User Archives: Ben Llewelyn

New-look Overton shop

The past month has seen a major change for Caviste Overton. We have dreamed of giving our flagship shop a refit for over a year, and this month we were finally able to put our plans into action, and not only that, introduce a new concept we think is unique in Hampshire, but more on that later.

New Paintwork and 21^st Century Lighting
The first change anyone will notice is to the paint work, which has had a major over haul. We have back lit the shelves and improved the ceiling lighting, finally getting rid of the ‘70s down lighters and Artex ceiling which has been a bit of an eyesore of late. I would like to thank Laura Hazell for her work in creating this new and atmospheric look.

Pictures of our Beloved Producers
A good part of Caviste’s identity is formed by the producers we work with. It is great to now have pictures of many of them, and their various vineyards, wineries, quirky beards and other images on our gallery wall. This is a step to showcasing the amazing people we work with, who don’t necessarily get into the national press but have a valid and truly authentic story to tell. On the opposite side of the shop we are building a collection of wine art, posters and promotional material that basically looks cool. If you have any you want to share with the world please bring it along and we will see if we can find a spot.

Fine Wines & ‘Magnum’ Corner
We have spent a lot if time reworking the fine wine area. It has always concerned me that we have so much amazing wine but it is trapped in racks getting dusty, and when they are pulled out for an admiring glance, the labels get scuffed. So now we have the wines on shelves, lying at an angle adequate to keep the corks wet, but enough to make sure you can see the label. We will keep a bottle of each wine on the rack and the rest of the stock in storage racks should you want to buy more than a bottle. We have also transplanted the Champagne, Magnums, Cognacs and Whiskies too. We have also erected a very ‘recycled’ tasting bench from old wine boxes and the old Stockbridge counter.

Where’s the Counter gone?
The counter area has changed too, allowing us better access to the rear of the shop where we can offer free parking to our customers, as well as a speedier response time for those coming into the shop and requiring help. The effect of all these changes has been to open up the space and I hope create a more atmospheric and engaging place to come and buy wine. But it has also allowed us to set up our brand new project, which frankly has been the most exciting aspect of the refit (apart, perhaps, from getting rid of the Artex ceiling).

Local Produce for Caviste Foodies
I have long been passionate about food. It is in my DNA and I am particularly passionate about the provenance, the production and the passion behind food. I am fortunate that the team at Caviste share this passion too, so we will now be serving Hampshire Tapas, born raised and produced in the county throughout our opening hours. The food on offer will be simple, slices of Pork Pie, quiche and Terrines, a handful of Cheeses, including Laverstoke Mozzarella and Tunworths ‘Brie’, dried meats from various friends, Scotch Eggs from Newlyn’s, and lots of other goodies besides. We will keep things simple, but the emphasis is on local (the Olive Oil may have to be Italian, unless anyone knows a good olive oil producer in Hants). As well as this we will be offering wine by the glass, and for a small corkage, you can choose any bottle in the shop and drink it at the table. The idea is to show off as many of our producers in an environment in which they will really shine.

When is the Launch Party?  Did I miss the invitation?
We will be soft launching this week and for the next couple if weeks but do please come and join us, and your feedback would be most welcome, and we will have a formal launch in October.

So, we look forward to sharing the good produce of Hampshire and glass of something delicious with you very soon, and I would like to thank the team, particularly Graham Devereux for project managing the refit, Peter Gentilli and Stafford for their hard graft and DIY, Tina Devereux  for her creative input, as well as the team in general for all their hard work and commitment.

Ben Llewelyn, Managing Director

Having not had an opportunity to jet off to some exquisite vineyard region for a while I am particularly excited by the fact that quite a few of our producers and my friends are coming over to London for The Real Wine fair. This does not come without it's logistical issues however, vigneron do not seem to be the most organised people when having to deal with non production challenges. Samples lost in the post; samples not sent; tickets not booked; hotels not booked; and that's just one of them!

