Chateau Laulan Ducos 2005

Right now it might seem that Bordeaux doesn't really need any publicity. With prices climbing ever skyward, the rich and sometimes titled chateaux proprietors can only be raking it in. The prices of many wines are, certainly as far as the 2005 vintage is concerned, more than double what we might have expected only a few years ago.

Although largely correct, this point of view is, of course, a generalisation, and a false conclusion. It results from erroneously extrapolating the obvious success enjoyed by the top one hundred or so properties of the Médoc, Graves, St Emilion and Pomerol in order to describe the activities of the whole of Bordeaux, and of course nothing could be further from the truth. Bordeaux is a huge wine region, a message usually reinforced by pointing out that it generates more bottles of wine per annum than the whole of Australia. It would be very simple of us to assume that all the vignerons of the minor regions around Castillon, St-Georges, Montagne and Lalande de Pomerol, Bourg, Blaye and the Entre-Deux-Mers, as well as those of the under-publicised, under-appreciated estates with slightly grander appellations, such as the many Cru Bourgeois chateaux of the left bank, are all experiencing the same pigs-rolling-in-mud feelings as the proprietors of the Cru Classé chateaux. The truth, I think, is far from it. Here there are numerous smaller estates in many cases turning out admirable wines (in many cases not, admittedly, but in this Bordeaux is no different to any other region of France) that do not command a massive price, but which reflect their origins, and which are worth seeking out.

This week's wine is from one such estate. Beyond the grand estates of Pauillac and St Estèphe on the left bank of the Gironde lie the vineyards of the Médoc, the source of some lovely wines, such as Preuillac and Potensac, but also many of those lesser known estates mentioned above. Such as Chateau Laulan Ducos, where Brigitte, Frederic and Julien Ducos harvest the fruit of about 20 hectares of vines. It is a serious operation, with stainless steel fermentation and a decent proportion of new oak every year. It shows through in the wines, which have a very firm, classic style, sometimes a little denser and more giving depending on the vintage, but they always, in my experience, have plenty of appeal. Fans of classically structured wines such as Potensac would like these, and the 2005 from Laulan Ducos is as good a place as any to test out this theory. It has a deep, glossy but dense hue, and an array of pure and spicy aromas are released from the glass, a melange of liquorice and cassis fruit backed up by smoky cherry, sweetly composed but also serious and gritty. On the palate a similar purity comes across, carried by a rich texture underpinned by a fine grip. There are just piles of ripe tannins, within a core of lipsmacking savoury quality which carries through to the finish. Fresh and balanced, this is approachable now, but will certainly give yet more pleasure in a few years time. Excellent potential. 17+/20 (13/8/07)

Article (c) Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor (http://www.thewinedoctor.com/)

Church's English Shoes

Church's Shoes was founded in 1873 by three brothers who brought together under one roof the cottage industry skills involved in shoe-making at the time. The company's headquarters are still based in Northampton in England.

Church's used the same combination of quality craftsmanship and the world's finest leathers to produce the Church English Shoe Collection. The collection of ‘Handmade Custom Grade’ shoes offers premier shoes to experience the finest in comfort, quality and style. In a changing world, these classic English styles form a lasting impression. The 250 operations and eight weeks of craftsmanship using the very finest leathers to produce every single pair of shoes for today's well-dressed gentleman is legendary and unmatched by the majority of other comparable shoe manufacturers.

Church & Co. still manufacture Church branded footwear at their St James factory in Northampton, which is possibly the largest single unit in Europe manufacturing high quality Goodyear welted shoes. Church also has the ability to satisfy the individual needs of customers who want to make use of "made-to-order" services as well as a first class repair service.

Now owned by the Prada Group, Church’s have not lost any of their classical appeal. They have been worn by James Bond himself in a number of the films, and are rumoured to have been the choice of Ian Fleming. For a bon viveur wanting to purchase some formal footwear, you would be well advised to visit Church’s. They have shops dotted around the country, with two stores on New Bond Street in central London.

Cohiba Siglo IV

The Cohiba Siglo IV was introduced to the international market in 1994. It is a bold, uncompromising cigar of intense flavours. It has a sweet, coffee-like aroma, and embodies the sophistication by which Cohiba has come to be known.

