Our fascination with celebrities influences what we wear, where we go and, increasingly, what we drink. Richard Siddle wrote a fabulous article recently in the Buyer about how, far from oversaturating the market, celebrity wines are now a real threat to bargain wine labels as we know them. A wine company will spend years and tens of thousands of pounds building positive brand associations, whereas a celebrity wine comes with them built in to its DNA.
This means that, by now, you’ll likely have seen myriad pieces about Elton John’s new venture: a zero-alcohol blanc de blancs made from northern Italian chardonnay. The feeling you get from the sheer volume of articles is that this might be the bottle to genuinely bring zero per cent wine to the masses. The reason mine has taken a bit longer is because I wanted to try the drop in situ. And I was waiting for an email back from Elton John on where I ought to do so (I’ll go anywhere recommended to me by Elton John, obviously).
As a wine writer, I receive samples often, but nothing really measures up to trying wine in its intended context, with the food it’s meant to be paired with, at a precise serving temperature that my fridge could only dream of achieving.
Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, recommended Lilibet’s – a recently opened restaurant (and the setting for the wine’s press shots) in Mayfair, just off glitzy Berkeley Square – as the source of one of their most recent memorable meals. Situated below an office block, it possesses the “commitment to the bit” aesthetic that unites the restaurants it’s surrounded by (Bacchanalia, Sexy Fish etc).
Lilibet’s is a seafood pervert’s dream, and sparkling wine has long been a fail-safe pairing for salty, wriggly things. I’m pleased to report that this is also the case for the zero per cent blanc de blancs. The mousse is gentle and the sweetness more pronounced, so it went well with some of the spicier, more citrusy dishes – opt for the carpaccio with chilli and lime over a fatty piece of tuna. I was also inspired to pour it into an oyster, noticing the flavour parallels with the restaurant’s Carlingfords dressed in apple, gin and a little green peppercorn. All the Mayfair hedonism without the headache.
eltonjohnzero.com
lilibetsrestaurant.com
The Drink is a regular column from writer Hannah Crosbie about what she’s drinking in London right now.
