St John's Hill Festival - What a Day!

What a cracking day we had last Sunday on St John’s Hill! The weather could not have been better and the neighbourhood spirit in full force reminded me a thousand times over how lucky we are to be a part of the St John’s Hill community.

The Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Piers McCausland (pictured above) said: “It is heartening to have this newborn event, pulsing with ‘can do’ and fun at such a strategic location within the local community.” Of course, Piers came by Artisan & Vine to say hello and congratulate us on Artisan & Vine’s recent International Wine Challenge (IWC) award.

Jane Ellison, MP for Battersea also came by Artisan & Vine with some friends to enjoy a bottle of Camel Valley Sparkling Brut, which of course was a massive hit! English sparkling wine continues to be the drink of choice on a sunny day on St John’s Hill!

Images: Top: artisan & vine on festival day, almost all of our seats and tables were outside! Middle: Wandsworth Mayor Piers McCausland (right) and I with the IWC Trophy.

We won the International Wine Challenge Small Independent Merchant of the Year Award!

Last Tuesday Artisan & Vine won the International Wine Challenge (IWC) Award for Small Independent Merchant of the Year. The IWC is the world’s most prestigious and influential wine awards and winemakers and retailers celebrated alike as they received the industry’s highest accolades at the ceremony which took place at the Hilton, Park Lane in London.

Other award winners included Marks & Spencer for Supermarket of the Year, Sainbury's for Environmental Initiative of the Year, and Majestic Wine Warehouses for High Street Chain of the Year.

Artisan & Vine were also shortlisted for English Wine Specialist of the Year, which was won by Waitrose, and Innovator of the Year.

Click here to see the full list of Merchant Award Winners at the International Wine Challenge.

Image: me receiving the incredible trophy from Tim Atkin MW.

International Wine Challenge Merchant Awards

This is really exciting. artisan & vine has been shortlisted for three incredible awards in the 2010 International Wine Challenge Merchant Awards. artisan & vine has been nominated for:

· Small Independent Merchant of the Year;
· Innovator of the Year; and,

· Specialist Merchant of the Year - English Wine,

I’m so stoked for us simply to be shortlisted for the awards. We find out winners in September. Thanks to all of you for your support and enthusiasm over the past 2 years that has made us the sort of place so many people enjoy great wine at.

Click here for more on the International Wine Challenge Merchant Awards.

News and reviews of artisan & vine

It's probably true that we're a little easily excited at artisan & vine. Can you think of a better way to live life?

One thing that excites us most is seeing reviews or news about us. We're always delighted when others get involved in the dream we're trying to make a reality.

Click here to see some of our favourite press articles and reviews on artisan & vine.

Image: we made The Times in London just this month and are still on a high! Yes... re-remark it if we must... we are rather often excited.

Tim Atkin MW in The Times on Natural Wine

Today was a good day for natural wine. Natural wine has a lot of good days, but I reckon today was particularly good.

Tim Atkin MW, renowned wine writer and TV presenter, put together his thoughts on Natural Wine, published in today's issue of The Times. The article, entitled "Let the grapes express themselves naturally" summarises some of the commercial issues facing natural wines, commenting that "Natural wines are the opposite of mass-produced wines, of “spoofulated”, personality-free beverages that could come from almost anywhere".

At artisan & vine, we couldn't agree with Tim more!

The article also included a selection of Tim's six top Natural Wines. Among these were two that are available from artisan & vine. Here are Tim's picks, as well as his insightful tasting notes:

2009 Verd Albera, Emporda (£9.90, 13 per cent, http://www.artisanandvine.com/) From the area of Emporda in northern Catalonia, this is a very Mediterranean blend of garnacha blanca, garnacha gris and muscat. It’s perfumed and unoaked with citrus and orange peel flavours and crisp acidity.

2008 Clos Ouvert Huasa, Maule (£23, 14 per cent, http://www.artisanandvine.com/) It doesn’t happen very often, but once or twice a year, I taste a wine that blows my mind. This old vine, unirrigated Chilean red, made from the local país grape by a Burgundian ex-pat is silky and fine with incredible complexity.

