The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So, here we are, the USA has again been tangoed and the space hopper that was President 45 is now President 47 and, to quote the News Agents, ‘the velociraptors now know how to open the gates.’ Did you see any of the inauguration? I tried to avoid as much as I could but still managed to see much more than I would have liked. Some of it was like a rogue’s gallery; we had the Tech Bros lurking like second rate Batman villains alongside Lettuce Liz, Suella Braverman, Aaron Banks, Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage. Could nobody manage a zap-biff-pow? Sixties kids shows aside, it seemed to me that Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment might even prohibit him being President but I’m guessing smarter folk than I have managed a legal work around.

Talking of work arounds, as promised, he signed loads of executive orders, avoiding any actual law-making but making him look very busy with books, pens and clever stuff.  Those executive orders range from bad to just terrible and there are even accusations from lawyers that some are so error strewn that they may have been written by AI!

The wall is going back up, the drug cartels have been declared terrorists and yet Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road, the drug world’s dark web Amazon if you will, has been pardoned. On the subject of pardon’s, many of the people behind the January 6^th invasion of the Capitol building have been pardoned, which rather suggests that treason is acceptable in some way or other. How long before the Secret Service is replaced by the Proud Boys we wonder? It’ll end up like the Rolling Stones experience in Altamont I suspect, albeit with less Sympathy for the Devil and more street fighting, man.

Whilst the Statue of Liberty is busy packing her bags to head off ‘home’ to France, Trump has also suggested that Vlad Putin heads homeward with his guns and North Korean soldiers and leave Ukraine alone. If that happens that actually would be at least something good to come out of all the chaos.

Saturday sees us celebrating the Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-Race and the poet that wrote the address. Yes, 25^th January has arrived with undue haste and Burns Night is upon us. Over the years, Trump has made much of his Scottish heritage through his mother, who was born on the Isle of Lewis. Sadly, since 1971, he has not been able to celebrate properly because haggis has been banned by the US authorities, depriving Trump and 27 million or so Scottish Americans of their rightful heritage. Whilst we are somewhat surprised that a repeal of this wasn’t in the pile of executive orders signed, we may have good news. Macsween’s are developing a ‘compliant’ haggis so they can reach that untapped market by substituting the sheep lung for sheep heart. That’s going to give the Donald a change from his cheeseburgers!

Whilst we’re on the subject of haggis, we naturally were looking at a wine match that we might not have thought of and naturally had a chat with you friend and mine, Google. They have an AI search now which suggested a selection of red wines much the same as we had thought of but then ended with: “You can also try a sweet dessert wine like Sauternes to cut through the fat of the haggis”. Clearly, I don’t want to incur the wrath of Hal, Grok or whatever the AI is called, but Sauternes, really? Just no!

Whilst talking foodstuffs it appears that Kemi Badenoch would like Lettuce Liz to shut up. We’re with you on this one Kemi!

So, we’re going to suggest we taste some wine this weekend that will be very tasty should you be enjoying an evening with a wee haggis beastie.

We’ll open the bidding with a glass of Troballa Garnatxa Blanca 2022 (£19.99), Costers del Segre, Spain which is just the right sort of weight and fruitiness to hang in there with the richness of a haggis if necessary, and will be an absolute wow with the Cullen skink starter, the right kettle of fish if you will!

Following on with the red waistcoat will be Le Voisin D’En Face Syrah (£16.49), Ardeche, France which is absolutely the right balance of fruit and juiciness to tame the wee beasty.

That’s it from us – we’ll be a bit late opening up on Tuesday 28th as we have yet another tasting to go to but we will be back before most of you realise we’re gone!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We’ve had an exciting week, travelling on the tube all the way to Camden to spend the day tasting a selection of potential new wines, some new vintage Burgundy and even a few spirits. There’ll be a few new things along the way in due course and we’ll be able to replace some of the Burgundy that you all drank over the tail end of last year.

In Parliament, it seems to have been similarly exciting with Tulip Siddiq resigning after becoming embroiled in her Aunt’s Bangladesh corruption scandal which is hardly a good look for the Corruption Minister. Also in Parliament, Met Police are investigating allegations of the drink spiking of a parliamentary researcher in the Strangers Bar on 7^th January. There are definitely some wrong’uns in politics, aren’t there?

Over the pond, we only have a few days to go before the installation of Trump 2.0. This new version has enjoyed a large upgrade of the surrounding tech but sadly no change has been made in integrity, truth or morality. He seems to have spent a large part of the last week badmouthing the firefighters trying to keep Los Angeles from burning to the ground. He might do well to consider a quote from a very old children’s programme: “I can’t think what Trumpton would do without its Fire Brigade”. Hardly a great way to start but I guess they knew what they were getting when they voted for him.

Back to wine though. Tasting a broad selection of wines side by side from the same villages and vintage is always a nice indicator of where we think the vintage is going. For 2023 Burgundy, we tasted in the region of 75 wines, a mixture of both reds and whites. We found the whites a little on the rich and fruity side and, unusually for us, found we preferred the reds. Wayne was also lucky enough to taste an alcohol free rosé from Provence however, judging by the look on his face, it’s not something that we’ll be budgeting for this summer!

