The Weekly Wine

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!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We had some insight this week into the costs of doing business. In the USA, the Treasury has announced that they will stop producing the 1 cent coin that was first introduced in 1793. The coin is made of zinc and copper and the cost of production has gone up to an astronomical 3.69 cents per coin. Clearly, there is absolutely no sense in continuing with it.

In other US news, the Tango Tariffmeister has increased the cost of having a one to one meeting with him to $5 million. We’re not entirely sure how that will affect the price of eggs, but by all accounts the administration is no longer worried about the idea of corruption because they are being so transparent about it. This turned out to be very lucky for tax cheat, Paul Walczak, who was pardoned after his mum paid a million dollars for dinner at a Mar a Lago ‘fundraiser’. Also it turns out that the tariffs are illegal, or not, depending which court you speak to. His Orangeness is rather grumpy about the TACO trade, wait till he hears the song!

Meanwhile, Musk has given up at DOGE after disagreeing with a big beautiful bill and has gone back to his day job of blowing up rockets.

Closer to home, Thames Water has been fined £104.5 million for breaking the rules on waste water, and an additional £18.2 million for paying out dividends despite the company’s poor performance. The company, not exactly flush with cash, was called ‘uninvestable’ by its previous owners. They have been given six months to agree plans for putting things right. The CEO of Ofwat gave them a proper telling off:  “You’ve let us down and you’ve let yourself down!”  Given the 393 open investigations that the environment agency has with the sewage industry we doubt they are off the naughty step yet.

In our own merry go round of politics, Kier Starmer seems more interested in fighting the next election than governing, Kemi Badenoch is happy to fight anyone who’ll listen, and Ed Davey says he’s a lover not a fighter.

Much closer to home brings us the news we already know. AFC Wimbledon had a great day out at Wembley securing promotion to League One through a Miles Hippolyte goal. Fingers crossed for Southend United who hope to come up and take their place!

In proper sports, the Giro d’Italia has been gripping. Regular watchers will know the Giro is always a bit on the bonkers side, but this year especially so. Early race favourite Primoz Roglic has gone home after crashing several times. Juan Ayuso, one of the other favourites, imploded as we hit the big mountains, a knee injury being the cause and then a bee sting on the eye yesterday made him more pirate than bike racer. He subsequently retired from the race. Visma Lease a Bike claim to know nothing about the sting despite being known as the ‘killer bees’. Ayuso’s young teammate, Isaac del Toro, remains in pink ahead of Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates both less than a minute behind. Big mountains ahead!

Tasting this Weekend

Given the successful meteorological performance last weekend we suspect there may be some barbecues on the agenda this weekend.

We’ll start off in the white corner with something to go with the seafood starter….

Domaine Fournillon Bourgogne Chardonnay 2022 – £16.50. 

It is likely the name looks somewhat familiar,  since we have been selling their Chablis and their Epineuil Pinot Noir for a number of years.  From the 23 hectare family-run domaine situated in the small village of Bernouil, close to Chablis, this is lovely and crisp and clean. The clay-rich soils of Bernouil give this wine its depth of fruit combined with freshness and intense stone-fruit aromas. Unsurprisingly, it is a rather Chablis-esque drop.

In the red corner we’re going to California for a Pinot Noir that’ll be awesome with a pork chop or spatch-cocked chicken.

Long Barn Pinot Noir 2022, Napa, California, USA – £16.49

Fruit from cool coastal areas provide bright acidity, while warmer vineyard locations add rich fruit character.  Blended to perfection and aged in French oak to add structure while enhancing the bright fruit flavours, this is classic Californian Pinot Noir, a quick swirl fills the air with red cherry aromas.  The palate is soft with silky tannins, lovely bramble and cherry fruit flavours, gently edged with a touch of spice and a lovely fresh finish.  It really is made in an old barn and, to quote one particular customer, “it just goes down so easily!”

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Wet weekend incoming?  Pah! – we laugh in the face of meteorology because, frankly, it’s a Bank Holiday, we all have plans that involve being outside and wet dogs don’t smell great in confined spaces.

