The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

How’s life this week? We received an exciting email offering us a chance to join a scheme to help increase our biscuits sales. They promised a selection of Point of Sale items, advice on shelf placement, feedback from their thousands of members and even a free case of biscuits just to welcome us to the team. The only drawback, as far as we could see, was that we don’t sell biscuits. But if this kind of promotion is your thing, we don’t sell Porsches either but might be willing to entertain the idea of a free 911 or two in order to help improve our sales!

None of the main childhood vaccines reached their uptake targets in England this last year, with uptake of the four-in-one pre-school booster vaccine (for polio, whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria) at just 81.4% among five-year-olds in England in 2024/25. As somebody whose grandmother wore a calliper on her leg for most of her life after contracting polio as a child, I would call this a victory for stupidity.

In Nottingham, Reform leader of the council has banned councillors from speaking to the Nottingham Post, which doesn’t sound to me as great for democracy. That’s Reform demonstrating their well-advertised unwavering commitment to free speech – imagine how it’d be if they actually got into government!

International relations are all rocking and rolling too. Denmark called in the top US diplomat over covert influence operations with respect to Greenland. Whilst it seems that talks of peace between Ukraine and Russia seem to often lead to escalation?

When the employers National Insurance Contributions changed in the budget, The Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that 50 000 jobs would be lost. So far, of the 164 641 jobs lost since then, 53% of them have been in hospitality. This correspondent went to a free musical event at a local pub this week and it was almost empty – use them or lose them!

In Vuelta news, it seems Juan Ayuso may have already gone pop so we’ll see Wayne’s predictions as being as useless as ever, though Jay Vine has won a stage and Jonas Vingegaard is looking comfortable so far. In the men’s football, it looks like it’s going to be a tough season for Manchester United and West Ham United supporters.  In the Women’s Rugby World Cup England captain Zoe Aldcroft has been ruled out for the rest of the pool stages with a knee injury. It’s a much changed team that face Samoa on Saturday.

As we welcome you all back from your summer sojourn we thought we might mention a Cheese and Wine Tasting evening on 2^nd October at 7.30pm. We have a maximum of 12 people per tasting and a seat at the table costs £30, first come, first served.  You can reserve your place by giving us a call on 020 8944 5224 or just pop in and see us on Arthur Road.

Tasting This Weekend

We’ll start off in the Loire Valley with Chatelain Desjacques Chardonnay 2023 (£12.49) A light, crisp and appley Chardonnay given a bit of depth by some time spent on its lees but, with no time spent in oak, this fits into that comfortable space where you’d like a glass of Chablis but don’t have the posh Burgundy budget!

Then we’ll head down to Jumilla in Spain. Sierra de Enmedio Monastrell 2023 (£11.49) Alceño is a family owned winery that has been making wines in Jumilla since 1870 and specialise in Monastrell. We’re both fans of this medium bodied red that is a fine match for a burger!

Nice to have some rain last night but wouldn’t it be nice to have some sunshine for the last weekend of summer – fingers crossed!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

As many of you might be aware, it’s the Reading Festival this weekend so I’m sure many of the A-level grades received last week will be toasted once again. However, this time with Strongbow Dark Fruit and the tunes of Hozier and Chappell Roan on Friday, Lambrini Girls and Limp Bizkit on Saturday. With Amyl and the Sniffers, Travis Scott and The Dare bringing the tunes on Sunday, will the Strongbow still be cold?

The line-up in 1975 was a little different. On Friday we had up and coming rock bands Judas Priest and UFO alongside a more established Hawkwind and a show stealing Dr Feelgood. Saturday brought us Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, Supertramp, Yes and a new Irish band, Thin Lizzy. Sunday’s showstopper was apparently Wishbone Ash with other performers on the day including Caravan, Climax Blues Band and Joan Armatrading. Fabulously, Strongbow was the most popular cider! It seems whilst the bands may change, the festivals, drinks, memories and fun live on regardless!

Elsewhere, The Rocky Horror Picture Show had its 50^th Birthday last week. I bet Frank’N’Furter’s hips aren’t what they were; fifty years of jumps to the left will take their toll!

Things could have been going better for the government, with the high court ruling that the hotel in Epping housing asylum seekers may have breached planning rules in relation to its licence. The Met Police’s plan to use facial recognition technology at the Notting Hill carnival is unlawful because it is incompatible with European laws according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

La Vuelta starts on Saturday, in Turin! Stage one winds its way from Turin to Novara, Stage two manages to ride the flat parts of Piemonte with Barolo in the bidons and an uphill finish. We finally get to Spain for stage five and a Team Time Trial around Figueres which is where Salvador Dalí lived. I hope there’s somebody in the crowd dressed as a giraffe or a telephone! Jonas Vingegaard is favourite to win the red jersey and I think I’ll put Juan Ayuso and Jay Vine alongside him for the podium.

Rugby World Cup action starts on this evening with Red Roses hosting USA at the Stadium of Light and with more than 40 000 tickets sold it should be quite the night.

