Drinks Podcast

2016 was a busy year for the Comité Champagne … it saw the launch of some terrific initiatives: the Champagne Campus and the 3D VR app telling us about the region and the wines. But the big news was the designation of the Champagne region as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Each of those would justify a podcast on their own but I like efficiency and there was only one person I could go to to tell us about all those thing: Thibaut Le Mailloux, the Communications Director of the Comité Champagne.

The origins of Craft Beer and Craft Brewers are lost in the mists of time … or rather, the designation “craft” too indistinct to be seen clearly. No-one knows what a Craft Beer really is but we know one when we drink one. It could well be said that Zero Degrees, the brewery and Pizza restaurant in Blackheath, London, was the first in the UK to be able to call itself a Craft Brewery. They saw the rise and rise of Brewdog, Meantime and other big hitters but stayed true to their roots of being small and keeping things within their own control. Perhaps it was fear, perhaps it was small-mindedness, perhaps it was one partner leaving everything to the other, highly risk-averse partner … whatever the reason, they’re still there doing what they do very well. They recently brought in a new head brewer and a new marketing person in the hope of “taking it to the next level” (along with “Craft” an amorphous term at best). But the beer is terrific and the food is excellent so they’re getting the basics right. I went down to meet them to learn more about the oldest Craft Brewery in the UK … and what I learned was fascinating! The beers we tasted included Marzen Oktoberfest 5.7% – a midrange pilsner-style brew. A very easy drinker – satisfying and refreshing Amber Lager 5.2% – an American-style lager. Satisfying and warming – a basic Amber done very well IPL 4.5% – An Indian Pale Lager – grapefruity and very long in flavour. This is a great sipping beer, good to the last drop. Belgian Pale 5.4% – A pale ale that is lighter in alcohol than your standard Belgian fare. A good bitter lager with full-mouth malt. Marietto’s Dunkel 5.6% – A German dark wheat beer. Gratifying malty and caramel tones with a good cut in the flavour that makes it refreshing.  

Britain makes all sorts of beer – amber, dark, stout, blond, golden, etc. one thing we have not yet started to make to any great extent is fruit beers. These are often sneered at as alcopops or girls’ drinks but, trust me, at up to 8.5% and with flavour profiles that truly challenge, they are nothing of the sort. We’ve probably all seen Lindeman’s Kriek and some of us may have tried it; we’ve certainly all seen the flavoured ciders – they can taste easy and too sweet but thing are changing: Now there’s a new kid on the UK fruit beers block … a 300-year-old “new kid”: Liefmanns. They launched their range of fruit beers at M Restaurant in Thredneedle Street in London organised by the lovely people at R and R Teamwork. We went to find out more (I say “we” – WE didn’t go, Joesph Quartson went on our behalf and took the photos below). The beers we were tasting were: Liefmans Fruitesse, 3.8%ABV available in Waitrose, Ocado and independent merchants Liefmans Glühkriek (not mentioned on their website, which is odd …) Liefmans Kriek Brut, 6% ABV available in Waitrose, The Drinks Shop.com and independent merchants Liefmans Goudenband, 8% ABV Duvel Blonde, 8.5% ABV widely available

When you are VERY successful, when you have the highest-selling red wine in the UK and a range of awards in your award cabinet (we all have one, don’t we?), do you rest on your laurels? Do you sit back and admire your success? No, you don’t because the a) there’s someone right behind you, keen to take the top slot and b) Why would you? There are always new things to do so why not do them? Thus it was that I met the team from Cono Sur at Fizz, the Sparkling Wine show last October. Cono Sur Bicicleta is the most successful range of red wines in the country and Cono Sur have gained a reputation of drinkable, good quality wines, both from Bicicleta and from their other ranges, including and perhaps especially Reserva Especial and Silencio. So now, the front-runner in red is launching sparkling wines: a single Brut and a Rosé – no fancy marketing, no grand story, no alternate versions, just those two wines made to be easy and pleasant to drink. This is what sets Cono Sur apart – clarity, simplicity and an adherence to their vision of “No family trees, no dusty bottles, just quality wine” and uncluttered labeling. It’s a formula that works. In fact, their policy of simplicity and clarity run through everything they do so, when I spoke with them at the show, the interview was remarkably short – to the point, comprehensive and, yes, clear:

Brazilian wines. You’ve seen them – they’re the ones that look just like anyone else’s wines. They are in Waitrose, Marks and Spencer and other retailers but don’t go looking for bright Brazilian colours or the yellow, green and blue of the Brazilian flag – they’re nowhere to be seen. Brazil takes its wine pretty seriously and they see no need to appear faddish. Is this a good idea? Well, I spoke with Judy Kendrick of JK marketing about this: JK marketing this year won both the International Wine Challenge 2015 ‘Generic Campaign of the Year’ and The Drinks Business Awards 2015, ‘Best PR Company‘ for the campaign for wines of Brazil so, if anyone should know, she should. I met her at Fizz, the Sparkling Wine show in Church House in London.

