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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I find this time of year the toughest by far… Burgundy En-Primeur. It is a living hell, where I am waking up in cold sweats and arguing with my colleagues. No this is not a complaint about how busy I am but the problem all Burgundy ‘nuts’ have…what on earth do I buy this vintage?!

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Despite the title, we haven’t entirely given up wine for the New Year. Wine Matters has, however, just finished Guardian wine writer Victoria Moore’s new book ‘How To Drink’ and what an interesting read it was too. One of the highlights, of course, was a mention of our very own Jasper Morris MW who, as well as being a wine connoisseur (and our Burgundian buyer) is also something of a tea aficionado. Here’s a snippet from the book:

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As I have been based in Italy for the past few months I could well be initiating a new tradition of having Christmas, ‘Natale’, here in Serralunga d’Alba, Piedmont, and I’m banking on the following being served for lunch:

 
Lentils with cotechino (a pork salami) as an antipasti/starter; the dish is thought to bring good luck and it will probably be accompanied by a fresh smooth Verduno Pelaverga from Fratelli Alessandria.

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Champagne is a delightful enigma; seen by some as a stand-alone category which bears scant resemblance to the rest of the wine trade, and by others as a bell-weather, providing early warning when choppy seas lie ahead but when the waters are calm, luxuriating in the hazy trappings of  indulgence and success. Whichever interpretation is more plausible, any article on Champagne today, economically speaking, will differ greatly from one written eighteen months ago. There was a newspaper photograph recently of Conservative party leader, David Cameron, glass of  Champers in hand, with the caption ‘Fizzy Rascal’ cheekily appended ; the implication clearly being that such manifestations of success, are hard to swallow by an electorate that is stuck in the middle of a deep and rather brutal recession. So, how is Champagne perceived today? Is this perception justified and how is it actually faring in terms of production and sales?

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Phew! I have been flat out working on our 2008 Burgundy Offer which opens on January 5th, so have had no time to blog, tweet, twitter or scratch my nose for the past few weeks. All is done now so normal life can resume. The 2008s were not easy to taste earlier in the year because the malolactic fermentations were late, and you can’t make sense of a wine until that is done and dusted and the wines have had a chance to settle down again afterwards – which by late November they had.

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The waiting is over and our judges can reveal that the winners of our recipe matching competition are…

…OK, so it may not be on par with the X-Factor final, but thank you to everyone who entered our competition to find a perfect wine match for their favourite recipes.  Wine Club manager Katie Cooper and Berrys’ food and wine matching expert Nick Page have now selected their two favourite recipes and chosen the perfect wine to accompany each one.  Congratulations to the winners, who will each receive six bottles of the recommended wines to help their dinner parties go with a swing.  Here are Nick’s comments and recommendations, you can also click on the dishes to get full recipe details so you can create these tasty treats at home – maybe even make one for your X-Factor final party!

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In the latest post in our series about wine investment, James Waller talks about how he first discovered his passion for wine and why he now chooses to invest in it.

My love of food was really the thing that opened my eyes to wine. I used to work in marketing and I’d be entertained in very good restaurants and put in front of really good wines – it was during this time that I realised that wine takes food to the next level. Then I started to take advice from wine merchants and I began to understand what I actually like, rather than what I thought I should like, which was quite a surprise! I realised that these were things like Rhône wines, which are affordable and go far better with everyday food than some blockbuster Bordeauxs, which you’ve really got to be pretty careful what you eat with them.

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In Wine Matters’ next installment on Wine Investment, Nicholas Pegna, Managing Director of Berrys’ in Hong Kong, talks about the growing fine wine market in Asia, what customers need to consider when investing, and as the current and emerging trends.

If you have any questions or comments for Nick or our team, then let us know.

How does one gauge the success of an evening’s dinner, at Berrys’ in this case? By the level of decibels or (business) cards swapped at its close?  The number of empty glasses or perhaps more crudely, by the amount of orders taken? At Andre Ostertag’s mercurial tasting recently, for example, I measured it by the time guests remained riveted to their seats, spellbound, long after the final whistle had blown. Read the rest of this entry »

Following on from our previous blogs on wine investment, Wine Matters went to visit Berrys’ state-of-the-art new warehouse in Hampshire, which is used to store customers’ private reserves (until they are ready to drink or sell on). In the following video Tom Cave, manager of Berrys’ Cellar Plan and Customer Private Reserves, talks to Keith Procter, Operations Director, about the importance of storage when investing in a wine and what features have been implemented at this facility to ensure that wines are kept in the best possible conditions, not just for investing, but also for future drinking: