Cold Monday morning. Tube strike. Traffic Hell.

Crawling to The Arch to be interviewed by journalists... all day long! But cheered by sunny email pic from our Tom at The Gabba doing his bit to promote our wines; specifically his brother's 'Verniotte'. (The 2008 went down v well last week at the Locksbottom (Orpington) tasting. I was mentioning 'roundness' yesterday wasn't I?

I want to give The Arch a more distinctive name. As it is attached to the 'Vinopolis' Wine Attraction I was thinking "Stay with the mock-Latin and try "The Vinalogue". I mean, every week we put more wines; there's soon going to be a massive collection there now.

Suggested it to Simon. Silence. Mmm. Anyone got a better idea then?

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Can now reveal all last week was on strict diet.

Called the GM (General Motors) diet. (Baffles me too. Works though; lost 7lbs). Anyway... no booze. Not a drop. Today's roast chicken never tasted so good. And with it? Wasn't going to drink just anything was I? Palate all rested and probably at peak performance.

Picked an old bottle of André Roux's Côtes du Rhone 'Les Abeilles'. Nectar! Nectar of the Gods!

Must get to Paris soon; see how old André is enjoying retirement. He was our biggest star for ten years. Gentle, modest André. "Wines are like the people who make them. I am soft and round; my wines are soft and round."

He was the first winemaker I sent Henry - at 16 - to work with. Maybe he learnt something. His Verniotte is quite a round wine.. But not that soft. Can't be as long as H still playing for the Henley 3rds.

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Gloucester Cellars. Or Distribution Cellar as it is officially known.

Spent the day having a Board Meeting in the midst of the most active office and warehouse I've ever seen.

Today was the busiest day since last Christmas and they look set to do 120,000 cases this week which will be an all-time record. For all that there is no flap. At least to my eyes. There may be lots of frantic paddling going on underneath, but the cellars today seem to glide.

Hasn't always been like this as some may remember. The team have improved and improved and improved. They will never stop, I guess. Today I saw containers from Australia being unpacked. They no longer use pallets, but put the cases on these mats which can be grabbed by a modified fork-lift, and the cases slid out. As a result there isn't an inch of spare, wasted space in a container. Savings. The mats - indeed 93% of all waste - is recycled.

Watch out for the new cartons with drawings on. This was my idea; after twenty years of boring blank, brown cartons, I submitted some of my drawings on a box. Sir implemented the idea ... but chose another artist! I am sulking.

Upstairs the phones were getting quite warm but while I was watching the 'calls waiting' indicator did not go over 2.

Monday a niece of mine brought a party from the Institute of Directors to see the place. They loved it, apparently. If any reader fancies bringing friends and seeing round our vast cellars and trying a few wines, etc. just drop me a line; I'll get someone to organise it. Best leave it till after Christmas though.

The way Christmases get later every year I think next week will be even busier and maybe the one after that, busier still.

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The Show

Survived! Survived well. I was really delighted the way our London show at Vinopolis went. Smaller than the Show we put on last year at the Horticultural Hall (which was based on experience doing the Sunday Times Wine Club Vintage Festival there for thirty years) but better for that. It was easy to get round every stand and chat.

And having our permanent shop on the site simplified things a lot. We only had to open up the communicating door and wheel all the wine, tables etc in. So I'm going to ask John to look into doing more than one show a year here.

Customers clearly loved not just the show but having the amazing Borough Market just outside and such an array of reasonable places to eat afterwards. The Growers enjoyed the arches and the London Bridge area too.

Bill Calabria triumphed in the voting as he has so many times before but for me the big news was that not one but two German Rieslings got into the top 3. I think the long campaign to get people to forget Liebfraumilch and try the top-of-the-range Rieslings is finally, finally paying off.

Thanks to all for coming to the party and see you at the next one.

Voting Results for all three sessions:

Friday Evening

1st place: Westend Estate Pinot Grigio 2010
2nd place: McPhersons Full Fifteen 2010
3rd place: Font del Bosc 2005 Maury


Saturday Afternoon

1st place: Spier Signature Pinotage 2008
2nd place: Domaine Servin Cru Vallons 2009 Chablis Premier Cru
3rd place: Maxferd Richter Mulheimer Soonnenlay Riesling 2009


Saturday Evening

1st place: Westend Estate Amire Durif 2009
2nd place: McPhersons Full Fifteen 2010
3rd place: Von Buhl Jesuitengarten Riesling Grand Cru 2009


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Vinopolis, London.

