My old wine trade friend James Simpson MW – Managing Director of Pol Roger Portfolio – popped-in to my Brook Street office for a socially-distanced lunch this week.
To ensure that social distancing requirements were maintained, we measured out the requisite distance with a Jéroboam of Pol Roger Brut Réserve NV.
Nice shorts, James. Like him, I haven’t worn trousers or a shirt – with rare exceptions – since 23rd March. This is the new London business dress code, which is fine by me.
I think that James had managed to get a haircut – though probably not by a professional. I have an appointment at 9am on Saturday 4th July, so I will possibly be the first person in England to have their cut since 22nd March. It will be my first haircut of 2020.
I’ve known James for over 20 years. He began his career as a “cellar boy” in 1986 and became a Master of Wine only six years later in 1992, aged 27, making him the third-youngest person to pass the MW exams.
I asked James if he could bring something with “Churchill” on the label. He spoiled us all with a bottle of the superb 2008 Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.
Made predominantly from the first pressings of Grand Cru Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that were under vine during Churchill’s lifetime, the ’08 Sir Winston is poetic in its precision.
It opened-up in the glass like a photograph developing, though remains far from its prime, with many years ahead of it.
The acidity is as “fresh as if issued to children on a beach” (I quote from the opening paragraph of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, which I reread recently).
This superb champagne ends with a gleaming, frictionless finish.
Well done James and Pol Roger.
Wishing you a bon weekend