Flying visit

I'll be going to the London Wine Fair tomorrow in an attempt to meet as many as possible of our suppliers in the one day. If you are one of our suppliers and wondering how to get in touch with me, give the office a ring or send me an e-mail and you can have the gory details of my schedule. No promises to anyone, though, because these events are always more frantic than you expect, and I'm expecting a pretty frantic day as it is. I do hope to meet Eric Chevalier, though, whose brilliant'n'different Fié (aka Sauvignon) Gris, with the fresh nettle smell of Sauvignon Blanc, but a little more breadth and a smidgeon less acidity, we now import after tasting it at the Loire Valley fair in February. Since then, the 2006 vintage of this wine has been voted one of the top hundred vins de pays, so we can expect some deserved interest in it. It should get a mention in the Sunday Times wine column at some point too - Joanna Simon kinda hinted at this a few weeks ago. The Spanish will be out in force, and I'll also be interested to see what Bottle Green, the new English importers of our Chilean brand, La Fortuna, think of these inexpensive and now fully organic wines. And and and. I'll bring the camera and we'll see what happens. The show has a blog, by the way. Back at the ranch, I brought home a bottle of the aforementioned Fié Gris at the weekend and it was a big hit. So that's one of the new Loire introductions that gets the stamp of approval from at home. I also took a bottle of Ad Libitum from Damien Delecheneau at Domaine La Grange Tiphaine. Did Bubble Brothers ever make a good choice there! Normally I wouldn't drink more than a generous glass of wine with a meal, but this is one of those bottles that just keeps calling your name. I think it's fabulous: a blend of Cabernet Franc, Côt (Malbec) and Gamay that is soft and really appealing while at the same time keeping its Loire Valley character. Bingo, Damien. And you'd never know it was fourteen per cent alcohol. Heart-warming stuff. Thanks, too, to Damien Mulley for helping with redirecting people to this same old blog in its new location.