Light is well known to promote chemical changes in foodstuffs. Brewers have known about light's flavour impact on beer for years. It's widely reported that the product goes skunky' when it's exposed to light - even just in the time it takes you to nurse your beer on a lazy summer afternoon.
Beer developing off flavours in the presence of light was noted as long ago as 1875, which is why, until the marketeers got involved, almost all beer was bottled in dark glass, amber having been found to be the best at filtering most of the harmful wavelengths.
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The system of units of alcohol is confusing and misleading, and young people should drink fewer units of alcohol than older people, according to leading experts in the field of nutrition, preventative medicine and hepatology (liver disease).
The seminar was organised by AIM (Alcohol In Moderation), the independent organisation for communicating the responsible drinking message' and encouraging informed debate on alcohol issues. Hosted by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and sponsored by Waitrose, it was held on 8 March at the International Wine and Spirit Centre in London.
Keynote speaker Curtis Ellison, chief of the Evans Section of Preventative Medicine and Epidemiology and Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, told the seminar that any alcohol in moderation was beneficial when it came to chronic heart disease. Research also showed that there could be a 40% reduction in heart attacks and strokes and a 30% reduction in diabetes.
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Was it a bit of a shock swapping life as an accountant in Edinburgh for that of an hotelier in Aberdeenshire?
Oddly enough it was, which surprised me because I had watched my parents doing it for 27 years and arrogantly thought that it wouldn't be that difficult. It's surprising how difficult, and how tiring, it is.
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Was it a bit of a shock swapping life as an accountant in Edinburgh for that of an hotelier in Aberdeenshire?
Oddly enough it was, which surprised me because I had watched my parents doing it for 27 years and arrogantly thought that it wouldn't be that difficult. It's surprising how difficult, and how tiring, it is.
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A total of 2,400 bins is a huge number for any wine list. How do you get to grips with such a large selection?
Well, it takes about two years to become familiar with a collection this size. I was at Morton's previously, which helped me, because a few wines are the same for both lists. But the good thing about The Greenhouse is that it has wines from the New World. I had to move from Morton's to remind myself of the differences between Central Otago and Nelson.
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The Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) sounds like a scary place. The sort of place that might be surrounded by barbed wire and big, black gates; a darkened building that you can't set foot in without a password and a secret handshake. Not everyone is frightened, however, and plenty of people have tried to climb the walls - more than 2,000 since the first members were admitted in 1953. But there are currently only 250 worldwide who have successfully struggled through the marathon examination, including a four-part theory paper, three-part practical paper and final dissertation, to make it to the other side.
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Gallo. Torres. Symington. Rothschild. It's no secret that the wine world is dominated by family businesses. With family ownership comes the advantage of the long-term view: you are looking after your brand for your children and grandchildren, so - in theory at least - you are less likely to throw away brand equity in pursuit of short-run gain. But it can also bring disadvantages, most notably intra-family disagreements and rivalries, in some cases lasting generations (and getting worse as the family tree spreads wider).
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Once again, the California annual tasting will take place at the Royal Horticultural Halls (London SW1), although for 2006 it has moved to the slightly smaller Lindley Hall. Doors are open from 10.30am to 5.30pm on Thursday 23 March.
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What? Annual Tasting of Portuguese Wines
Where? Vinopolis, London SE1 9BU
When? 10.30am to 5.30pm,
Tuesday 14 March
Contact: filipe.neves@icep.pt; tel: 020 7201 6666
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Where did your interest in wine come from? Does it run in the family?
Wine was present at many of our meals when we were growing up - Chteau Musar was one I remember. Mostly, though, I think my passion for wine has come through my love of food and from a friend of my father's who is wine nuts, too.
You're a Scotsman. How did you find yourself in Eastbourne?
It was a natural progression - from Oddbins in Glasgow through to specialist merchants in London, then completing my WSET Diploma. After 15 years of selling wines for other merchants, my wife Georgie and I wanted to make the jump for ourselves.
So we started looking for somewhere with potential, a growing marketplace not saturated with high-street wine names.
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Chris Mason has been a man of the drinks world for more than 30 years. When he eventually decides to quit the booze-selling game, he will be drawing pensions from Pernod Ricard, Allied Domecq and Bacardi. Had it been the type of company that thought about pensions', he could have added Seagram to the list. As he says, It's only Diageo that's missing for a full set.'