Which bring us on to our world beating January Sale. It might be the best sale we’ve ever done, it’s a beautiful sale and from our standpoint, certainly has the same mechanic as our previous sales.

It’s quite simple: come to the shop, choose six bottles of wine and we’ll give you a discount of 16.66%. That’s the mathematical equivalent (to two decimal places) of paying for only five bottles. The wine doesn’t even have to be all the same, you can choose six entirely different bottles and we’ll still give you a discount. A mixable six for five!

So, step right up, form an orderly queue and feel free to ask questions.

Talking of forming an orderly queue, this weekend we’ll open some tariff beating wines. We’ll start off in the white corner with De Loach Russian River Chardonnay (£30.99) from the cool climate of Russian River this is a cracking Californian white wine with tropical and citrus character and a lovely touch of vanilla spice.

The red corner is a populated this week by a rather delicious Lalande de Pomerol that is Fleur de Bouard (£39). From the same folks that make Chateau d’Angelus this is a medium to full bodied red with a lovely voluptuous palate and dark cherry and berry fruit notes, polished silky tannins and a touch of mocha spice to finish.

To end with a smile, Donald Trump once stated: “I judge people based on their capability, honesty, and merit.”

Fellow Wine Lovers,

• Babe, I love you so, I want you to know…
• That I’m gonna miss your love, the minute you walk out that door
• So please don’t go – don’t go – don’t go away
• Please don’t go – don’t go – I’m begging you to stay

Wise words, written by KC & the Sunshine Band in 1979, covered by KWS in 1992 and sung by wine merchants all over the country this week, these are sentiments that straddle the generations.  Welcome to January 2025.

A quick admin note though, before we get stuck in – as often happens in January, there are tastings galore.  As a result, we will be closed all day on Tuesday 14^th January to attend some important ones – apologies, we will be open on Monday and Wednesday onwards…

Back to it now.

And it’s been a brutal start to the year.  The Trump caravan has wobbled into town and the attendant nuttiness has perhaps set a benchmark for the months to come.  If a man can actively suggest that Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal should now be part of the USA then I fear we can project what his thoughts might be regarding Ukraine becoming part of Russia.  Meanwhile his current crush, Mr Musk, famous for dabbling in marijuana and ketamine, has clearly had his doors of perception opened so wide that he has time travelled more than 10 years back in time and has concluded that an individual, whose career has focused on fighting for women and victims of sexual violence, is in fact a witch and should be in prison.  Welcome to January 2025.

And it’s cold.  Whilst we live in a London bubble, even here we have seen the mercury touch below zero and rumour has it snowflakes have been spotted, sporadically.  Around the country the news is less appealing and doesn’t seem to be getting better.  Flooding in York, snow and ice chaos in Devon whilst Northumberland looks like a lunar landscape – welcome to January 2025.

Which all begs the obvious question, what on earth would possess anyone to welcome a ‘dry’ January?

Just to add to all this mirth, a quick look ahead to what is going to happen on February 1^st.  Currently, the duty on wines between 11.5% and 14.5% has been set at a standard rate.  However, in February, new duty rates will come in to force, meaning a rise in price on most wines, since the new rates will now be on a sliding scale with duty dependent on alcohol content – effectively every 0.1% ABV will be subject to a different tariff.  Thankfully, the ABV for most wine in the UK increases in 0.5% jumps, so that is a small mercy.  To cut to the chase, every wine over 12% will go up in price with the hardest hit being those at 14.5% where a bottle will immediately cost 65 pence more when we buy them! 

Perhaps it might be worth buying a few bottles before the end of the month which segues quite nicely into my next paragraph…

JANUARY SPECIAL OFFER – SIX BOTTLES FOR THE PRICE OF FIVE

Some of you may find this offer familiar, as indeed you should.  This is our annual kick-start the year/make money to pay the VAT bill/encourage people across the threshold strategy which we have done every year since 2011 – and it works for us and hopefully it works for you too!

16.666% OFF SIX BOTTLES is another way of putting it, for those that are good at mental arithmetic.

Either way, the offer goes on until 31^st January and applies to most of the wines in the shop – in fact, we’ve attached a current wine list, should you fancy a perusal.

