Club Oenologique | Issue 5

5 WINE I SPIRITS I LIFESTYLE

Champagne’s rock star V I TA L I E TA I T T I N G E R O N D R A M A , T R A U M A

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A N D T H E M E A N I N G O F F A M I LY

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C LU B O E N O LO G I Q U E B LO O D L I N E S & S U CC E S S I O N

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T H E F A M I LY I S S U E

BOR DE AU X & B U R G U N DY

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WHISKY & CIGARS

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REGULARS 18. PHOTOGRAPHY

114. RESTAURANTS

Newcomers thirsty for knowledge used to be looked down on – but now they’re changing the drinks world for the better

Seen from overhead, the soils, contours and layout of these wildly contrasting vineyards evoke an otherworldly dimension

For decades, an unremarkable town in eastern France was the epicentre of French gastronomy. Aiste Miseviciute goes back to the birthplace of nouvelle cuisine

8. BRUCE SCHOENFELD

78. DAY WITH THE ARTISAN

Less than half the enjoyment of a well-stocked cellar comes from actually opening your bottles; the fun is in the anticipation

Glass is created from the humblest of earthbound materials, but in the hands of a master glass-blower it becomes truly ethereal

7. ALICE LASCELLES

11. SARAH HELLER MW

Are you a Broad or a Deep?

Our woman in Hong Kong on the psychology of the obsessive collector 13. CLUB O SELECTS

From watches to wine storage, our pick of the exclusive, the artisan and the downright luxurious

81. THE COLLECTION

Our team of experts recommends the finest wines and spirits: Burgundy 2003 and 2004, aged Champagne, Vin de Constance, investable whiskies and the latest rums to hit the market

118. GASTRONOMY

Lamb is a central ingredient in cuisines around the world, yet it accounts for a minuscule percentage of the meat we buy. Fiona Beckett asks why 138. TRAVEL

As Auction Napa Valley celebrates its 40th anniversary, the organisers are promoting a more sustainable and communityfocused gathering 144. MARK C O’FLAHERTY

From coffee shops and private clubs to hotel rooms and economy class, the working life of a freelance nomad

ALEXAN DER RUB IN ; MA RIE-PIERRE MORA L; ALAMY; DEB ORA H WASTIE; FACUND O B USTA MANTE

Contents

72

66

54

134

62 30

MARTIN S C OTT P OWELL; KEV IN CRAUS E; SYLV IE FLEURY, 2001–2002 , C OURTESY GA LERIE THADDAEUS ROPAC , LOND ON , PARIS, SALZB URG; MARTIN MORRELL; GETTY IMAGES; C OURTESY GUC CI; TIM HALL

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44

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FEATURES 30. THE CHAMPAGNE METHOD

54. NURTURE TRAIL

122. THE GENERATION GAME

As Vitalie Taittinger takes over from her father as president at the family Champagne house, Adam Lechmere meets the new generation

In less than 50 years, Kanonkop has gone from a workhorse of South Africa’s wine scene to a leading light.

Emile Joubert meets the two brothers who made it happen

The youngest of a culinary dynasty, Emily Roux is making her own way in the foodie world with her Notting Hill restaurant Caractère

40. THE FAMILY WAY

62. BLOOD PRESSURE

Seeing a family behind a wine label suggests authenticity and tradition – but do such companies make a better job of running Bordeaux châteaux than corporations?

Feuding firms and grisly fallouts: John Arlidge on the highs and lows of family businesses

44. FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

The senior members of Familia Torres are overwhelmingly occupied by climate change, but as the brand celebrates its 150th anniversary, they each have a different view on how best to tackle the issue

66. WHERE SPIRITS COME BACK TO LIFE

The small, remote island of Islay off the Scottish coast carries incredible weight in the world of whisky 72. TIME TRAVELLER

The legendary Mille Miglia is a celebration of automotive heritage – and for Chopard’s Karl-Friedrich Scheufele it’s an opportunity to leave business behind and revel in the joy of the open road

128. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE LUXURY KIND

High-end brands are moving away from wine, watches and whisky into exclusivity, experiences and a whole new world of opulence 134. HOLY SMOKE

Just like fine wine, cigars can benefit from ageing. Tobias Gorn recommends the sticks that can be stored, and where to buy and smoke them

C OV E R V I TA L I E TA I T T I N G E R P H OTO G R A P H E D IN THE ANCIENT CHALK CELLARS AT C H A M PAG N E TA I T T I N G E R , R E I M S , 3 1 JA N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 P H OTO G R A P H B Y MARTIN MORRELL PICTURE FRAMES SUPPLIED BY THE F R A M I N G S A LO N , LO N D O N

CLUB OENOLOGIQUE

info@cluboenologique.com EDITORIAL EDITOR

Adam Lechmere

Contributors WRITERS

CONSULTANT EDITOR

JANE ANSON

JOEL HARRISON

CONOR MCNICHOLAS

Guy Woodward

Jane Anson is author, co-author or translator of over a dozen wine and travel books, including the definitive Bordeaux Legends and the forthcoming Inside Bordeaux.

Joel Harrison is a spirits writer, Keeper of the Quaich, Musketeer of Armagnac and Gin Guild ‘rectifier’. Now 40, he has given up all hope of ever playing for Oxford United.

Conor McNicholas was formerly editor of legendary music magazine NME and, later, of global automotive superpower Top Gear magazine.

JOHN ARLIDGE

KATE HAWKINGS

John Arlidge is a business and profile writer for The Sunday Times. He has interviewed business leaders including Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein, Donald Trump, and Apple’s former chief designer Jony Ive.

Restaurateur, professional imbiber and glassware fanatic Kate Hawkings writes for Olive, The Guardian and Imbibe.

Her latest book, Aperitif, was shortlisted for the Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards 2019.

Food and travel journalist Alicia Miller is assistant editor of The Sunday Times Travel Magazine.

Her work has taken her to some of the world’s best restaurants.

In this issue, she interviews Emily Roux of the famous foodie dynasty.

SARAH HELLER MW

AISTE MISEVICIUTE

TIMOTHY BARBER

Italophile MW Sarah Heller was born and raised in Hong Kong, where she covers wine for Asia Tatler, disseminating her sometimes idiosyncratic wine recommendations across the continent.

Former model Aiste Miseviciute is now a food journalist and blogger. She runs her own blog, Luxeat, and organises culinary events around the world.

CONTENT EXECUTIVE

Laurel Bibby SPIRITS CONSULTANT

Joel Harrison WHISKY CONSULTANT

Colin Hampden-White SUBEDITORS

David Tombesi-Walton at Sands Publishing Solutions Steve McCubbin Jaq Bayles PUBLISHING CEO, FINE WINES AND SPIRITS

Christelle Guibert PUBLISHER

Tony Long

ALICIA MILLER

The Telegraph’s first watch editor, Timothy Barber is now a freelance journalist, magazine editor and consultant, contributing to the Telegraph, Wired, Spears, 1843 and many others.

EMILE JOUBERT FIONA BECKETT

DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Rashna Mody Clark PICTURE DIRECTOR

Caroline Metcalfe

Award-winning food and drink writer Fiona Beckett is wine columnist for The Guardian and author of 25 wine books.

She also publishes the website matchingfoodandwine.com and is co-founder of the wine podcast Bâtonnage.

DESIGN

Rashna Mody Clark Design:

TOBIAS GORN

Anna Wiewiora, Miguel Batista

Tobias Gorn has more than 15 years’ experience in the drinks industry, including three years as head sommelier at Tamarind in Mayfair. He is an award-winning wine, spirit and cigar specialist and writer, and he moonlights as a shooting instructor.

PRINTING REPRO

Eric Bailey Ladd PRINTER

Emile Joubert is a wine industry communications consultant and writer from Stellenbosch.

He has also authored several fiction books in his native tongue, Afrikaans.

MARK C O’FLAHERTY

Writer and photographer Mark C O’Flaherty splits his time between London and New York City. His words and pictures appear regularly in The Financial Times and The Telegraph, as well as in a variety of international editions of AD.

ALICE LASCELLES

BRUCE SCHOENFELD

Alice Lascelles writes about drinks for The Financial Times.

She is the Fortnum & Mason Drinks Writer of the Year 2019.

Bruce Schoenfeld enjoys subverting the civilising mission of Club Oenologique by drinking enamel-stripping Spanish white wines while shouting obscenities at televised football matches.

ELIN MCCOY

Elin McCoy is a wine and spirit journalist and author based in New York, where she is a wine and spirits columnist for Bloomberg Markets.

Geoff Neal Group SUBSCRIPTIONS

Newsstand Magazines cluboenologique.com/subs Facebook @cluboenologique Instagram @cluboenologique Twitter @cluboenologique Email: info@cluboenologique.com news@cluboenologique.com ISSN 2631-4630. Club Oenologique is published quarterly by The Conversion Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. The title Club Oenologique is registered in Great Britain as a trademark. Every care is taken in compiling the contents of this publication but the proprietors assume no responsibility in the effects arising there from. No responsibility is accepted for loss or damage of manuscripts and illustrations submitted for publication. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the proprietors. Proprietors reserve the right to refuse advertisements.

PHOTOGRAPHERS, ARTISTS AND ILLUSTRATORS NOMA BAR

Based in London, Noma Bar is an award-winning Israeli graphic designer, illustrator and artist.

He has illustrated over 100 magazine covers, published more than 550 illustrations and released three books of his work.

FACUNDO BUSTAMANTE

London-based food, still-life, and lifestyle photographer Facundo Bustamante has 17 years’ experience in the creative industries.

TIM HALL

Tim Hall is a British fine-art photographer specialising in travel, landscape and

portraiture. His work is a lyrical response to the places he has visited and the people who inhabit them.

MARTIN MORRELL

Martin Morrell’s photography encompasses interiors, travel, fashion and showbusiness.

His work has appeared in publications ranging from The New York Times’ style magazine T to Porter.

STUART PATIENCE

London-based illustrator Stuart Patience has had his work published internationally by clients including The Guardian, The New York Times, Esquire and Wallpaper.

MARTIN SCOTT POWELL

Martin Scott Powell’s photography has been recognised by The New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, to name but a few.

Born and raised in Edinburgh, he is now based in Brooklyn, New York.

DEBORAH WASTIE

Deborah Wastie has a background in graphic design, working mainly in the charity sector before leaving full-time work to pursue photography. She now designs still-life images.

‘

Editor’s letter

appiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family. In another city.’ That was George Burns’s crisp view on the subject of family, and many would doubtless agree. Take the protagonists of our ‘Succession’ feature in this issue of Club Oenologique. From the Mondavi brothers exchanging blows, to the Guccis taking things to the ultimate extreme, you don’t have to go far to find family firms riven with strife.

Some of the greatest stories – in both fiction and real life – are about warring families, but the family is by far the most enduring business model. According to The Economist, 90% of the world’s businesses are family-owned. Family firms are more flexible and more far-sighted, it is said. Crucially, they can make long-term investments without having to satisfy the short-term demands of shareholders.

These advantages are doubly pertinent in wine and spirits, where returns on investment can be cripplingly slow. Those vines don’t grow any faster because they’re owned by LVMH. Families have a practical and a romantic interest in longevity – they want the business to survive because they want the family to last. As Emeline Borie of Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste tells Jane Anson in her piece on family ownership in Bordeaux, ‘the idea is to hand over to the next generation’.

But survival is not just a question of keeping the business going. As the world heats up, many wine regions will cease to be viable. The Torres family (celebrating its 150th anniversary this year) is spending millions on research into mitigating the effects of climate change.

One of the reasons it can do this is – you’ve guessed it – there are no shareholders. ‘If we were on the stock exchange, forget it,’ Miguel A Torres says, succinctly.

When they work, families work brilliantly. And they can absorb shocks. Perhaps the best of all survival stories is that of Champagne Taittinger, which just over a decade ago was sold (‘just like that’, as our cover star Vitalie Taittinger says) to an American investment group.

Had it not been for the tenacity of her father, that would have been the end. Buying back the house was traumatic, but Taittinger Sr did it because he had no doubt that family should triumph.

There are many other examples of family companies throughout these pages. From Stellenbosch to Penedès, we look at how and why they work – and in some cases, why they don’t. We set out not to discover what they have in common but simply to present them as an enduring, dynamic and potent feature of our world.

ADAM LECHMERE FEBRUARY 2020

C LU B O E N O LO G I Q U E

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[ COLUMN ]

ILLUSTRATION: STUA RT PATIENC E

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’ve been writing about the drinks world for almost 20 years.

I’ve launched and edited drinks trade magazines, written for dozens of consumer and specialist titles, been a columnist for several newspapers, talked about wine and spirits on the radio and TV, been made a Keeper of the Quaich, a Rectifier of the Guild, and won a few gongs along the way.

Yet still, there are often times I feel like an outsider.

For a long time I thought this was down to intellectual insecurity.

Because drinks is one of those subjects that’s absolutely bristling with specialists. The more you learn, the more you realise how much you still don’t know. But lately I’ve started to think the way I feel is more to do with the way I was brought up. My family wasn’t really interested in food and drink. They didn’t discuss how things tasted, or where they were grown or how they were made. We ate perfectly well but we didn’t spend Sunday lunch debating the merits of one cru versus another, or linger lovingly over the veg stall at the Saturday market.

My parents, like a lot of the postwar generation, considered the whole discussion of appetite and taste rather grossly corporeal. Eating and drinking wasn’t something to be enjoyed in itself – it was simply a means to an end. My parents weren’t teetotallers – far from it – but the kind of things they drank were mostly pretty ordinary.

Box wine. Bell’s whisky. Gordon’s

Once, my grandfather splashed out on a case of vintage port to mark an important occasion, but the family deemed it so special that no one ever dared actually open it

ALICE LASCELLES IN LONDON

gin. My grandfather was the ‘wine expert’ in our family, because he had a subscription to the Wine Society. But I don’t remember him ever actually drinking wine – he drank whisky & soda. Once, he splashed out on a case of vintage port to mark a big occasion.

But the family deemed it so special that no one ever dared actually open it. That case still exists to this day.

When I listen to my French friend talk about growing up in the Jura, where her father, like many people, made a little bit of wine, or my Glaswegian colleague recalling the symbolism of that first single malt shared with his uncle, it makes me realise that I have very little gastronomic heritage at all.

About the closest thing I have to a liquid identity is Pimm’s.

For a long time that felt like a weakness. But, increasingly, I’ve started to see it as a strength. More and more, the drinks world is filling up with people like me who didn’t grow up in a family of oenophiles, or with Speyside water coursing through their veins; people who didn’t inherit a knowledge of first growths or an account at Berry Bros & Rudd from their father. People who are, perhaps, dipping their toe into the drinks world for the first time.

Insiders used to sneer at these people, asking their gauche questions and holding their Zaltos all wrong.

But increasingly I’m hearing distillers, sommeliers and winemakers alike acknowledge that it’s those newcom-

ers who are changing the industry for the better – because they have a thirst for knowledge that their predecessors, weaned on the family cellar, did not.

Instead of accepting the received wisdom, they’re asking the industry to explain itself. They’re demanding a degree of transparency, and a level of detail, that’s unprecedented. That, in turn, has forced the industry to innovate in all kinds of ways, from the Krug ID, a scannable code which reveals the vintage conditions and wines behind every Krug iteration, to the oenotourism boom – witness the new, £140m Macallan distillery, complete with a visitor centre that wouldn’t look out of place in a worldclass museum.

These new epicureans are more nosy, and tend to roam more widely. They’re drinking grower Champagne, orange wine, vintage rum and Japanese whisky, as well as the cannon. They are curious, and catholic in their tastes, and that’s helped bring oxygen to new parts of the industry: new regions, new styles, new producers.

The old hierarchies still exist, of course – you only need to look at the record prices for Burgundy and Macallan. But they no longer run along blood lines in the way they used to do.

Anyone can be a drinks lover, collector or expert, wherever they come from and however they were raised. And that is a welcome change indeed.

C LU B O E N O LO G I Q U E

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[ COLUMN ]

Long ago, I worked out that only about a third of the enjoyment I get from the wine in my cellar comes from actually drinking it. Probably half comes from the anticipation

s I write, in the first week of the new year, I’m in the process of picking out a selection of wines from my cellar. I’m standing them up in a designated spot with the intention of drinking them in the coming 12 months. Here a 1989 Pichon-Baron; there a magnum of 2000 Clerico Pajana Barolo.

It’s an annual ritual that calls to mind a friend who visited a liquor store a few years ago to top up for his New Year celebrations. Rooting through the remainder bin, he improbably came across a bottle of 1986 Château Margaux at a cut-rate price. ‘It was in perfect condition,’ he bragged at the party the next night. I asked how he knew. ‘I drank it yesterday afternoon,’ he said.

My friend has a formidable collection, rows of Bordeaux and Burgundy resting on wooden racks in optimum conditions. But that bottle of Margaux never made it through the cellar door.

It was undeniably ready to drink. But other than the hour or so of pleasure he experienced while drinking it, he might as well never have owned it.

I guess that’s enough for some people. Not for me. I’m a hoarder, and it isn’t just with wine. I have a shelf of new shirts waiting to be worn for the first time. My wife rolls her eyes. ‘They aren’t getting better in the closet,’ she says. But the wine in my cellar is getting better – at least in theory.

Sure, I could drink it now. But I’ll often have a better experience if I wait.

8

C LU B O E N O LO G I Q U E

IN COLORADO

That’s only part of the reason for holding off though. Some of my prized bottles have lingered in my cellar for two decades. They’ve become old friends. In fact, plenty of friends have come and gone while I’ve waited to drink those wines. Occasionally I’ll pull a bottle out, think about when might be the time to open it, then put it right back where it was. I happily admit to periodically taking a mental inventory, on a plane or during a sleepless night, of the magnum of 1970 Vega Sicilia Unico, the two vintages of Redigaffi, and the three full cases of 2000 classed-growth Bordeaux that I can open when I please. It always leaves me feeling secure – like my retirement account would if I had a better retirement account.

I acquire wine frequently. Some of it that clearly needs to be drunk within a year or so gets drunk within a year or so. The rest gets stashed deep in the recesses of the cellar. It has to wait its turn, even if that means younger wines get drunk first. I can hear the protests as I drink, say, a 1995 or 2000 Margaux before my own two bottles of the 1986.

(Or even, if you want to know the truth, before the 1975 Pichon-Lalande that May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, the former proprietor, gave me years ago that I still haven’t opened.) But for me, that’s the way to optimise the quality of my consumption.

Long ago, I worked out that only about a third of the enjoyment I get from the wine in my cellar comes

from actually drinking it. Probably half comes from the anticipation. The rest is remembering what it was like, and the occasion when I had it. And if I finally do open May-Eliane’s 1975 and it turns out to be disappointing or even corked? Well, I certainly won’t feel foolish for waiting 20 or 30 years.

In fact, I’ll be thrilled that I managed to get so much pleasure out of a bottle that turned out to be quite ordinary.

Years ago, I explained all this to Gil Nickel, who founded Far Niente, one of Napa Valley’s most reliable producers.

Gil nodded, said he understood. But he stressed that our time on Earth is short. ‘You’ve got to drink your treasures,’ he said. He advised me to visit my cellar every New Year’s, choose a case worth of wines that aren’t going to get much better, and then make a point of opening at least one every month.

A few months later, Gil passed away.

To honour his memory, I always do just as he suggested. The first week of every year, I carefully select 12 different bottles that I’ve owned for a while. This year, I’ve included a 1987 Pesquera, from Ribera del Duero, and a bottle from the first vintage of Mendel’s Finca Remota, my favourite Argentinian Malbec, that the owner of the estate, Anabelle Sielecki, gave me. I’ve put them in the corner of the cellar that I’ve dedicated for that purpose. And then, over the months that follow, I’ll find an occasion to drink them. Most of them, anyway.

ILLUSTRATION: STUA RT PATIENC E

A

BRUCE SCHOENFELD

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[ COLUMN ]

ILLUSTRATION: STUA RT PATIENC E

I

n wine as in politics, tribalism runs deep. Opposing tribes’ disdain for each other’s taste sparks debates that make parliaments look meek and orderly. And the key distinction I’ve found is between collectors who go deep and those who go broad.

Personally, I identify more with the Broads. I find the wine world’s abundance too tempting to pledge my troth to one region or grape. Though I adore Nebbiolo, for example, I can’t imagine why I’d deny myself pleasures from still-developing corners of the wine world – as with a fellow Broad who confided he was ‘getting very into Argentinian Malbec’ (still relatively underexplored here in Asia). Deeps have no time for such distractions.

In its purest form, deep-hood is an almost monastic pursuit, demanding one funnel all one’s resources of mind, purse and palate into pursuing an encyclopaedic knowledge of one region. And the deepest Deeps are almost always Burgundy collectors.

Come to think of it, in fact, most Burgundy collectors are Deeps. Being a Burgundy Deep, however, isn’t the same as being a Burgundy snob. The true Burgundy Deep loves the region in its totality, loyally awaiting annual allocations from his or her chosen producers across the region, cherishing the village wines along with the Grand Crus. The challenge in Asia is that new collectors often end up as Burgundy Deeps by default. It’s easy to see how it happens: much of the continent views

I’ve met Burgundy lovers who say they prefer Burgundy to Bordeaux because it’s a “land of humble farmers,” even as they drop sums that dwarf most people’s monthly rent – on a single bottle

SARAH HELLER MW IN HONG KONG

wine enjoyment as a group activity and the wine one contributes is seen as the vinous expression of one’s esteem for the group. Burgundy’s price premium relative to virtually all other regions can make even the most extravagant non-Burgundy wine seem something of a slight. Among still more rarefied circles only certain Côte de Nuits Grands Crus will do, with even DRC considered ‘too obvious’.

The beauty of Burgundy for new collectors is that, despite its expense and exclusivity, it retains an aura of intellectualism and pastoral wholesomeness that is antithetical to the crass brand obsession and pomp they attribute to Bordeaux drinkers.

I’ve met Burgundy lovers who maintained without irony that they prefer Burgundy to Bordeaux because it’s a ‘land of humble farmers’, even as they dropped sums that dwarf many people’s monthly rent on one or two bottles.

A part of the inescapable trap of becoming a Burgundy Deep too early is that you come to equate everything good in the wine world with Burgundy.

You see loving Burgundy as a sort of shorthand for loving ‘elegant’ wine styles, small family-run producers and, above all, terroir. Declining to rank Burgundy above all other wines is like admitting you like big, juicy wines made by giant corporations that lack ‘site expression’ (which, since that loosely describes Penfolds Grange, I am certainly guilty of).

Producers from other regions often reinforce the issue by describing any of their wines that are less bombastic, more site-specific or even (and this is truly absurd) marginally lower in alcohol as ‘Burgundian’. So liking those wines – often, admittedly, among the most exciting in any region – is further testament to the insurmountable greatness of the Côte d’Or. The unfortunate thing is that among the default Deeps I suspect there are covert Broads who would thrill to the illicit, pillowy charms of a great Napa Cabernet, the flowing caress of a Bordeaux Blanc, the ethereal lilt of an immaculately aged Barolo. Meanwhile, these treasures that they so quickly dismiss as ‘overblown’, ‘buttery’, or, most frustratingly, ‘Burgundian, but not quite Burgundy’ never really get their due in the Asian market, despite the occasional nibble of interest.

Still, in the past few years I’ve seen more of these encouraging nibbles, suggesting perhaps the stranglehold of orthodoxy is loosening. Whether it’s the Rousseau drinker dabbling in Roagna or the Coche-Dury diehard becoming enamoured with Kumeu River, I dare to hope this exploration will ultimately lead them further afield.

In the meantime, the hardcore Deeps will grudgingly pay ever more for their beloved Cathiard village wines and my fellow Broads and I will be here waiting for default Deeps to come over to the dark side and join us in our hunt down all the wine world’s rabbit holes.

C LU B O E N O LO G I Q U E

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Clockwise from top: Car tier ’s Tank, seen here in its bejewelled Americaine edition, is the legacy of the design genius of Louis Car tier, pictured (second from left) with father Alfred and brothers Pierre and Jean- Jacques; the Santos, made for the famous aviator; and the surreal Crash, styled on Dalí’s ‘soft watches’ by Car tier ’s London office

CLUB SELECTS

Timeless class W H AT M A K E S A D E S I G N C L A S S I C ? I N T H E WO R L D O F WAT C H E S, S AYS T I M O T H Y B A R B E R , T H E

JEAN -MARIE DEL MORAL

CARTIER ARCHIVE IS THE FIRST PORT OF CALL

One could imagine Louis Cartier would have had a lot of time for Jony Ive. It was the former Apple design guru, after all, who brought beautiful aesthetics to the functional world of tech. Cartier, a design guru of the Belle Époque, performed a similar trick with the early wristwatch, transforming the functional timekeeper into an object of formal elegance and style. Back when wristwatches were barely a genre, he established an aesthetic template and a questing attitude to unusual shapes that still define Cartier’s oh-so-chic watchmaking.

It began in 1904 when Cartier put a

watch on the wrist of his pal, pioneer aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, for airborne timekeeping. A square-form design with subtly curving corners, tiny rivets set into the bezel and a dial marked by slanted Roman numerals, the Santos was arguably the first true wristwatch design, and ineffably elegant.

The following decade Car tier developed it into one of its original offerings in the fledgling wristwatch market – and never looked back. Its 1978 reimagining as a bold, discoready bracelet watch has been recently reinvigorated, to huge success – though allow me also to

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CLUB SELECTS

MODERN DESIGN CLASSICS RESSENCE TYPE 3 (2015)

point you to the subtler contours of the newly-arrived Santos-Dumont, a slimline harking back to that 116-year-old design.

Back in Louis’s day, the watches Cartier made were few, but the designs as handsome as they were ingenious. These included the dandyish, curve-sided Tonneau (meaning ‘barrel’-shaped) in 1906, the plumper curves of the Tortue (or ‘tortoise’) in 1912 and the stretched oval of the Baignoire. Like the Santos, these are still in the collection today – indeed, last year saw exceptional new, connoisseur versions of the Tonneau that are all the black tie watch you’ll ever need.

In 1919 a watch appeared that would become a sub-genre in its own right: the rectangular Tank, named for the way its long, straight flanks resembled the aerial view of the military tanks recently deployed in Flanders.

It was the war, and the practicalities of trench life, that finally propelled wristwatches into the mainstream, but Cartier’s Tank was far ahead of the rest in its sleek modernity.

Adopted by movie stars and glitterati, it would appear in innumerable, frequently eccentric interpretations over the decades (there are some 80 versions in today’s catalogue). But the original Tank Normale remains unimprovable.

The shapes kept coming long after Louis Cartier had departed.

Most famously, Cartier’s London branch came up with the impossible asymmetry of the Crash in 1967.

Apocr yphally inspired by a Baignoire melted in a car crash, or alternatively by the soft watches of Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory, it’s ultimately simply a fabulous testament to the unfettered design sensibilities of its era. Like so many of Cartier’s finest, it transcended its own era long ago – which is why we can call it, with absolute justification, a design classic.

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Belgium’s Ressence (right) has made big waves for a tiny, young brand that produces around 30 watches a year. Last year it produced a mechanical watch that uses solarpowered connectivity to set itself accurately; but it’s Ressence’s take on the way time is displayed that is its most ingenious innovation. Ressence rotates the dial itself – or rather, elements for hours, minutes, seconds and other displays orbit the dial while rotating continuously.

BULGARI OCTO FINISSIMO (2017) Five years ago, you wouldn’t have put money on Bulgari producing the most acclaimed fresh design in modern watches (below), especially one based on a reinterpretation of an octagonal form that had been in its catalogue for years. But the brand’s

£32,677/€38,760, see ressencewatches. com for stockists VACHERON CONSTANTIN FIFTYSIX If you’re the world’s oldest watch marque (265 years and counting), adding something new that doesn’t feel overly novel is no easy task. But that’s what Vacheron Constantin has achieved with the FiftySix range (below), which brings urbanity to Vacheronstyle classicism. At a snip under £20,000, the full calendar model in steel is an especially on-point style.