So, it’s half term – time for some reports:

Keir Starmer

Keir has acted more positively towards Europe this week, which shows a good growth mind-set.  Opening the e-gates made him very popular with his class mates and Nigel from Clacton was one of the first to use them.  He keeps on talking about winter fuel, which he knows is important but still seems to struggle to understand why, something he needs to work on over the half term break.  Importantly, after a shaky start to term, if he is going to progress, he needs to maintain focus and concentration rather than sucking up to the troublemakers in the back row.

Donald Trump

Donald often seems to take too much pleasure in his role as backrow troublemaker, which is seriously disruptive for his more impressionable classmates.  Being 16 years older than Keir, he could perhaps show this maturity on a more regular basis but, given recent performances with the South African touring party, this doesn’t seem like something he’s willing to do.  Honestly, unless he seriously changes his attitude to authority, I foresee many detentions in his future.

Angelos Postecoglou

Ange has had a difficult year.  His peripatetic lifestyle perhaps could be the reason for this and he promised to do better in his second year.  However, it has been made very evident that the continual assessment format of the coursework this year has not been beneficial to his grades, with his marks being firmly in the bottom 20% of his cohort.  However, the end of year exam on Wednesday was a sign that perhaps this format is more suited to his talents.  We wish him luck at his next school, wherever that may be.

Enough of all that. 

In the world of wine and associated pleasures, not much to report.  Breweries are still closing at an alarming rate – the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates chief executive Andy Slee said, to deaf ears:

“Times are incredibly tough for independent breweries, and whilst the price of a pint in pubs may be rising for drinkers the price brewers are paid for their beer actually dropped over the last twelve months. What is desperately needed is a lower tax burden for pubs, lower direct taxes for brewers, and greater access for independent breweries to sell to pubs in their area – many of whom are currently controlled by global beer supply.”  thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/05

Meanwhile, Champagne shipments are apparently on the up, having been in the doldrums for most of 2024 and, most excitingly of all, 1990’s icon alcopop, the Bacardi Breezer is going to be back on local corner-shop shelves as of next month, available in Zesty Orange, Zingy Lime and Crisp Watermelon.   I Cannot Wait.

Here in the shop, we dallied down memory lane earlier this week.  It came to our attention that on 4^th May 2011, a Wednesday I believe, Park Vintners hosted their first ever Wine & Cheese tasting. 

Jo & John came down from Clapham, Jen-Jen popped over from Balham, as did Silvie, whilst Kare ambled down the hill.  Mio also came with a couple of friends but has since returned to Japan, and Suzy came too – little did we know at the time that she would end up selling us her Barton wines for years to come.  Half of these brave souls are still customers of ours and, for that, we salute you.

We offered Appleby Cheshire, Cropwell Bishop, Golden Cross & Tunworth for the cheeses, pairing them with a couple of whites, three reds, a sweetie and a beer – all very tasty.  Over the years we repeated this formula unchanged on 76 more occasions (13 times in 2019!) until Covid came along in 2020.  Our last outing on 27^th February 2020, the week after half term, was held in a room full of friends who had been skiing in Italy the week before, a couple of whom had a bit of a tickly cough….

Now, 5 years later, we’ve decided to dip our toes back in the fondue and are happy to announce that we will be hosting a Wine & Cheese Tasting on Thursday 19^th June at 7.30pm – tickets are £30 per person and we have a limit of 12 spaces – first come, first served!  The formula will be the same; hopefully the jokes won’t be….

On the subject of tasting, it’s that time of the week again.  Yesterday was International Chardonnay Day – how did you celebrate?  Oh, you didn’t know there was such a thing?  In truth, neither did we until, well, yesterday, however it does give us a good excuse to open a bottle today.

All the talk of Bacardi Breezer’s and 90’s throwbacks has encouraged us to open some Aussie Chardy.  Now, the whole ABC trend can be put down to over consumption of strong white wines from Australia in the later days of the last century.  Rosemount Estate is one that springs to mind – their Chardonnay was rich, fruity, uber-oaky, 14.5% ABV and we drank it like water, felt dreadful the next morning, then did it all again next week.  These hefty wines put an awful lot of people off the Chardonnay grape for a long time and could be seen as a likely cause for the huge popularity of thinly flavoured Italian Pinot Grigio in the years that followed.  But Aussie Chardy isn’t like that anymore…

De Bortoli Regional Reserve Chardonnay 2023 – £18.49.  This wine is from grapes grown in the north of the Yarra Valley which are fermented in a mixture of stainless steel vats and French oak barrels.  This mix helps retain the flinty freshness whilst giving a touch of creaminess too.  Our notes said ‘open nose, crisp on the palate, restrained ripe fruit, crisp touch of mineral, gently creamy, decent finish.’

