Justin @ Stokes Fine Wines

2011-09-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

Yikes, has it really been that long!!

More than a year has passed since my last post on the blog and during that time the landscape at Stokes has changed radically with us exiting a major part of the UK market!!

One day we had a visit from the nice man at New Generation Wines who said how much he liked our UK agency company and all the lovely wines it represented; indeed he liked it all so much he bought the company or specifically the UK division.

This leaves Tim and I to concentrate on our growing international business selling an eclectic range of European wines to retailers in many far-flung lands.

At the start of 2011 we moved our offices from Hampshire to the wilds of Somerset to shorten my commute (thus lengthening Tims!!); my commute is actually about 50 feet now rather than 50 miles. I have to cross the whole length of the lawn from the back door of the house....

Frosty somerset morning

With shedding of our UK responsibilities has come a newfound wanderlust, driven no-doubt by the need to keep some food on the table and clothes on the children, which has seen me visit the US and Mexico twice, Australia for a whistle-stop tour and France and Spain just about once a month!

It has been fascinating developing business in new markets and apart from lots of bureaucratic nonsense (I have become an expert in EUR-1 forms) we have managed to make huge progress in a year.

A rather different morning view (Mexico City)

I will really try and keep the blog more up to date than normal and hope some will enjoy my ramblings from around the world, although I am sure it wont help persuade people that I do actually work quite hard....

Broken Silence....

2010-02-26T06:43:00.000-08:00

Hello again after a rather long break! It was one of my News Years resolutions to bring my Blog back to life, but it has taken me until now (beginning of March) to get going again such is the pace of work and home life!

Plenty has changed since I last wrote a post back in June; a wet horrendous summer gave way to a freezing snowy winter followed more wind and snow!

But now there are signs of Spring and we are working away on lots of new projects, not least on how to get our wines in front of as many people as possible, but more of that at another time.

Amid all the changes since last summer, it is important that I mention our new and growing relationship with Man O'War Vineyards from Waiheke Island, New Zealand. Since first tasting these back in 2008 in Queenstown, Central Otago, of all places, I have been smitten so when the chance presented itself to import them into the UK for the first time I leaped at it.

Following a flying visit from owner Berridge (Stokes HQ is considering building a helipad) we kicked off with some launch tastings back in September and have not looked back; indeed I am sure future blog updates will keep you posted on the burgeoning press bag these wonderful wines are attracting.

I hope you will enjoy keeping an eye on these updates in the future and I look forward to raising a glass with you all in the coming months!

Dinner with Umamu

2009-06-11T01:53:00.000-07:00

On Monday night the Stokes team enjoyed a wonderful evening with Charmaine Saw of Umamu and her family who are in London for a few days.

We had been invited by them to celebrate on two counts; firstly Stokes Fine Wines has now now been representing the Margaret River winery for one year, which although the conditions have been tough has yielded us some strong followers in the press and trade alike. Secondly, as already reported here, Umamu Chardonnay 2006 won a Gold Medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards in May! It was a testament to Charmaine’s hard work in the vineyards that the wine has won such support in only its second vintage.

We started the evening with the most wonderful glass of Dom Perignon 1999, which was then surpassed by the amazing 1990 - still as fresh as a daisy and wonderfully decadent and complex.

Dinner was truly memorable as we were treated to a positive banquet of Chinese and Malaysian dishes including Yee Sang, a traditional dish from Penang served to mark Chinese New Year. It is a wonderful salad mix of radish, carrot, pickled ginger and cucumber served with smoked salmon, which is tossed by all the guests to bring them good luck (the higher the better!). This was accompanied by Meursault 1999 from Chateau de Meursault served from magnum, completely sublime and ruch. Mr. Saw explained that in many ways this wine was responsible for Umamu as in 1984 he had ordered a bottle while in a hotel in Sydney, but as they had run out the sommellier had suggested an alternative from new winery Leuwin Estate... The 1982 Art Series Chardonnay, their first vintage, really stunned him so he vowed to visit the winery and region. When he finally got to Margaret River two years later he fell instantly in love....

