sweet-talk the wife and see if she will let me put it on the credit card!!

Achilles Heel

With less than a fortnight until the regional finals of the Trophy Ruinart, Ive been thinking a lot recently about how much I dont know. So much still to learn and so little time to do it all in. Italy remains my biggest stumbling block, and I still find it hard enough motivating myself to get right into it and study the region. One problem is that compared to other regions, there are relatively few books on Italy. There are hundreds of books on Burgundy, loads on Bordeaux, Australia and New Zealand are fairly well covered, but when it comes to Italy, the only one I can find in the bookshops is the Gambero Rosso Italian wine guide, which is really a publishing of the results of the annual tasting by the Slow Food society. Ive been wanting to get my hands on a copy of Burton Andersons Wine Atlas of Italy, but the only ones that I can find are £160 second hand from America. It seems it is regarded as the single most authorative book on Italian wines ever written, so it seems bizarre that it hasnt been re-printed. Anyway, theres not much chance of me ponying up that kind of cash for a wine-book, although the most I have spend to date was £110 for Cocks, Ferets Bordeaux and its wines 15th Edition. (They are now on the 17th edition and it is undoubtably the biggest reference book on the estates of bordeaux and the wines they produce. )

So until I can find a cheaper copy of the wine atlas, Italy it seems will always remain my achilles heel. Unless of course I can persuade a generous supplier to take me on an educational visit (aka Jolly) to Italy!!!

Armand Rousseau Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 1996

Last night we had a table of four regular customers in for dinner. They are a nice pair of couples who are become more regular as time goes on. The guys like their wines, mainly Burgundy, red naturally, but good champagne too. Ive hooked them up recently with Jacquesson Cuvee 729, which they are loving. They have got to the stage where they are comfortable to leave the choice of wine to me, I know what they like and how much they are prepared to pay.

As I may have mentioned we have a huge surplus of Grand Cru burgundy, so here was a perfect opportunity to shift a couple of bottles, and better yet, to someone who will appreciate it. So it was that our lucky guests got their opportunity to have this great wine at a considerably better price than it is usually listed for (£160 on the list). As they usually drink Nuits St Georges or Gevrey Chambertin it is in a similar style to the kind of wines they like.

Charles Rousseau took over running the domaine after a tragic car accident killed his father Armand in 1959. Since then he has considerably increased the domaines holdings in predominantly Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards based around Gevrey Chambertin. They work with some pretty old vines, the average age in his Chambertin holdings is sixty years old. The age of the vines means they only produce a small amount of fruit, but usually of a much superior quality. Another advantage to the age is that Charles never has to conduct a "green harvest". Further to the low yields they practice a severe triage of the fruit back at the cuverie to further eliminate any below-par fruit. All these measures contribute to some seriously low volumes, but luckily the quality of the wines speak for themselves and as such demand is always high.

Charles believes in partially destemming the fruit, as too much stem in the vats brings out unripe tannins and astringent characters into the wine. But by having about 20% stems you allow some aeration in the vats allowing the ferment to be more even through the vat and preventing hot-spots which can add uneven flavours to the finished wine. Perhaps unusually for Burgundy, Rousseau uses stainless steel vats to ferment the wines, with twice daily pigeage (punching down the skins to release colour) and remontage (pumping over the juice from the bottom of the vat, again to break up the cap and allow leaching of the colour. There is some debate as to the amount of oxidisation of the wine this may cause). After about two weeks the wines are pumped into a fresh vat or into 100% new Alliers oak, for anything upto 18 months.

There is no mistaking the fact that these are serious wines. The labels are very classically simple with an almost monkish script that lends the right amount of gravitas to the wines.

Clos de la Roche is the one of the Grand Cru leiu-dits of Morey-St-Denis. Actually the largest of the Grand Cru climats of Morey, it encompasses nearly 17 hectares, producing somewhere in the region of 70000 bottles. It is at an elevation of about 300 metres with a definate east facing aspect which draws pretty much the maximum amount of sunlight possible. It is often said it is the more classy of the grand crus of Morey. With its seductive aromas of deep violets, myrtille and a hint of truffle to it, all interlaced with a kind of foresty cherry aroma, this wine draws you in caresses your palate with an elegance of intensity. Imagine that relaxing feeling you feel washing over you as you slip into a hot bath, letting your muscles go and relaxing. Thats how you feel after sipping this wine. That contented "Ahhhhhhhh!!!!" rushing over your tongue and down the back of your throat. It can be a dangerous thing though. When a wine slips down that easily and so smoothly, you soon drink the whole bottle. Or two, and thats when things can get expensive. Unless you're on good terms with your sommelier!!

When I was in Burgundy last year, Bernard (Vallet) took us past Domaine Armand Rousseau and there outside was Charles washing down his tractor. Bernard told us that they were related, but that wasnt really a surprise. The nature of Burgundy is that just about everyone there is related!

Wine Blog Wednesday 30

How quickly they seem to come around. Only last week I was at the Australia day tastings down in London, where I managed to taste my way around some serious big Aussie shiraz from Hunter, Barossa, Alpine Valley in Victoria, Great Southern (Western Aus), Eden Valley, Limestone Coast, Langhorne Creek, Heathcote, Geelong and Mclaren. Most of it was fairly textbook stuff - big black peppery, dark stone fruity, monster tannins, BIG alcohol. A few of the better wines were more balanced and had a bit more complexity about them.

Brokenwoods Graveyard Shiraz for example had more restrained spicy tones, but dense black fruit flavours with fine oak influence and silkier tannins. It was also bottled under a screwcap which is quite a brave step for a wine that retails in excess of £50.

Gapsted wines based in the Alpine Valley of Victoria in Australia had a very interesting shiraz - the Ballerina Canopy Shiraz. The fruit comes from 200 hectares farmed near Whitfield in the King Valley. Low yields and the slightly cooler climate produce intensely flavoured fruit with rich fruitcake flavours and more subtle spicy tones. Two years in american oak adds a sterner tannic structure to the wine which balances nicely with the natural fruit sweetness. Its quite a big wine at 14.5%abv but theres balance so the alcohol doesnt burn.

Berton Family vineyards, based in the Eden Valley of South Australia have a massive range of wines, mostly at the volume end of the market. However their "flagship" wine is the Bonsai Shiraz, so named because after five years trying to establish the vines in the High Eden, the vines still looked like rootlings. The quartz that dominated the thin soil soaks up the sun by day and slowly releases it overnight acting like a kind of radiator, allowing the grapes to reach exceptional levels of ripeness. The low goblet shape of the vines keeps the yield low and the fruit quality high, producing an excellent wine. Ripe plummy fruit flavours with a touch of vanillin and crushed white peppercorns on the nose and palate. The tannins grip quite strongly just now, but this is a 2004 vintage, so it needs a bit of decanting now or ideally a couple of years slumber in a cellar. There is a rich spicy finish to the wine with a flavour that seems to linger on the palate for ages. Fantastic wine at a good price.

Thats about all I have time for just now, got to get ready for service. The boss is in tonight with the chef and the F&B manager to make sure we are all up to scratch. Best behaviour then boys.

Cowboy Style - aka Cutting Corners

Following on from a comment by Pink Man Running on a previous post I thought I might give my take on Cowboying things. There are certain occasions when we are faced with few options but to cut corners, or cowboy things in the parlance of waiters. There are a number of reasons for this, many admittedly spurious, and in all honesty the single biggest reason is a form of laziness. But then sometimes a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do. I have to admit that I very rarely cowboy things these days. I have more control over the situations in the restaurant, and I'm not under the stupid kinds of pressure that "forced" me into those situations elsewhere. On a busy Saturday night here the worst I have to face is about 50 covers, and Ive got a commis to help me. At Gleneagles I would be facing nearly a hundred, solo and in all likelyhood I would end up having to dig out one of the weaker team members in the adjacent station from the shite. Thats prime cowboy land that is.

So in the spirit of confessional here are a few moments that Ive experienced in the last ten years or so. Not all of these are my acts of cowboying, proving that its perhaps a bit more common than you might suspect.

