Grower Champagne Gourmet

My, how the time flies along, it hardly seems like that long since the last gourmet, and here we are again. Tonight we are looking at a few Grower Champagnes, that is smaller producers who make all their wines from their own stocks. By their very nature, as small producers, these wines are far more representative of what the region is capable of. Unlike Veuve Clicquot which produces somewhere in the region of 6 million bottles of yellow label each year, Jacques Selosse makes about 60,000 in total! We are starting off with the Jacquesson Cuvee 731, apparently we are the first to get the new cuvee. This is a great chardonnay dominated champagne, crisp, dry, and acidic enough to get the juices going. It is based around the 2002 vintage, with reserve wines to fill it up.
For the starter we are pouring Egly Ouriets brut. Pinot dominated from his grand cru vineyards in Ambonnay, Bouzy and Verzenay, this is much softer, red fruit flavours with a well developed yeasty character from a full three years and three months on the lees. Like many grower-producers, Francis Egly lists the date of disgorgement on the back label giving an indication of the "freshness" of the wine but also allowing the consumer to work out the base vintage. This was disgorged in 05 so is likely to be based on the 01 vintage (01 harvest, in bottle by late 01 early 02, three years on the lees = 2005).

For the intermediate we are pouring the Selosse Rose. Coming in a nice fancy frosted glass bottle with minimal labelling this is quite an enigma. Apparently the pinot for this is sourced from Egly-Ouriet so there is a bit of a cross-over. Light salmon pink in colour, I cant actually taste this one, so Im not sure what its like. Will try and get some feedback later and post a tasting note.

The main course brings out one of the big boys, Egly-Ouriets Blanc de Noir. 100% Pinot, again from his grand cru vineyards in Ambonnay and Bouzy this is ripe red fruit with a rich almost grainy character to it. I love blancs de noirs and this is one of the best that Ive had. Although hand on heart my favourite was a Meunier champagne from Moet, part of the Trilogie des Grands Crus - Les Champs de Romont that alas is no longer available.

With the cheese we are serving Jacques Selosse Initiale Brut NV. Big burgundian style champagne, this is very much like drinking a sparkling montrachet. Anselme did a stint of training in Burgundy and consequently his wines are made in quite a burgundian style. Oak barrel fermentation, weekly battonage, long time on the lees. This should be a great match with the Epoisses.

We also finish with Selosse, this time his Exquise Sec. Specially created for three friends of his, all chefs, each with three michelin stars, this is a rich robust champagne that has been sweetened with brown sugar that Anselme apparently imports from Manchester - a local connection. The wines has a bit of a bite to it, almost cognac-y with hints of dark muscovado sugar. With a pear tatin this will be great.

Wild Duck Creek, Duck Muck Heathcote Shiraz 2002

Mr B was back in last night, which allowed me the chance to secure a few bottles of this fantastic Heathcote Shiraz. Wild Duck Creek has become something of a cult winery in no small part due to Robert Parker Jnrs 99 point review of the 97 Duck Muck. We got hold of a couple of bottles a few years ago, but we had to buy three cases of the Springflat and three cases of the Yellowhammer hill in order to get them. This time Roger has four bottles that he wants shot off, so I managed to negoitiate a good price for them, and weve taken all four. I managed to get one bottle sent over this week because I knew Mr B was coming.

Whilst the Barossa is well known for its Shiraz, Heathcote is just as good, but stylistically different. It has a slightly longer, slightly cooler growing season, and so the wines seem to have a more balanced ripeness about them. While Barossa shiraz has quite a dominant eucalyptus aroma about it, Heathcote Shiraz is more black peppercorn in style. My favourite Aussie shiraz comes from Heathcote, Ron Laughtons Jasper Hill Georgia's Paddock shiraz. I love the dense jammy fruit flavours with undertones of black pepper and a subtle hint of menthol. It doesnt have the "vicks vaporub" blast of menthol that I find in Charlie Meltons Shiraz (which I would put at third behind Henschkes Hill of Grace).

So what was it like? On the nose it was dense jammy black berry fruit flavours - currants, brambles and black cherry. There was a spicy peppercorn note to the aromas underpinned with a soft seam of menthol mintiness. On the palate the fruit dominated - fruits of the forest with hints of big dark cocoa. The tannins were remarkably smooth, even before decanting, gently coating the gums before fading elegantly leaving the spicy cedar and pepper finish. After an hour in the glass, this wine was filling the corner of the restaurant with its enticing aromas. Its a big, badass wine - but more akin to a Barossa Valley Vineyards E&E Black Pepper Shiraz, than a Henschke Hill of Grace. I can see why Parker likes it. Maybe if I get a good bonus this month I might wrest one from Mr B!

Night of the arseholes.

There's no telling really how a night is going to go. At the start of the evening all we have is a list of names. Sometimes there are familiar names, some of whom we look forward to with joy, others with dread. For that really is the way of it. Unfortunately there are usually two reasons why we would remember you.
1) you are a really, really nice person, very friendly, chatty, easy to please and a pleasure to serve.
2) You are a complete tosser. You are the kind of arsehole we remember because you behaved like an idiot, you were rude, you were obnoxious, you were an all round pain in the arse that quite frankly we were glad to see the back off.

