At the end of the month Signor Claudio Rosso bows out after three years as the (Honorary) President of the Langhe and Roero Consorzio, representing most – but not all – of the hundreds of (Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Arneis, Moscato) producers in the region. Last week I caught up with him at his family’s Cantina Gigi Rosso, where he has been the enologo along with his father since the ‘80s, and had a chat about his work with the Consorzio.

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Right, before I start recounting the details of an epic 10 vintage Pontet-Canet Dinner last night, I thought it best to update you on my progress; as I’ve now been here for over a month and would consider myself a local (in fact I have my first visitor next week!), I’ve found myself a little cubby hole to live in, in a very trendy (so I am told) area called Sheung Wan (think the Notting Hill of HK). It’s close enough to the action that I can wander home in the evening, but far enough away that I can enjoy some peace and quiet! I have had Now TV installed so I can catch up on the Footie action back home till my heart is content (though still struggling on finding the darts!!!), a sad life I know!

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Rhône 2008 is just about to hit the market so while we were out there recently we had lunch with Mark Perrin from Ch. de Beaucastel and talked about the characteristics of the vintage. In this video he tells us about the climatic conditions, which at times proved challenging, as well as the need for a very selective harvest which helped keep the quality and excellent balance that is now becoming apparent in these bottlings. The 2008s have had to overcome a lot already, but the result are wines which are very approachable, charming and will be good buys.

Last week we had the opportunity to sample a range of 1990s in Berrys’ Long Room (left), which confirmed the reputation of the vintage. Enhanced it even! The evening was mostly about Burgundy, albeit sandwiched between some white Bordeaux wines, Domaine de Chevalier and Laville Haut-Brion at the front and a youthful Yquem to complete the evening.

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It had in many ways been a decade in the making: the culmination of years of monitoring the Italian fine wine scene; of passing on the increasingly good news (and fine wines) to customers; during which period our sales of Italian wine had risen nearly fourfold while the number of product lines doubled and some. And now here they all were, in London, for the very first time in a few cases, twenty of Berrys’ finest Italian producers, keen to get on with it and show the lucky few what they were made of…

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It all goes back to a tasting sometime last year here in the Langhe of course, when I sniffed, slurped and spat my way through three score (and ten?) Barbareschi born of the promising 2006 vintage. I recall being held up by a flight of chewy ‘wonders’ (oh yes let’s all admire the cooper rather than the grape) before alighting upon this new name to me: Cascina delle Rose, with its refreshingly open, ethereal wines and friendly sincerity of young winemaker Davide Sobrine. So in spite of all that had been sampled that day, Cascina delle Rose’s fragrance suffused my subconscious, the trace of something special, refusing to let go ‘till I’d paid a visit to the property.

 

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We were lucky enough to have a visit from Tim Heath, wine maker at Cloudy Bay recently, who let us taste a wonderful selection of Cloudy Bay’s latest releases, including the ever-popular (and rightly so) delicious 2009 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc.  In this video he gives us a quick run-down of what makes Cloudy Bay special and why 2009 is such a lovely wine:

Last week Jean-Guillaume Prats of Ch. Cos d’Estournel (pictured left with myself and my colleague, Jenny Wee) paid us a flying visit to host a private dinner at the fantastic new restaurant in Wan Chai, Amuse Bouche . I was pretty excited for most of the day, as I am rather partial to a bottle or two of Cos. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is one of my favourite wines from Bordeaux. And to add to the excitement, Jean-Guillaume was bringing with him cask samples of the much-hyped 2009 vintage… To say that there was an air of anticipation in the office would be something of an understatement! Not to mention the small matter of the main wines at dinner… the ultra-rare 2006 Blanc as well as the 2002, 2000, 1995 and 1985 vintages of the Grand Vin.

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Having just returned from a break-neck few days in Bordeaux with our buyer, Max Lalondrelle, our early thoughts on the vintage are… .that we really can’t say for sure! Dull, I know, but we only tried a handful of finished wines and only twice that amount in barrel samples – and that’s just not broad enough to hang a “Greatest ” tag on…just yet!

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By Simon Berry

This has been a momentous week here at BB&R.

Eighty seven years after it was born in the parlour at 3 St James’s Street, the Cutty Sark brand has been sold. For as long as I can remember the familiar yellow label has been part of our identity. Somehow this always seemed to be paradoxical: very few of our UK wine customers automatically associated BB&R with an international whisky blend, but the reality is that the wine division of our business would never have survived, let alone prospered, if it hadn’t been for Uncle Cutty paying the bills for forty years or more.

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While there’s much back-slapping over the quality of the 2009 harvest across Europe, here similar success has only heaped further pressure on the cellars of the Langhe, many fit to bursting after a dazzling run of ‘five-star’ vintages, from 1995 to the present day (bar 2002).

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After two crazy weeks getting used to Hong Kong life, my colleagues Geordie and James thought it might be time to get me out of downtown HK and into the countryside for some fresh air. It may come as a surprise to those of you who picture Hong Kong as a thriving metropolis to find out that the island is amazingly green and unspoilt. In actual fact, less than 25% of the territory’s landmass is developed, and about 40% of the remaining land area is reserved as stunning country parks and nature reserves. We were heading off to Lantau Island, about 25 minutes away by ferry, for a “gentle” hike.