1) Using the massively overoxidised white rioja as a last minute sherry substitute. Was very well recieved and they even asked me for the name of the sherry so they could get some. I lied through my teeth and told them some guff about it being exclusive to us and unavailable anywhere.

2) On a busy sunday lunch - it could have been mothers day when we did somewhere in the region of 300 covers for lunch, we ran out of cassis. With everyone and their dog ordering Kir Royales, I had one of my least successful cowboy ideas. Use blackcurrant cordial and dose it up with a splash of vodka. In my defense this might have worked if the hotel had used halfway decent cordial instead of this piss-poor weak assed cheap and nasty brand. Needless to say I got royally busted.

3) One month, the chef was having a terrible month with his food cost. In an effort to try and keep it manageable he cut out all purchasing for a week. One of the most popular dishes on the menu used a cassoulet made from these italian beans that were dead expensive. So the sous chef used a huge tin of cheap baked beans, washed the tomato sauce off and used them instead. That act alone shaved two percent off his food cost and helped save the day somewhat.

4) I used to work in this hotel in York that had a decent fine dining restaurant and quite a good collection of cognacs, including Remy Martin Louis XIII. Now bearing in mind this was twelve years ago, that was something very special, and hideously expensive (I think we were charging about £100 for 1/5 gil). One night as the bar manager Steve was clearing up the cognac trolley, he knocked over the bottle and ended up spilling about two thirds of it all over the carpet. Fearing that he was going to have to pay for it, he ended up making up his own blend from the rest of the Remy Range. Several weeks later we had the regional rep from Remy come in to do some training with us all. As we tasted our way through the range, Steve, myself and one other barman who knew what had happened sat in trepidation as we got closer to our fake Louis XIII. As the rep ran through his spiel and we tasted the Louis XIII he constantly gushed about how wonderful this cognac was and how it tasted better than he remembered. We were pissing ourselves.

I have to say that my cowboy days are almost behind me. Ive never pulled any of these stunts here, and nor have I ever been put into a situation where Ive had to pull something that daft here. I doubt that it would ever get to that stage, and its also a case that in some way Ive grown beyond seeking the easy way out. Its more of a challenge to face the situation and come up with workable solutions that arent as dodgy as one of Del-Boys latest gadgets. But who knows what the future holds?

Oops I missed my birthday!!

Well not my own birthday, but on the 31st January Tales of a Sommelier was a year old! Its been a really weird experience, but one that Ive thoroughly enjoyed. It was quite bizarre meeting somebody at the Royal Agricultural Halls the other day at the Aussie day tastings who knew me from here!! And who would have thought that people all over the world would be interested!

Buying DRC

We are approaching the first of the 2007 en primeurs - the Domaine de la Romanee Conti 2004's are solicited next week. Now hopefully we should be on good footing to get what we want this year, because the agents who handle DRC in the UK forgot all about us last year. So we didnt get anything at all. Which truth be told isnt a bad thing. Its going to be interesting, because reading the forecast of the vintage from Clive Coates, the 2004's are going to be a quite good vintage for reds, but not predicted to have the length or longevity of better vintages. This hopefully means the prices will be a bit more sensible, but where the French are concerned who the hell knows!! Once we get the information from C&B we submit our "tender" ie what we would like to recieve. As the wines are usually in short supply and high demand (guess that answers the price issue!) what then happens is that C&B look at your spending record with them over the last year. The more you buy from them the better your chances of getting what you want are. So we shall just have to wait and see.

Granja Nuestra Senora de Remelluri Rioja Blanco

Just under a year ago, one of our major suppliers changed their rep. The old guy left to pursue his hobbies further and we got a new contact. The new guy is a totally different character to Chris (the old one). Noel is great, his sheer enthusiasm for wine and in particular certain wines is contagious and gets me fired up. I love it when he comes to see me, because I know that he wont bring me any crap, and I know that I wont get any bullshit from him. It was Noel who turned up one afternoon with a satchel full of wines to try, and the passion and enthusiasm to make me actually sit down and taste them with him. Im so glad that I did, because amongst those wines was one hidden gem, that through some sheer fluke of logistical errors, he had managed to get his hands on. That wine was the Remelluri Rioja Blanco. Now they only make a small amount of this wine, and about three dozen bottles make it into the UK through Alliance wines. They guard this jealously and needless to say you dont get samples. Now whether Noel just got lucky and someone at the warehouse just got careless, or perhaps being the new guy they gave some some serious ammo to come and see me, who knows.

The wine was amazing. Now Ive had plenty of white rioja before, horrible, overoxidised wines that more resemble sherry that white wine. In fact when I was at Gleneagles we sometimes used bottles of Castillo Ygay's white rioja as sherry if we ran out of Croft. Im amazed that we often got away with it!!! So I didnt really hold out much hope when Noel raved about the wine and cracked it open. On the nose it has the most amazing aromas, fresh aromatic, floral notes with white fruits and apricots. Its cepage reads more like a white Chateauneuf - Moscatel, garnacha blanca, viognier, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, roussanne and marsanne and finally some petit courbut. It hasnt the oilyness of most white chtxneufs but a fresher almost more new worldy rhone-a-like style. I was lucky enough, having tasted it, to then be able to get six bottles. Bloody hell it wasnt cheap, but Ive taken a hit on the margin to put it on at £75 a bottle. Considering that the white Chtxneufs are priced at a similar price, thats a real steal! But when its gone its gone, I doubt Ross will sign for another six!!

G'day mate!!

Well Im back from my first visit to the Australia Day tastings in London. My heads a bit foggy, my fingers are stained purple, and my guts are in a slight turmoil. I must have sampled about two hundred wines in all, some real belters and some fairly average ones too. I met up with a few familiar faces which was pleasant, and make some new contacts that I hope we can build into a new supplier.

I tried some great wines from small, boutiquey wineries - Gapsted Wines, based in the King Valley, Victoria. They had an interesting Petit Manseng, which you usually only find in Jurancon. It has a wonderfully aromatic flavour - think alsace gewurtz without the oilyness and its close. Their Touriga was very good as well, with a kind of violet, licorice root flavour and more than a hint of black tea. We met with a co-operative of small grower based in the Barossa whom market themselves as the Artisans of Barossa. There was a cracking chenin blanc from Rusden called Christian, after the winemaker Christian Canute. (www.rusdenwines.com.au). Beautiful banana, tropical fruit and papaya flavours. All their wines were well worth a swatch at, and will hopefully be making it onto our list after the buying embargo is lifted in the new year (fiscal - April 2, 2007). I also managed to taste some blockbuster reds - Brokenwoods Graveyard Shiraz 2004, now in screwcap - big dense red stone fruit, tons of depth and intensely tannic finish. Some of the Glaetzer wines - Godolphin being the biggest they were showing - another intensely rich shiraz dominated blend. Charlie Meltons Barossa Shiraz 2002, god I love his shiraz, layers of black fruit, tobacco, spicy tones, hints of licorice and chocolate.

By the time I left at closing time, my fingers were stained purple, my teeth probably likewise, and my head was spinning merrily as I made my way to the nearest boozer for a therapeutic pint of beer. Its a wonder I didnt fall asleep on my train and wake up in Inverness!!

Gourmet 2007 - here we go again.

Tonight marks the start of our 2007 Gourmet Calendar with a dinner celebrating the wines of LVMH. For those unfamiliar with LVMH it stands for Louis Vitton Moet Hennessy and currently it stands as the world's largest luxury goods company. Their portfolio comprises of many designer goods, perfumes, luxury clothing companies and several of the worlds largest and most well know wines and drinks brands. Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart, Krug, Dom Perignon, Mercier, Cloudy Bay, Cape Mentelle, Hennessy Cognac, Glenmorangie whisky and many others.

Tonights dinner is mostly focussing on the Champagnes - we start tonight with Veuve Clicquot NV poured from magnums, followed by Moet Brut Imperial for the starter. With the intermediate we are pouring Veuve Clicquot Rose NV. For main course there is an Argentine malbec from Terrazes des los Andes, and with the cheese we are pouring Cloudy Bay Pinot 2004 (screwcap). We finish the meal with Moet vintage 1999.

