John Leese of McQueen mixes a "Le Lapin de la Maison" for Chinese New Year

I've known John Leese for some time now and he has quite a track record - Match W1, Mahiki and Viajante are just some that spring to mind. He is now the bar manager at McQueen in Shoreditch - a favourite venue of mine that has appeared on these pages several times before with Theo (who incidentally, is still at McQueen).

I asked John to make a La Maison Fontaine cocktail for Chinese New Year (the year of the rabbit - 3rd February) and this is what he came up with:

"Le Lapin de la Maison"

Google hilariously translates as "The House Bunny"

35ml La Maison Fontaine Absinthe

10ml lime juice

15ml elderflower cordial

20ml apple juice

40ml Sauvignon Blanc


Shake all the ingredients over ice, strain into a high ball and serve with an apple garnish - simples!

Jenny Gardener of Vanquish Brand Management visits St Nicholas Abbey

Vanquish were very proud to have St Nicholas Abbey 10 Year Old Rum from Barbados join the Vanquish Brand Management portfolio. The Rum fitted our profile perfectly - rare, artisanal and authentic as well as great liquid and stunning packaging.

We have since seeded SNA (St Nicholas Abbey) into many top venues throughout London (Paramount, Zuma, Movida, Artesian, Mahiki, Tramp.....:) and gained many, many more fans along the way.

RumFest 2010 was the first time I'd seen the Warren's since... well.... ages!

http://deliciousdrinksandspirits.blogspot.com/2010/10/st-nicholas-abbey-12-year-old-rum.html

It was while chatting to Robert A. Burr at this year's RumFest that I was made aware of the Rum and Beer festival in Barbados in November.... It occurred to me then that I should perhaps take myself on holiday to Barbados, The Rum and Beer Festival and most importantly - St Nicholas Abbey....

My first sighting of Barbados, this is the highly desirable West Coast.

To find out more about the island please visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados

One of the first things I did was go on a boat trip from the capital Bridgetown up round the West coast to moor off Sandy Lane beach - awesome. I was staying in the district of St Peter in the apartment of Andrew and Karene - they made me feel very welcome and the invitation to join them on this boat trip introduced me to lots of the locals, who are all rum ambassadors!

Everyone goes off the side and into the water!

After training and talking to so many people about St Nicholas Abbey and it's rum it was incredible to finally visit in person. I went on the tour which explains the history of the Abbey and the people who owned it and I even picked up a few new anecdotes along the way.

The film they show is quite incredible, dating back to 1935 the footage is consequently extremely rare. It was made by the previous owner Charles J.P. Cave when he took his family from England all the way to the Abbey filming the whole trip on a recently acquired cine camera.

When you are next planning a holiday think about Barbados and a visit to St Nicholas Abbey, I can honestly recommend it! Check their website for more information and history:

http://stnicholasabbey.com/



Anna has done a really amazing job in the gardens.

The grounds of SNA

The tropical jungle just beyond the grounds of SNA

The Still - "Annabelle"

It was a real pleasure to see the still not only up close and personal but actually distilling! It had been a long struggle for Larry to get the still licensed but perseverance and Larry's indomitable spirit eventually paid off. On the day of the Wine, Food and Rum Festival lunch at the Abbey "Annabelle" was fired up! She worked very hard turning St Nicholas Abbey's very own produced sugar cane "honey" (the juice is extracted using an original steam mill, the water is then evaporated off and the juice becomes concentrated) into fine rum! Of course, it will be a while before it's ready but the best things in life are worth waiting for.....

Now you may be a bit confused if you were paying attention earlier.... Didn't I say it was the Rum and Beer Festival I was off to visit not the Food, Wine and Rum Festival....? True, all true - it was very confusing for everyone! There were indeed two festivals on the same weekend - what a double whammy! In fact it was a Rum, Beer, Food, Wine, Rum Fest!

http://www.rumandbeerfestival.com/

http://www.foodwinerum.com/

Every aspect of producing the Rum at St Nicholas Abbey is hand crafted.

Theses are the hand embossed leather caps that fit into the mahogany tops of the Rum bottles.

This is the bottling line..... tiny production indeed!

Kathy in the bottling room, after hand filling the bottles she engraves the date and number onto each bottle.

The Abbey is now a big tourist attraction for visitors to the island and what better souvenir than a bottle of St Nicholas Abbey 10 Year Old Rum engraved with a personal message! Above is Michael engraving a couple of bottles for me.... If you take the empty bottle back they will refil for a reduced price.... what perfect recycling.


Cherry Tree Hill Reserve

The Warren family is keen to preserve the national heritage of St Nicholas Abbey and the plantation. The historic site of Cherry Tree Hill, which has been growing Mahogany for generations, is consequently assured a future for generations to come under their guardianship.

