The Bancroft "Fine Wine" reunion, by Sean Burbridge

Over the summer a few of our much loved colleagues left for pastures new, so it was decided that we should all have a good catch up over some fine wines. Lunch was to be organised at one of Bancroft’s favourite haunts – The Kitchen on Tower Bridge Road. The idea was for each person to bring along a bottle “to impress”.....so the ex-staff members were invited, the table was booked and the food pre-ordered to avoid disappointment. 

Sean carrying all the wines!

Unfortunately, the turnout of ex-Bancrofters was not as we hoped and so the lunch ended up being just one ex-Bancrofter. Nevertheless, we continued with our plan and armed with the fine wines we had peeled from our collections, we headed down Bermondsey Street to the main event of the day.

Most of the wines were served blind to arouse discussion and thought but some were known in advance.

The “special” dish that was pre-ordered was a fantastic saddle of lamb, thickly sliced with hints of pink – it was succulent and delicious and a great partner for the wines.

The first wine, a white, was served blind with our various starters. Enjoyed by all, it was a rich and taught wine with plenty of character. It received guesses with regard to grape variety and the consensus was Chardonnay. The origin proved a little trickier although Australia was the thought of some. Eventually a single vineyard Ten Minutes by Tractor Chardonnay from their Wallis vineyard was revealed from the 2011 vintage. The youth of the wine explained the taught character but with time on its side everybody agreed the wine had a bright future ahead of it.

 

The second wine, also served blind was quite a contrast. It had aged complexity which baffled a few of the tasters but one person correctly nailed aged Chablis and even suggested that it was richer than a village level and thought premier cru or even grand cru. The 2007 Chablis 1er cru Beauroy from Laurent Tribut was very pleasurable and at 6 years old, patience had given the wine an extra level of interest.

The third wine was the first red and was a bit of a push over. Very pale in colour, browning towards the rim and a classic Pinot Noir nose – it was all too easy – however, the age and village were not identified. The closest guess to the age was 11 years old which is a compliment to a wine which was heading towards its 20th birthday....Gevrey and Chambolle were the two villages thrown into the guessing pot and somewhere in the middle of those would have been spot on. Vosne Romanee 1er cru Brulees from Rene Engel 2006 – the wine was a real treat.

The fourth wine was a classic lamb match, a good old fashioned Bordeaux. 1995 Château Haut Batailley, Pauillac. This was decanted a few hours before the dinner and proved to be a good idea. We all heavily disagreed with Robert Parkers (and others) suggestion that the wine was past its prime drinking window. Everybody agreed the wine still had youthful vigour and the several stages of development in the decanter confirmed this. A classic Pauillac emerged and was enjoyed by all.

Wine number five, another red wine served blind. It always seems that the “finer” the wine, the easier to pinpoint its origins. The oak on this wine was the giveaway...creamy sweet vanilla characters pointing straight to Spain and nobody argued with this initial assessment. The wine was complex, lots of earthy leathery characters with chocolate and coffee notes, intense and deeply flavoured. It was a star wine, which had obviously had some time in bottle to develop. It turned out to be a Bancroft favourite and a Robert Parker 95 pointer. It was Ribera del Duero, Neo 2001...we could only imagine what the Punta Essencia cuvee will be like, if this cheaper cuvee is this good!

Number 6, and back to white. An imposter of a wine, brought from a rival company by the only ex-Bancrofter to turn up. Again, it wasn’t too tricky to guess the wine, a rich, creamy full and expressive Chardonnay was nailed early on and the bottle of Puligny 1er cru, Referts from Oliveir Lefliave 2011 was the last of the dry wines and nearly completed the line up of our special treats.

Lastly but certainly not least, a sweet treat was served. 5 Puttonyos Aszu 2007 from the Royal Tokaji company. A prefect accompaniment to The Kitchen’s cheese board and a great end to a great meal.

It was a great shame more ex-Bancofters didn’t show up but we could “accidentally” send them this blog to ensure they do not miss out, if or when, another fine wine event is organised for the future. 

Written by Sean Burbridge