Whilst we’re talking attachments, we’ve also attached the notes for this month’s WINE CLUB wines.  For those of you that don’t know, each month we select 6 wines for £75 and 6 wines for £100 that we think you might like.  The way the club works is simple – give us your email address and at the start of each month we’ll send you the notes and you can decide whether they tickle your fancy.  Should you be tickled, you just need to respond affirmatively and we’ll deliver them to you at a mutually convenient time.  There are no strings or fees, just the cost of the wines, so you can dip in and out at will.  It’s very simple, just let us know if you fancy joining in…

This month the £75 case includes:

• Cave de Turckheim Riesling 2021, Alsace, France
• De Wetshof Bon Vallon Chardonnay 2023, Robertson, South Africa
• Orovela Cuvée Chandrebi 2007, Caucasus Mountains, Georgia
• Cantine Povero Barbera D’Asti ‘Dianae’ 2023, Piemonte, Italy
• Famiglia Bianchi Malbec 2022, Mendoza, Argentina
• Palacio del Camino Real Reserva 2017, Rioja, Spain

Whilst the £100 case contains:

• Domaine Jouan Menetou Salon 2023, Loire, France
• Max Ferd. Richter ‘Zeppelin’ Riesling 2023, Mülheimer Sonnenlay, Mosel, Germany
• Meerlust Chardonnay 2023, Stellenbosch, South Africa
• Chateau de Paraza ‘Cuvée Spéciale’ 2020, Minervois, France
• Finca Bacara ‘Time Waits For No One’ 2022, Jumilla, Spain
• ‘La Côte Sauvage’ Cairanne 2021, Rhône, France

To whet your whistles, this weekend we’ll be opening the orange wine from Georgia – Orovela Cuvée Chandrebi 2007 – £12.99 and then for the red, a new listing,Famiglia Bianchi Malbec 2022 – £14.99 which seems appropriate for the current climate!

That’s it from us; we’ll leave you with these last words:

• Don’t you, forget about me
• As you walk on by, will you call my name?
• As you walk on by, will you call my name?
• When you walk away, or will you walk away?

Over and Out.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Please do accept our sincerest apologies for interrupting you on a, checks notes, Tuesday. We thought we’d take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support, jokes, insults, ideas and purchases over the last year.

We’d like to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2025.

Should supplies be running low, we’ll be back to normal hours from Saturday 4^th January at Noon. Our traditional January sale of six bottles for the price of five will start then too.

Happy New Year, Buon Anno, Bonne Année, Feliz año nuevo, Feliz ano novo, Athbhliain faoi mhaise, Blwyddyn newydd dda, Gelukkig nieuwjaar, Frohes Neues Jahr, καλή χρονιά, Wszystkiego najlepszego w Nowym Roku, Gott nytt år, Godt nytår, Onnellista uutta vuotta, Gleðilegt nýtt ár, з новим роком.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So, not long to go now, are you ready, because we are?

Tomorrow morning (Saturday), at exactly 9.21am, we will likely be found dancing a merry jig at the A303’s most famous landmark, Stonehenge, as we hope to catch a glimpse of the Sun’s rays through the stones, which are apparently perfectly positioned to align with the Sun’s path.  Yep, it’s the Winter Solstice, aka the Shortest Day, which I’m informed will last 7 hours 49 minutes and 42 seconds – equivalent to the AA’s estimated journey time from the Solstice Services to Winterbourne Stoke this weekend…

After that, anyone got any plans for next week?  Having looked at sales figures for previous years, we’ve decided to make it a short one.  Noticing that the historic trend is zero business between 25^th and 29^th December, we have elected to only open on Monday and Tuesday next week and then re-open on 30^th December – we’ll see you then.

Our usual trawl through the newspapers has not gleaned much to report – Elon Musk met Nigel Farage at Mar-a-Lago and, by all accounts, waved his wallet at him which, as we all know, is Nigel’s favourite sort of wave.  Prince Andrew continues to charm us with his antics whilst in booze news, yet another research study, this time from the University of Barcelona and the Hospital Clínic Barcelona, has found that a small glass of wine is better for the heart than statins – heartening to see that, almost 50 years after the concept was first discussed, the Mediterranean Diet is still winning fans!

So, what small glass of wine are you drinking?  Here are some suggestions:

LARGER FORMATS, FOR LONGER LUNCHES…

MAGNUM

Lopez de Haro 2019/20 Crianza, Rioja – £30.00

Château de Paraza 2019, Minervois – £38.00

Meerlust Red 2015, Stellenbosch – £38.00

La Cote Sauvage Cairanne 2021, Rhone – £40.00

Saransot Dupré 2019/20, Listrac-Médoc – £46.00

Roda Sela 2022, Rioja – £52.00

The Chocolate Block 2021/23, Swartland – £55.00

Valenciso Reserva 2018, Rioja – £55.00

Meerlust Rubicon 2016, Stellenbosch – £80.00

JEROBOAM

The Chocolate Block 2023, Swartland – £130.00

You’re gonna need a bigger glass…

Now, with just over 100 hours until the big day, we intend to tantalise your tastebuds with a couple of open bottles this weekend, to pair with your festive feasting:

Cape Mentelle Chardonnay 2021 – £23.99.  Cape Mentelle is one of the founding wineries of Margaret River in Western Australia and helped to pioneer the region’s styles.  Aromas of lemon zest, white peach and floral notes run alongside mineral characteristics and a hint of saltiness.  Medium bodied on the palate, with a silky succulence showing honeysuckle and lemon pie fruit character. Beautiful purity with real elegance and a great all-rounder, from your smoked salmon sandwiches, via your devils on horseback through to the turkey with all its accoutrements!

