Fellow Wine Lovers,
A scene that might strike a chord with a few of you…
You wake up in the half light of the morning, the bed is warm, the room is cold and there is damp in the air. Whilst defrosting your contact lenses, you open the curtains and gaze out onto a blanket of fog – no mountains to be seen. As the aromas of coffee creep up the stairs you descend into the kitchen and are greeted loudly by loud people who are far too awake for this time of the morning, but you crack on, drink your coffee, make some packed lunches, eat a banana and go to get dressed. Warm.
As you step out of the front door at half eight, cold mist catching in your throat, you know one thing – it’s going to be a good day, the fogs will clear as the sun burns them off, the mountains will re-appear and the skiing will be glorious…
But you’re not in the Alps, you’re in Wimbledon Park and the only thing the fog is hiding is the cars on the other side of the street. Get the kids dressed and fed, wrap the packed lunches and then out of the door at half eight – as the mist catches your throat, you know one thing – you’re going running in this, who’s stupid idea was it to do the marathon, the weather has to be better than this in April….
Loving the marathon training, loving the damp mornings, loving the lycra, loving it all – and to make matters worse it is apparently frowned upon to carry a hipflask of sloe gin when doing training runs!
Post-run warm down
Having had the virtues of winter running extolled so positively I expect you all to don your Saucony’s tomorrow, hit the pavements and cover some serious terrain. Afterwards, once you’ve showered, spread a feeling of smug over all those who haven’t exercised yet, eaten a fry up and read the paper you will be in need of a final post-run warm down – the walk to the wine shop seems just the ticket.
When you get here we can offer you a refresher of Champagne Beaumet 2004 (£35.99) followed up by a taste of Domaine Patrick Miolane Puligny Montrachet 2011 (£31.99).
As we are concentrating on France this week we thought we would open the Joseph Faiveley Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire 2010 (£11.99) and follow this up with, from Listrac-Medoc, Chateau Fourcas Dupré 2001 (£26.49).
Oh go on, as it’s Christmas and you’ve all been for a run, how about we open a sweetie too: that’ll be the ‘No-name’ Sauternes 2010 (£25.00) – delicious, unctuous, mouth-wateringly more-ish and definitely not made by the most famous sweet wine producers in the world…
Keep the spirits up
We mustn’t let Wayne finish off this bottle of King’s Ginger by himself, not after last time, so do please come in and try the spirits we have open. Don’t think of it as depriving him, think of it as helping him with his training.
So swing on by this weekend, mince pies will be available, the current favourite by a long chalk were the ones made by one of our Aussie customers last week, but this week we are likely to be trying out Waitrose, or perhaps Sainsbury’s, or perhaps both – in which case we definitely need to go for that run then!