There is definitely a little je ne c’est quoi in the air…. Bastille Day followed by the Tour de France, topped off with the launch party of Mr & Mrs Smith’s Hotel Collection – France. I love cycling but I only took part in two of the events above, naturellement.

1. Bastille Day at Battersea Park proved France is anything but out of favour with Londoners as queues for the country’s gastronomic delights were consistently longer than my patience can handle!

2. The launch of Mr & Mrs Smith’s Hotel Collection – France, embraced an air of shabby chic that only West London and parts of Paris can get away with and still retain their cool edge as we hung out in Notting Hill’s quaint Travel Book Shop drinking Champagne Ruinart Brut NV and eating our body weight in cheese from the dangerously waist-expanding La Fromagerie. ………

The results are in! The wines selected to fly the Miss Bouquet World Wine Flag are ready to be revealed! Last month, when England was still in the World Cup and the St George’s cross was freckling the streets I got a group of football widows together for a night flying a flag of a different kind. The World Wine Flag. Red, white and rosé of course.

Why? Well I’ve sat through my fair share of formulaic wine trade seminars in my time, you know the ones with the dramatic sounding titles that lead you to believe that by attending this seminar you’ll walk away with the key to abundant wine sales at profitable margins for years to come. My most recent experience of this time wasting exercise was at the London International Wine Fair 2010 in May. The seminar was alluringly titled:

“Where is the UK wine category heading”

………

The other day I was invited to … drum roll please…. ‘the world’s first synchronised wine tasting!’ An event where wine, technology and a truly international palate would meet. The concept seemed simple – 90 wine specialists (journalists, bloggers, wine educators) from across the world would taste the same wines at the same time and be connected via video link to the winemakers*. Hosted by the Sud de France, one of France’s many generic bodies responsible for promoting produce from the area, I was invited to taste 5 wines** chosen as the standard bearers of the region at their London offices in Cavendish Square.

In the spirit of the high tech event that it was I had been asked to bring my laptop, naturellement, so I could ‘blog’ about what was happening in real time. On arrival though it was clear to see the genre of the event hadn’t registered in the minds of some, and despite the video link equipment around the room only 4 of us had the right tools to fully participate. A reflection of the wine trades inability to keep up with what is now the most basic of technologies? Perhaps. But what then does it say about wine journalism when 2 of the remaining invitées had to be supplied with notebooks! Seriously. ………

I’m fresh back from Milan, the city of fashion, food, and fabulous weather. Have you been? It’s a place where brands rule and paupers drool. Prada, Missoni, Ferrari…. there’s temptation at every corner!

I was amazed at how quickly we acclimatised to the local way of life. Fresh pasta, authentic pizzas, and gelato felt like second nature after our first lunch and our afternoons quickly became structured around the Milanese institution that is aperitivo hour as soon as the clock strikes 6pm.

Yes, everything to do with London became a distant memory the minute Milan’s summer sun hit our shoulders. Everything that is except for the rosé. In London when the sun comes out sales of rosé wine peak along with burger buns and BBQ sauce. Not so in Milan, it’s red, white or limoncello it seems. We hunted high and low, from traditional trattorias to curb side cafés, from pizzerias to fancy Milanese bars, hell we even ventured to the Bulgari Hotel, all in the name of research you understand! ………

As the world cup approaches I don’t seem to be able to escape football, Ferdinand and flags. The union jack is popping up in more London windows than there were election posters and white vans are already freckled with red crosses. Chez Miss Bouquet however I’m determined not to let football fever get in the way of a good glass of wine so I’m starting a little project which will raise a flag of a different kind; the wine flag. Red, white and rosé. Of course.

The idea is to gather a group of football widows during one of the first round England matches to taste through a selection of wines and find out what girls-about-London-town have a taste for this summer.

The date is confirmed and will be held on Friday 18^th June for England v Algeria. ………

I’m completely preoccupied with the thought of going away. Mr Bouquet and I are off to the south of France at the end of the month dependent of course on the continued calm of Eyjafjallajokull’s temper. So desperate am I for some R&R that I’d like to think nothing could stop us, but although I love the Eurostar and can tolerate the odd Ferry journey, life without passenger planes is another thing altogether. I’d never get to visit those far flung and fabulous new world wine producing countries, I’d have to make do with Europe, quelle horreur!

Having said that I was delighted to discover that extensive travel is no longer required to get my wine-fix. In fact it’s no longer necessary to even leave our shores as it turns out the hype surrounding our very own English sparkling wines is more than just a dig in les ribs français, we really are producing wines that rival those of Champagne. Try these two for starters if you don’t believe me:

Ridgeview Merret Grosvenor Blanc de Blancs 2006, produced on the south downs of Sussex from 100% chardonnay and made using the traditional champagne method of production. It is rich with white chocolate and pain au raisin flavours, a steal at £20.85 from Waitrose. ………