East Coast view from Cherry Tree Hill

The East Coast is very different from the glamour of the West Coast - it's rugged and wild and as you can see quite mountainous.

Foursquare Distillery

I'd heard lots of things about Foursquare Distillery - Disney World and twinkle town were common descriptions and they were not wrong. Fairy lights adorn the outside of buildings and while there's an obvious sophistication in the high tech eqipment, it's underpinned by a mischevious sense of fun. We were invited to a secret party and distillery tour with Richard Seale himself, which was a real honour. Above is some of the range of Rum that Richard makes and if you're wondering why St Nicholas Abbey Rum is there - where have you been!?

Follow Simon Warren at the Abbey on Twitter @snAbbeyrum

Follow Jenny Gardener in the UK on Twitter @StNichAbbeyRUM

Join the group on Facebook - St Nicholas Abbey 10 Year Old Barbados Rum (UK)

Join the page on Facebook - St Nicholas Abbey (Barbados)

La Maison Fontaine, Ed's Christmas Party, the new Shunt and Jimmy Wales.

On Sunday 19th December Ed Saperia hosted one of his amazing Acid Jam parties, "You won't survive outside, not on your own" was held at the new Shunt on Bermondsey Street to celebrate the holidays and raise money for Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Some of the fun included; a mulled wine hot tub, mulled wine (not the same source you'll be relieved to know), barbecue, great live bands, jamming room stuffed full of instruments, edible installations, hay bails, comedy, pegs (you had to be there), Christmas trees everywhere, hot cider, La Maison Fontaine Absinthe Bar and The Machine!


We were very pleased indeed to be invited to host a La Maison Fontaine Absinthe Bar and even more pleased to be given the upstairs of The Machine. If you have not yet been to the Shunt warehouse on Bermondsey Street, check it out! We all highly recommend it:

http://www.shunt.co.uk/

The Machine refers to a bespoke theatre set for the production of The Shunt Company show "Money" (I haven't seen the play yet but it's high on my 'to do' list - if they bring it back...) it's a massive construction on three floors - some of which are see through. We were on the top floor and could see down into the jamming room on the second floor - awesome!

We decked the bar out with lights, a fountain and La Maison Fontaine, providing revellers with the choice of a classic serve or a Pontarlier Mule - all the proceeds are going to Wikipedia, naturally!

The thing that made it really special for me was the people. Everyone I met was really genuine, friendly, open minded and agreeable - they were all just so bloody nice! So a big shout of thanks has to go out to Ed, all the Shunt team - Nigel, Will, Andrea, Daniel, Dan and the rest..., Madaleine, Nicola, Caroline, Manfred, Daryl, Clayton and Alex for helping! With a very special thanks to Jimmy Wales - he turned up to the party where others had failed due to the snow and happily partied with us all evening, he also posed for a squillion photographs.... what a gent!


Did I mention the edible installation? This is it - a huge edible snow scene with Christmas trees, yule logs, marshmallows, candy floss..... At several points there were also bubbling vats of dry ice billowing out white vapour - incredible!
for more info please visit:
http://www.fontaineabsinthe.com/home/agecheck
and
http://www.vanquishwine.com/

La Maison Fontaine Infusion Competition!

Boutique Bar Show was a major success for La Maison Fontaine Absinthe. The Fountains stopped people in their tracks and the Fontaine of Youth infusion generated a lot of interest from top people in the industry. Many had wished they had thought of it first but we're pleased to say it was created with La Maison Fontaine Absinthe specifically in mind with the help of Allan Gage. Due to the phenomenal interest generated at Boutique Bar Show we have decided to create a competition for the best infusion for La Maison Fontaine!

The best will be featured on the http://www.fontaineabsinthe.com/ web site and of course there will be a great prize with the results announced in 2011. Get in touch if you'd like to participate and be at the forefront of this new wave of interest in artisinal Absinthe and contemporary perfect serves!

Jenny@vqwine.com

020 7529 4308

bonjour@fontaineabsinthe.com

FACEBOOK - La Maison Fontaine Absinthe UK

The Fontaine of Youth

•1.5L Fountain with iced still mineral water
•1 lemon sliced
•Peel of 1 cucumber cut into strips
•6 mint sprigs
•Ice cubes
Fill the fountain with all ingredients and allow to stand for 15mins before serving. Traditional serve (35ml Fontaine) with or without sugar as preferred. Drip contents of the Fontaine fountain to taste, as slowly as possible.

Rui and Jemma behind the Vanquish Stand at Boutique Bar Show.