Victor Lewis Smith revisted

In my career as a sommelier Ive been specifically named in restaurant reviews three times. Thankfully all of them positively, but none more glowing than the review we got from Victor Lewis Smith published in the Independant on New Years day back in 2005. It was a tense time for us, because I managed to identify him when he turned up for his reservation on a quiet night back in October, we then anxiouly read review after review that was published as he slated his way across the country savaging several restaurants in the process. After a while self-doubt kicks in and you wonder what trauma will befall us. When the review came out, we couldnt have asked for a better write up, and my name came out quite glowing (ego alert!!).

Skip forward nearly two years and he returns, this time he is staying in the hotel. This time we are prepared, but this time its a busy saturday night, a totally different circumstance to his last visit. The thing with journalists/reviewers/critics, is that you can never be too sure if they are on business or pleasure. After all they are people just like us, they have anniversaries, birthdays, hell sometimes they just dont want to cook. But I think that where a lot of people sometimes go wrong is to focus all your attention on them at the expense of everyone else. Classic mistake, because a good inspector/critic/reviewer will notice that and although they wont find any fault with the service that they recieved, they will note that it was at the expense of the paying customers who are forking out their own hard earned money to dine there. I guess thats why a lot of food critics prefer their anonymity.

So its fair to say that Mr Lewis Smith and his partner recieved good service on Saturday (Im confidant the review if it appears would confirm that!!??) but so did everyone else on Saturday. After all thats what we do. And what a great return to the daily grind we had. Service went really smoothly despite the large table booked smack bang in the middle of service. No rest now until January 1st 2008!!

A joke for tonight.

The Queen is opening a new hospital and is being shown around by a matron and a doctor in a white lab coat. As she approaches the first bed and asks the young man what ails him he responds - " Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the pudding-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place. Painch, tripe or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o'a grace as lang's ma arm". Bemused, her majesty moves on to the next bed and asks the young man the same question. He replies - "The deil cam fiddlin' thro' the town, And danc'd awa wi' th' Exciseman, And ilka wife cries, "Auld Mahoun, I wish you luck o' the prize, man." The deil's awa, the deil's awa, The deil's awa wi' the Exciseman, He's danc'd awa, he's danc'd awa, He's danc'd awa wi' the Exciseman. ". By now somewhat confused, her majesty nonetheless continues onto the next bed. Again asking what ails him she gets the response - "O my Luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June: O my Luve's like the melodie, That's sweetly play'd in tune. " The Queen then turns to the doctor and asks if this is some kind of mental ward, at which the doctor replies " No ma'am its the serious Burns ward!". Tonight is Burns night, and all across Scotland there will be "hunnerds" of gadgies tucking into Haggis "Neeps an tatties" and imbibing a dram or two in honour of the great bard. So with the first verse of the Selkirk grace I bid you a happy burns night.

SOME HAE MEAT AN' CANNA EAT AND SOME WAD EAT THAT WANT IT BUT WE HAE MEAT AN' WE CAN EAT AND SAE THE LORD BE THANKIT.
Robbie Burns

Im back!

Well after what amounts to an entire month off work I finally returned to work today. About bloody time too!! Apart from my now bulging waistline (and neck - I can hardly breathe), there seems to have been a few changes, but nothing too major. The cellar has been tidied up somewhat, and not a minute too soon!! My office however hasnt, and was quite shocking, particularly since I havent occupied it since the 24th December. Im not saying that I left it spotless, far from it, but it became a dumping ground, that Im getting the blame for. Anyway its been squared away now, all that remains is for it to be kept tidied! (New Years resolution number 103!). Danny has been a busy little squirrel over the last few weeks, and it seems that there are a number of deletions from the wine-list that have occupied a large chunk of today. Alas his sale of my last two bottles of Hill of Grace have placed me in bit of a pickle, as my favourite guests have booked themselves in for the weekend on the spur of the moment. So they are in tonight, tomorrow night and saturday night. Oh well, it gives me the chance to let them try something else. Spent the afternoon in a tasting session with Justin Llwellyn of Champagne Taittinger, tasting our way through the new range of champagnes that have become our house pour. Must say that I was quite impressed with the Brut Reserve, the Comte was its usual high standard, just a touch young still at 98. The Prelude was different, not a big fan really. We got the chance to try the Folies de la Marquetterrie which is a single vineyard champagne which is the only Taittinger champagne to undergo oak treatment. There was a touch of corkiness to the wine, slight, but enough to taint the flavours which seemed to be bigger more brutish that the Taittinger Brut. The two roses didnt do anything to inspire me, the brut nv lacked depth of flavour and just seemed very one-dimensional. The Comte rose was ok, but failed to live up to the hype it got before we tasted it, and at the price it isnt anywhere in the same league as the DP rose. It didnt help that this wine also had a touch of cork taint to it. The 2000 vintage raised an interesting discussion on the poor performance of vintage champagne in general over the commercial success of prestige brands that carry vintages - Krug, DP, Cristal, Comte etc. It was fairly bland with not much to make it stick out. The final wine was a favourite, the Taittinger Nocturne. Released two years ago to fill a percieved gap in the market, Nocturne positions itself as a night-time champagne, to be drunk through the night or with a meal. Carrying about 18g sugar per litre, compared to the 10g/l of the brut, this is classed as a sec champagne. This was smooth, refreshing and kept you wanting more. Perfect!

Mind you now the post tasting hangover seems to be coming in to play. Oh well, no pleasure without pain.

Hills of Grace

The Arkle is closed at the moment for our annual holiday, three weeks of pure bliss with no dinner service, evenings off and generally we do a bit of spring cleaning during this time. This year, we arent doing so much, because for two weeks La Brasserie is moving into the Arkle and Library while they have their floor replaced. Besides which, this year Ive taken my holidays in January to avoid a repeat of the debacle we had over summer when I was forced to return prematurely from my holidays. So it is that young Danny is holding the fort in the "Arkerie". This morning I wake up to a text from young Danny, not to mention a voicemail evidently left last night at about 9pm ish. It seems that he had an adventurous guest in who wanted a big Aussie red. Danny being young, impetuous and with balls of steel goes straight for the jugular with Henschke Hill of Grace. Damn me if the fish doesnt bite, not only once with the 1997 Hill of Grace at a wince inducing £425, but a second time with the insanely young 1999 Hill of Grace at a slightly more palateable £340. Dannys parting message - he (Danny) prefers the 97, the 99 was too strong!!

Wine Blog Wednesday 29 - Biodynamic Wines

As Im on holiday this week, Im raiding my own "stash" for this edition of WBW. Luckily I have several bottles that qualify, probably more so than were I to raid the hotel cellars. Biodynamic wines are almost like the ultimate in niche wines. There is a lot of debate around the "effects" of biodynamic production, which follows the principles of agriculture laid down by Rudolf Steiner (of Steiner Schools "fame") in the 1800's. In a nutshell Biodynamic farming follows the cycles of the moon and hence the tidal flow of water to dictate when certain practices are carried out, planting, pruning, cropping etc. There is also a fairly strict set of dictates as to what treatments the plants may recieve, and that which comes from the soil is all returned to the soil. Practitioners of the method include the great and glorious of the wine industry across the world - Jacques Selosse, Didier Dageneau, Nicholas Joly, Ron Laughton, Jacques Seysses, Sybille Kuntz, Lalou Bize-Leroy, Aubert de Villaine, Alvario Palacios and many many more. A comprehensive list can be found at http://www.forkandbottle.com/wine/biodynamic_producers.htm which is quite fortutious as fork and bottle are the hosts of this months WBW. http://www.forkandbottle.com/wine/wblogwed/wbw_biodynamic_wine.htm
A quick look down that list shows that many of these wines are fairly expensive. They command high prices, and they regularly get them, with great reviews to boot. So maybe there is something to Biodynamic farming.