As so often in the drinks trade, it very nearly didn't work out that way. Had it not been for the antisocial hours, Mason could well be appearing in the pages of Property Week or The Builder, rather than Harpers. It was rugby that saved him from the social-pariah status of his first proper job as an estate agent. I played a lot in those days,' Mason says, and, though I wasn't afraid of working long hours, I didn't want to work on Saturday afternoons. But you can't be an estate agent without working on Saturday afternoons.'
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For a wine produced by a co-op in a region little known in the UK outside of the trade and wine enthusiasts, it is quite a result: Via Bajoz's Cao brand, from the DO of Toro in Castilla y Len, sold 13,000 six-bottle cases in Tesco during a single week last month.
The main reason for this sales spike was, as always, a hard-and-fast discount that saw the retail price fall from 4.49 to 2.99 for the blend of Garnacha and Tinta de Toro (the local version of Tempranillo). A general Tesco promotion that gave a further 20% discount on any six-bottle cases coincided with the Cao promotion, meaning bulk buyers could have a bottle for as little as 2.38.
Price, however, doesn't tell the whole story. Cao's success is also about PR. As Ben Smith, who runs Bibendum's PR department, explains: I sent out a couple of bottles to
the major newspaper journalists, and the response was fantastic.
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When it comes to making cocktails, vodka is a damp squib. Gin is much cooler,' insists Jamie Walker, global ambassador for Bombay Sapphire. Vodka is like alcoholic tofu,' he continues. It doesn't have any character of its own - it just takes on the flavour of the mixers.' Walker, of course, has a vested interest in slamming the UK's biggest-selling spirit, but before he teamed up with Bombay Sapphire, he consulted
on the cocktail lists for some of London's leading bars, and his frank boredom with vodka and enthusiasm for gin is a feeling that is creeping up on bartenders across the capital.
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A few weeks ago, Sophie Waggett of Wines of South Africa (WOSA) was more than a little worried. She was in Cape
Town and awaiting the arrival of a group of 20 on-trade buyers from the UK, most of whom she'd never met. The origins of this scenario began last year, when WOSA was forced to recognise that South African wines, while generally in growth, were seriously underperforming in the UK on-trade: only 5% market share, compared to 10% in the off-trade.
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When and how did you come up with the idea for Wine+?
Andrew Evans: Back in 2001, I was researching visitor motives for going to the London International Wine & Spirit Fair [Evans was formerly commercial director of Brintex, LIWSF organisers; see below]. Each channel has different reasons, but what was clear with the on-trade was that the reason for going had to be compelling and relevant, because if something happened in their establishment, they would not attend. It was also clear that they had to get to and from the event quickly. It soon became obvious that there was an opportunity for a stand-alone on-trade event to satisfy this unique audience.
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How did a poor boy from Turkey manage to put his stamp on the London restaurant scene?
It wasn't really planned. I came to the UK to learn English, and then I stayed because I love it here. I love the culture, the people and I love London. London is Miss World to me. As for the restaurant, I bought it for my girlfriend at the time. I didn't have any money, but the bank liked my idea and gave me a loan. One minute I was cooking my favourite foods for just myself and Linda, and the next minute we had a queue outside the door.
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Arthur Rackham Emporia (table 40)
Arthur Rackham Emporia is a second-generation wine merchant based in Guildford, with a wine-and-spirit-agency business complementing the traditional wine merchant. Over the past 10 years, it has been awarded The International Wine & Spirit Competition Trophy twice: first for the outstanding quality' of its wine and spirit list, the only time this trophy has been awarded, and in 2004 as European Spirit Buyer of the Year.
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How did you get into the wine business?
I trained as a croupier and travelled the world doing that for six years. When I came back, Glasgow was European City of Culture, and it was such a fabulously buzzy place to be. I asked my friend Gordon Yuill [former matre d' at Rogano] if he had any work for me, and he gave me a job working in the caf.
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Generally speaking, you should be wary of anyone who begins a sentence with In the old days'. Usually, they'll be talking about bygone eras when the bobby on the beat would give unruly youngsters a swift clip around the ear, or when footballers were real men, kicking a laced leather ball around a mudbath, cheered on by flat-cap-wearing hordes of working-class folk.
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Many wine writers and people in the trade will remember Decanter magazine's successful 2003 tribunal appeal against Customs duties levied on bona fide samples for tasting analysis. These same observers may have assumed that the case - which made a splash in The Times - had rectified a previously confusing situation regarding the right to free receipt of tasting samples.
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