It doesn't get much better than that!

Come by to taste Tim's picks. I've put together a special mixed case based on some of the other wines he particularly enjoyed while at artisan & vine here.

Image: the good old fashioned Times newspaper article; click the image to see the online version

Time Out London Best Wine Bars

LONDON’S BEST WINE BARS FOR WINE TASTING, TAKE HOME WINE AND NATURAL WINE – ARTISAN&VINE IS THERE!
· Time Out have recently published their iconic Eating & Drinking Guide for 2010.
· We were stoked to be included in their “Best Wine Bars List” for Best Wine Bars for: Wine Tasting, Take Home Wine and Natural Wine.
· We were also delighted that Time Out’s review of 2009 stated that "the biggest new story this year has been the growth of the 'natural' wine bar" and that in 2008, "the capital sees the opening of its first wine bar to specialise in organic and biodynamically produced wines, Artisan & Vine"
· Excerpts from the classic annual here.

London's Best Wine Bar, Burgundy & 1 Year B'day Bash

In this update – amazing reviews, a one year birthday party, a new wine list and my latest love… Burgundy Burgundy

LONDON’S BEST WINE BAR
Regulars and enthusiasts have thought it for some time… we’re stoked someone other than my Mum put it into writing. This last week wine writer Andrew Barrow of Spittoon.biz and Guardian Word of Mouth wrote a&v up as ‘London’s Best Wine Bar’, full review here -> http://artisanandvine.com/index.php?page=Reviews#Spittoon
We were delighted to receive a flattering write up from wine blogger Robert McIntosh of Wine Conversation also. Robert concludes that passion and commitment, more than the nuances of “natural” are key in making a great wine experience -> http://artisanandvine.com/index.php?page=Reviews#Conversation

BURGUNDY BURGUNDY… CAN I LOVE THEE MORE?
Burgundy... I cannot love thee more. It’s as true as everyone says: this is the place where terroir becomes a fact. Acres upon acres of (almost) only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with nothing to distinguish what pours from a bottle except the terroir and winemaker themselves... which turn out to be everything!
As a result of the trip, I have quite a few new finds in the bar, new favourites from Domaine D’Arlot, Bret Brothers and Les Héritiers du Comte Lafon.
Photo diary of the trip is here -> http://artisanandvine.com/index.php?mact=Album,m3,default,1&m3albumid=12&m3returnid=56&page=56

OUR NEW WINE LIST – which includes exciting new finds from Chile, Austria, Burgundy & rest of France is here -> http://artisanandvine.com/uploads/pdfs/Full%20wine%20list%20090622%20bar.pdf

ARTISAN&VINE’S ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY BASH!
Somehow a year has passed and as a dedicated member of the a&v mailing list... we’d like to invite you to our 1 year birthday party on Friday, 24 July. The party will start at 6pm and go through to close at 2am. The party is for regulars and enthusiasts – to thank you for your support over the last year. Look forward to seeing you then!

Image: Olivier of Domaine D'Arlot, Burgundy, walks me through the beautiful estate gardens

Plumpton College visit and the week that was

I chose to begin December with a treat and so on Monday just gone I packed up my mini little car and drove down to Plumpton College Vineyard & Winery, near Brighton. I really underestimated just how much of a treat this would be! Matthew and Peter did a wonderful job showing me around their scenic vineyard and state of the art winery. (unfortunately I forgot my camera and Plumpton's website is tragically low on photos so the little snippet below is as best I can do for now).

The real pleasure of a College winery, I came to discover, is the opportunity for experimentation, thought and analysis. Peter Morgan, the winemaker at Plumpton, has a pedigree from France and Nyetimber (UK), and his passion for exploring elements of wine making is obvious. Plumpton has a variety of vats, temperature controlled rooms and laboratories within which students can investigate different cause and effecting wine making. If artisan&vine ever feels like giving me a full day off, I’ll be down at Plumpton signed up for study immediately!