Sticking with our friends in Australia, for the red we have Paringa Estate Peninsula Pinot Noir 2023 – £32.00.  This is our ‘go to’ Pinot Noir, should such a thing be possible.  Hailing from the famous and beautiful Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, this is slightly unfairly referred to as their entry level wine!  However, we fully believe that this has more sophistication and character in its little finger than a number of Pinot’s demanding far higher prices. Lovely ripe fruit on the attack with some gentle spice coming through towards the finish and a fabulously long and silky finish.  We find New World Pinot Noir to be a great match for Christmas Dinner as they tend to have a bit more body and fruit than their Old World counterparts.

We also have the Breitenbach Winery Tokaji Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2018 – £33.00, which is a delightful sweetie with a wonderfully deep golden colour.  The aromas are very inviting with dense, complex apricot and orange marmalade fruit characters which are supported by an exotic, floral nose.  Mid-weight and finely honeyed with beautifully poised acidity and spice on the long balanced finish, this needs to be tasted…

Plus, the Foxdenton Estate Christmas Gin Liqueur – £25.00 is open, as are a number of our spirits.  Two that deserve a particular mention are the Ninebar Italian Espresso Coffee Liqueur – £26.00 that has 12 cups of espresso in each bottle which could be very useful post-Christmas luncheon and also our much loved Hepple Gin – £38.00 that has had a really rather spiffy re-brand!

That’s about it from us for now, we hope you all have a very Merry Christmas with the appropriate number of small glasses of wine!

It’s the longest night coming up – we’re ready, are you?

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Well I have to say, my bingo card has been rubbish this week. I certainly didn’t have Assad moving to Moscow, or Sir Mark Cavendish being snubbed by Sports Personality of the Year.

Nor was I expecting archaeologists to be excavating Father Christmas’ grave! Archaeologists excavating the St Nicholas Church in Antalya in Turkey have found a surprise limestone sarcophagus which they are hoping will shed more light on whether this is St Nicholas’ final resting place.

News of the week for us was that GP, Dr Zoe Williams, in collaboration with Warburtons, has come up with the perfect hangover cure. Surprisingly, it is a sandwich containing eggs, bacon and avocado. Whilst we hold the front page for this news, it seems this is the perfect the mix of protein, salts and sugars to set you up for the day. On page two we talk about our fears for the whereabouts of Glenn Miller!

In completely unrelated news, the comedy gold that is a Kemi Badenoch quote continued it’s fine run of form this week. In an interview with the Spectator she declared that she didn’t like moist bread and that “lunch is for wimps!” No way on earth did I have her down as being played by Michael Douglas in the biopic, but here we are back in 1987! I guess that’s the ghost of Christmas past.

Time Magazine’s man of the year, Trumpolina, was in Paris this past weekend for the opening of the rebuilt Notre Dame. Did you see his meeting with Macron? I’m not sure if that was a handshake or the start of an arm wrestle between two children who really should know better. I thought Brigitte Macron was going to take them both by the ear and told them to grow up! Is Trumpolina the ghost of Christmas present?

Meanwhile, FIFA have awarded the 2034 World Cup to sole bidder Saudi Arabia. Throughout its history, the World Cup has traditionally been held in June. In 2022 it was played Qatar who disrupted all the domestic competitions by having to play it in December because of the heat. Given the 42˚C daytime temperatures in June in Saudi Arabia, I think we may see more of that. They are building eleven new stadiums to host it, one of them in a city that doesn’t even exist yet. Determined to head off any criticisms of the hosts, FIFA showed a video that included the words “integrity” “human rights” and “transparency” all linked by arrows to reassure us doubters. Looking forward to it already! Perhaps this will be the ghost of Christmas future?

Are you going to kick Boxing Day off with an espresso martini? Let me tell you about Ninebar Espresso Liqueur (£26). Made by our talented chums at Distilleria Quaglia in Piemonte, this is the real deal. 100% Brazilian Arabica beans toasted gently over birch wood, the liqueur has 12 espressos in every bottle. It has enough sweetness to balance that coffee bitterness without being oversweet. The name? I think that may be the ideal pressure on a coffee machine to make the perfect espresso. You’ll have to ask Lee!

CHRISTMAS OPENING HOURS

We’ll be operating our normal hours from today until…

SUNDAY 22^nd DECEMBER:  12 NOON – 3PM

MONDAY 23^rd DECEMBER:  12 NOON – 7PM

TUESDAY 24^th DECEMBER:  12 NOON -4PM

WEDNESDAY 25^th DECEMBER – SUNDAY 29^th DECEMBER:  CLOSED

MONDAY 30^th DECEMBER:  12 NOON – 7PM

 TUESDAY 31^st DECEMBER:  12 NOON – 6PM

WEDNESDAY 1^st – FRIDAY 3^rd JANUARY:  CLOSED

SATURDAY 4^th JANUARY:  12 NOON – 7PM

Then we will go back to normal!