The Française is just one of the models in the range of around 80 of Car tier ’s enduringly favoured Tank watches

£19,500/€22,972 Vacheronconstantin.com

reduction of the complex Octo case to an ultra-flat style is dramatically effective: slim enough to be formal, subtle enough to be casual, and so comfortable on the wrist you’ll never want to take it off (if you actually notice that it’s on in the first place). £12,100/€14,359 bulgari.com

G R A N D

C R U

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D E

G R A V E S

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R O U G E

E T

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B L A N C

“Sexy but classy!

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DECANTER MAGAZINE - Jane ANSON - January 2019

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CLUB SELECTS

Gear and gadgets F R O M B U I L T- U N D E R U N I T S T O C O M P A C T C E L L A R S , O U R P I C K O F T H E B E ST W I N E STO R AG E S O LU T I O N S

GAGGENAU OR NEVER It’s not all coffee machines and fridge-freezers at Gaggenau; the home appliance producer also makes a series of high-end climate-controlled wine fridges. The Vario 400 series offers two fully integrated wine cabinets, with space for up to 99 bottles in the independently controlled ‘climate zones’. These minimalist fridges are available with either glass or stainlesssteel doors, and they come equipped with humidity control, LED lighting, and an ‘assisted opening’ mechanism – just in case opening the door yourself sounds a little too taxing.

POA gaggenau.com

MIELE TICKET

DO THE TWIST

They may just look like very expensive fridges, but Miele’s classy wine units are so much more than that. The pull-out racks in these built-under units, which hold a respectable 34 bottles, come with separate temperature zones to keep your Chablis, Beaujolais or Bordeaux at the optimum temperature for storing and serving. Adjustable slats and customisable labels mean you can arrange the unit to suit your collection, while Miele’s SommelierSet shelving offers extra space for keeping glasses and decanters alongside the wines – a useful detail that means your glasses come ready chilled.

We may not all be blessed with basement space beneath our homes, but Spiral Cellars has come up with an ingenious solution: sinking a walkdown well shaft into your kitchen floor.

The company reckons these striking spirals – ranging from two to three metres deep and with space for up to 1,900 bottles – are the most costeffective wine storage option. There’s no need for mechanical climate control, thanks to the natural air-conditioning of being underground, and the installation doesn’t (usually) require planning permission. Alternatively – just in case you don’t have the floor space – Spiral can also create bespoke storage in any location, whether that be an unused shower room, an alcove or just a cubbyhole under the stairs.

From £2,306 ($3,000) miele.co.uk

From £18,800 ($24,500) spiralcellars.co.uk

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ALAMY

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Sky fall S E E N F R O M O V E R H E A D , T H E S O I L S, C O N T O U R S A N D L AYO U T O F T H E S E W I L D L Y C O N T R A S T I N G V I N E YA R D S E V O K E A N O T H E R - W O R L D L Y D I M E N S I O N

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DAILY OVERVIEW

We’re accustomed to seeing panoramic photographs of vineyards, all blue sky and green landscapes, documenting the wine world’s idyllic vistas. The more obsessed among us are equally familiar with up-close profiles of individual vines, charting their trellising, pruning and training systems. But aerial shots present a whole new perspective.

Take the opening view (previous page) of La Geria in the unheralded wine region of Lanzarote. Here, individual bush vines are planted into the arid black volcanic soil and then partly buried in layers of coarse but porous picón ash, which retain the night-time humidity to provide the requisite moisture to the vines.

Low, semicircular walls are built around the exposed vines to protect the grapes – mostly Malvasía – from the wind. The result, viewed from overhead, could be a scene from another planet.

The steep inclines of the Douro’s terraced vineyards (right) built into the banks of the river are, by contrast, well known. The region’s Port houses keep stonemasons on their payroll to maintain the walls that buttress the terraces, which themselves also require arduous cultivation and harvest by hand. Less familiar – but equally mesmerising – are the vineyards’ beguiling contours, seen here to dramatic effect.

[ PHOTOGRAPHY ]

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ALAMY

New Zealand may be categorized as cool climate, but much of Central Otago is subject to dr y, warm conditions. Here in Lowburn, gravelly schist soils provide an infer tile, quick-draining base for vineyards that are often located on steep, sunny slopes. The result is stressed vines whose roots stretch deep into the ear th to access water, focusing their energies on concentrating the grapes rather than building up foliage.

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ALAMY

The wines of the Moselle are peculiar in being the output of three different countries.

Those of Germany are renowned; those of France, a little less so; and situated between the pair, those of Luxembourg barely register in the global vinous consciousness. Yet here in the commune of Schengen, a patchwork of vineyards gives rise to an astonishing variety of styles: from sparkling crémant to an array of aromatic whites – Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer – plus Pinot Noir; regional specialities such as MüllerThurgau, Elbling and Auxerrois; and late-harvest ice wines and straw wines.

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ALAMY

Seen from above, the individual vines of this widely spaced Sonoma vineyard look like an orderly army of ants. The vines are situated in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains, which separate Sonoma from the neighbouring Napa Valley to the east. California’s two most famous wine regions run parallel to each other, with Sonoma’s closer proximity to the ocean yielding a cooler climate; the protection offered by the mountains provides the warmer conditions that yield Napa’s more powerful reds.

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Club Oenologique

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24/02/2020 15:45

The family issue

LUC VA LIGN Y, IS SY C ROK ER, KEVIN C RAUSE , TIM HALL , SHUTTERSTO CK

F R O M W I N E T O WA T C H E S, FA M I LY F I R M S O F F E R A H A P P Y B L E N D O F H E R I T A G E A N D P E R S O N A L I T Y. B U T I T ’ S N O T A LWAYS P L A I N S A I L I N G …

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A DA M L E C H M E R E

M A R TI N M O R R E L L

The Champagne method

C H A M PA G N E TA I T T I N G E R I S B U I LT O N S O L I D R O M A N F O U N D AT I O N S, B U T T H E FA M I LY ’ S R E A L S T A B I L I T Y L I E S I N T H E F A C T T H A T I T A L M O S T L O S T E V E R Y T H I N G J U S T A D O Z E N Y E A R S A G O. ‘ N OW W E ’ R E ST R O N G E R T H A N E V E R ,’ N E W B O S S V I TA L I E TA I T T I N G E R T E L L S A DA M L E C H M E R E

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HA IR AN D MAKE-UP: ANTHONY WATS ON. VITALIE WEA RS MAX MARA; SH OES BY SA INT LAUREN T

[ FA M I LY | C H A M PA G N E ]

The Taittinger family has overcome adversity to enable the new generation – boss Vitalie and brother Clovis – to take the helm

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ome 10 or 12 years ago, Vitalie Taittinger, then in charge of marketing and communications at the family house, lost her temper in a meeting.

‘We were discussing a new range of packaging, and for some reason I took exception to something, and I swept everything off the table and on to the floor.’ Her father took her aside and told her she must never behave with such petulance again.

It’s difficult to imagine Vitalie – sitting deep in an armchair in the office she has occupied as president of Champagne Taittinger for precisely five days (she took over on New Year’s Day) – having any sort of temper tantrum. Her elder brother Clovis is sitting opposite her in the fine square room on the first floor of Taittinger HQ in Reims. It’s all very cordial, very relaxed.

Clovis does a good deal of the talking. Vitalie interjects or chuckles occasionally in the background, often finishing her brother’s sentences. She’s recounting the story of her loss of cool to illustrate their relationship with their father, the ebullient Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, who has stepped down as president at the age of 66. ‘He didn’t try to protect me. He told me I may be part of the family, but that sort of behaviour was unacceptable. It was very helpful.’

Taittinger ’s new sibling figureheads – though Vitalie tends to have the last word in the sentences of brother Clovis (seen with family por trait , opposite)

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LUC VALIGNY; LOUIS TERA N. PICTURE FRAME C OURTESY OF THE FRAMING SALON, LOND ON

S

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LUC VA LIGNY

Contrar y to traditional protocol, PierreEmmanuel handed control of Taittinger to his daughter Vitalie rather than to his son.

(Right) The family owns 300ha of grand cru vineyards

Last year, Pierre-Emmanuel announced that he was handing over the presidency of the house to Vitalie; Clovis was named general manager.

Was this a difficult decision, given that Clovis is the male heir and that Champagne houses tend to be somewhat conservative?

It was a year-long process, Vitalie says, involving Pierre-Emmanuel, as well as chef de cave Damien le Sueur and other directors. ‘It’s been interesting. We have traditions in France, and as a father you project yourself more into your son. But at the same time, you’re thinking about him and feeling maybe this won’t be the best gift. It has to be a decision for the right reasons, and this is the moment when, more than ever, personal feelings have to be subdued.’

For Pierre-Emmanuel (he tells me later on the phone), the decision to cede control was easy. He had always intended to step down at 65 or 66, ‘and I did it. It can be a disaster for a company when the boss wants to stay too long.’ As he tells it, sharing out the senior positions was no more difficult. The company structure is democratic. ‘No single role is more important than another; every decision is taken by six or seven people. Clovis is running the global business, Damien is in charge of production and finance – he is a tower of control – and Vitalie carries the general spirit of Taittinger.’

The psychology of family firms is the subject of dozens of academic studies; there are many theories about what makes a family operation different from any other kind. But when it comes to the Taittingers, the phrase ‘strength in adversity’ seems to sum up their modus operandi. The story of the sale of the group to investment firm Starwood, in 2005, and Pierre-Emmanuel’s triumph in buying back the Champagne and wine parts of the business, is well known (see overleaf). Vitalie and Clovis were in their mid-20s then; how did it seem from their perspective?

[ FA M I LY | C H A M PA G N E ]

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Clovis is running the global business, and Vitalie carries the general spirit of Taittinger

LOUIS TERAN

P I E R R E - E M M A N U E L TA I T T I N G E R

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The Taittinger dynasty through the ages and (opposite) the estate’s flagship Comtes de Champagne

‘We saw our father totally dispirited for a year,’ Vitalie says. (It’s important to note that Taittinger Sr is a man who radiates positive energy. It’s hard to imagine him downcast for months.) ‘His generation sold the group – just like that.’ She snaps her fingers expressively. ‘It was a shame, and it was painful in terms of history. Our father is idealistic: he considers history more important than money. He knew at once he had to try to get it back.’

The most important effect of the sale was to concentrate the minds of the younger generation. Both Vitalie and Clovis, and their sister Clémence, had grown up in Champagne but were not necessarily a part of it. Their father ‘of course worked in Champagne’, and their grandfather was the boss, but it didn’t occur to them that they would one day join the company. Vitalie studied art at the Emile Cohl school of art and design in Lyon and intended to pursue a career as a professional illustrator. (There’s a strong creative strain in the family: Pierre-Emmanuel is a poet manqué, and his mother, the artist Corinne Deville, came from a long line of artists.)

But you never know what you have until it’s gone. ‘When the group was sold, we realised that we had this heritage,’ Vitalie says. ‘The company was part of our identity. That was when we understood the meaning of a family company.’ When their father’s bid to buy back the company was successful in 2007, she and Clovis asked him if they could come and work with him; she started as a marketing consultant.

The language the pair use in describing the Starwood year – ‘traumatic’, ‘a shock’ – is instructive. I have heard other wine families, who have seen their parents’ and grandparents’ lives’ work disappear into the corporate maw, talk in a similar strain. ‘Every day we consider how lucky we are,’ Vitalie murmurs. ‘We’ve never been as strong as we are today.’

In my list of questions, I’ve scribbled ‘sibling rivalry?’ as a (fairly obvious) prompt, but it seems irrelevant now. This is a family that almost lost everything, and the memory is still raw; they are ‘still digesting’ the re-purchase, as Clovis puts it. The idea of squabbling (or sweeping everything off the table and on to the floor) is unthinkable.

Clovis: ‘Neither of us wants to be right for the sake of being right.

We’re not looking for personal victories, we’re not in competition.

We’re working for the—’ Vitalie: ‘The general interest.’

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[ FA M I LY | C H A M PA G N E ]

LUC VALIGNY; JEAN -BLAISE HALL

The Starwood sale

Carneros winery in California, beating 50 other bidders understood to include Pernod Ricard, LVMH, Freixenet and Louis Roederer. It was

In 2005, several branches

a traumatic time, Vitalie

of the family (there were

Taittinger says. ‘He was

38 heirs) voted to sell the

quite alone. We thought it

60-year-old Taittinger

was very courageous, and

group – a diverse collection

he had our full support.’

including Baccarat crystal

Pierre-Emmanuel agrees:

and 14 luxury hotels, among

‘It was heavy for the spirit; it

them the Crillon in Paris and

was very tense. But it’s part

the Martinez in Cannes – to

of life. I stayed calm. I am a

US investment firm Starwood

man of faith, and I thought

Capital for €2.1bn. Pierre-

that if I succeeded it would

Emmanuel’s side of the

be fine. If not, I would accept

family was unhappy about

it.’ His relations with the

the sale, and by the end of

wider family remain cordial.

2007 he had managed to put together the $850m necessary to buy back the Champagne side of the business and the Domaine

‘But we can still disagree,’ Clovis says. ‘What we try to do is find a consensus.’

‘A compromise,’ Vitalie adds.

Among the great Champagne houses, Taittinger stands somewhat apart. Undeniably one of the grandes marques, it doesn’t have the slightly flashy allure of Louis Roederer’s Cristal, say, or Bollinger.

Even though it is the official World Cup Champagne (in a deal brokered

by Clovis, who has charm enough to coax the birds from the trees), sponsors the BAFTAs, and was the favoured Champagne of James Bond long before Bollinger got in on the act, there’s nothing garish about Taittinger.

The house sits on solid foundations – literally: it is one of the handful in Champagne to be built on the famous crayères cellars of Reims. Under our feet are 2.5 miles of tunnels hewn out of chalk by the Romans. With nearly 300ha of vineyard in every grand cru, it has some of the biggest holdings in the region and makes some 6m bottles, spearheaded by the great blanc de blancs, Comtes de Champagne. Jancis Robinson MW labelled it ‘one of the finest Champagne houses of them all’.

There’s an outpost in California, the splendid Domaine Carneros; and the family won a particular place in the hearts of British sparkling-wine lovers with the 2015 announcement by the ardently anglophile PierreEmmanuel that he had bought land in southern England for the making of a new English cuvée to be called Domaine Evremond.

That Taittinger is the first Champagne house to venture across the Channel is quite in keeping with a marque that has always seemed willing to ‘fly against the wind’, as Clovis puts it. The fact that both he and Vitalie describe their father as conservative fits the psychology of family firms, which (those who have studied these things say) can be slow to make decisions but, once settled on a course of action, can move very fast.

‘Actually,’ Clovis begins, ‘most of our decisions—’ ‘Are very quickly made,’ Vitalie finishes.

While we drive to lunch, I understand better the complicated dynamic between the two siblings. We’re late, and Clovis puts his Audi Quattro through its paces, accelerating with panache, weaving in and out of the busy midday traffic. Vitalie sits in the back, and I hear her quietly telling him to watch his speed. ‘Non, Clovis, pas si vite.’

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[ FA M I LY | I N H E R I TA N C E ]

WO R DS

I L LU S T R AT I O N S

JA N E A N S O N

N O M A BA R

The family way D O FA M I LY C O M PA N I E S M A K E A B E T T E R J O B O F R U N N I N G B O R D E A U X C H ÂT E A U X T H A N C O R P O R AT I O N S ?

I T D E P E N D S O N T H E FA M I LY A N D T H E D E P T H O F I T S P O C K E T S, F I N D S J A N E A N S O N

Despite the region’s image of being run by faceless corporations whose executives fear getting too close to the vineyard lest it soil their handmade Aubercy shoes, there are in fact thousands of family-owned châteaux all over Bordeaux. The prize for longest-serving could technically be awarded to Pierre-Gilles Gromand-Brunet d’Evry’s clan up at Château de Lamarque in Haut-Médoc: 25th generation and a direct line to Garison de Lamarque, who built the estate in 1050. But that would mean overlooking the 500 or so years when it passed out of family hands, so it’s better perhaps to turn to Château des Annereaux in Lalande-de-Pomerol, where the Hessels are in their eighth century of continual ownership since 1390.

Even in the ultra-select club of the classed growths, we have Haut-Brion owned

by Prince Robert of Luxembourg of the Dillon family, Lafite and Mouton by various branches of the Rothschilds, Margaux by Corinne Mentzelopoulos and family, Ausone by the Vauthiers, Pavie by the Perses, Petrus by the Moueix clan, and Angélus by Stéphanie de Boüard-Rivoal, having taken over from her father, Hubert de Boüard. And if you take a look at the 1855 Left Bank classification as a whole (sticking to the red wines), you find only nine out of the 61 are, technically, owned by big corporations – mostly insurance companies, from the Ballande Group at Prieuré-Lichine, through Suravenir Assurances at Calon Ségur, to AXA Millésimes at Pichon Baron and Crédit Agricole Grands Crus at Grand-Puy Ducasse.

Only the most agenda-driven critic would suggest these wines have suffered from the consistency of investment made possible by these companies. Any hand-wringing over, for example, the Gasqueton family selling up at Calon Ségur seems to have been silenced by the reported €30m investment programme that has since been ploughed in to increase the density of plantation, up the levels of Cabernet Sauvignon and improve the overall facilities. These are big estates (50ha at Calon), and even with financial muscle, a replanting programme like this will take over a decade to complete. As for the charge that such companies are faceless, taking the route that AXA Millésimes has done – with first Jean-Michel Cazes and then Christian Seely as long-term figureheads – seems a good way to combine the corporate investment power with the need for consumers and trade alike to connect to an actual person.

It’s easy to applaud the rest of the Médoc ranking for being owned, in one way or another, by families. But look closer, and the notion of family ownership doesn’t seem so meaningful. For a start, of the families mentioned at the outset, only two – the Vauthiers and the Perses – live full time at their estate, and of the current generation, only Alain Vauthier’s daughter Pauline Vauthier makes the wine. And most of these families at the top end have access to more than your average funds of investment cash. The Rothschilds are, well, the Rothschilds, and Prince Robert of Luxembourg is, well, a prince. Then you get to the likes of François Pinault, the

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[ FA M I LY | I N H E R I TA N C E ]

force behind Château Latour, through his holding company Artémis Domaines but backed by his fashion conglomerate Kering, which owns (among many, many other things) Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Bottega Veneta. Likewise, châteaux Cheval Blanc and Yquem were previously under the ownership of France’s wealthiest man, Bernard Arnault, but have since been swallowed up largely by LVMH, Arnault’s luxury-goods brand that rivals Kering for financial muscle. Are such proprietors really so different from institutional owners?

Away from the first growths, the majority of the Médoc crus classés tend to be owned by well-heeled families who have more than one source of income, whether as wine merchants or from entirely separate careers. Most choose to delegate running the estate and have their primary residence elsewhere. Rauzan-Ségla is owned by the Wertheimer family, who spend most of their time working on the main family business of Chanel, while Montrose is owned by the Bouygues brothers, who dominate the building and telecommunications business across France. And Pichon Comtesse comes under the banner of Champagne Louis Roederer, owned by the Rouzaud family – though you’re unlikely to see Frédéric Rouzaud hanging out his washing in the garden and pouring wine for visitors.

If, instead, we narrow it down to Médoc classed-growth owners who live full time at their château with their family, we are left with just François-Xavier Borie at Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Jean-Michel Cazes at Lynch Bages and Anthony and Eva Barton at Léoville Barton. Then there is a handful of others who split their time frequently between the property and Bordeaux, so are within easy reach, such as the Quiés at Rauzan-Gassies/Croizet-Bages, Lucien Guillemet at Boyd-Cantenac, Jean-Hubert Delon at Léoville-Las-Cases, Bruno Borie at Ducru Beaucaillou, the Cordier sisters at Château Talbot and the Lurtons at, variously, Brane-Cantenac, Durfort-Vivens, Desmirail and Haut-Bages Libéral.

Increasingly, we want to believe that luxury wine is about not just taste but values.

Seeing a family behind the labels suggests authenticity, connection and tradition.

As Damien Barton-Sartorius of Léoville Barton in St-Julien says, ‘I do think that being family-owned makes a difference. Especially in Bordeaux, where the image is often that the region is not welcoming and that it cares more about brands than wine. We don’t employ brand ambassadors to represent us in different countries, and when we go to tastings, it is invariably a family member pouring the wine.’

Emeline Borie at Grand-Puy-Lacoste in neighbouring Pauillac agrees. ‘In terms of investment, we are not simply thinking year to year; the idea is to hand over to the next generation. If you take our example, since 1978, when my grandfather bought the estate, we’ve never stopped making improvements, but we take it slowly, investing a little every year to spread the cost.’ The Bories increased the size of their vat cellar in 2016 and 2018, upgraded the harvest reception in 2017 and purchased a new optical sorting machine in 2019. ‘Most wine lovers who visit are very surprised when they arrive in Bordeaux to find so many empty châteaux. Here, they are happy to see that people are still living on the estate.’

The reality of top-level Bordeaux wines is that things are more complicated than that, and it’s unfair to pretend otherwise. We fetishise family ownership on the one hand and yet demand the kind of perfection from the wines that you can only get from the big pockets of institutional investors. The entire system of en primeur, when these top wines are subjected to mass critical assessment and comparison while still in their infancy, is hardly set up to give properties the benefit of the doubt. Is it any coincidence that the 1855 estates that regularly come in for the most criticism are Rauzan-Gassies and Boyd-Cantenac, pretty much the only names in the entire 1855 ranking with no outside source of income beyond the wine itself?

Both Anne-Françoise Quié, co-owner of Rauzan-Gassies, and Olivier Salques, nephew of Lucien Guillemet of Boyd-Cantenac, have told me they simply don’t have the budgets for investments that their neighbouring estates have, and they recognise that they are often criticised for their choices as a result. How many times have we heard snide comments about Rauzan-Gassies using machines for harvesting part of their vines, forgetting that only 16% of the whole of Bordeaux picks entirely by hand? The same can be said for fifth-growth Cos Labory in St-Estèphe, which routinely receives scores way below that of its neighbour Cos d’Estournel (under multimillionaire entrepreneur Michel Reybier). Both are family-owned – but by very different kinds of family, with very different budgets that inevitably translate into different amounts of polish and finesse in the final wine. It’s hard not to think that being an ‘ordinary’ family without endlessly deep pockets puts you out of the premier league when it comes to keeping up with the rest of the pack.

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Increasingly, we want to believe that luxury wine is about not just taste but values

Succession planning Succession is clearly a crucial issue for all Bordeaux estates; how it is handled can make or break reputations. There is one family story, of brothers Lucien and André Lurton, that is often referenced as a warning of what can go right or wrong.

Both headed large families and built up an impressive portfolio of estates but chose different approaches to handing over to the next generation. Lucien (who is still alive) divided his 11 estates between his 10 children in one fell swoop in 1992, stepping back while they were all still young enough to make their own impact on the properties. Brother André, who died last year aged 94, never really retired or made clear which of his seven children were going to succeed him, with various false starts along the way, and an 18% stake going to Crédit Agricole Grands Crus in 2012, moving the group out of 100% family ownership. This has meant that while the Lucien Lurton estates, which include Climens and Durfort-Vivens, have built strong reputations under their respective owners, among them Bernice and Gonzague Lurton, the potential of André’s star estates such as CouhinsLurton and La Louvière has been obscured by management changes. Today, André’s son Jacques – a talented winemaker and consultant in his own right – has taken over as director of the company and is expected to turn things around, but this is a scenario that plays out again and again across Bordeaux – and in a region where land values range from €10,000 per hectare in the smallest appellations (Loupiac, for example) up to €4m or more in the key areas of Pomerol or Pauillac, organising a smooth succession is no small matter.

‘We have spent the past decade paying inheritance taxes that will allow us to keep owning the estate over the long term,’ Quié told me, while also confirming that she turns down offers for the property at least once a month. ‘Inheritance taxes are hefty, particularly as land values increase, and it has meant that we have had to use money for this instead of buying new land, as many of our neighbours have done.

All renovations have to be carefully planned and carried out over many years.’

There are other drawbacks to being a family business. Barton-Sartorius points to one: ‘You never leave work. There is never a feeling of switching off, because you are always thinking about what needs to be done even once you get home in the evening.

And there are no bosses in the traditional sense, so it’s not always easy to resolve disputes. Luckily for us, the family group is fairly small, and we are all working towards the same goal. Things become more complicated when there are lots of family shareholders involved, or when not everybody is working in the business, which could lead to arguments over reinvesting profits or collecting dividends.’

Despite all of this, and even with all its contradictions, family ownership at the top end of Bordeaux is unlikely to disappear any time soon, not least because it fits so well with the timescales involved in winemaking. Planting programmes such as those being undertaken at Calon Ségur highlight the simple but unavoidable fact that these are long-term investments. Even after planting, you need to wait three years before the vines are ready to harvest, with most then needing another 15 to 20 years before giving their most complex fruit. You can only harvest once a year, and at this level you then need to allow 10 or 20 years in bottle before the wines are ready to drink. Quick returns on investments are pretty much unheard of. This is perhaps why Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, owner at Mouton Rothschild alongside his sister Camille Sereys de Rothschild and brother Julien de Beaumarchais de Rothschild, says that being a family – even with a management team in place, as is the case with Mouton – is critical to their success. ‘In most of the other businesses that I have been involved with – in fact, in most other businesses full stop – plans are made for the next five years, or 10 maximum,’ says Philippe. ‘But in a wine estate, the timescale is 20, 30, 40 years. Shareholders might not be prepared to wait that long. But for a family, it makes perfect sense.’

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TIM HALL

Friends of the earth

(Above) The undulating terraces of Torresâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Mas de la Rosa vineyard are too steep for tractors and are ploughed instead by mule (Right) Mireia Torres, Miguel A Torres and Miguel Torres Maczassek talk climate change in Penedès

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STO R I E D S PA N I S H W I N E RY FA M I L I A TO R R E S I S G E T T I N G H I G H O N I T S E C O - C O N S C I O U S A M B I T I O N .

B U T A S A D A M L E C H M E R E D I S C OV E R S, T H E D I F F E R E N T G E N E R AT I O N S AT T H E H E L M H AV E D I F F E R E N T V I E W S O N H O W B E S T T O TA C K L E T H E I S S U E â&#x20AC;¦

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he scents and sounds of a high, remote vineyard are captivating at twilight. Mas de la Rosa sits above the town of Porrera in Priorat, a wild, undulating plot of Cariñena and Garnacha and assorted local varieties. We arrive just as the light is waning on a bright, unseasonably warm winter’s day, and the air is filled with the fine garrigue scents of earth, stone and herb, along with woodsmoke (it gets cold very quickly when the sun goes down). A bell tolls the quarter hour, a dog barks somewhere far away, and the rumble of a tractor rolls up the valley. Other than that, silence.

Mas de la Rosa is one of the most recent purchases of Familia Torres.

These vertiginous vineyards, so steep and inaccessible they have to be ploughed by mule, are pure llicorella, the Priorat slate so beloved of local winemakers (‘the vines drink stone’, they like to say). At the edge of the site, in an olive grove, is the old stone house – Rosa’s mas – that, legend has it, was almost burnt to the ground by its owner in the mid-19th century. The three-foot-thick walls are still blackened with scorch marks. It’s an atmospheric spot, and it’s easy to imagine the self-sufficient life the old lady and her family would have led here, chickens pecking in the vegetable garden, a donkey tethered under the olive trees.

Miguel Torres Maczassek, who took over from his father Miguel A Torres as managing director of the Torres empire in 2012, loves this place. ‘When I go up to Mas de la Rosa, I feel a special connection, an energy,’ he says. He appreciates its inaccessibility, the fact that you can’t get a tractor around the vines, that it’s perfectly resistant to technology.

The vineyard embodies the organic, traditional, artisanal ethos of Familia Torres, one of the dominant forces in Spanish winemaking.

Half the Penedès titan’s 2000ha of vineyards in Spain are organic; Miguel Torres Sr, who at 78 is a robust and ubiquitous presence in the global wine world, is an indefatigable evangelist for sustainability. It was he who persuaded the Familia Torres board (the company is 100% family owned) to earmark 11% of profits for research into climate change. So far €15 million has been dedicated to such projects.

