The Year What Was

2008 was a great year at Roberson despite that fact that we were all getting our credit crunched and the Euro exchange rate migrated south for the winter. Every single one of our tasting events sold out (many of them being extended to accommodate the demand), the new website was been warmly received by wine enthusiasts all over the UK and the shop’s wine selection is stronger, better value and more interesting than ever before. Here are a few of my vinous highlights from the year that was and a couple of predictions for the year that will be. Highlights Of The Year Winning IWC London wine merchant of the year for the first time was a fantastic reward for all the hard work that Cliff and the team have put in over the last few years. On a personal level, tasting 2007 Burgundies from barrel with the winemakers on our buying trip in November was fantastic. Those of you that know me will know how much I love the reds and whites of Burgundy and spending a week tasting and securing allocations from some superb up-and-coming producers was wonderful. Best Wines Under £10 2001 Bourgogne Rouge; Domaine Digioia-Royer – All sold out im afraid, but earlier in the year we got a large parcel of 2001 from this small grower in Chambolle-Musigny and it was absolutely charming. Proof that good, cheap Burgundy is out there if you look hard enough. 2007 Sauvignon Blanc; Main Divide – Im sick to death of Marlborough Sauvignon, but this is the exception to the rule. Fresh and crisp with the classic Kiwi sauvignon flavours there, but not too in your face. Made by Pegasus Bay, one of NZ’s top producers. 2006 Bordeaux Rouge; Grand Bateau – Easy drinking claret from the team at Chateau Beychevelle. It is always hard to find good Bordeaux under a tenner, but this really hits the spot and has been one of our best selling wines on the run up to Christmas. Best Wines Under £20 2006 Macon-Verzé; Domaine Leflaive – Great year for white Burgundies and this Macon is stunning. In my opinion better than their Bougogne Blanc (and cheaper), this is fresh and mineral rather than full and buttery. A slightly better wine than Lafon’s Macon Village, which is also delicious. 2006 Riesling Kabinett; Schloss-Johannisberg – Another entry level wine from a world class producer, and this wonderful dry Riesling from the Rheingau’s top estate is evidence of the value offered by quality German wines. 2005 Rivola; Abadia Retuerta – Juicy, oaky, smooth and very impressive, this is a wine that sells by the truckload whenever it is on tasting. Modern Spanish wine at its best from a boutique producer with a big reputation. For £12.95 this is a wine that overperforms. Best Wines Under £50 1981 Rioja Reserva; Vina Real – Since the first time I tried this I have been blind tasted on it a number of times and always spotted it. Amazingly youthful for a 27 year old wine, it has succulent and vibrant fruit with lip smacking acidity and a beautiful leathery quality. Spectacular. 1974 Chambertin Clos-de-Beze; Drouhin-Laroze – One of our bargains of the year, this (long sold out) beauty was selling for £24.95! From a bad vintage but drinking like a dream, this was proof that a vintage chart mentality will mean missing out on delicious bargains (as was the case with the 1984 Clos du Marquis, also £24.95). Having spent last summer working at Drouhin-Laroze this also had a sentimental value! 1999 Mazis-Chambertin; Frederic Esmonin – Tasted at our Gevrey-Chambertin tasting, this was one of the stand out wines and an absolute bargain at £49.95. One of many wines this year that showed so well at a tasting that we sold out completely on the night. Best Wines from Our Fine Wine Tastings 2000 Romanée-St-Vivant; Sylvain Cathiard – One of the most luxuriously textured wines I have ever tasted. Sublime stuff that left the entire tasting audience (and me) speechless. 