How do you like your coffee?

Edith and I had a ball at the Bibendum Wine tasting last week, and I apologize for taking a week to blog about it. I can only blame the January doldrums, as Heloise so succinctly put it in an email to me this week. Heloise darling, sit down, put your feet up, play some Jimmy Reed blues, indulge yourself and have a Bellini on me. Those doldrums will just fizzle away…



Edith had just wrapped up a meeting, and we met in front of Liberty, that great icon of English retailing. We hopped in a cab down to the King’s Road, where the Saatchi Gallery, beautiful 70,000 sq ft beacon of light and space, was filled with wine from around the world. How lucky were we?

I’d registered us as The Bellini Project, and it was interesting to see how many people commented, or asked about it. I suddenly felt very officious, and part of the non-virtual world with my Bellini tag pinned proudly to my lapel.

We took a few turns round the gallery to get our bearings. We knew that Champagne & Sparkling were in gallery 3 on the ground floor, but we took our time getting there, opting to visit the Continent first. We visited the Dolomites and Alto Adige via Alois Lageder, Rioja with Dinastia Vivanco, and Southern France courtesy Domaine Lafage. We sipped, spit and sometimes, when it was just too good, we swallowed.

The Champagne and Sparkling room was, as you might expect, jubilant and crowded. We muscled our way over to the Louis Roederer table where we sampled the Rosee Vintage 2004. It was good. We then tried the Carte Blanche Demi-Sec. It was utterly fabulous.

Aptly set against a wall of vibrant, acrylic and mylar paintings by Kristin Baker, the Bisol Prosseco table featured several varieties. We chatted with Roberto, the Bisol rep, explained our mission, and sampled them all. As there were no other prosecco producers in attendance, they could only compete against each other, and in our highly evolved tasting opinion, the Valdobbiadene Superior Cortizze 2008 was the best, while the Jeio Rose NV, we agreed, made a great 6 o’clock (p.m.) drink. The Cortizze was full of tiny, sparkling bubbles, arrived on the palate in celebratory, mercurial tones of pear and almond, and then luxuriated briefly before being swished down. We decided that this was a prosecco to be remembered.

                                                  pouring the Cortizze

I was eager to make a stop to meet Tim Hanni MW, who’d flown in from Napa, and who had also been billed as a ‘must see’ for the day’s events. Standing in the Off-Trade & Taste Test gallery 6, Tim spoke to a few people, while a power point presentation of slides played behind him. Spotting Edith’s name tag, he boomed, “I don’t know what the Bellini Project is, but I love it already!” We were charmed.

Tim calls himself ‘The Wine Anti-Snob,’ and has developed a unique set of parameters for wine tasting. “How can I tell what kind of taster I am?” Edith asked. “How do you like your coffee?” was Tim’s response. Most people fall into one of 4 categories according to Tim’s research, being sensitive, hypersensitive, tolerant or sweet. Your taste buds will tell you. Appropriately enough, I am hypersensitive (my husband could have told you that, ha-ha), with a leaning towards sensitive. Ideally the wines I prefer are pinot grigios, sauvignon blancs, and pinot noirs among others, and, of course, prosecco. Want to learn more about your own preferences? See Tim’s website, www.hannico.com.

 

the taste test table 

the superstars bar