Jazz becomes Malta’s heartbeat mid-July each year. Now ranked with some of the most prestigious music festivals in the world, Malta Jazz Festival has become one of the Mediterranean’s premiere festival experiences, spread over several rhythm-loaded days.

The Phoenicia is an ardent supporter of Malta’s art and culture, delighted to host events and support developments of all kinds in this area, and will once again host the Malta Jazz Festival opening event on Monday, July 15 at 20:30 in its 7.5 acre fragrant garden under the stars with a performance by Stjepko Gut Quintet and an exhibition by talented photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi.

Stjepko Gut will be joined on The Rotunda’s stage by Rino Cirinnà, Yoni Zelnik, Dominic Galea and William Smith.

Serbian jazz trumpeter Stjepko Gut studied jazz trumpet at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern, Switzerland, and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a member of Woody Herman’s band, the RTB Big Band and performed with the Lionel Hampton All Stars in the early 1980’s. Stjepko is a member of the faculty at the Graz Institute for Jazz and a Guest Professor at the Jazz Department of Belgrade Music Academy.

The trumpeter has played with some of the world’s greatest jazz musicians including Clark Terry, Louie Bellson, Lionel Hampton, Alvin Queen, Melissa Stott, Charly Antolini and Mark Murphy, amongst others. He also made international tours, performances and recordings with Vince Benedetti, Sal Nistico, Clark Terry, Wild Bill Davis, Horace Parlan, Mel Lewis, Kenny Washington, and Dusko Gojkovic. Stjepko plays at festivals and clubs all over the world.

Darrin Zammit Lupi’s ‘Moments in Jazz’ exhibition will be held in the Palm Court Lounge from July 15 to July 20. Darrin has been covering the Malta Jazz Festival since its inception. He is one of four photographers whose work is extensively featured in the book ‘Portraits in Jazz’ which was published to celebrate 20 years of the festival in 2010. Starting from the memorable first edition, which hosted jazz legends Chick Corea, Michel Petrucciani and Elvin Jones amongst others, ‘Portraits in Jazz’ traces the journey of one of Malta’s top cultural offerings through photos of the Festival itself and through the paintings inspired by the Festival.

Darrin has been a contract photographer with global news agency Reuters since 1997. His work has been widely published in the international press, including TIME, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, BBC, Geo, Paris Match, and others.

‘Moments in Jazz’ is a special collection of Zammit Lupi’s finest jazz portrait work, all assembled in the beautiful space at the centre of The Phoenicia, Palm Court Lounge.

For those needing to refuel between sets, The Phoenicia has an elegant and well-stocked bar set up near the Rotunda, which serves refreshing cocktails, champagne and plenty of tasty treats.

Entrance is free to the general public, doors open at 20.30 and the concert that opens the Malta Jazz Festival will commence at 21:00.

The Phoenix was the perfect setting with which to complement one of the world’s most iconic champagnes for a delightful dinner that had the award-winning kitchen brigade under the artful eye of Executive Chef Daniel Debattista serving and volleying with the creations of Bollinger. This classic champagne house, well know to be ordered by Mr. Bond at crucial moments displayed its 007 characteristics in fine fashion with live tasting notes supplied on the occasion by Bastien Mariani from Bollinger who had flown in from the Avenue de Champagne in Epernay especially for the evening.

Bastien has travelled the world educating on the advantages of luxury products, and for the evening had selected four elegant examples to pair with the four dishes, as well as a Special Cuvée en Magnum to get the evening underway accompanied by an interesting assortment of Blinis, Mushroom Palmers and Gougers, as we all milled and thrilled about the evening ahead. The Blinis in particular brought out the special in the Bollinger Special Cuvée topped with keta caviar and a sauce vert. The salmon roe simply seemed to pop in the champagne bubbles and set up very nicely the anticipation to try La Grand Année 2008 which was to be the star of the show, La Grand Année 2008 En Magnum and Bollinger Rosé En Magnum.

Such has been the demand for bottles of the recently launched Bollinger La Grande Année 2008, Mentzendorff, the Champagne house’s UK agent, has “pressed pause” on the release of magnums and Jeroboams of the fizz, so the Malta tasting was indeed to be a real and rare treat.We learn that there are two sub-categories of Champagne: “brut” and “demi-sec”. Different types of Champagne range between demi-sec and brut, depending on how much sugar cane is in them.As we process this new information, the Bollinger La Grand Année 2008 arrives, with the acidity and bubbles that are the charms of Champagne, and perfectly paired to a Citrus Smoked Monkfish, while the savoury spice of a Piment d’ Espelette was enhanced by mussels, cucumber, basil and of course bubbles.

Next La Grand Anée came this time with Grouper that melted in the mouth with tomato, fennel and marjoram. Here is a Maltese dish, ‘Aljotta’ to rival anything from a Mediterranean kitchen. The lively and refreshing taste enhanced by the vintage fizzing wine which goes perfectly with all kinds of fish. Regal and heroic it has some sublime elements which lifts every experience to new heights.

Again local produce allows Bollinger La Grand Année 2008 En Magnum to reveal in the stuffed local Rabbit a delicacy and richness of flavour which was truly an epiphany. Ham hock, carrot ‘tajine’, peas and an inspired black olive stracciatella made this the hero dish of the evening and a worthy accompaniment to the structured crispness of the wine.

