At the very end of January this year we travelled to South Africa to escape the drudgery of another English winter for some much sought for sun!

Get inspired by Mentzendorff’s Fine Wine Sales Manager, Anthony Field-Johnson, with some great Christmas food and wine pairings!

Paxton & Whitfield and Taylor’s Port recently held an event at Paxton’s headquarters to offer some guidance on those all-important Port and cheese purchases for the festive season.

Needing no introduction, Brian Croser AO, is one of the most famous figures in the wine world. Prominent in 1970s as winemaker at Hardy’s Brian left to be a consultant winemaker and start up his own winery – Petaluma in 1976. A visionary, setting up first winery in the Adelaide Hills, recognising the huge potential to make fine wine. He is currently the Deputy Chair of Wine Australia, has won many accolades for his work in and for the Australian wine industry, including Decanter Man of the Year in 2004 and Order of Australia (AO).

On the 24th October a small group joined Charles Braastad of Delamain Cognac and Michelle Brachet, a leading Cognac educator who has just published a fantastic new book, The World of Cognac for a workshop exploring cognac and food pairings from a range of British cheese, charcuterie and chocolates.

In mid-September Justin Liddle, Andrew Hawes, James Dodsworth & James McKenna travelled to Alsace for a meeting with Chapoutier at Schieferkopf where Michel Chapoutier and four friends, all, like him, passionate about great grape varieties and great terroirs, decided to turn their dream of “making a fine Riesling in Alsace together” into reality.

Following its tradition of declaring on St. George’s Day, The Fladgate Partnership announced that it would bottle 2015 Vintage Ports from Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas and Croft’s Quinta da Roêda as well as a commemorative Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage marking the bicentenary of the company’s foundation in 1815.

Earlier this year, the Sales & Marketing Teams plus the Management Team gathered at Heathrow airport for their early evening flight to Marseille for their annual Sales & Marketing conference at Chateau des Ferrages, newly acquired by M Chapoutier in January 2016.

Iain and I attended the Mamba Riedel Awards last night at the Harrow at Little Bedwyn, the 10th anniversary year for Roger and Sue’s fabulous event. This year the categories were Aussie Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. We entered two wines into the awards and received 3 awards!