In Sweden, engineers have moved a 113 year old church. Kiruna is a city 90km north of the Arctic circle and has had iron ore mining for over a century. This mining activity has left the old part of city at risk of fissures hence the decision to move the 35m tall church, once voted the most beautiful pre 1950 building.

Whilst we’re in the Arctic, scientists have been surprised to discover that the melting of sea ice in the Arctic has slowed dramatically in the last 20 years, with no statistically noteworthy decline since 2005. That sounds like good news to me.

What’s in the glass?

Given the Rugby World Cup we thought we might use that as a theme, and as luck would have it New Zealand’s Women will be playing Spain’s Women so we even have a Vuelta tie in too!

Representing the Black Ferns we have Southern Dawn Sauvignon Blanc 2024 (£13.99) from Marlborough. This has all the trademark passionfruit, citrus, nettles, cut grass and hints of capsicum that you would hope for.  These aromas light the path to a soft, well rounded palate with a luscious mouth feel and pronounced fruit characters whilst the finish is limey and assertive and more-ish!

To represent Las Leonas we’ve gone with Borgia Borsao Garnacha 2023 (£9.49). This hails from the foothills of the Moncoyo massif near Zaragoza. 100% Garnacha giving us plum and berry fruit with fine tannins and just the weight that might suit some slow cooked pork shoulder.

As usual we’ll be closed on Bank Holiday Monday, see you Tuesday!

Cheers!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

August 15^th today and all’s well in Wimbledon Park.  Well, 2025’s version of “all’s well” at least.  The weather has been keeping everyone thirsty, with the thunderstorm on Wednesday only serving to amp up the humidity and thus this thirst; whilst we aren’t suffering a hosepipe ban currently, most of us seem prepared to drink beer, gin and rosé to preserve precious water reserves – great effort, team!

August 2025’s version of “all’s well” has also provided us with the somewhat surreal Vance-Lammy bromance.  The photo of them fishing in the Chevening pond earlier this week just made me feel a bit, I don’t know, weird.  When we find out that David was potentially poaching (only potentially because he couldn’t actually hook anything) since he doesn’t have a rod licence, it all starts to feel a bit like he was coerced into an awkward photo shoot with the soon-to-be POTUS.  We imagine that JD doesn’t have a rod licence either but we fully expect him to declare ‘doplomotic immunity’ à la Joss Ackland.

As of this time last year, the US Embassy owed over £14.5 million in congestion charge fines so £15 for an 8 day rod licence feels like a drop in the ocean, particularly as JD will need it when he casts some lines with Clarkson and the Cotswolds crew…

Meanwhile, his boss is still hard at work on ending the war in Ukraine war on DAY ONE.  It’s worth mentioning that, if each ‘Trump Day’ lasts the same length as this one (207 human days and counting), then his whole term could last for about 302,220 human days or 828 human years, which, I think we all agree, would be pretty cool.

Moving away from dystopia for now, the people who will hopefully craft a safer and friendly world got their A level results yesterday and, by all accounts, did very well.  Go on, get an education and save the world, please.

Prem football is back this weekend, Palace already have some silverware, Liverpool have lost and Spurs have immediately lived up to their ‘Spursy’ moniker on Wednesday.  We might not hear about Liverpool losing many more times this season, nor Palace winning cups but we can promise you that Spurs will stay Spursy.  Just for clarification, Wayne is an Arsenal fan.

We also read that a new ChatGPT-powered mixologist is offering consumers bespoke cocktail recommendations via text or online chat, combining professional bartender expertise and AI technology.  Now, last time we looked, there was no suitable space within our Samsung for a mixologist, and despite a comprehensive search both online and in the cupboard with all the wires and boxes, absolutely no sign of either a cocktail shaker or place to put a straw.  We did wonder why though – comprehensive cocktail recipes are so easily available, to what benefit all that computing power?

Then the penny dropped – advertising, maybe even a product placed in your automatic shopping list.  A bit like those onions that always arrive in the veggy box despite nobody ordering them.  To date the advert profiling is a bit pants, isn’t it?  This week we’ve been offered orthopaedic sandals, vitamins and a dressing gown.  We’d actually searched for a new laptop!

On the other hand, potential new antibiotics that could wipe out MRSA and gonorrhoea like those on the horizon from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are infinitely more useful than a pretend mixologist!

What’s in the glass?

This week we thought we’d weigh in with some fizz to celebrate the A-level results.  Leveret IQ Brut NV (£16.99) is a classic Pinot Noir/Pinot Meunier/Chardonnay blend made in the traditional method with grapes grown in New Zealand.

On the red, we’ll be going with Bodegas Staphyle Iris Malbec 2023 (£11.99).  This is from Lujan de Cuyo, which is pretty high altitude wise and home to most of the smart names in quality from Mendoza.  The winery was originally built in 1930 but was fully updated in 2002 by boutique winery, Bodegas Staphyle.  The wine is brilliant, youthful and bright with light tannins, cherry and berry fruit characteristics and a lovely easy going finish.  Brisket you say, low and slow in the green egg?  This would be perfect!