Tasting this Weekend

As has become our tradition, we will start with a white. Pieropan Soave La Rocca 2022 (£39) – “The only oak-inflected cuvee at the estate. Aged in 100% used tonneaux, both French and Slavonian. Superb aromas of pistachios, peaches and dried mangoes. Broad and expansive, yet funneled into a vortex of tension by freshness that sublimates any sense of obvious power. A wonderful expression of a warmer vintage that suits perfectly this compelling site.” 96/100 Ned Goodwin, JamesSuckling.com, April 2024

On the red front we’ll be getting our laughing gear around Tenute Sella ‘Orbello’ Nebbiolo 2023 (£23.99) – Tenute Sella is located at the foot of the Alps of Biella, in Northern Piedmont. Purchased in 1671 by Comino Sella, for 350 years the family-owned property has been cultivated by generations of the Sella family. Here in Alto-Piemonte, they craft beautiful, ethereal expressions of Nebbiolo-based wines. Come and sample, we think it is really rather tasty!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Fourteen, some facts:

1. The number of days in a fortnight
2. Silicon’s position in the Periodic Table
3. The number of lines in a Sonnet
4. Valentine’s Day
5. Double the RDA of Deadly Sins
6. Thierry Henry’s Arsenal shirt number
7. And Luka Modric’s number at Tottenham
8. The percentage ABV of Meerlust Rubicon 2018
9. And Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
10. Number of pounds in a stone
11. The number of countries that share a border with Russia
12. Maximum number of golf clubs allowed in your bag
13. The number of letters in North Macedonia
14. The number of years we have been selling wine on Arthur Road

Yes, another year older, another year wider having celebrated our 14^th on Tuesday – Wayne celebrated with a Brick Lane Ruby whilst Alex stood in the shop before drinking Champagne with his wife – happy birthday to us!

As has often happened over the last 14 years, the news has been thoroughly disheartening this week with nothing to smile about really.  The BBC is in the crosshairs, again, largely courtesy of that human minion, Gregg Wallace, but is still asking us to pay £5 more to watch their output, from April next year.  £174.50 is the new figure – £14.54/month which compares to Netflix at £10.99/month (ads free), Amazon Prime at £8.99/month with all the other benefits and Disney + at £8.99/month (ads free), just so you know.

Here in the shop, as I’m sure you’ve all witnessed, we’re far too busy and focused to watch the telly, particularly at this time of year.  We had our last instore tasting of the year on Wednesday, a fabulous fizz night, with Wayne’s favourite tipple, Jean Gimonnet Millesime 2004 Premier Cru – £83 the clear winner (and why not, a Blanc de Blancs with 20 years on its lees for less than a ton is not to be sniffed at) with the Cantina di Soliera Lambrusco di Sorbara NV – £12.99 running a close second, which goes to show that it’s not all about price.

So for us, it’s head down, full speed ahead for the next 19 days and with your help we should be pretty busy.  Further to a gentle promotion of our Christmas cases last week, they are starting to get a bit of traction:

The Christmas Day Selection (PORT) – £150 including gift box

• Lété-Vautrain 204 Brut NV, Charly-Sur-Marne, Champagne, France
• Domaine Langlois Clos Saint-Florent Saumur 2021, Loire, France
• Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2023, Marlborough, New Zealand
• Akarua ‘RUA’ Central Otago Pinot Noir 2022, Central Otago, New Zealand
• Tenuta Marsiliana ‘Birillo’ Costa Toscana Rosso 2020, Tuscany, Italy
• Butler Nephew & Co 10 Years Old Tawny, Portugal

The Christmas Day Selection (NO PORT) – £150 including gift box

• Lété-Vautrain 204 Brut NV, Charly-Sur-Marne, Champagne, France
• Domaine Langlois Clos Saint-Florent Saumur 2021, Loire, France
• Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2023, Marlborough, New Zealand
• Akarua ‘RUA’ Central Otago Pinot Noir 2022, Central Otago, New Zealand
• Tenuta Marsiliana ‘Birillo’ Costa Toscana Rosso 2020, Tuscany, Italy
• Valenciso Reserva 2018, Rioja, Spain

The Claret Selection – £140 including gift box

• Chateau Guilhem 2010, Fronsac
• Chapelle De Potensac 2016, Médoc
• Château Lucas 2016, Lussac Saint-Émilion
• Château Saransot-Dupré 2016, Listrac-Médoc
• Clos Albertus 2018, Saint-Georges Saint Émilion
• Gaia de Chateau Puybarbe 2019, Côtes de Bourg

The December Fine Festive Selection- £250 including gift box

• Louis Roederer Collection 244, Champagne, France
• Sancerre Le MD de Bourgeois 2020, Loire Valley, France
• Westcott Vineyards Estate Chardonnay 2021, Ontario, Canada
• Chateau de Valois 2018, Pomerol, France
• Mt Difficulty ‘Pipeclay Terrace’ Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017,
• Central Otago, New Zealand
• Travaglini Gattinara Tre Vigne 2019, Piemonte, Italy

Tastebuds tantalised.

