Hallgarten & Novum Wines Portfolio Tastings

The Hallgarten & Novum team will be in London, Cambridge and Glasgow in September, presenting a cross-section of wines from a vast portfolio.

For more information and to register for any of the dates, contact sarah. charlwood@hnwines.co.uk

Monday, September 18

Smith & Wollensky

1-11 John Adam Street

London WC2N 6HT

Monday, September 25

Gonville Hotel

Gonville Place

Cambridge CB1 1LY

Tuesday, September 26

St Lukes & The Winged Ox

17 Bain Street

Glasgow G40 2JZ

Vindependents Portfolio Tasting

Vindependents will be showing around 300 wines from its range this autumn.

More than 40 producers will be at the event including David Marco from Marco Abella, Bernard Ecker from Weingut Ecker-Eckhof and Monty Petrie from Gladstone Vineyard.

To register for the event and for a full list of wines on show, contact Louise Vaux: louise@vindependents.co.uk.

Tuesday, September 19

Cecil Sharp House

2 Regent’s Park Road

London NW1 7AY

Thorman Hunt Autumn Tastings

Thorman Hunt will hold the first of its three autumn tastings in London.

Bristol is next on the list followed by Manchester in early October. The importer will be showcasing 100 premium, artisanal wines produced by family growers from France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Lebanon, California and Argentina.

Highlights include Lyrarakis, Massaya, Brumont, Fourny, Paul Prieur, Vieux Telegraph, Bruno Sorg, The Hilt, Talley Wines, Argiano, Durigutti, Le Soula, Jean Luc Jamet, Vincent Girardin and many more.

To register, email vanessa@ thormanhunt.co.uk.

Wednesday, September 20

67 Pall Mall

London SW1Y 5ES

Tuesday, September 26

Paintworks

Bath Road

Bristol BS4 3EH

Wednesday, October 4

Salut Wines

11 Cooper Street

Manchester M2 2FW

Marta Mateus of Marta Vine

Grapest Hits

Hosted by Condor Wines, Marta Vine, North South Wines and Hayward Bros, this tasting is an opportunity to see the very best the four indie-friendly importers have to offer, with more than 200 wines on show.

Register at events@condorwines.co.uk.

Monday, September 25

Crypt on the Green Clerkenwell

London EC1R 0EA

Wednesday, September 27

The Tetley

Hunslet Road

Leeds LS10 1JQ

Hatch Mansfield Autumn Tasting

Hatch is promising that all the producers in its portfolio will be represented at its London event, with several winemakers flying in to join the fun.

The portfolio includes such names as Taittinger, Robert Oatley, Esk Valley, Louis Jadot, Chapoutier, Errazuriz, CVNE, Kleine Zalze and Zuccardi.

For more information, contact Pippa Carter: pippacarter@hatch.co.uk.

Tuesday, September 26

116 Pall Mall

London SW1Y 5ED

There are few things in life I find as enjoyable as Ann Meikle, insightful author of truisms such as you like everything just so, don’t you Phoebe (yes, but I’ve got a bit better with hiding this, haven’t I Ann, these days things being ‘not quite right’ don’t explode into words and walls but rather eat into my “soul” like the green toon-killing acid in Who Framed Roger Rabbit). More recently, she offered Phoebe doesn’t like fun, really –she likes jazz.

There are few things in life I find as enjoyable as jazz. Sitting in a room with some trumpet player, preferably the never-ageing Phil from the hippy shop (not that one) screeching some kind of thing in time/not in time on a bashed-up cornet while I shake my head at people not applauding the solos sounds like the best Sunday night ever, and indeed was, during the Laphroaig years.

There are few things in life I dislike as much as Laphroaig coming through your pores on a Monday morning.

There are few things in life I like as much as Valhalla’s “Sexy Mondays” featuring Ann and Jordan’s foolish search for Sexy Monday Soup. Soup isn’t sexy, it’s hot and lumpy.

Lunches are sexy but also boring: fun and not fun, two horns on the same goat. In their truest form, they’re not about enjoyment, they’re about sustenance. They’re the motorway fill-up of meals, expensive and soulless, dry, carb-laden, confusing, subject to items not necessary for practical fulfilment of the activity. Cuddly toy? Carnations? Uno?

There are few things in life I dislike as much as the motorway fill-up lunch, and yet there are few things in life I like as much as the Full Afternoon Lunch. The lunch with little bits coming and

32. VIEW FROM A STEP-LADDER

going. Preferably outside looking down at something, an effect easily achieved with a step-ladder in the confines of a wine shop, time passing, the two-till-eighter, the twotill-I-get-home, brush my teeth, pretend to read some Proust and pass out.

There are few things in life I find as infuriating as people who pretend to read things. See Lunch Archive: The first time I was barred from The More and Mor, repeatedly shouting YOU HAVEN’T READ IT, HAVE YOU? until the bouncer escorted me from the premises.

There are few things in life I find as enjoyable as cheerful grouch Chris Bain, King of his Castle of Wine in Castle Douglas, which would have been a better name IMHO. You look like the bird woman from Home Alone, he said as I wheeled through the door to his establishment, late again, ready(ish) to talk cheese to bored farmers and Paddy Power’s daughter. He’s not a huge fan of fun either, especially as recently he’s given up gluten.

Later, after we had filled people up with Wine ‘n’ Cheese that everyone failed to truly appreciate, philistines, I touched on the gluten subject – because obviously as a fellow Independent Wine Merchant he’ll have read about my on-again-off-again love affair with bread. No, he said – they’re too long And I’m never in them. Well you are now, Chris, if you can be arsed reading the 400 words that precede this. We will see.

There are few things in life I find as enjoyable as Ann Meikle, because every month she puts on her big specs and sits on the step-ladder and reads my Amazing Lunch. Very Funny, she says, and I put a little gold star next to her name in my diary that night.