In the same way that Special Cuvée stands apart from non-vintage Champagnes, Bollinger Rosé is an exception for Rosé Champagnes. What is more, it is a relative secret, as Bollinger did not release a non-vintage Rosé until 2008 and the quantity produced is quite limited. The wine begins as Special Cuvée and then Bollinger’s specialty as the Pinot Noir producer in Champagne takes centre stage, as the red fruits that join the conversation dance vibrantly, the finish has just a hint of perfectly ripe tannin, and the deep complexity of the wine shines through transparently. Here it was able to shine paired to Mgarr Strawberry tart.

Made from 71% Pinot Noir and 29% Chardonnay from 18 different crus, Bollinger’s cellar master, Gilles Descôtes, describes La Grande Année 2008 as “structured and rich in texture with creamy effervescence, delicate bitterness and a long saline finish”. The same could have been said about this exceptional culinary evening finished with Delamain Cognac ‘Vesper’, from Champagne’s finest terroir, the evening star.

 

Champagne Barons de Rothschild Managing Director Frédéric Mairesse says that he has an event at The Phoenicia tonight, an exclusive dinner for 30 of Malta’s most distinguished individuals. “We’re working on the visibility of the brand and Malta is a luxury tourism destination, so we love to be present in the best places in the world, the best tables, the best resorts, in Malta and the world. We’re like Krug, very exclusive, half a million bottles with the best grapes in the world. We speak about the Rothschild name, it’s Chateau Lafite, Chateau Mouton Rothschild and our champagne Barons de Rothschild, all of which are best-in-class. The best of the best.

The Rothschild family are champagne lovers. They got 40% of the shares in Ruinart after the second war, and Ruinard was making the Rothschild family champagne. Then the Ruinart House started to do business with the Moët & Chandon House and Philippe de Rothschild got close to Henriot who made the family champagne for 15 years. All this before we started to make our own champagne.

The three branches of the family got together to launch a champagne that reflects the family name and its heritage in the wine business. Drawing on their experience in the world of wine, the Barons de Rothschild have achieved excellence with some special products based on significant investments in terroir, wine-making technology, maturation and great people. From 2005 we have pursued a great champagne for Barons de Rothschild, through the three branches of the Rothschild family that have joined forces to produce an exceptional product.

We are niche. We were looking to buy either Lanson or Tattinger, however, we felt that the goodwill on the brand did not justify rebranding one of those champagne houses under the Rothschild name. Phillipe, Eric and Benjamin decided to work together and they decided to produce cuvées that were made with a lot of Chardonnay, more complicated and more expensive. When you are Rothschild, you can’t do like everyone else does. But this way you can’t produce millions of bottles. This was fine with them as they prefer producing less but with a focus on a very high quality. Chardonnay is more rare, and it ages well, especially at high concentration.

I was the facilitator on the champagne front. We can discuss everything about champagne, but we never speak about wine, except when it comes to distribution, as sometimes we use the distribution of Lafitte, sometimes of Mouton; I am secret on all the details about the wine amongst the partners. We are ageing for perfect maturity, 5 years for non-vintage and at least 10 years for vintage. We only broke-even after 15 years as a premium niche brand like Bollinger and Krug.

Baron Phillipe said that longterm, brand positioning is very important, values at the highest levels, aligned to Rothschild on perfect quality and distribution. Humble. No bling-bling. 5 years to build up inventory. The family has a 25 years plan. And continue to invest in the company, new Champagne region vineyards €10M over the next 2 years, small parcels, in the best areas; €35M on inventory; €15M on equipment; €5M for the headquarters; plus marketing our 500,000 bottles each year.

We’re in competition with the biggest names, LVMH, Bollinger, everyone wants to buy Grand Cru land. Every 1.2kg grapes is one bottle more. Sourcing grapes is key. The land parcels allow us to produce for decades. We focus on special cuvées and iconic wines. For that we need land, grapes and time. In champagne land prices are regulated to maintain succession; one hectare Grand Cru 1990 €300,000 then in 2000 €900,000 by 2006 €1.3M and in 2018 €1.8M. That’s just a small plot.

Champagne we have maximum capacity of 300 million bottles, the world is drinking sparkling. In 10 years maybe we can do 400 million bottles. We’re paying €7.30 per kilo, and we need 1.2 kilo to make a bottle. Growers make about 100% margin for grapes in very nice condition. International brands continue to grow. But the premium market is only 1%, so we operate in that tiny space.

As Rothschild we look to be the reference within the top 3 champagnes in the world. Not in volume, but in quality. We need to go for the best of the best. Rothschild means best in wine, best in champagne. The Rothschild name is such a strong name. We put quality first, then we put the signature of the three Barons. Best grapes, best ageing, best winemaker, everything the best. Then we look to explore the links between the classic wines like Lafite and Mouton Rothschild and thefamily banks. The brand emanates from that heartland.

We can achieve the best placement. We did a partnership with The Ritz in London and Paris. Then we rolled-out to the other 110 Ritz Carlton hotels worldwide. We were the exclusive premium brand that Caesar Ritz used in the early days, 1902, 1904. Our heritage, the family accepted for the first time to put The Ritz on the label next to the Rothschild name. We keep extending the contract! We’re there until at least 2024. Rothschild and their partners all have a longterm view. The Ritz is about 15% of our business.

Luxury in food and beverage is our niche. We work with Four Seasons, Mandarin, Shangri-La, Park Hyatt, InterContinental, and as a Champagne House we work really closely with about 30 or 40 top hotels in the world. We represent about a 10% bump for the top hotels when they switch to stocking the Rothschild champagne brand. We’re not just a label, just the Rothschild name, we’re also absolute value and partners with the best growers with the best plots and the best grapes, married to a flawless production and maturation process. That’s Barons de Rothschild champagnes.”

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