Climate change overwhelmingly occupies the three senior members

(Right) The 600m high Purgatori vineyard is typical of Torres’ belief in cooler, high-altitude sites to counter climate change

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of the family. Mireia, Miguel Jr’s sister, who runs the Jean Leon winery in Penedès, returns from the first Catalan Climate Action Summit in Barcelona as lunch is getting underway. ‘We’re talking about climate change,’ her father says. ‘Debating’ might be a better word. There is much good-natured disagreement around the table as to how the situation should be addressed. Miguel Sr puts his faith in the primacy of science, which he believes will provide the solutions. He has little patience with biodynamics, since much of it can’t be explained. ‘You have to be able to give a scientific reason for everything that you do in the vineyard,’ he says.

Not so, his son counters. ‘If we follow only a technical approach, then we lose our souls as vine growers. We have to understand the vineyard

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At Mas de la Rosa I feel a special connection, an energy MIGUEL TORRES JR

(Left) The old stone house set in the olive grove of Mas de la Rosa; (right) looking east from the high vineyards

as an ecosystem – there should be something beyond climate change.’

Listening to the arguments, it’s tempting, if glib, to characterise the father as the head while the son is the heart. Mireia, meanwhile, privately disagrees with some of her father’s projects (though she won’t say which), but shares his scepticism about some trends. When I ask the table’s opinion of natural wine, she is blunt. ‘Un puñetero’ – a pain in the neck.

Whether head or heart, what unites the trio is an unswerving devotion to innovation. Familia Torres is a leader in the field of Carbon Capture and Re-use (CCR), partnering universities in researching numerous techniques for harnessing the CO2 released during fermentation. The projects are in their infancy – one of the most promising so far, says

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Dynamic discussions Discussing the whys and wherefores of biodynamics, each member of the family argues his or her corner – the talk punctuated by a fair amount of banter from the everalert patriarch Miguel A Torres Miguel A Torres With biodynamics, people follow these rules, like burying cows’ horns. But in winemaking, how can I explain or defend any technique that I am not able to explain scientifically?

Miguel Torres Maczassek I don’t agree with you.

MAT I know you don’t agree.

That’s why I’m saying it.

(Mireia Torres arrives) MAT We’ve been talking about climate change, and now we’re talking about biodynamics. I’m not convinced. You have to be able to scientifically explain everything that you do in the vineyard.

MTM You have to follow the heart and the head. If you make wines that are just based on science then you end up with something that doesn’t have a soul. The most important thing with biodynamics is to have respect for the vineyard.

We have to understand the vineyard as an ecosystem. There has to be something above climate change.

We can’t lose our soul and our roots as vine growers in favour of an overly technical approach.

MAT Biodynamics is very good for marketing.

Mireia Torres The danger is in generalisation. If you generalise, you make mistakes. Organic farming in La Mancha is very different to that in the north of Europe. In the end it’s something that you either believe or you don’t believe.

From top, Miguel Torres Maczassek, Miguel A Torres, Mireia Torres

MAT I recently asked a speaker from Demeter [the world’s largest organisation for certifying biodynamic agriculture]: Do you know that 80% of the soil is already silicate? What’s the point in adding more silicate? If you ask me the reason for adding silicates, I can’t give you an answer.

That’s why I will never follow a discipline that I can’t explain.

MTM I disagree. If everything were logical then Mas de la Rosa would not exist. We have to use mules, we’re using sheep between the vines – the price of working there is very high… it makes no sense to work in hills with 35-40% inclination. But the result is unique, and we can’t reproduce that with science.

MAT So that shows you’re an innovator – you’re not following some theory created by Rudolf Steiner 100 years ago. Climate change means you have to find high altitudes and for that, Maria Thun [a leading authority on biodynamics] is irrelevant.

MTM I don’t know. I can’t just have a scientific attitude. This has to be about knowledge but at the same time there’s something more. When I go up to Mas de la Rosa I feel a special connection – an energy.

MAT Great – maybe we can make some money out of it.

(All three laugh.)

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Torres’s plantings favour forgotten local varieties that counter climate change by ripening later and harnessing higher acidity

Miguel Sr, is a method of converting CO2 into a methane biogas for use in transportation.

Miguel Sr is an evangelist – the Al Gore of the wine world, famous for his conference jeremiads against pollution – and his is an empirical approach: science, and rigorous experimentation, will find the answers. He uses his considerable heft to carry his message worldwide. In 2019, along with Jackson Family Wines of California, he founded International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA), a working group dedicated to seeking solutions to climate change through ‘the decarbonisation of the global wine industry’.

Four more wineries, including Symington Family Estates of Portugal and Yealands of New Zealand, have recently applied to join.

Miguel Sr is an acolyte of empiricism and the power of persuasion (he nods emphatically at the notion that it’s the finance directors of any company who need to be won over in the argument for reducing emissions). Miguel Jr’s focus is slightly different. He carries the torch for research, but he looks to the vineyards – in particular the ancestral varieties project – to ensure the survival of the company.

Torres began its ‘garden of varieties’ in the early 1980s as a way of preserving forgotten grape varieties. Today there are over 200 from around the world, planted in rows at Mas Rabell, the fine old farmhouse and vineyard in the high Penedès. It began more or less as a ‘philanthropic’ project, Miguel Jr

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says – until the issue of climate change became more important. ‘Then we started to take a closer interest in the varieties that have specific properties – those that would ripen later and those with higher acidity.’

The team, originally led by Mireia Torres (who is now innovation manager, among several other responsibilities) has identified five ‘ancestral varieties’ – Forcada, Pirene, Gonfaus, Moneu and Querol – that show a high degree of adaptability to high temperatures and water stress. All these grapes were found in forgotten plots in the region, or sent in by growers and farmers who had them on their land but didn’t know what they were. Torres tests them to prove they are native to Catalonia, then adds them to the nursery, in some cases grafted onto existing vines. Once established, the grapes are vinified in a new, hightech micro-vinification facility. Key to the project is disseminating these grapes around Catalonia – ‘they are part of Catalan viticulture and should be shared’, says Mireia.

We’re drinking a Forcada now, a lean, mineral, aromatic white with a satisfying weight on the mid-palate, reminiscent of a classy Ribolla Gialla or Grüner Veltliner. It’s in production now, available in UK restaurants. It’s an anomaly: ‘The wine has high acidity, yet it’s aromatic and has a fatness that is unusual for a white Catalan variety,’ Miguel Jr says.

His theory is that these ancient varieties – they are all pre-phylloxera – became adapted to heat during the Medieval Warm Period, an era of higher temperatures in the North Atlantic region, which lasted from about 950 to 1250. ‘Then, when things began to cool down, the Forcada would have become risky for the grower because it would have taken

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Tracking Torres Familia Torres is Spain’s biggest family-owned winery, with extensive holdings not only in its homeland of Penedès in Catalunya, but in Priorat, Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Galicia – and in Chile and California. Founded in 1870 by Jaime Torres with the profits from a lucky investment in Cuba, the winery quickly flourished, registering the trademarks Coronas and Sol in the early 20th century. Its global reputation was forged in the early 1960s when a youthful Miguel A Torres, fresh from his studies in Dijon, decided to plant Cabernet Sauvignon; Gran Coronas

Etiqueta Negra (Black Label) was the result. Renamed Mas La Plana in 1995 after its vineyard, the wine was named best wine at the Gault Millau Wine Olympics in Paris in 1979.

Today, from its 2000ha across northern Spain, the family produce an astonishing range of wines, from the eternally popular Viña Sol and Gran Sangre de Toro to the renowned Grans Muralles and powerful reds from the high vineyards of Priorat. Now under the presidency of Miguel Torres Maczassek, the winery is a world leader in pioneering research into climate change and sustainability, and the preservation and cultivation of ancestral grape varieties.

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too long to ripen, so it became unfashionable. Now, as temperatures increase, a variety from the past can be used again.’

Winemaking, more than most forms of agriculture, embraces the present while keeping one foot planted in the past. At wineries the world over you can see multi-million-dollar scientific equipment alongside horse-drawn ploughs. Torres invests millions of euros in hitech research and development, but to visit its vineyards is to look deep into the past. At Grans Muralles in Conca de Barbera, vines have been cultivated in the lee of the 800-year-old wall since the 13th century; at nearby Milmanda, the documented history of the vines stretches at least as far back. At Costers del Segre, the ancient monastery farm buildings of the wonderfully-named 600m high Purgatori vineyard rise out of the morning mist like visitants from the dark ages.

When Miguel Jr says he feels ‘a connection’ with this land, he’s not being sentimental. These high vineyards are the future, just as heatresistant grape varieties will guarantee Torres remains in business: ‘You can modify the DNA of a variety to adapt it, but to me it’s more wonderful to find a variety that is already from here. This is what I like, to find a connection with vines from the past – and our priority is to make sure the next generation have the chance to continue what we have started.’ His father nods in approval, then excuses himself – he has a guitar lesson to go to. He’s been learning for about four years, he says.

‘When you’re old, it takes time to pick up new things.’

(Above) Miguel Torres Maczassek (also seen left) with his sister and father – champions of forgotten grape varieties from their base in Penedès (below, overlooked by Enrique Asensi’s sculpture ‘Bailarina’)

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Nurture trail I T ’ S B E E N M A K I N G W I N E U N D E R I T S OW N L A B E L F O R L E S S T H A N 5 0 Y E A R S, B U T I N T H A T T I M E , K A N O N K O P H A S G O N E F R O M A W O R K H O R S E O F S O U T H A F R I C A’ S W I N E S C E N E T O A L E A D I N G L I G H T. A N D I T ’ S A L L D O W N T O T W O B R O T H E R S A N D T H E I R V I S I O N A R Y G R A N D F A T H E R

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A

s in life, so in wine. That age-old mystery – nature or nurture – is among the many existential quandaries that the grape throws up. Take Bordeaux. The 1855 classification has remained all but unchanged since its inception, suggesting that the natural lie of the land trumps any impact by human hand. Yet winemakers such as Denis Dubourdieu and Stéphane Derenoncourt are feted for their work in the region – so which of the qualities is the more integral?

In the case of South Africa, the question is particularly thorny. It is, after all, one of wine’s many anomalies that South Africa is categorised as part of the New World when, in reality, it is very old wine country indeed. (Jan van Riebeeck, the Cape’s first commander under the Dutch East India Company, pressed the first wine grapes on the Cape in 1659.)

Yet despite such an impressive history, only a handful of South African estates have produced wine for three or more generations.

Kanonkop, in the Simonsberg region of Stellenbosch, stands as a beacon among them. The estate was founded in 1929 – although the first wine bearing the iconic label did not debut until 1973. In the near half-century since, it has become internationally renowned. And the reason for its pre-eminence sits firmly with its people, notably the founder, Paul Sauer. Here at least, nurture trumps nature, it seems.

Sauer’s grandson Paul Krige, who today runs the estate with his older brother, Johann, picks up the story. ‘Not only did my grandfather

If the business was going to survive and grow, we needed focus JOHANN KRIGE

establish the vineyards on Kanonkop and oversee the estate’s foray into winemaking, but as a member of the South African parliament for over 40 years, he went to great lengths to promote the country’s wine industry and to help establish a wine culture here.’ The name Paul Sauer, he maintains, is ‘still recognised as one of the leading figures in the South African wine industry, and every generation that follows him is undoubtedly influenced by that name’.

Sauer was the son of another politician, JW Sauer, who served in the parliament of the Cape Colony, as well as raising fruit and wine grapes on the Uitkyk farm, which sits directly above Kanonkop and is now a wine estate. After his death, Uitkyk was sold by JW’s widow Mary, and an unfarmed spread of land on the lower slopes of Simonsberg was left to her only son, Paul. The young Sauer named this 125ha farm Kanonkop – ‘cannon hillock’ in Afrikaans, referring to the butte above the farm where in the 18th and 19th century a cannon had been mounted. (It was never fired in anger. Instead, when a ship moored at Table Bay some 30 miles away, the cannon boomed to inform local farmers of the vessel’s presence; those wishing to trade wine, fruit, vegetables and tobacco with the ship’s crew would set off to Cape Town to do so.) Sauer owned Kanonkop until his death in 1976, when the farm was passed on to his daughter Mary. Current owners Paul and Johann Krige are the sons of Mary and her husband Jannie Krige.

The Kanonkop estate (previous page) was founded in Stellenbosch in 1929 but only star ted making wine under its own label in 1973 (top). Its red wines are aged in barrel for up to 24 months (above)

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Johann and Paul Krige – and the estate’s old Pinotage bush vines – have made Kanonkop one of South Africa’s top names

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Cool dusk air from the Atlantic Ocean washes over the Kanonkop estate, with Table Mountain in the background

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When Paul Krige came to work on the farm in 1984, it was very far from being the leading light of the South African wine industry that it is today. His mother was having sleepless nights about its future, he remembers. ‘We were still delivering 80% of our wine in bulk to Stellenbosch Farmers Winery [SFW], the large local co-op. That just about allowed the farm to keep its head above water.’

Its position today is largely down to human intervention – in this case, in the form of Paul’s older brother, Johann. The law graduate called a meeting with his parents, his brother and Kanonkop’s then winemaker Beyers Truter. ‘I wasn’t working at Kanonkop yet, but I told my parents and my brother that if the business was going to survive and grow, we needed focus,’ Johann recalls. He also observed that the plantings – only a fifth of which went into the estate label – were ‘all over the place. The farm was planted to Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Clairette Blanche, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir… We were trying to be everything to everybody.’

Seeing that Simonsberg was particularly suited to Pinotage and Cabernet Sauvignon, Johann set about persuading the family that it should radically alter the business model. It was, he says, ‘not an easy argument to get across’, with the family having to cut the umbilical cord with SFW, which was still buying almost all its annual production.

(The relationship with SFW dated back to the 1950s, when Paul Sauer, the paterfamilias, sat on the company’s board of directors.) The Krige brothers were driven by the belief that the interests of Kanonkop and the family should come before the long-standing relationship with SFW, but only if the business principles behind any decisions were commercially sound. They were, and the ties were severed.

Today, Johann says that he considers everyone on the estate to be family.

The sentiment embodies an innate contradiction – but a welcome one.

In one sense, there is no difference between Kanonkop and any wellrun business: the fact that it is family-owned is incidental. On the other hand, there is a flatness to the organisation that means decisions can be made quickly and efficiently. ‘There’s no formal structure. You manage how you do your job,’ says winemaker Abrie Beeslaar.

Such informality is evident in many forms. Johann Krige is often to be found at the estate barefoot. Apart from required financial discussions every six months, meetings are few and far between – as evidenced by another tale told by Beeslaar. Shortly after joining Kanonkop in 2002, the winemaker suggested to the brothers that the wine made from a vineyard block planted in 1953 was too good to use simply as a component of the standard Kanonkop Pinotage. He recommended grapes from the special block be kept apart, with the possibility of making a new Kanonkop wine – something that had not been done since 1985, with the release of the entry-level Kadette. As Kanonkop’s cornerstone, any decision regarding Pinotage was a significant one. It

You don’t get a job at Kanonkop just because you’re a member of the family. It’s a business JOHANN KRIGE

(Top) Paul Krige, winemaker Beyers Truter and Johann Krige photographed in the early 1990s, just as Kanonkop’s reputation began to grow; and Kanonkop patriarch Paul Sauer (above)

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Four to try from Kanonkop Tasting notes by Greg Sherwood MW

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KANONKOP CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STELLENBOSCH 2015 From 2022 to 2045 Vinous beauty. The bouquet is restrained, with black raspberries, fallen leaves, wet tobacco, freshly tilled earth and tantalising notes of graphite, Chinese black tea, dried violets and cigar box. Medium-bodied with silky sweet tannins and layered crunchy red and black fruit, saline cassis, chocolate, espresso roast, sweet cedar spice and subtle red plum skins on the finish. This is surely one of the greatest single varietal Cabernet Sauvignons found in South Africa. 14.5%. £36.99 Handford Wines

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was, though, says Beeslaar, also a very quick one, made in a corridor.

(History doesn’t record whether Krige was barefoot at the time.) ‘They trusted me and gave me their full support, which resulted in the birth of the Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage,’ he recalls.

Kanonkop may be run informally, but there is no doubt that Johann has a ferocious business brain – and that he is in charge. ‘Johann is the business leader. He ensures the books balance and that Kanonkop can continue growing commercially,’ says Paul Krige, whose roles spans marketing and personnel management. Sitting around a table with Johann, marketing director Deidre Taylor, and Beeslaar, I ask who is the dominant personality. Two pairs of eyes and two thumbs point without hesitation at the boss, who looks quietly pleased at this uncomplicated and affectionate demonstration of respect.

Affection aside, Johann does not give the impression he is a man to be trifled with. He talks at length about the importance of family, but he is impatient with any questions about succession. ‘I don’t know anything about succession,’ he says. ‘You don’t get a job at Kanonkop just because you’re a member of the family. No family member is going to walk in and think they own the show. It’s a business.’

He clarifies this later: it’s the idea of entitlement that bothers him, and he makes a pointed comparison between the new and old worlds. ‘The difference between a European business and a South African one is that in Europe you may get family members being promoted because they are family members. So you have the old story: the first generation makes the money, the second generation spends it, and the third blows it.’

Kanonkop is now into its fifth generation: Johann’s daughters Helene, 35, and Marcia, 31, and Paul’s son Sauer, 27, and daughter Suzaan, 25, are waiting in the wings. Helene and Marcia are raising young children.

Sauer, a Bachelor of Commerce graduate, works independently in agricultural services, while Suzaan is studying for a BSc in oenology and viticulture at Stellenbosch University. Their fathers, though, are adamant that succession is not a right but a privilege. Bearing the Krige name is not a passport to a job.

‘If there is a job going at Kanonkop, the best person gets it – whether he or she is in the family or not,’ says Johann. ‘As far as succession goes, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there and see which of the new generation are waiting on the other side.’

Paul Sauer is one of South Africa’s most acclaimed ‘first growth’ wines: deep, broody and full of sweet grilled herbs, cured meats and redcurrant aromas. The palate shows bright cherry acids, classical chalky tannins and a mineral graphite finish with just a kiss of blueberry. A distinguished expression of this South African classic, this is one of the country’s finest reds. 14%. £35.99 Handford Wines

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KANONKOP BLACK LABEL PINOTAGE, STELLENBOSCH 2017 From 2020 to 2040 Nothing ticks all the fine wine boxes like Kanonkop Black Label – a majestic elixir marrying New World hedonism with Bordeaux structure. The bouquet bursts with maraschino cherry, kirsch liqueur, cloves, blueberry, earthy mulberry and plum coulis. The alluring palate offers sweet bramble fruit, cut hedgerow, freshly tilled Stellenbosch earth and kirsch chocolates. The standout quality is the bright, crunchy, saline acidity. 14.5%. £130 Handford Wines, Fine+Rare KANONKOP ESTATE PINOTAGE 2017 From 2020 to 2035

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Piquant lifted aromatics boast exotic red fruits, incense, ground coffee beans and dried potpourri spice. The palate bursts with a spectrum of ripe fruit from raspberry, redcurrant and blackcurrant to baked dark plum, fine-grained tannins and a vibrant racy acidity. From the seductive bouquet to the excellent weight, this is a mesmerising expression of the classic Cape grape. 14%. £26.99 Noel Young

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WO R DS JOHN ARLIDGE

Blood L I N E AG E CA N M A K E O R B R E A K T H E B OT TO M L I N E.

pressure JOHN ARLIDGE ON THE H I G H S A N D L O W S O F F A M I L Y B U S I N E S S E S

Part of the fun of watching the hit TV series Succession is trying to work out which character is based on which reallife executive. Is that Trump? Are they the Kushners? What about the Murdochs? Or are they all of the above?

Whatever the inspiration, family sagas make for compelling – and relatable – drama.

Who can’t sympathise with Roman Roy, one of Logan Roy’s four children jostling to take over as boss of the family firm with varying degrees of misplaced sycophancy and wild incompetence, as he complains about his overbearing father? ‘He can do whatever he likes. He’s like a human Saudi Arabia.’

Family feuds also make for great boardroom drama – not just because of the feuding but because family firms are the building blocks of many economies. We all know their names and many of us consume their products every day. It was the great family banking and shipping firms – Rothschild, P&O, Schroders – that sustained the British empire. The Pulitzers, Vanderbilts, Woolworths and Fords,

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plus family-controlled Wal-Mart, Mars, News Corp and Viacom, dominate US business.

In Italy, the home of dynastic capitalism where A is for Agnelli, there are so many family firms that it’s hard to know where to start. Prada, Armani, Ferragamo, Zegna and Versace… and that’s just the fashion world.

Family firms tend to outshine their publiclyowned peers. A Credit Suisse report found that European family-owned companies have outperformed their public counterparts by almost five percentage points per year since 2006. Why? The most oft-cited reason is that, without having to answer to outsiders – and, often, shareholders – they can be nimble and more creative.

Gildo Zegna, a member of the fourth generation of the Zegna family to run the eponymous Italian fashion house, says that in an ever-faster moving fashion sector, (especially in China, the biggest global market where trends come and go in a heartbeat), family ties are ‘a great strength’ because firms can be ‘flexible and fast’. Every

SYLV IE FLEURY 2001- 02 . GUC CI HA ND C UFFS, C OURTESY GALLERIE THA DDA EUS ROPAC, LOND ON, PARIS, SALZBURG

Gunning for gold When Patrizia Reggiani married Maurizio Gucci, the last of the Gucci family dynasty to run the Florentine fashion house, they became Italy’s first celebrity power couple. They were more than soulmates: Reggiani became a key company adviser. But the brand’s fortunes began to dwindle as infighting broke out among the heirs of the brand’s founder, Guccio Gucci.

Then, to make matters worse, Maurizio left Reggiani. Her response? She paid a hitman to gun down the 46-year-old one morning as he walked into his office in central Milan.

The crime went unsolved for nearly two years until a tip-off led to her arrest in 1997, along with that of four others, including the hitman.

Reggiani was instantly dubbed Vedova Nera – the Black Widow. She and her four coconspirators were convicted (leading Gucci boutiques around Italy to hang gold handcuffs in their windows) and she spent 16 years in jail. When police raided her apartment in Milan they discovered a diary in which the entry on the day of Gucci’s death simply read ‘Paradeisos’ – the Greek word for paradise.

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exposing his secret second family. Just when Hutcheson thought it couldn’t get any worse, he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for hacking GRH company computers to steal emails.

Not even royalty is immune. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and, therefore, the head of the world’s biggest family business, imprisoned many fellow royals in Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton at the end of 2017 in a crackdown on purported corruption. His cousin, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, was allegedly tortured, though he later said the whole episode was a big ‘misunderstanding’ and that his imprisonment was a ‘clean operation’ and part of a simple ‘discussion with the government on various matters that I cannot divulge right now’.

Without doubt the silliest family business feud centres on two billionaire Indian tycoons, Mukesh and Anil Ambani, the world’s richest brothers. They have been engaged in a bitter dispute ever since their father, Dhirubhai, himself a successful businessman, died without leaving a will.

Their clashes, which began over the spoils of their father’s businesses, have become so

(Above) There is much speculation as to the inspiration for Succession, in which the troubles of the Roy brood (left) mirror those of reallife families such as the Murdochs (right)

HB O; GETTY IMAGES ; S HUT TERSTO CK ; EYEVINE

Christmas he gathers his clan at the family villa to plan strategy for the coming year and then instructs his teams to move at warp velocity. He praises the label’s chief designer, Alessandro Sartori, for the speed with which he responds to new trends with pride usually reserved for a son.

But bloodline does not always serve the bottom line, as Succession dramatically demonstrates. Family firms come with personal troubles that you don’t find elsewhere – and they’re present in every business sector. In the media, 96-year-old Sumner Redstone is battling his daughter, Shari, for control of Viacom and CBS. In fashion, designer Tory Burch had twice fallen out with her ex-husband and co-founder of her eponymous clothing brand, Chris Burch, first on a personal level when they divorced and then again – professionally – when the two sued and countersued each other over company finances and Chris’s decision to set up a rival business.

In the fiery food business, chef Gordon Ramsay fell out so badly with his fatherin-law Chris Hutcheson, who ran Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH), that Ramsay ended up firing him – and, for good measure,

[ FA M I LY | F E U D S ]

(Left) For Adolf ‘Adi’ Dassler, founder of Adidas, the feud with brother Rudolf at least ended creatively. (Right) Maurizio Gucci’s wife, Patrizia, took the ultimate step to end the power struggle with her husband

public and so bitter – and so damaging to the image of Indian business – that the country’s leading politicians have debated the issue in parliament and urged the two men to make their peace.

Anil even turned to a higher power to try to solve it, making a pilgrimage to two Hindu shrines. ‘Invoking the power of Lord Shiva from this most sacred of holy places, I am once again reaching out to Mukeshbhai,’ he said (bhai is Hindi for brother), adding that he hoped and prayed their issues could be worked out with ‘a generous heart, a willing mind and an accommodating spirit’. To no avail. There have been so many court cases that India’s judges are evidently heartily sick of listening to the family air its dirty linen in public. At one hearing, the judge ruled that the only person who had any hope of sorting out the brotherly mess was the one who knew both men best: their mother.

Some family business feuds can end creatively – even if the family members end up working on different sides. Europe’s two iconic athletic footwear brands are the result of volcanic Teutonic sibling rivalry. One hundred years ago this year, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, two brothers, went into business

together to create Dassler shoes. Sales soared after gold medal-winning Olympians sported Dasslers in the 1930s. But as their fame and business fortunes grew, relations between the two brothers deteriorated. It reached breaking point during the Second World War. Rudolf was sent to the front and, after his return, was arrested by US soldiers and imprisoned for a year. He believed his brother betrayed him.

After the war, the brothers divided the company and became furious competitors.

Adolf, who – understandably given the times – preferred to be called Adi, founded Adidas, combining his first and last names. Rudolf tried the same with his firm called Ruda but soon realised he needed something stronger, so changed it to Puma. They built their competing factories on the opposite banks of the river that runs through their home town of Herzogenaurach. The brothers did not speak again and died estranged: Rudolf in 1974, aged 76, and Adolf in 1977, aged 78.

They are buried at opposite ends of the same cemetery.

It sounds like the perfect season finale to Succession. The question is: who will be burying whom?

Brothers at arms The wine world has its own fair share of family sagas, though one cautionary tale has become Napa Valley folklore. The Mondavis, Italian immigrants from the turn of the last century, created one of the most respected wine companies in the US, Robert Mondavi Winery – and then lost it. Just over a decade ago the family sold out to global drinks giant Constellation Brands for $1.3bn after bitter infighting overwhelmed them.

Robert (above), the domineering patriarch, brooked no compromise when it came to doing things his way – this was the man, after all, who had started his own company after coming to blows (literally) with his brother, Peter, at the original family firm back in 1965 – supposedly over excessive spending after Peter bought his wife a mink coat.

Running his own brand, Mondavi often forced his two sons, Michael and Timothy, to compete against each other to create corporate strategy and gain paternal favour.

The approach didn’t ultimately reap dividends, though Logan Roy would surely have approved.

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Where spirits come back to life J U ST H OW H A S A R E M OT E I S L A N D O F F T H E W E ST C OA ST O F S C OT L A N D, W H E R E D I S T I L L E R I E S W E R E C L O S I N G D O W N 4 0 Y E A R S A G O, B E C O M E T H E D A R L I N G O F T H E W H I S K Y W O R L D ? J O E L H A R R I S O N C H A R T S T H E R I S E A N D R I S E O F I S L AY

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Facing page: Bowmore distiller y, home to Islay’s oldest stocks of single malt, and the serene island landscape.

This page, clockwise from top left: Where the magic happens – a Scotch whisky cask; where it all star ts – malted barley; and where it all comes together – in a glass

WORDS

PHOTOGRAPHS

JOEL HARRISON

MARTIN SCOTT POWELL

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T

he departures board at Islay airport is not so much a list of exotic destinations, more a simple signpost. Most days, only one destination is listed from this remote Scottish island: Glasgow. The airport – essentially a café and a runway – is endearingly spartan, a flashback to how all airports used to be at the dawn of commercial aviation. Yet the baggage handler (and yes, there’s just one) on this small island off the western tip of Scotland’s Kintyre peninsula has never been so busy.

