English Wine Country

Fantastic week end weather is exactly the thing for a day trip into what I’m beginning to think of as “English Wine Country”. This time of year, “Wine Country” - Sussex and Kent - we should still expect the vines to be as stark as Grapey (the incredibly creative name I’ve given to the single grapevine I have growing on the balcony of my London apartment), but I it's worth the trip all the same. Grapey is currently more Twiggy than Grapey.
A lot of you have been asking me about English vineyards worth visiting for the week end. The absolutely definitive place for finding English vineyards is the English Wine Producers website, which includes a fantastic map and regional vineyard listing. You’ll be surprised just how many vineyards there are all over England.
My recommendation for a short weekend or day trip from London is “Wine Country” – north Sussex and Southwest Kent – for the heaviest concentration of quality wine producing vineyards in England. Some of these vineyards are not open to the general public without prior arrangement.

My favourites of the ones that you can drop into without a booking are:
· Biddenden Vineyards, Kent (also for lovely cider)
· Ridgeview Wine Estate, East Sussex (incredible sparklies)
· Bolney Wine Estate, West Sussex (you need to book in advance for tour)

Brilliant vineyards that don’t have a visitor facility but are worth peeking at:
· Davenport Vineyards, East Sussex / Kent (excellent organic wines)
· Plumpton College, East Sussex (a school + working vineyard & winery)
· Nyetimber Vineyard, West Sussex (tragically closed doors!)

Further afield, my picks outside of “Wine Country” are:
· Camel Valley Vineyard, Cornwall (the multi award winners)
· Brightwell Vineyards, Oxfordshire (can be done in a London day trip)
· Three Choirs Vineyard, Gloucestershire (impossibly pretty setting)
· A’Becketts Vinetard, Wiltshire (a nice tie in with touristy Stonehenge visit)

Image: Sam Lindo, the Head Wine Maker at Camel Valley, & I brave the winds at his stunning vineyards in Cornwall. This was in Oct 2009 – can you believe it’s been that long since I was last at one of our English vineyards?!

Chilean Earthquake: Special Charity Tasting

On 27 February, 2010, Chile experienced an 8.5 magnitude earthquake. The epicenter of the earthquake was offshore from the Maule Region, where Clos Ouvert, my favourite Chilean wine maker, is based.

As you can see from this image, the winery was severely damaged by the quake. While there were fortunately no fatalities at Clos Ouvert, there was a lot of damage to the winery and wines. Head wine maker, Louis-Antoine lost around 40% of each of his 2007 and 2008 vintages, which, for a young winery in only it's third vintage is quite a lot.

On Wednesday 21 April, we will be running an insightful wine tasting on the wines of Clos Ouvert to raise money to help Louis-Antoine re-build his winery.

Tickets are £20/person. £2 from every wine tasting ticket and £1 of every bottle of Clos Ouvert wine sold will be donated to earthquake relief efforts. (The £1 is donated whether you buy off licence or drink in).

We normally have 2 Clos Ouvert wines in stock, for this special occasion, we'll be tasting and selling 4 fabulous wines. All 4 red wines show incredible uniqueness & finesse – there’s a reason these guys are my favourite in Chile & the wines are delicious treat, all sense of charity aside.
Click here for more information and to book your place on this special Chilean Earthquake relief wine tasting

St John's Hill Christmas Evening

Christmas is only 4 weeks away!
I’m not sure how that happened either. But artisan & vine has a few solutions to help make your Holiday Season a success. artisan & vine stocks a range of elegant wine gift sets, packaging and gift certificates for wine tasting sessions. We also have a range of mixed cases and value priced wines to use during your Christmas entertaining. The full range of Christmas products is available at the bar or via our online shop at http://www.artisanandvine.com/store.

