Author: Patrick

We usually buy all our wines from a small group of growers in the north of Burgundy — in particular customers can’t get enough of our sparkling wines from Florent Masson Epineuil and Céline Côté nearby in Molosmes. However Florent won’t have any sparkling wine to sell us till the autumn so we’ve gone to the local co-operative. The Caves de Bailly-Lapierre have established a place in history by putting a new wine — Crémant de Bourgogne — on the map in 1975. It is literally the nearest thing to Champagne: if they were just 30 miles to the north-east some of their vineyards would have an extra cachet which could enable them to at least double their price. The co-operative have kindly agreed to sell us a hundred six bottle cases of their lovely sparkling wines which we will be offering at *very* good prices in our cafés. Their only condition is that we don’t sell them online — but if you are interested in home delivery send an email to hoxtonhome@gmail.com and we will send out a price list.

Henry Jeffreys, last year’s Fortnum and Mason Drink Writer of the Year, has said some kind things about our wine imports. Do have a look at what we have listed *however* the online ordering needs updating. If you would like to order anything please email hoxtonbeach@googlemail.com or phone or WhatsApp 07931 375632.

Since we began baking in the new Dorée at 26 Chatsworth Road we have been able to bring in new lines and get face to face reaction from our customers. We are proud of our baguettes (made with ‘levain’, which is a mixture of sourdough and yeast) and of course our own sourdough, which is made with a culture that comes originally from the celebrated St John bakery. The latest addition is a 50% wholemeal loaf, based on the recipe in Elizabeth David’s famous bread book, which also has a bit of sourdough — which makes for bread that keeps well — but also not so much as to mark the flavour too much.

This Spring we visited three of the four main wine growers we import wine from directly in the north of Burgundy. They are all from villages around Chablis that have been considered for nearly a thousand years as among the best in France, but which more recently have been eclipsed by the more famous Côte d’Or 80 miles further south. But now they are emerging from the shadows. ‘You got in at the right time,’ one of them told me. ‘When I go to wine fairs foreign importers tell us we are what the market is looking for just now: our wines are not too expensive but they are exclusive — other countries can make a Mediterranean style but what we have here unique.’

We will be trading for the last time at Nags Head Market this Friday March 26. This has been a hard decision to make given the support of some very loyal and appreciative customers. Also we pay tribute to our colleagues who have worked there and in particular Mohamed Bahraoui who built up a dedicated following and who is currently in Morocco following a family tragedy. We are still have a local presence with our cafés at Parliament Hill Lido and (soon reopening) at the Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington. The closure is for business reasons, which means that it costs more to stay open than to close, but we think the model of a covered market stall is a good one and we hope to revive it in future.