We also see the return of the ever popular Foxdenton Estate Christmas Liqueur – £25.

Made with Winslow Plums and a blend of traditional Christmas spices including Ginger, Clove, Cinnamon, and Star Anise, our Christmas Liqueur is the ideal winter warmer.

All this needs is a mince pie and an open fire. However, it is equally at home in a glass of fizz making a rather fabulous festive cocktail – we’ve got a bottle open, come and have a taste.

However, before you taste the Liqueur, how about tasting the wines we’ve got open.

The white is more focused towards your Boxing Day ham or the December 27^th Turkey Madurai: Max Ferd. Richter ‘Zeppelin’ Riesling 2023 – £19.49.  Kingsley Amis once said ‘life is too short to learn about German wine labels’.  We agree to some degree but do not dismiss this wine.  Crisp, zesty apple and peach flavour with finely focused slate characteristics, typical for the vineyard.  In fact, wines from this vineyard were served in the luxurious restaurant of the Zeppelin airships in the 1920’s and 1930’s and have even been served at state functions at Buckingham Palace, which will serve as a good lunchtime conversation starter.

The red is one of our favourites from Ribera del Duero in Spain.  Bodegas La Horra Corimbo 2019 – £27.99 is rich, with spicy and savoury, game notes complimenting the forest fruit character.  On the palate the sweet ripe fruit has a lovely perfumed spice edge to the finish.  A bit fuller and rustic than a Rioja perhaps but not at all in a bad way!

That’s probably it from us, come in and have a taste, get yourselves out of the rain!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

As news breaks that Andrea Jenkyns has left the Conservative Party to join the Reform Party, one Tory grandee suggests that they thought she already had. Andrea herself said she was leaving ‘a sinking ship’ and that she thought the Reform Party ‘could save the country’. Save the country from what is not clear. Save the country from the effects of 14 years of the last government? Save the country from 5 years of this government? Save the country from an invasion of jelly fish? The list of threats could be endless but I’m not sure that Nigel Farage and his mates are the answer to any of them.

One of the threats could be Artificial Intelligence. We heard this week of a start-up publisher, Spines, that plans to publish eight thousand books next year by AI. They claim not to be the vanity project purveyor that most of the established industry seems to think they are. I’m not entirely sure how that benefits anyone in a world awash with unsold Boris Johnson books. They have persuaded somebody though, having received $16m of funding.

We also heard the story of a research analyst who was caught out by not speaking with one voice in a paper they produced. Using AI to write your opinion piece is not so smart when it cuts and pastes direct comments from your competition it would seem!

Where is he going with all this AI nonsense I hear you cry? Well, fellow wine lovers, during the course of our week we do the odd bit of research to see what is going on out in the world around us. This week we found ourselves reading an article in The Daily Express entitled:  ‘We tried the best Champagne and sparkling wine with a £12 bottle near perfect’. The iffy headline aside, the reporter seems to be a real person who has worked for several publications. However, we suspect AI may have been used for some of the content…

Remy Martin VSOP Cognac Fine Champagne – The Champagne has been described as “lovely” on Asda’s website and upon review can see why thanks to its sweet vanilla and honey notes it is easy to drink. Overall score: 7/10.

We know our readers wouldn’t fall into this trap, knowing that Fine Champagne refers to a blend of the two best regions of Cognac, Petite Champagne and Grande Champagne. Perhaps the word Cognac may provide a clue as to the presence of bubbles or not.

Indeed a quick look at the reviews on Asda’s website would have revealed this gem: “There was no Fizz and no pop so can’t see where the Champagne reference has come from. You pour it into your glass and it has a dark cognac colour and tastes of cognac but that is all. I have tasted better cognac so will keep to what I know next time. Don’t be fooled by the fine champagne cognac as you will be disappointed like me.”

So what do we think: a journalist who didn’t taste all the sparkling wines, or a story written by AI? We think that, despite our wives comments, there are writers out there less researched and worse at proofreading than us who actually get paid to do it!

In completely unrelated news, Shadow Home Minister Chris Philp has suggested we use robots for tasks such as picking fruit and vegetables “rather than simply importing a lot of low-wage migrant labour”. He went on to use Australia as an example of where the technology is deployed. I’m not sure it’s a fair comparison to be honest. There are farms in Australia about the size of Dorset. Dorset has 2241 farms, though most farm livestock rather than fruit.

Whilst on the subject of Australia, do spare a thought for all those parents telling their teenagers they can no longer have social media, following the government’s decision to ban it for the under 16’s. Who will help Granny set her phone?

Tasting This Weekend

We’re heading to France this weekend. Sporting the white sweater will be Domaine Guerrin Pouilly Fuissé Vieilles Vignes 2022, Burgundy (£30). Guerrin are located between the Roc de Vergisson and Roc de Solutré and noted for their exceptional sites within Pouilly-Fuissé. This is from three separate plots all on limestone soils with vines over 50 years old. I could tell you how delicious it is with its stone fruit character, satiny mouthfeel and crisp finish, but I think it’s better you come and taste for yourself.

