I am, therefore I drink – Chapter 5

Ideal Pairings. The past week I have been chatting to a friend who is not well. He is a congenial fellow, good club man and sportsman. He, like so many of us, is well into the respectable of middle age. We both have teenage and adult children, disproving of our dress sense. When they grow older, they wish they become as funny as we think we are.

We dismay with modern society and its lack of fibre. At times we are a lonely voice and “feel like the one, who treads alone some banquet hall deserted…” from the poem by Thomas Moore.

Old fashioned values to not make you old fashioned, even if you have not heard of a family called Kardashian or still think mullets are something to be mocked, not celebrated. We have been friends for 45 years.

I spent my youth drinking his father’s Premier Crus Chablis, sometimes with, and sometimes without his old man’s knowledge. I remember his advice for pairing Chablis. More Chablis.

I think there is nothing better sipped quietly at your desk as the night draws in and the fire crackles.
My friend is a Gentleman and I wish him a speedy recovery and he will win his battle.
From one Gentlemen to another.

I met recently with Nick Lane Fox, from the Bramham Estate. Nick is a true Gent in every sense of the word. He drives forward over 300 years of history and has diversified into everything from the Leeds Festival to a green energy anaerobic digestion plant. Tradition means to pass on customs and beliefs from one generation to another.

Traditum embodies Character. Taken from the Greek word to leave your mark. A set of values and behaviours which drive our purpose. Empathy with our clients who hold values of integrity, aspiration, and respect, and have high internal benchmarks of performance and behaviour. They and their families are exceptionally successful. Our purpose, to leave an everlasting mark on the private equity market and help society grow greater. Society needs more character, less virtuous groups.

Society grows great when we plant trees under whose shade we shall never sit, goes the proverb. Nick is certainly doing that with his woodlands and much more.

To raise a glass to the beauty and splendour of Bramham and the vision of Nick, and for friends who have battles to win with illness, I opened a bottle of the Chablis, Grand Cru, Les Clos, Domaine JP & Benoît Droin 2010. It is flinty, with balance and power. It was a fitting wine with which to accompany this column and toast Bramham Park and all the Lane Fox family. Fitting to wish my friend a speedy recovery.

I suggest you try a bottle. Following the wisdom of older generations, as one always should, pair it with good friends with character and another bottle. They are perfect pairings. Cheers.