The wine that I chose for WBW is a Chambolle Musigny from Domaine Dujac. Its a premier cru from the lieu-dit of "les Gruenchers", from the 1985 vintage. I first came across the wines of Dujac when I was working at Amaryllis in Glasgow. One of our regulars was a "Parker-chaser", regularly seeking out high scoring wines. I was tipped off to this fact by one of my suppliers who also happened to supply him. From then on, Francis would give me advance information on the wines that Mr R. wanted, and I would then snap them up. It worked for everybody, except Mr R who had to pay restaurant prices instead of retail for the wines that he wanted.

As the wines are unfiltered it has a fine suspension of particles and there is quite a bit of sediment down the side of the bottle. Looking through the bottle the colour seems light and I can easily see through the bottle, possibly suggesting some colour loss. The ullage is about half an inch short of a full bottle, which is not great news, but not neccessarily bad news either. Ive got a bad feeling about this after taking the foil off, as there is quite a strong aroma of tca coming off the top of the cork. Phewwwwww, ewwwww!!!!!!!! I dont even have to pour any from the bottle to tell its corked. I havent had a stinker like that for a while, but man that is really bad.

Plan B - Didier Dagueneau Blanc Fume En Chailloux 1997. Yup nearly nine years old. Dagueneau is considered the wild man of the Loire Valley. Apparently standing over six foot tall, with a mane of shocking red hair, he cuts an impressive figure so Im led to believe. I have a friend who met him once who told me he ploughs his vineyards with a horse drawn plough! In the seven years now that Ive been doing this Ive watched his wines increase in price enormously. But they are worth it. Silex, his top cuvee from the Loire, now retails at about £50 a bottle. On a restaurant wine list it come in at over £100. For a white wine from the Loire thats really expensive. En Chailloux is/was his entry level pouilly fume. He stopped making it in around 2001/2. The colour is a light straw colour, bright and clear. On the nose there is a strong green apple aroma with gooseberry and an unusual, aroma that reminds me of the lemon fairy liquid that we use at home. The fruit is still quite dominant on the flavour, although it isnt very acidic any more. There is a wet slate minerality to the wine that shows nicely without the searing acidity that youthful vintages show. A damned fine wine, that drinks really well on its own now. Not sure it would be as good with food, without the acidity to freshen the palate, but nice easy drinking on its own.

Bit gutted about the Dujac, after just going back to it, the cork-taint is still way strong, but there is an animal character behind the wine, that smells like sweaty horse. Not sure that if it wasnt tainted it would be any good anyway.

Well that wraps up my contribution for this months WBW. Looking forward to the round up and cant wait for the next one!

Looking ahead

Ive had plenty of time to think about things recently. Its weird to think that the Arkle opens again next Tuesday, thats my holidays gone and disappeared in no time. Which is a bit of a cheek really, because Im not actually returning to work until the 25th, as Im going to be in Edinburgh for the Australia Day tastings. And by the time I actually return to work on the 25th, I will in fact have had a whole month off. Yes the last day that I actually worked was the 24th December. (Not strictly true as I went in to help count the cellar for the stocktake.) A whole month! I can hadly believe it. But the truth is that I cant wait to get back to work. There are so many things that I want to do this year, and it seems that Ive had so long off, I need to get my head back into the game.

This month off has given me some time to read some of my wine magazines that had been building up neglected in the corner of my room. Ive had a chance to trawl around some websites and reading up on the latest wines to hit the shelves from Australia, New Zealand, California, Washington, British Columbia, Oregon, South Africa, France, Italy etc etc. Ive had a chance to start thinking about really taking control of the wine-list and marking my territory with it. Taking it forward to match with what the customers are asking for and what is selling well. How I want to present the list, categories, sommeliers selections, producer profiles, monthly newsletters that can highlight new wines, special offers etc.

We are making some progress in the cellar too. Quotes have been sought out to replace the wooden shelving in the cold room with proper wine racking, this will enable us to rack up much more wine in a more efficient manner that should also help shave nearly half an hour off the stocktake. Might even improve the accuracy of the count with some of the wines. As soon as thats done we will be able to move a lot of stock out of the holding cage and bring them onto the list. By the middle of the year, we ought to have somewhere in the region of 1500 bins on the wine-list. I want to bring in more funky wines - smaller grower producers, quirkily named wines, bring in some more obscure regions and countries - greece, british columbia, oregon, washington state.

I plan to progress further within the court of master sommeliers too this year, hopefully getting a place on the Advanced Sommelier course. As well as this, for my own personal development I plan to concentrate on Italy, as it is my achilles heel. Next year I want to arrange a sommelier trip to Tuscany or Piedmonte with one of our suppliers, so I ought to be better informed on the wines of Italy before I make a fool of myself.

Im now in my third year of my initial five year plan with the Grosvenor and about halfway through my own goals and objectives that I had set myself within that plan. There are still some key issues that need some attention, notably salary and hours, but progress comes slowly. Looking back at 2006 it was quite successful in many ways and hopefully we can continue to build on that and make 2007 a great year.

On Appreciation.

I think it must be human nature to want to be appreciated. We all crave recognition for our efforts, our endevours, our achievements, whether it be a "well done!" from the boss, or a token of thanks from a client or a hug from a loved one, even a fiscal reward in the form of a bonus or pay-rise. Ive been really lucky working here, for the most part it is made clear that my efforts are appreciated. With the season of giving having finished recently, Ive also been able to see how much Im appreciated by both our suppliers and our customers. Ive had a very good xmas on that score. The crowning glory came with the gift of a bottle of 1996 Hill of Grace from one of our regular customers. To say that I was gobsmacked is a slight understatement. It is a truly gratifying experience to think that I have made such an impact on this persons experiences at the Grosvenor that he felt comfortable to go out an buy me a £160 bottle of wine as a xmas gift. I kind of glad that I didnt open it in front of him, and that I saved it for xmas. Well, its been added to my humble collection of wines and I plan to open it later in the year with some good friends and colleagues over a nice meal.

Australia Day Tastings

The thing that I love about January is the Australia Day Tastings. Now I havent been for a few years - since I moved down to Chester actually, but this year Im going to both tastings. Ive usually just gone to the Edinburgh tastings held at Prestonfield House in the huge round stable building in the grounds of the hotel. The last time I went there was a bunch of us from Gleneagles and we went for a jolly for the day. The wife and I got the train over from Glasgow and the guys met us there having got the train down from Auchterarder.

The event is one of the biggest tastings of the calender, and the Edinburgh event is the biggest tasting held in Scotland. There are usually about eighty stands each carrying about a dozen or more wines from some of the best companies and wineries in Australia. Thats a hell of a lot of wine to get through. Usually I take it in two parts. In the morning I scoot around and taste the white wines. Then I break for about an hour and a half for lunch to try and sober up a bit and give the palate a bit of a rest. Then in the afternoon I go back and start on the roses, then the reds until you cant taste anything else. You know it is time to quit when a big bad barossa shiraz starts to smell and taste like an oaky hunter semillon!! You have to be a bit prepared for the tastings, cause there is a lot of chaff, volume driven supermarket wines that I want to avoid. There are certain stands that it is essential to visit, the Villeneuve wines stand is one of those. Kenny, Alistair, Naird and the gang have one of the finest selections of Aussie wines in Scotland, including the wines of Charles Melton. In fact it was Kenny who introduced me to Charlies wines.
Im looking forward to the Edinburgh tastings because Im hoping to catch up with my friends still at Gleneagles while Im there. It will also be good to catch up with some contacts from up that way too.

The Edinburgh tastings, while big, are nowt compared to the London tasting. Ive not had the chance to go to the London tastings yet, but this year will be my first time. Apparently it is huge! A lot of the guys show stuff that doesnt get up to Scotland because they dont rate it as a significant market (they are so wrong!), and there are usually many more winemakers at the London event than Edinburgh. It runs for two days, during the day I believe it is open to trade and journalists, and the evening is a ticketed event for the general public. Im looking forward to going as it will be a new experience, and as a kind of new years resolution Im going to make more of a concerted effort to get to more of the important tastings. After all it is an excellent opportunity to taste some stonking wines, meet up with winemakers and reps from the various wineries and agencies and get some networking done.