Laithwaites first ever Wine Show at Vinopolis was a great success. Great glittering, noisy halls - four, maybe more, of pleasure, in the warren of arches under London Bridge viaduct. Sitting in the bar, after, I am feeling as I often do these days; bemused.

Its all too much. Not just that we can put on a good show. We've been doing that every year since 1980.

It isn't even all the lovely wines; hundreds of them. Am used to that.
Its the overwhelming tide of lovely people, the customers and my lot both, all in the same room or rooms, too much affection, too many memories. You end up overwhelmed and nodding away to yourself, just ...bemused.

Possibly it is also a little too much wine. People keep filling my glass when I'm chatting.
Must try be more coherent tomorrow.

TWO sessions tomorrow! Will I survive? Watch this space.

'Delfina' near Tower Bridge.

Attending the first ever Laithwaites Suppliers Conference.
Why did we never do this before? Probably my fault. (Again). Because I have been buying wine long enough to remember many doors being closed to me. So I would never have believed all these important wine people would travel from all around the world - Australia, Chile! - to London just to hear me burble on. Gobsmacked. Really.
Mind you its far from being just me, and they are not just listening. They are speaking plenty. We are all learning here. There is the sense of a team forming. All to do with 'long term'.
Some producers here have dealt with us since the Seventies. That's encouraging the newer ones. Being a family firm also means we take the long view. Wine is not an 'instant' sale thing. It takes years to build up understandings and trust and affection between Producer and Consumer....with Laithwaites in the middle, trying not to get in the way.
I think, I hope, we are getting better at communicating.
The customers and now, the wine producers will let us know if we are.
The producers like our new List format a lot.

London

There are weeks when I don't really do much wine stuff. And this is one of them... am struggling a bit doing a daily wine diary/blog.

Please be patient.

Yesterday I just knocked around London; the Arch and my Club!!!

The RAC. Not the breakdown service but the huge building with swimming pool in Pall Mall.

My dear father found this place after the war, just near where he worked. It had, then, about four Members and he could go for the perfect lunch; scotch and soda, rare beef sandwich, big armchair, and no-one at all to bother him.

If he had to take his boy he just dumped him in the swimming pool. The boy still loves the place even if it is now far too full of people.

Not been for years though, but will again soon, because the Pacherenc and Gevrey Chambertin Simon and I had showed that someone really good is now doing the wines there.

Writing day today. Boring! But tomorrow; all action. We've seventy five of our best wine producers coming to a conference in London and I am to address them on 'How to Sell Wine' or something. Should be a laugh.

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New Aquitaine House

Lunch with the 'Non-Execs'. Liz and Angus are just so wise, clever, sensible and experienced. For Barbara and I, who have had hardly any experience outside our own Company, real professionalism is so calming.

Then, with everyone, we sat through a 'State of the Company' presentation in the Chiller (canteen) from Andrew and Simon.

As a Company we are a bit on the ambitious side. There is stuff going on all round the world... literally. So from time to time we all need updating. Simon, as always, managed to get the balance right. Plenty of rousing success stuff plus a few sharp stabs of anxiety to make sure no-one (me, especially, I suspect) gets to think we can sit back and relax a bit. Not a flaming chance!

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Conversation today about Laithwaites maybe going back to its roots.

I started the company by going to people's homes and giving them and their friends a little tasting party and telling them all about my wine producer friends. I remember very well the first in 1969; Mr and Mrs Davico, Walton on Thames.

Henry has more recently done the same with his wines, as have several Laithwaites people from time to time.

We are thinking that going back to this might be a good move. And may result in some memorable evenings. Well, memorable as long as we taste moderately ... as we should!

I am to attend a test evening in Malmsbury next month.

Anyone out there interested in hosting the next one?

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Tutti Frutti.

There is a new wine country the only came online just over a decade ago. Big production; larger than Chile, about the same as Australia. Only a couple of hours from Gatwick. Grapes you never heard of and grapes everyone has heard of. Cheap...when you know the right people. Wonderful stuff...when you know the right people.

OK it's not a country exactly. Though it acts like it is. It's Sicily.

Came out of the dark ages, wine wise, only very recently. Mostly (60%+) white wines. And mostly they are the best to buy right now. There is still some work to be done bringing the reds up to world standard....generally speaking. Though there are some stars already.

Sicily is now where our much loved Scipione (Papavero) spends most of his time and I certainly now see why. Every vintage it just gets better. The potential is colossal.