For the red, we’ll stick with Australia and open one of our favourites:  Geoff Merrill Bush Vine GSM 2016 – £22.79.  Based in McLaren Vale, South Australia, Geoff always likes to release his wines with a bit of age on them and this 8 year old is a joy.  This fabulous blend of 54% Shiraz, 37% Grenache and 9% Mourvèdre has outgrown the boisterously youthful fruit you would get in a younger wine and is filled with rounded blackberry fruits encasing notes of vanilla and mocha. 

So, that must be it from us.  We’ll be shut on Monday as it’s a Bank Holiday and we’ll be busy celebrating the AFC win, whilst also supporting our local pub and then back here bright and breezy on Tuesday morning.

Enjoy!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We’ve sat here waiting for the phone to ring but, as yet,  not a single nation has offered us so much as a discount code for EasyJet, much less a personalised airliner. Alex was even considering having an orange rinse and a spray tan to expedite things. Possibly it is just one of those rules that’s not for us and given the parlous state of Boeing lately, he’ll have likely retired well before production starts!

Whilst we’re on the subject of luxury goods, I’m very suspicious of salesman with talk that boats are unsinkable, cars having remarkable traction control or bicycles with puncture proof tyres. Mike Lynch’s unsinkable boat had a design flaw that meant it wasn’t, I had a ride extended timewise by a bougainvillea thorn, and the amount of tyre screech that comes out of Melrose Avenue daily suggests traction control has its limits.

The Tango Tariffmeister has been on a tour of the Middle East. He’s been topping up his tan, signing deals, not drinking coffee and whingeing about Apple choosing to expand their Indian operations.

In Turkey, there are talks for peace between Russia and Ukraine but given the attendees are mostly note takers or work experience interns, we’re not holding out much hope for success. It seems a bit of a pointless exercise if nobody is taking it seriously.

As I type this on Thursday afternoon, the two Ryder Cup Captains are on the leader board at the PGA Championship; most of the peloton had a visit with the tarmac in a very chaotic stage of the Giro D’Italia which is now actually in Italy.  It would appear that not only we amateurs struggle with rain and white paint.

In football news, FIFA has received a complaint from a team of lawyers including their former anti-corruption adviser. It seems they may have broken their own rules in relation to Human Rights and awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia. We’ll report back as we hear more.

I’m sure many of our regular readers will have read last week’s 990 word missive and formed their own opinions of how they felt about our prose. Our correspondent in the north asked an AI programme for a precis of it. The result made us laugh aloud: “Trump quote reflects frivolous disregard or poor understanding; Rosé sales robust; Giro D’Italia starts.”

Last week’s choice of tasting wines, whilst popular in the glass, certainly caused some amusement.  A number of tasters keenly pointing out that the Giro was not visiting Sicily this year and that perhaps our pre-race reconnoitre was not up to snuff.

With that in mind, we will be opening two wines from Greece this week. We understand that the Giro D’Italia will not be visiting and that whilst Albania was close, it is closer to Corfu than Crete.

Lyrarakis Vóila Assyrtiko 2023 – £17.99. Located in the mountainous commune of Alagni in Crete, Domaine Lyrarakis stays true to local winemaking traditions.  The domaine focuses on indigenous varieties, taking them from obscurity and driving them in a more modern direction, while still retaining a clear sense of place.  Its style focuses on pure varietal character, precision and supple texture.  The 2023 Assyrtiko is a delicious wine, grown at 580 metres’ altitude in the Voila vineyard.  There is a definite floral character, refreshing minerality and chalky texture to this delicious wine that marries well with all forms of seafood, as you might expect from a producer surrounded by sea!

Lyrarakis Kotsifali 2022 – £17.99. One of the Queens of Cretan grape varieties, Kotsifali is indisputably a classic of the island, offering spicy red fruits, an elegant mouthfeel and a piquant aftertaste which makes it a deliciously fresh drop, not too weighty and seriously good with a bit of fried saganaki. Our chum Mary suggests it as an ideal partner to some lamb skewers on the Friday night takeaway slot!

