Always a highlight of the Manchester Commanderie events calendar, the 2025 Summer Lunch at the King St Townhouse Hotel was again an outstanding success.
Commandeurs, Partners and Guests gathered on the outside terrace to enjoy glasses of Ridgeview Bloomsbury English sparkling wine in the glorious hot sunshine. It was a similar temperature to that in Bordeaux! Maybe next year the view of the Town Hall, still shrouded in white, will be fully restored.
We next moved into the adjoining dining room to witness the intronisation of two new Commandeurs conducted by our Maître Colin Smith but introduced by Commandeur Andy Bacon.
Our first course was Compressed Watermelon with King Prawns and a bespoke curry sauce. This caused much discussion as the melon was revealed to have been injected with Vodka in the process of compression providing an improved texture and flavour.
The accompanying dry white wine was L’Esprit de Chevalier 2016, the second wine from Domaine de Chevalier in Pessac Leognan. This proved to be an excellent match to our dish and some guests were seen to be immediately looking to see if they could purchase some as it had been enjoyed so much!
The Main course was Fillet steak, mushroom, dauphinoise potato and tenderstem broccoli. The first red wine served was Château Quinault L’Enclos 2010, Grand Cru Classé St Émilion. This was a new wine to us and we were introduced to it by our Vinothècaire, Commandeur Tim Edwards, who confessed that he had been practising the pronunciation of the château name for several days. The wine was much enjoyed with abundant fruit, medium length and slightly dry tannins on the finish.
With the customary cheese course we were served Château Batailley 2005 5ième Cru Classé Pauillac. It did not disappoint, delivering all the expected fruit from a great year and probably at its peak drinking window. Some Commandeurs present had visited the Château in 2022 or on previous visits to Bordeaux.
Our wonderful lunch concluded with the dessert, a ‘Chef’s Trio’, magnificently accompanied by Château Suduiraut 2010 1er Cru Classé A.O.C. Sauternes. The wine, once again with the advantage of some bottle age, proved to be rich, with abundant sweet fruit, some acidity, and an extraordinarily long finish. It was a privilege to have had the opportunity to drink it.
All too soon our Summer Lunch came to an end but had certainly created happy memories of Bordeaux wine, food and friendship which is the raison d’être of the Commanderie de Bordeaux à Manchester.