Off sick

Dont know what Ive done, but my back is is wicked agony. It all started on boxing day but by wednesday night after driving back from Grismby I was in quite some discomfort. I woke up on thursday and could hardly move. Shooting pains right down my right buttock and thigh, absolute agony. Went to the quacks on Friday who signed me off until the 12th January with lower back pain. Ive never had serious back pain before, but by god it hurts. Good thing the drugs hes prescribed are pretty strong. 2 co-codamol 500mg every four hours to feel absolutely nothing. I mean not a damned thing, mind you I cant concentrate worth shit, my vision is slightly blury and they make you constipated, so its not all good.

So this is the first hogmanay in twelve years that Im not working. I will probably be in bed before the bells. I also just found out that my Mum has been hospitalised in Nigeria, and may well be shipped home early. Not really turning out to be the great end to the year that I hoped for.

Happy new year, and may 2007 be better than 2006. (Shouldnt be too difficult, although if I do end up getting divorced, it might not be!!). d'Oh!!

Etienne Sauzet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru "les Combettes" 1999

Part of our holding stock of wines that we are keeping in the cellar until they are more mature. Tasted last week as a possibility for the Board xmas lunch (it was rejected in favour of its next-door neighbour wine the 1er cru "Champs-Canet") The colour was a pale straw with a slight golden tinge to it. On the nose it had the classic Puligny nose of frangipane, with oaky notes and apples and citrus undertones. On the palate it was rich full flavoured, very fat on the palate with nutty, buttery flavours, caramelised apples and pastry, with a great length and fullness to it. The flavours developed well on the palate and the aftertaste was pleasantly full and lasting. Very very good wine.

How to make a complaint.

In a convoluted logic kind of way I thought I would just post this as a kind of follow on to hazardous to my health. It would seem that Britons are becoming more comfortable with complaining. The old "Stiff upper lip" seems to be softening and we are now more willing to kick up a fuss if things dont go to our liking. About bloody time! The only problem is that most of you havent got the slightest clue about how to actually complain. So I though I would post a little How to to make it a bit easier for you.

There is a school of thought that says complaints are bad news. It signals trouble - either a troublesome customer who is going to be hard work or a spongeing freeloader who makes up spurious complaints to get free stuff. Alas in some cases both these scenarios are woefully true. But Ive always taken the viewpoint that a complaint is a cry for help. The customer is trying to tell you that somewhere down the line something is wrong, something is preventing them from having the marvelous night out they wanted. They are giving you the opportunity to resolve the issue and allow them the happiness they are expecting. So complaints should be seen as such, and wherever possible you should be making every human effort to resolve their issue and allow them their happiness. As the old proverb states " a stitch in time, saves nine" meaning that the sooner you nip any problems in the bud, the more likely you are to prevent any escalation. Which brings me on to my first lesson.

Timing.
There is a right and a wrong time to make a complaint. The right time is as soon as the problem becomes apparent. This allows us the opportunity to attempt to resolve it. All being well we will rectify any problem and life will continue happily along. If you've been inconvenienced we will usually make an appropriate reconcilliatory gesture - a complementary glass of wine or something for example. The incorrect time is three weeks later. What the hell do you honestly expect us to do after three weeks. It is this kind of complaint that gets us thinking you are a freeloader. People who do this usually always use the phrase - "I didnt want to make a fuss". What?!!! If you didnt want to make a fuss, what on earth do you think writing to the managing director is going to do. Do you think he invites us all up to his office for a nice cup of tea to discuss your letter in a civilised manner?! Get real, we get a phone call at some ungodly hour of the morning tersely summoning us into his office in record time for the bollocking of a lifetime. Think Gordon Ramsay's scarey? He's a pussycat compared to the MD flying off on one. Do us all a favour and state your issue at the time it happens. Then we can solve it for you and save us all some serious grief. Which brings me on to my second lesson.

Focus.
What is it you are actually complaining about? Be specific -again the more specific you are, the more likely we are to be able to resolve your problem. Meal not cooked to your satisfaction - fine, exactly how do you want it. Your rooms terrible and you had a crap nites sleep - oh Im sorry, what was wrong with it exactly - too hot, too cold, bed to soft/hard, not enough pillows etc etc etc. And while we are talking about focus, Ive often found that when people start "stockpiling" complaints, there is always one fundamental problem that they want resolved. Everything else is just filler to make them feel more agrieved. Tell us what that fundamental problem is and we'll try to resolve it. Dont go exagerrating everything out of all proportion, magnifying every small issue into the worlds biggest crisis. It makes you look like the bad guy. Be clear about the problem and this leads onto lesson three

Have an aim in mind.
Ok so you've aired your grievance and made your complaint, what exactly do you want out of it. Let us know what your win scenario is. Do you want your steak medium well instead, do you want a different main course, what do you want to achieve from the complaint. By telling us this, you allow us the final piece of information to resolve your issue. Now we know what we are aiming to achieve. It makes it so much easier to resolve issues if we know our end-game. But for gods sake be realistic. There are many things that are within our realm to resolve, there are some things that need higher powers. If I cant solve a problem because I lack the authority to make a certain decision I will tell you, and then I will get someone who has the authority. Obviously this will take more time. So be patient. We will keep you informed of what is happening as we can. Any compensatory measures will be proportional to the issue. Dont expect your entire stay "comped" because your steak was a touch overdone. But it isnt unreasonable to expect a glass of wine while the kitchen re-prepares your meal, unless you ordered it that way, in which case take some responsability, know what you are ordering before you order it.

Other tips to remember - losing your temper solves nothing. It gets our backs up and the situation escalates beyond resolve. Shouting at us isnt going to make us want to resolve your issue. Explaining the problem in a clear calm voice is more likely to get it resolved quicker than calling us arseholes and screaming at us.
Manners go a long way.
Be gracious and accept our apologies. We dont want to cause problems, we want people to enjoy their meals and return.

Follow these guidelines and you might make your life a lot easier, sure as hell it might make mine too!!

Hazardous to my health

I sometimes think that this industry should carry a health warning, much like cigarettes do, and if the Eurocrats get they way wine bottles too. Maybe it should be enblazoned across our wage slips - Warning - working in the hospitality industry will ruin your sleep pattern, your diet, your social life, your financial security - it will generally just f&*k you up! I feel I have earned the right to say that. My diet is appalling - partially a victim of circumstance and partly my own apathy to change it. My eating pattern is shot to hell and beyond. I currently get by on one or if im lucky two meals a day with "nibbles" inbetween. That meal is usually served after I finish work - ie around one am. My only exercise consists of running up and down to the cellar several times a night, not to mention the miles we walk everyday. Im currently "surviving" on around four or five hours of interupted sleep a night (not entirely the hotels fault - my three year old has developed an internal alarm clock he has set to 5:30am, and believes that because he is up, then everyone else should be too.Im starting to sympathise with the parents in those NSPCC adverts, although I would never ever condone violence towards children, I find my temper getting shorter and shorter with each passing day.) I need an industrial sandblaster to remove the layers of dead skin that are building up on my feet daily due in no small part to spending the best part of fourteen hours a day on my feet.

My relationship with my wife and family is almost non-existent. Working an average of 56 hours a week, more at xmas and may races and stocktake week and busy weeks, and most weeks in fact. An average day is at least twelve hours at least ten of which will be spend on our feet. I speak to my wife almost everyday on the phone. I see her in the morning when she leaves, and at night, asleep, when I come home. Of our two days off she works one day, leaving me one whole day with her and the kids. We spend an average of 12 hours a week in each others company. Thats a really shit deal for her, as she has to deal with the kids on her own five nights out of seven. Perhaps its no wonder that Ive been given till April to get a new job, or find a divorce lawyer.