That just leaves us to again congratulate all the students who got the grades they needed – we’ve heard talk of Bristol, Edinburgh and Exeter so far.

If you didn’t, don’t sweat it.  You can always retake an exam, you can’t retake a party!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Coincidentally, this time last year we were talking about Runaway Robinson and his chums agitating outside the temporary accommodation of asylum seekers.  For this week’s anniversary he was arrested on arrival at Luton Airport after running away the week before having ‘allegedly’ punched somebody at St Pancras.

Meanwhile, protests have been happening outside the temporary accommodation of asylum seekers. One woman, who claimed to be a concerned mother living with her kids just round the corner in Epping, also appeared to be a concerned mother at another protest, living just around the corner. Normally she is concerned with admin as Ginger Toni, Runaway Robinson’s sidekick. Summer brings out the same old faces trying to inflame things so that they can go on the TV and say “I told you so”.

The football season starts very soon and Premiership clubs have been playing friendlies at various spots around the globe. Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United entertained the residents of Seoul to a 1-1 draw on Sunday. Surprisingly, Newcastle’s Matt Targett learnt what it is to be well and truly benched when the team left him behind at Seoul Airport! Whoops.

In the USA, the Tango Tariffmeister is still imposing random percentages of tariffs to countries. The latest is to India for buying Russian oil; it is 25% with a chance for double or quits if they’re lucky. I find it incredible that his supporters’ just keep cheering him on, whose pockets do they think all these tariffs come from? Difficult to believe it’s the same country that had a revolution against a 3p tax on a pound of tea in 1773.

Here we have the unedifying spectacle of the homelessness minister, Rushanara Ali, evicting tenants renting her East London townhouse only to then relist it for rental a few weeks later at £700 a month more. It doesn’t appear to be playing with a straight bat; she has spoken out on more than one occasion against this sort of thing. She has resigned overnight.

A rare copy of The Hobbit sold for £43,000 this week. It was one of the 1,500 first edition printed in 1937. Precious indeed!

In drinks news, the bourbon industry seems to have got itself into a spot of bother. In the last 20 years they have increased production by around 470% but demand has increased by around 300%. That immediately seems a bit of an issue but couple that with the backlash against US products because of Tango’s Tariffs with a less thirsty younger generation and it appears boom times have become bust.

I cast my beady eye over some new vintage reports this week. It looks like Australia enjoyed a rather good 2025. Margaret River had good quality where the birds hadn’t stolen the grapes, Yarra’s Chardonnays appear to have a bit more weight to them than the previous couple of vintages but the one to look out for will be Mornington Peninsula which has enjoyed it’s best one in a decade according to Lindsay McCall owner at Paringa Estate.

What’s in the glass?

We’ll start way down in Marsala, Sicily with Sensale Bio Orange Wine 2024 (£16.99). This is made from 100% organic Catarratto grapes fermented and aged on the skins in amphora.

How about a trip to Piemonte for the red? Cantine Povero Cabanè Langhe Nebbiolo 2020 (£15.99) – this is from grapes just outside of the designated zone for Barolo, the wrong side of the tracks if you like.  Usually the wines are 100% Nebbiolo but in this instance I am led to believe that there may be a smidge of Barbera in there plus a dash of Cabernet Sauvignon!  The nose is sweetly aromatic with an intense bouquet containing hints of roses, tobacco and spice.  On the palate we have more roses and red fruits and fresh tobacco leaf on the simply delicious finish.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

A very good day to you all. I guess you’re away somewhere as there are parking spots galore around these parts. Even the Lime bikes were fitting in their spot when I arrived.

We’ve heard check-ins from people painting near Aberystwyth, mountain biking and hiking near Chamonix, chilling in Ireland and ‘just hot’ in Greece. Southern Spain’s mid-high 20’s temperatures alongside a pool and inexpensive wine proved too big a draw for Alex who has left the building. Manuel next door has headed off for the month, returning on the 26^th August.

Mr and Mrs Starmer have had a trip to Scotland to not play golf, Donald Trump was there too, lobbying for the Open to be held at Turnberry, but mostly playing golf to his own rules.

The Lionesses won the European Championship for the second time running, with Lucy Bronze having played the entire tournament with a fractured tibia. No messing, that is Double Hard! With that kind of toughness she could have been a cyclist!

Talking of which, attention has now switched from the men to the women for the Tour de France. Kasia Niewiadoma is hoping to defend her title, Marianne Vos, Puck Pieterse and Demi Vollering among those trying to ensure she doesn’t.

