Cocktail capital bows to London
Hands up those who think Manhattan is the world's best cocktail city. I guess that's most of you - it is the home of the cocktail, after all. But you'd be wrong. According to Audrey Saunders - the influential shaker-wielding beverage director of New York's legendary Bemelmans Bar - London is where it's at on the cocktail front.
Saunders dropped this bombshell on cult cocktail website Drinkboy.com after a visit to the capital at the end of last month. "A mind-blowing experience" is how she sums it up. "Everything was first-rate; from the quality of the drinks to the freshness of ingredients, to the level of expertise," she enthuses online. And I was there when she visited.
We met four days into her week-long trip - at the Blue bar in the Berkeley hotel, London. She'd heard much about the Blue bar and its bartender Niall Cowan (who has just moved to One Aldwych, by the way), and it lived up to expectation. "Look at that - beautiful," she says, pointing at a neighbour's vibrant deep-purple cocktail served in an elegant long-stemmed glass.
She looked remarkably perky considering the bar crawl she had just done. Earlier that morning she visited the whisky aficionados at Boisdale, which was having its fourth annual Club Cuban Festival, complete with guest El Floridita barman (one Jesus Rodriguez Fernandez), not to mention Buena Vista Social Club musicians. "People seem to go to great lengths here to pull in the talent," she says, raving about Boisdale's chilli jam daiquiri. "The rum just married with the chilli - that someone could control the heat at that level is amazing."
Flavour magazine's editor Tom Innes persuaded Saunders to participate in a whisky cocktail-judging competition for Whisky Magazine at new cocktail hot spot Lonsdale. "An incredible experience. This one guy lined a glass with fresh pineapple, then sprinkled brown sugar, then absinthe, and set it alight to caramelise - a concept way beyond its years. The understanding of flavours is staggering, right down to how fresh the garnishes are - there's a real creative energy over here."
You want more? The Rip Van Winkle Rye Old Fashioned at Rockwell was declared perfectly balanced: "The orange twist stood to attention at the centre of the glass like a fountain spewing out aromatic essence amid the ice." Then there were the foam cocktails inspired by Spain's legendary chef Ferran Adrià at Detroit, where Tony Conigliaro rules behind the bar. "We start talking about gelatine and Tony recommends agar-agar over the bovine because it has more staying power." Not to mention Milk & Honey - one of her all-time favourite London bars - Lab, the Atlantic and Crobar. The only bum note was Sketch. "Drinks were visually appealing but needed work - they lacked dimension," she says.
"I go back to New York and it's ‘oh my god'. Apart from a handful, we're just not doing it - we've got fat and complacent. OK, so we invented the cocktail, but you took it and ran with it. You are leagues ahead of us now." Don't let it go to your head, though.
Shorts
Wine sales pitch of the week "It's When Harry Met Sally in a glass," says Dawn Davies, head sommelier and wine buyer at London's Boxwood Café, of Ridge Lytton Springs 2000 Zinfandel.
Flower power
So all change at Pétrus, as Tante Claire becomes Pétrus and Pétrus becomes Fleur. But what of the wine list, I hear you ask? And what is Fleur anyway? Well, Fleur makes reference to Pétrus owner Pierre Mouiex's other Pomerol estate called Lafleur-Pétrus, a 9.08-hectare vineyard on a plateau east of Pomerol, sandwiched between Lafleur (not owned by Moueix, but by Sylvie and Jacques Guinadeau - keep up) and Pétrus, which is owned by Moueix. The Lafleur-Pétrus soils are rich in gravel and the vineyard is planted with 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The grapes are hand picked then fermented in temperature-controlled concrete vats, and the wine is aged in small oak barrels - 50% new - for 18 months.
Does Fleur (the restaurant) sell the wine? Of course it does. It has vintages going back to 1970, with the cheapest being the most recent - £235 for the 1998, or £495 for a magnum. Incidentally, you can buy the 1999 from Berry Bros & Rudd for £45 (retail) a bottle. P‚trus sommelier Alan Holmes will oversee the list at Fleur, but he has put Israel-born Yishay Malkov in charge of the day-to-day running of the 300-bin list, which includes new injections from the New World, Spain and Italy.
German red revolution According to the Deutsches Weininstitut in Mainz, Germany, the extraordinary summer weather has meant that the country could produce its best reds yet. "The must weights in some Sp„tburgunder (Pinot Noir) have already exceeded 60 degrees Oechsle [sugar content]," gushes director Armin G"ring, who reveals that one-third of Germany's vineyard area is now planted with red grapes.
Get wine savvyI Don't Know Much About Wine, But I Know What I Like is the title of a new, easy-reading guide to wine by Simon Woods (published by Mitchell Beazley, £4.99). This irreverent book offers 50 ways to get more out of a bottle of wine, including the basics of buying, and exploring wine on the web.
