For those who missed our 25th anniversary tasting in London, here are some images showing how we marked the occasion. To see the entire list of wines, including prices and retailer links, see our online catalogue.
Repeating the format of our series of tastings from the 2010s, the brilliant team at Caravan King’s Cross kindly and efficiently emptied their popular restaurant, allowing us to take it over for the evening.
The first job that morning was to unpack the 300 bottles that had been sent from all over Champagne, England and Wales. Sam Cole-Johnson (left) and Tara Q Thomas joined Richard Hemming (behind the camera) to marshal the bottles.
When you run out of table space, a handy window ledge provides back-up space. Once all the bottles were double-checked, they were given numbered stickers, ready for the next stage …
… which was all-important chilling.
Production lines were established to gently tip each bottle to ensure that the precious liquid inside was of uniform temperature, as demonstrated by (left to right) Oliver Coleman, Tara and Julia Harding MW.
Meanwhile, one correction, the vintage of the Larmandier-Bernier champagne, was made to our printed booklets by Jancis’s own fair hand, with Walter Speller and Sam in the background.
And 125 Jancis Robinson glasses were laid out, ready to be filled, swirled and sipped from – kindly provided by Sensible Wine Services, who also handled the logistics of the event with their customary efficiency.
Just before 6 pm it was all-hands-on-cork, as the bottles were opened ready for our first guests. From left to right is a slice of Julia, Andrew Morris, then a slice of Oliver, the back of Ben Colvill, then Richard and an energetic Sam.
On the dot of 6.30 the eager tasters flooded in and soon the tasting tables, two laden with 25 hand-picked champagnes, two with 25 of our favourite English sparkling wines, were the focus of attention as pictured by Will Wong below. (It’s worth noting that New Yorker Tara was amazed that our guests were polite enough to be trusted with pouring their own wine.)
Although, inevitably, some labels attracted more attention than others …
Fairly early on, the entire JR.com team present clambered up on to a bench to be identified by Jancis, who observed that in this shot, ‘Richard looks as though he’s worried I’ll forget to mention him. In fact, the reason I needed a prompt card was that at our celebration at The Morris in San Francisco I forgot to mention my husband Nick.’
Below, still on the bench, are Andrew, Sam and Ollie Coleman.
The crowd was delightful. Jancis met many new friends and a few old ones such as Umay Çeviker, our Turkish correspondent, pictured below.
Our selection proved of interest to several wine professionals; Harry Laithwaite of Harrow & Hope and the Black Chalk team were just some of those who bought a ticket. It was even reckoned instructive for Masters of Wine such as Sara Muirhead, pictured below with Andrew.
Nick had some explaining to do …
No shortage of food straight from the Caravan kitchen was available and much enjoyed as ballast, as had been the case for all our tastings in the past. Co-founder of Caravan Chris Ammerman was there to ensure all ran smoothly and got talking to tall Lance Johnson, CEO of JancisRobinson.com, who had flown over from his home in Boulder, Colorado, for the event – and for a team dinner the night before.
And finally, a bonne bouche for all tasters, kindly donated by Symington Family Estates …
After all that fizz, pours of delectable Graham’s 50-year-old tawny port were provided from a 4.5-litre jeroboam specially engraved ‘JR 50' to celebrate Jancis’s 50 years as a wine writer, as Jancis is pointing out, ensuring that all attendees went home with a very warm feeling in their tummies.
Huge thanks are due to Richard, who somehow managed to mastermind this tasting and create a detailed tasting list, print and digital, from his base in Singapore, flying in to London for just two nights. The only other error in the 50-strong list was the price and stockist of the first champagne, the Vazart-Coquart, Spécial Club Blanc de Blancs Chouilly Extra Brut Grand Cru 2016, the price of which is £81 from Scala Wine in the UK.
We could not have amassed all these wines without help from their producers, who were marshalled so efficiently by James Simpson MW of the Champagne Shippers Association and Angelina Howe of WineGB. A great big thanks to them both.
Jancis pointed out that it never crossed our minds back in 2010 at our champagne celebration of our 10th anniversary to include English sparkling wines. But this time around, as demonstration of how much has changed in the last 15 years, we were proud to show these domestic fizzes – and to judge from the comments of our guests, they stood up admirably to the competition from France.
Images not credited to Will Wong are by Richard Hemming MW and Lee Shaughnessy.