The news that made me smile was the Bishop of Fulham appearing in his dressing gown. The City Academy Voices Choir had hired St Andrew’s in Holborn for an evening concert and was just coming to the end of their repertoire when the lights went out. He then stood at a microphone, barefoot in his dressing gown and said: “You are in my house. It’s gone past 10pm and this is a terrible racket,” “Goodnight. You are in my house – can you leave it now please. Thank you, it’s over.” Now, call me old fashioned, but I’d expect a Bishop to be a little less rude to the Choir that has rented his church and 10 o’clock doesn’t seem to be so late to be finishing a concert. Perhaps he’d hoped to become Archbishop of Wales? Cherry Vann, formerly Bishop of Monmouth, has become Britain’s first woman Archbishop. Chapeau!

Tasting Evenings

The Sparkling Wine evening sold out quicker than you can say ‘Pop’.

We do still have some spaces for the following Cheese and Wine dates.

•           THURSDAY 2nd OCTOBER – 7.30PM

•           THURSDAY 6TH NOVEMBER – 7.30PM

•           THURSDAY 27TH NOVEMBER – 7.30PM

We have a maximum of 12 people per tasting and a seat at the table costs £30, first come, first served.  You can reserve your place by giving us a call on 020 8944 5224 or just pop in and see us on Arthur Road.

As we mentioned last week, today is ‘Celebrate Albariño Day’.  The Rías Baixas region specialises in Albariño, and is thus considered to be its true heartland, nestled up in the far north-western corner of Spain beside the wind-swept Atlantic coast. We opened some last week that went down so well we had to have a re-stock!

It’s also ‘Yorkshire Day’. We have no wines from there, but do have a great day all those that celebrate!

Tasting This Weekend

We thought we’d head down under this week to the land of the long cloud. Our correspondents on the spot confirm that is indeed rather cloudy and chilly. We thought we’d give a couple of Pinot’s a go.

From Marlborough we’ll crack open the Wairau River Pinot Gris 2022(£18.99) – Wairau River have some of the earliest plantings of Pinot Gris in Marlborough and this wine really captures the essence of the regions clean and pure climate.  This has succulent ripe pear character on the nose, with melon, apple and apricot flavours, nice mouth weight and an exotic lingering finish.

Then we’ll hop off to Nelson for Heaphy Pinot Noir 2023 (£18.99) – Heaphy Vineyard is a small winery in the north-west corner of New Zealand’s South Island, a region named Nelson Tasman.  First planted in 1973, the vines are amongst the very oldest productive vineyards in New Zealand.  This Pinot Noir is from 3 vineyards in Tasman, Upper Moutere and Ruby Bay.  When we tasted it we thought it was a bit of a revelation.  Nice, easy going, open fruit character with a lovely soft juicy finish.

Amazing what chaos 20 minutes of downtime on a radar system can cause, eh?

Have a great weekend.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

And so we start the long, slow walk to September.  Even if you don’t have school-age children, you could probably have guessed when the summer holidays started, as it neatly coincided with the need to carry an umbrella and put a sweater on!  Plus the streets are empty, parking is easy and we usually have a couple of dozen lime bikes parked outside the shop, waiting to be blown over or reversed in to….

We’re also a bit disappointed.  In a world where we desperately need to conserve our trees and green spaces, it looks increasingly likely we’ll be getting less as we look set to have 39 new tennis courts foisted onto the old golf course beside Home Park Road.  This comes hot on the heels of Tottenham Hotspur being given the green light to develop green belt land in Whitewebbs Park in Enfield (11 pitches and a clubhouse); ironically this site was also previously a golf course.  Mind you, West Ham have already developed on some green belt land in Romford, so it isn’t without precedent and no golf courses were involved.  Trees or sport, you can choose.  Oh, hang about, no you can’t…

Moving from planning but staying with sport, we find ourselves a bit more cheerful.  The England Women play Spain in the Euro finals on Sunday, a repeat of the World Cup final from 2 years ago and, providing we don’t go to penalties, I think we might just do it.  The cricket never fails to entertain this summer, the Lions tour to Australia is also looking positive whilst the cyclists are just a couple of days away from Paris but it does feel a bit like the procession has already started.

However, we can’t just watch sport and trawl planning applications; we do also need to do some selling and some planning.  We’ve not quite finalised our Christmas range yet but we have been looking at the months ahead with greater attention.   With this in mind, following the success of our Wine & Cheese evening in June, we’ve pencilled in some dates for the Autumn.  So, if you missed out on the fun, go and check your diary now to see if any (or all) of the following dates work for you:

• THURSDAY 2^nd OCTOBER – 7.30PM
• THURSDAY 6^TH NOVEMBER – 7.30PM
• THURSDAY 27^TH NOVEMBER – 7.30PM

We have a maximum of 12 people per tasting and a seat at the table costs £30, first come, first served.  You can reserve your place by giving us a call on 020 8944 5224 or just pop in and see us on Arthur Road.

Striking whilst the iron is hot, we might as well add that our annual Champagne & Sparkling Wine Tasting which will take place on

• THURSDAY 4^TH DECEMBER – 7.30PM

A seat for this costs £35, same rules as above!