Thankfully most people fall into the first category.


Please somebody turn off the arsehole magnet.

Didier Dagueneau - Madman or Genius?

My allocation of Dagueneau's wines came in today. I say allocation, but thats not strictly true. The flow isnt controlled as such, its just that they are getting much harder to find as they sell out almost as soon as they arrive at the merchants. I first came across Didier's wines when I worked at Amaryllis. Trevor Hughes from T&W wines brought me a bottle of "En Chailloux" to try and I was mesmerised (nowadays its too damned expensive to "give away" as samples!) I dont remember the vintage, but it would have been late nineties, Didiers wines are usually at least a vintage or two behind everyone else. I remember it wasnt cheap even then, though I am amazed at the prices his wines sell for now. But these are big wines, and his two premiere cuvees, Pur Sang and Silex are both capable of several years of bottle age. Indeed the lower cuvee "En Chailloux" can also stand four or five years bottle age. When I was at Gleneagles, I found five bottles of "En Chailloux" in the cellar that were four years old. Each one was absolutely stunning, solid fruit structure, the delicate acidity enough to complement the fruit without searing your gums. That was when I became convinced that we drink Sauvignon far too young, now I advocate leaving it a few years to "settle down". Thats why Im listing 2004 Cloudy Bay now, and cellaring the 2006.


(Picture courtesy of Bertrand Celce - www.wineterroirs.com)

Didier was considered the wild man of the Loire for many years. An imposing figure at over six foot tall with a wild mane of red hair and thick bushy beard, he could be seen ploughing his biodynamically farmed fields with a horse and till. An outspoken critic of his fellow winemakers, he has gone from being the maverick of the region to the benchmark. His vineyards are kept to severely low yields, each harvest is done manually over several tries, producing less than 3 tons of fruit per hectare. In the winery he continues to push the boundaries of winemaking, using a blend of wild yeasts and cultivated yeasts, fermenting some of the wines in oak barriques that he has made to his own specifications, and eschewing malolactic fermentation even when the acidity seems inordinately high.
While his wines have sometimes drawn criticism, they are completely natural, with no recourse to chaptalisation that he cites is rampant in the region.

Anyway, Ive managed to get six bottles of his main cuvees. The first is the entry level wine - Blanc Fume de Pouilly which I believe used to be called "En Chailloux". The label is quite a funky musical number, which is a bit odd as Im not aware of a musical connection.

Ive not tried this one yet, so Im going to have to sell one before I can make any comments.

Next up is one of the two prestige cuvees, Pur Sang. The name means pure blood or thoroughbred and is a reference to the horse that Didier uses to plough his vineyards. (Didier is an ex motocross racer and he still races dogsleds in between making wine). Harvested from a single vineyard, the grapes undergo fermentation in oak barriques made to Didiers own specification (one and a half inches longer!). I'm not 100% sure, but I dont think this wine is aged in oak, unlike his tete de cuvee, Silex which is both fermented and aged in oak. Silex comes from old vines between 35 and 70 years old which are grown on a clay soil loaded with Silica (Silice in French). I've watched the price of this wine more than double in five years, and truthfully dont know if I can justify buying it, if (when) the price goes up again. Which is a shame, because it is shows just what Sauvignon is capable of. If every Pinot aspires to be Romanee Conti, then every Sauvignon aspires to be Silex.

There are a few more of his wines that I'd swap limbs to get hold of, but they are so limited in production that they go for obscene amounts of money. He has a Jurancon called "les Jardins de Babylone" which is about £50 for a half bottle, and there is an extremely limited wine called Asteroide, which has only been produced three or four times in the last ten years. It comes from a small plot (ten rows) of ungrafted vines that are very fragile and require constant supervision. I want some!!! Ive not been able to get a price for these as most of the suppliers have never heard of it. But I will get some!

Domaine de Belland Quincy 2005

Havent been able to find out much about the producer as it doesnt appear in any of the reference books Ive got on the region. Google, surprisingly, isnt too much help either, refering me to Roger Belland in Burgundy. No matter, for this is a great little Savvy from the Loire Valley. Odd really that its classed as a Loire white, when in reality Quincy is on the banks of the river Cher. Coming in a bit cheaper than a Sancerre, which of course everyone knows, Quincy is great value for money. You have the same great fruit aromas, slightly less flint like aromas, but superb length on the palate. And of course all this for about £10 less (wine-list prices) than Sancerre.

So on the nose we have ripe gooseberry aromas with hints of tropical fruit - pineapple and kiwifruit. On the palate the same fruity flavours are prevalent with a cleansing acidity that just sets the juices flowing. There is a clean fresh finish to the wine with the tropical fruit flavours lingering onwards.

Tasting - Not a lot!

