Last Sunday saw our second Barolo Night at Caravan King's Cross. It followed the same pattern as the previous year's event – the venue, the timing, the relentless rain – with the principal change being the featured vintage. With the help of the Enoteca Regionale del Barolo (in particular Federico Scarzello and Cristiana Grimaldi) and the Accademia del Barolo, we amassed 36 bottles of beautiful 2010 Barolo to taste, plus 10 from older vintages.
A full collection of tasting notes will follow the week after next as soon as we have published our run of assortments, but these photographs will give you a flavour (albeit metaphorical rather than literal) of the event. We were all delighted by how successful it seemed to be, and it was a pleasure to meet the 100 members of JancisRobinson.com who booked their tickets early enough to be able to attend. We have been able to make a significant donation to Médecins Sans Frontières' efforts to combat Ebola in Africa from the proceeds of the ticket sales.
Incidentally, we count ourselves very lucky at JancisRobinson.com to have an extended team of very skilful and willing friends and relatives. All the following photographs were taken by Lee Shaughnessy, a professional photographer who in his spare time is the husband of our long-standing subscriptions supremo Rachel.
The preparations began with all-important quality control, as demonstrated here by Federico Scarzello.
Meanwhile, Julia was hard at work taking notes ...
... while Nick and Walter inspected the bottles.
At 6.30 pm, the stage at Caravan King's Cross was set.
Guests were treated to a glass of Erpacrife sparkling Nebbiolo rosato as an aperitivo.
Alex also demonstrated his pouring prowess.
Rachel was at the door, ready to sign in ticket holders ...
... and Jancis was on hand to discuss all things Barolo.
After an introductory speech by Jancis, equipped with attention-grabbing glass and silverware ...
... and Walter ...
... the tasting began in earnest.
The mood was convivial ...
... discursive ...
... comtemplative ...
... and communal.
Jancis was especially pleased to see so many female tasters present ...
... including this fine specimen (also known as Mrs Hemming) ...
... but of course there were plenty of men, of all ages ...
... with pale blue being the apparent shirt colour of choice.
Many thanks once again to all those who made this event such a success, and to everyone who came along.
Finally, the snap below (not taken by Lee) shows Jamie Wolff of Chambers Street Wines in New York, the winning merchant from our Indie writing competition, and his wife Perry enjoying lunch with Jancis, Federico and Nick at the Quality Chop House in Clerkenwell before the tasting – part of his prize along with two tickets to our Barolo Night – the likes of which are unknown even in that centre of Langhe wine expertise, New York. (Federico was introduced to some French wine.)