Islay is part of the Inner Hebrides, an archipelago of 35 inhabited, and 44 uninhabited, islands. For a small isle it carries incredible weight in the world of whisky. Nae, in the world of drinks. Since the turn of the century, the number of operational distilleries that call the island home has grown by 50%. Even now, this puts that number at a modest nine (soon to rise again, to 11, as we enter a new decade). But for an island of just 239 square miles – or 620

square kilometres – and a touch over 3,000 inhabitants, this is far from insignificant.

The younger distilleries, whether opened this century or the last – or indeed the previous one to that – are owned by a tapestry of international companies in France, Japan, America, South Africa and, of course, the UK. Owners and consumers alike are constantly descending on Islay from far and wide to sample its wares.

Islay has managed to take the simple ingredients of water, barley, yeast and peat smoke, and combine them into a spirit so endearing, so characterful, so flavoursome, that the whisky world is in its thrall. So much so that its house style – the signature smokiness that many drinkers often call to mind when they think of Scotch – is the fastest growing style of whisky purchased globally today. But what is it that makes this island’s rendering of a single malt quite so compelling?

Ultimately, it’s all down to the terroir. The island is abundant in peat bogs, which for centuries have provided the locals with fuel – for a peppercorn rent, residents can dig up and burn as much of this ancient earth as they need. The peat, when lit, releases a delightfully aromatic, earthy tone, which gently rises from the chimneys of the island’s houses. It also provides the key component to dry the barley used in local whisky production, to which it also lends its pungent smoky aroma. The result is a whisky with real character, setting the island’s spirit apart from the more delicate notes found in Scotch on the mainland.

Once out of fashion as undrinkable whiskies from unpronounceable distilleries, these smoky Scotches have recently found global success, garnering a hardcore fan base and finding their status rising to the realms of luxury. Consider the eponymous distillery located in the island’s main village of Bowmore. The current flag-bearer for high-end, luxury Islay single malt, Bowmore distillery dates back to 1779 and its coastal warehouses are home to the oldest stocks of single malt whisky on the island – and the most sought after whisky releases of the past decade. Such stocks were captured in a 2012 release of a 54-year-old 1957 vintage, the oldest bottled Islay single malt ever to hit the market. This was followed by a 50-year-old 1966 vintage in 2017 and the following year by a 52-year-old 1965 vintage boasting a price tag of just over £22,000.

This page, clockwise from bottom left: Peat, abundant on Islay, is used to dr y the barley; three views of a typical day at a distiller y.

Facing page: Making whisky is a hands-on craft, whether it’s turning barley or cutting peat

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– save for the stocks of Scotch lingering from generations past.

The twist in the tale saw these slumbering stocks of single malt improve dramatically over time. And as releases from these closed distilleries started to be opened, the reviews were not just great, but fantastic. Leading the critics’ charge was Port Ellen, whose old stock was released in small annual batches by owner Diageo. A frenzied secondary market developed for these rare releases, and finally a move by Diageo to reopen the distillery was announced in 2017 – albeit on a much smaller scale than in the old days. Planning permission was granted in early 2020 and the distillery should restart production in 2021.

Port Ellen won’t be the first Islay distillery to rise from the ashes. Ardbeg was closed from 1981 to 1989, before returning to full production after being bought by the luxury goods company, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy. The distillery sits at the far end of a run of three famed Islay producers who call the south eastern coast their home.

Perhaps the most famous of these is Laphroaig. Almost a household name, its 10-yearold expression, with a white label and sporting a royal warrant, is a staple of back bars the world over, and is often many drinkers’ first experience of the smoky Islay style. With a focus on a distinctively bold, medicinal flavour, Laphroaig has many fans, and as a result, stocks of aged Laphroaig are rare, often topping out at 25 to 30 years old. A bottle of

Amid such eye-watering price tags, it is perhaps no surprise to see Bowmore announce a partnership with luxury car maker Aston Martin. The collaboration will see the two British brands create an exclusive series of products and experiences, as well as rare and unique bottlings.

A short drive east from Bowmore, past the ever-busy airport, is another coastal village, Port Ellen, which since 1983 has been haunted by a ‘ghosted’ distillery. Port Ellen distillery was one of a number of malt whisky producers that fell silent in the early part of the 1980s, a victim of a global contraction in demand for Scotland’s liquid gold. This decade of doom saw distilleries such as Brora, in the far north east of Scotland, just 60 miles from John o’ Groats, down to Rosebank 250 miles further south, and across to Port Ellen on Islay, lock their gates and silence their stills. As each was deemed surplus to requirements, their buildings were left stripped and empty, as mere monuments to an industry’s past glory

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Above: Islay’s strikingly spar tan island landscape.

Facing page: Three distilleries making a distinct impression on Islay and the world of whisky: (from the top) Laphroaig, Ardnahoe and Ardbeg

Laphroaig that carries an age statement over three decades is as coveted as a spare seat on the small aircraft in and out of the island – the last major offering was a limited-edition 30-year-old, with a sister bottling at 25-yearold, both released at the tail end of 2019 for just under £1,000 apiece.

The final name in this holy trinity is Lagavulin. Another distillery with a following that would walk over the hot ashes of smouldering peat to obtain limited-edition releases, its style of single malt is still undeniably peaty, yet more subtle than neighbouring Ardbeg or Laphroaig. Lagavulin’s best-known bottling is a 16-year-old. It’s a whisky that you can’t imagine ever not being there.

Having such a classic release as Lagavulin 16-year-old means that the distillery does not rely on extra-rare releases to appease its growing fan base. An annual 12-year-old limited edition has been a regular appearance for Lagavulin fans over the past decade, and recent additions of an eight-year-old and

CA MERA PRES S; MODELTEA M; NYT/REDUX/ EYEV INE

As Islay continues to thrive, one hopes it won’t lose the unspoilt nature that makes it so special

10-year-old have bolstered the core range. Yet on the rare occasion when a limited-edition Lagavulin with real age is released, it causes some flurry indeed. In 2017 a 24-year-old 1991 vintage was released for charity, selling out in record time, even with a price tag approaching £1,500 per bottle.

Perhaps the most heart-warming of all the stories on Islay is that of Bruichladdich. One of the five distilleries in the north of the island (along with independently owned Kilchoman in the north west, and the workhorse of Caol Ila, the diffident Bunnahabhain, and the new kid on the block, Ardnahoe, all based on the north east coast with views out to Jura), it epitomises the island’s renaissance.

Its history is as rough as the sea it overlooks.

Founded in 1881 by the Harvey brothers, Bruichladdich was a quiet operation producing mostly single malt for a variety of blending houses. From this bright start, the distillery lost its way, with eight different owners in just over a century before finally, in 1994, being mothballed. That Bruichladdich didn’t become a ‘ghost’ distillery was thanks to two parties: the locals, for whom the slowly fading whitewashed distillery walls always remained a bright beacon of hope; and London-based vintners Simon Coughlin and Mark Reynier who, in 2000, relocated to Islay and led a consortium – including key local landowners – to purchase the site and its remaining stocks.

Adding the former manager of Bowmore, Islay whisky-making legend Jim McEwan, to the team, the new owners forged ahead with a programme of reinvestment, and a heavy focus on using local ingredients, with local talent, and extreme levels of provenance. Today, all the various expressions of Bruichladdich whisky – whether traditionally unpeated, smoky (as in Port Charlotte) or heavily peated (Octomore) – are distilled, matured and bottled on the island, using 100% Scottish barley and reflecting only the natural colour that comes from the casks.

As a result, Bruichladdich has become Islay’s largest private employer, opening a bottling line that employs most of the local elderly and disabled workers. Sourcing casks from some of the top-grade vineyards across Europe allowed the team to enhance the quality of existing mature stocks, and nearly a decade after reopening, Bruichladdich became part of the family-owned French company, Rémy Cointreau.

With stories such as this, and whiskies of real quality being released across the island, it’s no wonder that Islay, and its whisky community, is buzzing right now. As it continues to thrive, one hopes it won’t lose the unspoilt, elemental nature that makes it so special. But perhaps, in time, the resident baggage handler will recruit a colleague…

[ CARS ]

KARL-FRIEDRICH SCHEUFELE, C O - OW N E R O F L U X U RY WAT C H M A K E R C H O PA R D , I S A M A N D R I V E N T O L E AV E A L E G A CY – F O R H I S F A M I L Y, I F N O T T H E W O R L D . A N D I F H E C A N E N J OY WINE AND CLASSIC CARS A L O N G T H E W A Y, W H Y N O T ?

Time WO R DS CO N O R M C N I C H O L A S

It’s dark, on a twisting Italian road on a still, cold May evening. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and his daughter Caroline-Marie have been driving at speed for several hours. Their car is a 1955 Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing, painted in a fizzing strawberry red, and the race is the Mille Miglia, the legendary vintage car event. This is the first time 23-year-old Caroline-Marie has accompanied her father as navigator and potential co-driver. ‘She was very keen at first to drive,’ he says, laughing as he recalls the story, ‘but after the first night in the car she said to me, “Maybe I will not drive as much as I thought because it requires quite a bit of attention and they’re going pretty fast.”’

Scheufele has competed in the Mille Miglia every year but one for three decades now, often with his wife or his father as his codriver. He first raced with legendary racing driver Jacky Ickx, six-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours. ‘I met him at the Nürburgring once,’ Scheufele recalls. ‘I didn’t know him, but his wife had some problems with her jewellery and I helped him out, so I took a chance and asked him to do the Mille Miglia with me.’ Ever since then, Scheufele and the company he owns, Chopard, have been synonymous with the event, as a competitor and sponsor respectively.

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traveller

Having the time of his life at the wheel of a Porsche 550 Spyder in the 2006 Mille Miglia: Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and C LU B Oracing E N O LO legend G I Q U E Jacky Ickx 73

Exploring photos of Scheufele behind the wheel at various stages of the Mille Miglia, I’m struck by the joy in his eyes. I share this thought with him and he chuckles like a schoolboy. ‘I never get tired of this event,’ he says. ‘It’s one of the only times I don’t think of business. I concentrate on my driving and the beautiful scenery.’ For Scheufele, it is not about winning, but simply racing well. ‘I’ve given up on the timing aspect. The race is so enjoyable you don’t want to be focused on your chronometer. Someone told me if you don’t practise every other weekend you’ll never be in the first 50 cars. I just don’t have enough time for that. Now I get to savour the Mille Miglia just like a good bottle of wine.’

Scheufele talks about wine bottles (of which more later) as time capsules and the Mille Miglia is, similarly, a moment in time that has been preserved. It ran as a contemporary race 24 times between 1927 and 1957. Since 1977, to retain a relevance and purity, it’s been reborn as a vintage car race where all the cars competing must be of a kind that were registered in the original race. As such, vintage Astons, Porsches, Alfas and Maseratis take part, for looks as much as times, in an eyecatching celebration of automotive heritage.

Not all competitors in the Mille Miglia over the years have been as relaxed as Scheufele.

When first established in 1927, the race took in just over 1,000 miles of Northern Italian road, from Brescia to Rome and back, on a figure-of-eight route. The inaugural event was won by Giuseppe Morandi, who

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completed the course in just over 21 hours, averaging nearly 48 mph. Since then the detail of the route has changed many times, but the essential principle – around 1,000 miles between Brescia and Rome – remains sacrosanct. In 1955 British racing driver Stirling Moss completed the course in a shade over 10 hours in his Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, clocking up an astonishing average speed of just under 100mph. It’s considered one of the greatest driving achievements of all time.

It’s easy to see how Scheufele has fallen in love with the race, and with vintage cars in general. How many are in his collection, I ask. ‘Even my wife doesn’t know! Certainly more than 20,’ he says. ‘My all-time favourite is my Porsche 911 RS 1973. It’s orange with a black velour interior. But I also have a prewar favourite, a 1935 Aston Martin Ulster.’ A similarly rare model of the open-top racing car, considered by many the finest pre-war racer, sold for a whisker under £3 million a few years ago.

Staying focused and thinking ahead are traits that have made Scheufele a tenacious driver, but they’ve also served him well in his business life. As co-president of watchmaker and jeweller Chopard (he shares the role with his higher profile sister, Caroline – he manages the watch division; she looks after the jewellery), he has helped take the company from being a respected creator of watch designs to a global luxury powerhouse with a small family of brands, producing every element of most of the watches it sells.

When his father, Karl, took over Chopard from the founding family in 1963, the firm had five employees – the grandson of the founder and four others. There was gradual growth, but it was the strategy Scheufele led in the mid-1990s, returning Chopard to crafting its own watch movements, that has really defined the brand. Today the company employs 2,000 people. And in a sector dominated by the might of LVMH, Richemont, Kering et al, Chopard stands apart as a family-owned business with few shareholders.

‘It’s true that as a family company we have an emphasis on certain values,’ he tells me.

‘We are not overly concerned with quarterly profits – we are concerned with human values, looking after long-term projects and making meaningful contributions to the world. It needs it very urgently, I think,’ he adds.

Scheufele and his sister officially took over leadership of the company from their father in 2001, and recently the next generation have begun to get involved with the business. The company’s iconic St Moritz watch, a sleek skiing timepiece whose stainless steel design was initially suggested by Scheufele to his father in 1980, was recently reinvented by Scheufele’s 22-year-old son, Karl-Fritz. In a neat reversal of its origin, Scheufele Jr, having met resistance from his father, turned to his grandfather for approval. ‘I wasn’t convinced,’ admits Karl-Friedrich. But

CAMERA PRESS

[ CARS ]

(Facing page) Father-daughter teamwork as Scheufele and his daughter Caroline-Marie prepare for the 2019 Mille Miglia.

(This page, from top) The Grand Prix de Monaco race, officially sponsored

by Chopard; two views of the Mille Miglia, where classic cars get the chance to shine

eventually he relented, and the now popular Alpine Eagle was born.

When we talk, Scheufele is jolly, likeable and softly spoken, but the way he speaks leaves you in no doubt that this is someone very much used to having a plan and executing it relentlessly. These contrasting elements of his character – his passion, his attention to detail – meet in a love of wine. Having set up a wine sales company at the end of the 1990s and acquired the Caveaux de Bacchus boutiques in Switzerland (he now also owns a wine bar in Geneva), Scheufele’s passion for wine led him to buy an estate in Bergerac, the region immediately east of Bordeaux. It took Scheufele and his wife, Christine, 25 years of searching to find a place that felt right, but in 2012 they discovered it – Château Monestier La Tour.

‘I was not looking for a trophy vineyard, but a place that we could develop and put our own mark on. And the place had to be right for the family, a place of peace and quiet,’ he says.

‘Wine for me has always meant company,’ he says emphatically, clearly having thought about it a lot. ‘It’s about important moments, family reunions, moments you cherish.

Drinking wine alone, for me, is not an option.’

Today the estate produces around 80,000 bottles a year of a dry white (a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle) and an intense red (Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon), and occasionally the sweet white Saussignac.

It’s all managed under a strict biodynamic

regime, with cows’ horns filled with quartz buried at the base of vines and harvesting regulated by the cycles of the moon.

‘Vertical integration in watchmaking and winemaking is a similar process,’ says Scheufele. ‘In every aspect of the process you have to do it right and the end product will show the difference.’ Away from the office, the château is now clearly a haven for Scheufele.

‘Later this afternoon, finally, I will be heading there,’ he tells me. ‘I haven’t been able to go for the past two and a half months, so I’m very much looking forward to it. My wife and I go there about six times a year and for two weeks in the summer. It’s not enough.’

The estate has been restored to a thriving, modern operation with a new vat room, allowing the old one to be renovated and turned into the new barrel cellar. Despite these innovations and renovations, the building has, I notice, clearly had its patina and character retained. ‘Maybe that’s because I have been restoring a lot of cars in my life,’ muses Scheufele. ‘I never liked the overrestored classic cars, so I applied the same attention to the buildings.’

In the recent past, luxury has too often been associated with ostentatious excess, but increasingly people who can afford the very best are focused on true sustainability and are prepared to pay for it. As with his Aston Martin Ulster that still purrs after 85 years, Scheufele believes that luxury delivered well is inherently sustainable. ‘For me, a luxury product is a product that lasts, and a

(From left) Chopard’s Alpine Eagle, as conceived by the young Karl-Fritz Scheufele; Karl-Friedrich (third from right) with (from left) son Karl-Fritz, sister Caroline, father and mother Karl and Karin, and wife and daughter Christine and Caroline-Marie.

(Facing page) Karl-Friedrich’s beloved collection of classic cars, including a 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Spider (top left) and a 1929 Bentley 4½ Litre (bottom left)

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product that lasts for many years is already sustainable by definition.’

For Scheufele, embracing sustainability goes much deeper than just lasting a long time. ‘Back in 2010, the 150th anniversary of Chopard, we started thinking about this. We felt luxury products could lead the way in being socially responsible.’ Luxury buyers are increasingly concerned with provenance and social impact, he says, and aim to buy what does good as well as what looks good.

‘Anyone who wants to acquire beautiful jewellery or a beautiful watch wants to feel good about themselves and their purchase,’ says Scheufele. ‘We were convinced of that some time ago when we launched our Fairmined Gold initiative.’ The programme now covers gold, diamonds and other coloured stone. ‘We were a pioneer,’ he adds. ‘It’s part of the joy to say that the provenance is guaranteed and it’s a socially responsible process.’

But as the bold sundial motif on the labels of Château Monestier La Tour attests, the ultimate luxury is time, and Scheufele plans to make the most of his. ‘We are only here for a limited amount of time. So I try and contribute as much as I can. I believe that if you’re passionate and enjoy what you do there is a better chance to continue for longer.’ And how about Caroline-Marie? Did she finally step up and take the wheel that night in the Millie Miglia? ‘She did very well,’ he smiles with fatherly pride. ‘She’s a very promising driver.’

MATT SILLS, SHUTTERSTO CK

[ CARS ]

My all-time favourite is my Porsche 911 RS 1973. But I also have a pre-war favourite, a 1935 Aston Martin K A R L- F R I E D R I C H S C H E U F E L E

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[ DAY W I T H T H E A R T I S A N ]

Heart of glass G L A S S, T H AT M O ST D E L I C AT E O F S U B STA N C E S, I S C R E AT E D F R O M T H E H U M B L E ST O F E A R T H - B O U N D M AT E R I A L S. B U T I N T H E H A N D S O F A M A S T E R G L A S S - B LO W E R I T B E C O M E S T R U LY E T H E R E A L

Hot stuff: the Superleggero glass (opposite) and a stem being forged at Riedel’s Kufstein glassworks

WO R DS

RIEDEL

K ATE H AW K I N G S

The thermometer is touching zero as I arrive at the Riedel glass factory in Kufstein, a pretty medieval town near Innsbruck in Austria. Inside, the heat hits like the breath of Hades. Nine furnaces, burning at around 1,300C, run down the centre of the high-ceilinged building. Alongside each, a master glassmaker (Meister) leads a team of men (female glassblowers are rare, partly for cultural reasons but also because a woman’s lung capacity tends to be smaller) dressed in shorts, T-shirts and protective shoes. Each has his own job in the process, and between them they produce between 1,500 and 2,000 pieces a day.

Glass is the world’s oldest artificially made material. The first glass vessels were made

around 1,500 BC, and there is an ongoing debate among historians over whether they came from Egypt or Mesopotamia.

We know the Egyptians heated silica, lime and soda in a furnace, wound the resulting molten glass around a dung-based clay mould, smoothed the surface as it cooled, then removed the clay to leave a hollow glass vessel. Their skills were passed on to their Roman conquerors, who discovered that blowing into molten glass through a hollow pipe opened a whole new world of possibilities for this most beguiling material.

Glass vessels have been made in this part of Europe for millennia – the Romans established glassworks in the region that became known as Bohemia (now part of

the Czech Republic) in the 1st century AD, and the basic process of mouth-blown glassmaking has changed little since. By the 14th century, Bohemia was a major centre for high-quality glassmaking, and Riedel was established there in 1756.

Today, most of Riedel’s glassworkers come from here, as well as neighbouring Slovenia and Slovakia, and most return to their families at weekends.

It is not an easy job. The working temperature of glass is 700C and it remains malleable for just 15 seconds, so the men have to work fast; they have only a 1mm margin of error. Water bottles are scattered all over; in the winter, each man drinks at least four litres of water a day, and

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[ DAY W I T H T H E A R T I S A N ]

Inside the Kufstein glassworks – from furnace, to crafting, to the finished Superleggero glass, inscribed with the Riedel name

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in summer, twice that. Against a backdrop of easy-listening radio, there is an air of deep concentration – this is more artisan workshop than clattering factory.

I watch as, using a long metal pipe, one man pulls an orange-hot bulb of molten glass from the furnace and hands the pipe to the Meister. Standing on a platform about a metre off the ground that allows him to maintain a fairly upright posture, the Meister carefully lowers the slowly stretching, pear-shaped glass into a mould in a water bath on the floor and gently blows down the pipe, rotating it between his fingers. He releases the mould, then, with a dramatic swoop, raises the pipe into the air, checking the now-solid glass for imperfections, and hands it to an assistant.

The base of the glass is reheated in a gas flame and another blob of molten glass is attached before being stretched out with tongs to form the stem. The glass, still attached to the pipe, which is being constantly twirled, is handed on to make the base via the addition of a third blob, which is flattened between two wooden blocks.

Finally, the rim of the glass is cut from the pipe and left to cool before finishing.

How long does it take to become a Meister? It can vary, says Hasan Erdoğan, a Meister originally from Turkey who has worked at Riedel for 20 years. ‘It’s mostly to do with personality and feeling. Some get it in five years or less; some will take many more years. It’s very much an art, as well as a craft.’ A few of the glassworkers have been at Riedel for 40 years or more, and their fathers before them, but such veterans are becoming rarer. ‘It is really, really hard and very skilled work, and these days youngsters don’t want to learn,’ says Erdoğan, one of the few glassmakers here who live locally; most come from further afield.

‘There are no glassmaking schools left in Austria; people these days want more lucrative and less physically demanding jobs. But there are still some in these other countries,’ Holger Müller tells me. Müller is Riedel’s Hüttenmeister, the ‘master of the house’, in charge of all their glassmakers.

He is tall, elaborately tattooed and sports a splendid ZZ Top beard; his fingers bear chunky silver rings, and his eyes gleam with zeal. ‘We have 12 nationalities working here,’ he says. ‘Some were at war with each other until not long ago, but we are bound together by what we do, not by the languages we speak.

‘I grew up near a glassworks in the Black Forest,’ he continues. ‘As a boy, I was fascinated by these big men working at the furnaces, making this incredible, delicate glass.’ Müller has since worked in the United States, France, Japan, Canada, Russia and Iran. ‘There is always work for good glass-blowers,’ he grins. ‘It’s a dying art, but it still excites me as much now as it did when I was a child.’

There is nothing intrinsically superior about mouth-blown glasses, largely due to companies such as Riedel perfecting machine-blown techniques; the only way to tell them apart is the slightly ridged base on a mouth-blown glass. But there is something undeniably exquisite about them. The creation of glass is the result of an extraordinary alchemy, the transformation of basic matter – silica, lime, alkalis – to a molten mass as hot as magma that then cools to a transparent solid, its beauty heightened by its extreme fragility. Glass refracts, reflects and transmits light like nothing else: it is made from the humblest of earth-bound materials, but when crafted with skill, it appears ethereal, as if not of this world at all.

RIEDEL

It’s very much an art, as well as a craft

[ THE COLLECTION ]

Club Oenologique

Collection 5 P H OTO G R A P H S FAC U N D O B U S TA M A NTE

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[ THE COLLECTION ]

What is the Club Oenologique Collection?

At Club Oenologique, we pride ourselves on our access to the finest and rarest wines and spirits in the world. Sometimes by ‘rare’, we mean very, very hard to find; sometimes we mean extraordinarily expensive; and sometimes we simply mean bottles that even veteran critics seldom see.

And what is most interesting about some of these bottles is that rarest doesn’t always mean best. At the Vin de Constance tasting, winemaker Matt Day opened bottles from the 1980s – wines that you can find if you look carefully enough but that are by no means readily available. They were luscious, spice-laden masterpieces, yet in the context of their peers, especially the sublime 2012, they were less extraordinary.

Some of the Burgundies sourced by Sarah Marsh MW for our look at the 2003 and 2004 vintages are no less interesting – especially the 2004, a cold and wet vintage seldom featured in the established wine journals, which set their sights on more exalted years. But Marsh was agreeably surprised by the evolution of the ’04s. ‘Don’t tarry,’ she advises, but if you see them on the wine list or if they’re in your cellar, take a look.

Essi Avellan MW had the pleasure of attending one of the exclusive events curated by the eminent Champagneologist Marina Olsson. And on the subject of rarities, what treasures she found there – from the ‘sweet gunpowder’ of the Dom Pérignon Brut 1996, to the ‘lush’ Bollinger RD 2002. The point of the tasting was to compare lees-aged wines with their earlier-disgorged counterparts, an exercise Avellan found as intellectually stimulating as it was hedonistically delightful.

Lastly, Colin Hampden-White presents a selection of whiskies that are both investable and delicious – with the inestimable tip, ‘The one rule I put forward when asked for advice on investing in whisky is to make sure you will like what you buy.’

We would heartily agree.

100 99 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 91 90 89 88 87 86 85 84 83 82 81 80

100–98 Extraordinary An extraordinary wine that is profound, unique and, above all, emotionally inspiring. By definition, it is the reference for a classic wine of its variety or style.

97–95 Outstanding An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and characteristics, as well as remarkable personality.

A classic example of its style or variety.

94–90 Excellent An accomplished wine with considerable complexity and character. A wine with personality that will provide a memorable drinking experience.

89–85 Good A strong wine that offers solid quality. A wine that provides a highly enjoyable drinking experience. Good-value and everyday wines will often fall into this category.

84–80 Average A perfectly well-made wine but of average quality; a safe wine with little or no distinction and excitement.

A wine that provides straightforward drinking.

79–70 Below average A wine with noticeable flaws; one that is bland or lacking character. A wine not worth your attention.

69–50 Avoid A wine with faults, or a wine that is unbalanced or unpleasant.

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The tasters ESSI AVELLAN MW In addition to being a Champagne specialist, journalist, educator and wine judge, Essi Avellan has written several wine books.

COLIN HAMPDEN-WHITE IWSC judge Colin HampdenWhite is a presenter on Amazon Primeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Three Drinkers and has been writing about wine and spirits for more than 10 years.

LORA HEMY Head distiller at Roe & Co in Dublin, Lora Hemy has previously held roles at Atom Brands and Halewood Wines & Spirits, specialising in Irish whiskey, whisky and gin.

ALICE LASCELLES Alice Lascelles writes about drinks for The Financial Times and is the current Fortnum & Mason Drinks Writer of the Year.

ADAM LECHMERE Adam Lechmere has been writing about wine for 20 years. He launched decanter.com in early 2000, has contributed to numerous publications and is editor of Club Oenologique.

SARAH MARSH MW Burgundy specialist Sarah Marsh has tasted through 14 vintages en primeur for her website The Burgundy Briefing. In 2017, she finally realised her dream of making her own wine, at Domaine Nicolas Rossignol in Beaune.

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Red Burgundy 2004 and 2003 I F YO U C E L L A R E D T H E S E V I N TA G E S, YO U â&#x20AC;&#x2122; R E O N TO A W I N N E R .

E V E N T H E M U C H - M A L I G N E D 2 0 0 4 H A S M E L L O W E D R E M A R K A B L Y, WRITES SARAH MARSH MW

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[ THE COLLECTION | RED BURGUNDY ]

I NT R O D U C T I O N BY SARAH MARSH MW

Visiting the domaines of the Côte d’Or year after year and listening to their owners bemoan the speedy consumption of their wines, it seemed timely to gather bottles of older vintages for a tasting, to assess their evolution and advise on their maturity.

Should you be drinking these wines now or later? Is the window of opportunity closing?

Are they past it?

If you cellared your 2003s and 2004s, you did the right thing. Neither vintage was particularly appealing in youth, but both have significantly improved with age.