I havent been doing much tasting recently. Partly because my sinus's have been playing up a bit, but mostly because I just havent had the time. Ive been busy getting the cellar sorted out, then listing all the wines, now Ive got to get the fridges and shelves behind the bar ready to take all these new wines. As well as all this, we have a few weeks to rebuild the list in preparation for the May Races. Its a very time consuming activity, and time is a commodity that I have little off. Next week we have the Trustees in the hotel for most of the week, so it will be all hands on deck and the bosses will be on tenderhooks making sure everything is okey-dokey. Then weve only got two weeks to go before its May the 10th and we're off.

Hopefully I will get the chance to do some next week, after all someone has to check all the wines we are serving to the Board!!

Extra, Extra Read all about it!

After our Jolly Journos Jolly a few weeks ago, the first of the articles is due tomorrow. Jane Memmler from the Daily Express is the first to go to print, and Im sure it will be a good write up. Got to set my alarm early tomorrow and get out and read it.

Wine Blog Wednesday 32 - Argie Malbec

Tesco's offerings were quite poor, but luckily Ed from Boutinot came to the rescue when he sent in two samples of Argentinian Malbec. Both come from Nieto Senetiner, the first is the entry level Santa Isabel, the other is the Reserva Malbec.

Nieto Senetiner Santa Isabel Malbec - Mendoza, Argentina.
Really vibrant nose, raspberries, wild strawberries, a hint of violet cremes, with a spicy finish - star anise? On the palate this wine is smooth, the same fruity flavours, with more of a cherry like finish - thinking bon maman cherry preserves. There are some tannins to the wine but they are really smooth and quite well integrated into the wine. I quite like this wine, its young (2006) fresh and fruity. This one is coming in at about £3.50 trade price, so it would be listed for around £18 on the list. I would be really happy to pay that in a restaurant for this wine.

Nieto Senetiner Reserva Malbec - Mendoza, Argentina 2004
Instantly it is possible to tell the difference. This has had some oak treatment, 10 months it seems in French oak (I got that from reading the label, my nose isnt that good!!). This is more dark fruit flavours - there are currants there, but there is also a fig jam like component to the aroma that takes a more dominant flavour. There is vanillin from the oak and a hint of something more exotic, cant place it but the closest flavour would be something like a chocolate ganache - rich, brooding flavours with a hint of coffee. It boasts a full degree of alcohol more than the Santa Isabel, but thats not really evident on the palate. The fruit and the vanilla mocha seem inter-twined, with a hint of cinnamon lightly sprinkled on top. Its got a longer finish, the tannins are more dominant, still very smooth, but the teeth are a touch more furry after drinking this than the Santa Isabel. I would probably serve this with food, whereas Id be happy to drink the Santa Isabel on its own. This one comes in at £5.05 trade price, meaning it would sit on the list somewhere around the £24 mark. Again Id be quite happy to be paying that for this wine, especially with a nice duck and beetroot salad.

So I guess the aim of this WBW is to see if the reserve wines offer better value than the "standard" wines. These are both good wines, and I think that each would have its own place. If I was having a garden party/bbq and wanted something easy drinking, gluggable and that would be nice on its own or with food I would choose the Santa Isabel. If I was sitting down in a restaurant with a nice meal and good company then I'd probably choose the Reserva. Turns out we are going to list the reserva on the Brasserie and Banqueting lists. So nice result for Ed!

Wine Blog Wednesday 32

My goodness how the time flies. This is a fantastic topic for a WBW - Regular wines versus Reserve Wines. In a market continually flooded with line extensions (in the lingo of the marketeers!) is it really worth the extra cash for the reserve bottling, can we taste/notice a discernable difference? This is our chance to put it to the test and see. I have to say that in many cases I think there are real differences, but sometimes Im not too sure. It seems like every year, Wolfblass to use a particular example, release a new line extention. I remember the days of Black Label being the tete de cuvee, then it was silver, the platinum, then diamond, whats next? Uranium, Australium, Profiterium??

Im going to have to give this one some serious thought tonight, nip into Tescos on the way home and see what I can find. Failing that I might resort to the old fall back of Burgundy - Village and Premier Cru.

Come back tomorrow to see how I get on!

Tale of Two Opus's (Opii?)

The boss was in tonight for a business meeting with the new chairman of SLH (Small Leading Hotels - a marketing consortium of which we are a part) and the hotels solicitor. Its the first time he's been in since we started the new menu, so everyone was on tenderhooks to see how he would respond to it. The red wines were predetermined, I was to chose two vintages of Opus One and the white was to be my choice.

So after a shufftie around the cellar I settled on a bottle of 1980 which was the second vintage produced, and a bottle of the 1999 which is the last vintage we purchased. Chalk and Cheese. The 1980 was quite subtle on the nose, very restrained with hints of mulberry and dark berry fruits when it started to open out, but there was a strong element of stewed fruit to the aromas. The 1999 was a big showy bastard, full on curranty aromas with seasoned tobacco and cedarwood elements in there too. I did a bit of digging around and found out that the 1980 had a mere ten days of skin contact. Its a wonder its still drinkable! The 1999 by comparison had a massive 40 days. Much more extraction, much more flavour. I have to say though that I prefer the 1980 myself.