In fact after looking at this sorry state of affairs the only saving grace is that I dont smoke. And better than that, the hotel is a smoke free environment, so Im not even second-hand smoking. So if youre reading this and thinking about whether or not to get into the hospitality industry you might be thinking "well why do they do it?". Good question! It sure as shit aint for the money. My salary averaged out over the number of hours I work works out to less than minimum wage. The hospitality industry is notorious for slave labour like wages, until that is you hit the upper management levels at which point the rewards are pretty serious for the right places. So why do we do it? I often wonder that myself, and the answer that I always come back to is we do it for the love. You see at the quality level I work at, we all love our jobs. Sure we bitch and moan about the hours and the pay, conditions etc etc. But we all get an enormous amount of job satisfaction from a smooth service. When people walk out the door at the end of the night, having had a great meal, with good, friendly service and they come back several days/weeks/months later with friends/family/colleagues, then we know we've done a good job. It gives us a sense of pride, of acheivement to know that we can make a persons evening special.

So next time you're out in a restaurant, take a look at the staff, smile at them, be appreciative and you'll get a lot more in return. Its karma!

Wild Hog, Siani Farm Carignane 2002

Wild Hog Vineyards is a true boutique winery based in the Sonoma Coast region of California about midway between Cazadero and Fort Ross. Sitting at an elevation of about 1400 feet, only five miles from the Pacific coast, the vineyards manage to avoid the morning fogs so prevalent around the region. The long hot days and shorter cool nights allow the Schoenfleds to produce some of the most intensely concentrated fruit in the region. Winemakers since the late 70's Wild Hog was opened in 1990 and has since been crafting the most superb wines imaginable.

They have transformed a rugged, moutainous terrain into a veritable garden of Eden. Their organic farm grows grapes, numerous fruits and vegetables, and their whole environment is run on eco-friendly terms, the winery and their home are powered by combination solar and hydro electricity. They utilise bio-sustainable farming practices and eschew the use of chemicals in their crops, even using natural predators to manage vineyard pests.

I first came across their wines in Scotland at a Villeneuve wines tasting at the Champany Inn near Linlithgow. The Saralee Vineyard Pinot was unlike any Pinot I had ever tasted. It was a deep red colour, thick, almost like a soup. Unfiltered and unfined the wine was cloudy and there were many fine particles suspended in the wine. But the flavours and intensity were phenominal! Super-turbo-charged pinot for those who want their pinots with more whoomph! Kenny and Alaistair were raving about the wines, having just spend a number of days there (I believe one day was spend just trying to find the winery, its a bit off the beaten track apparently.). Off the back of tasting that one wine, we agreed to list the three wines that Villeneuve had managed to negiotiate exclusive UK rights to. I never got the taste the Carignane because I never had the chance to sell one before leaving Amaryllis and moving on to Gleneagles.

Anyway long story short, I eventually managed to get it listed here, along with the fantastic pinot. Last night was the first chance that I've had to taste the wine (Six years after first listing it!! a new record perhaps?) I dont recall tasting a mono-cepage Carignane before so I wasnt too sure what to expect really. On the nose there was a full bodied nose of brooding purple and dark fruits - morello cherries, brambles, currants, blueberries, with a storng undernote of mint that didnt translate to the palate. I expected it to be really harsh and quite tannic like the rustic reds of the minervois, but was actually pleasantly surprised by the suppleness of it. It was quite smooth with a medium acidity still, big fruit flavours dominated with some subtle oak flavours - a touch of spice and toastyness. Absolutely fantastic wine, I reckon it would suit dishes such as venison, hearty beef dishes and rich stews or casseroles. Great winter wine.

Chateau de Tracy, "Mademoiselle de Saint-Baville", Pouilly Fume 2005

There is something quite special about a really good Pouilly Fume. The smoky, gunflint like character, that after all is hinted at in the name, seems all the dominant here. Yet many pouilly fume's that I taste these days seem to lack that essential flavour. I guess that is why I love this wine so much.

Sometimes called the second wine of Chateau de Tracy, the Mademoiselle de Saint-Baville is in fact made by the Comtesse d'Estutt d'Assay, from fruit sourced on the estate in Tracy-Sur-Loire. It is slightly more approachable that the parent wine, which I feel needs a few years on the bottle to show its true flavours. There is no reference on the bottle to the Chateau de Tracy save for the Comtesse's name on the bottom of the label. When you open the bottle what strikes you first is the freshness of the wine. It has a very vibrant nose that seems to leap out of the bottle with the cork. The gunsmoke aroma is quite dominant, but then the fruityness of the wine becomes more apparent. This is no one-dimensional Kiwi fruit bomb of a sauvignon, rather the true experience of a multi-layered wine. Each moment absorbing the aromas brings new flavours to mind. There are typical sauvignon aromas of gooseberry, lime fruit, grapefruit - more ruby I think, and some bizarre aroma that reminds me of my grandads greenhouse with his tomatos and cucumbers growing in it. Intermingled among the fruit salad of flavours there are more mineral characters - flint being the dominant one, taking me back to childhood days of playing in the field at the bottom of our housing estate and making our own arrow heads out of the abundant flint that was around the place.

On the palate these flavours continue, blending well together to produce a clean, fresh wine that just glides down and leaves you wanting more. The smoky element of the flavour lingers slightly on the palate with the finish. There is also a subtle flavour of slightly unripe banana at the end of the finish. The acidity gets your lips smacking and your mouth watering, which makes this a perfect wine for serving either as an aperitif or with some crab, shellfish or light white fish. It won't strain the wallet too much either!!

www.wine-pages.com wines of the year

I was over at Tom Cannavans excellent site the other day and noticed that it is time for his annual Wines of the Year meme. Its interesting because it encourages you to have a review of some of the many, many wines that you've tried, drunk and maybe written about over a year. It is quite hard singleing out one wine for each category. Especially when in my position Ive been exceptionally fortunate enough to sample some world-class wines this year. Check it out, and why not contribute to it too!

Domaine Georges Roumier Bonnes Mares 1983 en magnum

Had a fantabulous lunch service yesterday with a table of ten drinking some really decent wines. For me the best wines of the service were the two magnums of Bonnes Mares 83. Now okay, 83 wasnt a great year in Burgundy, but as I always believe, the vintage isnt the be all and end all of the wines. A great winemaker can still make good wines in off vintages, a crap winemaker will still make crap wines in excellent vintages. It goes without saying that in excellent years, a great winemaker will (should) make stupendously great wine. And thats quite appropriate because I believe that Christophe Roumier (currently in charge at Dom G Roumier) is a great winemaker. Third generation winemaker (Georges was his grandfather), Christophe prefers to manage the domaine in an organic style, favouring harsh pruning, no chemical management of the vines, partial destemming, absolute minimal chemical intervention in the cuverie. Depending on the particular appelation of the grapes, Roumier varies the proportion of new oak to suit the grapes. The grand cru wines receiving the highest proportions (40-50%), with the premier crus only getting between 20 and 40% new oak. The wines are eventually bottles with no filtration and if possible without fining too. The result is a bold richer wine, that just blossoms with a few years of cellar age. Roumier's wines are now beginning to command some serious money on the market, and the Bonnes Mares particularly is in high demand. Lucky I've got quite a bit then eh?

1983 marks Christophes first full vintage as a partner in the domaine with his late father. It is the vintage that he started to shape the future wines of the domaine, and make his mark in Burgundy and beyond. The wine showed good fruit character upon opening, with typical burgundy earthyness and stone fruit aromas upon opening. After a few minutes the slightly more feral character started to show, with a liquorice and fur-like smell. On the palate it was very graceful, soft supple tannins caressed my gums, while the stone fruit flavours mingled with exotic winter spices and again the sense of liquorice on the tongue with a very subtle hint of coffee on the finish. A slight touch of bitterness at the end too, which actually seemed more appealing than it sounds. There wasnt a huge amount of variation in the two magnums, which was quite a surprise, but pleasant none the less. Ive got one left, and knowing my luck it will be either totally crap, or exceptionally good. My money is on the former though!!

Wine Blog Wednesday 28 - Non Champagne Sparklers.

