Winners announced on Tuesday!!

To reach the short list, judges took into account the recommendation and opinion of customers and looked for evidence of high standards of service, including responsive delivery, flexibility and adaptability to the strains of the modern day restaurant and hotel business. They also awarded on-trade suppliers on the quality of their range and pricing, plus attention to environmental issues in a high carbon impact business model.

The winners will be announced at an invitation-only ceremony on Tuesday 21 May at the London International Wine Fair.

The full list of those short listed for this award can be found at http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2013/05/shortlist-announced-for-db-awards-2013/

Wish us luck!

Performed a big budget Wine Championship last night in the charming Regatta Room of charming Durrants Hotel in George Street, London W1 and what an especially yummy evening it was.

Lynch~Bages Blanc 2009 started the evening off very nicely with its just-a-bit-different Semillon, Sauvignon Muscadelle flavours, really nice but is it worth nearly 40 Quid, I ask myself? In the context of fine White Bordeaux from a top Chateau….yup, it probably is but take it out of its comfy context and I’m unconvinced that it could lift its own body weight, if you get my drift.

On to Meursault Premier Cru Genevrieres 2009 which was utterly stunning and a Double Magnum of Von Buhl’s Grosses Gewachs Ungeheuer 07 brought the whites to a delicious conclusion.

Navajas Gran Reserva 04 was spotted by all but Silverado’s slightly-drier-than-Napa flavours confused and bewildered as people latched on to the Bordeaux subterfuge.

Then came the real deal….Rol Valentin 2000, that wonderful little garagist vineyard started up by French International Footballer and heart-throb, Eric Prissette on the upper plain of St Emilion not far from the City itself.

I loved this wine when I first bought it but it has evolved perfectly from a simple but ravishingly juicy, ripe, curranty fruit bomb into a gorgeously graceful and enormously impressive and stylish wine…..there’s lovely secondary flavours of spice and leather and cedary cigar box which evolve on the nose and carry through on the palate. Beautifully weighted, tannins all soft and ripe and such a pretty fruit still very much present enrobed in the secondary flavours. Long. Serious. Sexy.

I still loved Songlines at the finish….richly fruity, chocolatey and with deep black fruit and big tobaccoey complexity, heady and voluptuous, massively concentrated and so impressive.

Chacun à son goût, mes braves, chacun à son goût.

At yesterday’s Drinks Business Awards 2013 prize giving Jascots Wine Merchant was awarded a Special Commendation for its Environmental policies, management and practices.

The commendation read:

“Rightly commended by the judges, Jascots Wine Merchants has since 2010 employed sustainable practices, working with the Carbon Trust to reduce its CO2 emissions and increase recycling both within its own business but also among its customers with a complimentary collection of client’s waste bottles and boxes.”

A full list of the nominees can be found at http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2013/04/db-reveals-shortlist-for-green-awards-2013/?article-source=newsletter&source=564&date=2013-04-18

An extract from the award submission reads as follows:

Jascots and The Environment 2013

1.         Jascots achieved ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System) certification in 2011 and successfully recertified in 2012.  Jascots is one of only a very few (three) UK Merchants to achieve certification.

2.         Calculated our carbon footprint which was independently verified by the Carbon Trust – unique within the wine industry.

3.         For 2012 Jascots’ carbon footprint was 125.9 tCO2.  That represents a year on year absolute reduction of 16% and a relative per bottle reduction of 26.8% from 2011 to 2012.

4.         CO2 that could not be reduced was once again offset through the purchase of carbon credits making us carbon neutral.

5.         At the end of 2011 we launched our innovative industry leading service ‘Going That Extra Green Mile’.  That is in effect our ‘milk man’ service – a complimentary pick up and recycling of empty wine bottles and boxes.  As a direct result in 2012 we collected and recycled over 14,000 empty bottles of wine from our clients.

6.         We now have a total of 5 organic and 2 biodynamic suppliers (an increase from 3 and 2 respectively) either certified or in conversion.