Moreover, the assertive vintage characters have receded sufficiently to allow the terroir to show through, making them more interesting as older wines.

This was a tasting of extremes: 2004 from a cold, wet, late vintage; 2003 from a hot, dry, early one. They are polar opposites in style. 2004 struggled to ripen and was harvested in October. It had high acidity, green tannins and leanness, coupled with a very specific herbaceous and tomatoey profile that might be due to a plague of ladybirds that went into the vat at some domaines. (Vibrating sorting tables were not commonplace 15 years ago.) Very few ’04s in our tasting have retained those assertively unpleasant aromatics; most have mellowed to a pleasantly herbal

profile with a slightly smoky note, possibly a reductive character from liberal use of sulphur that year.

The leafy tannins have refined quite surprisingly, and most 2004s are still lively and fresh. However, this vintage always lacked substance, and the structure is lean.

Some are really quite thin, and others are drying on the finish. You may have missed the boat with some smaller wines, but for the most part (top villages in the Côte d’Or at premier and grand cru) this is a good moment to drink them, ideally with a meal.

The freshness and slightly herbal note make them useful with greener-flavoured or tomato-based vegetarian dishes, and any light dryness should be indiscernible with food. A good choice on a wine list and not too expensive. But don’t tarry.

Now to the infinitely more intriguing 2003 vintage. After a drought and a heatwave, where temperatures hit 46C and remained hot at night, the wines emerged heavy, lacking in acidity, with rather coarse tannins, baked to burnt flavours and prunelike fruit. Burgundy producers said to drink the ’03s within three years. Sixteen years later, the wines in our tasting have slimmed down and become more precise.

The tannins have smoothed. The burnt character has assumed a more attractive

brûlée note, which works with the creamy thick texture. The tertiary aromatics are very sweet – mulch and forest floor. They are often aromatically exotic.

With age, 2003 has upped its game in style and quality, but is it worth splashing out on grand cru in anything but the best vintage? While it’s true that the appellation hierarchy may seem compressed in rich vintages – at least in young wines – the grands crus in our tasting of 2003 have emerged triumphantly to show their quality.

I feel that the evolution of 2003 should give us confidence in the ageing potential of recent hot vintages, including 2018 and ’19. Most 2003s are ready to drink now.

Enjoy them over the next two or three years.

There is no great hurry, and some of the richest grands crus may continue to evolve advantageously.

I would not decant either vintage, for there is very little deposit. Decanting will simply hasten the demise of the ’04s, but I would certainly recommend using a large Burgundy-style glass for the ’03s, and give them time to breathe.

There were some faults in both vintages, and 15–20% of the samples had a problem with TCA or oxidation – not surprising given the crumbling corks. Where possible, I sourced another bottle.

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DOMAINE GEORGES MUGNERET-GIBOURG, ECHÉZEAUX 2004

From 2020 to 2022 The most delightful 2004 I have ever tasted. Intensity and delicacy. It is lean, but so elegant and flowing.

Silky textured, with lightly bitter fennel notes on the finish. A perfect moment to drink it. 13.5%.

Burgundy 2004

Secondary market

91

DOMAINE MICHEL GROS, NUITS-STGEORGES 1ER CRU 2004 From 2020 to 2022 A pungent, slightly wild forest-floor aroma, with a slight sweetness on the palate, a hint of tomato leaf and quite fine tannins.

Energetic and with no sign of fading. 13%.

Drink 2020

DOMAINE ROSSIGNOLTRAPET, LATRICIÈRESCHAMBERTIN 2004

Fresh and upright. Marked tension and minerality.

Bright, with a chalky texture and minerality but lacking mid-palate. Straight and lean. The finish is light, slightly dry and salty.

It’s attractive, but don’t keep it longer. 13.5%.

Drink 2020

£50 Millesima

Secondary market

91

Delicate, pure and fineboned, with elegant, slim-textured tannins and a certain raciness. I like the purity and minerality, but it is a touch dry and lean, so I would not keep it longer. 13.5%. £93 Crump, Richmond & Shaw Fine Wines

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DOMAINE BOUCHARD PÈRE & FILS, POMMARD 1ER CRU, LES RUGIENS 2004

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DOMAINE JACQUESFRÉDÉRIC MUGNIER, NUITS-ST-GEORGES 1ER CRU, CLOS DE LA MARÉCHALE 2004 Drink 2020

The first vintage after retrieving this vineyard from a long-term lease to Faiveley. Marked 2004 profile, with tomato and green pepper. I like the smooth texture, and it shows a certain generosity for a light vintage. Supple tannins on the mid-palate become slightly dusty on the finish.

Not certain to last longer and possibly past its best.

(I preferred it when I tasted it two years ago.) 13%. £83 BBX Berrys’ Broking Exchange

87

DOMAINE MARC ROY, GEVREY-CHAMBERTIN, CLOS PRIEUR 2004 Drink 2020 Warm leather bouquet.

Juicy and slightly smoky palate, with a chamois leather texture. Very fresh, with a tight, light and attractively metallic bite on the finish. Quite persistent. Really good for a village wine, but I wouldn’t keep it any longer. 13%.

Secondary market

[ THE COLLECTION | RED BURGUNDY ]

93

DOMAINE DUJAC, CLOS DE LA ROCHE (MAGNUM) 2004 Drink 2020 Sweet rot. A richly mature bouquet, slightly smoky and spicy, with coriander seed and white pepper. Surprisingly good generosity and depth.

This magnum is still fresh, but it thins on the finish.

Delicious now, but don’t keep a bottle. 13.5%.

93

£369 Fine+Rare

DOMAINE MICHEL GROS, VOSNE-ROMANÉE 1ER CRU, CLOS DES RÉAS 2004

From 2020 to 2022 Appealingly ‘hoofy’ bouquet. Surprising richness of texture and supple tannins. Succulent for the vintage. Still so vibrant, with a bitter coffee note at the end. Outstanding premier cru 2004. 13%.

Secondary market

86

MÉO-CAMUZET FRÈRE & SŒURS, NUITS-ST-GEORGES 1ER CRU, AUX ARGILLAS 2004 Drink 2020

Quite a vibrant attack.

Plentiful tannins, which are not sophisticated but bestow a punchy freshness.

Herbaceous character and a touch dry on the finish. Drink up. 13%.

Secondary market

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DOMAINE RENÉ BOUVIER, MARSANNAY, CLOS DU ROY (MAGNUM) 2004 Drink 2020

Fresh and bright, with a hint of tomato – but attractively so. Rather silky tannins.

Appetising grassy freshness at the end. It is lovely now, with no dryness. Good intensity for a village wine.

It may well plateau for another year – after all, it is a magnum – but there is no value in keeping it. 13%.

Secondary market

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DOMAINE GEORGES MUGNERET-GIBOURG, ECHÉZEAUX 2003 From 2020 to 2024

Exotic plumpness but also a higher tone, which defies the vintage. Fine tannins; elegant for 2003. Long and streamlined. I love the precision here in a warm vintage. For flair and style, this is one of my favourite wines of the tasting.

Lovely now, so don’t leave it too long. 13.5%. £451 Fine+Rare

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DOMAINE ARMAND ROUSSEAU, CLOS DE LA ROCHE 2003 From 2020 to 2030 Rich, full-bodied and supple, with aromatics of warm leather, coffee and mulch. Smooth, chunky tannins; plentiful. Density underscored with cooler grip. The limestone bedrock comes through.

Ageing just splendidly.

Love it. No hurry. 13.5%.

DOMAINE TOLLOT-BEAUT, CORTON-BRESSANDES 2003

From 2020 to 2024 Sweet and sunny palate, with generous plummy richness.

The tannins are a touch burly, but there is plenty of vigour and freshness on the convincing finish.

Rather impressive. 14.5%.

Secondary market

£82 Fine+Rare

Burgundy 2003

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DOMAINE JACQUESFRÉDÉRIC MUGNIER, BONNES MARES 2003 From 2020 to 2025

Spicy and ‘hoofy’ aroma, with star anise and cumin.

A light taffeta crunch to the tannins. It has a gorgeous aromatic richness but is elegant, well defined and refined for 2003, with proper grand cru length.

Fabulous. Drink now, but have no concern about ageing it further. 13.5%.

Secondary market

95

DOMAINE DUJAC, CLOS DE LA ROCHE 2003 From 2020 to 2023

A full-bodied wine with spicy aromas: cinnamon and a touch of cumin. It’s more aromatically exotic than Rousseau’s but less juicily unctuous. Thickly textured. Excellent depth and good energy. Persistent aromatic finish. 13.5%. £1,160 (magnum) Crump, Richmond & Shaw Fine Wines

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95

From 2025 to 2035 A voluptuous, hedonistic wine. Full-throttle spicy unctuousness. The texture is smoothly chunky, with ripe and chocolatey tannins.

On first opening, this was a wine of disparate parts and quite heavy. However, 36 hours later it started to come together, and I really enjoyed the rosepetal aromatics that come through on the powerful finish. It needs time to refine and become more precise, but goodness me, there is plenty of pleasure to be had. 13%.

Secondary market

93

DOMAINE DE L’ARLOT, NUITSST-GEORGES 1ER CRU, CLOS DES FORÊTS ST-GEORGES 2003 From 2020 to 2023

95

DOMAINE G ROUMIER, BONNES MARES 2003 From 2020 to 2025

Full, dark bouquet, rich with the aromas of autumnal forest floor.

This has a creamy, rich texture, an earthiness with sweet manure and bitter chocolate, and a chalky note on the pronounced finish.

No lack of gumption. 13.5%. £1,184 Fine+Rare

DOMAINE PIERRE DAMOY, CLOS DE BÈZE 2003

Rich and succulent, with energy and sappy minerality. Concentrated and sweet but salty. I like the contrasts in this wine.

The tannins have a touch of bitterness but are quite fine. There is structure with some finesse for 2003. The finish has a hint of graphite.

A very good 2003. 13.5%. £69 Fine+Rare

[ THE COLLECTION | RED BURGUNDY ]

DOMAINE TOLLOT-BEAUT, BEAUNE 1ER CRU, GRÈVES 2003

92

From 2020 Plump red fruit; sweet raspberries. Surprisingly in the red fruit spectrum.

Hard to believe this is 16 years old – very little tertiary character. Soft and succulent, with smooth, easy tannins, a little spice and a touch of anise on the finish. The finish is not especially long, but the mid-palate intensity is good. Drink now, but there’s no hurry. 13%.

Secondary market

93

DOMAINE DES COMTES LAFON, VOLNAY 1ER CRU, SANTENOTS-DU-MILIEU 2003

DOMAINE MICHEL LAFARGE, VOLNAY 1ER CRU, CLOS DES CHÊNES 2003

92

Drink 2020 An elegant, aromatically very ripe but quite ‘light’ wine, with exotic floral notes. Perhaps a little lacking mid-palate, but it has some tension and salinity on the finish. It is no surprise that the domaine picked early (23 August). I wouldn’t age it longer. 13%.

92

DOMAINE CHANSON PÈRE & FILS, BEAUNE 1ER CRU, CLOS DES FÈVES 2003 From 2020 to 2023 Sweet bouquet, with a hint of truffle. Richly rounded and attractively brûlée. Plump middle and sweetly citrus on the finish. It’s exotic but has a touch of contrasting minerality.

Very 2003, and I rather like it. 14%.

Secondary market

£95 WinePro

From 2020 to 2024 Velvet-textured, rounded and plumply juicy. Just enjoy the indulgence.

It is surprisingly fresh, too, underpinned with a good line of minerality.

Plenty of life in this wine, which I can see outliving the other premiers crus and even some of the grands crus. 13.5%. £104 Fine+Rare

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DOMAINE JEAN CHAUVENET, NUITS-ST-GEORGES 1ER CRU, LES BOUSSELOTS 2003 From 2023 to 2026

Harvested later, on 7 September. Intense, with a pruney character.

Certainly rich, compact, powerful and really quite tannic. Liquorice, tarry tannins cry out for food. It’s pretty full-on, but I like the vigour. It might benefit from longer to soften. 13.5%. £33 Latimer Vintners Ltd

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DOMAINE MICHEL GROS, NUITS-STGEORGES, 1ER CRU 2003 Drink 2020 Sweet mulch and hoof.

Rich, smooth and rounded, with hints of nutmeg and cinnamon. Enticing aromatic intensity. The best face of 2003. 14%.

Secondary market

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[ THE COLLEC TION | CHAMPAGNE ]

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The beauty of age A C O M PA R I S O N O F LO N G E R - L E E S -AG E D C H A M PAG N E S W I T H T H E I R O R I G I N A L C O U N T E R PA R T S H E L D E S S I AV E L L A N M W S P E L L B O U N D

I NT R O D U C T I O N BY E S S I AV E L L A N M W

For 21 years, Marina Olsson has gone to great lengths to assemble extraordinary sets of rare wines for her Gomseglet Champagne club. This was my first invitation to the private collector’s famously exclusive and hedonistic tastings, and I knew it was going to tickle both my taste buds and intellect.

In essence, this tasting was about comparing original disgorgements with late disgorgements. The latter category was initiated in 1967 when Bollinger launched its récemment dégorgé (RD) 1952, a longerlees-aged, extra-brut version of Grande Année. Ahead of her time as its creator Mme Bollinger was, the cuvée stood long in solitude. Finally, in 2000, the launch of Dom Pérignon’s Oenothèque series (renamed Plénitude, or P, in 2014) kickstarted the boom. Since then, many ‘ultra-prestige’ cuvées have emerged, including Louis Roederer Cristal Vinothèque, Dom Ruinart La Réserve, Laurent-Perrier Les Réserves Grand Siècle and Gosset Les Célébrissimes.

Despite the seemingly simple concept, the reality of late-disgorged Champagnes is mesmerisingly complex. What is understood is that as long as the wine is kept on the lees, it remains fresh and protected against oxidation. However, the longer it is on its lees, the more sensitive it will be to the oxidative shock of disgorgement and the more rapid its subsequent evolution. Thus, many late-disgorged Champagnes are best enjoyed within a few years of sediment removal. Perhaps surprisingly, the original version often takes extended ageing better.

Our wines were served in themed flights, within which they were tasted blind, giving us many surprises and lots of food for thought.

We oriented ourselves to the tasting by

comparing the much-hyped 2008s of Dom Pérignon and La Grande Année. Still warming up to the real deal, Marina treated us to a surprise quintet, which was revealed to be a vertical of Moët & Chandon vintages, the ‘little brother’ of Dom Pérignon.

The next two flights compared Bollinger La Grande Année and RD. It was not easy to distinguish which was which, even if we knew that RD has a lower dosage. In the more youthful set, to me the RDs ranked superior, whereas out of the 1990s, La Grande Année was in a league of its own, incredibly fresh and impressively vivacious. The 1988 was regrettably corked, and cork was an issue for several other bottles in the tasting.

Champagne has tackled the problem since those days, but many corky disappointments still sleep in collectors’ cellars.

In the first Dom Pérignon flight, I was seriously impressed by the underdog to the two 1995s, the elegant and tight-knit 1993 Oenothèque. In the 1990 and 1996 comparison, the original ’96 disgorgement had the complexity, drive and youthfulness of a magnum. Our last pleasurable drill was to taste every Dom Pérignon P2 released so far, and polished-to-perfection consistency and youthfulness greeted us in every glass.

Of course, firm conclusions depend on personal preference, but the original and late disgorgements are not the same wine anymore. If you want an immediately complex, lush, yeast-enriched experience, go for the long-aged one, but a more budget-friendly option is to buy original disgorgements and open them at any time, depending on your taste. Personally, I relished the intellectual experience of savouring them side by side.

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Dom Pérignon DOM PÉRIGNON P2 2002

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From 2020 to 2040 Stunningly rich and pristinely fruity, leesy and toasty nose, with sweet tropical fruit and lemon meringue pie notes. ‘Bombastic fruit’, as a fellow taster aptly described its radiant and powerful character.

Fine, intense creaminess follows the wine to the very long finish. Simply divine, even if still highly youthful. 12.5%.

DOM PÉRIGNON BRUT 1996

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From 2020 to 2030 Superbly toasty, highly expressive nose packed with sweet gunpowder, roasted coffee, aromatic wood, liquorice, guava, ginger, melon and mineral notes.

Long and linear structure coming with accentuated steely acidity. Highly youthful still, full of unreleased energy.

Tastes like a magnum.

Disgorged 2013. 12.5%. £201 Fine + Rare

£294 Fine + Rare

DOM PÉRIGNON OENOTHÈQUE 1993

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From 2020 to 2030 Remarkably youthful on the nose where toasty gunpowder meets lemon, oyster and chalk. Layer upon layer gets revealed over time. Tight and crisp on the lean, refined palate. Not one of the most impressive or expressive vintages, but it has innate finesse and seems to age slowly and gracefully.

Disgorged 2005. 12.5%. £320 Warwick Banks & Jenkins

DOM PÉRIGNON P2 1995

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This seductive, generous wine oozes honey-toned fruit, caramel and vanilla.

Sweet, fruity tones and a touch of oxidation blend seamlessly on the full, caressing palate.

Drinks wonderfully now.

Disgorged 2007. 12.5%.

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From 2020 to 2030

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DOM PÉRIGNON BRUT 2008 From 2020 to 2040

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The come-hither nose couldn’t be more attractive – especially allied with heavenly toastiness, ripe pear, gooseberries, peardrops, grass and white flowers. Delicate and fine in aromatics and so gentle and soft on the palate. A fragrant beauty of delicate and sensual character.

Disgorged 2014. 12.5%.

Tightness and restraint still on a nose of great finesse, but the palate reveals already surprising sumptuousness and creaminess. Smoky, with fragrant white flowers and soft, toasty tones.

The long and pure palate brings a cool breeze of attractive acidic and mineral tension. 12.5%.

£263 Vinum Fine Wines

£112.50 Hedonism

DOM PÉRIGNON P2 2000

From 2020 to 2025

£477 Fine + Rare

DOM PÉRIGNON P2 1999

From 2020 to 2035

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The stylish and withdrawn nose is a fine melange of sea breeze, freshly ground coffee, herbs, baked apple and grilled almonds. The plush texture is beautifully complemented by the wine’s linearity and freshness.

Beautifully complete and pleasurable today.

Disgorged 2014. 12.5%. £210 Seckford Wines

DOM PÉRIGNON P2 1998 From 2020 to 2025

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Fine, creamy nose, with coconut, peardrops, toffee and vegetal touches alongside gunpowder and straw. Strong body and developing character approaching maturity.

Disgorged 2012. 12.5%. £397 Millesima

DOM PÉRIGNON P2 1993 From 2020 to 2025

95

The lemony nose is youthful, showing green fruit, herbs, spices, toast and a curious note of wax, which comes across strongly and is enhanced over time in the glass. The tight and lean palate is energetic and driven, showing no sign of weakening.

Disgorged 2006. 12.5%. £444 Fine + Rare

DOM PÉRIGNON P2 1996 From 2020 to 2030

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This P2 feels astonishingly youthful, showing little sign of evolution or softening. There is plenty of fine, pure fruit but the searing acidity takes the lead role, bringing aggression but also salinity and drive. Needs time to show its complexities.

Disgorged 2008. 12.5%. £400 BI Wines & Spirits

95 DOM PÉRIGNON OENOTHÈQUE 1995

From 2020 to 2030 Fragrant nose, with honey, iodine, herbs and toffee complementing the lemony-floral fruit profile. For its age, it is showing some surprising oxidative tones. Seductive lightness and smooth linearity on a well-built palate of graceful volume.

Disgorged 2006. 12.5%. £258 Fine + Rare

DOM PÉRIGNON BRUT 1990 From 2020 to 2025

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The nose is more oxidative than expected from Dom Pérignon and comes with honey, straw, tobacco, fudge, herbs and marzipan tones. A full and rich, caressing palate of power and volume. Fully mature – perhaps not a perfect bottle. 12.5%. £412 Hedonism

DOM PÉRIGNON OENOTHÈQUE 1990 From 2020 to 2025 Big, ripe expression with gingerbread, roasted hazelnuts, straw, green apple and sea notes, complemented by gunpowdery complexity.

Broad, almost oily textured yet fresh palate, with the softest mousse. Mature but healthy and fruity.

Disgorged 2007. 12.5%.

95 £636 Fine + Rare

Bollinger BOLLINGER LA GRANDE ANNÉE 2004

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From 2020 to 2030 Red fruit-dominant sweet nose, with pastry nuances alongside iris, fallen apple and spices. There is a Burgundian feel to this, with firm structure and old-barrel earthiness. Fresh and vivacious palate that comes with a dry finish and lingering minerality. 12.5%. £68.50 Fine + Rare

BOLLINGER LA GRANDE ANNÉE 2008

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From 2020 to 2035 Elegantly mineral and gently spicy nose of red apple and buttery biscuits, complemented by earthy and saline tones. Lean and crisp for La Grande Année, with fine tension and compact fruitiness promising longevity. 12.5%. £81 Fine + Rare

BOLLINGER LA GRANDE ANNÉE 1990

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From 2020 to 2030 This wine was perhaps the tasting’s greatest surprise. It came with such drive and linearity that it was hard to imagine it to be a 1990. Alongside sweet fruit, ashes, grappa, burned sugar and straw notes, there were lemony tones accentuating the zingy feel. Almost at its peak now. 12.5%. £196 Fine + Rare

BOLLINGER RD 2004

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From 2020 to 2030 Rich and voluptuous wine, with sweet, fruity, even tropical appeal. Structured and muscular, with majestic intensity. Fine juniper and hazelnut complexity emerge in the glass. A touch grander than La Grande Année 2004 and seems sweeter and rounder. 12.5%. £149 Hedonism

BOLLINGER RD 2002

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From 2020 to 2035 The nose surprises with its sweetly fruity tones, honeycomb, brioche and vanilla. The moderate oxidative characters are well in sync with the lushness and drive of the wine. At an attractive drinking age right now but still on its way up. 12.5%. £112 Fine + Rare

BOLLINGER RD 1990 From 2020 to 2025

Deep golden apricot-hued colour. Full, rich and round honey-toned wine, with fruit that is already showing signs of withering. Sweet yet phenolic and comes with grappa-like characters and spicy complexity. Past its peak already. 12.5%. £283 Fine + Rare

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Moët & Chandon MOËT & CHANDON BRUT IMPÉRIAL VINTAGE 1990

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From 2020 to 2022 Evolved golden colour.

The mature nose plays on dried fruit and bakingspice complexity, with toffee, apricot and vanilla tones. Opulent character and some oxidative evolution. Still solid, rich and sweet palate finishing with a phenolic bite. No longer improving. 12.5%.

Hedonism (selected vintages)

MOËT & CHANDON BRUT IMPÉRIAL VINTAGE 1995

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From 2020 to 2015 This bottle was disappointingly oxidative and developed. Beneath the over-mature characters lay a lovely silkiness of structure and fleshy roundness. Better bottles surely exist. 12.5%.

Hedonism (selected vintages)

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MOËT & CHANDON BRUT IMPÉRIAL VINTAGE 1988 From 2020 to 2025 Golden colour with amber hues. Honey-toned mature yet fruity nose, with baked apricot, herbs and fragrant floral tones. Fullness and roundness meet energy and liveliness on the structured palate. No longer improving but will take further keeping. 12.5%. £324 Hedonism

MOËT & CHANDON GRAND VINTAGE 2008 From 2020 to 2030

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Overt and expressive fruit-driven nose, with pear, fennel, straw and lime aromas. On the palate the tones are sweeter, with vanilla, wine gums and toast coming through.

Rich and succulent yet fresh and feisty palate, finishing with mineral seashell tones. Generous and enjoyable already but built to last. 12.5%. £165 Fine + Rare

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[ T H E C O L L E C T I O N | V I N D E C O N S TA N C E ]

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KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 2008 From 2020 to 2050

Shy nose and, for the first time, a note of lavender, which is seductive alongside the clove and orange oil aromas. Very fine, sweet perfume of orange flower on the attack.

Powerful, concentrated, regular acidity. All this lush sweetness is controlled and underpinned by a dry texture from beginning to end – a dryness mitigated by a fine flow of juice. 14%.

Sweet dreams Q U I T E P O S S I B LY T H E W O R L D ’ S G R E AT E S T S W E E T W I N E , V I N D E C O N S T A N C E I S A S E D U C T I V E D E L I G H T, A S A DA M L E C H M E R E D I S C OV E R S AT A R A R E V E RT I CA L TA ST I N G

£80 (50cl) Fine+Rare

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I NT R O D U C T I O N BY ADAM LECHMERE

Uniqueness is an overused term, but there is no other wine like Klein Constantia’s Vin de Constance. Produced from Muscat de Frontignan grapes on the cool lower slopes of Constantiaberg on the Cape Peninsula, it has an ancient history. Early records show how the 10th commander of the Cape, Simon van der Stel, planted the first vines at the estate he called Constantia in 1685; how by 1702 his wines were lauded as ‘divine and enticing in taste’; how the estate was divided up; and how by 1718 it was in the care of the grandson of a freed slave, Johannes Colijn, whose descendants made Constantia’s wines up to the 1850s.

Constantia was famed throughout the world for its sweet wines.

George Washington ordered it; John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were fans. Jane Austen mentions Constantia, as does Baudelaire, and Dickens; and it was a solace to Napoleon in exile.

But it wasn’t to last. The end of slavery, vine disease and a shift in the market’s taste from sweet to dry sent Constantia into decline.

It was to languish for more than a century, until the Cape Town businessman Duggie Jooste bought the estate ‘for next to nothing’ in 1980 and set about returning it to its former glory. The 1986 was the inaugural vintage of the new era.

Matt Day, head winemaker at Klein Constantia since 2012, came to London last September to present four decades of the estate’s wine at the Institute of Masters of Wine. Day’s intention was to demonstrate his philosophy of balance and his mission to increase the freshness of the wine. Achieving balance is the goal of every winemaker, and Day discussed this holy grail in the simplest terms.

‘You need to make a sweet wine that almost tastes dry, so that you can drink it at different parts of a meal.’

Vin de Constance is a naturally sweet wine, made with unbotrytised raisined grapes. It’s matured in oak barrels and is unfortified. Attention to detail is meticulous. The grapes are brought in in several passes, with low-sugar, higher-acid grapes first, then the super-sweet raisined berries. Barrel ageing has been reduced to three years on average.

This was an MW tasting, and it was peppered with technicalities.

We discussed residual sugar and total acidity, alcohol levels, percentages of new versus used barrels, racking regimes and bottle age. But nothing could detract from the loveliness of the liquid in the glass. While all great wines have an element of the ineffable, great sweet wines have you wrestling more than usual with the words to describe them. We were presented with a perfumed concoction of sweetness and earth that called to mind acacia, toffee, fine old wood and honeysuckle amid the other (not very satisfactory) descriptors I came up with. My note to the 2012 begins simply, ‘Wow.’

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KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 2015 From 2020 to 2050

Shy nose; what were orange flowers on the 2012 (the wine that preceded this one in our line-up) have changed here to zest of orange and other candied peel. The mouthwatering acidity on the palate persists, with citrusflavoured caramel and fine contrast of salinity.

It’s an extraordinary wine that takes over the entire sensory area, the palate, sinus, nose: it’s a wine you experience rather than merely taste. So accomplished. 13.9%. £60 (50cl) Fine+Rare

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KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 2012

From 2020 to 2050 Wow. Orange flowers and a hint of clove on the nose, the wine pale, the colour of straw shot through with gold. Lovely. Acacia, sweet marmalade and nutmeg on the palate and brilliant acidity that envelops and entices. What a wonderful, perfumed, seductive wine, with a three-minute finish, juicy to the end. 14.3%. £50 (50cl) Lay & Wheeler

KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 2007 From 2020 to 2050

Very fine nose, sweet with a hint of beeswax varnish and promising much. Wonderful palate full of life and zippiness; open, aerated, redolent of honeysuckle and orange zest. Very finegrained, with a persistent delicate acidity that carries you through to a juicy finish that goes on and on. 14%. £46 (50cl) Fine+Rare

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KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 2004 From 2020 to 2050

Acacia, preserved pineapple and honeysuckle on the nose, then on the palate there’s a dryness: after a rich note of mango, the perfume is potpourri, the flavours baked, caramelised apple and raisin. The length is so subtle as to almost disappear, but it lingers, carried through on a wave of acidity that opens the palate and never lets up.

