The Weekly Wine

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”

Fellow Wine Lovers,

If you’re reading this, we are very relieved.  We thought that there was a more than decent chance that the world may have ended last night.  Not because of Tango Tariffmeister and Bulldozer Benjamin’s excursions in Iran, though we can see the risk.  No, the reason we thought the world may be doomed was because, at last night’s Vitality Blast between Middlesex and Essex, the MCC had dispensed with the requirement for gentlemen to wear jackets in the Pavilion.

Whilst we’re on the subject of last night, we’d just like to thank everyone who came along to a rather warm cheese and wine evening.  The cheeses were really rather tasty, Roncevaux from the Pyrenees was a discovery, whilst the wines all sang too, particularly the Bedoba Saperavi, and some great pairings were found.  So much fun was had that we’ll do it again after the summer –   keep your eyes peeled for the next date.

Since we last spoke, Tango has had a birthday that involved him spending a truckload of US tax dollars on a military parade.  Unfortunately for him, it seems that US soldiers don’t march with quite the same panache as those in North Korea.  The stands for spectators seemed to be catering for a much larger gathering.  There were also rather a lot of street parties around the country in many cities, towns and hamlets although I’m not sure what they have against kings.

Space X continues its endless battle between being a firework manufacturer and wanting to conquer the final frontier.  I don’t know about you, but to me, Mars still looks more like a snack for work, rest and play than a colonised planet.

Closer to home, both A-levels and GCSEs have finished, so expect some partying up on the common. We’ve no idea what happened to that bottle of gin but do have another if you need one!

When I was a boy, apart from the world being mostly in black and white, rugby was a game that was played in the winter.  I have many memories of watching games where the protagonists ended the game looking more like extras from Swamp Thing than rugby players.  Imagine my surprise then, to realise that the Lions fixtures are starting with a game in Europe before heading off to the wintry climes of the Southern Hemisphere.  Fortunately for the players it’s only 23˚C in Dublin.  Oh, and I’ve just been informed that England are playing France at Twickenham tomorrow afternoon – anticipated temperature at kick-off – 32˚C….

Indeed, it seems we’re in the midst of, what some may term, a heatwave.  Irving Berlin was familiar with the idea, penning a song famously sung by both Marilyn Monroe and Ethel Waters.  There was a jazz-funk band from London called Heatwave featuring Rod Temperton.  He later went on to write songs for Michael Jackson and George Benson amongst others.  To make your heatwave experience more pleasurable we’d suggest imbibing some cool beverages and checking out the Temperton oeuvre!

Whilst we are on the subject of tunes and drinks, there seem to be a number of summer parties happening over the next few weeks.  If we can help with yours, do let us know.

Tasting This Weekend

We thought we’d start with something nice and fresh, Château de la Mirande Picpoul de Pinet 2024 (£14.99).  The vines for this Picpoul de Pinet are 100 years old and grow on the slopes overlooking the oyster beds of Bassin de Thau.  The wine is pitch perfect Picpoul, crisp and dry with lovely stonefruit character that was, for this taster, somewhere between a peach and a yellow plum.  Oysters would be a good partner, as would some dressed crab.  Salted crisps too, if you’re opening as an aperitif!

For red we thought we’d stay a bit light, with one you could chill if you fancy. Monte Tondo Corvina 2023 (£15.49).   Monte Tondo is a family estate located in the beautiful hillside vineyards of Soave.  This is a new wine to us, a lovely red with a bright and lively nose showing fresh cherry, black berry and black pepper hints.  It is medium-bodied with a lovely freshness and supple, well-integrated tannins.

So that’s it from us, Summer Solstice tomorrow morning heralding the longest day of the year – use it wisely!

Cheers!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Another week, another weather report, another update on our sartorial selections. 