Angel Champagne

Fifteen years ago Stefano Zagni had a vision - he wanted to produce the worlds most exclusive Champagne. Given the first 24 bottles of Angel Champagne are a collection priced at £250,000.00 - I'd say he's succeeded in his goal!

It's certainly been a long time in the making but on the 15th and 16th of September Angel Champagne was introduced to some top London drinks industry movers and shakers and also The Press in La Suite at Vanquish Wine HQ.

The first thing Stefano did all those years ago was find an exceptional wine maker - he certainly succeeded when he teamed up with Patrick d'Aulan. Patrick's family owned the Champagne House Piper Heidsieck for over 200 years and as he says himself "I was born in a glass of Champagne". Both Stefano and Patrick worked for many years sourcing exceptional grapes and developing the Angel style. For Angel the cepage is Chardonnay dominant and the assemblage for the non vintage is from 3 year old wines and the 2004 has only just been released. Because Angel uses the very best grapes it is only available in tiny quantities and we suspect we may even have to put it on allocation....

Taste:
The non-vintage is straw yellow in colour with green apple tinges and the nose offers good bready yeast with pronounced fruit notes. Things were looking promising, but the palate totally took me by surprise - the mouthfeel is so incredibly soft, it's like drinking liquid silk! Delicate fruit notes come through which are well balanced with the yeasty undertones and it provides good length at the end. Overall, I'd say Angel nv literally oozes style, sophistication and offers unparalleled finesse.

The 2004 is much bigger in profile than the nv with big fruit and big bready notes and consequently cannot quite match the finesse of the nv, but then it's a different wine. It's sensible to offer two different styles in a range and after talking to Patrick about these conclusions he agreed that it was indeed his strategy to produce two fantastic but not identical Champagnes. I for one think he's succeeded. Angel 2004 is my preferred style of Champagne and probably will be for those wine buffs with a developed palate - it's deliciously big and full, but I can also see why the nv is going to be a massive hit.


Stefano Zagni (Founder), Sinitta (Creative Director) and Patrick d'Aulan (Wine Maker)

Sinitta in La Suite talking to the industry about Angel Champagne.
Sinitta really is a fantastic ambassador for the brand, she's passionate, enthusiastic and has some great ideas - we'll be definitely be hearing more from her on Angel Champagne.

Other ambassadors for Angel Champagne are:

Mariah Carey,

Rhianna,

Ne-Yo

Fabolous.
You can watch their various videos on the Angel website:
http://www.angelchampagne.com/news.html

If you are interested in listing Angel Champagne please contact us at Vanquish.

Jenssen Cognac - Inaugural UK Event

On Friday 18th June, Jenssen Cognac sponsored a Rolls Royce event at Goodwood House in Sussex which represented the first outing of Jenssen in the UK. As the Rollers and Bentleys pulled up on the lawn the guests were invited to an aperitif of Jenssen's entry level Cognac 'Carte Blanche' an XO with an average age of 12 years.

The 150 plus guests wandered through the opulent surroundings of Goodwood House enjoying the artwork and various artifacts until dinner was called in the ballroom at 8pm. After the speeches and toasts to various Heads of State, the smoked salmon and caviar blinis were followed by lamb shanks and a dessert of raspberry coulis, all to the melodic sounds of a string quartet. The coffee and petite fours were accompanied by Jensen's second Cognac - an XO with an average age of 25 years.

With dinner out of the way more speeches and a raffle ensued after which the guests were invited to partake in the other Cognacs in the exceptional Jenssen portfolio. The Hors d'Age is a single cask with about 55 years ageing, the L'Epiphanie comes in a beautiful decanter and is a blend of several eaux de vie with an approximate age of about 50 years and finally, the Arcana - the pinnacle of the Jenssen portfolio. The Arcana comes dressed in a wooden shrine and bottled in an exclusively designed, French, hand blown carafe. The liquid itself comes from a very limited source and consequently each Arcana is numbered and comes with a statement of authenticity.
As the event wore on new friends may have been made and lost but Jenssen Cognac remained a firm favourite amongst everyone.

We are already planning the next outing for Jenssen Cognac , it may involve chocolate, it may involve cigars, if you have a view/preference please let us know....?

http://www.jenssen.fr/

http://www.vanquishwine.com/

Also soon to be found on not only on these pages but also Facebook and Twitter - but trust me, there's nothing quite like the Jenssen website for the most up-to-date news...

SONIC BLOOM

SONIC BLOOM

by Richard Brierley of Vanquish

Double Measure of BLOOM Gin

Tonic Water

Soda Water

Fresh Lime

Make a Gin and Tonic with slightly less Tonic so you can top with Soda (Soda/Tonic = SONIC)

Really refreshing and perfect for a summers day!