7.         We have increased to a total of 21 wines that are either certified or in conversion to either organic or biodynamic

8.         Used a primary courier that is also carbon neutral.

9.         Changed our secondary courier to one that is Certified ISO 14001.

10.       Bought all of our energy for our offices and distribution centre from 100% renewable sources.

11.       Reduced the volume of waste sent to landfill by 50% in 2011 and maintained that reduction in 2012.

12.       Recycled 90% of our office waste.

13.       Reduced the amount of paper we use by 25% in the last 2 years.

14.       Reduced the proportion of customers receiving paper invoices from 43% to 5% since 2009.

15.       Bought all of our paper from 100% recycled paper.

16.       Reduced the amount of packaging we use by over 25%.

17.       Bought all of our packaging made from recycled products.

18.       Communicated our environmental policy to our suppliers and ascertained their own credentials.

19.       In 2012, for the first time, we shipped in bulk and bottled in the UK the equivalent of 30,000 bottles from New Zealand in order to reduce shipping carbon footprint.

20.       This year we have trebled the number of lines bottled in the UK and expect to increase sales of these to over 100,000.

21.       This year we have formed a close relationship with the Geography and Environmental Management Department of Hertfordshire University and are about to take on a full time (48 weeks) placement student from the University who will produce a detailed report on the best environmental options for the company in the future.

Anyway, I was up in Effolk this last Friday and was taken to lunch at The Suffolk Food Hall (http://www.suffolkfoodhall.co.uk/), a newly built group of very attractive barns with a terrific food hall, a garden shop and then a third building with a cooking school on the ground floor neighbouring the most fantastic cake shop, The Outrageous Cake Co., and then upstairs was the big open restaurant with the most fabulous views of the immensely impressive Orwell Bridge up to the left and then down the beautiful Orwell River down to Pinmill Yacht Club and on to Harwich beyond that.

I can’t help feeling that Constable would have knocked out a quick watercolour of this wonderful river-scape had he been with us on the brightest day we’ve had for weeks.  Lunch was very good indeed with charming local waiting staff, young and rosy cheeked, and we thought that Essex’s New Hall Vineyard’s Pinot Noir Rosé was delicious. Fractionally off dry and quite berry red but generously textured and just perfect for a cold but sunny day and to compliment Steak n Chips.
If you find yourself in Effolk, perhaps motoring up to Harwich or Felixstowe to catch a ferry to Scandinavia, do time your journey to drop into this jolly establishment for lunch or tea or even if it’s just to enjoy that view.

Jacko

Forever looking for something to “sex up the document”, I started introducing a food & wine matching element to our International Wine Championship Qs last year and, this being subjective rather than factual, I have had one or two discussions about which wine tastes best with what foods.

There’s unanimous thinking that everything and anything with any alcohol in its content made by grape or grain, brewed or distilled, Potcheen, Moonshine, Applejack or exotic liqueurs created by Benedictine Monks from a secret recipe a thousand years old, the legendary Doner Kebab IS the most versatile foodstuff on the planet.

But, I met a charming Dame from Wimbledon last week who was appalled that I’d match Gevrey Chambertin Premier Cru ‘Lavaux St Jacques’ 2007 with Roast Chicken.

Now, I’m particularly fond of the old Poulet Rotie….I wouldn’t order it in a restaurant over Rib o’ Beef but very happily sit down to a large Chicken and I reckon a really great Pinot Noir is just the absolute Bees Knees with it…..

Just to make sure, I pulled the corks out of a couple of bottles of Chevillon~Chezeaux’ relatively humble, light but so very tasty and drinkable Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2011 on Saturday evening to wash down the most delicious Coq roasted in Lemon and Rosemary and, my word, it was good!

Considerably lighter and very much less grand than the big beasts of the Côte de Nuits, Gevrey Chambertin, Nuits Saint Georges, Chambolle Musigny and the exquisite, silky, sensual Vosne~Romanee to mention just four, Chev~Chez’s BPN comes from the lower slopes that run up to Village vineyards of N-St-G.