The white I chose was a Cour-Cheverny from the Loire. Made from an almost abandoned variety called Romorantin it has quite dominant aromas of Membrillo Jelly and quite a spicy feel to it. With the lobster and five spice it was a perfect match.

So the boss seems happy, although you never can tell until the next morning when you get the de-brief, and Ive got two less bottles of Opus in the cellar!! Yay!!

The case of the over-oxidised wines.

I took a load of wine magazines that had been clogging up my desk home last night to read. All was going well until I started reading an article in Decanter written by Clive Coates. Clive is probably THE authority on the wines of Burgundy, for many years he was the writer and publisher of the Vine newsletter, until commitments and ill health forced him to end its run. The essense of the article was the disturbing trend he had noticed of certain vintages of white burgundy to over-oxidise at an alarmingly early age. It particularly affected wines from the 95, 96, 97, 98 and to a certain extend the 99 vintage. Now the events of the last three days where I have come to realise with some surprise exactly how much white burgundy we have been holding in stock to mature, made my eyeball pop out in alarm at what I was reading. I had experienced the exact same thing with many of our white burgs. In some cases I had actually withdrawn several wines (97 Pulignys in every case) from sale after having to open as many as five different bottles to get one bottle fit for service. This was not happy reading.

In essense Clive's research pointed to a series of events that have created a scenario where the wines have been prone to premature oxidation. The first contributing factor was the change in vineyard practice brought about in 1995 which saw many producers drastically reducing the number of treatments in the vineyards. This coupled with a change in the winery to again reduce the amount of "interference" with the wines including in many cases a serious lowering of SO2 dosing, led to more "fragile" wines. But the single biggest contributing factor in his opinion is the generally poor quality of cork. It is around this period of time that many cork producer apparently stopped using chlorine based bleaches to "clean" the corks and started using peroxides, which are supposedly more powerful cleaning agents. In addition to which, many corks used to be coated with a superthin layer of parafin, but now many are using silicon which supposedly allows greater passage of oxygen through the cork. This has greatly contributed to the failure rate of many corks and to this apparent problem of over-oxidised wines. The problem has been gaining much attention on the internet with forums on Robert Parkers ESquires wine site devoted to the problem. There has even been a wiki established at
http://oxidised-burgs.wikispaces.com/ to establish some kind of living record of the problem. I plan to keep a good eye on the site and hopefully wont have to contribute much to it. It amazing sometimes how the internet has created an ingenious tracking solution to what could turn out to be a very serious problem.

Im just in the process of adding some seventy wines to our list just now, the majority of which are white burgs. So there could be some interesting times ahead.

Busy, busy busy bees

Apologies for the lack of posts recently but Ive been tied up with the year end stocktake, then the last two days have been spent as a troglodyte in the cellar, moving hundreds of bottles from A to B and back to A again.

Our new racking was fitted this morning, and Ive spent the last six and a half hours racking up the wines. Im less than a third of the way through, my arms and hands are covered in skelfs, my shoulders ache from lifting cases of wine, my back aches from stooping down to avoid twatting my head on the low ceiling down in the keg room. My body aches from more physical exertion in one day that Ive had for most of the year!! Im heading home now for a hot bath and an early night, ready to finish the job off tomorrow. Once all the wines are racked, the next task is to list all the new wines on the wine-list and enter them into our EPOS system. I get the first task, Andre gets the second. I think ive got the better end of the deal there!!

Im sick of looking at Puligny Montrachet and Chassagne Montrachet, but Im sure they will sell well. Although I had a disturbing nights reading last night, which I will post more about later.

In other news Ive submitted my wine suggestions for the semi-final round of the Sommelier Challenge in Wine and Spirit magazine. They arent sure when my round is going to be published but they think it will be either Junes issue or Julys (out end May and June respectively). Cant wait to see how Ive fared and who I am up against.

The end of month blues.

We are approaching D-Day, the end of our fiscal year and the pressure is on to achieve our budget. At the moment we are about £13k short with three days to go. Its do-able, but somehow I just have a feeling we are going to come within a gnats chuff of it. But that wont stop us from pulling out all the stops over the next three services to come as close as possible. The end of the month usually means stocktake too, but with the added ballache of having to do the full cellar, holding stock and all. Usually we only count the holding stock every quarter which is fine, but obviously this falls into this months stocktake. Then as a final kick in the nuts, we have an auditor looking over our shoulder while we do it.

Now that might sound like a bad thing because perhaps we have something to hide. Thats not the case. But it is somewhat off-putting to have somebody watching you while you count the stock. Maybe its just me. So far everything seems to be going fine, but we shall have to see what they say after they witness Sundays fun and games. I confess Im not usually on top form on a sunday morning at the best of times, but to have to be in work at 9am to count thousands of bottles after four or five hours kip makes for some fun and games.