It’s Eurovision this weekend, you’ll know if you need to add a bottle of fizz for the occasion!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Courtesy of Wikipedia, our best friend:

“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”, said to have been spoken in the 18th century by “a great princess” upon being told that the peasants had no bread.  The French phrase mentions brioche, a bread enriched with butter and eggs, considered a luxury food.  The quote is taken to reflect either the princess’s frivolous disregard for the starving peasants or her poor understanding of their plight.

Courtesy of POTUS Trump, everyone’s best friend:

“I’m just saying they don’t need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.”  This quote could be taken to reflect either the president’s frivolous disregard for the people who voted for him or his poor understanding of their plight.

Because, yes, it’s normal to have 30 dolls, Donald.  Oh, and those 5 crayons, should they all be orange?  We asked these questions but were informed that the President was wielding a red light sabre on the golf course, dressed as the Roman pontiff. 

We could go on but we all have to move on.

Another short week this week and perhaps not as hot as hoped.  However, Rosé sales are still robust, so well done everyone for pitching in.  We celebrated VE day over a number of days, a celebration of the surrender of Nazi Germany to the allies.  We also saw the spiralling decline of the Conservative Party in the local elections, losing ground to Reform UK who seem to be thriving like knotweed under a Farage.  Lib Dems did well too, without too much hullabaloo from the member for Kingston & Surbiton, the Greens did ok, Labour not so much.

In a brief scoot around the rest of the news, we have a Deal for Growth in the free-trade deal with India; we have brand new tariffs (for now) with the USA (positive) coupled with access to a lot more American beef (negative); worryingly, we also have Pakistan and India on high alert, yet again; we had white smoke pluming out of the Vatican; and finally, faced with America’s latest addiction to weight-loss injections, WeightWatchers has filed for bankruptcy.  I’m sure everything will be just fine.

Wayne, as is his habit, has been following the current Bordeaux En Primeur campaign, as mentioned last week.  It’s been a disaster this year but perhaps the most worrying fact we have read (Bordeaux wine producers slash prices as wealthy collectors stay away – FT- 03/05/25) was this:

…less interest in fine wine among the younger generation of wealthy investors and declining alcohol consumption have all hit demand.   Consultancy Bain says that 65 per cent of drinkers in the top 10 consumer markets are moderating their alcohol intake.

We’ve known about the changes in investment focus amongst the high-net-worth’s but hadn’t previously encountered the stats that Bain offered up.  We cannot find the original document to draw our own conclusions but, blimey, that doesn’t sound good for business!  However, could it also mean that 35% of drinkers in the top 10 consumer markets are upping their dose?  As I said earlier, Wimbledon Park Rosé sales are still robust…

Arsenal left Europe competition on Wednesday having not managed to really get a handle on PSG but I imagine even the most loyal gooner would concede that the Barca-Inter double-header was the pick of the semis.  Tottenham, Man U and Chelsea all progressed to their respective finals, all at a canter.  Meanwhile, in rugby, Andy Farrell did the right thing by choosing not to select his son for the Lions, whilst also adding another chapter to the Henry Pollock fairytale! 

In real sport, Wayne has cycled up and down a variety of hills (mountains?) in Mallorca this week and is currently in possession of all the available jerseys except the Blanco – chapeau!  Oh, and second to that, he’d want you to know that the Giro D’Italia starts today and would probably say some clever things about Juan Ayuso, Richard Carapaz and Primož Roglič.  He would perhaps go on to make passing reference to the Yates brothers, questioning whether they are still up to it.  He then might suggest that an each way bet on young Antonio Tiberi could be worthwhile but we’ll never know because he didn’t leave me his notes!

Therefore, in honour of the Giro, I thought I’d open some wine this weekend, as you do.  However, whilst the first two stages are actually taking place in Albania, having scoured the shelves it seems we don’t have any wine from there, not even a bottle of Raki, so we’ll have to go Italian, apologies.

Sibiliana Sensale Bio Grillo DOC 2024 – £11.99 is a reasonably new arrival on our shelves.  Alex tasted this last year in Sicily and bought it immediately we had run out of the previous incumbent.  Grillo is native to Sicily, is used in Marsala production and is believed by some to have Muscat of Alexandria and Catarratto as its parents – this might explain the delicate straw-yellow colour with white peach, yellow melon and light citrus aromas that persist onto the palate.  It comes highly recommended with a platter of smoked fish in the sunshine!