However, if you want to taste some interesting wines before the end of summer, we’ll have a few bottles open this weekend that should tantalise your tasting buds.  As you are no doubt unaware, Friday 1^st August is ‘Celebrate Albariño Day’.  The Rías Baixas region specialises in Albariño, and is thus considered to be its true heartland, nestled up in the far north-western corner of Spain beside the wind-swept Atlantic coast.

There are 5 sub-regions within Rías Baixas with the most northern being Ribeira do Ulla.  Fully landlocked but dissected by the Ulla River, this is the newest sub-zone, registered in 2000 and is composed mostly of alluvial soil.  Located inland, just southeast of Santiago de Compostela, and east of Padrón, the town famous for its fried green peppers!

Next, we have Val do Salnés boasting the most coastline and is consequently the coolest and dampest of the regions.  It is known as the birthplace of the Albariño grape and is the original and oldest sub-zone with the most area under vine and the highest concentration of wineries. The soil is granitic and rocky with alluvial top-soil.

Soutomaior sits on the coast in the centre of the region and is the smallest zone, registered in 1996. Soils are light and sandy over granite bedrock.

Condado do Tea is named after the river Tea, a tributary of the Miño River.  Located inland in a fairly mountainous area, this is the second largest zone, with granite-slate and sedimentary soils.  Being inland, it is a warmer, drier area, with some very high temperatures possible in the summer.

Finally, we have O Rosal, lying along the Miño River where it joins the Atlantic Ocean.  It forms the border with Portugal and has granite bedrock with alluvial topsoil, with terraced vineyards along the sides of the river.

We have 3 Albariños in stock and we’ll be opening all of them this weekend because why wait until next Friday?

Arousana Follas Novas – £17.99 – from Val do Salnés, made using fruit from 30 year old vines.  White peach and orange blossom on the nose and a crisp, dry palate showing stone fruit and mineral characteristics.

Granbazan Etiqueta Ambar – £25.79 – also from Val do Salnés, just a kilometre away from the sea which gives it a salty minerality and a slightly tropical fruit character on the palate.

San Salvador de Soutomaior Noelia Bebelia – £26.99 – as you can possibly guess, this hails from Soutomaior and the producers, Simon and Noelia have 7 acres perched on mountainous riverbanks and aim to make very terroir focused wines.  Richer, with concentrated fruit character whilst not forgetting the signature crisp minerality and a lovely long finish.

And, to keep Mike happy, we’ll also open a red.  We’ll stay with Spain and head directly east from Pontevedra for about 600km until we reach Haro, Rioja.  Palacio del Camino Real Reserva – £15.99 is a traditional style Reserva Rioja with plenty of black fruit flavours and spicy, rich oak notes as you would expect.  The palate is medium-bodied with a real fruit driven flavour.  Plums, red and black fruit and soft vanilla notes shine here and lead onto a long, structured finish.

So pop by, buy a ticket for a tasting, taste some Spanish stunners and raise a glass to Ozzy and Hulk.

Say your prayers, take your vitamins and you will never go wrong!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It’s been all excitement this week in UK politics. Sir Kier suspended four MP’s for making Rachel Reeves cry and then went on to sign an agreement with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. It’s going to make train travel and school trips easier, not to mention increasing co-operation on scientific research, security and defence.  At the next election 16 and 17 year olds will be able to vote, or at least those with ID will.

Meanwhile, in Somerset, Big Carl, the world’s largest crane, has raised the 245 tonne dome onto Hinkley –C second reactor. With the lid on, they can now get on with fitting it out. In my head I had visions of Dumbo being delivered by the stork!

Across the pond, Tango Tariffmeister has been getting involved in everything. Everything, that is, except releasing the Epstein report, although, in typical TACO mode, he now seems to be backing their exposure. He is also encouraging the replacement of corn syrup in Coca-Cola whilst also threatening to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, happily forgetful that it was him who appointed JP in the first place.

He clearly felt his contributions to Chelsea winning the Club World Cup were worthy of staying front and centre for the celebrations and photographs. We wondered if there was a photograph of John Terry in a crowd that might be photo-shopped in to replace Tango for the Chelsea publicity because he’ll definitely have his kit on. The video evidence of Tango pocketing a FIFA medal, are, of course, fake news.

Meanwhile, in France, cyclists have been doing their thing in the Tour de France. We’re up to day 12 and all the favourites are still involved, Oscar Onley has been the surprise, at least for this correspondent. Only his second Tour and he’s up there mixing it with the favourites. Cycling really is have a rather special moment.

There is also some Golf Open thingy happening in Royal Portrush where, suprisingly, it’s raining.

In these quieter weeks over summer we often ruminate upon what might have happened to customers that we haven’t seen for a while.  Sometimes we know they’ve given up drinking; sometimes they’ve moved to Chislehurst, Dubai or the other side of Southfields; often times we expect they have just got sick of our inept service and annoying small talk.  Occasionally, though, you get a nice surprise when you open your (online) newspaper to be greeted by the cheery physog of one of your regulars, happily handing out bidons to riders in the Tour de France – chapeau sir, hope you enjoyed yourself!  Then, whilst watching the Test Match on Saturday afternoon, we captured the profile of another customer, full-screen on Sky TV, doing his best Jimmy Hill impersonation – he told us he’d moved to York but I’m sure the cricket was in St Johns Wood!  So, be warned, if you’re off anywhere exciting, we’ll know….