Extremely fine. 14.2%. £129 (50cl) Mumbles Fine Wines

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KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 1999

From 2020 to 2040 Burnt toffee and caramel, citrus and saline notes, shot through with acidity and textured dryness, but the whole is seductive, luscious, piercingly acidic and perfumed. Alongside ripe apricot and nectarine there are hints of saline and ozone, potpourri and dried rose petals. At 20 years old, this wine has shed its youthful brio and is maturing into a beautiful early adulthood.

Superb. 14.6%.

Approx £100 (50cl) secondary market only

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KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 1994 From 2020 to 2040

Very deep yet shy nose.

There are raisins and hints of plum, as well as refreshing citrus. These aromas seem primary, young and very attractive, and but for the beaten copper hue, you’d think you were drinking something younger than a quartercentury. Deep satisfying palate, dry with superb acidity and overlaying sensations of muscovado and toffee, caramel, sweet earth and molasses.

Wonderful. 14.5%.

Approx £100 (50cl) secondary market only

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KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 1991 From 2020 to 2040

This wine glows in the glass, the burnished brown of a horse chestnut straight from the husk.

Very deep nose redolent of old wood; unctuous, very fine. Amazing Porty palate – raisins and deep dried plums – and a tongue-tightening acidity gives it tremendous lift. Superb. 14.1%.

Approx £100 (50cl) secondary market only

88

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KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 1989

KLEIN CONSTANTIA, VIN DE CONSTANCE, CONSTANTIA, SOUTH AFRICA 1987

From 2020 to 2030

From 2020 to 2030

Luscious caramel nose, seared toffee; very sweet, with earthy notes. Palate very evolved, concentrated spice – more toffee and caramel, and a robust undertow of muscovado sugar. This is very evolved with tertiary flavours – notably a not-unpleasant note of burnt rubber and Riesling-like petrol – and fine, defined acidity. The finish is dry and could be juicier. 13.9%.

Unctuous nose, with a hint of varnish. Creamy, spiceladen palate of cloves in the main, toffee and wood, some tar, very fresh acidity and tannic dryness – though there’s a good swirl of juice washing a wonderfully persistent finish. 13.9%.

Approx £100 (50cl) secondary market only

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Asset sipping I N V E S T I N G I N W H I S K Y S H O U L D B E A S M U C H A B O U T E N J OY M E N T A S I T I S A B O U T M A K I N G A P R O F I T. C O L I N H A M P D E N - W H I T E A N D L O R A H E M Y O F F E R U P A S E L E CT I O N T H AT T I C K S B OT H B OX E S I NT R O D U C T I O N BY C O L I N H A M P D E N -W H I T E

At Club Oenologique, we are not concerned only with expensive whisky; rather, our focus is excellence. The one rule I put forward when asked for advice on investing in whisky is to make sure you will like what you buy. That way, if it ends up not providing the investment you had hoped for, at least you get to drink something fantastic.

In this issue, we have whisky at all price ranges – from well under £100 to well over £25,000 – and they have two things in common: they are investable and delicious.

When we taste whiskies, we first do it blind. We don’t know the value, let alone what the name is or even which style it might be. After the initial tasting, we select whiskies we consider exemplary and worth recommending. Then we taste them again, with typicity in mind. The price never comes into it. If a whisky is under £100 but delicious,

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in it goes. Likewise, if a £25,000 whisky is not fabulous, it won’t make the cut. Tasting at this level can be subjective, and we try to give you approachable, consistent tasting notes to make it easier to determine whether you will enjoy the whisky.

It’s worth considering that a bottle under £100 might yield the same percentage return as one costing a great deal more, but the actual profit returned will be much lower. In a way, the whiskies we have listed in the lower price bracket are particularly good value to drink, and one wouldn’t feel guilty doing so. I will also say you should never feel guilty about drinking any whisky as long as you enjoy it.

We have here grand old drams such as the Mr George Centenary Edition 62-year-old Glen Grant, displaying all the characteristics on the palate of a long-

aged spirit. We particularly liked the pair of 40-year-olds from The Dalmore and Glenfiddich, both complex and still so fruity. For those who like smoky drams, the Port Askaig is a fabulous Islay whisky giving a perfect balance of smoke, fruit and long-aged flavours. Finally, the 22-year-old Glen Elgin from That Boutique-y Whisky Company was a standout, and especially good value. It has great fruit flavours, a hint of good age, and is incredibly versatile. I would be as happy drinking it as an aperitif as I would sipping it by the fire with a cigar.

With such an embarrassment of riches in this selection, you might struggle to settle on just one whisky of which to buy a couple of bottles in the classic investor’s fashion: one to drink and one to sell. Maybe, instead, buy one each of two different whiskies, with an eye towards drinking at least one.

[ THE COLLECTION | WHISKY ]

DIAGEO, CONVALMORE 32-YEAR-OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE

SPECIALITY BRANDS, PORT ASKAIG 45-YEAROLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, ISLAY Port Askaig is a port on Islay, the name also used for a brand of whisky that creates only Islay single malts. The whiskies are produced in small batches, and this is the oldest expression. With a subtle nose, this offering is powerful and full on the palate. There is an abundance of tropical fruit, and the smoke – which one might have expected to have died down quite a bit with 45 years in cask – is still punchy and balances well with the fruit flavours.

This is a whisky to take slowly and savour. 40.8%. £1,200 (70cl) The Whisky Exchange

THAT BOUTIQUE-Y WHISKY COMPANY, GLEN ELGIN 22-YEAROLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE Glen Elgin is situated in the heart of Speyside, near the town of Elgin. It creates a fruity spirit that is the result of long fermentation times and worm-tub condensers.

From a single ex-Bourbon cask, this 22-year-old is the bargain of this issue’s collection and combines leafy and freshly sawn wood aromas with elderflower and aniseed. A big, fruity whisky with a long finish. 48.2%. £83.95 (50cl) Master of Malt

Convalmore is a closed distillery in Dufftown.

Both Lora and I tasted this whisky when it was released in 2017, and it was a favourite for us.

Tasting it again two years later confirms what a great whisky this is. The nose is chunky and full of character; oily, with a touch of coal smoke giving structure.

Lychees and tinned pears are the predominant fruit on the palate, with buttery pineappley flavours.

Chewy orange juice and hints of peat back up the palate. The finish is dry and holds on to the peat for a long time. 48.2%. £1,200 (70cl) The Whisky Exchange

WILLIAM GRANT & SONS, GLENFIDDICH 40-YEAROLD 2019 RELEASE, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SPEYSIDE Glenfiddich uses a process called ‘remnant vatting’ to create this whisky – the marrying of casks that are at least 40 years old with some whisky from the last bottling of a 40-year-old, thereby creating continuity between these rare batches.

Glenfiddich is the only single malt to use this process. The resulting drink is silky smooth with lots of dark fruit complexity and strong hints of old age, with French polish and touches of sandalwood. There are lots of dried fruit flavours of dates and raisins, along with stewed apples. A deeply satisfying whisky. 45.8%. £2,700 (70cl) Glenfiddich.com

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DIAGEO, THE SINGLETON 53-YEAR-OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE This is the oldest ever expression of Singleton from Diageo. Distilled at the Dufftown distillery, this is the first in the Paragon of Time collection.

With menthol aromas and flavours of jammy blackberry, it has an oily texture and tannins, providing great body.

The palate is delicate at first, with flavours of jasmine Turkish delight, developing into Ribena and roses. The finish is elegant and ethereal. 40.6%. £26,500 (70cl) Justerini & Brooks

ATOM BRANDS, THE LOST DISTILLERIES BLEND BATCH 11, SCOTCH WHISKY, BLENDED WHISKY, SCOTLAND GORDON & MACPHAIL, MR GEORGE CENTENARY EDITION, 1956 GLEN GRANT, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE This expression of Glen Grant was created to celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of George Urquhart, a member of Gordon & MacPhail’s founding family.

Mr George, as Urquhart was known, was instrumental in laying down casks to be matured to create whiskies of great age.

The nose is surprisingly fresh, with floral notes and blackcurrant at first. This is followed by old polish and walnuts, showing the whisky’s aged qualities.

There are touches of peat mixed with the dark fruits on the palate, as well as bitter dark chocolate, soot, orange juice and cocoa powder. A marvellously complex whisky. 51.7%. £5,000 (70cl) whisky.fr

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The team at Atom Brands has a good collection of casks from which to choose, including a few from longgone distilleries. With some careful blending, these casks combine to make a whisky far greater than the sum of its parts. Apricots and a malty background on the nose lead to walnut flavours mixed with stewed fruits, giving an overall rhubarb crumble flavour.

The finish has nuts coming through. This is a whisky that nods towards an oldschool process. 52.3%. £349.95 (70cl) Master of Malt

[ THE COLLECTION | WHISKY ]

THE WHISKY EXCHANGE, GLENLIVET 1981, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE

CHIVAS BROTHERS, CAPERDONICH 18-YEAROLD PEATED, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE Caperdonich is a closed distillery owned by Chivas Brothers. It still has some casks and last year bottled some small batches at varying ages. Caperdonich created both peated and unpeated whiskies. This peated offering is the youngest of the expressions released. It is creamy and distillate-driven and a great way to taste the Caperdonich style. The fruit is up front, with the smoke coming through late on the palate and continuing on the finish for a long time. 48%. £250 (70cl) estimate at auction

WILLIAM GRANT & SONS, GLENFIDDICH GRAND CRU 23-YEAROLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, SPEYSIDE In recent years, William Grant & Sons has released several whiskies under the Experimental Series, varied in age and accessibility.

This is the first in a new range, Grand, and it is squarely aimed at the luxury end of the market, while still being readily available. It is a dense drink, with notes of redcurrants and strawberry.

The tannin present gives it great structure, while the water reduction has been done masterfully, yielding a very easy-todrink yet complex and characterful whisky. 40%. £220 (70cl) The Whisky Exchange

Recently we have seen a few long-aged Glenlivet single-cask bottlings. This differs from the others by having been finished for the last six years of its life in a Sherry butt. It has herbaceous aromas and is lightly woody. Menthol eucalyptus notes can also be found on the nose. The body is full and has floral flavours mixing with orris root. Parma violets come through with a touch of water, and the finish is dry and long. 47.6%. £575 (70cl) The Whisky Exchange

DIAGEO, PORT DUNDAS 52-YEAR-OLD, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE GRAIN, SCOTLAND, LOWLAND Port Dundas closed its doors in 2011 and was demolished, so unlike Port Ellen or Brora (both also owned by Diageo), it cannot be revived. Grain whisky does very well with long ageing, and this expression is no exception.

There are aromas of freshly sawn wood, oats, honey and condensed milk. It is a delicate whisky with florality and musty violets on the back palate. The finish has dark fruits like compote, with touches of nuts. 44.6%. £1,199.99 (70cl) The Whisky World

WHYTE & MACKAY, JURA 1988 VINTAGE SERIES, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, ISLAND This single malt was bottled in 2018 as part of the Rare Vintage series. It has been finished in tawny Port casks, which give it a distinctive nuttiness. There are flavours of raspberry and strawberry, with a subtle smokiness in the background and roasted coffee beans to add to the balance. This is a rich and smooth island whisky, with soft smoke lending extra complexity. 53.5%. £650 (70cl) The Whisky Exchange

WHYTE & MACKAY, THE DALMORE 40-YEAR-OLD 2018 RELEASE, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, HIGHLAND The Dalmore is known for creating whiskies by blending a mixture of casks, and this is no exception. Initially matured in ex-Bourbon casks, it was transferred into 30-yearold Oloroso Sherry casks.

This has created a rich and full whisky, with coffee and polished wood aromas. On the palate, sultanas and dates mingle with sweeter flavours such as maple syrup. Very long finish of oranges and coconut. 42%. £6,750 (70cl) The Whisky Exchange

THE GLENMORANGIE COMPANY, ARDBEG 19-YEAR-OLD TRAIGH BHAN, SCOTCH WHISKY, SINGLE MALT, SCOTLAND, ISLAY Traigh Bhan – pronounced ‘Tri Van’ – will be released in small batches annually.

Each will be subtly different and so highly collectible.

They will be identifiable via the batch number on the front label. This inaugural release is TB/0115.03.00/19.MH, indicating that this is Traigh Bhan, first batch, with the youngest spirit having been distilled on 15 March 2000, released in 2019 and created under distillery manager Mickey Heads. It is classic peaty Ardbeg but with extra complexity that comes with wood age and sweet and sour fruits. 46.2%. £175 (70cl) Harvey Nichols

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[ THE COLLECTION | RUM ]

Tropical storm F R O M D R Y A N D E L E G A N T T O R I C H A N D S P I C Y, T O D A Y ' S R U M S C O M E I N M Y R I A D E X P R E S S I O N S A N D ST Y L E S. A L I C E L A S C E L L E S C A S T S H E R E Y E O V E R T H E L A T E S T B O T T L I N G S T O H I T T H E S H E LV E S – T H O U G H S O M E M AY N O T S TAY T H E R E F O R LO N G

I NT R O D U C T I O N BY ALICE LASCELLES

There is no spirit that offers a greater breadth of styles than rum. Even whisky, with its many iterations, doesn’t come close to matching the huge variety of aromas, flavours and hues encompassed by sugar-cane spirits. Depending on how they’re distilled, blended and aged, rums can be dry and elegant, rich and spicy, white, golden or dark. They can have the briskness of a gin martini, the indulgence of a sticky toffee pudding, or the complexity of a really serious digestif.

If this comes as a surprise, blame a market long dominated by a handful of brands that are decidedly middle-of-the-road. The average supermarket drinks aisle tells you nothing about how interesting rum can be.

Thankfully, this is starting to change. At the top end of the market, we’re now seeing a growing number of distillers making – and

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marketing – their rums more like Cognac or single malts: releasing vintage, singlebarrel, cask-finished, unsweetened and extra-aged expressions that are designed for sipping rather than swilling. This more nuanced approach to rum-making isn’t just confined to the dark end of the spectrum; it extends to white rums, too. The artisan Clairin range from Haiti (all of which is distilled from sugar-cane juice rather than molasses, like the majority of rums, giving them floral, herby and even smoky notes) is a great example.

Rum’s heartland will always be the Caribbean. But thanks to the craft distilling boom, we’re now seeing rum being made all around the world, from Mexico to the UK. While many of these distilleries use sugar cane imported from elsewhere, some are using sugar cane that is hyper-local. The

new Renegade Distillery in Grenada has planted in different locations all over the island, with the intention of making terroirdriven rums that vary from plot to plot, just as with wine.

Meanwhile, the growing number of independent bottlers – companies that hand-pick and bottle unusual and rare casks from the stocks of famous distilleries – has also helped give rum a more whisky-like cachet. Top bottlings from companies such as Velier often sell out as soon as they’re released.

One of the issues that has prevented rum from being taken seriously in the past is its lack of transparency. The rules around minimum-age statements and the addition of sweeteners or colouring vary wildly from country to country, with the result that labels can be confusing (and sometimes

downright misleading). But this is now being tightened up. Inspired by Martinique, which has a well-established rum AOC, Jamaica recently introduced an appellation-like GI (geographical indication) that guarantees provenance and a certain level of quality.

Barbados is set to follow suit.

The rums featured here have been chosen to highlight the breadth of styles, as well as the quality, now coming to the fore. The list includes white rums; rums distilled from sugar cane; golden and Navy styles; and pot-still rums and column-still rums (and blends of the two) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with strengths ranging from 40% to high-strength overproof. As a result, comparing like with like was not always easy. Rather than approaching what follows as a definitive league table, consider it a taster of the exciting changes that are now taking place in an ever-more compelling world.

PLANTATION PERU 2004, PERU

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Winner of the Rum Trophy at the IWSC awards, this unique rum was distilled and aged in Peru (in exBourbon and Slovenian oak casks) and then finished for two years in Ferrand Cognac casks at Château de Bonbonnet in France.

The result is a wonderfully harmonious amber rum – silky and elegant, with creamy mocha, honey and tobacco-leaf notes. 43.5%. £46.95 The Whisky Exchange

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FOURSQUARE SAGACITY, BARBADOS

Barbados distillery Foursquare has been a trailblazer in the artisan rum movement, and its Exceptional Cask Selection series of small-batch, vintage and cask-strength bottlings is consistently among the best. Sagacity is a blend of 12-year-old rums aged in ex-Bourbon and ex-Madeira casks.

Full-bodied, aromatic and silky, with notes of ginger cake, tobacco, vetiver and coconut oil, this is great sipping material and excellent value for money, too. 48%. £47.95 The Whisky Exchange

CLAIRIN SAJOUS 2018, HAITI

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Sourced from tiny distilleries all over Haiti, the Clairin series showcases white rum at its most esoteric. The quite ‘high’ tropical fruit characters of this Sajous can be rather startling at first, but with a drop of water they evolve into beautiful, fine notes of white flowers, herbs and saffron, accompanied by a mouthwatering acidity. One sip goes a very long way. 55.9%. £52.25 The Whisky Exchange

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APPLETON ESTATE 30YEAR-OLD, JAMAICA

Appleton is the epitome of fruity, full-bodied Jamaican rum – one sip of its pot-stilldriven blends and you’re instantly in the Caribbean.

Thirty years in cask have given the charismatic, rumbustious house style a bit more complexity and gravitas: the orange notes have turned to marmalade, and there’s polish, beeswax and incense.

A lovely, reflective rum from a great name. 45%. £350 The Whisky Exchange

[ THE COLLECTION | RUM ]

FLOR DE CAÑA V GENERACIONES 30-YEAR-OLD, NICARAGUA

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Spirits age much faster in tropical climes, and by the time most rums reach 30 years old, they’ve been overwhelmed by oak.

This mahogany-coloured, single-barrel release from Nicaragua’s Flor de Caña distillery takes it right to the brink – and splendidly so.

It’s dark, tannic and woody, with brooding notes of dark chocolate, black cherry and bitter espresso. A spareno-expense rum to savour in small amounts. 45%.

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VERITAS WHITE RUM, VARIOUS

This elegant white rum is a blend of column-still rum from Foursquare in Barbados and pot-still rum from Hampden in Jamaica. Delicate and silky, with notes of crystallised papaya, green banana and just a whisper of camphor, it’s proof that white rum can be really sophisticated.

Use it to make a fivestar Daiquiri, or just sip it neat, on ice. 47%. £33.95 The Whisky Exchange

BLACK TOT RUM, VARIOUS

MOUNT GAY XO POT STILL, BARBADOS

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Reputedly the world’s oldest commercial rum distillery (it has deeds dating from 1703), Mount Gay is the benchmark for Bajan rum. Most of its rums are a blend of heavy pot-still and lighter column-still rums, but this is 100% pot still, giving it real staying power. Complex but refined, with mature notes of membrillo, marzipan and fine, dry spices, this would be good with a cigar. 48%. £115 The Whisky Exchange

£1,500 Harrods

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LAST WARD 2007 HABITATION VELIER, BARBADOS This vintage rum from top indie bottler Velier was originally distilled for the now-extinct Mount Gilboa brand, making it highly collectible. Very intense, pretty fruit on the nose: pineapple almost on the turn and Pink Lady apples. On the palate, that sweetness is counterbalanced by notes of scented wax and dry spice. Distinctive and delicious – snap it up while you still can. 59%. £115 Master of Malt

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This dark, Navy-style blend is a homage to the daily tot that was issued to all members of the Royal Navy until 1970. Older and more luxe versions of Black Tot Rum exist (including a bottling from the last remaining naval stocks), but for me, this lowerstrength version has the best combination of grace and power. Blackest treacle, fiery ginger cake and a hint of sea salt – really good on the rocks. 46.2%. £39.95 The Whisky Exchange

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BLOOMSBURY ATELIER CUBANA, JAMAICA

Flavoured and spiced rums have had a rather tacky reputation, but a few new releases are now trying to take the sector upmarket. Created by the Bloomsbury Distillery for Fine + Rare, Cubana is a blend of Jamaican rums seasoned with distillates of Cuban cigar tobacco, cacao nibs and lime. The pale gold result marries pungent, esthery tropical fruit – mango and pineapple – with mellow amber leaf and a finish bitter, with citrus oils. 52.6%.

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DIPLOMÁTICO DISTILLERY COLLECTION NO.3, VENEZUELA

South America is famous for making rums that are wickedly sweet and unctuous. The three-strong, limited-edition Distillery Collection from Venezuela’s Diplomático distillery highlights the trio of still types that go into the fullbodied house blend: pot still, batch kettle still and barbet column still. The 100% pot-still No.3 is the heavyweight of the range: it oozes bruised black banana, chocolate and toffee. 47%. £56.95 The Whisky Exchange

COMPAGNIE DES INDES TDL 2005, TRINIDAD

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The Jura-based Compagnie des Indes is another emerging independent bottler to keep an eye on.

Its striking-looking releases showcase distilleries from the Caribbean and Venezuela to Australia and Fiji. This 13-year-old rum from Trinidad’s only working distillery combines silky caramel and spice with cool notes of eucalyptus – think mint toffees. 45%. £64.95 The Whisky Exchange

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£250 Fine+Rare

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EL DESTILADO WILD FERMENTED OAXACA RUM, MEXICO

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WORTHY PARK SINGLE ESTATE RESERVE, JAMAICA Established in 1670, this family-run estate made rum right up until the 1960s.

After a hiatus of more than 40 years, it’s now back in action and making single-estate rums that are an insider favourite. This, its first new-generation release, is an exuberant marriage of tangy tropical fruit, golden sultanas and vanilla. That touch of funk that gives Jamaican pot-still rum so much charm is there, too. 45%. £44.95 The Whisky Exchange

HAVANA CLUB TRIBUTO, CUBA

Every year, at the Habanos Cigar Festival in Cuba, Havana Club unveils a new iteration of Tributo, the high-end, limited-edition cuvée it creates specifically with cigarsmokers in mind. Tributo 2019 is a blend of three different vintages dating back to 1970, selected by three generations of master blenders. Spicy and aromatic, with a pop of refreshing fruitiness, this is a classy session rum. 40%. £350 Master of Malt

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Established by two London bartenders, El Destilado is dedicated to winkling out spirits from Mexican distilleries so micro they’d normally slip under the radar. Mezcal is its speciality, which is useful to know when tasting this white rum.

It has a rustic, almost cidery nose and a palate that combines minty camphor, woodsmoke, apples and clay. The rum equivalent of natural wine – you’ll either love it or hate it. 41.5%. £30.95 The Whisky Exchange

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RON ZACAPA CENTENARIO SISTEMA SOLERA 23, GUATEMALA

This glossy, conkercoloured spirit from Guatemala was the original luxury rum. It might not be as artisanal as some of the other rums in this line-up, but there is still much to enjoy here. Distilled from the first-press sugar-cane ‘honey’, and aged in exBourbon, ex-Sherry and PX casks, it’s rich and silky, with chewy dates, prunes and chocolate syrup. One for sipping with a square of chocolate or some vanilla ice cream. 40%. £56.45 The Whisky Exchange

BACARDÍ DIEZ, PUERTO RICO

Bacardí conquered the world with its easy-drinking white rum Carta Blanca, but more recently the brand has started putting more weight behind its golden and extra-aged expressions.

This new 10-year-old rum is very decent: mediumbodied, with ginger nuts, plums and caramel.

Filtration through charcoal (à la Jack Daniel’s) makes it extra-smooth. 40%. £40.75 The Whisky Exchange

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85 OLD MAN RUM EXPRESSIONS NO.1, VARIOUS

Single malts from ‘silent distilleries’ that are no longer in production are some of the most soughtafter bottlings in whisky right now. Could rum go the same way? This high-rolling Hedonism exclusive is made from a blend of seven pot-still rums aged 25 years and over, including three rums from silent distilleries in Guyana and Jamaica.

Presented in a handmade wooden box and limited to 250 decanters. 58.5%. £3,750 Hedonism

IWSC heroes O V E R T H E N E X T F I V E P A G E S , W E H I G H L I G H T S O M E O F T H E F I N E S T, R A R E S T A N D M O S T F A S C I N A T I N G W I N E S A N D S P I R I T S TO B E J U D G E D AT T H I S Y E A R ’ S I N T E R N AT I O N A L W I N E & S P I R I T C O M P E T I T I O N

CHAMPAGNE PIPER-HEIDSIECK VINTAGE 2012 From Marie Antoinette to Marilyn Monroe, PiperHeidsieck has long attracted its share of admirers.

The house can expect to recruit more fans with its ‘majestic’ 2012 vintage brut.

The wine comes mainly from grand and premier cru vineyards, although the blend depends on growing season conditions. The 2012, which has a dosage of 10g/l, harnesses a fairly typical blend of 52% Pinot Noir (from Montagne de Reims) and 48% Chardonnay (from the Côte des Blancs).

IWSC judges praised the beautiful threads of tiny bubbles in the wine and its ‘gorgeous scents of rising dough, roast lemon, baked figs, toasting almonds, chalky flinty smoky scents riding on a sea breeze’. This led into a complex palate enhanced by scented cream and gorgeous froth, a palate of ‘great harmony, [which] flows wonderfully and majestically to a long, sustained finish’. 12%. £55 The Whisky Exchange

[ THE COLLECTION | IWSC HEROES ]

STELLENRUST BARREL-FERMENTED CHENIN BLANC (STELLENBOSCH MANOR) 2018 Stellenrust has won the IWSC Chenin Blanc Trophy four times, providing yet more proof that the French grape variety has secured a second home in South Africa.

Founded in Stellenbosch in 1928, Stellenrust is one of the country’s largest family-owned wineries and is run by two bothers, Tertius and Kobus Boshoff.

Its reputation for quality Chenin Blanc is rooted in the Bottelary Hills area, which is home to around half of its 400ha of vineyards and benefits from cooling breezes blowing in from the coast.

The fruit for this wine came from 54-year-old vines, and judges praised ‘the perfect use of oak’, which they said helped support notes of fresh orchard, tropical fruit and quince.

‘The palate is spicy and big, with a round and creamy mouthfeel and a rich layer of honey and melons,’ judges said, adding that this was balanced by ‘crisp and fresh acidity and a mineral touch on a long, lingering finish’. 13.5%. £18 Winebuyers

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ABK6 XO RENAISSANCE COGNAC Launched in 2005, ABK6 has been gaining plaudits in the Cognac world for several years under father-and-daughter team Francis and Elodie Abécassis.

Based at Domaine de Chez Maillard, near to Claix, the group owns 220ha of vines and specialises in single-estate Cognacs. Renaissance XO is one the group’s finest bottlings, and while ABK6 (a clever play on the family name) is a relatively young brand with a decidedly modern image, this expression stands up to any top Cognac at its level.

IWSC judges said the Renaissance was ‘the quintessence of what XO should be’. They praised its rich, elegant spice and ‘superb balance between spirit and cask’. With a ‘finish [that] is very long, lingering and satisfying’, all you need is an armchair and a long evening to sit back and relax, glass in hand. 40%. £139 Master of Malt

[ THE COLLECTION | IWSC HEROES ]

GRANT BURGE MESHACH 2013 Grant Burge founded his eponymous winery in 1988, but winemaking had long run in the blood.

Burge’s great-grandfather Meshach Burge was the first of the family to make wine in Barossa, from 1865, after emigrating with his parents from Wiltshire, England. Today, this Australian powerhouse is one of the finest exponents of Barossa Valley Shiraz, its wines a fitting tribute to the founder’s ancestor.

The wine now made in his name comes primarily from almost-100-year-old vines, yielding grapes with intense concentration. While the result is unashamedly big and bold, fine wine is all about balance, and IWSC judges praised the Meshach 2013’s great structure with ‘well-integrated oak and supporting tannins’, backed up by a nose full of complexity. ‘The palate is amazingly fresh, with lovely ripe, dark-berried fruit mingling with cedar and spice,’ they said. 14.5%. £100 (average) Fine+Rare (selected vintages only); A$165 Cellarspace

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[ THE COLLECTION | IWSC HEROES ]

WEINGUT HORST SAUER ESCHERNDORFER LUMP RIESLING BEERENAUSLESE 2017 German winemaker Horst Sauer describes Riesling as a ‘diva’ that is prone to mood swings, but you’d never guess it from the brilliance of this luxurious sweet wine, such is the balance brought about by its bright acidity.