The red is going to be Nicosia Nerello Mascalese 2023 – £15.99 from the opposite side of Sicily, based at the foot of Etna.  This wine is from organically farmed vineyards on Etna’s lava terraces around 550-650m above sea level.  The volcanic soils are rich in minerals and give us a delicious wine with delicate, complex aromas of wild strawberry and redcurrant with lightly floral notes.  Fresh cherry and red berry fruit on the palate, with fresh acidity, earthy notes and a lovely savoury finish.

In other news, no stages of the Giro will take place in Sicily this year…. Doh!

One last thing, how long before Mr Trump tries to take all the credit for the new Pope being American?!

Ave!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Here we are barely into May and we’ve all broken out the suntan lotion, Ray-bans and found Wayne in his shorts! The BBC reports it is the hottest start to May on record with temperatures hitting 28˚C here in London. We’ve been dosing up on the hay fever meds, salads and rosé wine.

We’ve now had 100 days of the Tango Tariffmeister who insists the negative US economic numbers this week are nothing to do with tariffs. Meanwhile, his chief economic adviser, Stephen Miran, had a meeting with bankers and hedge fund managers who found him to be “incoherent” and “out of his depth”.  I don’t know about you but I think the US will come to rue its loss of ‘reserve currency’ economic status.

It also appears that the IMF has bailed out Argentina. Again. At least that should keep the supply of Malbec nice and steady!

Tesla have denied reports in some quarters that they have been talking to head hunters in a bid to replace Musk. For information purposes Tesla’s share price opened at 432.64 on January 21^st and closed at 282.16 on April 30^th.

Here in the UK, Marks and Spencer, Co-op and Harrods have had their business disrupted by cyber-attacks.

Outside of London some folk will have been voting in their local elections, which I’m sure will find us a photo of  Nigel Farage with a pint of bitter in his hand. Maybe he’ll switch to a milkshake IPA!

As Tate Modern hits 25 years old, I still remember the giant spider in the Turbine Hall when I first visited. I also remember less fondly not being able to get tickets to see Kraftwerk play there. I still can’t think of a more apt venue for them. Anyway, do pop along and have a mooch around. Something that’s free that makes you richer.

In international news, Japan’s busiest bullet train line screeched to a halt on Wednesday after a snake wrapped itself around the power line and shorted the supply. Not the best start to Golden Week!

Spain and Portugal also suffered power issues this week and investigations as to the cause are ongoing. Apparently unplugging the long extension lead has been ruled out!

In wine news the Bordeaux 2024 en primeur campaign is slipping down nicely, if relatively ignored. The quality isn’t all that and the prices have come down to 2013/2014 release prices without generating much interest.

Today is International Sauvignon Blanc Day so we shall open a bottle of Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2024 (£22.99). This is the 15^th vintage we have stocked, having started with Kevin’s inaugural vintage in 2009. We rather like his phrase “Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc with the volume turned down a notch!”

We were lucky enough to have a brief chat with roving winemaker Matt Thompson (Blank Canvas and others) in January. He told us he thought 2024 Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough was the best quality fruit he’d encountered in his 32 vintages there!

On the red front we’ll be sampling Famiglia Bianchi Gran Corte 2020 (£19.99). This appealing blend of Malbec (37%), Cabernet Sauvignon (30%), Merlot (26%) Cabernet Franc (7%) from the Uco Valley won a trophy at the International Wine and Spirits Competition. Why not come and see if you like it as much as the judges? We’re suggesting it might be tasty with some Barbecue!

That’s it from us for this week; we’re Waltzing out of the door!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

You’ve got to love a short week, am I right?  4 days off, 4 days on, imagine how quickly we could all get used to it?  Next thing you know, we’ll all be working from home and investing heavily in lairy loungewear, baking our own bread and watching Joe Wicks workouts – no, I know, just joshing, that could never happen….

