Linden Wilkie Blog - fine wine experiences

Written by Linden Wilkie

The Fine Wine Experience Classic Series: Chateau Langoa Barton

With Anthony Barton, The IOD building, London SW1, 21st April 2009

Following the enormous popularity last year’s Château Léoville Barton tasting, Anthony Barton kindly agreed to return to London a year later for a vertical of Château Langoa Barton. It’s just a pity he doesn’t own more châteaux! This event was equally popular, and deservedly so. Barton is a modest, warm host with a dry sense of humour. It’s hard to capture that in words, but you can see the reaction to one of his comments below.

Written by Linden Wilkie

The Fine Wine Experience Classic Series: Château Montrose

The IOD building, London SW1, Tuesday 8th September 2009

I taste and drink the wines of Château Montrose regularly, but despite several visits to Bordeaux, I have never made an appointment to visit, so I cannot offer any first hand impression of the chai, but I did walk through the vineyards on a lovely spring day in 2007, and it is clear to see that they are both beautifully composed with plenty of gravels, and perfectly positioned, sloping down to the Gironde very nearby.

Written by Linden Wilkie

Joh. Jos. Prüm part 2 – Mature Wines Lunch

The Ledbury, London W11, 25th July 2009

12th November 2008. My throat is already drying up as the gavel comes down. It’s one of the worst weeks in financial history and I have just bought all the Prüm. ALL the Prüm. 60 rare, mature bottles, and all consigned to Sotheby’s from a Prüm family cellar. It’s a coup, but potentially also my own mini financial disaster. I feel what my mother calls ‘wonderdread’. I scrap my plans for the rest of the catalogue and exit the smart New Bond Street premises quickly – not too quickly – to figure out what I’ve done. This is wonderdread with extra adrenalin kicking in, Wonderdread Goldkap!
Bottles are quickly farmed out to avoid ruin, and while a few (too few!) have been retained, what remains is the single-bottle-of-each core of the consignment – 17 different wines covering 8 vintages from 1971 to 1943. Lunch is in order!

Written by Linden Wilkie

Joh. Jos. Prüm part 1 – Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese Vertical

The Fine Wine Experience, Institute of Directors building, London SW1, 12th June 2008

September 1949. The late September sun brings Sebastian Prüm’s Riesling grapes to perfect ripeness. This will be a good vintage he dares to think. It turned out to be his best vintage.

Written by Linden Wilkie

The Fine Wine Experience Classic Series: Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone

The IOD building, London SW1, Tuesday 15th September 2009

One of my most profound wine experiences took place in Pizzeria Grottino, in Arosa Switzerland. Dominic and I were on a bit of a road trip and met with Werner, the proprietor. A successful restaurateur and avid wine enthusiast, Werner made the mistake of letting us into the cellar. I spied the Quintarelli. Rare and hen’s teeth, I’d only tried a couple of Quintarelli’s Recioto della Valpolicella before, and really liked them, but I’d never tried one of his Amarones. A brief look of regret came over Werner’s face, but in a generous spirit, he opened a 1990 Amarone Riserva. My initially brief tasting note perched up on the pizza service counter began to run to paragraphs as wave after wave of aroma, flavour and texture enveloped me. A few short years and several trips later and Werner’s stash has been depleted, the notion for this tasting was born.

Written by Linden Wilkie

Dan Bailey’s Domaine Leroy Offline

The Ledbury, 22nd October 2009

Long known as a top negocient label – Maison Leroy – once the moribund estates of Charles Noëllat in 1988 and Philippe Remy in 1989 had been acquired Domaine Leroy was born. Instant luxury, and they taste like it too. Lalou Bize-Leroy’s little treasures have excited enthusiasts and critics the world over, and these days secondary market prices are rather awkward. So thanks to keen fine enthusiast Dan Bailey’s organising efforts, the chance to share some bottles with other enthusiasts was too good to pass up. Dan is organising a series of these single Burgundy producer ‘offline’ dinners and I hope to get to as many as possible.

Written by Linden Wilkie

1996 Krug Clos d'Ambonnay

Moët Hennessey, London SW1, 5th November 2009

The Ambonnay from near Bouzy... was dark and coarse, and candidly I found difficulty in coming to any conclusion about it. It did, however, open one’s eyes to the real necessity of blending.

Written by Linden Wilkie

Keith Prothero’s Grand Charity Dinner – part 2: 2009

The Square, London W1, 31^st October 2009

Given the delights and fun of last year’s event, this year’s was simply not to be missed. Keith Prothero had assembled yet another amazing line up of fine wines, and a menu at The Square to match. Jaboulet’s La Chapelle ’90 and ’78 were reprised but this year’s star flights belonged to Bordeaux, including several iconic wines.

Written by Linden Wilkie

Christie’s / The Fine Wine Experience – 1989 Bordeaux Evening

Christie’s Boardroom, 22nd September 2009

Twenty years on from one of Bordeaux’s great harvests it was time to survey the vintage at peak maturity and peak quality. For several years now the ’89s have stood out particularly well in vertical tastings focused on good to top chateaux, sometimes to steal the show. Summer heat provided extra richness, but in contrast to 1990, the ‘89s today seem to have much more energy and reserve – deeper, denser colours, rich fruit, and firmer, drier tannin structures.

Written by Linden Wilkie

Keith Prothero’s Grand Charity Dinner – part 1: 2008

The Square, London W1, 4th October 2008

Keith Prothero
Keith Prothero is the most blunt tongued, straight-shooting, politically incorrect, tenacious, impetuous, and most of all generous man I have the pleasure to know and call a friend. He is also the social glue behind much of the social ‘offlining’ that goes on via Tom Cannavan’s online social wine world, the wine-pages forum. A onetime insurance executive who was posted to the most difficult countries to develop new markets, today he splits his living time between his native England, and his adopted home in South Africa’s Cape wine land.

Written by Linden Wilkie

WIMPs Lunch – Tuscany bookended by the Veneto

The Ledbury, 28th October 2009

One of the best Ledbury wine lunches yet, though not for the wines, which were pretty mixed. But as always these wine-pages.com ‘offline’ get togethers are real fun.

Written by Linden Wilkie

Vega Sicilia – 30 Unicos at The Fine Wine Experience

20th and 21st October 2009, IOD building, London SW1

Vega Sicilia Unico
Nestled along the Ribera de Valbuena in Spain's rugged Valladolid province sits the jewel in Spain’s vinous crown – Vega Sicilia. This is regarded as Spain’s aristocratic masterpiece, its true ‘first growth’ in the Bordeaux sense of the term, a very special and somewhat eccentric and mysterious wine and the magnet around which the whole of the Ribera del Duero’s fine wine culture grew.

The Fine Wine Experience Classic Series: Chateau Langoa Barton

The Fine Wine Experience Classic Series: Château Montrose

Joh. Jos. Prüm part 2 – Mature Wines Lunch

Joh. Jos. Prüm part 1 – Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese Vertical

The Fine Wine Experience Classic Series: Giuseppe Quintarelli Amarone

Dan Bailey’s Domaine Leroy Offline

1996 Krug Clos d'Ambonnay

Keith Prothero’s Grand Charity Dinner – part 2: 2009

Christie’s / The Fine Wine Experience – 1989 Bordeaux Evening

Keith Prothero’s Grand Charity Dinner – part 1: 2008

WIMPs Lunch – Tuscany bookended by the Veneto

Vega Sicilia – 30 Unicos at The Fine Wine Experience

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