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While Jasper was in town last week we managed to grab a few minutes with him to talk about his thoughts on the ‘08 Burgundy en primeur campaign in Asia:

After a fantastic few days with Jasper in town, Nick Pegna, Managing Director of BB&R HK (and my boss!), gives his thoughts on the events that took place.

“We have just dispatched Jasper Morris MW, our Burgundy Buyer, back to his home in the Côtes of Burgundy, having completed our second Burgundy Week in Hong Kong. The week, which consists of master classes, interviews, dinners and tastings included the first tasting in Hong Kong of the 2008 Burgundies en primeur (and perhaps the first Burgundy primeurs tastings in Asia – left) as well as a thoughtful and thoroughly enjoyable look at the 1996 vintage of Domaine de la Romanee Conti, at a dinner organised in conjunction with American Express for 15 people last Friday night.

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Stuart Rae, the latest recruit in Berrys’ Fine Wine team, visits London’s rare-breed steak house and reports back…

As my wedding was nearing, the obligatory Stag Do needed to be arranged. What was decided upon involved all the typically testosterone fuelled traits – such as “shooting each other” with paintballs, DRINKING and eating red meat.  The latter activity came in the form of booking the private dining room at the Hawksmoor. 

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This morning Serralunga d’Alba awoke to the sad, sad news that Giovanni Rosso, pictured here standing to the left of his wife Ester and son Davide, died last night, following a brave two year fight against cancer. He was such a gentle, honourable man, who gathered me into the midst of his family like one of his own.

That this alien Englishman should be sharing his cantina, the very place in which he was born, was just fine with Giovanni. Aided by his wife Ester, Giovanni built the success of the winery, focusing his energy on the vineyards, and raising the fruit quality to a level that deserved to be bottled under the ‘Giovanni Rosso’ label for the first time in the mid ’90s. And right up until the last moment he was busy preparing orders for export, handing out stockings at the Feast of Epiphany 6th January and even arranging a suitable date for digging a vegetable bed at our new house. Giovanni leaves behind his wife Ester, only son Davide and faithful hound ‘Gaia’.

Leading up to the big move last Friday the one thing I promised myself was to immerse myself in the culture and experience what Hong Kong is all about! I’d been a few times before and friends and customers in the UK had given me graphic details of the crazy lifestyle that I was about to get myself into. Given my tendency to get myself into a pickle my mum was a little apprehensive (even though I managed to look after myself in Melbourne for three years!), and had packed me a medical bag larger than my main suitcase! Yep, there is now doubt that Hong Kong is a daunting place to the unsuspecting…fast paced and passionate… it gobbles you up, throws you around and then spits you out (a good thing!)

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The team here are obviously committed to enhancing the wine drinking experience in any way possible, so it was with plenty of gusto that six musical volunteers agreed to create their perfect playlists to accompany some of our favourite Wine Club wines.

Following on from research suggesting that music can enhance the taste of a wine, we rounded up Masters of Wine, Marketing Execs and The Chairman himself and asked them to sample a selection of wines and decide the perfect tune to listen to for each.

The results are interesting – who’d have thought that Alun Griffiths MW would choose a bit of Fleetwood Mac to accompany his New World Cabernet?  Or that manly Jonathan White would have a guilty penchant for Girls Aloud with his fruity Italian reds?  The fact that Simon Staples digs a bit of Stevie Wonder didn’t surprise anyone…

We’ve also got our Wine Club members involved, giving them each five download tracks on 7Digital.com to see if they can do any better than our in-house music lovers. But what about you?  Do you have a penchant for Pink Floyd and Pinot?  Maybe a little Vivaldi with your Viognier?  Let us know what you’d drink with your favourite wines – there might even be a prize in it too…

On Wednesday we held our annual Burgundy en primeur tasting, where Jasper and his producers got the chance to show off their 2008s to the eagerly awaiting public (and press!)
 
In between pouring and note-taking, we managed to catch a few words with Jasper and Benjamin Leroux, to talk about 2008 as a vintage:
 

We also managed to catch eRobert Parker’s  Neal Martin on his way out to see what his thoughts were after having tasted the best part of 109 perky barrel samples:
 

See the full list of Berrys’ Burgundy en primeur wines

Yes I’m now back in Serralunga d’Alba after a two month sosta/break in the UK. Dare I say that I have come home? But this time I’ve returned with the family, now resident at La Casa Rossa. Spaghetti Western-esque we’d loaded the wagon (Fiat Doblo) with Christmas pudds, Fortnum’s biscuits and Berrys’ finest malt whisky and headed out across the Rockies/Alps to arrive in time for Capo d’Anno/New Year’s Eve, to a plate-full of cotechino e lenticchi (rich pork sausage and green lentils) at Alessio’s unico family trattoria, ‘Centro Storico’ in Serralunga, accompanied by a silky 1999 Rutherford Cabernet, Frog’s Leap and a sinewy 2001 Nebbiolo from Cascina Ebreo. Sated, it was now time to do battle with our wayward thermostat and dodgy wiring.

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