Interesting to see how changes in communications can alter one’s habits. I have lived in London for much of my life and in Forest Hill in leafy South London since 1974. During all of that time I have spent little time in East London. Certainly over the last 30 years my visits there have been pretty rare.

Like many areas of London Forest Hill is multi-cultural with people from different origins and races. However, unlike the East End, it was never a part of London where people settled when they first arrived in the UK. In contrast the East End has been the part of London that throughout history that has accommodated successive waves of new settlers, who in time gradually fan out across London and the UK making way for the next arrivals.

Taking the East London Line to Shadwell transports you into an area where the dominant culture is from the Indian sub-continent. It also takes you to the very popular Lahore Kebab House (http://www.lahore-kebabhouse.com/). Apart from serving very good food for a very reasonable price, you can make your own drink so we took along a bottle of 2009 Anjou from Jacques Beaujeau’s Château la Varière. I’m pleased to report that this softly and richly fruited Anjou stood up well to our selection of strongly spiced dishes.

Photo by Ian Kerridge

It was on the way to Shadwell that we read about the new Facebook group called Subversively move Tony Blair's memoirs to the crime section in book shops (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150746811621277&ref=mf). Worth joining – it was set up at the end of last week and now has over 6500 members and growing fairly rapidly.

Go further up the line and you come to Dalston Junction, where there is a strong Turkish community. Here we have enjoyed a couple of meals over the past few days. Last Thursday we went to the Mangal Ocakbasi (www.mangal1.com) restaurant, which is very popular and buzzy. You can also bring your own wine, so we took the 2009 Clos de Chaumont, Saumur-Champigny, Domaine de la Perruche, which is also owned by Jacques Beaujeau. I have to say that this was a disappointment with thin fruit and rasping acidity. Possibly the bottle wasn’t good, although it wasn’t corked but on Sunday night we tried the straight 2009 Saumur-Champigny from Perruche and this was very much better, although not as good as the 2009 Anjou from Varière.

Saturday night we were back in Dalston Junction. This time we tried Istanbul Iskembecisi (www.istanbuliskembecisi.com/). This was quite quiet in contrast to Mangal Ocakbasi but we probably had a better meal here. The Albanian liver that we had as one of our meze was particularly good and my shish kebab tender and flavoursome. There is a licence here so we chose a bottle of 2009 Yahut from Kavaklidere (http://www.kavaklidere.com/products.aspx) made from a blend of Öküzgözü, Boğazkere and Carignan, which was attractively soft and easy drinking and matched our food well.

We half expected to see Michel there, continuing his exploration of Carignan but he has either already visited or will doubtless be on his way sometime in the future.

Outside the restaurant in Dalston – fresh roses from Ecuador!    

Jim 

Pour nos amis non anglophones, voici le texte de Jim dans la langue de Molière, ou plutôt, de Messier...

C’est le moment de faire le point. Des caisses de Lafite s’échangent aux alentours de 15.700 euros et celles de Latour pour 13.000. Petrus, Le Pin et Ausone iront certainement beaucoup plus haut. Pensez à un prix et multipliez le par deux, c’est le principe.

Si l’on excepte les bouteilles bues par les millionnaires chinois et autres vedettes du football en mal de sensations après avoir été éjectées du Mondial, les grands Bordeaux rouges sont aujourd’hui surtout achetés au titre d'investissement.

J’ai le plaisir de vous annoncer que pour mieux refléter cette nouvelle réalité, deux vénérables institutions bordelaises, le CIVB (Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux) et l’UGC (Union des Grands Crus) vont très bientôt changer de nom. Le premier juillet, ils deviendront respectivement le Crédit d’Investissement en Vins de Bordeaux et l’United Group Capital.

Actuellement, ces deux organismes planchent conjointement sur un lexique des investissements vineux. Les 5 du Vin ont pu se procurer un avant-projet  de ce travail.

Les vignerons y sont à présent qualifiés de créateurs d’actifs (asset creators).  Les égrappoirs deviennent des effeuilleurs d’actifs («asset strippers»), en référence aux effeuilleuses de cabaret. A partir de 2011, les dégustations en primeur deviennent  la Wine Asset Class Convention, et les critiques vineux sont rebaptisés  «analystes d’actifs». Dorénavant, les Second Vins s’appelleront «Dérivés», les Troisièmes et Quatrièmes  Vins, «Obligations pourries» (junk bonds).

D’ici à la fin de la décennie, la plupart des 61 Grands Crus Classés seront probablement produits aux fins d’investissement; c’est pourquoi  des cours de finance vont être proposés aux vignerons – pardon, créateurs de valeur – qui souhaitent se positionner sur ce marché.
Même si, comme les sardines de la fameuse histoire de Simon Loftus (Anatomy of the Wine Trade: Abe's Sardines and Other Stories), les vins seront rarement consommés, il est crucial qu’ils se montrent à leur avantage lors de la Wine Asset Class Convention, puisque c’est là que les notes des analystes fixeront les prix du marché.

Les actifs présentés en primeur devront avoir une robe profonde, des arômes de moka et de noix de coco, une bonne dose de fruits noirs  et de goudron, une structure veloutée et entre 13° et 13,5° d’alcool. On veillera à ne pas dépasser les 14°, car ceci n’est pas du goût de tous les analystes, ce qui peut faire baisser la cotation.

Les créateurs d’actifs veilleront également à ce que leurs actifs aient une durée de vie de 49 ans. Idéalement, ils devraient être parfaits pendant les 49 premières années, puis complètement passés à la fin de l’année suivante – en effet, les  actifs ayant une durée de vie inférieure à 49 ans sont classés comme actifs défectibles («wasting assets»), et les gains éventuels à la revente ne sont pas imposables.

