Spent the annual working weekend with Hugh Johnson at Great Saling. Well, I suppose 'working' is putting it a bit strong. Tasting wine is usually work for me – oh yes it is! – but with the ever generous Hugh and his two enormous and full-to-the-brim cellars ... no, that's not work at all! Fabulous wines from great vintages of legendary estates. You might think I drink such wines all the time. Not so! I drink what my customers drink. Most of the 'priceless' wines I've enjoyed in my life have been, one way or another, thanks to Hugh.
Then we all hopped on a plane to New York to arrive – quite accidentally – on Election Night. New York was wild. Such euphoria. I can remember similar moments in Chile on their day of their first elections in a long while ... and South Africa similarly, Czechoslovakia, Hungary etc when the Wall came down.
Good to be at our new US office in Connecticut where we have just done WSJwine from The Wall Street Journal. We launched on what was Wall Street's worst day. But we got a huge response. Maybe we provided the only good news that day! One result of this venture is that US wines, long under-represented on our list, have been the focus of a lot of our attention and you can expect exciting US deals in the near future.
Then flew to Portugal. "Must not forget Portugal". I spent the week there apologising. Feel I should apologise to you too. Somehow I keep forgetting Portugual. I have missed the incredible improvements in Portuguese wine. Our buyers have been, and come back frothing with enthusiasm but stupid me kept looking at Argentina, Chile, Italy – all the current 'hot' wine sources. Never really properly noticed little Portugual. That's always been Portugual's problem. Mind you, also its saviour, maybe. The Portuguese say their powerful neighbour was never really keen on taking them over because their little country is just mountains and poor soils and rain: the rain in Spain falls mainly on … Portugal. This is the part of the peninsular Spain didn't want. But makes great wine.
When I first came here it was after their revolution and the place was in turmoil, the roads lethal, the wines – apart from Port – risky too! Strange styles, stranger names. They had their own ways, the Portuguese. But they are the most obliging people in the world it seems to me. They are consideration itself. During the Napleonic wars they allowed us wine-starved Brits to charge into their vineyards and completely change their wines; adding brandy to their good, plain wine to invent something we called 'Port'; a wine we found more palatable.
It seems to me they've now – 200 years later – done something similar by turning so many of their idiosyncratic wines into the sort of wines we adore today. Brackish whites have largely gone and whites now sing like the best Sauvignons and Chardonnays. Many indeed ARE Sauvigons and Chardonnays but with intriguing differences from added Arinto or Fernão Pires or Encruzado grapes. There's a huge list of wild and wonderful grape varieties in Portugal. Far more than in Spain. I want us to try them all. We will! We will!
My long time personal dream of big, dark port-like-but-not-port wines that are for drinking with great roasts are now available –
just taste the Quinta do Espirito Santo! When I last came here looking for such things (15 years ago – shame on me) I found only two tanks and Christiano Van Zeller wouldn't sell them to me because he said they were only experiments.
I call on all loyal customers to honour Portugual today with their custom – our Oldest Ally – 305 years of being nice to the Brits (since the Methuen Treaty in 1703) – no-one else has managed to put up with us that long –. Honour Portugual with your custom. Buy our Portuguese wines. You'll love them I promise. This, remember is the man who brought you Black Stump, Bombero, The Forefather, Pillastro etc so I know what you like!!! You will like the Portuguese wines we offer you today. They will add new interest to your life (unless you are one of those who learnt Portuguese drinking quicker than I did).
It's time you came and met my Portuguese friends; Fernando and Carlos and Sandra and Jose … and Sheriff the horse.
The day I got home to the UK, the Portuguese pursued me to the office and got me and our local MP to plant three cork oaks in our home vineyard at Theale. Persistence pays. Our Portuguese chums have persistence and they certainly think long-term; cork oaks need forty years before they produce cork! In the meantime we've a box at New Aquitaine House to collect and recycle used corks.
Next time you're over, bring in your corks. And try the Portuguese wines.