Representing red wine, and trying not to spill itself down the white sweater, will be Château Les Ormes Sorbet 2014, Medoc (£39). In 1862 Chateau Les Ormes Sorbet became one of the first Bordeaux estates to bottle and sell their own wine. It is still owned by the same family, managed by Helene Boivert, Vincent Boivert, and Francois Boivert. The estate is about 10km north of St Estèphe and is a traditionally styled left bank claret. I could wax lyrically about how delicious we found it when we tasted it at Vintners Hall but why not come and taste it yourself?

Lastly, we have taken the liberty of attaching this year’s Christmas selections for your perusal.  Every year we design some cases to help you get through December – we have our usual monthly £100 case, we have a mixed Claret case for £140, we have two Christmas Day survival cases for £150 each (one with a bottle of Port and the other with a bottle of Rioja for those who don’t like the fortified stuff) and a really rather fabulous, push-the-boat-out case for £250!  Have a look and place your orders.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Hard to dispute this but I think we might be hitting winter.  Certainly the ski resorts would agree with me as they prepare to start their seasons, with photos from Tignes showing heavy dustings, whilst our friends in Oslo woke up to -7°c and sunshine this morning.

Still the good news is that it’s stopped raining.  Until tomorrow.  And Sunday.

But it’s not all gloomy news, some of it is trivial.  This week I learnt that 205 million people follow Elon Musk on his now retitled Twitter platform.  @elonmusk or Muskland (capital city Muskow, population 1) would be the 6^th biggest country in the world, sliding between Brazil and Bangladesh.  Whilst that sounds like quite a large population of Muskish, it is in fact only 2.5% of the world population so, happily, 97.5% of us aren’t really listening to him.

Whilst we’re still playing silly games, President Trump, before he was banned from Twitter, could have filled Turkey and Mauritius; Boris Johnson would populate Panama; Keir Starmer could almost fill Latvia whilst Joe Biden could inspire Morocco.  Rachel Reeves’ empire, however, would include Greenland, Faeroe Islands, Saint Kitts & Nevis, American Samoa plus the Northern Mariana Islands… lots of jokes to be made from all this silliness, we’ll leave them up to you!

Slow news day in Wimbledon Park, you can probably tell.

So, as we had time on our hands, we thought we’d have a look at our branding.  For over 10 years we’ve had a fairly solid message: the name Park Vintners is a simple yet effective description of what we are and where we do it; the logo (alright, you didn’t know we had a logo, I’ll tell marketing) is the corkscrew with the vine-leaf handle that doubles up as the ‘I’ in Vintners; our ‘motto’ – Wines with Personality is, again, simple yet effective.

So we thought we’d get rid of it all and re-brand ourselves as paRvin.

Parvin, from Persian mythology, is the name for the Pleiades constellation (also known as Seven Sisters), associated with the moon goddess, symbolizing beauty, radiance, and fertility – an obvious naming choice then for a wine shop in Wimbledon, or even Haringey. 

We’ve scrapped our motto and replaced it with a depiction of the star cluster which has 7 stars on it, as you’d expect.  To accentuate it, we’ve given it a periwinkle hued background and stuck a Union Jack in the corner (to confirm our provenance)… people may think it looks like the Australian flag but it’s obviously very different because the aussie flag has six stars, not seven…

We’ve also dropped the corkscrew logo because we’re now in a screwcap world and we want to push forward with our reinvention as we predict that 85 per cent of our customers in future will be new fans of our brand – younger affluent drivers looking for electric motors wine drinkers.

Basically everything you thought you knew about us, you now don’t – sound good?

Elsewhere, we hear that 800 people have been working on a radical redesign and re-branding at the car manufacturer currently known as Jaguar.  This seems to mainly have involved erasing the past and destroying a story that has been almost 100 years in the making and actively looking to alienate your current customers – who would do such a madcap re-brand?  Probably the same company that announced earlier this month that there will be no new cars available for purchase in the UK market until some point in 2026!

On reflection, perhaps best we don’t follow the Jaguar example…

In the world of quality booze, the trade magazines have little news to offer except for one morsel relating to Christmas drinking and which spirits will be most in demand – whisky leads the way as ever but the talking heads are also predicting a sharp rise in Rum, Tequila and Mezcal sales – invariably they get their predictions completely wrong, we’ll see if they stay true to form!

Here at the bottom of the hill, we’re starting to get a few more wines in for the festive season and we are also on the verge of completing our Christmas Cases which we’ll tell you more about next week, once November is pretty much done.

With this in mind, we’ll continue opening more seasonally focused wines over the coming weeks – this week I think we’ll go to Italy.

Poggio al Tesoro ‘Solosole’ Vermentino Toscana 2022 – £27.99 – This comes from the famous Bolgheri estate owned by the Allegrini family, next door to Ornellaia.  Most famous for their reds, we’ve always really enjoyed this white.  It’s crisp, fresh, with citrus and herb notes, a lovely texture and a great finish – a fabulous all-rounder, which at this time of year is exactly what we’re looking for!