Anyway, we have eight domains represented by the person who actually make the wine, and myself and colleagues will pretend to be the other three (watch out for strange accents and berets) and I am so proud of what we have on offer (for more details see www.therealwinefair.com) as they stand shoulder to shoulder with many of the greatest wine producers in the world next week.

This is going to be a great fair, with plenty going on and some terrific food and visual entertainment so please come along on Sunday if you can, I believe there are still tickets available.

I am off to Spain in Early June, to Galicia, but will review the highlights of the fair in a week or two and hope to see you there.

Ben

Carte Blanche Wines Limited

From: Ben Llewelyn, Managing Director
Date of appointment May 1st 2012
New strategic appointment for Carte Blanche Wines

Carte Blanche Wines Limited has appointed Joel Lauga as On Trade Sales Director.

Carte Blanche Wines Limited (CBW), the independent wine importer and wholesaler specialising in small artisan wine growers has appointed Joel Lauga to the new position of On Trade Sales Director. Joel’s appointment starts the next phase of CBW’s growth in the restaurant trade having focussed primarily on the independent wine merchant sector to date.

Ben Llewelyn, Managing Director said, “We are thrilled that Joel will be joining the team and this is a very exciting development for the future of the business. Joel has an enviable reputation in the trade and has a great understanding of what makes wine great, which is an immense compliment to our current producers.”

“As a company we have had a fascinating two years of development, including the purchasing of retail business Caviste in June 2011. Joel’s arrival means that we can really start to drive the CBW agency business in 2012 and beyond. These are exciting times!”

Joel, who spent his formative years in South West France among the vineyards of Jurançon started his working life at Gravetye Manor in West Sussex. After a few years spent working as a sommelier in many Country House hotels across England, ending up at Lucknam Park Hotel, he joined Bath Merchant Great Western Wine. Joel’s knowledge of wine producing regions helped GWW grow their portfolio as well as their on trade sales before the company merged with Enotria in August 2010.

Joel starts on 1st May 2012 and will be focusing on the HoReCa sector in London and the South of England and will become part of the buying team for the company.

CBW background
Carte Blanche Wines Ltd. is a wholesale wine agency and importer providing wines of quality, integrity and personality that will give our customers a point of difference in today's wine market.

Our aim is to source great value, terroir-focused wines from small to mediumsized
growers across the world and distribute them throughout the UK.

We love discovering new producers crafting distinctive wines and our portfolio is a work in progress. The point of Carte Blanche is not to restrict ourselves to one particular area or category of wine. Our mission is to create a well-honed selection of interesting wines that ultimately provide our customers with an attractive commercial proposition and something delicious to drink.

We love our wines, our producers and our work and we hope you do too.

Key agencies:
Patrick Piuze, Chablis; Domaine Cheveau, Pouilly-Fuissé; Ludovic Chanson,
Montlouis; Domaine de L’R, Chinon; J-F Mérieau, Touraine; Domaine de la
Graveirette, Châteauneuf du Pape; Mas de Restanques, Gigondas; Castell
d’Encus, Costers del Segre; Dominio do Bibei, Ribeira Sacra; Agricola Labastida,
Rioja; Forjas del Salnes, Rias Baixas; Buglioni, Valpolicella; Pietro Beconcini,
Chianti; Spinifex, Barossa; Alluviale; Hawkes Bay

For more information please contact:
Ben Llewelyn
ben@carteblanchewines.com
01256772233

The past few days have been spent not roaming around looking for the next new thing, but in fact amongst many of the world’s finest wine palates searching for the next BEST thing. Yes, this is the time of year we wine 'pros' get together in a light, airy work space in Parsons Green and set about judging over 20,000 wines from across the globe. Without a hint of irony, it is a tough life!