1961 Chateau Lynch Bages – Sylvie Cazes said it was the best example of ’61 LB she had ever tasted, and everyone in attendance was massively impressed. 2005 Sine Qua Non Altlantis Syrah – 100 points from Robert Parker and almost impossible to find in the UK. We almost had to break up a fight at the end over who was going to buy the remaining bottles! Worst Wine from Our Fine Wine Tastings 1998 Chateau Bel Air – Parker gave it 74 points, and he was bang on. Shockingly poor for such a renowned estate in a great right-bank vintage. Highlight of the Fine Wine Tastings Michael Broadbent telling me that he came to our Gevrey-Chambertin tasting “to learn more about Burgundy”. I think he forgot more during the tasting than I may ever learn, but an absolute gentleman and it was a pleasure to have him there. Wines We Could Have Sold Out of Ten Times Over 1997 Chateau Figeac at the Parker vs Broadbent tasting. A lovely wine that was hopelessly underrated by Parker and the price reflected that. 2005 Sine Qua Non Atlantis Syrah. We could only get hold of 5 bottles of this – could we have sold 50? Easily. 2007 Monty’s French Red. We sold every bottle we had after the last episode of the series but people are still asking for the stuff. Amazing what a bit of TV coverage can achieve. Best Wine that Nobody Bought 2006 Malbec / Syrah; Vinalba – We sold out completely of the Malbec Reserva by the same producer, but everyone seems to have ignored this wine even though it won best Argentinian red under £10. Surely the stampede is due to start any moment….. Most Interesting Visitors to the Shop Fabio Capello was a very nice bloke and it was great to taste some lovely wines with him in our cellars. Sylvie Cazes was thoroughly charming and it was a pleasure to taste so many wonderful vintages of Lynch Bages in her company. John Duval (former winemaker of Penfold’s Grange) was a lovely bloke who brought in him new range of (excellent) wines and didn’t even mind when I blind tasted him on Grange ’97 (He guessed “new world Shiraz” by the way!). But my favourite of all was Michael Broadbent. A legend and a hero to the whole Roberson team, and possibly the nicest chap on earth. Biggest Disagreements Between the Team on Fine Wine 2005 Nectar Dei; Fattoria Nittardi – Me and Joe have always disagreed about this wine. I love it, he’s not so keen (too much oak for him). When we showed it at our Italian walkabout tasting it got a great reception and we sold plenty of cases of the stuff. 1995 Serpico; San Gregorio – This legendary Aglianico from southern Italy was one of Joe’s wines of the year, but the rest of the team weren’t as convinced as he was. Fascinating wine though. Favourite Food and Wine Match 1990 Clos St Jacques by Armand Rousseau with Duck cooked two ways at Chez Bruce in Wandsworth. The only BYO Michelin starred restaurant in London that im aware of (they have a great wine list too). Most Embarassing Moment Headbutting a fellow taster over the spittoon (causing her to miss it completely) at a vertical tasting of Jim Barry’s Armagh. Never a good way to make friends in the trade. Predictions for 2009 Southern and regional French wines to attract increasing interest due to the great value to be had. Domaine Buisson-Charles Bougogne Aligoté and Domaine Dupont-Tisserandot Bourgogne Passe-Tout-Grains to be two of our best selling wines of the year (both exclusive to Roberson, both under £10 and both brilliant). Lots of wine related businesses to go out of business. Roberson customers to focus on learning more about wine in order to get the best value to money from every bottle. Manchester United to win the Premier league at a canter. Thanks for all your support and custom in 2008. It has been a great year for Roberson and there is lots more to come in ’09 so good luck to you all and we will see you soon.