And the adorable wandering wine maker Giorgio Flessati who we first bought from in his northern vineyards near Trento eighteen years ago, has now relocated himself here. So much more exciting, he says. He's a real wine frontiersman is Giorgio; he also works in the Atacama desert, Chile, and Moldova. But revolutionizing what comes out of the ancient vineyards in the hills around Selemi, above Marsala, is now his passion. Grapes like Grillo which was what they made Marsala from, but now cold-fermented by Giorgio, is now crisp and crunchy dry white like you've never tried before. Give Sauvignon Blancs a fright. Catarratto likewise will worry many Chardonnays. And there's so much more to come.

The 'Tutti Frutti' vineyards of Sicily, say Anne our buyer, whisking us round at high speed rather dangerously. But she is excited. So was I by the end.

This was just a quick visit tacked on the end of a few days rest in Taormina...which Barbara and I last visited in '75 I think, with about 500 Sunday Times Wine Clubbers off a boat. I remembered the views from back then... but not the wine.

Now that’s all changed, I'll be back much sooner ...and all should come with me. Sicily is now making wines we cannot refuse.

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2500 miles tasting wines across Australia

Well actually at our flagship shop near London's Borough Market. A select group of customers and I took a tasting tour from the Hunter Valley in the East across to Margaret River in the West via Victoria and South Australia.

My point was to show how Australia still offers some of the most exciting, diverse and simply fine wine around. Certainly when you take price into account you can taste the best of Australia between £10 and £30, whereas the best of Bordeaux will set you back several £100s. When you look beyond the big brands to family wineries and specific regions the quality and value are outstanding. End of sermon.

All the wines sold tonight and highlights of our tasting tour included Neil Pike’s delicious crisp, dry Clare Hills Riesling, followed by Andrew Margan's bargain Hunter Semillon (where else can you buy a dry white for £10 that will evolve for 15 years or more ?). An undervalued classic.

Bill Calabria's big, porty Amore Durif was much appreciated as was our own Red Heads Barrel Monkeys Shiraz from McLaren Vale. Steve's prized black berkshire pigs (housed just up from Red Heads winery) were shown on screen as I told everyone just what a magic place we have in Red Heads.

Finale was Vasse Felix in Margaret River's top Cabernet - Heytesbury. A very smart wine indeed which can be compared with a top Cru Classe - structured, elegant, balanced and capable of long ageing.

No disappointments tonight and plenty of discoveries.

Thomas Woolrych, Buying Manager

Tony is on holiday

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Fine Wine Tasting with Hugh Johnson at The Arch

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not every day that us buyers get to taste through a line-up consisting of nothing but fine wines. So when we decided to check over a portion of our 400 strong fine wine range (which has been selling very well of late) to see where the gaps are and work out what our next shopping lists might look like, we knew we were in for a treat.

And there they were, 30 or so of the world’s finest wines standing side by side, in a very appealing row, ready and waiting for us to taste.

Hugh Johnson (and his wealth of expertise) joined us for the afternoon and, after a brief debate about what a ‘fine wine’ actually is (according to Hugh, it’s any wine that’s worth talking about, irrespective of provenance or price) we were swirling, sipping and slurping our way along The Arch’s impressive tasting table.

As is ever the case with wine-tasting, a few of the wines provoked a marmite response – with some of us loving them, and others not quite so keen (‘just not my cup of tea’).

But there were a couple of stand-out wines that everyone really enjoyed:


Château de Puligny Clos du Château, Bourgogne Blanc 2008, £16.99

A rich, deeply satisfying white Burgundy that punches well above its weight at under £17. Elegant, toasty oak is woven together with ripe citrus and melon fruit. Vibrant, yet weighty, this really is classy stuff.


Pikes Merle Riesling, Clare Valley Australia 2008, £18.99

Light, slightly floral and full of zippy lime fruit. Lovely and crisp, dry but not piercingly dry. We all agreed this would be great with sushi. Hugh’s description was by far the most poetic: ‘a rich golden stoniness followed by a lemony finish.’


La Grace de Cote Rotie 2007, £27.00

Cote Rotie finished in our very own Chai that’s showing its colours after a bit of time in bottle. Full of rich, brooding bramble fruits and spicy black pepper. Definitely one to enjoy curled up in front of a fire on a winter’s evening.


Te Mata Coleraine Cabernet Merlot, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand 2007, £31.00

The wine that took us all by surprise. A Bordeaux blend from New Zealand that gave the Pomerols and St Juliens more than a run for their money. Poised and elegant, this could easily pass for a Bordeaux Cru Classé in a blind tasting. Hugh’s favourite wine of the day, and the bottle that got snaffled by a certain quick-off-the-mark Italian buyer!


Cat Lomax, Buyer

Tony is on holiday.

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On hols so no diary..

