The idea was as immediately appealing as it was self-evidently indulgent, namely to conduct an ‘experiment’ to assess the on-going impact of altitude on the taste and flavour of Champagne. And we are not talking 35,000 feet here, and the effects of cabin pressure and recycled air of a dubious nature. On the contrary, we are to be in a hot air balloon, owned, piloted and serviced by Champagne Taittinger. And the Champagne du choix is, of course, to be Taittinger’s deluxe cuvée, Comtes de Champagne, the gloriously expensive Blanc de Blancs which must rank as one of, if not the, finest of all of the Chardonnay-only Champagnes in the world. Or out of this world.

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A very warm week in Tuscany in July with our Italian Buyer, David Berry-Green, recently, was both informative and enlightening.

A swift drive in David’s Alfa Romeo Brera down the motorway from Pisa Airport on Monday, took us straight to the excellent Tenuta di Valgiano in the Colline Lucchesi. Valgiano are considered the best producers in the region and their wines showed very well with a delicious lunch that included local prosciutto and melon and fresh borlotti beans (very Tuscan) served al fresco.

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The World Cup is over and Spain now reign supreme as masters of the soccer universe. But equally importantly, many congratulations to Richard Taylor who won Berrys’ Wine World cup with ‘Team RT’!

His reward for this great honour? A case of wine so fantastic that it inspired thousands of people (including our Chairman, Simon Berry, who came 590th)  to fight it out in a battle for the top fantasy football team made up entirely of players from wine producing nations.  This legendary case includes gems from Ch. Latour, Vega Sicilia, Penfolds Grange and Taylor’s Port – well done Richard and enjoy the wines, we’ll all be thinking of you!

Located nearly 500 miles west of Casablanca, basking in gentle Atlantic currents (not so gentle during the recent floods) Madeira is a small volcanic island, beloved of the so-called silver tourists and of course of those who appreciate the very finest of fine fortified wines. I, for a few more years at least,  fall only into the latter category, and it was therefore a great pleasure indeed to accept a generous invitation from The Madeira Wine Company to visit the island and taste a few of these rather special wines. We were promised one or two ‘older’ examples, a promise that was honoured with a good deal of interest! Indeed the whole trip was a source of huge interest, fascination even, as one learnt the story of one of the most evocative and distinctive of all wines.

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Some have called it revolutionary and others have even gone so far as to say magical, but one thing is for sure the new iPad from Apple is perfect for navigating the new free Berrys’ Fine Wine App.

Wine and technology geeks can tap into our vinous knowledge and the shiny iPad’s magical multi-touch screen makes reading easier and browsing and navigation far simpler, and much more intuitive.

Whatever time it is, wherever you are, take a look at the brand new Vintage Charts, producer Profiles and Wine Ratings. We have listened to your feedback on our iPhone App launched last year and we have enhanced the search functionality and you can now filter by price and vintage rather than just the previous keyword search of wine name, region, producer and grape. We have also improved the transactional function which means it’s now even easier to purchase through the free App.

But don’t fear – you can still enjoy original favourites like tasting notes from our Masters of Wine and the Virtual Wine School video tutorials.

This is the must-have upgrade for all Fine Wine aficionados, whatever the size of your cellar – or portable communication device!! Download the free App at: www.bbr.com/app.

El Bulli was awarded its third Michelin star in 1997, and has ever since been fêted as the most original, most adventurous and most fabulous restaurant in the world, its owner Ferran Adrià (in us in the picture, further down) seen as the father of a style of cooking that has been imitated throughout the world, most famously in England at The Fat Duck, but with few, if any achieving its brilliance. And now, what a disaster, it’s to close for two years; that is to say for the 2012 and 2013 seasons (a season is June to December only), some fear it may be for even longer.. ……….why? Most clearly not for want of inspiration, if our 35 courses were anything to go by, and certainly not for lack of popularity, judging by the legendary length of the waiting list which makes the Ivy appear under-booked by comparison.

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World cup fever is about to hit and nowhere more than in Berrys’ HQ, where we’ve designed our very own online Wine World Cup fantasy football game – with a wine twist…

It works just like an normal fantasy football game but you can only choose players from the 12 major wine producing nations who have made it to South Africa – and you can’t have more than one from each country (until the first round is over, at least).

And that isn’t even the best bit – as well as weekly prizes for top-scoring managers (and the chance to battle your friends to the bitter end in your own mini leagues) the overall winner will get a corking mixed case of wine worth £1,700! It contains a bottle of a top wine from each of these 12 nations, including Ch. Latour from France, Vega Sicilia from Spain and Penfolds Grange from down under.