Fabio Capello Drops In

Last week Mr. Capello dropped in for a tasting in our fantastic new cellars. After we ironed out a few footballing problems for him, the talk turned to wine. The winner was Gaja’s 2003 Barbaresco, which all agreed was drinking quite well, depsite being pretty tannic. What can we say, the man appreciates quality.

The Journeyman

A Journey man could describe an apprentice before reaching craftsman status, a jobbing football player like Dean Windass or in this case, a super-premium wine made by the cult outfit Boekenhootskloof. Interestingly enough, this new, Cabernet Franc dominated wine is not for sale. Marc Kent has decided to give away all 5 barrels, or 100 cases. Here at Roberson we were given a couple of bottles by the UK importers. A quite lush and forward nose, with a juicy, complex, fruit centric palate. Not too full-bodied at 13%  Well balanced and nicely intergrated with the 26 months of French oak ageing nicely done. Impressive, but I think note much of an advance over the Syrah, their strongest wine in my opinion. As they are not making any wine in 2006, Mark dismisses it as ‘pointless’ and a ‘wine for a new-world fan’ but there you are. I liked it well enough.

Drinking Now – 05 Prulier? Madness

A recent evening out with an old colleague now at John Armit and some friends saw us catch up and become less coherent over the following a couple of nights ago. 2005 Wynns Coonawarra Cabernet Another good vintage from Sue Hodder, and fine, but a bit of a case of a wine reaching not surpassing expectations. Light, fruit filled but with not much secondary development. A problem for me, even with aged Wynns wines. 2002 Chateau Teyssier A great value wine from frighteningly intense Englishman Jonathon Malthus. From estates located in good terrois and made in the same winery as Le Dome and the other wine he makes that I can’t remember. Lovely soft fruit, good length and very complete. Not massively complex but there’s a limit to what inexpensive young Bordeaux can aspire to, and this overperforms. 2005 Nuits St George Prulier Gouge When I asked Paul to bring around something, ‘about fifty quid, drinking well’, I wasn’t quite expecting 2005 Gouge 1er cru, and quite frankly, I should have asked him to take it all the way back to the shop and pick up something else. Unbelievable. Anyway, a very nice wine, still needing another five years, perhaps a bet lacking in the size I would like from a Gouge 1er, but there you are. 2002 La Landonne Guigal Picked up for a very favourable price, this showed exceptionally well, even from this lighter vintage the wine complete, deep, with perfectly intergrated tannin and fruit, notes of coffee, cherry cola and minerals, this will keep but was drinking extremely well. For what it’s worth, I think I almost prefer the more classic styles of Northern Rhone wine, but one couldn’t fail to be impressed with how this wine was showing. 2004 Promis Gaja As we were having some Italian food, this was probably the most appropriate wine, however, I must admit, I am not a big fan of Gaja’s ‘extra marital’ wines made away from his native estate. Opulent and polished, sure, but so are most wines at that price. I’m just not sure that he can offer anything different and special from the Tuscan terroir. Anyway, a very nice evening, culminating in a horrible hangover after some coffee and Bourban and apparently, some touching of my bum from Paul Fisher (which I can’t remember). We’ll leave that to be explored another time I think.

A Great Lunch Courtesy of Ridge

Located on the San Andreas fault line, barrels of Zinfandel used to jump around the winery during the 1970’s, or maybe it just seemed that way to the dope smoking, free thinkers of Ridge Vineyards who revolutionised the way this grape was seen through their masterfully complex Geyserville and Lytton Springs bottlings. To celebrate the 40th year anniversary of Geyserville, the importers of Ridge and president, Don Giesson, held a small series of lunches in London, pouring past and present vintages of the wines to an appreciative group of sommeliers, merchants and journalists. Our dinner was held at the Farringdon bistro, Vinoteque, where we escaped from work to enjoy some superb food and wine matches, culminating in a brilliantly slow-cooked lamb paired with the prodigious Montebello 1997, a wonderfully mature specimen of this outstanding terroir, full and elegant with a St-Estephe-like palate of mineral and spice. Don proved a very amiable host, with an almost evangelical zeal for the wines, and why not? The 2005 vintage we tasted from was one of the best for a long time, and we heard how the Santa Cruz was described by winemaker Paul Draper as being ‘as good as the top third of Montebello’s’, high praise indeed but certainly warranted by what we tasted in the glass. After some quality cheese and a top up, it was multiple espressos all-round and a dash back to work for a decidedly woozy-headed afternoon’s work from the participants.

It’s Finally Official – Roberson is the Best in London

It’s amazing what a good suit will do for you. With poise, confidence and good bearing, a well-chosen suit will give you form, tuck you in and show you at your best. None of that happened with the motley clothes worn by myself, Cliff and Mark at the annual IWC awards dinner at the Grovesner Hotel in Early September. Between us we shared a hired Moss Bross dinner jacket, an early 1990’s ill-fitting number and an eye-catching purple designer suit. Getting to Park Lane early for our photos and canapés, we mooched around chatting to some other nominees before being ushered into a room with Derek Smedly, surely one of the more unusual looking members of the wine trade, for a rather awkward photo, as we both searched for some appropriate small-talk. Photographic duties done, and a couple of glasses of champagne to the worse, we talked about our chances for the evening. Nominated for London Merchant of the Year, Independent Merchant of the year and Burgundy Specialist, we felt that we had a great chance for the London Merchant, a slim chance on the Independent Merchant, and the slimmest of slim chances in the Burgundy Specialist category. Cliff was in good form happy with Vinalba winning Best Chilean Wine, a great achievement for his new Chilean agency. Mark and myself were in good spirits, having discovered the oenomatic machine pouring multiple measures of Cepparello. Taking our places we were thrilled to win the London Merchant of the year award, ahead of Handford, Lea and Sandeman, Berry Brothers, Uncorked and others. Unfortunately the speech I had loosely outlined turned out to be unnecessary, which was a bit of a shame as I’m sure some of my ‘bon mots’ would have propelled me to the forefront of the wine-related comedy scene. All that was left was a gradual sliding down our chairs as more award-winning wine was consumed over the next three hours of awards, speeches and assorted back-slapping, sitting up briefly to see Michael Broadbent winning a much deserved lifetime achievement award to a standing ovation, which he furnished with a lovely speech featuring that hoary old anecdote about drinking old wine being like making love to an old woman, an anecdote that I would guess Mr Broadbent has told more then once. With that over, taxis were boarded, the hardcore were left to polish off the remains and I got back at about one to dream about tommorow’s meeting with Cliff on margins and stock-control, to tuck the tuxedo safely away, ready for next year, more awards, and maybe, if I put on a little weight, a better fit.