It’s Friday afternoon, so an ideal time for me to do a more trivial (if that is even possible) blog post. And one that requires minimal effort on my part. So I’ll share a copy of the weekly email newsletter I get from one of my brilliant, if dangerously expensive, off licences.
Yes, my local offy does a weekly newsletter. It’s only a small business, and yet its timing (Friday early afternoon), style (chummy, quite bonkers and excited) and content (loads of stuff about loads of really nice wine, all with a clear commercial objective though) always makes it a winner. Yes it goes on a bit, but so would you with some of those wines inside you.
Without further ado, take a look at this:
Dear Samplers,
My goodness, it feels like months since we chatted (in the one-way kind of chat that email seems to dictate). In the usual “back to school, write a story on what you got for Christmas” kind of way, I thought I’d share with you my favourite prezzie from the festive period – beer making machinery.
I know we don’t actually sell any beer, but I do have a fondness of the hoppy sort hidden inside me. Not any of that nasty lager stuff, or even worse a ruby ale or English stout, but for a decent IPA or golden ale. The only problem is that the chance of me making a decent IPA or golden ale are approximately zero. Not exactly zero though, so I’m going to have a go.
I spent an evening last week sterilising stuff (how many funnels is it really necessary to own I ask you), and then mixed everything together, sealed up and put an airlock on. I admit that I’m using a kit first time out – the idea of having to buy a wort-chiller before I know whether I can only make beer vinegar wasn’t financially that appealing. Anyway, 5 days and a lot of bubbling and gurgling later, the hygrometer said it was fermented. This being a quality product, a second period of both bottle and cask conditioning is required (simply because I don’t have enough to do them all in bottles), so after more sterilisation, they were decanted away from the filthy looking produce of the first five days and bunged into a bottle or pressure barrel with some sugar and then sealed up. If I get no joy with the beer itself, the act of putting a crown cap on a bottle of beer was joy enough – the machine makes lovely satisfying clicking noises when you get it right.
So now, Chateau Hutchinson is maturing and clarifying in my new cellar (actually in the kitchen to be more precise). If it tastes any better than dishwater, I reckon I’ll be ditching this wine lark and becoming a brewer. Maybe if it does taste like dishwater I can distill it and make a whisky instead…
Back in the real world, stuff is happening:
Burgundy (and Beaujolais) 2010 En Primeur – our offer opens today, and our tasting starts this evening!
You may have a heard quite a bit about Burgundy 2010 already from the press. Its incredibly different in style to the luscious, easy going 2009’s, but there is huge excitement over how pure and focussed the wines are with very classical balance that will repay bottle ageing. We have a tasted a huge number now over the last few months, and really think that this is going to turn into one of the great vintages.
Even better, you don’t even have to believe our marketing nonsense, you can come along to our South Kensington shop from this evening to taste 32 of the wines (we have more so they will rotate as bottles are finished). The tasting won’t last terribly long as we don’t have many bottles of each wine, so if you would like to try some, I’d pop along in the next few days.
This year we are offering wines from 20 estates ranging from Jean Foillard in Beaujolais through to some of the greats including Roumier and Fourrier.
If you are interested, you can read our full offer here .
Some of our best buys are as follows:
- Most Exciting yet Affordable White: Maroslavac Leger St Aubin 1er Cru “Les Murgers des Dents de Chien”
- Most Exciting yet Affordable Red: Hudelot Baillet Chambolle Musigny Les Charmes (again!)
- Most bonkers: Everything from Henri Gouges (wild wines, gamey yet full of fruit)
- Best Value: Jean Foillard Morgon Cote de Py
- Biggest Positive Surprise : Daniel Rion Nuits St Georges 1er Cru Vignes Rondes
- Sell your Family to Obtain: Fourrier Mixed Case
Fine Wine Offers
I’m saddened to say that Sebastien has finally been given the leg upstairs, so from now on he will be working full time on flogging wines by the case to trade and private customers (can you hear all the other staff shout whahey?)
For a number of years now we have been building up the number of wines and estates that we ship from abroad (which last year made up the majority of our sales for the first time). Importing so much wine allows us to be able to add bits and pieces here and there whenever we have a lorry doing a collection, so we now are able to do the following:
- Offer co-shipment of wines that we are going to import anyway but at lower costs
- Offer oddities and rarities that we wouldn’t necessarily be able to stock otherwise
- Offer museum stocks from the domaines that we buy from already
If you would like to sign up to these, please add your name to the En Primeur email list here
New Wines
Well, its January, so we don’t have any. (Actually we do have quite a few, but I’m going to wait until the next email to tell you about them as with all the fuss with Burgundy 2010, I haven’t had a chance to price them up yet). Next time will have news on some new champagnes with a bit of age on them, bottled stocks of Fourrier and Rossignol Trapet, a very strange sherry, lots of cru classé Bordeaux, and probably some other things that I’ve forgotten about.
Icons
As usual, a bunch of vinous lovelies for your delectation. The Musar vertical in Islington is fascinating – three vintages from the finest period in Musar’s history, and all three completely different.
| Icons South Kensington |
Icons Islington |
| Aldo Conterno Cicala Barolo 1996 |
Musar 1979 |
| Lynch Bages 1999 |
Musar 1980 |
| Calon Segur 1985 |
Musar 1982 |
| Rauzan Gassies 1953 |
Calon Segur 1959 |
| Brokenwood Graveyard 1996 |
Paternina Conde 1964 |
| Musar 1980 |
Brokenwood Graveyard 1998 |
| Lagrange 1964 |
Stag’s Leap Fay vineyard 2008 |
| Tondonia 1961 |
Leoville Poyferré 1998 |
Tasting Events
Kicking off our 2012 full format offering is the long awaited South West of France tasting on February 15th in Islington:
The Wines of South West France – Sebastien and Jamies’ Excellent Adventure, Islington February 15th 7pm, £35
You may have read the trip report that we sent out a few weeks reporting on our week long travels across the south west. We got such a big response to it that we thought it would be fun to do an evening where we can talk through each domaine and let you try the wines as we chat. Sebastien is already thrilled that he might be able to show you some slides from his endless snapping away at inconsequential signposts and petrol stations in the area.
For those of us who find that kind of thing rather easy to ignore, we will also be able to discuss the wines – there will be far more wines than in one of our usual events, so we would expect it to last until 9.30ish. As usual, there will also be a special offer on each wine available to order on the night only.
If you fancy learning about Jurancon, Madiran, Cahors, Quercy, Marcillac and Gaillac, why not reserve a place on 0207 22 66 555.
Don’t worry, the Sunday schools are returning too:
Sunday School, 29th Jan, 5pm Islington, £15 - Portuguese reds with Ben.
Introducing a range of six red wines and giving an overview of the regions and grapes that make Portugal a great value red wine producer. Call 0207 22 66 555 to book.
The line-up for tastings in the next few months is beginning to shape up nicely – hold your hats for upcoming evenings with Maria-José from Lopez de Heredia, Fernando Remirez de Ganuza (oooh, rioja-fest), and Jim Clenenden from Au Bon Climat (just don’t mention Robert Parker)
OK, I’m off to look at my pressure barrel in case anything exciting happens.
See you soon,
Jamie
Jamie Hutchinson
The Sampler
266 Upper Street N1 2UQ
35 Thurloe Place SW7 2HP