There comes a time when you want to gather friends and enjoy an evening with a bit more of a purpose than simply chatting, drinking and singing (maybe the singing is just my circle of friends). There are games nights, Murder Mystery Dinners (I highly recommend the range from Paul Lamond Games), tastings and many other, less conventional entertainments. In this case we’re talking beer tasting. I had too much and I have several friends who enjoy a glass of ale; this was a match made in heaven … probably not, actually, as you will hear: We had beers from Sharpe’s brewery: Atlantic  , Doombar , Wolf Rock , Cornish Pilsner , Number 8 Single Brew Reserve  and Number 9 6-Vintage Blend . From Brains The Reverend James, we had The Original  , the Rye  and Gold . We were hosted to a wonderful evening meeting the Rev James team at the Bull Pub in Highgate. And, from the East London Brewing Company, we had Cowcatcher  We originally came across Cowcatcher at a beer and cheese tasting at Paxton and Whitfield in St James,

Fizz, the Sparkling Wine Show in London every autumn is a terrific opportunity to get your taste buds and nose around some of the best new non-Champagne sparking wines on the UK market. It’s held in Church House in London in their glorious round hall and is organised by the indefatigable Ben Campbell-Johnson. It is also a great place to learn new things. For example, you may have Cava pigeonholed as a low-quality, volume drink to take to parties where you can foist it on other people, while you scoff the Champers but, according to Richard Hemming MW, you’d be, at least partly, wrong! Cava is emerging as one of the top non-Champagne sparklers. Now this came as a surprise to me so I went along to ask him what he means by this:

If you are a French wine-maker, it is likely that you are a fairly small operation and that you could benefit from some sort of collaboration with other makers – be it through a coopérative or a négociant. Some, like the group calling itself Rhône Vignobles, choose a looser connection. They held a tasting, with the able assistance of Peretti Communications, in London and I went along to see what’s what. I met some lovely, happy wine-people, such as Peter Fischer of Château Revelette, Frédéric Coulon of Domaine do Beaurenard, Antoine Graillot of Domaine Graillot and Thomas Blagden of Blagden Wines. The tasting was held at The Westbury hotel in Mayfair.

There is a dance or an on-going negotiation between, on the one hand, bar owners and brands and, on the other, the customers and it’s based on one agreed ambition: both sides want us, the drinkers, to have a good time. We want to do that with the minimum of fuss and the bars and brands want us to be happy to pay for doing that specifically with their own products. How the two ambitions should be brought together is an age-old question that drives the drinks and bars industry. Sam Surl has some ideas on the subject and he’ll happily tell you about them, given half a chance. I gave him that chance at the Boutique Bar Show 2014.

There are shows for everything. Wine shows, beer shows, trade shows, press launches etc. etc. etc. … it’s enough to drive you to drink! And this may seem hard to believe but there’s only so much free booze you can sample before you want to give up a head for bed with a hot chocolate. However, there is one congregation that I’m glad I joined and that is the Boutique Bar Show. The Boutique Bar Show is a sort of travelling circus of top-end, specialist, small producer spirits and mixers aimed at those trendy bars that would probably not let me in if it weren’t for a press card! So off I went to the misnamed Camden Centre. Misnamed because it’s actually rather lovely. There I found lovely people who are all excited about doing all sorts of new things with cocktails. I love young people, they think they’ve invented the whole world all over again. I had the pleasure of speaking with Athene from the Southwestern Distillary, various gorgeous chaps from the East London Liquor Company, Nick from U’Luvka Vodka, Dominic from Wild Geese Wiskey, Tom from Old J Rum, Nick from Nardini, Caroline from Bespoke Barware and Mike from the Bartenders Guild. And generally we all had a great time.

This is the story of a drinks journalist. A man who, through no fault of his own, found himself enjoying and talking about all drinks, other than those nasty sweet “alcopops” and novelty drinks in funny-shaped bottles that you bring back from holiday and sit in your cupboard for years until, one day, you or more likely your partner simply throw them out … or those revolting shameful concoctions that are based on chocolate bars with alcohol and thickeners added, which are a way for the behemoth of the drinks industry to lure those who would be much better off taking the tea-total route … like children and vulnerable adults … then I’m also not keen on the flavoured grain alcohols that masquerade as traditional Southern American whiskeys, when they’re nothing of the sort … breathe … breathe … OK. HOWEVER, there is one subject to which our journalist returns again and again: beer and, in particular, ale. Real, old-fashioned, hand-pulled ale. So how better to celebrate that than to make an appointment with the largest beer festival in the UK and head down to Olympia for the Great British Beer Festival?

Wine people are generally lovely! Winemakers have the long view to life that is needed when working in a job where, from planting to drinking can be 30 years! Wine importers and sellers and keen for us to buy things that make us feel good (if used in moderation) and, generally, wine writers and journalists really, REALLY love their work. Occasionally we even get paid to do this … not often and not many of us, but occasionally. So it was an utter delight to meet Jane Parkinson and hear her expound on the subject of Discover The Origin and Portuguese wines and, the very next day, attend the Wines of Portugal Annual London Tasting. We knew it would be lovely, we didn’t expect it to be so interesting and surprising:

Beer is everywhere and is the oldest known alcoholic drink – beer yeasts were found in the Pharaoh’s tombs. The quality varies place to place and the styles and tastes vary over time but, starting from America out into the English-speaking world, craft beers are taking over. They have now properly reached Honolulu on Oahu in Hawaii, which can only make the place better, in our view (there are craft breweries on the other Hawaiian islands but not on Oahu). This growth in craft beer is partly fueled by home-brewers. Once we realised this … well, we had to go and check it out!We had a wonderful time talking to Geoffrey Seideman, owner the Honolulu Beerworks at 328 Cooke Street, Honolulu; to Cindy Goldstein the Brew Diva from HOPS Homebrew Club who says you can reach her on hops@hawaii.rr.com; Mike Smith, owner of Homebrew in Paradise currently at 2646B Kilihua Street, Honolulu and Anthony Messina, the Beverages Director at REAL Gastropub at 1020 Auahi Street Kaka’ako who allowed me to pester his clients for their views. We’re also grateful to the Kona Beer Company for hosting the HOPS event in Hawaii Kai.