Tasting this Weekend

We’ll start in Spain with J. Fernando Verdejo 2024 (£15.99) from Rueda. We were really rather chuffed to find a Rueda Verdejo at this price, usually they’re a few quid more expensive. The family has had vineyards for three generations and now, having completed their new winery in 2017, they have produced a fabulously zesty quaffer. A fabulous balance of fruit and herb notes and that lovely zesty finish will be pitch-perfect with a platter of Cantabrian anchovies.

We’ll move onto Southern Italy for Cantine Pirovano Beatrice Nero di Troia 2024, (£13.49) Beginning in 1850 with an Osteria serving Southern Italian wines, the Pirovano family business has developed into an Italy-wide producer and bottler of wines. This deep purple coloured red is made using 100% Nero Di Troia grapes from their sun-drenched vineyards. The nose is full of summer berries, blackberry, black currant and even a hint of strawberry jam. On the palate the wine is sumptuously smooth, juicy with ripe berry fruit and very well balanced.

Cheers!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

 “It’s really a very simple story. A rich private tennis club is looking to make itself even richer by tripling in size, at devastating cost to the local environment and community.”  Andy Hamilton, keeping it simple.

Anyway, let’s move on from that and ask, once again, the question: who briefs Donald Trump?  Because, frankly, it doesn’t seem like anyone holds that position.  I’m sure you’ve all seen it by now, in between watching Willy Wonka (64 years old, after lunch) snoozing at Wimbledon, however to catch up those of you who haven’t, Donald Trump welcomed the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal  to the White House on Wednesday.  Displaying even more ignorance (racism?) than usual, he patronised the Liberian President’s mastery of the English language; wisely, sensing a possible trap, because surely no-one can be that stupid and uninformed, President Boakai exercised masterful diplomacy by simply smiling and saying ‘yes sir’ whilst the orange fella opposite him jabbered on, digging a deeper hole…

Meanwhile, here in SW19 (official language: English), we’ve been swamped with sunshine, strawberries and a surfeit of sport.  Rosé and sparkling wine have been the drinks of choice although, for us on Wednesday evening, the refreshing tang of The Park Brewery Hope Mimosa Sour completely hit the bullseye.  A vibrant, fruit forward beer made using apricot and mango puree, it was bright, tangy, refreshing with a lovely sour finish and 440ml didn’t last five minutes!

Whilst on the subject of interesting drinks, we have a couple of new tipples to tempt you with.  After much discussion, we’ve decided  to get a few bottles of Rathfinny Rosé Brut 2019 – £42.00, buoyed by the success of their classic cuvée, we thought we’d tempt you with some pink.  Very pale in the glass and bone dry on the palate, this is just fabulous.  Ripe peach, red cherry and strawberry coulis notes with just a waft of pepper to finish.  Another stunning Sussex sparkler!

Closer to home we have an exciting new edition from Braden and the gang at Doghouse Distillery.  Always the innovators, they have just launched their first ever American style corn whisky, a batch of just 1,000 bottles.  In their words: “Debt Collector, inspired by deep south blues rock music, is an American style whisky made with a mash of corn, barley and rye.  It is fermented using a Kentucky Bourbon yeast and then matured in virgin American oak for 3 years and diluted to bottle at 50%.  It is the first ever American style corn whisky to be made in London and is an incredible tasting whisky.   On the nose it hits notes of crisp cherry, caramel and light vanilla.  Strong viscosity on the palate coupled with rich notes of vanilla, oak and caramel sweetness, plus a warming earthy spiciness.   Drink neat and enjoy this remarkably smooth finish with oak, light smoke and clean spice.”

Doghouse Distillery Debt Collector Whisky – £50.00

Anyway, as discussed above, the sun has been shining and promises to continue unabated whilst international sport is everywhere.  We have tennis; we have cricket; we have European football; we have rugby from all over the world; we’ve even got some cycling but all the while all we really want to do is go swimming…

And we’ve got barbecues going on and with this in mind, how about we open a couple of crowd pleasing bottles for you to taste tonight or tomorrow?  Good idea, let’s do it.

The Lions are in Australia, so we thought we’d open Pauletts Polish Hill River Aged Release Riesling 2018 – £21.99.  Polish Hill River is a sub-region of the Clare Valley and about a 90 minute drive from Adelaide.  We always love the Aged Release that the Paulett’s keep back for a few years in their cellar as it’s always crisp and dry with bags of citrus and minerals and a fab finish.  Good idea as your aperitif whilst the coals are getting glowing.