I am fortunate enough to have been invited to join John Livingstone Learmonth and his team of 8, which include, Jamie Hutchinson of The Sampler, Mark Williamson of Willi's Wine Bar in Paris, Stephane Soret, sommelier at Raffles in Singapore, the lovely Kate, sommelier at Chez Bruce, fellow wine trader Jonathan Kimms and finally John Switzer, a Canadian academic who has a passion for the region that is both enlightening and affirming.

There are over 90 judges in total, and I must say that when one casts an eye around, the calibre is impressive. Each region has a chairperson, someone who has an intimate and lifelong affiliation to the region, (Gerard Bassett MW is regional France, Peter Richards MW is Chile, James Lawther MW is Bordeaux and so on) and the team around them are picked for their broader knowledge. I personally have judged regional France, Spain, Italy and Rhône, and it is here I feel most at home.

The day starts with a briefing from Steven Spurrier, one of the trade’s icons and Editor at Large for Decanter magazine. Coffee is consumed, croissants taken and we all assemble at our tables for the day's work. There are four to a table and each taster has 12 glasses, score sheets and a crib sheet telling us what the general categories are; varietal blends, alcohol and price range, going from £5 to £200 plus (and no, we haven't had one of those, but yes, here was one wine that was, a Barolo of all things). We have a team helper who pours the wines, generally helps out and runs off to get another bottle if the sample is corked or otherwise unpalatable. Sadly, and more often than not, the second bottle often proves no better than the first.

We the calibrate our tasting scores, tasting two wine in succession and marking them out of 20: 14.5 is commended, 15.5 bronze, 17 silver and 18.5 gold. We then taste in flights, 12 at a time, and after each flight we aggregate our scores and discuss anomalies, using John LL as the arbitrator. Generally the consensus is in line, but it is always amazing to me that no matter how objective you try to be, how analytical one tries to be, personal tastes and prejudices do occasionally push through. I prefer lighter, fresher wines, mineral, cool characters, others prefer more brooding styles, deeper fruit and body, so occasionally the tastes collide and that is when the interesting banter begins.

The wines we have tasted so far have been in the main of average quality, with only a handful of golds awarded, one being for the first wine of the first flight on Monday (to mighty applause as last year we gave no golds in the first three days), a cheeky Costière de Nimes with a very attractive price point. What has been a disappointment are the wines from the more highly regarded AC's, Châteauneuf 2011 in bottle already? I don't think so. Vacqueyras 2011 and 2010 were tasting flat. 2010 Châteauneuf, which really should be a breeze, was hard work and without charm in the main, and the less said about the Côtes du Rhône Village category the better frankly. One should remember however that those producers who make the very finest wines are unlikely to enter their wines into these competitions for a number of reasons, so one is really only likely to be tasting wines from producers who need this sort of accolade. It is a shame as a great wine would really get the full blown gold treatment!

By the end of the day everyone is exhausted, the concentration required and the demanding nature of tasting 80 or so wines is quite intense, so nothing is more welcome than the pint I had in The White Horse afterward. This is the time for banter and catching up with old friends, many of whom fly in from around the globe and who only meet once a year. It's a great feeling being part of what is probably the very best wine competition held anywhere in the world and the feeling if exhaustion is soon lost. As I sit on the train on my way to day three, I am champing at the bit to get stuck in: Châteauneuf du Pape, price point £50 plus all day long, perfect for this miserable weather!

Bon soif mes amis.

I have just returned from Alimentaria, Barcelona's wine and food fair. Although this is only about as big as the London wine fair, ie a quarter of the size of Vinitaly, it is focused solely on Spain, naturally, and therefore there are a considerable amount of wines to sift through. Normally I avoid fairs like the plague as I prefer to find my quarry in the field, not in the zoo, so to speak, but this was an exception and I needed to find inexpensive house wines and see some of our producers, the backdrop of Barcelona and the fact a few friends were there too, made for a convincing argument to attend.