Anyway, for those of you not dwelling in the past, this weekend is Marathon weekend, for me the watershed weekend that signifies the proper shift into spring even if the clocks did change weeks ago.  All the winter training faces its stiffest test this weekend, when you find out if running around in the dark, wearing multiple layers, gloves, a beanie and a head-torch has really properly prepared you for 23 degrees Celsius and a gentle breeze!  I would also advise that you don’t do it in ski boots, just because that’s already been done… anyway, good luck to anyone embarking on this adventure, get your people to source you a nice bottle of Champagne for the finish line and know that this time next week it’ll all be behind you!

Or perhaps you get them to buy you an alcohol free beer to celebrate you achievements?  Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?  Although, we read in Drinks Business that now 1 in 15 beers sold in Europe is non-alcoholic, so perhaps I’m just a dinosaur… but hang on a minute, flicking through a few more pages of this magazine, we learn that James Suckling, a renowned wine critic, has over 400 wines available by the glass at his Hong Kong restaurant – James Suckling Wine Central, and they all seem to have an ABV – time to catch a plane!

Elsewhere, we read that Majestic has tightened the screw, post duty reform. and removed a number of wines from its list.  Sadly the big players remain, with their sometimes underwhelming offerings whilst the cull has mainly been of wines from small vineyards with higher ABV who suffer higher administrative costs and comparatively small volumes.  All businesses need to make tough decisions, accepted, but as we feared we may be just at the beginning of a drastic homogenising of wine choice available on the high street.

However, if you looked at the BBC yesterday, they were all about the important news of the day.  Nestled between an article about Harry & Meghan, whoever they may be, and a piece promising a heatwave next week was the important news of the day – and it’s about biscuits!  In a debate that could rank alongside the great scone debate (which actually isn’t really a debate, there’s the right way – jam then cream – and then there’s the other way), we are told that we’ve been eating our Chocolate Digestives wrong – the biscuit should be on the top and the chocolate is the base, according to McVitie’s.  In a follow up press release, Pizza Hut issued a global apology for having spent so many years incorrectly serving their pizzas upside down rather than bread on top and the National Union of Toastmakers issued updated guidelines relating to how to successfully butter the underside of your warmed bread…

We then read that Tom Fletcher from McFly has been signed up to write music and lyrics for a Paddington musical and began to wonder if someone had slipped a Mickey Finn into our lunchtime espresso because, frankly, everything was getting a bit too weird.

So, we strove to pull ourselves together and focus on what wines to open this weekend.  Wayne treated you all to some lovely Albariño and a delicious Lebanese with your lamb last week, so we thought a visit to Italy might be a nice diversion.

Casalfarneto Collequieto Verdicchio dei Castelli Di Jesi Classico – £13.99 comes from a family vineyard, with around 35 hectares between the Apennine Mountains and the Adriatic coast, who we think offer excellent value.  Verdicchio is one of Italy’s noble white varieties and this has delicate hawthorn aromas as well as apple and citrus.  The palate is a little richer with a lovely freshness, some minerality and a touch of nuttiness to the finish.

Casalfarneto Collequieto Montepulciano d’Abruzzo – £12.99 comes, as you may have noticed, from the same winery.  I can now tell you that the vines are at 320 metres above sea level and that, of the 35 hectares of vineyards, 28 are planted with white grape varietals and the remaining 7 with red.  Being somewhat contrarian, it was this red that really caught our attention, before the white!  A warming balanced dry red with lots of red fruit flavour and soft tannins that’d be absolutely bang on with, well, almost everything!

There may be some cycling on this weekend, Wayne hasn’t kept me up to date so I cannot comment and as I normally keep an eye on AFC Wimbledon/Tottenham/Harlequins, there will be no sports coverage today, in an attempt to keep the blood pressure down….

So that’s it from us, have a lovely weekend, have a digestive however which way!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We’re interrupting your Thursday as tomorrow is Good Friday, or Holy Friday if you prefer. It is certainly a Bank Holiday and many of you may well be away from your emails. Those of you, that is, who haven’t already upped sticks and been away for a few days. It’s been a quiet week; traffic has been light, service in the coffee shop brisk and wait-less.

Out and about in the world, we all now own a tiny bit of a blast furnace or two in Sheffield plus enough coal to keep it going. I learnt something this week and will share it with you. The main product of a blast furnace is carbon dioxide, it seems steel is almost a by-product. Every day’s a school day!