The main courses of Prawn Har Lot, Thai Omelette, Chicken with pine kernels, Malay curry, Thai salad, stir fried Chye Sim and steamed rice continued the wonderful relaxed atmosphere, with the Chicken with pine kernels in particular matching perfectly with another memorable magnum, Chateau Pontet Canet 1995.

Just when we felt we things couldn't get any better pudding arrived! In a break from our far eastern theme we enjoyed a lemon souffle matched to a bottle of 1983 Chateau Guiraud. As we tasted it blind we all wrongly selected nineties vintages as it was showing such great freshness and youth.

A memorable evening with truely wonderful wines.

Many thanks to the Saw family for such generosity.

Buddies Clay Pigeon Triumph!

2009-06-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

I am delighted to report that last week's Buddies of the Benevolent Charity Clay Pigeon shoot at Holland and Holland was won by Nick Dymoke-Marr and friends, including your truly!

It was a really great day, not too warm and slightly overcast which couldn't have been better for spotting the rapid clays.

Seven teams of four fought valiently for the title of 'top shots' with team DM, made up of Nick Dymoke-Marr, Justin Liddle, Chris Mtchell and Joe Wadsack, running away with it on the 60 bird flurry, missing only two!

I was also able to press-gang Charmaine Saw from Umamu into filling a gap in Team Berry Brothers and Rudd. Her shooting put many to shame particularly as she hadn't touched a gun for many years!

After the guns were tucked back into their slips we settled down to enjoy smoked salmon washed down with Umamu Semillon/Sauvignon 2005 and a spit-roast lamb with new potatoes!

BBQ Weekend

2009-05-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

The weather forecasters promised a fantastic barbeque weekend and they certainly didn't let us down! I cant remember have lit a bbq so many times in such a short space of time; apart from the holiday in cornwall when it poured with rain everyday, but thats another story!

On Friday night we cooked some lovely pork-belly and chops which came from our neighbours field raised Gloucester Old Spot weaners. We gave it an oriental marinade and popped it onto the webber. While it cooked I cracked into the first wine of the evening; The newly arrived Rabbit Ranch Pinot Gris 2008, which is full and ripe with lush apple, grapefruit and pear fruit, very aromatic and lushous.

With the pork we opened a bottle of 1995 Domain de Trevallon from the cellar. Its the first bottle of of the case and I was interested to see how it showed as I know the 95 is considered a bit of a long-termer!

I thought it was fantastic! Really dark fruited and multilayered, complex and with a good acidity and sweet pure core that made it very moreish. I am really looking forward to opening further bottles before too long!

To finish up the eevening I opened a bottle of Kalleske Clarry's Red 2005. It is one of a handful of bottles we have had in the cellar at work from this slightly older vintage (we have a shipment of the 2008 on its way) and I was keen to see how it was showing.

What a stunner! The 2005 was a great vintage in the Barossa and this was explosive in its concentration; layers of spicy fruit, dark chocolate and coffee bean.

Both the Trevallon 95 and the Clarry's 05 were wonderful matches with the barbequed pork belly, with the former bringing out the earthier, smokier flavours while the latter showed the spicier pork fat.

A great start to the weekend and certainly a lot of fun!

The Chelsea Flower Show and Caunton Beck

2009-05-22T06:55:00.000-07:00

Its been quite a week! Not only have I been digesting all the leads we generated at last weeks London International Wine Fair, but the generally positive mood is continuing with plenty of orders and interesting oportunities presenting themselves!

I have also been on the road a fair bit, starting with London on Tuesday where the afternoon was spent at the Institute of Masters of Wine 2007 Vintage Port tasting retasting the full range.

Every time I have retasted the 07s I have been blown away by the uniqueness of this vintage; its purity of fruit, freshness and elegance, but at the same time it has all the depth and concentration you want too. It is really hard to compare it to any previous vintages as the conditions during the season were so unique with the crop size being reduced at flowering due to the weather; the long cool summer maintaing acid levels and then the hot indian summer and cool nights which allowed the vines to respire at full throttle building up fantastic sugar levels.

