When I receive an invitation from Cleland & Souchet in Portomaso it is impossible for me to ignore it. Even if I sit there inside or out and just sip a glass of wine the lovely, elegant ambience is enough to cheer me up. I must make it my place of refuge if I am suffering from a bad bout of 'maladie d'irritation,' and as I get older these become more frequent. The benches offer repose. Just sitting there with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee has curative properties. This is spectator sport at its best.

This time the invitation was to the launch of UP. Not one to look too closely at invitations it took a day or two for me to find out that it stands for Ultimate Provence. Is it a restaurant, is it a new brand, no! It's a wine which everyone was drinking outside and inside on an evening last week. I love the bottle long and elegant and the colour of the wine is liquid gold. If you are a wine buff you had better search the internet for details.

The directors of Cleland & Souchet also took the opportunity to showcase their newly refurbished lifestyle shop and café /wine bar/bistro, now so much part of the Portomaso scene. 

I spoke to one of the directors, Richard Cleland: "We have new brands that we introduced in the past year like 'Ralph Lauren Home' which offers a wide variety of tableware, decorative objects, crystal and luxury home fragrances, and  'Ralph Lauren Bath & Body' (luxury Egyptian cotton towels and robes). We want to give our clients, prospective clients and family and friends a chance to see what is on offer and to also say thank you for their custom." I remarked that changes had been made to the café too. "Indeed, we have refurbished it and have just introduced a new menu with a strong Mediterranean & Lebanese influence.  The wine list has been expanded to include most of the wines the company represents which can be enjoyed by the glass or bottle.  These are also displayed in a new wine cellar so clients can see the variety of wines, grapes and regions themselves before deciding on a particular wine."

The waiters were kept very busy refilling glasses with Ultimate Provence. There was food aplenty and a huge charcuterie board which was very popular.

Amorino, the delicious Italian ice-cream brand, were there with their attractive cart, offering their signature rose-shaped icecreams, which complemented the theme for the night, courtesy of Cleland & Souchet.

This is above all a lifestyle shop selling beautiful objects: Hèrmes, Baccarat, Christofle, Bugatti, Bernardaud, Christian Lacroix... that is all I can remember. The owners should get a Legion d'Honneur from France. In there one is simply surrounded by beautiful objects.

I met several people I had not seen in years.

That was an excellent evening. And you know what THERE WAS NO MUSIC!

PS Thank you Lydon for your help with details.

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