After thats over we have to empty the chill room for we are getting some new racking installed on Wednesday. This will allow us to rack up over 4 thousand bottles. So I shall be spending three full days down in the cellar next week moving stock from A to B, and back to A again. And after thats all done and racked, we have the task of adding all these extra wines to the wine list and then to the EPOS system, but the wine-list will be close to a thousand bins. Thats going to be fun to manage!

Change's Afoot

Spring time is traditionally the time for deep cleaning and making significant changes to anything. I guess thats holding true for here too. Over the space of this last fortnight we have had the core of the Arkle team handing their notices in. By the end of the May races there's only going to be Danny, Annie, Kazie, Eddie, Wieslaw and Myself left (One Commis sommelier, Library Supervisor, Commis, Commis, Commis and Chef Sommelier in order). Paco has been offered a dream job back in Spain at El Castell de Cuitat. And in the way of good managers, the staff are all going to follow him. I say all, nearly all. Truth be told, if I hadnt got the kids to think about, I would be out there like a shot. Good luck to him, Greg, Anna and Walter, Im jealous as hell and wish I could go too!!

The infamous Bag Game (Part 3 of the Glenmorangie Embassy trip)

We arrived at Cadboll to be greeted by glorious sunshine as the sun was beginning the end of its daily arc across the sky. As the weather was so good, we decided to take a walk down to the beach before dinner. I was later to regret not taking the opportunity to get my head down for an hours kip. Anyway after a gentle stroll down to the beach and lively conversation getting to know Lindsay, Sam, Angela, Max and Frederick it was time to get changed and meet up for Dinner. Cadboll is so very civilised, they have no TVs and dinner is a communal effort around a huge oak table, a chance to converse and rejoin humanity for a while. As we sipped our Veuve Clicquot (well it is now part of LVMH) inevitably we all talked about that which we shared in common, work!!

We enjoyed a fabulous meal that night, a seafood ravioli with Langoustines and bisque reduction, I skipped the Haggis neaps and tatties, then a fabulous duck breast with berries, fondant potato and cabbage. And to finish one of the best souffles that I have ever had, a rich chocolate souffle with bits of chocolate and an Ardbeg ice-cream. The ice-cream was to die for, rich and smokey with a peaty finish with seemed to complement the chocolate perfectly. And having fed us so well, we moved into the Buffalo room for the torture to begin. Anyone who has ever been entertained at Cadboll will know the Bag game. You start off with one paper bag. The object of the game is to lift the bag with your mouth. The only rule is that the only part of your body that is allowed to touch the ground is the soles of your feet. No arms, hands, knees, elbows, foreheads, shoulder etc. Sounds simple? It is. At first anyway. Once everyone has acheived this, then they cut one inch off the top of the bag and everyone plays again. Until you are eliminated. Im quite proud to say that I got down to the last seven, and the bag was a mere two inches above the ground. (the last time I played I managed to make it to the end when all that was left was a piece of paper flat on the floor, but by god did I hurt the next day) I had anticipated that I would hurt something chronic the next day, but to my great relief there was very little pain, beyond a bit of mild stiffness the next morning. In the end it came down to Dr Bill (unfair advantage as we reckon he plays this at least once a week!), Kristelle from MHUK who used a unique side-dipping technique which was even more amazing considering she was wearing a skirt and she managed to preserve her dignity throughout!, and Max from ODG who also used an interesting technique that we thought for sure wouldnt manage it. Max took first prize when it came to the time-trial tiebreaker knocking a full second off Dr Bills time of 4.something seconds. We were all kind of gobsmacked to discover it was barely past midnight by now, so we set about a game of charades. A word of advice, if you ever find yourself at Glenmorangie House dont let the guys there do your cards for Charades unless you want to try and mime out obscure chick-flicks like Fried Green Tomatos at the Whistlestop Cafe. Mind you Graham was a bit gobsmacked when Pauline, his number 2, started her turn with Film, four words, and Lindsay shouted out Gone with the Wind, to take pole position in less than 5 second! Result!! (I was on Paulines team). We won the game, much to Grahams dispute and by now the clock had crept round to 3am. We all started drifting off to bed after a long and thoroughly enjoyable day. It was a shame to have to leave it the next morning, but I did get to enjoy a lovely hot cooked breakfast before being taken off to Inverness airport for my flight home. I was knackered when I eventually got home. I slept the whole flight home from takeoff to landing, waking with a start when the wheels hit the ground at Liverpool airport. Theres no better way to fly!

Id like to say thanks to all the team at Glenmorangie, Dr Bill, Graham, Pauline, Martin and his team at Glenmorangie House and the lovely ladies at LVMH who took us there, Kristelle and Angela. I had a wonderfull time, and I cant wait to take my wife back there for our anniversary later in the year.

Glenmorangie Tasting (part 2 of the Embassy Trip)

After our fairly in depth tour of the distillery we returned to the conference room next to the offices for a tutored tasting with Dr Bill. On the table in front of us sat seven little tulip glasses with lids and a jug of Tarlogie Springs water. We got a quick slide show about the wood management program before we started tasting.