His wine is, nevertheless, a wonderfully pure expression of Pinot Noir, it is pale and delicate and possesses a lovely, fresh, fragrant nose with hints of raspberries. On the palate, it is really tasty and it feels like you can drink it all lunchtime, through the afternoon and why not with dinner and beyond with no ill-effects….unlike the triple Green Chartreuse that one could drink at 11.45pm with your Doner on the way home from the Dog & Duck. And, to think that it felt like such a good idea at the time.

We put on a bit of a show for one of our  most favourite clients last week who were entertaining their top punters and prospects and it all went really rather well.

We kicked off with Bolney’s delightful, light, dry Pink Bubbly with it’s delicate flavours of raspberry and hedgerow and elegant, jolly effervescence….thoroughly gay in the old sense of the word….and maybe the new.

The first white was my default crowd-pleaser, Esk Valley Verdehlo which was fresh and zesty but quite a difficult spot for the assembled.  Then the utterly ravishing Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘Folatieres’ from 2008 by Philippe Chavy, my favourite Puligny, my favourite vintage and from my favourite grower and what an immensely classy, impressive and beautiful wine it was.  Was it eclipsed by Bon Buhl’s Grosses Gewachs (Grand Cru if you’re French) Kirchenstuck 2007 served from our last Double Magnum with it’s racy minerality, delicate floral tones, lively, zesty refreshing acidity and slightly honeyed nuances on the finish?  This is my quintessential white of all time….I could live on this divine stuff perfectly happily forever and ever, Amen.

The first of the reds was our Bellvale Pinot Noir from Gippsland, South East Australia and what a pure and pretty Pinot it is….so lovely and so drinkable.  The Château Lalande 2000 from St Julien was on it’s final legs and, although a joy to them that like their wines very mature, it fell a bit flat on the youths there….not enough in yer face fruit for them that woz brung up on Jager-Bombs and Alcopops.  Our Amarone della Valpolicella got the game back on track again with its sweet, rich intensity and then it was time for the finalé!

Sorry to sound like a scratched record but the end was blissful….Joan Sangenis’s Planots 2007 from Priorat….WOW, what a wine! Very dark with soft velvety bright purple edges, a nose crammed with bright black fruits, spice, cedar and cigar-box.  On the palate, it is utterly sublime. Both immense and yet balanced and artfully tempered. Focused and yet broad with great swathes of currant flavours, small, tight, ripe black currants, spice, lots of spice and woody tones all combine and assault the senses and it rolls out into a long, luxurious finish.  Time seems to stop when I taste this stuff and it so takes over one’s senses. If you could hear it as well as smell and taste it, it would be Beethoven’s Pastoral, The Shepherds Hymn, methinks.

If I was to be shot tomorrow morning, what would it be tonight? Rib of Beef in a Port and Black Cherry Sauce and a Double Magnum of Cheval Blanc 1990 or Planots 2007 from Priorat followed by Von Buhl’s 2007 Beerenauslese?

Hhhhmmmm, what a send off.

Everyone's a hero...

Welcome one and all...

New wine made up 20% of the tasting

As ever, journalists like to arrive early

It was the time to choose your summer rose

Will with Kieran from Boma HQ

The new Chablis - Domaine Vrignaud - absolutely fabulous!

Thank you all for coming - you were great.

Wine merchant

The company also began bottling in the UK last year, filling 30,000 bottles-a number it hopes to double this year.

One other initiative launched last year was the “milkman” scheme, by which Jascots would collect empty bottles when delivering a new order. Despite what was apparently a “slow start”, the scheme quickly grew in popularity towards the end of the year.

One customer, Paolo Macis at Dish Catering, said: “It is great to know that our glass and cardboard waste goes to a dedicated recycling plant. We can record and display to our clients the waste transfer note. Combining a collection with the wine delivery reduces our carbon footprint further.”