Our very own Angus Young continues to don his tailored shorts whilst Captain Birdseye still seems ready to embark on a 3 day fishing trip in particularly squally weather.  This is probably because the eternal schoolboy believes the BBC when it tells him ‘temperatures forecast to hit 29c by Friday’ whilst the salty seadog’s 2 day old copy of the Daily Mirror highlights ‘Exactly where thunderstorms will hit UK as rainfall warning issued by Met Office’.  One of them will be correct, possibly both.

And that’s the end of the news for this week because, frankly, there’s not a single headline that makes for happy reading – why are people so rotten to each other, all the time, everywhere?

So instead, we went down an internet wormhole earlier this week, as is our wont, and ended up discovering what the words cupboard, embarrassment and bamboo all have in common.  Any ideas?  No?  Well it was our wormhole, so we’ll tell you later.

This weekend sees the annual festival of awful greeting cards as we celebrate Father’s Day.  And I mean truly awful cards.  My father, a man of a certain age let’s say given my own receding hairline, doesn’t want a card with a racing car on the front and some rubbish about how he great he is at driving and how great he is at being a Dad – I’m not 10 years old Hallmark, there are grown-up’s with Dad’s too!  How about a card that has a bottle of wine and two glasses on the front and a message inside that says something like ‘Fancy sharing a bottle sometime soon?’

So what’s the difference between your Dad telling your friends an embarrassing story from your younger, needier days and a collection of Pandas?  Nothing apparently, they’re both an embarrassment!  Yes, indeed, the wormhole told us that the collective terms for pandas can be a cupboard, a bamboo or an embarrassment!  Why an embarrassment?  AI informs us:

‘the exact origin is unclear, it is widely believed to have emerged online or in informal discussions rather than having a historical, scientific, or linguistic root.  The term plays on the perception of them as being clumsy, lazy, and sometimes embarrassing in their behaviour, especially due to their fondness for bamboo and their somewhat limited activity.’

Father’s Day – Sunday 15^th June and also, Happy Birthday to Nigel Walker, 62, the insanely quick former Welsh Rugby Player with the ability to drop the pass on both wings!

In real sport, where they have no need to catch a ball, I’m told it’s the start of the Tour de Suisse this weekend which doesn’t sound terribly flat to me.

No interesting wine news this week – it still tastes great and we have plenty for all of you, just say the word.  To help with your decision making process, the wines open this weekend will be from Spain and Austria, no rationale behind this decision, just fancied opening them.

Palacio del Camino Real Blanco 2023 – £11.99 – we love a drop of white Rioja and this is a cracking blend of Viura, Malvasia and Grenache Blanc grown in the higher vineyards of Rioja Alta.  Pale yellow in the glass, with lovely fresh aromas of stone fruit and citrus, framed with a touch of vanilla from a couple of months lazing around in the barrel.  Exceptionally food friendly but equally has enough character to be well chilled should Wayne’s weather forecast be correct!

The red is a new listing for us.  We’ve had their Grüner Veltliner on the shelf for a few years and now have added Funkstille Zweigelt 2023 – £15.49.  These guys are the good guys.  All work in the vineyard is carried out sustainably, using their own fertilisers made from grape skins, manure and straw from their fields, to improve the soil structure and vitality of their vines.  Grapes are harvested in the early morning and taken to their energy neutral winery, where they are pressed with the must, then transferred into stainless steel tanks for fermentation.  However, forget all that, our notes for this describe cherries on the nose, a lovely fresh palate that is joyfully juicy and very, very drinkable!   Apparently, Funkstille translates as ‘radio silence’ so find a quiet spot in the garden, turn off the devices and enjoy it, perhaps even lightly chilled!

Unless it’s raining….

That’s it for this week.  As a quick heads up, we’ll be opening a bit later on Tuesday 17^th June as we have to go to a quick tasting in Islington which only starts at noon but we should be back in the trenches by 3pm, if you can hang on….

