Andrew     Kacey     Paddy

KACEY, PADDY and ANDREW will all be leaving Team Gilbey’s at Old Amersham very shortly and it goes without saying that they will be sorely missed.   They have been the most incredible and steadfast support to Pip, our Restaurant Manager, in looking after our wonderful customers.   With all the hard work that goes into running a restaurant we have also had a huge amount of fun working together.   Thank you to each and every one of you and may we all take this opportunity to wish you every success in your new ventures.

KACEY leaves us after six years to do a journalism internship at Montpelier in the south of France with William Reed, the publishers.

PADDY leaves us after three and a half years, having gained a 1st Class degree at Oxford Brookes University, to do a Masters degree in Politics & Finance at the LSE in London.

ANDREW leaves us after a year and half to start a four year course at Oxford Brookes University studying International Hospitality Management.   However, before he starts his course he is taking a well-earned holiday for a month in Bali.

Apologies for the short notice, but we thought some of you might like to hear about the English Wine Festival this weekend … where, among others, our Pheasants Ridge will of course be featured.

Michael Gilbey and Vince Gower - Winemaker at Stanlake Park Vineyard

English Wine Festival at Stanlake Park Vineyard, Twyford – Saturday 23rd & Sunday 24th July

A number of vineyards are included in the Thames & Chilterns Region:  Brightwell, Bothy, Oakengrove, Dropmore, Parhams, Beaulieu, Pheasants Ridge, Manor Fields, Chiltern Valley and Stanlake Park.

All these vineyards are offering you a stunning opportunity to try a wide range of their award-winning wines this weekend.   Stanlake Park will be open from Noon – 6.00 pm.   Entrance will be £5.00 per adult (cash) … children enter free.

What’s more they will also be offering short expert wine talks by a Master of Wine, winery tours, cheese platters and snacks, and wine by the glass to drink on the premises.   In short, for wine-lovers such as yourself, a chance to really see and taste for yourself just how far English wine has come.   It should be interesting!

Our Breakfast meetings for a minimum of twelve people in the Private Dining Room are proving increasingly popular. Equipped with a large screen for power point presentations you can continue in the meeting room throughout the day uninterrupted and perhaps have lunch in the restaurant.

If you are visiting Windsor in a group and want a relaxing place to meet up prior to viewing the Royal collection in Windsor Castle or some other local attraction why not start your day off in  Gilbey’s Conservatory with a Full English Breakfast. Having seen the sights return for lunch and enjoy our much praised two course set menu.

We have just heard that we have received two Silver Medals for our own English wines at  this year’s English and Welsh Wines of the Year Competition. This puts us among the best of what the now burgeoning English Wine industry has to offer.

The published tasting notes are as follows: 

Ripe bacchus grapes

Pheasants Ridge Bacchus 2009                                               Very pale lime green. Pretty aromatics, clear Bacchus fruit with gooseberry, lime leaves and lemon grass. Chalky palate, very crisp acidity, decent length. Typical. 

Pheasants Ridge Brut, English Quality Sparkling Wine.   Very pale yellow-gold, tight bubbles. Smoky-toasty, biscuit, gentle yellow fruit beneath. Soft attack, but mouth-filling mousse, golden apple, citrus fruit, well balanced dosage and structure, moderate length. Delightful.                

Bill & Caroline Gilbey, Michael & Lin Gilbey

We are so often asked where we all come from, how we fit into the history of the Gilbey family etc .. that our new blog seems the ideal place to store this information for posterity.

Bill & Michael are brothers; Bill is married to Caroline (nee Ball) and Michael is married to Lin (nee Gilbey) who is also the fourth cousin of both Bill and Michael. Got it?!

Lin’s great great grandfather was Sir Walter Gilbey. Bill and Michael’s great great grandfather was Alfred Gilbey. Walter and Alfred were brothers and together, on their return from the Crimean War, founded W&A Gilbey Ltd, Wine & Spirit Merchants, in 1857.

The 1850s and 60s were decades of opportunity, as Britain was on top of the world; economically, as a result of her manufacturing, and politically, from her leadership of a great Empire … and the Gilbey brothers took full advantage.  Within 15 years of the firm’s establishment  sales had risen to over nine million bottles a year and by the turn of the century W&A Gilbey was the largest distributing company in the UK.

W&A Gilbey Ltd continued to prosper , very much as a family company, but family was necessarily diluted when in 1962 they merged with United Wine Traders to become International Distillers & Vintners, which was then taken over by Watneys in 1972, who were subsequently taken over by Grand Metropolitan in the same year .  Big business held sway. The Gilbeys were no longer able to survive as a family company.

Wine still seems to be in the blood though. A cousin, Tom Gilbey, works in the wine trade in Scotland, as indeed does Lin’s brother , Christopher Gilbey, in Wiltshire. Another Tom, this time Bill and Caroline’s son, has recently founded his own wine company trading as ‘The Vintner’ and we are very confident that  he is ‘going places’!  (www.thevintner.com) We ourselves have run our own wine importing company specialising in wines direct from individual French growers, but are now very happy to be sourcing all our wines via Tom. Michael helps Tom with a lot of his French selections, so, we are still keenly  maintaining the tradition of keeping it in the family.

Here we are on a jolly in the West country

As to the four of us, our main activities are the two Gilbey’s Restaurants, one in Eton and the other in Old Amersham. We no longer spend large amounts of time looking over our shoulder worrying about world domination. That must be good news for our customers. We might be standing still when it comes to the acquisition of new premises …  but in no other respect . That awful saying ‘’you are only as good as your last meal’’ is frighteningly true in the restaurant business. We have to go on just getting better and better … and that is what we keep on trying to do … helped by fantastic teams in both restaurants.

 Judging by current levels of business we seem to be getting a lot right … which is pretty encouraging in these tough times, to say the least.

Quite how our business will develop as we get older is still an unknown. Family succession does not look likely this time round. Of the six children we have between us, Tom has his own wine company, Charlotte is a voluntary worker, James (about the only properly grown up one!) is a forensic accountant, Henry’s life is in fishing and Julian and William are film directors. So … no doubt time will tell.

Oh yes, and we also have an English Vineyard …