St John’s Hill Christmas Evening
Thursday 17 December from 4pm onward, St John’s Hill goes festive. A range of the businesses on the Hill will be involved and treats will include: Carol singers, Mulled wine & roasted chestnuts, mulled cider & hot Christmas pudding, port & stilton, mince pies, Reindeer racing, Face painting, Live music and Santa's grotto.
Some of the Traders will have stalls out the front of their venue, others will be snuggled inside for you to come visit. It promises to be as special as the Street Festival we held in September, with lots of community Christmas spirit!

Wine Unearthed One Day Wine Courses

WINE UNEARTHED AT ARTISAN & VINE
· Wonderful joy – from January 2010, we’ll be hosting one day wine workshops at artisan & vine, run by our very good friends at Wine Unearthed.
· Wine Unearthed have been running wine workshops across the UK for over five years. When it came time for them to start running their acclaimed courses in London, they fell in love with the beautiful artisan & vine venue & away we were!
· Check out their range of 2010 London dates at: http://www.wineunearthed.co.uk/London.html

Christmas gift ideas from artisan & vine available for delivery all over the UK!

CHRISTMAS GIFTS – LARGE RANGE AVAILABLE ONLINE NOW!
· Elegant and classy wooden gift boxes, wicker hampers and matched glass wine gift sets
· Gift certificates and wine tasting gift vouchers
· Delivery available all across the UK; or you can pick up items from the bar
· Delivery is FREE for orders above £70 and for all gift certificates; delivery is £8 for orders under £70 – less than the price of parking & public transport can often be & none of the hassle!
· Check out our online shop NOW at http://www.artisanandvine.com/store you’re certain to find perfect gifts for lovers or learners of wine!


CHRISTMAS PARTY BOOKING AT ARTISAN&VINE
· Booking space at artisan&vine is ALWAYS FREE! For Engagements, Birthdays, Farewells or Christmas, we have no booking fees at artisan&vine.
· For Christmas 2009, we’ve teamed up with our very good friends from across the road, the multi award winning Fish Club.
· The boys behind the Fish Club have a resume that extends well beyond the oceans & have recently launched The Catering Club – which will be working in partnership with artisan&vine to bring you the most exceptional food, wine & venue experience for your Christmas, Engagement, Birthday or other party!
· We’ve developed fixed price menu options of £10/person, £15/person and £20/person.
· Menus include delicacies like: Rare roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, watercress and horseradish; Slow roasted tomato risotto balls stuffed with buffalo mozzarella and pesto; Yellow Fin tuna sashimi with soy dressing and Home cured duck ham with celeriac remoulade.
· Full details online here -> http://www.artisanandvine.com/Christmas-party-venue

Chef Quest

Are you a creative chef with professional experience and aspirations to realise your potential but unable to get the right venue or financing for your own restaurant?

Come talk with me.

I own artisan&vine, widely regarded as one of London’s Best Wine Bars, and wanting a hot food menu to match the quality of wine we serve.

I'm looking for an ambitious & creative chef with ideas that will maximise the potential of my small kitchen! It’s a kitchen ready for more action - you will need to work with 4 hot plates and 1 oven. That is all. We offer high end clientele & large existing customer base. You'll need to be able to cook for around 30 covers a night, initially on your own, as well significant party catering (essential to making this business work). I’d like to add a hot food menu of around 4 starters, 4 mains and a few desserts, some great sharing plates.

If you have what it takes, you will be on a high risk-reward arrangement; potentially some kind of partnership. Full control of kitchen management will be yours.

Interested in running your own kitchen? Interested in taking your first steps toward entrepreneurism? Interested in being a part of a creative, energetic team & making your name at an already well respected business? Then send your CV and introductory letter to Kathryn@artisanandvine.com. I’m looking forward to possibly working together & I’m open to discussing a wide range of business options.

Please Note: I will only look at CV’s from people who have experience of working in a commercial bar or restaurant kitchen. I will be following up on references and if you are invited to bounce ideas together – please be ready to present some preliminary menu ideas. You will be responsible for the kitchen’s Gross Profit, indeed, it’s what your personal income will depend upon, and you’ll also be responsible for ordering, supplier management and health & safety. Prior experience is essential.

