Travel

more travel – this time paid

By billn on March 20, 2008 #asides#travel

easter buddies bunniesDays of meetings and customer visits whilst avoiding tidal waves of reorganisations back at home – all will come to roost eventually. I spent yesterday evening with a glass (or 2) of chardonnay in a pub while watching football – I don’t drink beer, but white wine by the glass in a pub is usually fit for purpose, red not so often!

I’ll take a few interesting bottles to our friend’s place for the Easter weekend and maybe even write a note about them sometime early next week – I might even ski…

Have a nice Easter…

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wine ‘tourism’ and independence

By billn on March 19, 2008 #travel

I use the quotation marks because I’m not really talking about ‘real’ tourists, rather the ever-increasing global band of ‘writers’ who travel the world at the expense of regional marketing groups – worldwide – it seems a nice life! In itself there is nothing wrong with this symbiotic relationship as the journalist arrives, learns, tastes and (hopefully) objectively provides opinion and some exposure for the region – this is the professional version. What raised my eyebrows during the Grands Jours de Bourgogne (a visit which was paid for with my own cash – but did get me invitations to some nice meals!) was the number of ‘professionals’ that I met who had had their air tickets and hotels paid for by the burgundy marketing groups – the number of people was not the issue, rather the apparent lack of knowledge of the region that a few exhibited. Personally speaking I see the Grands Jours as the ideal opportunity (for example) to taste a number of Volnays in one room with their producers and then Pommards in another room with their producers, to learn about and contrast and eventually deepen your knowledge of styles, terroir etc.. Some I spoke to needed help with grape varieties, hierarchy of crus etc., etc.. I hope I’m not being elitist about this, but I expect that if someone was paying my fare, I would have (at least) made some basic research! In this latter case, I wonder what value will eventually accrue to BIVB/AVCO etc…

That leads me to the term ‘independent’. One of the ‘professionals’ I met described themselves as a completely independent critic – that got me thinking – can a critic ever be independent? I suppose it depends on the context of the word independent; a writer who occasionally writes a wine-related critique can largely be said to be independent because their living is not directly linked to the vine. Anyone whose income stream is dependent on their critique of wines is by definition, not independent of the industry – whatever they say, even if not paid directly by that industry – but that doesn’t mean that they are not independent of thought. 😉

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grands jours jet-lag

By billn on March 15, 2008 #site updates#travel

grands jours de bourgogneBack from Beaune and ready to sleep. Three full days in a visitor-packed Burgundy. I went during the Grands Jours de Bourgogne which lasts seven days for the 2,000 or so registered attendees, 3 days / 2 nights was all I could spare. While there I managed to pack in 3 lunches, 2 dinners, well over 100 wines and (trumpet fanfare in the background) the best wine I ever had with a dinner – and from an merely average vintage too – 1948! Oh and did I mention it was a white? I must try to avoid any similarity to reporters who make you sick by eulogising over their most recent 48’s and 28’s etc. Oops, bugger, I had quite a special 28 too!

It was great to catch up with everyone and to see the efforts they put in to all the organised events – more on those later. Most of my notes will get written up over the next couple of weeks and end up in the ‘spring report’ as I’m short of material 😉

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hallo wien

By billn on February 26, 2008 #degustation#travel

No, not a reference to Freddy Kruger! Our weekend was spent in splendid spring sunshine (in February!) in Vienna.

chambertin 05’s

Friday evening was kicked off in style; 1996 Dom Ruinart followed by 3 2005 Puligny ‘Folatières’ before the main event of 20 2005 grand crus from Gevrey-Chambertin – a mouth-watering selection of Chambertin, Bèze and other grand crus. Actually 25 bottles were consumed by the modest group, together with accomplished cooking and excellent service – I must admit one down-side; I felt rather ‘slow’ on Saturday morning…

spanish riding schoolI’ll make a full report in the Spring burgundy report, but opened at 4pm then decanted just before serving (they were all blind) between 8pm and 12pm – all were open, and all but one showed well. Second-guessing the producer caused more than a few surprises!

Saturday was filled to bursting with the Spanish Riding School, lunch in the giant glasshouses of the Burggarten, a tour of the opera house, Viennese coffee and cakes in the ‘Café Mozart’ and then the Karlskirche. I needed a short sleep (no surprise) before Wiener-Schnitzel in a back-street restaurant followed by a glass of wine in the deep cellars of a Weinkeller.

