Why I can't write about the Raeburn tasting

Given I haven't posted for over a month I didn't intend to start with a rant but having been blackballed from the Raeburn Fine Wines tasting today I think the matter deserves an airing.

The problem appears to be a somewhat critical review I wrote of Hedone six months ago - the restaurant where the tasting was taking place. Having been urged to come along (and even bring a chef friend) I suddenly got a frantic email this morning asking me "not to attend today under any circumstances" as my presence "would probably result in a disagreement in public, which he [the presumably mortally wounded chef] and we would prefer to avoid."

There are several issues here:

* I would have been there to taste wine not to review the restaurant so it doesn't really matter what I thought of the food and the ambience.

* Why should the fact I've written a critical review result in a 'public disagreement'? I certainly wouldn't have mentioned it.

* In any case why should he care? I'm not a restaurant critic and there are plenty of critics and bloggers who think his restaurant is the bees knees. (And a few who agree with me.)

* Isn't this a bit of a slippery slope? If only people who write glowing reviews - of restaurants or wines - are allowed to tastings that seems to me a pretty unhealthy state of affairs. Granted if I incessantly went to Hedone and banged on about how awful it was the chef might reasonably ask me to leave. But just the one visit when I was by no means critical of all the food and said I should probably go back and eat there again? A bit extreme, surely?

OK. Let's look at it from Mikael's point of view. Some customer comes in, writes an unfavourable review and it's up there on the internet in perpetuity. He obviously cares passionately about what he does. But if it rankles that much (and I'm still at a loss to see why) why not simply get in touch and say 'you ought to take another look at what we do'.

Should I have turned up anyway? Well there's an argument for that but at the end of the day a restaurant is someone's private property. You can't insist on being admitted and Chiswick is a fair way to go on the off-chance.

The outcome is I've missed what by all accounts sounds a fascinating tasting featuring exactly the sort of wines that interest me most. I'm sure I'll write about them in the future - assuming I'm ever allowed to taste them. In the meantime I suggest both Raeburn and Hedone devote a little more attention to PR.

The Dirty Dozen: tasting of the year?

Wine tastings aren't half as much fun as they seem from the outside. They're usually huge, overheated, crowded and full of dull wines. Or, at least, most of them are dull.

The Dirty Dozen tasting was only guilty of one of those crimes - it was ridiculously cramped due, apparently, to the fact that the ceiling of the room it had been booked to take place in at the English Speaking Union had collapsed so it was held in a conservatory at the side whose wooden floor creaked ominously as the several hundred members of the press and wine trade milled around it.

The wines, however, were just thrilling. I started with a selection to which each merchant had contributed 2 bottles and there wasn't a dud one among them.

So who are the (surely misnamed) Dirty Dozen? A group of wine merchants who specialise in artisanal producers including a fair number of organic, biodynamic and natural winemakers. They included some familiar ones to me - Aubert & Mascoli (hardcore natural), Burgundy specialists Flint Wines, Indigo Wines (largely Spain) , London-based Roberson, Bristol-based Vine Trail (very well sourced wines from France) and German specialist The WineBarn, so having a limited amount of time I concentrated on a few I wasn't so familiar with.

The highlight was fortyfive10° which imports Italian wines from family-owned domains, the idea being to deal with estates that have form when it comes to winemaking. The owner Massimiliano Jacobacci states that he looks for "wines that express the history of a region through traditional wine making techniques as opposed to the current trend for wines of immediate accessibility at the expense of complexity and longevity." Or, as he put it to me more simply "We don't do entry level wines. I don't like them and I don't want to sell them."

So their wines obviously don't come cheap but if you want to be blown away dig deep in your pockets and buy a bottle of the stunning Sodi di San Niccolo from Chianti producer Castellare di Castellina, a beautifully crafted blend of Sangioveto and Malvasia Nera and one of the most delicious reds I've tasted this year. (My tasting note says 'heaven'!) The vintage I tried was the 2005 which doesn't seem to be in the market but you can find the 2004 from a wine and events company called A Moveable Feast in which Jacobacci also seems to be involved.

They (fortyfive10°) also supply a number of high profile London restaurants including Chez Bruce, The Ledbury, Polpo, Roka and the River Café.

Anyway I suggest you get yourself on the mailing list of all these importers and make sure, if you're in the trade, that you get to The Dirty Dozen tasting next year. Which I hope will be in a larger room.

Open day at Calce

It was a bit frustrating to drive through Calce on our recent trip only days before an open day on May 7th when all the local wineries open their doors. The village houses some of the best known names in organic winemaking in the Roussillon, including Domaine Gauby, Olivier Pithon and Domaine Matassa. As you can see the title of the event is Les Caves se rebiffent which losely translates as the cellars hit back.

If you're in the area it's a great opportunity to taste their wines and see what makes this particular spot in the Roussillon so distinctive.