..but can't resist printing last night’s menu:

Saling Hall
5 November
Guests of Hugh and Judy Johnson

The indoor fireworks were;

Wyfold Brut 2006
Nyetimber Rosé 2007

Crab Mousse
Scharzhofberger Spätlese 1996

Roast Partridge with celeriac mash, French beans
Musigny 1988 Fred. Mugnier Richebourg 1988 DRC

Winter fruit salad
Château Yquem 2001
Mézes Mály 6 putts 1999


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Am taking a week off.

We are off to have the break we missed in spring due to that volcanic ash cloud. So we are with impeccable logic going to Mount Etna.

My Blackberry will be confiscated so am afraid I will be out of touch. Sorry. But someone will probably get volunteered to keep you entertained meanwhile.

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New Aquitaine House

There is another change - well, improvement - in the tasting room; the central space in our HQ, the beating heart, the kernel, hub, crucible etc etc.. Where we just have to get it right or perish.

We taste round the clock. People score wines all the time. But now the wines have started to score the people!

Because... we all respond to different flavours and sensations in differing degrees of sensitivity and enthusiasm. Which is why we never give identical scores.

But even-out these inequalities and we have greater consensus, are better able to understand one another and... we become much better at picking wines with wide appeal.

A computer programme now assesses our wine scores and gives each of us a score - something like a golf handicap ... but for each element of taste!

We don't notice. We just carry on but all the time that box is watching and thinking, "mmm Laithwaite - a bit partial to sweetness ... or oak, or something.

A bit 'Big Brother'? But then our medal count and sales are clearly going up.

So it’s probably working; we are learning how each of our palates is a little different, and we are beginning to understand quite how different all of our customers’ palates are too.

One day we might understand that some customers have Thomas's taste in wine, and others find Becca's favourites right up their street.... or even mine.

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Enjoyed a bottle of Hunters Riesling last night.

Am trying to get Barbara back on to Riesling. Its slow progress. Like millions she was turned off by all the sugarwater that called itself Riesling in the 60's and 70's.

And lo.... this morning there's an email from our Tom in Sydney;

"A new wine bar has opened up near the office. 'Love, Tilly Devine'. (who she? Interesting lady. Worth a google) Tiny little place. Plays soul music, lots of wood furnishings, blackboards, small menu of nibbly type dishes, you know the kind of place. It's down an alleyway so unless someone told you, you'd never know it was there.

They have a quite extensive wine list, old world and new world. Interestingly though in the wine list there is a page devoted to Riesling. Not a list of Riesling; that covered much more than a page, but a page about how Riesling is the greatest grape in the world. It had 10 points about Riesling listed down the page, most of which I can't remember but the first 2 read ...

1. Riesling is the best drink in this bar.
2. Riesling is the best drink in any bar.

I thought it was nice to see someone championing Riesling. I know Hugh Johnson has been for a long time but it was nice to see it being brought to the masses. I think it shows that the world is opening up more to Riesling nowadays, which is great because I certainly enjoy it."

If you are a brave soul and you trust me splash out on a bottle of any one of our Rieslings. Ignore all the nonsense about drinking it with prawns. You need nothing at all with a really great Riesling. On the other hand there is absolutely nothing it doesn't go with.

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You get confused.

When doctors tell people to drink less, I always wonder how come that for as long as I've been trading the keenest of all categories of wine customer is... doctors.

Except in Poland where it's priests.

Funny old world. You need a drink to help make sense of it.

Cheers.

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The Wine Gang have written about us.

Quite a ground-breaking event really. Here's what they wrote:

"Laithwaites has been through a renaissance in the past couple of years, with a new buying team now headed up by the highly regarded former Waitrose man, Justin Howard-Sneyd. This extensive tasting, held amid the panoramic views at the top of Millbank Tower, provided ample evidence of how far they have travelled. Highlights included a trio of well-chosen Portuguese, some excellent southern French and a smattering of brave, quirky selections from the likes of Russia and Greece. Standard delivery is £6.99 for as many cases as you want to order."


And here are the wines they especially liked.

Maison Roche de Bellene Premier Cru Les Referts 2008, Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru AOC £38.00

Domaine Gerovassiliou Malagousia 2009, Regional Wine of Epanomi £12.49

Dolines de l’Hortus 2008, Coteaux du Languedoc AOC £9.49

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A day off.

Spent going round every single frock shop in Henley and Marlow for Madam's outfit for next month's wedding; fifth and final wedding of this nuptial-mad vintage.

Bring back elopement I say. Is there any activity known to man more exhausting, more draining, than doing frock shops?

Hempleman-Adams himself would baulk.

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