Sample no 1.
This was a colourless liquid that was revealed to be neat spirit before ageing. On the nose it had a rough pruney aroma about it, that actually put me in mind of some grappas that Ive had in the murky past. But after adding a drop of water to it, the aromas became more floral - acacia and white roses with a touch of oriental spices. The taste was surprisingly clean with a sort of sweetness about it that I hadnt expected.

Sample no 2.
10 year Glenmorangie. Quite apple like aromas with spicy floral notes. With the addition of water the aromas became more like Verbena with a touch of Geranium and honey, like a trendy herbal tea. Without water the taste was quite harsh and prickly on my tongue, but after a dash of water the whisky was really smooth with a kind of unroasted almond and honey flavour with exotic herbs. Im getting to appreciate this more as I get older I think.

Sample no 3.
This was the Artisan Cask sample, there was quite a dominant aroma of mint with bitter chocolate and pain epice, but I think I also found a touch of cobnut in there too. After adding a drop of water it had a more creamy nose, almost white burgundy in character, with a buttery toffee essense to it. Tasting it before the water was added I found it quite aggressive with rich warming spices and caramelised nuts, but with a touch of Tarlogie water in it became more minted with pineapple like fruit flavours and a creamy finish. I really liked this one with water.

Sample no 4.
Much darker colour, to be expected for an 18year old. I was instantly reminded of Crunchies by this one, chocolate and honeycomb, but more cinder toffee than Cadbury's. There were hints of white flowers in the nose too, but they seemed to be shy. With water it became more Baklava in character, nuts drenched in honey with some chopped dates throughout. I didnt taste this because I was beginning to feel a bit pissed by this stage.

Sample no 5.
Slight pinkish tinge gives this away as the Portwood finish. This was easy - proper turkish delight, dusted with icing sugar with pastilles of 90%+ cocoa mass. There was also a slightly aftershave like aroma that Bill identified as Sandalwood. I was pissed by now.

Sample no 6.
Im getting a bit confused because I think this was the last sample that I made notes for, but Im sure there were a few more. This was a cask sample from a special cask of the Sherry wood that has had somewhere in the region of 7 years extra maturation in the Sherry buts. The colour was a rich golden amber. On the nose it was a touch sulphurous with strong aromas of honeycomb and ginger spices. Almost gingerbread like flavours, the sherry has really dominated the character of the whisky and you would struggle to identify the Glenmorangie underneath.

Head swimming we came to the end of the tasting and we had a quick question and answer session before being driven down to Glenmorangie house where we would spend the night being tortured in Glenmorangies unique way!

Visiting the distillery (part 1)

You know things are going to get off to a bad start when they involve getting up early. No good ever comes of getting up early. In this case I had to be up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am, to get myself to John Lennon Airport for a 9:05 flight. Due to the ridiculous "security" restrictions you now have to turn up two hours before your flight is due, so I had to be at the airport for 7:05am. Which was almost pointless because the damn check in didnt open till nearly 7:30, but who am I to complain. However after a fairly uneventful flight and an hour in a chauffeur (how the hell do you spell that word??!!) driven Jaguar I found myself in the Glen of Tranquility itself - the Glenmorangie distillery, nestling on the banks of the Dornoch Firth just a few minutes drive north of Tain.

I was met by Graham Eunson who has been the Distillery manager since 1999 when Dr Bill moved down to head office in Broxburn. In the office where I was to wait until the others arrived I was introduced to Bill Lumsden who I suppose is Mr Glenmorangie, for he is the public face of the whisky and the man responsable for their innovative wood management program that has seen them "experimenting" with finishing the whisky in different barrels to add extra dimensions to the flavour. I also meet Pauline, the assistant distillery manager. So now they are going to have to change the strapline of the whisky to made by the 15 men and 1 woman of Tain. Doesnt quite have the same ring to it eh? After a short wait and a very pleasant lunch we were ready to start the Embassy trip to Glenmorangie. We began by taking a quick drive up to the Tarlogie Springs, the source of Glenmorangies water.

Glenmorangie are quite unique in the fact that the Tarlogie Springs are bubbled up through layers of limestone and chalk, which are somewhat out of place in the Granitic hills and mountains of Scotland. As a result the water is quite "hard" - ie has high levels of dissolved minerals and salts especially Calcium salts. So they guard the springs quite jealously. The water was cristal clear and when we looked we could see the water bubbling up through the sandy soil at the bottom of the spring. After walking around the spring we headed back to the distillery for a guided tour of the operation. Starting at the old malting house where in days gone by they would have malted the barley themselves, these days the barley comes from a central maltings who toast the grains to a specification laid down by Glenmorangie. The barley passes through the mills to grind it into a course flour before being added to the mash tun. Here it is soaked in 60degree water to break open the starch cells and allow enzymes to start the process of breaking down the long chain starches into short molecule sugars which the yeasts can then convert to alcohol. Once all the sugars have been extracted the solution is then passed into the washbacks where the yeast is added at nature takes its course. They aim for a quick ferment to convert all the sugar into alcohol. Once this is done the result is called the low wines, and is approximately 9 % abv. It then goes into a low wines reciever before being pumped into the first still for the first distillation. The stills at Glenmorangie are amongst the highest in Scotland and this allows the purest alcohols to reach the top where they travel down into the condensers to be collected for the second distillation. The second set of stills are slightly smaller than the first ones and again here the aim is to purify the spirit and remove the harmful alcohols like methanol. So the foreshots are the first cut, and they get re-cycled back into the process to be endlessly refined. The middle cut is the sweetest and purest ethanol and it is this that will end its days maturing in an oak cask to be become Glenmorangie. The feints or end cut is the roughest and again it is re-cycled back to be redistilled.