Crociani Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2021 – £24.99 – this is a perennial favourite of ours and indeed many of you and we just received the new vintage this week so thought we would get a bottle open! Made using local varieties, 80% Sangiovese, 10% Canaiolo and 10% Mammolo it has a distinct mineral and subtle oak influence from 24 months in Slavonian oak and a further two months in bottle.  A delicate and intense nose, with a bouquet of pronounced notes of redcurrants and violets and a palate full of red fruit flavours of redcurrant, red cherries and spicy notes give us a very well-structured drop, with fine grained tannins and a long mouth filling finish.

That’s almost it from us but just three quick recommendations before we go:

• The Christ the King Christmas Fair is this Saturday from 11am until 3pm – you can pop in there on the way to us…
• The England Rugby team is playing against Japan on Sunday – which sadly clashes with the Palermo vs Sampdoria football match in the Italian Serie B – I’ll let you decide which to watch!
• Take a brolly!

Ciao Ciao!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Happy halfway-through-November day!  A mere 46 days until 2025 with Christmas en-route but who’s counting….

Well, actually, we are and that’s what we are paid for.  Before then we have Beaujolais Nouveau Day, Thanksgiving, Wayne’s birthday, the shop’s birthday and Alex’s birthday – all of which deserve mention but are mere celebratory morsels on the way to the big festive banquet.

So now you know, six Saturdays between us and Santa.

Back to the here and now and we’re really hoping that at some point all of our favourite podcasts will stop harking on about the US election and start debating the real reasons for Gary Lineker leaving the BBC which I’m sure, much like the 9 player withdrawals from the England squad, has nothing to do with money.

But, I must confess, that I too cannot fully take my eyes off what is going on across the pond.  Yesterday we received an email from The Guardian, I think it was a round-robin missive rather than a personal note, telling us that they will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X/Twitter.  They went on: “we think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our content elsewhere.  This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform. The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”

Elon Musk is now in charge at the DOGE, the body tasked with firing staff and cutting costs across Federal departments.

Elon Musk is also in charge of the company SpaceX, which has billions of dollars in U.S. government contracts through launch services, NASA crew transport, Starlink internet service, and the Starshield government business.

I can see no sign of any possible conflict of interest here and certainly it seems to be nothing to do with money.

Elsewhere, not a lot of news for us.  The article in The Drinks Business called Top 15 Pinot Grigios of 2024 failed to capture our imagination; Drinks Retailing News tried to distract us with news of the launches of Kylie Minogue 0% Alcohol Sparkling Blanc alongside Nozeco Still Merlot and Nozeco Still Rosé but still we find ourselves able to resist their charms, whilst Harpers offered us the headline Hospitality confidence plummets amid rising costs and falling footfall which informed us that:

• 41% of industry leaders are optimistic about their business prospects for the next 12 months (down from 49% in August)
• Confidence levels now match October 2022 lows, when inflation was at a 40-year high.
• 20% are optimistic about the industry’s overall future over the next year (down from 36% in August)
• 46% expressed a bleak outlook for the coming year (up from 21% in August)

Go and have a pint whilst you take this all on board/whilst you still can.

Having said that we would suggest that you don’t go and have a pint on Saturday afternoon from around 5pm onwards (this advice is for England fans) as current rugby form predicts tears for us and laughter for the Springboks.

Instead, why not pop in and see us for a bit of wine and a chat?  We’ll have a couple of bottles open to whet the whistle, one new one and one old favourite:

Domaine Langlois Clos Saint-Florent Saumur 2021 – £28.99 – now, we first tasted this at about midday on Wednesday 28^th February and were told that this vintage was due to land in the UK the next week.  We tried to order it on 26^th March and then on 4^th September but it actually only landed on Tuesday this week!  Admittedly, it has come from the far Loire Valley about 500 miles away so it makes sense that it took so long… anyway, when we tasted it 8 months ago we revelled in the rich Chenin Blanc fruit, showing more orchard fruit character rather than tangy citrus and a really nice weight on the palate.  All the grapes come from the Clos Saint-Florent, which is a top Saumur plot with vines that are at least 35 years old.  Having enjoyed previous vintages, we know this to be a wine that is delicious now but will also be equally as fabulous in 5 years’ time, if not longer!

Juliénas-Chaintré Fleurie ‘Cuvée Sept’ 2022 – £16.99.  Fleurie is probably the best known Cru Beaujolais and is sometimes referred to as “The Queen of Beaujolais”, so well regarded are its smooth, supple reds.  The light food friendly wines seem to be gaining a new following amongst some of smarter sommeliers in town, one taste of this and you’ll understand why.  Silky and fresh, with dark berry fruit character and soft tannins and delicious lightly chilled – forget the Nouveau next week, this is what you really want in your glass!

Finally, owing to an important delivery out of town, we will be closing at 5.30pm on Monday 18^th November.  We realise that Monday is not our busiest night but just wanted to forewarn you all!

That’s it from us, have a lovely weekend and stay warm!