All Cohiba cigars are hand rolled in Havana. The Cohiba brand was initially created as a Havana premium marque for diplomatic use only, but from 1984 it was offered to the cigar smoking public, much to their delight.

The Siglo IV, already a modern classic amongst cigar aficionados, is a perfect after-dinner cigar, complimented by strong coffee or a high quality whisky or cognac.

The Ledbury, Notting Hill, London

Nigel Platts-Martin, restaurateur and co-owner of The Square in Mayfair, has come up trumps once again with this relatively new venture, The Ledbury, in London’s trendy Notting Hill.

Head Chef Brett Graham tops the bill, the young Australian having worked at The Square with Philip Howard (also a co-owner of The Ledbury) before being given the chance to flourish in his own space here. And flourish he has, with their first Michelin star being awarded in January 2006.

The food on offer is haute cuisine with a twist. The twist is that rather than being your standard French classical affair, it is a medley of flavours, textures, ingredients and colours, thoughtfully combined and artistically presented in a range of interesting dishes, with influences from both classical and ‘new world’ cooking.

The menu itself is unpretentious and easy to understand, offering a good variety for carnivorous, piscivorous and vegetarian diners alike. Each dish is an explosion of tastes, unravelling themselves to the palate throughout the meal.

The restaurant décor is smart, neo-retro and in the evening the lighting is spot on, providing a cosy, intimate atmosphere to the constant buzz of contented diners.

Being a 1 Michelin star establishment, the service is fluid but could do with further polishing to raise the restaurant’s game to the next level. The food, however, is equal to anything you will find in a 3 Michelin star restaurant, and it is also priced very well at £45 for the 3 course dinner, including mandatory amuse-bouche, pre-desserts and petis fours.

Currently, there is nowhere better in the northern reaches of Notting Hill for an haute cuisine experience of this standard. Long may they prosper.

Hennessey XO Cognac

Still the best cognac for under £100 a bottle, the Hennessey XO is a blend of Eau de Vies that combine to provide the epitome of a cognac drinking experience. A sniff of the glass will make one’s eyes water, and that first sip will burn the lips, warming the throat and instantly evaporating off the tongue like a spectral liquid.

Served in all of the best bars around the world, one would do well to have a bottle of this in their home collection. It goes very well with a cigar, after coffees and petit fours. It deserves to be drunk out of a fine crystal cognac glass.

Ramsay Loses Top Ranking

Harden’s London Restaurant Guide has demoted Gordon Ramsay’s flagship restaurant from the number one ranking as the best overall London venue for food, ambience and service. The new honour has gone to another of Ramsay’s restaurants, Petrus, run by top chef Marcus Wareing, who is undoubtedly gloating about his victory over his former mentor. Ramsay’s flagship restaurant has also lost out to Chez Bruce, which clinched the accolade of the highest rated restaurant food in London.

But how much of an impact does this make? What does it all mean? Well, not a great deal. As Zoe Williams of The Guardian succinctly puts it, “Really, with food as intricately tended and expertly conceived as this, unless something has gone very wrong, the distinctions are so fine that you're talking about the space between "amazingly delicious" and "unconscionably delicious". Ultimately, you're critiquing the atmosphere, and not even that of the establishment. Rather, the way that particular chef makes you feel.” (The Guardian, 28th August 2007).

So bon viveurs need not worry. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at 68 Royal Hospital Road is still a Mecca of haute cuisine in London and we should not forget that it is still the only restaurant in London with the outstanding accolade of 3 Michelin stars. Harden’s have rightly decided to give the pole position in their guide to some other contenders, perhaps in a response to Ramsay’s continuing business empire and brand name which is not to everyones taste, unlike his food.

The Waterside Inn, Bray, Berkshire

The day was dulcet. The sun shone. The birds sang. The daffs nodded gently in the breeze. All was harmony and light as the river flowed quietly at the edge of the greensward. The river? The Thames to be precise. I was settled in at the Waterside Inn at Bray for the first time in a decade, in the company of my eldest brother. Guardian readers may be more familiar with Bray as the home of the Fat Duck, the culinary playground of our own Heston Blumenthal, but for 30 years the Waterside Inn has been achieving the heights to which the Fat Duck aspires.