Based in Franken, Sauer runs his namesake estate with his daughter Sandra. The grapes for this late-harvest wine were grown on the prized Escherndorfer Lump, a steep hillside vineyard designated Erste Lage – similar to premier cru level in France.

Sauer is highly regarded for dry styles but also makes luscious sweet wines when conditions allow, and this Beerenauslese is a triumph from a tricky 2017 vintage. The style is made from carefully selected fruit and a portion of botrytised grapes, with fermentation at low temperatures.

The final alcohol level is a delicate 8%.

Honey, chamomile, marmalade and orange peel combine on the nose and lead on to a complex palate that evokes tea, jasmine and cinnamon.

‘Rich and intense but with cleansing acidity – this is delicious,’ said the IWSC’s judges. 8%. £74 Cellar Selected

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24/02/2020 08:36

[ R E S TA U R A N T S ]

(From top left) Among the dishes created in the open kitchen at the rural Le Bois sans Feuilles is écrevisses à la ‘Manoa’; passage d’automne; and trois oeufs à la coque.

(Centre and top right) The author is seen with executive chef César Troisgros and in selfie mode

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Trois is the magic number WO R DS AISTE MISEVICIUTE

I N A N U N A S S U M I N G PA RT O F A N U N R E M A R K A B L E F R E N C H TOW N, G A S T R O N O M I C H I S T O RY WA S M A D E BY T WO B R OT H E R S MAR I E-P IE R R E M OR E L; AISTE M IS EVIC IU TE

AND A SIMPLE DISH OF SALMON. AISTE MISEVICIUTE GOES BAC K TO T H E B I RT H P L AC E O F NOUVELLE CUISINE

With one notable exception, Roanne train station is exactly as I remember it from my first visit 17 years ago. It’s still eerily quiet, save for the odd TGV passing through en route to Lyon or Clermont-Ferrand. It’s difficult to imagine that, for decades, this sepulchral part of a nondescript industrial town in eastern France was the epicentre of French gastronomy. Indeed, such was the renown of the restaurant here that the train station was known as ‘the station in front of La Maison Troisgros’, rather than the other way round. The restaurant is no longer here, but that’s a measure of its success. Next door to where it was sits an épicerie-café under the same ownership, a little sister to the original trailblazer that has since outgrown its humble beginnings.

Today the relocated restaurant and hotel, renamed Le Bois sans Feuilles, is five miles away in a converted farmhouse, all floorto-ceiling glass and views of lawn and field, on a 19th-century estate in the commune

of Ouches. It’s a scene that Jean-Baptiste and Marie Troisgros could never have imagined when they took over L’Hôtel des Platanes in Roanne in the 1930s, changed its name to L’Hôtel Moderne, and opened the small restaurant which was to become Maison Troisgros.

Then again, neither would they have foreseen that their sons, Jean and Pierre, would revolutionise French gastronomy, with the Gault & Millau guide labelling Troisgros ‘the best restaurant in the world’ in 1968. That, however, is exactly what happened: when Henri Gault and Christian Millau coined the term ‘nouvelle cuisine’, it was in direct reference to the style created by the Troisgros brothers and taken up

by Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel and other renowned chefs of the time.

Since Jean-Baptiste and Marie Troisgros set up camp next to the railway station, the history of this family of restaurateurs spans almost a century, and four generations.

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The dish that started it all Saumon à l’oseille (right) is no longer on the menu at Maison Troisgros, but you can still order it, and César invites me into the kitchen for a demonstration.

The 58-year-old dish takes only a few minutes to prepare, and seems more relevant now than ever. It is deceptively simple, consisting of only three components: thinly-sliced and pounded salmon fillet, sorrel leaves, and a local cream reduced with shallots, white wine and vermouth. The cooking process is no more than a few economic gestures: the sorrel is tossed in the sauce for 20 seconds, the salmon lightly pan-fried on both sides, the dish quickly assembled on a warm plate. Timing is critical, not only in the preparation but also in the eating, and César encourages me to start. The dish remains light and finely balanced, thanks to the acidity of the sauce, a hallmark of the brothers’ style.

Each ingredient has its own character and is separate to the rest, but all work in harmony, and go beautifully with a glass of white Burgundy. As the late Anthony Bourdain put it, Troisgros’ saumon à l’oseille is simply ‘a perfect dish’.

(Left) Chapeau de cèpe aux sucs croustillants; Michel and César Troisgros.

(Top right) Michel and Marie-Pierre flanked by César (left) and his brother, Léo, who takes over La Colline du Colombier in March; the restaurant by night; inside the hotel

Their story is one of heritage and inspiration, passed on to – and reinterpreted by – the next generation, but with the kitchen always at its heart. Today the open-plan kitchen at Le Bois sans Feuilles turns out intricate three-Michelin-starred dishes – witness its white mushroom origami with sea urchins.

It’s here I meet Michel (son of Pierre), his wife Marie-Pierre and their son, César, as they eat a family dinner just before service on an early November evening.

The 33-year-old César, fourth generation of the family, is now executive chef, but cooking was not his first choice of career.

Passionate about music as a teenager, he dreamed of becoming a sound engineer, but was encouraged to follow his parents after seeing how ‘happy they were at their work’. Indeed, so content is Michel that

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he is still around the kitchen, as is MariePierre, long the pillar of the family business.

I chat with Marie-Pierre before she leaves to greet guests. ‘There were only trees here before we started the renovation,’ she tells me. With the help of their friend and architect Patrick Bouchain, an old barn was transformed into a contemporary building with a dining room framed by full-length windows, lending the feeling of dining in the garden. It’s a conspicuous change from Roanne, which was a difficult location, says Marie-Pierre. ‘You don’t get much ambience when you’re next to a railway station.’

The Troisgros family is used to change.

César describes his role as continuing what his grandfather and father started, while he expresses his own style through the creation of a new cuisine befitting the

new location. ‘What we do in Ouches we wouldn’t have done in Roanne,’ he says.

‘The environment has inspired us to create dishes that are more and more pure.’

‘Evolution is the tradition at La Maison Troisgros,’ agrees his father, Michel. ‘We have never restarted, but have always evolved since the times of my father, Pierre, and my uncle, Jean, 50 years ago.’

The self-questioning spirit passed on from his father is inherent in Michel. ‘As soon as I wake up I ask myself if what I am doing is good enough or if I can do it better or differently,’ he says.

Michel is a man for whom seeing the world has been an essential experience. But he has never been a follower of culinary trends or fads; inspiration has always come from within the family. The cooking methods

[ R E S TA U R A N T S ]

Troisgros timeline From its modest beginnings in Roanne, the distinctive Maison Troisgros experience has spread, not only in France but abroad. Initially this expansion involved opening a café deli, Le Central, in 1996, just next door to the original restaurant. A few years later, Michel Troisgras set up two more ventures – in 2001, Le Koumir opened in Moscow for a three-year spell and 2004 saw the start of a 10-year residency for La Table du Lancaster at The Hotel Lancaster in Paris. Venturing into Japan, Cuisine(s) Michel Troisgros was established at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Tokyo, garnering two Michelin stars in 2008. In 2006, La Colline du Colombier opened in Iguerande, a short distance from Roanne – credited as a first step for the business moving to the countryside. Then, in 2017, the new Maison Troisgros opened – Le Bois sans Feuilles – on a rambling estate with a large house (now boasting 15 guest rooms), a farm and meadows. At the centre of it all is the restaurant, with its huge windows, nestling under a 100-year-old oak tree in a rural idyll.

of his maternal grandmother – who was Italian, from Friuli – influenced him as much as any Michelin-starred restaurant.

‘It might sound a little banal, but my first culinary memory is of the tomato sauce my grandmother made every Sunday lunch to go with potato gnocchi.’

For many years Michel more or less lived with his grandmother, who had a house just outside Roanne. ‘I saw her more than my parents,’ he says. ‘She loved cooking simple things which she had learnt from her mother.’

For Michel, the more time passes, the more important history becomes, especially since they relocated the restaurant. Most of the staff at Ouches have never visited the previous incarnation in front of Roanne station – the legacy is Le

Central, the épicerie-café set up next door in 1996 by Michel and Marie-Pierre.

Even though most of the dishes on the menu at Le Bois Sans Feuilles are very different from those Pierre and Jean Troisgros used to cook, the rules they set – simplicity, pureness of flavour and a touch of acidity – are still essential components of Troisgros cuisine. Nothing exemplifies this style better than saumon à l’oseille, the dish that came to represent nouvelle cuisine all those years ago. Its creation was the result of serendipity. Indeed, it might never have been invented had Marie Troisgros’s garden not had an abundance of sorrel in the summer of 1962.

One day, her son, and Michel’s father, Pierre, was wondering what to do with a ‘flattened’ fillet of salmon (a new technique

he had learnt at Maxim’s restaurant in Paris). Noticing a basket overflowing with sorrel, he threw a handful into a reduction of shallots, cream, vermouth and white wine. That simple dish would change the course of French gastronomy. It was one of the benchmarks of ‘nouvelle cuisine’, which was much lighter and had more emphasis on respecting the ingredients than the classic cuisine that came before.

While Michel is proud to see his son cooking this dish, he wasn’t always so enamoured of it – indeed, for 20 years the restaurant didn’t even offer it. Then he started cooking it for his children. ‘My twoyear-old granddaughter Annette adores it,’ he says. ‘It is loved by all the generations; we think of it as our masterpiece. The more time passes, the more magical it is.’

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[ GASTRONOMY ]

WO R DS

P H OTO G R A P H S

FIONA BECKETT

D E B O R A H WA S T I E

The food of the 1% When did you last eat lamb? I ask because, according to the latest figures, it accounts for a minuscule 1% of the meat we buy in the UK – 37g weekly per head compared to 186g for chicken. Chef and butcher Richard Turner, who has written two books dedicated to meat, has never covered lamb. ‘It just wouldn’t sell,’ he tells me.

It wasn’t always the case. When I was a child, lamb was a treat, my favourite Sunday roast. If you went to a top restaurant there would be rack of lamb or, for big family celebrations, even a resplendent saddle.

It was thrifty too, back in the day when lamb shanks were affordable. The neck cuts went to make tasty Irish stew, there was shepherd’s pie or – sheer heaven – Lancashire hotpot. Now it seems it is only featured in self-consciously retro establishments such as London’s St John – surely one of the only restaurants in 2020 to list a lamb rissole, albeit accompanied by fashionable anchovies.

It’s hard to understand lamb’s fall from grace. Think of the cuisines that are popular now – Greek, Turkish, MiddleEastern, North African. All feature lamb as

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D E S P I T E I T S A DA P TA B I L I T Y A N D P O P U L A R I T Y I N C U I S I N E S A R O U N D T H E W O R L D , A N D I T S B R O A D C U LT U R A L S I G N I F I C A N C E , L A M B I S B E I N G C H O P P E D F R O M M E N U S . W H Y, A S K S A P E R P L E X E D F I O N A B E C K E T T

Lamb has fallen victim to changing habits, with low and slow cooking unsuited to a faster-paced society

[ GASTRONOMY ]

a central ingredient, not least because it’s not a forbidden meat for Muslims. In the Christian tradition too it has a symbolic significance. The Lamb of God. Easter lamb (though, as we’ll see, that’s not the best time to eat it). Across countless cultures, lamb has always been revered.

It should also resonate with those of us who are concerned about factory farming.

Lamb is the most naturally reared of animals, almost always free range, raised on biodiverse natural habitats such as salt marshes and moorlands which are rich in herbs and plants. There’s a health bonus too – research has shown that the meat of grassfed animals is higher in omega-3 fatty acids as well as having a higher vitamin E content.

There hasn’t been the buzz about lamb breeds that there has with beef and pork, yet there are more than 60 in the UK alone, including primitive examples such as Soay, Hebridean and Manx, mountain and ‘forest’ breeds such as Welsh Mountain, Beulah, Scottish Blackface, Herdwick and Swaledale, and downland ones such as Oxford Down and Southdown. A new campaign to get greater recognition for native breeds is being launched by The National Sheep Association in the UK this summer, and will see lamb labelled with the age and breed of the sheep as well as the area where it has been farmed.

The Victorians, who reared sheep primarily for their wool, were great connoisseurs of lamb, according to Bob Kennard’s Much Ado About Mutton. As the great cookery writer Mrs Beeton wrote: ‘The difference in the quality of the flesh of various breeds is a well-established fact, not alone in flavour, but also in tenderness.’

Maybe it’s the perception that lamb is in some way ‘gamey’ that puts people off. Yet the popularity of New Zealand lamb has led to a much milder flavoured meat – a vehicle for stronger flavours rather than a star in its own right. Apparently it doesn’t appeal to younger consumers – to the extent that the marketing people seem hesitant about using the L-word, increasingly preferring to use the description sheep meat.

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5 of the best wine pairings Despite the dwindling popularity of lamb, it’s a great foil for a great red PAUILLAC

I also think the way restaurants work now, focusing on quickly cooked food, has contributed. Lamb shows best when cooked over coals or low and slow. Most UK restaurants, other than ethnic restaurants, don’t do braises and stews. Even a roast like a rack of lamb takes time. There’s no real lamb equivalent to steak despite butchers such as Turner & George pushing lamb henrys. Chops are regarded as fiddly by today’s consumer.

When you look at Europe the picture is different, especially in northern Spain where barely a meal goes by without lamb on the plate. In a French bistro in spring you’ll still find a navarin. Go to Greece or Turkey and there will invariably be lamb on the grill, usually in the form of a kebab. In fact, I suspect a lot of younger consumers who enjoy kebabs have no idea it’s lamb they’re eating. Maybe lamb just needs more theatre: in both Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia it’s cooked stretched out dramatically on an iron frame in the shape of a cross – cordero al palo. Or a greater understanding of the ingredients that show off the meat at its best: the punchy cocktail of herbs and capers in a classic salsa verde, the aromatic lift cumin will always give it (try a lamb tava) or the matching unctuous richness of aubergine.

As author Niki Segnit puts it in her admirable The Flavour Thesaurus: ‘Aubergine was – I can only imagine – designed with lamb in mind.’

Finally I think we should blame Easter, which creates an annual pressure for lambs to be bred and killed before they have developed any real flavour (although the Spanish and French, great aficionados of milk-fed lamb, would no doubt disagree). It runs counter to conventional wisdom but autumn, not spring, is the best time to enjoy lamb. There – I’ve said it!

A real terroir-based match. Pauillac lambs must be born and raised in the Gironde and kept with their mothers for 60 days. The kidneys are much prized too: the right kidney is apparently considered superior to the left for eating.

Obviously other left bank Bordeaux would work with this too.

RIOJA No meal in Rioja – or Ribera del Duero for that matter – is complete without a main course of lamb, often grilled over vine clippings. Baby lamb is hugely popular in the region too, especially with older vintages.

LEBANESE REDS The rich, sun-baked flavours of Lebanese reds, particularly a mature Musar, are perfect with a Middle Eastern-style braise or stuffed shoulder of lamb.

PINOT NOIR Remember the pairing of lamb and redcurrant sauce? That slightly tart sweet-sour flavour – which you find in pomegranate seeds too – is exactly why lamb works so well with Pinot. The rarer the meat, the lighter the style – think basic Bourgogne rouge and young New World pinots.

ASSYRTIKO White wine with lamb? Definitely, if you serve it marinated with herbs and maybe a classic Greek salad on the side. Assyrtiko acts like that judicious squeeze of lemon.

[ INTERVIEW ]

The generation game

Three generations of the Roux dynasty at London’s Le Gavroche Above right: Caractère’s ravioli is a riot of colour

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R U N N I N G H E R F I R S T R E S T A U R A N T, E M I LY R O U X – T H E L AT E S T I N T H E F O O D I E FA M I LY DY N A S T Y – I S WA RY O F T R A D I N G O N H E R N A M E , SHE TELLS ALICIA MILLER

WO R DS ALICIA MILLER

she has been running for a year and a half with her husband, Diego Ferrari. ‘My father’s restaurant is very luxurious; it’s an experience.

We wanted to create something more friendly, low-key and neighbourhoody, where people feel comfortable and can have a laugh with the waiters. We want a family ambience, but still very good food – not just a place for special occasions.’ Oof – take that, Michel.

Notting Hill, of course, isn’t your

ISSY CROKER PHOTO GRA PH Y

The family pedigree is impeccable.

She’s the daughter of famed chef and TV personality Michel Roux Jr, owner of London’s lauded Le Gavroche, and the granddaughter of Albert Roux, co-founder of the triple-Michelin-starred The Waterside Inn in Bray. But 28-yearold Emily Roux is keen to forge her own path in the culinary world.

‘Caractère is very different to Le Gavroche,’ she says when I meet her at the cosy Notting Hill restaurant

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stay the whole Saturday during service,’ she says. ‘I loved the camaraderie and ambience of that kitchen.’ She would sit in the corner, volunteering to peel potatoes or carrots for hours. And she loved bonding with the staff.

She was ‘very close’ to Monica Galetti, the former Le Gavroche senior sous-chef and now MasterChef judge. ‘On one birthday she hid a gift for me in the kitchen; I searched everywhere. It was a little stuffed dog toy, hidden in a massive 50kg container of flour!’

Having a top chef for a father – and a food-loving mother who was also an excellent cook – Roux was lucky to get an early schooling at the world’s finest restaurants. ‘I’ve eaten in so many fantastic places.

From a very young age I would eat snails, I would try oysters. You name it, I loved it.’ Though she wasn’t always gripped. Once, when her parents were dining at the triple-Michelin-starred Arzak in

Emily and Michel Jr join forces at Le Gavroche; Emily is boss in her own kitchen; celeriac cacio e pepe – a firm favourite at Caractère; banana tatin wins with the sweet-toothed

PHOTO GRA PHY BY STEVE RYAN AT JSR; DEXTERS

average neighbourhood. It’s one of London’s most exclusive postcodes, but Caractère’s cushy banquettes and whitewashed brick walls are a deliberate departure from the ‘men-must-wear-jackets’ formality of Mayfair’s Le Gavroche. ‘No one is going to keep coming back to my restaurant just because of my surname,’ says Roux. ‘You’re only as good as the last meal you serve, and making a name for ourselves outside of the Roux family dynasty is massively important to us as chefs and business owners. We are doing it our way, the two of us are a team,’ she says, glancing over at her husband. The message, it seems, is that this is about Emily and Diego, rather than Emily and her dad.

Family, nonetheless, has always been central to Roux’s experience with restaurants. She grew up in the kitchens of her father’s twoMichelin-starred Le Gavroche, and she doesn’t underplay the significance or benefits. ‘I would

[ INTERVIEW ]

San Sebastián, she fell asleep. ‘The staff were so kind. They rallied all the pillows they could and made a little bed for me under the table – first I had great food and then, apparently, a great sleep.’

It didn’t take long for her to fall in love with the culinary world.

‘Emily always wanted to follow in our footsteps,’ says Michel. She trained at the Paul Bocuse Institute in France and worked for top chefs such as Alain Ducasse. So surely the Roux surname helped give her a head start? ‘I’ve always been conscious to make sure my family name hasn’t been the reason for my success,’ she says. ‘I’ve worked hard to gain experience. Anyhow, in France, Roux is such a common name there’s no reason anyone would assume who my family are.’

She met her husband while working at Alain Ducasse’s Le Louis XV restaurant in Monaco. They lived in Paris, then came to London, where Ferrari worked Le Gavroche’s stoves as head chef under the watchful eyes of his future fatherin-law. Was it strange her dad being his boss? ‘I think it went very well,’ says Emily, diplomatically. ‘They’ve always got on well, and it stays professional when you’re at work.’

For his part, Michel says he is ‘so proud to see what Emily has so far achieved with Diego’. And his support seems to be more valuable now than when Emily was trying to establish herself. ‘My father has given me advice every single day since I was born,’ she says. ‘But opening a restaurant in London presents huge challenges. Rent prices are cripplingly expensive; there are fears over Brexit, and finding an excellent team is difficult enough as it is. So, being from a family of restaurant owners meant we were well-briefed. Being a Roux really came into its own when it came to tips about opening.’

Has Michel also shared advice on managing the more sensitive issues of running a family business, especially when the going gets tough? ‘Before opening I was scared about working so closely with my husband,’ says Emily. ‘But I enjoy it. It’s wonderful to have someone there when you need it. If it’s a bad

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day, you always have someone to say “we’re in this together, we’ve worked so hard”. It keeps you going and motivated. I don’t know what I would have done without him.’

What does Ferrari like most about working with his wife? ‘Having that person you can trust 100%, eyes closed – that’s very helpful,’ he says. But with all the pressures of running a restaurant – him in the kitchen, her taking care of pretty much everything else – surely there must be stressful moments? All families argue – what sets them off?

‘It’s usually what to cook at home,’ says Emily. He prefers meat, while she loves fish and pasta. Their tastes have informed the menu, a kind of modern Anglo-FrenchItalian mash-up – they love to cook with British produce but their dishes are inspired by French and Italian cuisine. The restaurant is called Caractère ‘because it draws from both of their characters’. Their star dish, which locals can’t seem to get enough of, is a celeriac cacio e pepe – delicate ribbons of the root vegetable in an oozy cheese and black pepper sauce. Other standouts include slow-cooked pork cheek ravioli with crispy kale and trompettes; or bergamot and lemon tartelette with hazelnut praline and preserved lemon.

Caractère is obviously getting the food right. And most of the staff have been there ‘since day one’ – a rarity in London. Roux says, ‘We all spend a lot of hours working together during the week. We have lunch together, dinner together. We need to have fun; we need to have a good ambience. And a family feel – that’s vitally important.’

There has to be more to keep staff happy than feeding them well?

‘Diego and I try to tell them the door is always open – come and talk to us about whatever problem you may have, whether it’s inside the restaurant or personal. So far it’s worked.’ The Roux dynasty seems to be in good hands. So will the next generation, if and when it arrives, follow the same path? Emily looks at her husband. ‘Definitely,’ she says, with preternatural certainty.

A month after the interview, I learn that Roux is pregnant.

A brief history of the Roux dynasty •

•

•

After both training as pâtissiers in the 1950s, brothers Albert and Michel Roux, born to a family of charcutiers in Charolles, France, travelled to London to seek their fortunes. It was a sign of things to come that Albert was employed as Nancy Astor’s private chef while Michel worked for the Rothschilds.

In 1967 the two opened Le Gavroche in Lower Sloane Street, Chelsea, taking turns to work in the kitchen and dining room.

(The restaurant moved to its current home on Upper Brook St, Mayfair, in 1981.)

Five years later the brothers bought a traditional English pub in Bray, Berkshire, and created restaurant and cocktail bar The Waterside Inn.

•

In 1974, both Le Gavroche and The Waterside Inn won a Michelin star, each gaining a second in 1977. Le Gavroche attained three-star status in 1982 while The Waterside was so honoured in 1985 – an accolade it retains today.

(Le Gavroche returned to two-star status in 1993.)

•

Among graduates from the kitchens of Le Gavroche are Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White, as well as Albert’s son, Michel Roux Jr, and Michel’s son, Alain.

•

The Roux brothers split the business in 1986, Albert taking on Le Gavroche and Michel Sr the Waterside Inn.

•

Today Michel Jr runs the London restaurant while Alain is resident in Bray, both their fathers having retired from the day-to-day running of the restaurants.

•

Albert Roux (OBE) continues to oversee restaurants around the world through Chez Roux, while Michel Sr (OBE) is active in consultancy and lecturing.

Both remain patrons of the Roux Scholarship, which they founded in 1985 to give aspiring chefs the chance to work in some of the world’s most highly regarded restaurants; Alain and Michel Jr took over as joint chairmen in 2016.

JUDE ED GIN TON/GETTY IMAGES; JODI HIN D S; PH OTO GRA PHY BY STEVE RYA N AT JSR

Clockwise from top left: the first two generations of the Roux gastronomic dynasty, Michel, Alber t and Michel Jr; the creative process helps ensure Caractère reflects its owners’ personalities; apple rose, a classic desser t on Emily Roux’s menu; Caractère’s interior is studiedly less formal than that of Le Gavroche; Emily and husband Diego Ferrari

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Close encounters of the luxury kind

Champagne brands are taking the luxe factor up a notch with VIP experiences; witness Krug’s ‘Encounters’ and Moët & Chandon’s private dinner at its Château de Saran, hosted by global brand ambassador Roger Federer, with Kate Moss, Uma Thurman and Natalie Por tman by his side

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H I G H - E N D B R A N D S A R E M O V I N G A W A Y F R O M W I N E , W A T C H E S A N D W H I S K Y, A N D I N T O E X C L U S I V I T Y,

VIC FRA NKOWSK I, JAC K JOHN S

E X P E R I E N C E S A N D , W E L L – E X T R A . G U Y W O O D WA R D D I P S A T O E I N T O A N O C E A N O F O P U L E N C E

If Krug aficionados had gone down to the woods last summer – or rather if they had been invited – they would have been in for a big surprise. For on a bright September afternoon in England’s Kent Downs countryside, a select group of patrons enjoyed performances from an array of musicians under the curation of singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry to a backdrop of idyllic landscape, locally inspired cuisine and plenty of fine vintage fizz.

The fourth edition of the Krug Encounter saw guests ‘whisked away to an enchanting forest for a rollercoaster of magical moments’, said the Champagne house. Zoë and Layo Paskin, the restaurateurs behind London’s The Palomar and The Barbary, provided the sustenance, and the Krug was on tap.

It wasn’t so much the menu that was the draw here, though, as the exclusivity. Tickets – which cost £450 – were only available to ‘friends’ of the house, meaning high-spenders and VIPs. It was the same for last year’s 150th anniversary of sister brand Moët & Chandon’s Impérial, which saw elite customers join the likes of Roger Federer, Uma Thurman and Kate Moss at the brand’s restored Château de Saran – a former Moët family home that now welcomes private guests – for a lavish dinner cooked by three-Michelin starred chefs Yannick Alléno and Dominique Crenn. Then there was November’s limited release of fellow LVMH brand Veuve Clicquot’s Grand Dame 1989, 2004 and 2008 vintages in 15 specially commissioned Baccarat crystal ‘inkwells’ that double as ice

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[ LIFESTYLE ]

buckets, complete with four Baccarat glasses.

Within a hidden drawer was a handwritten, waxsealed invitation to lunch at the Baccarat Cristal Room in Paris, a tour of the Clicquot cellars, and dinner and overnight stay at the brand’s newly opened Hôtel du Marc in the heart of Reims. The fact that the property is normally off limits to the public, was, says Stéphane Baschiera, chairman and CEO of Moët & Chandon, the whole point: ‘You had to be asked.’

It’s all part of a wider move by luxury brands to extend beyond the provision of mere products into experiences. At its most organic level, this comes through an expansion into hospitality – a move that seems only natural for some brands.

Take the Fauchon l’Hôtel, which opened in Paris two years ago, as the next step for one of France’s most recognisable gastronomic names, purveyor of everything from saucisson to macarons. The latter are on tap throughout the hotel, while the minibar concept is taken to the next level via a Fauchon Gourmet Bar. Presented in a Sacha Lakic-designed pink armoire, it is full of constantly replenished Fauchon delicacies curated according to the guest’s tastes, and complimentary during their stay (and beyond – guests are encouraged to fill their suitcase). Meanwhile, VIP guests can book tours and demos of the Fauchon lab, above its flagship boutique and café.

Exclusive access That the food and drinks world should be the pacesetter when it comes to branching out in such a fashion is only natural, of course – there is an obvious synergy between French patisserie and Parisian hospitality or, indeed, a Champagne house and Parisian cristallerie. But the trend goes further.

By being able to offer top-end customers exclusive access, luxury marques are adding further lustre to their brand as well as a certain feelgood factor.