Day one was spent not at this fair, but at Vini Vinoteca, a tasting of the top wine producers in Spain, well, some of them anyway. This is organised by an on trade company and is based in the centre of town. The place is incredibly busy so tasting anything is a bit if a nightmare. However with a few tips from our friends at Dominio do Bibei, I managed to select the producers worth looking at. Highlights were Erasmus Priorat, Pardas from Penedes, an agency that I hope to ship and Domaine Lupier in Navarra who make the best Garnachas I have tasted in a long time. Others of note, but who are with UK importers already were Emilio Rojo, Rafael Palacios Jimenez Landi and Pingus. Incidentally the new Bibei wines are stellar, 2010 Lapola having a touch of Albariño in it now which has really lifted the fruit. These guys will be at the Real Wine Fair.

So, on to the main event in a massive fiera centre south of the city. I spent an hour or so getting my bearings and working out a plan of attack. You can never expect to taste everything and it is better to focus in on specific targets. Mine were:

• House wines to hit a £7 price point
• Juicy reds and vibrant whites for sub £10
• Great estates from eclectic regions

I avoided Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Cava, as well as the big commercial stands, so this removed 35% of the fair in one swipe. My first targets were Jumilla and Jecar, both south east of Madrid, but with altitude. I struck gold after about 3 hours, with two fabulous reds and a pair of house wines that hit the spot perfectly, and one is organic to boot. Great packaging and a really lovely philosophy. I also tasted some horrendous extracted wines that are already in the UK and frankly shouldn't be. So Xenysel will be joining us soon, as will Bodegas Ego, with one of the weirdest labels I have ever seen (and that is saying something!)

I also met a friend who makes wines at Evohe in Aragona. We would take the Marzuala Garnacha Blanca and maybe the Garnacha too, and the pricing would be comfortably under £10 for us. They are great wines and very good value, and capture the mood of new wave Spain perfectly. These will be in the shops by May.

Next up, Ribeira de Jucar east of Madrid. I tasted some lovely wines here and again cracking value. I need to delve a bit deeper as the wine maker of the wine I really enjoyed was not at the stand but Casa Gauda make pretty juicy wines and well packaged too. The prices have yet to be revealed but they are sure to be good value.

Then on to Terra de Leon and a wonderful estate producing Prieto Picudo, a variety with rich luscious fruit but fresh acidity and strong tannins. Pardevalles makes a great introductory wines from this variety as well as a more serious wine that we would sell for around £12. As well as this they have 4 ha of Albarin, a variety that bears no relation to Albarino, and that only has 30 ha in the world. It is fresh, vital and luscious on the finish, a really great wine that sits in the Loire/alto adige school of freshness. I am keen to work with these guys and the wines will be with us in May.

Castell d’Encus have produced an Albarino for us that we could sell for £14.95. It is sensational and we have up to 2500 bottles. Raul (Bobet) has designed a new label for us and it is great that we have the world exclusivity for this wine. It was great to see his stand was constantly busy and there was a real buzz about his wines and Encus. We have an icon here to be sure!

I also tasted some lovely Galician wines, mostly Monterrei, Valdeorras and Ribeira. I found a beautiful Monterrei from Vina Arxentia, fresh and herbal with real zip, and a fine price too, circa £12. As well as this I need to track down Crego e Monsguillo who apparently make fabulous wines. I also tasted lots of Godello and I must say it’s not my favourite variety, a bit sloppy and ill defined in the main, but the wines from Coroa were excellent so I need to find out more about this lot, they will probably be super expensive but I will go and see them in June!

Mas Bertran Cava is amazing. They have produced a new label for Balma which is very cool and can be seen on the website. I also tasted a producer called Rudeles from Ribera del Duero (I know, this one slipped in somehow), based near Dominio do Atuata in the eastern end of the region. They are good wines, but I am less convinced that the market for these wines is really all it needs to be to justify shipping them. More research then...

Onwards and to Ribeira Sacra to taste around and about. No worries, we have the best producer here, but I was impressed by Algueira who make slightly more chunky wines. This is such a beautiful area and I dare say that the potential for making very fine wines will soon be realised by more and more producers. Even Dirk Nieportt has started making wines out here!