We were then taken round to see the place where the spirit is filled into oak casks where it must mature for a minimum of three years before it can legally be called whisky. It is in the selection of the casks that for many years Glenmorangie has led the market. Dr Bill then took us into Warehouse number three to show us the Artisan casks.

Specially selected from trees grown in the Ozark mountains of America these casks are quite special. The exceptionally slow growth of the trees means that the rings are quite tightly packed and so the wood is quite dense and tightly grained. This interacts with the spirit in a way that I cant quite understand, but it seems to have a profound difference to the "standard" Glenmorangie. Must be pixie magic! Anyway as you can see from the picture Bill gets quite excited about these casks. While in the warehouse we got the opportunity to taste the differences between first fill casks and second fills. The first fills have a much richer, more caramelised character to them, with toasty coconut flavours being dominant. The second fills were much lighter in colour with a lighter nose, more minty floral with hints of lighter nuts - hazel, cobnuts. After a bit of a nosey in there and a cracking atmospheric photo it was time to return to the offices for our tutored tasting.

Glenmorangie rhymes with Orangey

Ive got to be up at five am on Monday. Five bloody am in the morning!!! All because I need to be at Liverpool Airport for 7am for a 9am flight to Inverness. Im off to Glenmorangie, the Glen of Tranquility, according to their strapline on the adverts that were aired on TV a few years ago.

LVMH (Louis Vitton, Moet Hennessy) the multinational conglomerate that now owns Glenmorangie has decided to develop a brand Embassy for Glenmorangie. They have picked folks from around the country to represent the brand in key regions and I was invited to be selected to cover the Northwest. So this little jolly is by way of an introduction to the Embassy and a chance for us to have a guided tour of the distillery by the legendary Dr Bill Lumsden. I have been fortunate enough to have a guided tour by the man himself many years ago when Glenmorangie was part of Bacardi. He even took us into the bonded warehouse were we sampled a cask of the first limited release, the Claret wood finish Glenmorangie. Now I confess that Im not really a whisky kind of guy, but this was the first whisky I had tried that I found I could drink. So much so that when it was eventually released over a year later I managed to track down a bottle and bought it for £60. Last year a bottle sold at McTeers whisky auction for just over £500. Thats a nice healthy return!! So I look forward to seeing what joys and sneak previews we will get this time!!

Pictures and write up to follow upon my return on Tuesday.

Virtual Cellar Tour.

Hello and welcome to the cellars of the Chester Grosvenor and Spa, my name is Garry Clark and Im the sommelier here at the Grosvenor. Inside these doors we are currently sitting on approximately £300k worth of stock, at cost value. The last time that I counted we had just over 18,000 bottles with a selling price between £19 and £5000.

Here we have our cold store where we keep our white wines and champagnes. In a few weeks time we are going to have these racks replaced with new racking that will allow us to store 4,000 bottles in rack and a further thousand or more in cases. The Grosvenor is one of the Depositaires of the Oenotheque range from Dom Perignon, which is their wine library of late disgorged stock available in tiny quantities to the select depositaires. Currently the oldest vintage available is the 1964 which is on our list for £975 a bottle, we also have the 1966 for a modest £1250 a bottle. Previously the oldest available vintage was the 1959, of which we sold five bottles, Im led to believe that we are the most successful Depositaire in terms of sales.

We move out of the cold store and here we have the first of our two Holding stock areas. We currently hold roughly £120,000 worth of stock in our holding stock until it is more mature and ready to be listed. In addition to this we have somewhere in the region of £50,000 worth of stock held "en primeur" - much of it yet to be bottled. Once the cold store is racked up this holding will be seriously reduced as much of the wines that are approaching drinkability are added onto the list. Each year we purchase numerous wines "en primeur" - such as Domaine de la Romanee Conti wines, Petrus, First Growth Clarets and certain other high value wines. In many cases these wines wont be bottled for another two years and then they will be sent to us for storage here in our cellars. We will keep them in the holding stock for at least another two to three years before adding them onto the list. So its an awesome responsability to be purchasing wines that somebody will be adding to the list in the next seven or more years. Ive been extremely fortunate to have inherited a fantastically stocked cellar and this year will see the first wines that I was actively involved in purchasing brought into the holding stock. It will still be a few years before I get to list them.