Nouveau Premier Grand Cru Classé 'asset generator' en construction

 Jim Budd

 Sad news this week to learn that Colin Parnell, the founding publisher of Decanter magazine has died. Colin had long since ceased had any involvement in  magazine which is now owned by IPC and housed along with many other titles in a glass and steel office near to London’s Tate Modern.

All a far cry from Decanter’s original offices in Clapham Junction* I believe. The magazine was set up in 1975 by Colin and a hard-drinking Australian called Tony Lord. Tony predeceased Colin by some eight years dying in Western Australia in March 2002 at the age of 56 having sold his share in the magazine at the same time of Colin. Tony moved back to Western Australia where he set up a vineyard.   

Colin, in contrast, appeared to gradually move away from the world of wine allowing Patricia, his wife who is younger, to take centre stage with her PR work for a number of leading wine brands. Colin along with Tony, however, leave behind them a legacy of founding the only consumer wine magazine based in the UK that has survived long term, although quarterly The World of Wine Wine may well be now there for the long haul.

A climatic moment at ther Decanter World Wine Awards – Mister Cool (Steven Spurrier) reads a paper while Andrew Jefford agonises.

Indeed Decanter has prospered with a Chinese edition and is apparently sold in 96 countries around the world along with a substantial annual wine competition – the Decanter World Wine Awards. Founded in 2004 this now has in excess of 10,000 entries. The latest offshoot is Decanter Education, which was launched this May.

This is a very considerable achievement as there have been numerous food and wine magazines launched in the UK with considerable fanfare ­– Taste and A la Carte come to mind at the end of the 1980s – that are now just brief historical footnotes. 

 I think I started reading Decanter in the late 1970s or perhaps the early 1980s. Certainly I’m sure that I have a complete set from 1983 as I have long intended to have a look and see how the famous 1982 vintage was perceived then. I’m convinced that the idea that Robert Parker was the only critic who really got 1982 is a myth. This was the first Bordeaux vintage (and I have long since stopped) I bought en primeur. At the time I didn’t know Robert Parker from a packet of crisps, so it is clear that my perception that 1982 was a stellar vintage came from someone else.

I guess I now owe it to Colin to do that piece of research as he was still at the helm when I started to write for Decanter.     

* No I was right about the railway but it was in an arch close to Waterloo not Clapham Junction.

There is no doubt that the ‘social media’ – blogs, facebook, twitter YouTube etc. – has opened up a plethora of new ways of communicating about wine. When anyone with a wireless connection can join in, the days of the omniscient wine critic are now surely numbered if not already over.

 Last September I was at The Boutique Wineries tasting in London. During the walk-round tasting there was a blogging broadcast of the Port harvest going on in the Douro that day. Very few of the tasters appeared to take much notice of the scenes on the screen showing workers picking grapes. Hardly surprising as the Douro harvest, fascinating though it might be, was not why people had come to the tasting. It had no relevance.

Fading light@Cortes de Cima

 It was potentially a good idea to use a video but unfortunately no one had thought through how such a tasting would be meaningful. It had just been assumed that the medium without any tailored message would work by itself. Of course it didn’t as tasters hove in and out of view.

Whatever the medium there has to be a clear purpose, which is why I’m also somewhat skeptical about a new development at this year’s London International Wine Trade Fair – The Access Zone: 

"The Access Zone" @ The 2010 London Wine Fair
At the London International Wine Fair 2010 Catavino will with the help of WineConversation.com, the EWBC, and Wineblogger.info bring you "The Access Zone" a place to meet up, and talk about wine online.

 With 60+ meters to hang out at, there will be tastings, seminars, and plenty of interactive excitement for all of you to take part in. Free WIFI, powerpoints, and places to sit for all of you who want to blog, tweet, upload, or otherwise.

2009 Excel (exhibition centre) expands  by 60%

I’m only at the fair for one day this year and I’ll try to drop by but I’m not convinced that people come to the fair to blog and tweet (or twat perhaps). Don’t they go to taste wine and meet people whether they are winemakers or importers etc. 

The UK General Election is now entering its final stages. We have the last leaders televised debate to come this Thursday and then on Thursday 6th May we will cast our votes – or rather those of us that bother to do so. Actually the percentage of the population voting may well be higher than in recent elections due to the interest in the three leadership debates.

Poster advertising the Leaders’ debate

For the first time ever, our leaders have agreed to a televised debate and to many people’s surprise the debates have proved to be compelling television.

But enough of the politics, this post is about selecting appropriate wines for the three major parties according to their colours red (Labour), yellow-gold (Liberal Democrats) and blue (Conservative). This means that the first two are relatively straightforward.

Traditionally Labour would have been a full-bodied red – perhaps a Shiraz from Australia’s Barossa Valley, a Nero d’Avola from Sicily or an Alicante Bouchet from either Languedoc or Roussillon. But New Labour rather changed that moving towards a much lighter red – a light Gamay from the Beaujolais or a Pinot Noir from Alsace or the German Ahr Valley.

Our decision to kick off the 1997 results night when Tony Blair was swept to power with a bottle of Pommery Rosé proved to be all too prophetic! Some would argue that now under Brown the appropriate red should be a little more full-bodied – a Valpolicella Classico perhaps?

The Liberal-Democrats golden yellow points towards a sweet wine as it is too highly coloured for a Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadet or a Pinot Grigio. I fancy the choice to be between a minerally Coteaux du Layon with enough acidity to carry off the sugar or a more cloying Sauternes. A decision on that may have to wait until after the election when we see what the Lib-Dems do if there is indeed a hung parliament.

Deep blue for the Conservatives inevitably poses problems narrowing the choice to Blue Nun – another brand that has been given a make-over!

Cheers!

(c) Jim Budd