Millbank

Big all-day Tasting for The Press in Altitude 360 at the top of the Millbank Tower.

What a view! Very clear, sunny day. You can see across to the Downs and down the busy river past the O2 Dome. A fantastic 3D map; I'd never do any work if I worked here.

My very old mate Tony Parkin has worked here for 20 years. Says he never noticed the view. Today's his last day. 65; retiring. So I get him in to have a final drink or two. Remember not to mention his party on Saturday that he knows nowt about. The journalists concentrate hard and work round the room; a lot of wines!

Do they like them? Very tight-lipped. We will have to wait and see. I won't name drop, but I think they were all there.

I diligently used the spitoons but was pretty wiped out by evening. It's my medication as does that.

Justin wrote a very nice Introduction to the event which I include below:

We thought that this autumn we would elevate you above the ordinary...

We have found a venue new to the wine tasting circuit, where the horizons are broader, and the views expanded – Altitude 360. From here I can see that we have come a long way – we have a long way to go, but we are clear about our direction.

We champion the diverse, the small-scale and go to extra lengths to find producers who produce great wine without frills. We deal direct with vineyards and wineries, many of them owned by families, some of them famous, and some of them discovered by us. We don’t stock boring mega-brands.

So what have we got to show you today?

In honour of our venue, our first theme for this tasting is Altitude. From the high valleys of the Andes to the hills above Rioja, from Lenswood in the Adelaide Hills to Somontano, we have a dozen wines on show that all derive some of their character from the fact that the grapes are grown at unusually high altitude. I love the freshness of the acidity in these wines ... when it comes to wine, it’s time to get high!

We are one of the few merchants left in England who take France seriously, and to champion not only the famous regions, but also the lesser-known appellations, and Vins de Pays found further from the beaten track. Today, we have a preview of the miraculous 2009 vintage right across France – not just from Bordeaux, but the Loire, the Rhone, The South, and Beaujolais! Because of the relationship we have with our customers we are uniquely place to tell the story of this great vintage to them; we hope they – and you – will be as excited as we are about the wines.

We predict that the up and coming red grape of the future is….. Grenache!

Our tasting falls just two days before International Grenache Day on 24th September, and we have realised quite how many of our most popular wines are made from or are based on Grenache (aka Garnacha). From Northern Spain to the Rhône, via the Roussillon, this great red grape dominates the blended wines of the Mediterranean coast, and deserves to be better celebrated. We know our customers already love the full body, generous fruit and soft yet lush tannins typical of the variety, yet few of them have ever heard of Grenache. We aim to change that, and we’d like to enlist your help.

Oh, and then there is Christmas…

... For the first time, we have decided to show you exactly what is in our most popular Christmas cases. We’d like you to be free to scrutinise exactly what so many of our customers will be drinking. We have also thrown in a good selection of Fizz and Fortified, as well as showing off our incredible range of cask malt whiskies matured by us and bottled when at their peak. There’s plenty here to help your readers and our customers to make merry this Christmas.

Happy tasting!

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