Plumpton College runs a variety of long and short term courses – including one day classes – and is definitely worth checking out. Artisan&vine will be running a day trip down there when the sun comes out again next year.

Plumpton’s wines? If you’ve been to artisan&vine, there’s a very strong chance you’ve heard me rave about The Dean NV sparkling wines. We stock The Dean white and Blush. Fantastic complexity, good brioche flavours, always a hit with customers.

In artisan&vine recently: we usually have a number of party bookings on a Saturday night at artisan&vine. This Saturday gone we hosted Christa and Andrew’s engagement party, which we kicked off with a custom wine tasting; the guest’s loved Dominio del Bendito’s 2006 Silver, (£12.50/btl take home) I do too, it’s an extraordinarily velvety red wine, an alcoholic drinking chocolate; it needs to be tasted to be believed. We also hosted Crodelia’s birthday party. Cordelia and her friends converted the entire back of the bar to a dancefloor and before long pretty much the entire bar was back there dancing. Sometimes our 2am licence still just doesn’t seem late enough.

Press and reviews: we were stoked to learn that we had received View London’s highest rating – 5 stars – for our food, wine, ambience and service. Kelly and her editorial team really do a very thorough job in their reviews and as an occasional customer at other bars and restaurants, I was impressed to see the integrity and attention that View London invest for every review and recommendation list they put together. I’m really over the moon that we now feature on a few of their recommended lists, including best places for a first date!

Pictures: I heart Plumpton College and rue forgetting my camera!

New things and newsy things

I sometimes wonder if I spend too much of my life trying new things. I’m absolutely obsessive about it. Long ago I used to do something of a “self check” that I’d done at least one new thing a day… I reckon I’m clocking one new thing an hour these days, without even trying.
The addictive thing about trying new things is that 9 out of 10 times the result is positive. When it’s not entirely positive, it’s a learning experience.
Last week I started blogging & I tried updating the blog every day. This is a bad bad bad idea. A terrible idea. Working 16hours a day, on a quiet day, is already enough… Henceforth my blog shall be something like a weekly update during one of our quieter shifts (such as this Saturday afternoon). We’ll try this something new anyways.

So much happened this week I’m not sure where to begin!

We launched our new food menu; this is something we plan to keep fresh by evolving every couple of weeks

We also got some more positive press; this time in the online industry newsletter by Wine+. This latest article is the opposite of an anonymous review: I was asked by the good people of Wine+ to write this one myself! After hearing about some of the interesting things we were doing at artisan&vine, the Wine+ team asked me to write up our experiences. Our online scrapbook includes a snapshot (along with shots of some other nice articles about artisan&vine), click

here for the full article, including fantastic commentary from someone I have massive respect for, Peter McCombie, MW.

Our boiler broke… which is obviously very bad news… though our little fan heaters buzz away in the meantime.

In artisan&vine last night: Melanie, wine buyer for Whole Foods Market came by with a group of friends to enjoy some of our wines. Melanie has outstanding taste & has done a great job at introducing some interesting natural wines at Whole Foods, I was stoked by how much she liked our list – particularly the Grand Cru Rose Champagne (£22.40/bottle take home price) from Marguet. The flavour and complexity of this creamy biodynamic rose blows away that of mass produced commercial champagnes; trying it will change your view on champagne. Self-proclaimed devoted regular Tom, his brother Joe & their friends kept us all entertained, particularly when they inspired the entire late night bar crowd to sing happy birthday to David, another of our favourite regulars. Happy 30th David!

Popular buys last night: the 2005 Peyrouzelles (£10.40/bottle take home price) from Domaine Causse Marines in Gaillac, South-west France, is ever popular and last night was no different. In addition to familiar Syrah, is an interesting blend of indigenous grape varieties - Duras, Braucol and Prunelard. Peyrouzelles displays lovely red berries aromas with peppery & spice character. Beautiful fruit flavours are able to shine without being overpowered by tannins.

Picture: our Wine+ On-Trade Insider article, issued 21 Nov 2008