Epicurean Newsletter about Wine, Art, and Food!

April 08 | Volume 13


Style Is Substance

Style and substance are so relevant to our favourite subject matter: wine. The style of a wine says it all!

From intensity and quality of the aromas, to structure and length of the wine: the style will provide much information in understanding where the wine has been made, along with the quality of the winemaking. In other words, style makes you aware of the substance of a wine.

And style is paramount this month as we interview the famous Tim Jefferies from Hamiltons Gallery in Mayfair; we go back to the relationship between style and substance in Part 3 of the Newsletter, where we reveal some useful tips to pick from the appearance of a wine.

But we thought we would start this month by providing a "How to" guide for using our services. Always useful to understand a bit more how we function!


 

 

Olivier Bourseau, MD



Part 1: Our services - The "How to" guide

How to use our services? Just follow the below steps:

1) Start by selecting your favourite tasting theme:

We provide a list of innovative tasting themes. Our list includes:

- The Essentials - Pick one wine region in the world and we will put together a wine list which will represent the major wines of this area.
- New and Old "Terroir" - Terroir wines are unique wines: they represent only the place where they have been made with local grape varieties, specific climate, soil, and winemaking, and are not showing off an international style.
- Kings of Cabernet - Taste the best wines made with a majority of Cabernet Sauvignon from the best regions in the world: California, Bordeaux and Tuscany...

Access our full list here!

2) We will then need to know about your preferred format and the expected number of guests.

From wine tasting receptions on the back of conferences to casual wine tasting events with food served "Tapas" style, or "sit-down" wine tasting dinners... We are able to cater for any format you might think of for groups from 5 to 200+ people.

Depending on the number of guests, we will provide you with a list of available uncommon venues from Art Galleries, to roof gardens... And as usual, our fantastic food will be prepared to match the wines for your event.

Finally, just contact us to request a quotation, and we will take care of everything.

 


Part 2: Interview: Tim Jefferies - Hamiltons Gallery

The famous Tim Jefferies runs Hamiltons Gallery in Mayfair which exhibits late 20th Century modern photography masters. His successful gallery represents artists such as Helmut Newton or Irving Penn amongst others. No doubt I was very excited to meet him at his gallery for our interview, as I have always been fan of modern photography with a strong interest in Helmut Newton’s work!

Tim was very kind as he took some of his time for this interview on an opening day of his new show: “Something for Everyone” 18th march – 12th April which includes a selection of works by Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, and Guido Mocafico amongst others.

Read the intervew here.


Part 3: Wine Tip: What appearance gives away...

The Appearance stage in the wine tasting process tends to be overlooked as it is not seen as important as sniffing and tasting the wine. And this is a shame as it can provide the taster with useful information:

Acidity
A wine (red or white) with rather decent to high acidity will reflect the light very much. The surface of that wine will shine under direct light. On the opposite, a wine with a lack of acidity will appear dull or mat.

Alcohol
If you swirl your wine into your glass, you will notice oily traces left on the inside of your glass which are testimony of the amount of alcohol and residual sugars in the wine. The more of these oily traces or strokes, the higher the alcohol and sugar levels. These strokes are also called “legs” or “tears”.

Age
Any wine (red or white) change colour after a few years. Colours to look for which indicate that the wine has aged are brown and orange. These colours are especially noticeable if you use a white background and try to see through your glass on the rim. Usually these colours need at least 4 or 5 years to develop.


 

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