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Indigo dine
On Wednesday 10 November I was invited to dinner at The Square Mile Kitchen and Lounge, the restaurant of the Hotel Indigo near Tower Hill. The hotel’s name is curious because my first impression was of red rather than voilet. Anyway, it’s all very bright and trendy and hard to distinguish from the other swanky…
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The view from above
Pictured below is my current workplace. The terrace at the Hotel Gervasoni in Valparaiso is the setting for the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles Chile 2010 tasting. Not a bad place in which to work. We tasted 49 wines this morning, with my group allocated 14 Sauvignon Blancs, 2 rosados, 14 Cabernet Sauvignons, 9 Merlots and…
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Port Authorities: Noval LBV 1994-2004
I have long been suspicious of Late Bottled Vintage Ports. When I first started in the wine trade 14 years ago (I’m older than I look) I tucked into a bottle of LBV with my colleagues after some tasting or other. It took me two days to recover from that hangover. Of course I blamed…
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Lost in the Maze
To commemorate the launch of the 2005 Disznókő Kapi, Christian Seeley, MD of AXA Millésimes, hosted a dinner at Maze on 4 October. I adore Tokaji – it is, or can be, one of the world’s greatest wines. I have happy memories of my one and only visit to Tokaj in (I think) April 2002.…
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Ridge Vineyards dinner in aid of the Pebbles Project
Brighton resident and fine wine consultant David Wainwright has established a series of producer-focused fine wine dinners with all proceeds going to the Pebbles Project (www.pebblesproject.co.za) in South Africa. On 23 November, David will be hosting a dinner at The Square with Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards. David describes it as ” THE event of the year and is…
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Curry Hamburgers
On Wednesday 22 September I went to my local curry house Hot Stuff with my mates Paul Raymonde, Angela Raymonde Cutler and Andrea Talkenberg. I suppose I should be flattered that these West London residents are prepared to come Sarf of the River for dinner. They bring their passports, just to be sure. Before dinner we…
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Three times the charm: Cantina di Clavesana
How could I turn down an invitation to dine with three Italian ladies? Actually, one of them turned out to be French. Nobody’s perfect. On Monday 20 September I went to Al Duca restaurant in St James’s to taste some wines from Cantina di Clavesana, one of the largest co-ops in northwest Italy. My hosts…
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Silver Smith: K Vintners and Charles Smith Wines
On Monday 6 September, I was invited by Bibendum to taste their new listings from K Vintners and Charles Smith Wines. Bibendum will be importing five of these wines in January 2011, so this was an early preview. The tasting was at Nobu, which I had not visited before. On my wages I have to…
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Tom's Kitchen at Somerset House
Last night (2 September) I was invited to attend the press launch of Tom Aiken’s new restaurant at Somerset House. Replacing the Admiralty Restaurant, Tom’s Kitchen is essentially a West End reproduction of the Chelsea restaurant of the same name, which I visited a couple of years ago. It was alright. While waiting to be…
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Cecchi nowt: Identità London 2010
I spent lunchtime today (7 June) at Vinopolis, where the Italian wine journalist Filippo Bartolatta hosted a tasting of Cecchi wines with Andrea and Cesare Cecchi. The tasting was a showcase for the launch of Cecchi’s new Supertuscan wine Coevo IGT Toscana 2006, half of which is Sangiovese, with the rest Cabernet Sauvignon (of course!),…