For further information on artisan&vine, please check out our website, you’ll need to be a good personal fit for us to really succeed together! http://www.artisanandvine.com/

artisan & vine UK exclusives

This week: two new artisan & vine UK exclusives: the new wines from Chateau La Coste & biodynamic Beaujolais from Bret Brothers.

UK EXCLUSIVE 1: MEET THE WINE MAKER: MATTHIEU COSSE, 28 OCTOBER
· A wonderful opportunity to enjoy a tutored wine tasting with renowned French wine maker, Matthieu Cosse as he introduces the new natural wines from the highly esteemed Chateau La Coste.
· THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THESE NEW WINES WILL BE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC IN THE UK!
· Matthieu works across two vineyards: Chateau La Coste in Provence and Domaine Cosse Massioneuve in Cahors so we’re going to taste a range of very interesting wines.
· Tickets are £20/person to taste 5 incredibly delicious wines. We start at 8pm, finishing around 9:30pm.
· Places are limited! Book now to be a part of this very special experience -> http://bit.ly/12z8K6 .

UK EXCLUSIVE 2: A NEW NATURAL BEAUJOLAIS
· The exquisite Bret Brothers vineyards and winery in Burgundy are close to being the subject of legend. The World Atlas of Wine (6th ed by Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson) notes that the Bret Brothers have “established a dazzling reputation”.
· Now the Bret boys have extended South of their Macon home to the fresh soils of Beaujolais.
· ARTISAN & VINE IS THE ONLY PLACE YOU CAN BUY BRET BROTHERS BEAUJOLAIS IN THE UK.
· I brought it over having tasted it with the Bret Brothers when I was in Burgundy in June. I became obsessed & had to share it. It is definitely the most powerful Beaujolais I’ve ever tasted.
· Buy it in the bar or have it delivered to your home, though there are extremely limited stocks – only 12 bottles here in the UK!
· Tasting notes here and shop -> http://bit.ly/2R6DlZ

Image: Matthieu Cosse shows me the impressive new winery equipment at Chateau La Coste, Provence.

Hocktoberfest 2009

HOCKTOBERFEST – GERMAN WINES COME TO ARTISAN&VINE!
· You may have noticed that for a long time, artisan&vine had no German wines on the wine list. As late as yesterday this was true.
· Apparently, somewhere between Blue Nun and Leibfraumilch, the English decided German wines were awful and so although Germany does produce a good number of biodynamic wines, they just weren’t making it over to our shores.
· Once again, I sacrificed myself & drank lots of wine in obscure places, trying to find some nice German biodynamics for us.
· I came, I drank, I bought. I didn’t fall over. I thought: we must create Hocktoberfest!!
· We’re starting small: 4 German Rieslings are now on the list, check them out here -> http://bit.ly/35alPs
· They’re spectacular, & they mark the launch of Hocktoberfest – artisan & vine’s new celebration of wines from our cold climate friends.
· Best do some practicing before you come to the bar to try these, say it now: “German wine is delicious, I love Hocktoberfest!”

Image: German wines are so (tragically) new to artisan & vine I don't even have a picture of a German wine I stock to share with you! This is a photo of (a stunning) Alsace Riesling!!

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.

Camel Valley Vineyard Visit

· FINALLY, a week end or so ago I got to visit my chatty friend, wine maker Sam Lindo, in Camel Valley Vineyards, Cornwall.
· Camel Valley Vineyards have been winning all sorts of awards of late – including Best UK Wine Maker for Sam!
· The scenery is stunning, well worth a visit if you’re ever out holidaying in Cornwall.
· Best of all, the wines are great! I walked away with 5 of their cuvees, which we now stock at the bar & online shop – Bacchus Dry, Rose, Cornwall Brut, Sparkling Rose and SPARKLING RED!
· Check out more pics and story here.
· Ps – yes… I’m well aware I’ve broken the rules… this IS NOT within 2hour drive of Battersea… taste it to see why I made an exception!

Image: Sam shows me his award winning vineyards - note the steep slope - great for drainage!