Great topic for this months WBW. Sparkling wines that DONT come from Champagne. Ive thought hard about this one over the last few weeks, there were a few wines that I really wanted to show, but in the end, Ive gone back to an old favourite.

Charles Melton Sparkling Red, Barossa Valley, Australia. No vintage statement, but bottled in 2005. Im a big fan of Charlies wines, his shiraz is some of the best Aussie red Ive ever tasted and despite its absence on the label this wine is 100% shiraz. Taken from some of his best plots, which feature gnarly old vines that are dry-farmed (no irrigation), with an average age over fifty years old. The grapes are picked at optimum ripeness, mostly by hand, before being made into red wine in the normal manner. Once the wine has been made and has spend nearly a year in oak (mostly French, 25% new), before being bottled. It then spends about another year in bottle before having the liqueur d'expidition added. This is a dose of unfermented grape must, often sweetened with sugar and sometimes dosed with yeast to kickstart the secondary fermentation. This is the same method used to produce champagne. The only difference is the geography, and of course the colour.

It is strangely surreal to pop the cork on a bottle of bubbly and pour out a deep red wine, with a fizzy vimto mousse. Thats kind of what it reminds me of, Welchs fizzy grape juice. If youve ever seen the ferment on a vat of red wine, when the yeast is bubbling up over the vat, thats what the mousse is like on this.

On the nose its quite weird too, but good weird, its a bit of a mindf*^k having a deliberately sparkling red. Once you get over the bubbles, you can tell its a Barossa Shiraz. It has the distinctive menthol, black fruit aromas, and there are hints of peppercorns in there too. On the palate it is again a bit surprising. There is a touch of residual sugar there, hardly surprising after all, but again its a challenge getting your head round the idea of a sweetish sparkling red. There is more raspberry on the palate than on the nose, it really reminded me of a "beverage" from my childhood - Cremola Foam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creamola_Foam). Ive been serving this tonight as an accompanyment to a dark chocolate fondant with sauce suzette and sorbet. I think it went rather well, even if the dessert had all sorts of random flavours there.

Charlies wines dont come cheap, they are labours of love, hand crafted from old vines, and so I wouldnt consider this an everyday kind of purchase. Apparently the Aussies glug this stuff down as an aperitif, but to my palate it is a bit too sweet for that. I think this works really well paired with dark chocolate, served with a bit of a chill on it. Charlie recommends cellaring it for about 10 years or more. I might stash a bottle or two and give it a shot, but Im not too sure that I will still be here to give them a bash. Who knows what the future holds eh? Anyway, forget the crappy red sparklers that you get down in Tesco's, this is the real deal, as I said it aint cheap, but its worth it.

Thanks to Culinary Fool for hosting this edition and I cant wait for the New Year to see whats in store.

2 Covers

It seems almost surreal. With less than two weeks until Santa comes, its Tuesday night and we are sitting with two covers. One table of two. The hotel is full tonight, 80 rooms sold, 81 covers in house!! One double occupancy. Its all a big pharma company, here for some conference or other, but tonight they are at leisure. So maybe we will pick up, or maybe tonight will be the shift from hell and we wont. There is nothing worse that a quiet night. You would think that the customers get the most amazing service when there is only one table. You would generally be wrong.

Try as hard as we might, it wont happen. We get bored, they get quiet and usually weve exhausted all conversation topics within five minutes, leaving long tense pauses, where the clock ticks slowly, and time seems to drag. When Einstein was postulating his general theory of relativity, he should have studied the time dilation effects of an empty restaurant. As the staff anxiously wait for the 9:30 last orders to pass by, time slows down so that seconds seem to last minutes. Its hell.

On the other hand, when the restaurant is full and you are all going full tilt, everyone usually gets great service because we are all focused. We have purpose, we have drive and we know that there is more to come. Before we know what has happened, the last table is asking for the bill and its quarter past midnight. Time flies by.

Update: we picked up three more covers, to complete one of the most mindnumbingly boring nights of the year.

Saxenburg Guinea Fowl White 2006

Earlier this year I blogged about the Guinea Fowl white 2005. http://grazzac.blogspot.com/2006/04/wine-blog-wednesday.html
We've just moved onto the 2006 vintage and I got the chance to taste it the other day. My hat goes off to winemaker Nico van der Merwe because he has taking a fantastic wine and made it even better!!! There is a touch more viognier this time (about 22% compared to 14% last vintage) which gives the wine a more candied nose, exotic fruit and almost slightly floral. I strongly suggest you find this wine and give it a go, because it is going to be the most fantastic wine for summer drinking, and judging by how much we sold this year, I dont reckon it will be around for much longer.

Saxenburg Special Selection Shiraz "SSS" 2001

Since we had the Saxenburg Dinner last year Ive always had a soft spot for their top cuvee, the "SSS". We served that from magnums on the evening, and it was definately one of the highlights of the year. Ive since been able to secure a dozen bottles of the 2001 vintage, and Ive sold about four now. Not bad considering it comes with a £120 price tag. If that was Australia or even California it would be too much of a problem to sell. But Stellenbosch? At the moment South Africa isnt really associated with top notch premium wines. That isnt to say that there arent any. I can probably name about half a dozen - Rustenberg's Peter Barlow, Meerlust Rubicon, Glen Carlou, Sadie Family Columela, Graham Beck the Ridge, Rust-en-Vrede Estate Red, and Vergelegen Vergelegen are the most memorable. But for the most part you very rarely see them outside of South Africa. They are produced in such tiny quantities that the strong domestic market snaps them all up before they go abroad. Unfortunately the economies of scale mean that the wines that are exported are generally of a lower quality, more volume driven type. This is where South Africa's previous co-operative winemaking system really had a big advantage. Lets not forget that for many years the political trade embargoes on South African products during the Apartheid era, meant that they had to build their domestic market. They were prevented from exporting their goods by the embargoes. Now the co-operative method is being slowly dismantled and many growers are turning their hand to making their own wines. I think that the next ten years are going to see a winemaking revolution in South Africa. It has already started with the movement away from Co-operative production, and the black empowerment movement is fostering the next generation of winemakers, as well as giving the local communities a greater share in their efforts.

Anyways back to the triple S. It is quite vibrant on the nose with typical shiraz aromas - black fruit, plums, cocao and a touch of licorice. There is also quite a dominant vanilla aroma, hardly surprising considering the wine had about 15 months in new american and french oak barriques, before being bottled without fining and with only a rough filtration. It actually put me in mind of the 97 Hill of Grace I had served the previous night, without the menthol tones. That ripe opulent fruit, medium to firm tannins that opened out with decanting, and the stunningly long, lingering finish with spicy peppercorn and cinnamon. Im told by friends that have visited South Africa, that this is really hard to get hold of there. I suppose it is kind of easy for me here, because of the relationship we have fostered with Saxenburg. It is one that I will continue to build on as long as winemaker Nico van der Merwe continues to produce such fantastic wines. Judging by the wines of his own that he has brought out - entry level Merlot Robert Alexander and top end Mas Nicholas, Saxenburg is an estate that continues to grow in stature and quality. Long may it continue.

Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape 1997

After selling the last of our Vieux Telegraphe 1996, I was desperate to list another mature chateauneuf. So I went shopping, and managed to find two cases of Beaucastel 97 right under my nose, with a supplier that I wouldnt have pegged as listing such decent wine. The price was great too, which is always an added bonus. So last night I sold my first two bottles. Im always a bit apprehensive when I sell the first of the case, because usually you are buying blind, and you have no idea how well the wines have been stored until you open the bottle. Thats not strictly true, because about two years ago I went around their storage depot one afternoon when I went for a tasting in Telford.

The wine was a bright ruby colour, clear and starbright, with a dark purple core and a slightly redder tinge to the rim, suggesting some maturity. On the nose it was clean and pronounced with a rich fruity character of mulberries and stone fruit, with undernotes of white pepper and anise. On the palate the flavours were more pronounced with the mulberries and plums being more dominant at the start, the hotter spices coming in towards the finish. A great length and soft supple tannins with a pleasant tingle of acidity still left you wanting more. Great wine. I believe the Perrins have been running a blog themselves for a while. http://www.perrin-et-fils.com/beaucastel/index.rdf

D'Oh!!