Fabio d’Angelantonio, chief executive of cashmere specialist Loro Piana (also part of the LVMH empire) says he engenders goodwill among his high-end clientele by offering access to upscale experiences – hard-to-get tickets to the opera, a berth on a yacht during a regatta in St Barths. It’s a virtuous circle – by bringing clients together, they network and he gets to learn more about them, while cementing customer loyalty.

Now the trend is going further – and it’s no coincidence that LVMH is to the fore. In 2018 it bought the hotel and travel group Belmond (owner of, among other things, the Venice Simplon Orient-Express) for £2 billion, a move seen by chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault as ‘entirely consistent with our continued investment in the field of experiential luxury’. One might think last year’s acquisition of Tiffany & Co was purely about expanding the group’s reach in the jewellery sector – but even here, there is more to the move than diamond rings. The Tiffany Blue Box Café opened last month in Harrods, complete with Box

As more and more of our behaviour is guided by algorithms, the craving for physical, social, serendipitous and emotional experiences will only increase DOUG STEPHENS, R E TA I L P R O P H E T

Cakes fashioned in the same duck-egg blue and white ribbon aesthetic of the house. The Baccarat Bar will open on the same floor of the London luxury department store in April, serving cocktails out of the brand’s £100-a-piece crystal glasses.

LVMH’s purchase of Belmond augments its already impressive global portfolio of hotels, which includes the Bulgari and Cheval Blanc brands. It was Bulgari that spearheaded luxury fashion brands’ move into hospitality when it opened its first hotel in Milan 15 years ago (to be followed by a second in Bali, and then a London opening, on Knightsbridge, in 2012). Yet the furnishings and decor, while immaculate in their finish and sheen, aren’t immediately recognisable as replicating the aesthetic of the Roman jewellery house. There are no Serpenti chandeliers or Octo mirrors. Rather the idea, says Kostas Sfaltos, the London hotel’s general manager, is to reflect the ethos of the house via a similar harnessing of hand-crafted pieces with impeccable provenance.

‘This isn’t about amplifying the jewellery brand or providing a platform to sell more jewellery,’ says Sfaltos. ‘It’s about creating an environment in which customers can immerse themselves, in cities where we have a presence, and enhancing that lifestyle experience.’ Bulgari does so by way of generously appointed rooms and voluminous suites tailored to individual guests’ demands. The smallest rooms are a spacious 41 sq m and there’s a similarly well-proportioned spa, a screening room, and a destination bar with live music. The London outpost has been followed by openings in Beijing, Shanghai and Dubai; Tokyo, Moscow and Paris (an all-suite opening this September to sit opposite the George V) are next on the list. More important than the location, though, says Sfaltos, is the vibe. ‘It’s about giving Bulgari soul,’ he says.

Crystal brand Lalique has also moved into hospitality, following up its Villa René Lalique hotel in the founder’s former Alsatian home with the opening of a Lalique themed and decorated hotel at brand owner Silvio Denz’s Sauternes winery. Tablewares, interiors and even toilet roll holders are Lalique throughout.

Driving adventure Other watch and jewellery brands have also latched on to the experiential thread, without going so far as to build hotels. A few years ago, Swiss watch maison Roger Dubuis collaborated with Pirelli to release the limited-edition Excalibur Spider Pirelli Double Flying Tourbillon, whose strap was made with rubber from the tyres that took Lewis Hamilton to victory in the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix; the watch came with an invitation to behind-the-scenes access to a Formula One grand prix. Buyers of its latest, one-of-a-kind Excalibur Pirelli Ice Zero 2 receive an invitation to a Lamborghini driving adventure in the Italian alps tailored specifically to the purchaser’s tastes. Fellow watchmaker Panerai, meanwhile,

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wonderful world of wine, spirits and good living

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C OURTESY OF GUCC I

The Gucci Garden in Florence spans archive designs (left) and the Gucci Osteria restaurant (right)

has released limited-edition pieces accompanied by the chance to put the watch to use in its intended environment. The Submersible Chrono Guillaume Néry, for example, comes with a private lesson from the world freediving champion at his home in French Polynesia; the Submersible Mike Horn edition is named after the Swiss explorer, who will be taking 19 Panerai-wearing punters to the Arctic ice floes in an expedition to promote environmental and ocean conservation.

The appetite for such exclusive experiences shows little sign of abating, says Annastasia Seebohm, global CEO of Quintessentially, the luxury lifestyle management group. ‘Our data shows members want to enjoy something exclusive that signals their status as an “insider” and, more than anything else, has an experience attached to it. It’s about being part of something meaningful with an experience that frames the product as the souvenir.’ Fflur Roberts, head of luxury goods research at Euromonitor International, agrees: ‘[Modern luxury] is less about showing off wealth and more about what we find meaningful.’

Tech also plays a part, as Doug Stephens, founder of Retail Prophet, points out: ‘As we become increasingly tethered to technology, and as more and more of our behaviour is being guided by algorithms … the craving by consumers for physical, social, serendipitous and emotional experiences will only increase.’ And luxury brands, it seems, are increasingly willing to provide them.

The Gucci taste

Among all the accolades to come Gucci’s way in recent years as Alessandro Michele’s bold, agenda-setting aesthetic has made it the darling of the fashion world, the award of a Michelin star seems a touch incongruous. But it’s entirely in keeping with the direction in which the luxury world is moving. The star was awarded in November to Gucci Osteria, the intimate 30-cover restaurant that forms part of the Gucci Garden which opened in 2018 in Florence’s 14th-century Palazzo della Mercanzia. (A sister restaurant has just opened on top of Gucci’s flagship store in Beverly Hills.) The project is the vision of Michele, who, as The New York Times’ Frank Bruni says, ‘isn’t just selling robes, slippers, handbags…

He’s selling a sensibility: eccentric, eclectic, inclusive.

And he’s doing it with every mode of communication at his disposal.’ Hence this modern cultural cornucopia comprises a constantly evolving exhibition of both archive and contemporary Gucci pieces, along with

memorabilia, contemporary art, and two vividly decorated boutique spaces selling exclusive pieces, including bejewelled sneakers.

And the restaurant?

Surprisingly understated in design, its vibrant block green accent is, on first impression, the only clear nod to the aesthetic of the house (almost as conspicuous are the original 13th-century stone coats of arms representing each of the city’s original trades).

Closer inspection, though, reveals subtle Guccification.

Tableware comes courtesy of porcelain from the Gucciowned Richard Ginori, complete with hand-painted Herbarium motif. A private dining room employs the Glade fabric of the house’s Décor arm on its wallpaper.

Dishes, conceived by arguably Italy’s most famous chef, Massimo Bottura (of the three-starred Osteria Francescana in Modena) are playful, contemporary and cosmopolitan – none more so than Bottura’s signature burger, which is served in a pink Gucci Garden gift box.

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Holy smoke JUST LIKE FINE WINE, CIGARS CAN BENEFIT F R O M J U D I C I O U S AG E I N G â&#x20AC;&#x201C; B U T H OW TO K N OW W H I C H O N E S A R E WO RT H M AT U R I N G ?

[ CIGARS ]

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TO B I A S G O R N

While the benefits of ageing fine wine are widely recognised, I’m frequently surprised when I talk to enthusiastic cigar smokers to discover how little they know about the concept of maturing cigars. In essence, ageing cigars offers similar benefits to cellaring fine wines – bolder flavours and sharper notes mellow down, and time lends extra complexity and finesse.

There is no exact science as to what sort of cigar will age best.

As a general rule, though, cigars with darker, heavier leaves and bolder blends will be better candidates for long-term ageing (just as more powerful tannins help a wine last longer). So bigger vitolas (sizes), which tend to use heavier, richer tobacco, are better candidates for longer spells in the humidor. The acclaimed Cohiba Behike – whose blend contains the darker, richly-flavoured and relatively rare medio tiempo leaf – should generally age beautifully. But there are also many ageworthy lighter cigars, such as very old H Upmanns and the Davidoff cigars from the 1970s.

Ultimately, a cigar’s optimum length of maturation depends on the conditions – including temperature and humidity – in which it is kept. If these conditions are perfect, it can age almost indefinitely. Mitchell Orchant, managing director of C.Gars, one of London’s major specialists, has examples dating back to the 1890s, found in a disused wine cellar in Bordeaux, that had been sealed in an ammunition case and wrapped in the newspaper of the day. ‘The brand was [Flor de] Valle and they were surprisingly decent considering their age,’ he says.

Orchant notes that cigars can be aged in a normal humidor, but the temperature should be slightly lower than standard room temperature. Some suggest 12-18C ensures better and smoother ageing; others keep their cigars at a slightly higher temperature on the basis that they are products of hot countries.

When it comes to what is collectible, there are various classifications to seek out, starting with ‘vintage’ – when the master blender works with tobacco leaves from a single year’s crop. Cigar houses will also release limited editions and one-off expressions – some pure marketing, others of excellent quality.

Daniel Marshall – a renowned American cigar and humidor maker – makes wonderful bespoke humidors for Hollywood stars and statesmen alike. In 2011 he created a celebration cigar wrapped in 24k gold foil, the Daniel Marshall 24KT Golden Torpedo, that can easily fetch £300-£500, depending on the retailer. Orchant says cigars from the 1940s and 1950s are particularly popular at the moment. ‘Prices fluctuate but a petit corona will cost around £25-£70 per cigar in a cabinet of 50 in good condition.’

And it is not only Cuban cigars that are collectible. While Cubans will tell you that nothing can equal their tobacco, there are many fine cigars from the Dominican Republic, Honduras or Nicaragua that hold their own against their Cuban counterparts.

The reason? The tobacco is usually grown from Cuban seeds.

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Eight older cigars to seek out 2 DAVIDOFF ROYAL RELEASE

Released in 2016 after 12 years of ageing, purposeplanted Dominican tobaccos rolled by Davidoff ’s master blender undergo a further 18 months of ageing. One of the rarest cigars on the market, it is balanced, elegant and refined. It is also one of the most complex cigars available with a plethora of well-composed aromas and flavours of wood, spices, fine herbs, chocolate and patisserie.

The Royal Release’s journey from seed to cigar takes 10 years and the heritage of the latest releases can be traced back to the harvest of 2004/5. A majestic, elegant cigar with a generous draw of creamy smoke. Oak and balsa wood notes, saddle leather and sweet almonds play along, creating a beautiful sweet and spicy finish. Quite simply one of the best cigars I’ve ever tasted. £800 for a box of 10

£450 single cigar in presentation box. Pre-order

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6 BOLIVAR CORONAS GIGANTES 1999

One of my favourite Nicaraguan cigars, made with beautifully oily, sungrown wrapper leaves, it’s at the full-bodied, complex end of the spectrum.

Blended with specially fermented Jalapa Valley Ligero leaves, this delivers full-strength taste while maintaining unparalleled smoothness. Dark wood smoke, fine dark chocolate, coffee and nougat notes make this a real heavyweight example, but with elegance and balance supporting the power, and pronounced flavours.

Another discontinued cigar from the Aged & Rare Collection, Bolivar has great ageing potential.

Some say it should be matured for a few years before its powerful notes can be enjoyed. A touch of black pepper, plenty of cedar wood and the scent of mahogany with bonfire notes. Maturation has made this more complex and a tad smoother without changing its robust personality too much.

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4 CUABA DIADEMAS 2004 My friend Athila Roos, sommelier at London’s Arts Club, acquired this cigar from the Edward Sahakian Cigar Lounge.

There’s over two hours of smoke in this stick; a truly elegant experience.

Cuaba always has a fresh green, grassy note, plenty of hay and toasted nuts, even cinnamon and cassia bark in some cases. Later some chocolate and cedar wood notes appear.

One of Cuba’s biggest growers, when Plasencia decided to create its own brand it had great access to aged tobacco. This is a blend of tobaccos over 12 years old, grown in the highest quality soil, accentuating bold, vibrant and intense flavours.

Probably the boldest and heaviest cigar of this selection, with chocolate ganache, nougat and even treacle notes.

£150 to £200 per single cigar at auction only

£340 for a box of 10

5 OLIVA SERIE V DOUBLE ROBUSTO

£350 for a box of 25

3 PLASENCIA ALMA FUERTE SALOMON GENERACION V

From the Aged & Rare Collection £3,350 Cabinet box (of 50)

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7 ROMEO Y JULIETA PETIT CORONA 1960ES AND ROMEO Y JULIETA CORONA 1970ES What a privilege it is to travel back in time to light one of these old and smooth delights. They are both extremely smooth and finely evolved with a lot of autumn leaves, toasted nuts and a touch of nutmeg. They are also so refined and gentle for a relatively small cigar that can be a bit hotter and punchier when younger. £35 per stick, available from C.Gars

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8 CHARATAN COLINA SPECIAL EDITION A new UK-exclusive special edition released in limited quantities with four-yearsaged Nicaraguan tobacco from the Esteli and Jalapa Valley. A fairly light cigar with plenty of hay and floral notes building up a fine and elegant toasted almond and cedar wood finish, with a nice constant draw and a touch of coffee and milk chocolate. Disclaimer: I was involved in selecting the final blend of this cigar.

Charatan Colina Special Edition £200 for a box of 10

GETTY IMAGES

1 DAVIDOFF ORO BLANCO

Where to buy and smoke LONDON JAMES J FOX Centuries-old merchant patronised by Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde, with a spacious sampling lounge.

19 St James’s St, SW1A 1ES D AV I D O F F O F LO N D O N Next door to Berry Bros; a fine selection of Havanas and Dominicans; sampling lounge.

35 St James’s St, SW1A 1HD SAUTTER Arguably London’s finest cigar retailer.

106 Mount Street W1K 2TW and 8 Raphael Street SW7 1DL T U R M E A U S O F M AY FA I R Smoking room and whisky selection, as well as own-brand Peruvian cigars.

Shepherd Market, W1J 7LB PA R I S GENTLEMAN 1919 Eccentric and much-loved secret smoking lounge behind a barbershop – plus bar.

11 Jean-Mermoz Street, 75008 N E W YO R K GRAND HAVANA ROOMS Mahogany panelling, blue velvet curtains and clubby armchairs. Also in LA. 666 Fifth Avenue, 39th Floor, New York, NY, 10103; and 301 N Canon Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 H O N G KO N G COHIBA ATMOSPHERE Swank galore on Hong Kong Island, part of a worldwide chain run by the Pacific Cigar Co. 21/F, Hing Wai Building, 36 Queen’s Road, Central

Don’t get burned There’s one rule with vintage cigars: buyer beware. Provenance is all: the greatest cigar kept in inappropriate conditions will spoil. Only buy from retailers with a stellar reputation. Look for the seals and production date stamps, the quality of the box and uniformity of the cigars.

In Cuba, steer well clear of anyone who tells you: ‘My brother works in the factory.’ Never buy a box with a see-through lid – real boxes do not have Perspex windows. There are obvious fakes with uneven prints and roll quality, and slightly more sophisticated fakes, but ultimately it is exactly like buying fine wine: you’re safe if provenance is guaranteed.

Napa glitz goes green A U C T I O N N A PA VA L L E Y I S W E L L K N O W N F O R I T S E X C E S S : T H I N K O P R A H , J O H N L E G E N D A N D K AT Y P E R RY PA R T Y I N G U N T I L T H E E A R LY H O U R S, A S H I G H R O L L E R S T RY T O O U T B I D E A C H O T H E R T O J E T O V E R T O V E R S A I L L E S T O P A R T Y S O M E M O R E . B U T A S T H E H U G E C H A R I T Y E V E N T C E L E B R A T E S I T S 4 0 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y, O R G A N I S E R S A R E P R O M O T I N G A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E , C O M M U N I T Y - F O C U S E D G AT H E R I N G . E L I N M C C OY F I N D S O U T W H Y

Opposite: John Legend (top right) and Katy Perr y (bottom left) enter tain the crowds at Auction Napa Valley

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WO R DS

ALEXANDER RUBIN FOR NAPA VALLEY VIN TNERS

E L I N M CCOY

There was the year when Francis Ford Coppola, in a blindingly white suit, slaved over huge pots of pomodoro basilico peperoncini sauce for his homemade gnocchi. Then there was the time John Legend crooned ‘All of Me’ to push bids for a lot featuring his first wines and a private performance.

(After a frenzied bidding war, it went for $850,000.) And last year, lighting cast a deep pink glow inside the tent as Katy Perry belted out her hits ‘Firework’ and ‘Roar’ while confetti fluttered on to tables and into wine glasses.

Napa’s social calendar features dozens of glamorous events, but none is more over-the-top than the annual Auction Napa Valley. Here, this kind of behaviour is de rigueur, as wellheeled enthusiasts spend, spend and spend some more, raising millions for local charities. It’s a wonderful excuse to head to the valley, stay in a luxury hotel, tour winery cellars, dine in Michelin-starred splendour and, of course, bid at the auction itself.

This year, though, the vibe will be less star-studded and more personal,

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say winemakers Bart and Daphne Araujo, the auction chairs (with their children, Jaime and Greg). ‘We want to remind people that Napa isn’t a big conglomerate,’ explains Daphne. ‘We’re putting the spotlight on pioneering wineries like Heitz and Phelps that made Napa what it is, and on the incredible beauty of the valley, sustainability and our community.

Think of it as the world’s best garden party.’ Forget snagging a pop star, this year the St Helena High School choir will serenade bidders into the tent.

The auction has evolved dramatically since the inaugural event in 1981, when the weather was so sweltering that auctioneer Michael Broadbent MW sat behind a table draped in white with his feet in a tub of icy water. (Thankfully, the tent is now air-conditioned.) The basic elements of the past few years – intimate winemaker-hosted dinners and parties on Thursday, a jazzy barrel

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auction on Friday afternoon, and the big-spend live auction on Saturday – remain, but will be updated.

First on the agenda is green consciousness, surely a smart move after the wildfires in Napa and Sonoma – and further afield – that have put climate change front and centre in the wine world. Focusing more on green initiatives, say the Araujos, is an important part of sustaining the Napa Valley for the next generation.

Eliminating plastic, embracing recyclable wooden plates and serving more organic, plant-based food cooked by local chefs are a given.

A designated green committee is busy calculating the event’s carbon footprint and figuring out how many trees to plant to offset everyone’s air travel – even if by private jet.

Saturday’s raucous live auction at the super-swanky Meadowood resort will remain the weekend’s emotional

A LEXA NDER RUBIN FOR NA PA VA LLEY V INTNERS; EYEV INE; ALAMY

Attendees and tables alike get dressed for the main event

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highlight. But instead of gliding to the resort’s smooth green lawns in petrol-guzzling stretch limos, guests will arrive in hybrid cars that are being provided by Lexus.

Inside the giant tent for the threehour auction, guests rub shoulders with sports stars, actors, billionaire hedge-funders and wine celebrities.

Last year, I hurried over to Petrus winemaker Olivier Berrouet and held out my glass for a taste of the 1990 he was pouring. The lots ranged from private dinners and tastings of old vintages at Napa wineries, to such extravaganzas as last year’s highlight – four six-litre Impériales of Opus One dating back to 1979, plus a trip to Paris by private jet, dinner at some of its most elite restaurants and tickets to the Palace of Versailles’s 18th-century themed masquerade ball. Bidding for such lots can escalate to $500,000 in

under a minute, with paddle-waving wars. ‘Five hundred thousand is not the give-up point,’ auctioneer Fritz Hatton cajoled one wavering bidder last year. The Continuum Estate lot included a nine-day trip to Italy, with private tours of the Sistine Chapel and Uffizi Gallery, and a ride in a vintage papal limousine; it went for $530,000.

Previous lots have featured a stay on Tetiaroa, the late Marlon Brando’s island hideaway near Tahiti, where Barack Obama wrote his memoirs and Pippa Middleton honeymooned.

But the Araujos believe it’s time to move on from this kind of non-Napa attraction. The soft-spoken, ecoconscious family has been making wine in the valley for 30 years, first at the biodynamic Araujo Estate – which they sold to François Pinault, owner of Château Latour and fashion conglomerate Kering, in 2012 – then

Merriment and revellers, including (top right) Delia Vader with Tim Mondavi and the late Margrit Biever Mondavi, at ANV, where lots include such coveted wines as Screaming Eagle

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at the Accendo Cellars winery they then founded. As they point out, the super-wealthy can snap up bespoke jewels at other auctions, and part of the purpose of Auction Napa Valley is to promote the region as one of the world’s great wine destinations.

So this year’s lots will emphasize personal time with Napa’s top-name winemakers and their rarest bottles.

Accendo’s contribution comprises every vintage the Araujos have ever made, including those from their flagship Eisele Vineyard. Phelps will pull out a history of its collectible cuvée Insignia, while the Antinori family will offer private tours of its properties in Napa and Tuscany.

Other elements remain unchanged.

The weekend begins early, on the Thursday evening, with a series of elegant winemaker dinners at the homes or wineries of the owners – still the best way to experience Napa’s

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breathtaking landscape. Last year, after snaking up the steep road to cult winery Ovid on remote Pritchard Hill, the reward was sweeping views of the entire valley from the winery’s deck.

Guests mixed and mingled with the winery owners until the sun dropped, before moving inside to savour rare vintages of Ovid’s plush Cabernet with rare fillet steak.

Friday’s noisy, day-long barrel auction is the time to hang out with 100 or so more star Napa winemakers, from Aaron Pott to Philippe Melka.

This year’s will be held at Raymond Vineyards, where flamboyant owner Jean-Charles Boisset’s aesthetic features lingerie-clad mannequins hanging from trapezes above the fermenting vats. Standing at upturned barrels, winemakers pour tastes of 100-plus Cabernets that are still in the barrel, all made exclusively for the event. A downloadable smartphone

ALEXA NDER RUBIN; EYEV INE

Even celebrities as mighty as Oprah Winfrey (opposite) have been known to attend ANV

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Napa: where to eat and drink The French Laundry and The Restaurant at Meadowood are Napa’s two three-star Michelin restaurants, but you’ll eat well almost anywhere in the valley.

COMPLINE Helmed by master sommelier Matt Stamp, this all-in-one wine bar, shop and restaurant in downtown Napa is the hot place to try fabulous wines by the glass. complinewine.com PRESS This high-end St Helena steakhouse with comfy leather chairs has the largest collection of Napa Valley wines in the world. There is a cellar full of Napa Cabernets from the 1960s and 70s. pressnapavalley.com AUBERGE DE SOLEIL The big draw at this Michelinstarred hillside restaurant in Rutherford is the valley’s loveliest deck overlooking an olive grove. With a glass of bubbly in hand, it’s where to watch the sun go down and stay on for a romantic dinner. aubergeresorts.com ACACIA HOUSE

app lets attendees bid while sampling, with the top 10 bidders for every barrel each getting one case of the wine. As the afternoon winds down, the pace hots up, with screens detailing the latest bids so bidders can make sure they’re still in the top 10. Last year’s top lot hit nearly $1,000 a bottle.

The weekend culminates, after Saturday’s main auction, with dinner on the Meadowood lawn under sparkly white lights capped off by music and dancing. One year, I watched as supermodel Kate Upton got down to salsa played by the Grammy-winning Los Van Van Cuban dance band. But all this wine, food and fun isn’t just indulgence. By the end of June, the auction will, over the years, have raised well over $200m for more than two dozen local charities – largely family health and education organisations.

So this is one celebrity event you can walk away from feeling virtuous.

In St Helena, chef Chris Cosentino whips up sophisticated comfort food in a 1907 Georgian mansion, home to the Las Alcobas Hotel (see right). The spacious wraparound front porch is perfect for coffee, breakfast or happy hour. marriott.com

Where to stay A new, fabulous Four Seasons Resort opens in Calistoga in autumn 2020, but Napa doesn’t suffer from a shortage of upscale hotels and resorts. Take your pick.

MEADOWOOD No matter how many new luxury hotels grab the attention, Meadowood is still the blissfully peaceful classic, ideally located for the auction. It opened a luxury all-suite spa four years ago and, recently, a new pool and fitness area. Stay in one of the private cottages. meadowood.com THE FRANCIS HOUSE Calistoga’s newest small luxury hotel, which opened in 2018, offers five antique-filled rooms in a historic, lovingly restored, French Empirestyle stone building complete with a billiards room. thefrancishouse.com LAS ALCOBAS Conveniently located in St Helena, right next to Beringer Vineyards, this sleek, elegant, modern hotel opened in the spring of 2017. Its soothing minimalist rooms boast plenty of light and private terraces overlooking the vines. marriott.com BARDESSONO

This year’s Auction Napa Valley runs 4–7 June. See auctionnapavalley.org for further details.

The suites at this hotel in Yountville are all about ecofriendly privacy. One of the few LEED platinum-certified hotels in the US, it uses solar panels to generate electricity, while rooms come with earth-inspired decor and deep, outdoor stone bathtubs heated with geothermal power. bardessono.com

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[ JET-SETERA ]

The Soho House clubs lend themselves less to work – the ground floor of Ludlow House in Manhattan has soporific lighting, and the bar is just too close, too visible

MARK C O’FLAHERTY

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ike most writers, most of the time I’d rather not be writing at all. Je déteste écrire. But deadlines, and my enjoyment of paying bills, focus the mind. As an itinerant writer, it’s more a question of where my mind is focused. I can’t just write anywhere. And I certainly can’t have my mind focused by something as ‘on purpose’ as WeWork.

Few brands’ knuckles have turned as white as WeWork’s over the past 12 months. The company’s disastrous IPO put it on a rollercoaster ride so turbulent it won’t keep lunch down for quite some time. It is the DeLorean of the gig economy era.

For a while, it looked like not-so-hot desking was going to fill the void left by bricks-and-mortar retail. Where once there had been shops on our streets – Barneys, Borders and Dean & DeLuca – there would be branded ‘workspace solutions’. But WeWork over expanded. And had other issues.

For certain freelance nomads like myself I could never see an ‘I’ in ‘We’.

It’s just not me.

I write words in a variety of places.

There’s an iMac with a 21.5in screen

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at home in London’s Hackney, which I call Mission Control, but I don’t get to see it as often as I’d like. I’m usually filing copy from the back seat of a taxi, or a departure lounge. In recent years, I’ve been writing a lot at the branch of Ninth Street Espresso close to Avenue C in New York. This part of the East Village is largely child free, the space is big and the people watching is brilliant. Olivia Laing mentions in The Lonely City that she has written there regularly, and on a recent afternoon, performance artist Kembra Pfahler – of The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black – was at the next table. It feels like the New York I first visited in the 1980s – but with better coffee. It makes me want to write.

I have mixed feelings about the use of private clubs as work space. In London, I try to put in a day at week at Shoreditch House, so I can surround myself with dynamic industrious types in the dedicated working room on the fifth floor. But some of the Soho House clubs lend themselves less to labour – the ground floor of Ludlow House in Manhattan has soporific lighting, and the bar is just… too close, too visible. I was working with my husband – a writer of literary fiction – one afternoon when he had an alert on his phone that his bid for an artwork by Bowie was successful at auction. We instantly closed our laptops and I asked for the wine list.

I rarely write on flights. The impulse to switch off is too great. I once turned

in a 2,000-word interview with Yohji Yamamoto on a flight from Tokyo to Singapore, but that’s because the ‘hard’ deadline was five minutes after landing. And I was in economy.

Business class isn’t for working, it’s for drinking mid-range Champagne and getting overly emotional at romcoms.

Hotels should, in theory, be great places to write. The age of the ‘business centre’ is long over – every room should have a perch for you and your keyboard. But I still encounter cluttered table arrangements, or a plug socket inaccessible behind a table, or – in the case of rural British ‘fancy’ hotels – fitted for round-pinned plugs from the 1920s. Agatha Christie’s going to find those useful when she’s next in residence. Lots of places – Park Hyatt and Andaz properties come to mind – are reliable for in-room desks, but it’s actually those overly branded budget hotels for millennials that have the most useful working areas. I’ve been to various citizenM hotels and there’s always desk space in a welldesigned area full of attention-surplus adults. Compare and contrast with an afternoon I spent writing in the Lobby Bar of the Times Square Edition, with a long table groaning under the weight of Apple titanium, and everyone rolling their eyes at the German couple who had come to New York purely to let their hellions run riot in this room, all day. The problem with writing away from Mission Control is that hell really can be other people.

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