Remember, it’s always better to be known as an embarrassment than a cupboard!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Well, where to start.  As I am sitting here wearing a sweater, long trousers, ski socks and a beanie whilst my colleague is parading around in shorts and a polo shirt, I do wonder whether he was a postman in Newcastle in a previous life.  Clearly, Postman Pat did something very naughty at some point in a previous incarnation because his samsara has taken a significant backward step (if a circle can do such a thing) to end up running a wine shop in a wet Wimbledon Park.  But he seems happy enough, so no need to dwell.

In fairness, the weather was just as pony this time last year and eve n worse on 6^th June 2023 so it is, apparently, to be expected nowadays.  However, at least this year we’re not having to deal with an upcoming General Election and all the fallout that produced – thank goodness we’re through all those unsettled times, safe in the hands of Kier & Co – not sure what devilment we all got up to in a previous incarnation but I hope it was worth it!

However, it’s not all sunshine and cupcakes in the world of hospitality.  According to a survey undertaken by UK Hospitality alongside The British Institute of Innkeeping, The British Beer & Pub Association and Hospitality Ulster, 33% of hospitality businesses are now operating at a loss.  As discussed previously, the impact of increases in NI and Business Rates in April was always going to be brutal, with an estimated £3.4 billion of extra costs landing on the sector’s lap, just like that.  In fact, in the last few months, 60% of those surveyed have cut jobs, 63% have cut staffing hours, 76% have put up prices and yet, notwithstanding  these actions, 11% more businesses are working at a loss than in the last quarter.

One final bit of number crunching, with approval ratings courtesy of IPSOS:

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, post the fabulous September 2022 mini-budget:

• Doing a good job – 16%
• Doing a bad job – 53%
• Neither good nor bad – 21%
• Dunno – 10%

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, right now:

• Doing a good job – 16%
• Doing a bad job – 51%
• Neither good nor bad – 22%
• Dunno – 10%

As I’m sure you know, there’s nothing going on in the USA this week, likewise in sport, so let’s move away from all that and talk cheese and wine.  Further to the announcement of our upcoming event you all went away for the long weekend, enjoyed the break and forgot to book your seat!  So, just to remind you:

Wine & Cheese Tasting on Thursday 19th June at 7.30pm – £30 per person

We have four spaces left as I write so, if you fancy it, give us a call on 0208 944 5224, reply to this email or pop in and see us!

However, if you cannot join us on the 19^th, you can always pop in and taste some vino today and tomorrow.  This weekend, given the cryptic climatic conditions we don’t really know whether to barbecue or roast so we’ve fence-sat with our wine choices:

About a million years ago, when we sported Oddbins polo shirts, we used to sell lots of this Domaine Lebrun Pouilly Fumé 2023 – £20.49.  The bottle has lost its distinctive orange label somewhere in the intervening years but the wine has lost none of its quality or verve.  The estate is now run by Laurent, who is the sixth generation of the family to run it.  Gooseberry, grass, minerals, lemons and limes all crop up somewhere between the start and the nice long finish.  Tip-top classic Pouilly Fumé!

The red is from Italy – Cantine Povero Barbera D’Asti ‘Dianae’ 2023 – £15.99.  This is a bit of a cracker, quite natural with hand-harvesting, minimal intervention in the winery, minimal sulphur too.  Fermented in temperature controlled tanks and aged for 6 months in stainless steel.  The result is a velvety red with cherry and raspberry fruit character and medium to full body, just a touch of tannin to keep it tidy and a lovely long fresh finish.

So, that’s almost it from us but one thing before we go – recently was the Copa Jerez, an annual event celebrating food and sherry matching.  By all account one of the stand-out combinations, from the UK entry, was a dessert of beetroot amazake sorbet matched with Cream Cruz del Mar.  Now, everyone claims not to like cream sherry but perhaps it needs a revisit?  If you fancy some, we have the Cruz del Mar – £11.99/half bottle.

Now, it surely must almost be time for all of us to down tools and nip off to support the hospitality industry in the Friday ‘sunshine’, who’s with me?!

Cheers!