Around London: 8th and 9th January 2013

Justerini & Brooks@61 St James's

Tuesday 8th January 2013: heading towards the Institute of Directors for the Chablis Grand Cru and Charles Hawkins' tastings from the Green Park tube takes you down St James's and a chance to take a few pics of Justerini & Brooks and Berry Bros & Rudd. J & B being part of drinks giant Diageo and Berrys, which is still family owned but which has expanded greatly over the last 20 years or so with a considerable trail of acquisitions including Fields, Morris & Verdin and Richards Walford.    

Berry Bros & Rudd: flag above the shop@No3 St James's

BBR: shop window 

 BBR – shop detail

 Suspended gilded emblem@BBR

Wednesday 9th January 2013: a quartet of photos taken during and after the Corney & Barrow Burgundy tasting in the Tower of London.  

 Late afternoon sunlight hitting a building by London Bridge 

Light on Cannon Street and beyond

A tree bound Shard 

 The Shard from the north bank of the Thames by the Tower

2011 Burgundy tastings – some photos from the marathon

 Ghislaine Barthod pouring her Chambolle-Musigny

A few photos from the stream of 2011 Burgundy tasting underway in London over the next few days. Pics of a few of the producers plus some of the press. 

At the five Burgundy tastings I attended I concentrated mainly on the 2011 reds finding a number of charming, attractive wines. Whether they have the complexity and depth to justify some of the prices is another matter. The 2011 Grand Crus Chablis, with the exception of Le Clos which tended to be closed up, were often already very approachable, flattering and open with considerable concentration without the great austerity of 2010.    

Pierre Vincent and Sylvie Poillot, Domaine de la Vougeraie

Bruno Pepin, commercial director for Louis Latour

Lorraine Carrigan: PR for L'Union des Grands Crus de Chablis 

Mark Bingley MW, md of Maisons Marques & Domaines 

 Michael Schuster@Berry Bros – an almost monastic existence as he tastes, contemplates and writes up another three wines – how many of the 27 tasting events to go?

 

 The loneliness of the long distance Burgundian taster: 

Michael Schuster@Corney & Barrow – another day, more wines 

 The Wall Street Journal's distinguished columnist Will Lyons, comfortably seated, 

takes a different more sybaritic approach

 The lesser spotted Bettane: Michel Bettane – one of France's most eminent wine critics and journalists over in London for a couple of days to assess the 2011 Burgundies (above and below)

Taster silhouetted: 

Greg Love

Neal Martin's Pomerol and the electronic Jasper Morris MW

Berry Bros & Rudd in St James's, London

The UK wine trade and press are now in full swing tasting the 2011 Burgundies en primeur. Apparently there are 27 different Burgundy tastings going on over the next ten days or so. One the tastings yesterday was held by Berry Bros & Rudd.

Neal Martin and his Pomerol book – a serious boy with a serious book 

Here I caught up with Neal Martin and his recently published book on Pomerol. Neal has published this himself and it has taken three years of hard work. It has 592 pages and is priced at £50 plus p&p. It can be ordered through his pomerolbook website. The fine black and white photos are by Swedish photographer Johan Berglund. Although I only caught a quick glimpse of the book, I'm sure knowing Neal that it will be very detailed, thorough and informative.  

Photo by Johan Berglund from the sample chapter available on pomerolbook  

***

 A quizzical Jasper Morris MW – man about town 

rather different from his Burgundian persona

 

The electronic Jasper Morris MW 

Prominent at the tasting was the electronic Côte de Beaune by Jasper Morris MW being shown on the latest version of Apple's iPad – thought to be iPad 5, though it might have been version 4, which came out in November. The Côte de Beaune is the first part of Jasper's award winning Inside Burgundy published by Berry Bros & Rudd in 2010. It has been revised and made interactive by Seagrave Foulkes (Carrie Segrave, Chris Foulkes and Lizzie Ballantyne).  

The app now has hundreds of colour photos, zoomable maps, videos of Jasper in the vineyards plus the ability to make and share your own notes, etc. It also includes Jasper's 2012/13 annual report.  

Chris explained that the program they used was originally designed for producing text books and that they had adapted it. So successfully that Apple apparently say that this is the best book adaptation for the iPad and will be showing it to a group of techie journalists today. The Côte de Beaune app is available through the iBookstore. 

 

Chris Foulkes showing off the electronic Jasper

The Foulkes-Segrave family with their iPads featuring the electronic Jasper

            

Fraudsters gear up for Christmas (part 2): false BBR emails

From Berry Bros & Rudd website 

Well known wine merchants Berry Bros & Rudd has also been used by fraudsters recently with emails being sent to producers purporting quite falsely to come from Max Lalondrelle.

Message to Jason Yapp, Yapp Brothers (see previous post), from Alun Griffiths MW of Berry Bros & Rudd:     

Jason,

We have had hundreds of similar cases where people have sought to claim to be BBR, usually quoting an e-mail address, which is plausible but fraudulent, and often using the correct name of one of our employees.  Only one or two growers have actually been duped. The UK police are totally uninterested in pursuing this, claiming that they don’t have the resources and that it is a matter for the relevant foreign police force. What we have done is to alert the Syndicat in the region of origin of the duped grower, asking them to send a round robin notification to all their members asking them to be on the alert for any unsolicited orders purporting to come from BBR.