Navarra. Oh dear. I am afraid I blanked here nothing of any interest to speak of, and he region was very badly represented. This is normally rich hunting ground but...

A quick diversion with the ‘Chicos del Terruar’ a group of producers who are all cool and funky and make terroir focussed wines. Interesting wines but all in the premium range and I wonder if this sort of esoteric style has the legs to really gain traction in the UK market. I am keen on one or two of the wines, including a Priorat made by Laurent Combier from Crozes Hermitage.

I tasted a good many other wines and spent time checking out the competition too. It is incredibly tiring, three days being too long and after a while you feel you have kissed enough frogs. Spanish wine is definitely on the up, sort for where Italy was about 20 years ago, and you feel it still has a long way to go which is very exciting. I tasted too many traditional wines that still have to be made for the home markets and South America, and these wines really stick out. Cheap wine is easy to find, but mostly it is turgid and undrinkable, so it was gratifying to kind something we can work with as a house wine proposition.

I would say that wine fairs, are not for me, they are too noisy and blurred, even if this was a lot of fun. I tasted a huge range of wines, but I have to say that I would rather have been tasting them in the vineyard with only the producer and the wine to listen too!

I have a fairly cynical attitude toward the en primeur circus, and although I have attended religiously since the 2006 vintage was being shown in 2007, there are very few times during the week when I get excited. When I do it is generally for a wine that I will probably never taste again, let alone own. I can only liken it to being in the driving seat of a Ferrari 250 GTO knowing I probably will never drive one, let alone own one, in my life. So Lafite, Petrus and Le Pin aside I spend my time tasting, writing, debating and critiquing wines that have give me no satisfaction and bear no resemblance to the finish article anyway. What’s the point?

Well an answer to this lies in the outer rings of the circus, the fringe events and pure fun in observation and participating. This year I decided to completely eschew the main ring and only visit the side shows. My aim was to taste as many of the 14,000 other Château in Bordeaux who do not participate in the EP’s as possible and to spend as much time with growers as I could. This is what is uncommonly known as ‘doing the village hall tastings’ and can lead to some pretty strange encounters. The fact remains, however, that you have (to paraphrase) to kiss frogs to get princesses and that is our job, someone has to do it. Also, it gives you the air of the intrepid explorer when meeting over dinner, and whilst everyone else is regaling each over with the same old stories, your own seem vibrant and daredevil in comparison.

Young Bordeaux is a tough nut to taste. It is tannic, brooding, often reduced and seldom appetising. Only at Lafite and Tetre Rotebeouf do I ever feel like drinking the young sample, whilst at Château like Cos d’Estournel and Mouton one has to almost prize the wine out of the mouth. So young lower orders Bordeaux generally lacks the charm of the big guns but with all the structure. Even these wines are built to last, and some will for many years to be sure. My task was t find some wines for Caviste that didn’t blow the bank, had integrity in the vineyard and were made by people we could work with. No mean feat as I discovered.

I calibrated my palate at Lafite and the St Estephe/Pauillac/St Julien tasting at Union Grand Cru tasting hosted by Château Lagrange and then hopped into my rather cheeky little Fiat 500 convertible (I know, but apparently it was all they had) and set off for the Cru Bourgeois tasting at Château d’Arsac. Here I devised a way of being able to taste all the wines quickly and efficiently whilst ensuring I could judge each wine on merit. I would then go and taste the wines I liked from the 2009 vintage that were being shown in the next door room and then make a call. So head down and off i went. Normally a UGC tastings you taste 2 wines, meet someone you know, chat, say how busy you are, not much time etc, and then chat some more, taste two more wines and bump into someone else and so on. 60 wines takes 3 hours. Not here, I did not see a soul I knew, and not a single English speaker. The room was in fact populated only by people who make the wine. Promising

So, Médoc to Haut Médoc, and 120 wines tasted, 7 potentials. Now I am looking only at tannin, fruit purity and balance, and once you are in a rhythm these things become simple to spot.  Moulis to Listrac, Margaux, now and the wines are really picking up and quality is noticeably improving, into Pauillac, St Estephe and the wines are singing, there is no doubt this vintage is one for Pauillac and St Estephe. So in all 25 wines hit the spot and need retesting. In 2009 the wines are sweeter, better balanced and with more complexity so it should be able to cut out the dross. 15 remain on my hit list, only to be whittled down to 10 when I discover the prices and availability of the five Château.