Sunday took in the Riesenrad (ferris wheel), a walk through the gardens and lunch at Palace Schönbrunn and then finally St.Stephen’s church before a fast train to the airport. Vienna has a lot to offer for about a 3-4 day break, and is very competitively priced versus other European capitols – unless all you want is a Jimmy Choo bag…

cafe mozart

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that’s going to take some sorting in the cellar!

By billn on February 01, 2008 #asides#the market#travel

new cartons

I visited the Côte d’Or today – it was cold, windy and grey. I took my camera, but only took one picture of an interesting doorway in a vineyard wall – okay, two pictures, the first was blurred! I know, therapy beckons…

Of more importance was my yearly bottle round-up: the major issue with a string wonderful tastings with growers throughout the year, is that there’s often something you want to buy. Today was collection day – a few bottles here and a few bottles there soon add up. Today it added up to 54 bottles and seven magnums of 2005’s. I don’t regret a single bottle (or magnum!), but it was painful from a fiscal perspective…

PS – I already drank two of my wines of the year for 2008 chez Nicolas Potel today – one of each colour – will add the box in the sidebar this weekend…

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travelling, winespectator and finally tasting

By billn on January 24, 2008 #other sites#the market#travel

I’m on the road for a few days, returning late on Friday – two nights sleep without needing recourse to pharmaceutical products to breathe through my nose mean that the end is in sight for my cold, and hence, my wine drinking moratorium – perhaps the first corks will be popped over this weekend – good timing considering I’m planning to be in the Côtes for two days next week!

I mentioned winespectator, and there are some interesting words here from Bruce Sanderson about his recent tasting chez Jadot…

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on fire – not!

By billn on January 21, 2008 #asides#travel

Back! and in rude health – well I’m still saying some rude words over my continued cold (now 8 weeks) but I have some visits planned in the Côtes for the end of the month so will surely be able to taste something by then(?)

train berne alps

  Photo: The view from the train leaving Berne – Berner Alps in the background…

muerrenBack from the Inferno and frankly I’m humbled. The top runners set off in the poor visibility afforded by low cloud and blitzed the course, averaging 75kph (46.5mph) for 9.5km (6 miles) including the uphill parts. For me it was a case of too much sicherheit not enough geschwindigkeit – safe rather than fast – my average speed was less than half theirs, and in sunshine too. I felt to be going fast; maybe next year the racing suit and those 2.2 metre skis – but then of-course I’d have to work out how to turn those giant planks of composite materials – a colleague makes the simple suggestion of preparation with alcohol. The weekend is, however, a great social event, attested to by all those who were dancing on the tables and bemoaning the closure of clubs at 5am following the race – some holzkopfs still wearing their skiboots…

About 1,800 people take part in the downhill race, yet the village never seems busy – maybe it’s because they are only in the clubs or measuring the temperature of the snow for the right wax treatment.

I recommend anyone who goes to the region gets the train to their resort – the views (top) from the train on leaving Berne to your destination are fabulous.

inferno rennen parade

  Photo: The Friday evening parade through the streets of Mürren…

the inferno finish line 2008

 Photo: 10am at the Inferno Rennen finish-line (packed with sausages and beer by mid afternoon…)
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training in the cold

By billn on January 15, 2008 #asides#travel

klosters madrisa end of the run

I got back yesterday from Klosters where I was putting in a bit of ‘training’ (rather too-grand a word) for next weekend’s Inferno Rennen in Mürren. Starting just below the revolving restaurant on the Schilthorn – made famous by George Lazenby as 007 – it’s a 15km downhill ski race if enough snow permits. I did the race in 2006 and it took me 28 minutes – without a stop. The winner required only 15 minutes – but while they were all wearing spandex racing suits, my only decision was to race either with, or without my rucksack…! Actually I’m full of cold so training didn’t go all that well but I’m still confident for Saturday 😉

Talking of colds, I’m now into an unbelievable 7th week without any taste sensation due to a blocked nose, hence, the lack of notes on wines around here – I’m saving money though I suppose! Lucky it’s not my job then!!!

Anyway back to skiing; it snowed like hell last Saturday, so Sunday was picture perfect with blue sky and sunshine. Monday was unbelievable – I was almost alone on the slopes of Madrisa – the snow had that perfect creaking crunch until about 11:00am when the light became rather flat – but great piste conditions!

Anyway, if there are no more diary posts after Saturday, maybe I didn’t complete the course…

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