Go to www.berryswineworldcup.com to see all the wines in the case and to register your team (make sure you do it by midnight on Thursday 10th June though to make sure you have all your players in place for the first match).  Finally, it’s all free – it doesn’t get much better than that (unless England bring the trophy home).

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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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…

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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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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Our new (free!) iPhone App is certainly satisfying wine lovers’ thirst for knowledge as a total of 22,500 people have downloaded it in the last couple of weeks!!

The App allows you to browse our list of over 2,000 wines, as well as consult tasting notes, maturity guides and even watch the popular ‘Virtual Wine School’ videos from both iPhones and iPod touch devices.

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Last Thursday I was moseying my way along Regent Street in a rather good mood, as I was on way to Mark Hix’s brand new restaurant on Brewer St., Soho. I was pretty confident the food was going to be tip-top and was also pretty happy with myself about the wine in my bag to accompany lunch… 1997 Guigal, Cote Rotie, La Turque!
 
Now I was lunching with a customer, who’s knowledge and love of the Rhône Valley is far greater than my own, and I knew he was bringing a fascinating old Chateauneuf-du-Pape in the shape of 1989 Cuvee Laurence from the great Domaine du Pegau. So the scene was set for a grand battle… North vs South, the old vs. the new, and I was confident that my bottle one of Guigal’s legendary La La’s was going to win by the length of the straight!

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Back in early October I was treated to a visit from one of South Africa’s bright young gems, Mullineux Wines, Swartland: Chris, Andrea and their first born John (’JZ’). This is their account.
 
After a somewhat long and difficult trip from Amsterdam (visa issues- it’s not easy travelling as a South African sometimes!), my wife Andrea, son John and I finally found ourselves winding up the road to Serralunga on an appropriately cool and misty evening. We arrived thirsty and excited – perfect for the two-day introductory experience our kind host had arranged for us in Barolo and Barbaresco. I had been to Piedmont once before, years ago while still at University, and most of our European time has been spend in the vineyards of France and Spain, so this was to be a massive learning experience into a terroir and grape variety foreign to the three of us.

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What’s your favourite dish? Whether it’s a posh dinner party special, a Christmas treat or just Mum’s lasagne, finding a perfect wine match can be tricky and, for most people, a bit of a minefield. However, help is at hand! To celebrate the revamped Berrys’ Wine Club which, amongst other exciting things, includes a personalised recipe matching service, we’re inviting you to send us your favourite recipe and win some wine to match!

I’ll then pick my two favourite dishes from all the entries and, with the help of Berrys’ food and wine matching expert, Nick Page, we’ll suggest a wine to perfectly match each one and the lucky winners will both recieve six bottles the receommended wine to wash down with their dish.

All you need to do is email your recipe to wineclubcomp@bbr.com by 20th November 2009, then we’ll notify the winners and share their favourite recipes on the blog.

Berrys’ Wine Club is a bi-monthly service that gives members the opportunity to try new wines safe in the knowledge that Berrys’ masters of wine have selected the very best bottles for them to try. Benefits include discounted tickets to events, money off Wine Club wines, encyclopaedic reference guides, recipes and quite a bit more. Plus you can swap, skip or cancel at any time for absolute peace of mind.

I was invited to the brilliant gastro-pub, The Wellington Arms,  in deepest darkest Basingstoke a couple of nights ago by a bon viveur of a client. Sadly, as I’m not the most well organised person, I’d left it too late in the day to plunder my own cellar (housed here rather than home, as the temptation is too great!) so I had to make a hasty stop in the shop to pick out a bottle of something modest and appropriate.

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 International Wine Challenge – Wine Merchant of the Year; Direct Merchant of the Year and Rhône Specialist of the Year
Decanter Online Wine Merchant of the Year 

The excitement has almost lowered to a low buzz following our success in last week’s wine awards.

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Alvaro Palacios (left) has been at the forefront of the Spanish wine scene for some 20 years now so we at Berry Bros. were delighted that he could join us and guests at No. 3 St James’s for our ‘Prophet of Priorat’ dinner on 3rd July.

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Nigel Greening of Felton Road Estate in New Zealand gives us an insight into his recent trip to Dubai…

OK, The land of concrete and dust is finally come. Fittingly, I flew in on an Emirates A380, the largest plane in the world. It is an astonishing bit of kit… apparently there is a spa with showers in first class, where they will shortly be pouring our wine (first, that is, not in the shower!)… typical that the wine travels better than I do! I have to ‘make do’ with business, no shabby choice with large beds, and a very roomy bar to lounge in. The thing is just ridiculously big; I think they have to keep the upper deck pressurised even when the plane is on the ground, it is so tall.

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