A quick stop for lunch, much needed after 250 or so wines, and then on to Margaux Village Hall for the Cru Artisan tasting. 25 producers showing 2011 and an one other older vintage. I love this tasting. There is no one here, even the producers seem to have given up and gone home, so I can get my head down again. This time the strike rate is low, only three producers work for me but the wines are exemplary, and balance is amazing, even in the Margaux I tasted. There something very honest about these wines, they are not cheap but they have a layer of something that although intangible, is so prevalent. I could drink these wines all day, but I will re-taste in my office lest my romantic streak is getting the better of me.

Back in the 500, and the roof is down. For the first time I am aware of how many gendarme there are about. I am not drinking and am careful to drink much water but nevertheless, any time spent engaging with this lot is both time sent not tasting and time spent raising the blood pressure to retirement levels. I arrived at a small tasting of Bio wines in Macauillou after a quick dip (read major detour) in Calon Segur (where once again my favourite wine of the year is being made, and it isn’t the Grand Vin). The Bio tasting was populated by beards, dungarees and strange smells, not unusual, and a healthy antidote to the formality of the Grand Château, but makes tasting the wines seriously quite hard. Here I tasted all sorts of things, but was notably impressed by a producer who has very unlikely labels making wines in the Bordeaux region near Cadillac. This is the end of the day so my palate is tiring but there are some gems here and I need to make sure I don’t miss anything, and unlike the last tasting, the winemakers are engaged in their wine so interesting stories and verbal pictures add to the wine’s character. I am charmed, but now need a beer so meet up with my old mate in the Brassiere de Médoc in Blanqefort, a spiritual home with a terrible wine list and modest food, and we share our day.

Lafite is great, Margaux the best ever, Angludet was so good/bad/average (erase depending on which journo you like) and so on. I am aware that this sounds like every year (“Oh the wines are so fresh/structured/mute/lively” depending on which sample was tasted and where). These are the vaguely repetitive expletives of the UGC campaigner, where as my vocabulary has changed completely, I have to use a different lexicon to describe my wine tasting experience and I am grateful for this. Long live the village hall tastings!

I have not listed any of the Château I am keen on here, as I am still in the process of sorting and refining, but suffice to say I am extremely confident that at least a handful of the frogs kissed will turn into Princes/ses.

Ben Llewelyn, March 2011

When I was invited to join an elite group of the great and the good from the UK wine trade to taste the wines of Château Margaux, I naturally cleared the diary. It was only when I arrived at Trinity House in The City that I fully appreciated what we were being asked to taste. I can only liken it to being asked to come and drive some Ferraris and then turning up and then being told that we would be driving their new electric car, a new shooting break version of the Enzo, a city car and then the same car but with various components left off.

Margaux have teamed up with Yvon Mau to host a number of tastings around the world to showcase the experimentation they have been undertaking at the Château. This is commendable work and Paul Pontalier was quick to point out that in Bordeaux a huge amount of work goes into research, it is just that the other issues surrounding the region seem to overshadow the academic and scientific study. This is, on reflection, probably true, so this was an exciting event and one I relished more than just tasting the finished wines of the estate.

The tasting was in four flights, outlined as follows:

Flight one: 3 wines served blind. Each wine was either Biodynamic, Organic or Conventionally produced from one plot of vineyard and the same variety, Cabernet Sauvignon and vintage, 2010. This plot was used for their third wine.