What a dumb ass. Today we had an Arkle lunch with Dom Perignon. We poured the 98 vintage and the 92 Oenotheque. It's just occured to me now that I never got to taste the 92. D'Oh!!

It's official. Our new house champagne is...

Well I can now reveal that our new house champagne is Taittinger. As of January we will be pouring the Taittinger Brut for our house champagne. I like Taittinger and it is going to be interesting to see how our customers respond to the change. Hell as long as the price doesnt go up, I doubt they even care.

One last Mouton tit-bit.

I found out today (its probably old news but hey im behind the times!) that the 2004 vintage of Mouton Rothschild will have a label designed by HRH the Prince of Wales. It seems that the current head of the family Baroness Phillipine de Rothschild has commissioned him to produce the label image. As is the tradition he will not receive payment, but will be compensated with a couple of cases of wine, some of which will be from "his" vintage.

Such a label will no doubt make the wine that little bit more appealing to collectors of royal memorabilia, and could help to maintain a solid market value. Crafty marketing huh?

Now that enough about Mouton from me for a while, I promise!

Update/Correction. The label artwork hasnt been commisioned, rather the Baroness Phillipine has selected an artwork of the Princes - a watercolour of pine trees in the south of France- for the label art.

Was it worth it? Hell yes baby!!

Its just after quarter past one in the morning and weve just finished the Mouton dinner. Im sat at my desk, knowing that I ought to get home and into bed, but Im still kind of buzzing. The wines were every bit as exceptional as I thought that they would be, and the uunexpected star of the night was actually the jero of d'Armailhac. It rocked!!

This afternoon at about 4pm I opened the reds and started the laborious process of double decanting them. This was especially important for the jeroboams as they were going to be way too heavy to pour full, so we had to decant them all out. Rinse the bottle and clean it up. Dry it out and then refill it with the decanted wines about 2/3rds of the way up. It was still a bugger to pour and needed two of us to get it right. Me holding the bottle and Danny picking up the glasses and holding them under the neck as I poured. We actually managed to get the room poured quite quickly doing that!! Anyways the wine was really expressive then, with rich fruity character and a touch of barnyard like aromas at first that seemed to dissipate after a short while. By tonight, when it was poured the aromas were leaping out of the glass ripe juicy red and black fruits with a touch of tobacco and a hint of xmas spices.

The 96 Mouton was really tight when I opened it this afternoon, not showing much fruit on the nose, but quite flavoursome on the palate. After double decanting (decanting out of the bottle, rinsing the bottle and then decanting back into the bottle.) it was showing some signs of opening up a bit. Nearly four hours later when it was eventually poured it was only just starting to show some character on the nose. Think of Vimto like mixed fruits - some berries, brambles, all a little under ripe and youre starting to get there a bit. I confess I was a bit disappointed by this wine. Maybe it is just still a bit too young.

The 1990 was outstanding. In magnums it has aged really well, it was massively expressive on the nose when opened, and after decanting it just seemed to fill the room with its flavour. Again there was plenty of fruit, but a little bit more developed now, more stone fruit flavours, some damsons, prunes, jammy berries, and well seasoned cigar like aromas. This had some depth to it. It had lived a little, maybe seen a bit of the world, this was a grown up wine! And four hours after it had been decanted it still ruled the roost. Those mags were the steal of the century, we picked them up from a broking list for about £20 more than the cost of a bottle of 1990 now (www.wine-searcher.com)

The boss seemed to be really happy. The feedback from the guests has been great and its been a really good end to the years events. Only problem now is how do we top this next year. Well Im working on something!!

13 straight days.

Today marks the thirteenth straight day Ive worked since my last day off. Ive worked 76 hours this week. But the good news is that Ive got two days off now, and Im going out on Tuesday night for a champagne dinner hosted by de Venoge at Paul Heathcotes place in Preston - Longridge. Cant wait.

Hoots man, hogmanays just roond tha corner.

Carly came in for a quick visit this afternoon, in between panto up north. Shes going to come back for New Years eve (Hogmanay as we say in Scotland). That got me thinking about last year, and planning for this year. Im going to wear my kilt again, and Ross will probably be persuaded to get his out again. I love wearing my kilt, although it doesnt half itch sometimes (for the record I dont go commando!).

People all around the world are reading this!!!!!

I got this cool widget on my blog now that records the clusters of readers. You might see the little map down on the sidebar. Its well cool, I can see that people across the world are reading this - Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Italy, Scandanavia, and all across the USA. Wow!!!

Are you aware............?

After a phone call we received the other day questioning our prices, which ended with the now immortal line - " Are you aware that your are more expensive than the Ritz?" we have spawned a new catchphrase here. "Are you aware.......?"

Are you aware.. that you need to book a table on a saturday, after all its our busiest day of the year. By the way, booking in advance doesnt mean phoning up at 7pm wanting a table at 8pm. Plan ahead.

Are you aware.. that I know how to do my job. I dont need constant hints from yourself to clear your glasses when you have just this second drained the wine from it and plonked it down on your table. We have standards here that require me to carry glasses on a tray, so I need to fetch a tray first before I clear your glasses.

Are you aware.. that the whole restaurant can hear your "hilarious" story about the time you cheated on your wife with a supermodel. Are you also aware that we arent really interested. Little voices please.

Are you aware.. that I have another fifteen tables to serve tonight, I like to chat with customers, but I also have to keep an eye out not to spend too much time with one table. I try not to be rude but sometimes you just have to cut someone short.

Are you aware..that we have bedrooms here in the hotel. Much as we all enjoy a bit of amateur porno, we dont want to see it in full public view. For gods sake get a room! A bit of kissing is ok, but when you're trying to ram your tongue so far down the poor girls throat you can taste her dinner, then its time for somewhere more private than the middle of the library.

Are you aware.. that "joke" you just spend the best part of ten minutes preparing is told to us at least ten times a night. HO HO HO HO. Yes how original, "have we got any hovis on the bread trolley". Yes dont give up your day job pal.

White Rabbits

Perhaps if my first words this morning had been white rabbits instead of "f*&%^$ng hell!" then today might have gone better. Then again I think the gods have got it in for us this month. They must know that we all have three weeks off coming up and so they are deciding to make us work now for our pleasure later. We got royally shafted today. Our funeral buffet for thirty rapidly evolved into a bunfight for at least 70 covers. It was hard to get an accurate head count when the buggers keep moving around. So I guess that eclipses our previous record of 54 covers by at least 16. Hopefully it will be a long time before we repeat that fiasco again.

The Good Ship lollypop.

After a rocky start to the week, things are on much better footing now. They have kept the faith, and now we can move forward on a positive note. Im a happy bunny again, and ready to face the pounding we are going to take this month. Bring it on baby!!

Im in Mouton Heaven baby!!

Six more days until the highlight of my year, the Mouton Rothschild Dinner. I know that Im going to be working it, but Ive been looking forward to this dinner for a while. The stock finally arrived earlier this week. Ive been down to the cellar to admire it, caressing the bottles, wishing they could be mine. Weve got three Jeroboems of d'Armailhac 93 for the intermediate course. Tell you what they weigh a chuffing ton, pouring those bad boys is gonnae be a challenge but I cant wait. I plan to decant them and then wash the bottle out, and refill it a third of the way full. Should make pouring a bit easier, and the theatre of it all is great.

For those that might be interested we are pouring:

Aperitif - "R" de Ruinart NV

First Course: Aile d'Argent 2003

Intermediate: Chateau d'Armailhac 1993 en Jeroboem

Main Course: Mouton Rothschild 1996

Cheese Course: Mouton Rothschild 1990 en Magnum

Dessert wine: Chateau Coutet 1998 en demi

All for the princely sum of £225 for a gourmet five course meal with the above wines included. Its a deal, its a steal, its the sale of the century!!