Burgundy En Primeur 2011 in London

London’s wine world – press, Burgundian wine producers and customers – spent much of last week shuttling round the city tasting and assessing the 2011 vintage.

We made sure Berry Bros & Rudd Press was prominent at the BBR tasting, held in the ridiculously grand Victorian great hall at One Great George Street, a cork’s throw from Big Ben.

Visitors were greeted by a big screen showing the Inside Burgundy eBooks as they entered the hall.  Another screen caught their eyes as they tasted, and BBR Press people were on hand to demonstrate the eBooks on a couple of state-of-the art iPads, kindly lent by Apple.

The Retina Display screens on the new iPads show off the beautiful photographs and the intricate maps in Côte de Beaune to even better advantage.

The Burgundy winegrowers all know Jasper Morris’s book, which was also on display in its printed version. “My bible!” said one. To a man, and woman, they were impressed by the iPad edition, which is now on sale through Apple’s iBookstore in 50 countries across the world.

Journalists, too, took the chance to inspect Jasper’s ebooks. Among those who took a good long look were Jane MacQuitty of The Times; Anthony Rose of The Independent;  author Stephen Brook; Steven Spurrier, President of the Circle of Wine Writers; prolific blogger Jim Budd (Jim’s Loire); Georgie Hindle of Decanter.com; Johanna Wilson of  World of Fine Wine.

Customers were also offered the chance to try the iPads – after they had tasted, of course – and it was facinating to find how many people, young and old, own iPads and indeed had already taken a look at our eBooks. “I had an iPad for Christmas” said one (fairly senior) Burgundy-lover. “It’s got just one thing on it so far: Jasper’s book!”

After a long day talking, demonstrating and handing out leaflets, the BBR Press team were invited along by Jasper Morris MW to the dinner held to thank the winegrowers for their visit to London. The scenes in the venerable Berry Bros cellars as Burgundians and Londoners let their hair down – and the tastes of some remarkable (non-burgundy) wines – will stay in our memories….

See the post about the event on Jim’s Loire here (inserted image, above left, courtesy of Jim Budd)