And since England are playing Argentina on Saturday evening, how about Sottano Selección Blend 2020 – £23.99 is a blend of Malbec, Syrah and Cabernet Franc; dark in the glass as you’d expect and with lovely aromatic berry aromas with a hint of violets and wood smoke.  The palate is rich and layered with cassis and berry fruit notes, coffee and wood spice with a touch of black pepper to end on.  It works very well with quick cooked skirt steak if you’re looking for a deliciously easy supper!

That’s it from us, I’ll be honest, it’s been a tough email to write this week – can we have a good news week nest week please?!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Double celebration day today – the Founding Fathers declared independence 249 years ago whilst, a mere 248 years later, Keir and the Gang won the general election, neither event coming as much of a surprise. 

So yes, a double celebration and a chance for us all to reflect on how well things are going on either side of the pond.  Here, we can celebrate the announcement of a 10 year plan for the NHS which sounds a lot like a return to the cottage hospitals of old; meanwhile, those lucky enough to live in the Land of the Free can celebrate the big bad wolf’s big beautiful bill.  This is the plan that, over 10 years, will add $3 trillion to the national deficit and cut $1 trillion from Medicaid – definitely need to be brave to call this place home.

Celebrating other achievements, Post Malone is 30 today, big beautiful Bill Withers would have been 87 and Greece’s victory over Portugal in the Euros is now old enough to buy a beer in America – all good dinner party conversation starters for Saturday evening, I think you’ll find.

Anyway, enough chat about them, let’s get back to talking about us.  We had to use google this week to find an accurate definition for Gen Z, aka Zoomers.  We both had a wishy-washy idea of what it meant but then discovered that we had differing wishy-washy ideas, hence the library visit.  To remind you, Gen Z is the generation born between 1997 and 2012, so aged anywhere between 12 and 28, the youth of today, if you will.  Anyway, we had been led to believe that Gen Z was ‘abandoning alcohol’ and that this would have a serious knock on effect for the future of the drinks industry.  However, this week, up stepped the IWSR and Bevtrac consumer research.  Apparently, they tell us, ‘Gen Z is confounding conventional wisdom by reviving participation rates and consumption occasions.’  I read the whole article so you didn’t have to and learnt that, in 15 key markets surveyed, 73% said they’d had a drink in the last 6 months, up from 66% in 2023.  Plus, they’re drinking a broader variety of drinks, loving their spirits and going out a lot more than other generations, which is frankly as it should be and long may it continue; we just need more of them to get into wine and our future will be secure!

Not much else to report in the wine world though, so again, we move on.  Normally at this time of the year, Wayne is driving the narrative in these emails – ranting about the increased traffic resulting from the annual tennis competition taking place in the park and then typing excitedly about the start of the Tour de France.  He’s got the day off today, so it’s down to me to man the moans but happily he left me his notes.  In 2023 he fumed:

Greetings from the biggest and busiest carpark in south-west London.  If you can’t find a taxi near you it’s because they are all sitting on Arthur Road, shouting at each other and trying to squeeze through spaces made for a VW Polo and not for a Land Rover Defender, so, if you don’t mind, you’ll have to reverse… Welcome to Wimbledon fortnight, come and smell the fumes.

Whilst in 2018 he wrote, with bullet points:

• a notable increase in oversized SUV’s struggling to drive on their side of the road or through width restrictions or in fact anywhere that there are other vehicles
• perma-tanned, beautiful people wearing glistening tennis whites whilst schooning pints of Lanson in Hemmingway’s
• lots of eager emmets will soon be emerging blinkingly from the penumbra of Wimbledon Park tube station to discover that the All England is not bang outside or even that close and no, they haven’t bothered to put up any signposts to help
• the Pig & Whistle will become a drop-in centre for people camping in the park yearning electricity and cushioned seating
• the Co-op will run out of anything salad or strawberry related but will have a plenitude of swedes and turnips and other winter casserole ingredients
• we’ll all become tennis experts once more

And in 2017 he told us this:

You’ll have seen the Wimbledon branded cars driving around on their practice runs the last two weeks (I’m sure they used smaller cars in the past, maybe saving on hotel rooms?). This can of course mean only one thing: Wimbledon fortnight is upon us! The Co-op will have sold out of all useful lunch items for the next few weeks so Alex and I will be on the microwave stew or Uncle Ben’s rice packs.

So, in a nutshell, Wimbledon fortnight consistently rewards us with Co-Op food shortages, big cars and lost tourists – got to love the consistency!

Away from tennis, we’ve got the Women’s Euros just started, England playing on Saturday.  We’ve got Lions rugby down under, England in Argentina, Scotland in NZ and Wales in Japan.  We’ve got cricket going on in the Midlands and we’ve got cycling masochism in France, as mentioned above.  We’ll need a minimum of 3 screens I think, just to be on the safe side!