During that time the presiding spirit at the Waterside Inn has been Michel Roux, brother of Albert, who had been the presiding spirit at Le Gavroche, the restaurant that they founded together in London. They are two of the most remarkable men ever to have practised the culinary arts in this, or any, country. They won stars. They did the TV-books-newspaper-column thing. They pioneered technical innovations and ran restaurant empires. They founded, and still run, the scholarship that bears their name, pour encourager les autres.

Chefs who have worked for them have headed out around the country carrying the flame of sound kitchen practice, not just in centres of fine dining but also in more generally accessible places - pubs, bistros, brasseries. And they've both had the strength of character to hand over control of their kitchens to their respective sons. Albert's son, Michel Jr, has been at the helm of Le Gavroche for a few years, but this year the shy and modest Alain, son of Michel Sr, officially becomes chef/patron at the Waterside.

Which brings me to what amounts to a national scandal. The Roux brothers have been honoured in France, the country of their birth, but in the country which has benefited immeasurably from their energy, enterprise and excellence, not a dicky bird. This is official dereliction on an infamous scale. If we can give the mayor of New York an honorary knighthood out of solidarity and respect, the very least we can do is confer the same honour on two men who have contributed so much to the standards of public eating in this country. That's all I have to say on the matter, except to add that a visit to the Waterside Inn is a reminder of just how high those standards are.

They don't just apply to the food, which you would expect, but equally to the service, which is all engaging charm and well-oiled professionalism; the décor, which places the emphasis on elegance, space and light; the pacing of a meal, which is leisurely and well ordered - there is always a sense of forward momentum, but never one of hurry; and the tone, which, while unquestionably shaped by money, is open, welcoming, democratic. Of course, the situation at the river's edge on a sublime spring day ladles on the sense of good cheer, but when you step into the Waterside Inn, you are picked up and held in this kindly, civilised embrace that not even the presentation of the bill can dispel.

It came to £207.50 in our case, which is a lot of money, but money very well spent. Unless you are very rich indeed, you are not going to be popping into the Waterside Inn on a regular basis. It will remain, for most of us, a place for high days, holidays, spring days, maybe once a year or even once a lifetime. On that basis, don't you deserve to spend £100 each on yourself and a friend? You can spend the same going to a Premiership football match, a trip to the opera, or an off-peak package holiday in Benidorm. It's a matter of priorities. I know where mine lie.

For that £207.50 we got six courses on the Menu Exceptionnel at £76 a head, plus three glasses each of wines, all French, from a formidable, all-French list, chosen specifically to go with each course, a glass of champagne and a glass of sherry beforehand, and a glass of vieille prune apiece to celebrate the close of play. The cooking is classic modern French. That is to say, each dish is carefully structured, the saucing is light but intense and clear, the balance between protein and carbohydrate impeccably observed, cooking times, for the most part, precise. This is not food that sets out to challenge, in the manner of modern French maestros such as Marc Veyrat or Pierre Gagnaire; it holds to traditional values of coherence, correlation and euphony.

The tronçonnette de homard poêlée minute au porto was outstanding, the density of the shellfish and the saucing lifted by ginger in the accompanying julienne of vegetables. There was the most refined crust of brioche crumbs on a taut filet of red mullet, with a sauce of fish stock and raspberry vinegar that brought the fish into sharp focus. The caneton challandais aux clous de girofle et au miel was roasted slightly past the requested roseate hue, but, carved at the table with expert minimalism into fine leaves of flesh, each mouthful was a melodious concord of duck, spice, honey and pure juices.

Cheeses, puddings, including a textbook soufflé chaud au Grand Marnier and a luxurious, sweet/tart jelly of rhubarb and Bonnezeaux, were jim-dandy. And... well, enough is enough. Of course, it would always be a real pleasure to lunch at the Waterside Inn, but on such a day it was a privilege.

Article by Matthew Fort, The Guardian, 20th April 2002.