Best regards

Alun

Example of false email sent in the name of Berry Bros to an Touraine producer recently:

Sujet:	COMMERCIAL REQUEST / DEMANDE COMMERCIALE
Date :	Wed, 5 Dec 2012 16:08:17 +0100
De :	BB&R LTD
Répondre à :	BB&R LTD
Pour :

Dear Sir/ Madam,

We, the Company Berry Brothers & Rudd Limited (number two of wines sellers in United Kingdom), are searching urgently for our wholesalers and our VIP customers, rares wines in original wood boxes or in cardboard of 6 or 12, see below:

Château Petrus: 1982 or 1989 - 1990 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007
Château Lafite Rothschild: 1982 or 1983 - 1986 - 1990 -  1994 – 1995 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2004 - 2006 - 2008 – 2009 - 2011
Château Latour: 1998 or 2001 - 2003 - 2006 - 2008
Romanée Conti DRC: 2004 or 2005
Romanée Conti écheveaux: 1986 or 1989 - 1990 -1996 -1997 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006
Château Ausone: 2001 or 2004 - 2005 – 2006
Château Cheval Blanc  1985
Château Yquem 1989
Château Haut Brion red 1986 or 1985
Château Haut Brion white 2004
Château Mouton Rothschild 1982 or 1985 – 1992 - 2003 - 2004 - 2008
Champagne Dom Pérignon
Crystal Roederer
Henri Jayer 1985 Richbourg
Remy Martin Louis XIII

Please, we would appreciate if you could send us your availabilities by mail or fax (raw, inventories & prices).

In case you run out of the vintages we requested from you your proposal for others vintages will be more than welcome (vintages, inventories and prices).

NB:

Payment: We would like to make a payment by Bank transfer within 30 days end of month (APPROVED BY COFACE), as with all our suppliers.

Shipment: Removal by our carriers (DHL, UPS, FEDEX or PRIVATE) to one of our warehouse and distribution center in England.

Best regards,

Max Lalondrelle
Sales and Marketing Advisor

3 St. James   Street,
Westminster, London
SW1A 1EG
United Kingdom

Office Direct Line: +44 (0) 207 0606 765
Cell Line Tel: +44 (0) 793 1000 805
Fax: +44 (0) 203 3188 337
Mail : sales@berry-brothers.co.uk

Company Excise Number: GBWK872576585
Warehouse Excise Number: GB00002733072
VAT Number: 872 5765 85
Company Registered In England Number. 05490962

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Bonjour Monsieur ou Madame,

Nous, Berry Bros. & Rudd Limited, numéro deux de la vente et la distribution de vins et champagnes au Royaume Uni (Angleterre, Écosse et Irlande), recherchons urgemment pour faire face aux importantes demande de nos grossistes et de nos clients importants, les crus ci-dessous en Caisse de Bois d'Origine ou en Carton de 6 ou 12. Ce sont:

Château Petrus: 1982 or 1989 - 1990 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007
Château Lafite Rothschild: 1982 or 1983 - 1986 - 1990 -  1994 – 1995 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2006 - 2008 – 2009 - 2011
Château Latour: 2006 or 2008
Romanée Conti DRC: 2004 or 2005
Romanée Conti écheveaux: 1986 or 1989 - 1990 -1996 -1997 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006
Château Ausone: 2001 or 2005 – 2006
Château Cheval Blanc  1985
Château Yquem 1989
Château Haut Brion red 1986 or 1985
Château Haut Brion white 2004
Château Mouton Rothschild 1982 or 1985 – 1992 - 2003
Champagne Dom Pérignon
Crystal Roederer
Henri Jayer 1985 Richbourg
Remy Martin Louis XIII

Veuillez bien nous faire parvenir par mail ou par fax vos disponibilités (Variétés, Stocks et tarifs).

Vous pouvez également nous faire les propositions d'autres produits (Crus, Stocks et tarifs) si vous n'avez pas ce que nous recherchons.

NB: Paiement: Nous aimerions bénéficier d'un paiement par virement bancaire à 30 jours fin de mois (COUVERT PAR LA COFACE), comme avec l'ensemble de nos fournisseurs. Ci-dessous notre Numéro de TVA, et d’Accise en cas de besoin.

Transport : Enlèvement et Expédition par notre transporteur (DHL, UPS, FEDEX ou PRIVE) vers un de nos entrepôts de stockage et de distribution à Londres.

N’hésitez pas à nous contacter pour toutes informations complémentaires.

Recevez nos respectueuses et sincères salutations.

Cordialement,

Max Lalondrelle
Sales and Marketing Advisor

3 St. James   Street,
Westminster, London
SW1A 1EG
United Kingdom

Office Direct Line: +44 (0) 207 0606 765
Cell Line Tel: +44 (0) 793 1000 805
Fax: +44 (0) 203 3188 337
Mail : sales@berry-brothers.co.uk

Company Excise Number: GBWK872576585
Warehouse Excise Number: GB00002733072
VAT Number: 872 5765 85
Company Registered In England Number. 05490962

-- Message original --------

Sujet:	RE: COMMERCIAL REQUEST / DEMANDE COMMERCIALE
Date :	Wed, 5 Dec 2012 17:50:48 +0000
De :	customerservice
Pour :