With fingers crossed for nicer weather than is currently forecast, we thought we’d open a couple of Iberian easy drinkers this weekend.  For the white, we have the dangerously drinkable Vilacetinho Vinho Verde 2024 – £10.99.  Founded in 1790, these chaps are one of the oldest producers of Vinho Verde in Portugal.  Avesso, Arinto, Azal and Loureiro are the grapes, grown on south facing granite slopes.  The wine is crisp and dry with lively, zingy, zesty citrus notes and a light spritz.  Perfect as an apéritif, with a picnic, or just as a sundowner on the Riviera and, at only 11% alcohol, you can happily reach for that second glass!

The red comes from eastern Spain Bodega Sierra Norte Ananto 2023 – £12.99.  The 67 hectare Finca Fuenteseca estate lies in Utiel-Requena, a high, rugged plateau, nearly 1,000 metres above sea level, just inland from Valencia.  The grapes used are 65% Bobal and 35% Tempranillo; Tempranillo you will know from Rioja, whilst Bobal is the local grape variety, representing 80% of red vines in the region.  The nose has complex aromas of dark fruits whilst the palate offers us ripe plum and bramble fruit with a juicy acidity nicely balanced by ripe, soft tannins.

Wayne insists that we leave the last words to a headline we read in cyclinguptodate.com on Wednesday: “To win the Tour, I have to be able to beat him” – Jonas Vingegaard is not looking for shortcuts to win Tour de France over Tadej Pogacar.

You heard it here first!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

At this point of the week it is customary for us to discuss some of the week’s more noteworthy snippets of news, in what we hope is a light hearted and occasionally amusing style. This week I find myself a little scuppered as I have paid virtually no attention to current affairs whatsoever. I understand Jeff Bezos has taken over Venice for his wedding, upsetting most of the locals who object to the idea that you can ‘buy’ Venice for a few days. There have been inflatable Bezos effigies floating in canals alongside talk of inflatable alligators too. Alex and I didn’t get an invite, or the catering contract. We don’t know Jeff Bezos any better than half of the guest list selection of folk from Red Carpet Fillers LLC but surely we could’ve helped with the wine?

I’m also assuming that, as we get to write again this week, WW3 has thus far been avoided. Why can’t these confused old men just play backgammon, cards or dominoes in the sunshine? Warhammer for real is just not cool, what benefit is there to the people of Iran, Israel or the US?

One thing did catch my eye, in Warwickshire the Reform leader of the council, Rob Howard, has stood down after just 41 days in the job saying his health doesn’t allow him to continue in the role “to the standard I would wish”. This presents an amazing opportunity for his deputy, 18 year old George Finch. Now, as much as I welcome all great opportunities for young folk, I do question whether any 18 year old has the necessary skills to deliver the best value for money from the councils £500m revenue budget. Quite a steep learning curve I’d suggest, let’s hope he passed his GCSE Maths.

Well Wayne, you might ask, what have you been up to that had you so disconnected from the 24 hour news cycle? Well, since we last spoke I spent a day standing in a field near Milton Keynes watching old folks sing the songs of my youth, some rather better than others. I finally got to see Kraftwerk after the best part of 50 years of trying. They might be robots, I’m not sure, but they certainly had a bass that rattled your lungs against your ribs. Then I dashed off to Bordeaux, as you do!

Tasting and drinking mostly red wine in 33˚C is a bit of a challenge but rest assured I did my best to rise to it. I got to meet up with a selection of colleagues from independent merchants around the country to exchange ideas alongside tales of woe, derring-do and hilarity. We planted trees to help with one estate’s diversity and visited a brand new (or at least very nearly finished) winery, on one of the largest estates in Bordeaux, that will remain empty until the pea sized berries that we saw have ripened and been harvested. 

We got to visit Yves at Saransot Dupré whose two wire haired dachshunds made sure we stayed on the straight and narrow; Cyril from Chateau Haut Barrail was there too and Yves  told him off for not pouring large enough samples! We also met Jean-Christophe from Château Les Tourelles, who has some very gnarly looking 100 year old Semillon vines for his sweet wines and supplies us with some remarkable value wines from down in Cadillac. I certainly never expected to be sat discussing wines from Mallorca sat in a cellar in south-east Bordeaux!

This brings me to what we’ll have on tasting this weekend. Glastonbury is on the telly and we seem to be in line for some nice weather, so why not try Chateau Les Tourelles 2023 (£11.99) in the white corner. As mentioned above, it’s from Cadillac in south east Bordeaux and its crisp freshness is just the ticket for this weather.

In the red corner, we’ll again go for a summer swigger that suits the weather. Hanewald-Schwerdt Spätburgunder 2020 – £19.99. Pinot Noir from Germany doesn’t appear on everyone’s radar very often but it should!  Bright strawberry and cherry notes lead the way with some delicious savoury character and good minerality.  Intense and medium bodied this is designed to be drunk easily (hooray) and can be enjoyed on its own (hooray again) and if you were of a mind it would chill down rather nicely (can I get a third hooray?)

That’s that from us except to wish Mel Brooks a happy 99^th birthday for tomorrow.

“It’s good to be the king”