Age Is Not Just A Number

One of the lovely things about the restaurant world is the way it moves in seasons. Don't worry, I'm not about to write five paragraphs on the turning of the leaves and the arrival of autumnal produce in the kitchen...

There is another season though, and it happens well out of sight of the dining room.

It's wine tasting season!

Around now, with everyone back from their holidays and the busy run up to Christmas not quite underway, the wine suppliers host their portfolio tastings.

They're almost always on a Monday or Tuesday (the hospitality weekend) and they're a great excuse to taste a lot of new wine and catch up with friends from the industry we haven't seen in months. So, the last few Tuesdays have found us in rooms full of like minded souls, sipping and slurping, looking for wines to fill gaps on our list and replacements where a vintage change has let the side down.

That phrase, vintage change, is one we've been thinking about alot.

At a tasting a few weeks ago we were poured two vintages of the same Muscadet. The 2025 was exactly what you'd hope for. Young, fresh and zippy. The 2023 was something else entirely. It had so much weight and character that it was easy to imagine it with a pork chop rather than the oysters and seafood that Muscadet is famous for pairing with.

Same grape. Same producer. Two years apart, and almost two different wines.

It's a good reminder that a vintage is not a footnote on the label.

Our current Côtes du Rhône is a case in point.  We all loved the 2023, but the 2024 is sadly just not as good, so we've been hunting for a replacement and happily, we found one!

A week later we were at Berry Bros. in St James's, tasting in the spectacular cellars that sit under that tiny corner of London. Much of the focus was on the Loire and a huge range of Chenin Blanc, which perfectly demonstrated how the same grape can make radically different wines in the hands of different producers, or from slightly different plots.

Then came the bit we most look forward to.  A few older bottles were opened just for the tasting, and for once there was no spitting!  A 12 year old Châteauneuf-du-Pape and a 20+ year old Rioja were spectacular. Time had done something to those wines that no winemaker could rush.

So what did we take away from all these boozy Tuesday afternoons?

A few new additions for the list, for a start. A juicy Crozes-Hermitage from a producer we've worked with for years and which has been flying out this week.  A new Fleurie coming soon, and more wines from an Italian producer we've long admired.

More importantly, a reminder of what we love about the wines we sell.

They are not mass produced, identical bottles that taste the same every year. They are living things, made mostly by families and small co-operatives who care deeply about what they make, and they change with the weather, the year and the passing of time.

That's exactly why we'd like to show you the difference rather than just tell you about it.  We rarely get to taste multiple vintages of the same wine side by side, so we're planning to bring a vertical tasting of that Muscadet to the list in the near future!

Over the coming months you'll see more of these wines appearing on the list and on the specials board.  It's something we're committing more time and focus to, because the wines worth drinking are the ones that don't taste the same every year.