Result: Each wine showed differing characteristics, but most marked were the differences in tannins and top note aromatics. The organic wine seemed a little dumb but well balanced, the conventional wine polished but veneered too and the Biodynamic wine the prettiest and easiest to drink and garnered the greatest praise.

Flight two: 3 wines served blind based on stem influence during fermentation. The wine was a conventionally produced Cabernet Sauvignon from a plot that might make it into the Grand Vin

The results here were also marked. The wine with 1% added whole stem had supple tannins, a nutty character and a soft finish, the wine with no stems was spicy, but had green notes and a slightly bitter finish, the third wine had some crushed stems added and the wine proved to be perfectly balanced and the best ‘formed of the three’. It is interesting to note that in Bordeaux the rule is no stems at all.

Flight Three: 3 wines with different closures, third wine but from the 2003 vintage

The wines were very different here. The consensus was that the wine under cork was the screw cap wine, which came as a complete surprise as it was so youthful and generous. There were two screw cap wines, one with no oxygen and one with a little permeability. The latter was really not good at all, but the former was actually the wines people thought was under cork as it was evolved and very complex, in fact delicious, it fooled me!

Flight Four: 3 white wines under different closures, All 2004 Sauvignon Blanc

There was again a very marked difference, but the wine with cork was beautiful and complex and all a white Bordeaux should be, where the screw capped wines were in fact a little oxidised, albeit still with freshness and the mark of quality.

Flight Four: Cabernet Sauvignon from three different terroirs, all 2011

Firstly, these wines all taste beautifully and pre the oak are wines that could almost be drunk now. I am not trying to build up the 2011 vintage, Caviste will not be running an en primeur campaign this year, but these are pretty wines never the less. What this showed was that wine produced from Gravel and Pebble soil was pure pretty and elegant, whilst this produced onmore chalk and clay soil are structured and provide the base notes of the wine. Blended together they made a delicious glass.

This was a fascinating insight into the mindset of a prestigious estate who are genuinely ready to take some bold steps if they feel the results are worth it. No doubt that the Bio wines were impressive, and screwcap for red a no brainer, but how long will it really take to make these changes? Well as Paul Pontalier said, probably not under his stewardship.

Saturday’s tasting saw one of our most exciting and cutting edge line ups for Caviste in a long while, and by all accounts, listening to customer reviews, was one of the most exciting tastings put on this year. One representative of a very famous national scribe so loved the idea of our new Albarino she drove hours to get to the tasting and proceeded to be blown away by the rest of the range too. Bibei, Labastida, Forjas del Salnes and Encus were all tasting tip top, and never has one man been so proud of his troops as on this day!

It was fantastic to taste through the new Spinifex range with a few people who have been following these guys for some years. The wines are fresh and inviting and retain a complexity that older vintages have, but these seemed to leap into an extra dimension, with more purity and a confidence that comes from knowing the fruit you work with just that little bit longer. The 2010 Lola is so refined as to be comparable to Southern Rhone white of the highest quality and it is great to see the new vintages of old classics such as Papillon and Esprit, as well as some new faces in Bete Noir, La Maline and Taureau, a homage to Rioja.

Best in show for Burgundy had to be the Cheveau wines, with the new 2010 Macon Solutre-Pouilly thrilling all with the racy acidity and beautifully restrained mineral palate. The Trois Terroir 2009 is knock out too and although stocks are running out there is still a little more of this left in the shops. Finally if you get a chance, check out the 2009 Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Graveirette (£30). This is a difficult vintage but proves my rule that great producers can make great wine in any vintage, and Julien Mus has really excelled here to produce a scented, perfectly balanced CdP that in fact has a freshness and immediacy that many 2007’s and 2009’s lack, making it an exceedingly attractive proposition to drink now.

Thank you for all who attended, it was great to see you and for your feedback and comments, it was a cracking day and you made it a fun day for all the Caviste team too!