We have had our Churchill's offer open for a while now and I am really pleased with the interest to date and how the wines have shown (with real character), but I guess a lot will be down to how the wines are received by the buyers.

I left the tasting in Carlton House Terrace with purple hands andf teeth and headed for Chelsea where so good friends had kindly offered me their extra ticket to the flower show!

Obviously my credential as a gardener are restricted to slash and burn and I am sure there will be those who are highly amused at the thought of me, the Claus Barbie of the herbaceous borders, gazing lovingly at acre upon acre of gloriously manicured SW6, however I absolutely loved it and felt everyones obvious passion rubbing off on me.

Of course this new interest in gardening was helped by a glass of Laurent Perrier enjoyed on their garden at the kind invitation of their marketing manager Danny Brennan.

On Thursday I headed up to Nottinghamshire to the Caunton Beck, a lovely gastro pub belonging to Toby Hope, who also owns the Wig and Mitre Pub and wine shop in Lincoln and lives above the the Cork and Bottle in Harby, and had kindly invited me up to present a range of our New Zealand wines matched to a special menu for his dining club.

Aperitif: Auntsfield Estate Long Cow Sauvignon Blanc 2007

Starter: A fillet of wild salmond with new season English Asparagus with a herb salad, poached quails eggs and truffle.

Rabbit Ranch Pinot Gris 2008

Main Course: A trio of Lamb (Loin, Faggot and Tongue)

Chard Farm Pinot Noir 2006

Pudding: Dark Chocolate Parfait with Butterscotch ice cream

Kalleske JMK Shiraz VP 2006 (Australian interloper!)

The dinner was fantastic, with the kitchen doing a sterling job especially given they had a full house of 60 to contend with plus plenty of people eating in the bar.

The starter of wild salmon with Rabbit Ranch Pinot Gris 2008 was I felt the match of the evening with the smoky truffle oil and and the aromatic richness of the Pinot Gris complementing each other perfectly.

Weekend in South Devon

2009-05-18T06:20:00.000-07:00

Just had a weekend down in South Devon with my parents who live just outside Totnes and although the weather was horrendous we had a pretty relaxed time.

We had an hour free on Saturday, in between torrential down-pours, so we took the chance to top-up on some of the near addictive Chilli sauces made by The South Devon Chilli Farm. They are a wonderful small artisan producer of interesting and well made sauces and relishes. The extra hot chilli jam is fantastic with cold roast beef, or simply as a touch of spice with left-overs. Although there sauces are stocked in loads of independent delis and food stores it is well worth visiting them if you are ever in the region.

On Saturday night my father cooked his take on aromatic crispy duck, which in spite of my (unfair) reservations was fantastic and really pretty simple to put together. We must do this more often at home. I will try and repeat it and write the receipt up.

I had taken down a cask sample of Churchill Estates Grande Reserva 2007 for him to try so we drank the rest of it with the duck, which was great combination. I am really so excited about these new 2007 Douro wines and can't wait for them to be available to sell later in the year.

On Sunday, while waiting for the pork to roast I opened up a bottle of QB Quercus Bitter from Quercus Brewery in Kingsbridge. A new one to me, but certainly a brewery I will continue to follow. Really lovely smoky full-bodied pint which was delicious with the rolled joint of pork we had as the sweetness of the bacon and the smokiness of the bitter worked really well together. Should have done more roast potatoes though. Schoolboy error!

The First Post

2009-05-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my first post on my new blog.

I am keen to keep a record or commentary here on any interesting food and wine thoughts, ideas, tastings, products or events that I come across during my day to day travels.

Obviously I am intrinsically linked with some wonderful wines through Stokes Fine Wines where I am a Director, buyer, salesman and shareholder with my partner-in-crime Tim Parkins, however I am also passionate about all sorts of other interesting wines, beers and foods from every corner of the world or just around the corner in the South West of England.

I thought this blog would be a good way of sharing a few thoughts on everything, both business and non-business related.

I hope you will enjoy it and take the time to read and comment.