Here we have our dessert wines. Dessert wines have taken a bit of a slump over the last year, but we are starting to see a slight resurgence in sales as people are moving away from the huge alcoholic reds of the new world and back to the more restrained wines of the old world. Currently we have our two oldest bottles in this section. Our oldest is a 1917 Climens from Barsac. The ullage level on this bottle is quite risky at bottom shoulder and judgeing by the condition of the wine inside I honestly wouldnt hold out much hope for it, but as past experience has shown you can never tell until you open the bottle. It is hard to see from the cork, but we believe that the bottle was re-corked in 1969, as the other two bottles we had, had been. We also have our second oldest bottle which is a 1921 Yquem. Comparing the colour and condition of the wines, you would see that the Yquem is much clearer and brighter than the Climens and that would lead you to think the wine would be in better condition. It certainly ought to be, 1921 being considered as one of the stellar vintages of the last century for Yquem. The Yquem is listed at £3950 a bottle and the Climens was £1200. We seem to be listing more dessert wines from the new world now, with a diversity of production methods that dont all rely on Botrytis to create the rich unctious juice to start with. We have a smashing little wine from Randall Grahm the clown prince of winemaking who makes a California Ice wine by freezing the harvested grapes in an industrial freezer before crushing them and making his "Vin de Glaciere".

We move over to look at our collection of large format bottles. This is one of the many things that convinced me that I wanted to work here when I came for my interview. Whilst quite a few places have magnums on their lists, very few indeed have Double Magnums, Imperials, Jeroboems and the like. While they can be a bugger to pour from, the centre of gravity on a half full jeroboem places a huge amount of stress on your arms, the theatre of having a large group drinking from Jeros or Imps is fantastic.

We move over to the main attraction of the cellar our red wine wall. Here is the most significant value of the cellar. Just over four thousand bottles in total racked up. Our most expensive bottle is the 1985 La Romanee Conti from Domaine de la Romanee Conti, at £5000 a bottle. To give you some idea of the price of this wine, six bottles sold last November at auction in Southeby's US auction for $119,500 (approx £10,190 a bottle), so you can see its a steal at £5000!! La Romanee Conti is a tiny little vineyard producing less than 500 cases (6bottles) a year. Demand is exceptionally high and it is not uncommon for the wine to be sold several times over before it is even bottled!

When I started here four years ago the cellar was favouring Old world wines roughly 70% old world to 30% new world. Now after four years we are close to parity - 50/50, but since November we have seen our sales swinging slowly back to the old world - France, Italy, Spain and to an extend Germany. I believe this is down to people trading up from one dimensional new world wines to more complex old world wines. I think it is also a reflection of people looking for more maturity in their wines and a bit less alcohol too. Personally I think that the best value for money is often found in the new world, but sheer quality and complexity and just plain style you have to look at the old world. There are always exceptions however.

Over the coming year we hope to further develop the wine-list to meet our ever changing demands, we continue to seek out quality from around the world, as well as searching for those producers who are willing to stick their necks out a bit and try to grow the ungrowable in the most obscure places. Californian Albarino, South African Touriga, Aussie Gros Manseng, and many other out-of-place varietials. At the end of the day our list is dictated by our customers who ask for wines. We work with over 30 different producers to seek out the best products and secure the right prices so that we can keep the accountants happy and the customers buying!! We try to involve the various team members from the Kitchen brigade to the waiting staff who are serving the wines in the Brasserie and Library and Arkle. Everyone has something to contribute to the process. Our cellar has evolved considerably in the four years Ive been here and Im sure it will continue to develop even further in the coming years. I look forward to seeing where it takes me!

Moutard Cuvee de 6 Cepages 2000

Weve got a record of journalists in for the weekend. (Not sure if that is the correct collective noun, but I like the cut of its jib!). So they were being wined and dined in the Arkle tonight by Penta our (temporary) Marketing manager, and I decided to kick start them with this little beauty. Its a relatively small domaine, and one of the few that maintains vineyards growing the lesser known varieties of Champagne. Arbanne, Petit Meslier and Pinot Blanc are all still legally permitted grapes (although it is no longer permitted to plant them). Like the Aubry brothers, Francois Moutard believes that the grapes must have been planted and used for a reason. Tasting this champagne it is easy to see what they contribute. It has a more floral, rounded character with slight hints of honey and a crisper, sharper acidity which lends itself well to be used as an aperitif. I love this champagne because it has something different. When I taste one of the big brands there is a certain "blandness" for want of a better description, there is flavour and layers of elegance to the wines, but they just seem to miss that extra personality. Thats why I love the grower champagnes so much, to me they express what Champagne is all about, the terrior of the region, the complexities the different varieties bring to the mix, and the difficulties in what is essentially a borderline growing environment. I believe that when you are buying in the vast majority of your fruit, no matter how long standing the contracts you may have with the numerous growers may be, you dont have control of your principle ingredient and ultimately you cannot have control of your end product.