Across the pond the Tango Tariffmeister continues to make the US a safer friendlier place to visit. You can now get much cheaper flights than this time last, though Canada has warned its university teachers against travelling there. On the subject of universities, in a valiant attempt to ensure he is the smartest in the room, Tango Tariffmeister has threatened Harvard University with the removal of its tax exempt status after they had the temerity to decline his instructions to punish its students for exercising their rights to free speech.

He’s not having a great week to be fair. Having spent all that time filling the Supreme Court with judges that he thought would do his bidding; they only gave a unanimous ruling against him over the illegal deportation of a citizen to El Salvador. Ever since I saw that news I have been wondering if his ignoring this makes the US a rogue state, a lawless country or if it’s just another slice off of decency?

Did you catch any of Paris Roubaix? Mathieu van der Poel won the men’s race for the 3^rd year in a row, amazing consistency and quite the ride. In the women’s race Pauline Ferrand-Prévot stormed to victory, returning to road racing for her first season since 2018. Her comment about her plan that it was “just a training race for the Tour de France” must have sent ripples of concern through the peloton! I suspect she may well have moved up the bookies list now. This week we have De Brabantse Pijl on Friday and the Amstel Gold race on Sunday.

Opening Hours

Tonight till 7pm

Good Friday 12-5pm

Saturday 12-5pm

Closed on Bank Holiday Monday

Back to normal on Tuesday

If you need a local delivery I can do this evening after 7pm or tomorrow between 5-6pm. Usual six bottle minimum.

Tasting This Weekend

This week we’ll start off in Galicia. There’s a lot of chatter about this region lately and it’s thrilled us for a long while. We’ll open Follas Novas Albariño 2023(£17.99) which comes from Val do Salnés, one of the five distinct sub-regions of Rías Baixas and is the oldest, coolest and wettest part, whilst also being the birth place of Albariño sometime before the 12th century.  The vines for this wine are between 20 and 40 years old and vinified in a state of the art winery completed in 2005.  Fabulously clean and crisp with citrus and floral notes on the nose, tangy stone fruit on the palate and a lovely mineral laden finish.

On the basis that we may be looking for a match with lamb, we’re going to pull the cork on Château Ka ‘Fleur de Ka’ 2008 (£36.99) Château Ka is an extraordinary story of determination and resolve.  Akram Kassatly built his winery in the Bekaa Valley in 1973. Shortly after the first wines were made, Lebanon was engulfed by war.  The winery was forced to close and Akram moved into other businesses.  Finally in 2005 he announced that he was going to try again. Today, Château Ka is the only winery in Lebanon to produce wine entirely from their own vineyards located at 1000m above sea level at the Eastern end of the Bekaa valley.  The owner, Akram, actually trained to become a winemaker in Burgundy in the 1960’s but here he doesn’t try and emulate those wines and in fact the blend is 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Merlot and 8% Syrah. So, a wine with definite influences of Bordeaux, made by a Lebanese winemaker trained in Burgundy – what’s not to like!?

I’m off to read a dystopian novel before it’s moved to the non-fiction section. Happy Easter!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We find ourselves in a quandary this week. We were about to announce 55.2% tariffs against the landlord, Merton Council and our energy company. We pay them all money every single month and not one of them has ever purchased a bottle of wine in here. Then we saw that Trump had announced: “This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America, like Apple, and so many others, in record numbers, are doing. ZERO TARIFFS, and almost immediate Electrical/Energy hook ups and approvals. No Environmental Delays. DON’T WAIT, DO IT NOW!”

Knowing his reputation for speaking the truth, we immediately looked into the cost of flights, a container for our stock and the cost of suitable premises. Then it hit us, those ZERO TARIFFS don’t apply to our stock, the walk from the tube might be a bit far for most of you and the Polo is an unsuitable delivery vehicle for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. So we’re staying put, watching from the side-lines, and wondering whether to laugh, cry or just have another glass of wine.

In the meantime, we all have a 90 day breather of only 10% tariffs unless you’re China. The news arrived a couple of hours after a tweet that stated “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!DJT” Apparently, it was Trump’s plan all along, and nothing to do with the Bond Market increasing the price of Government Debt. The stock markets all went back up again. If only the newly slimmed down Securities and Exchange Commission had some staff to look into insider trading I suspect there would be stories to tell on both sides of the house!

How have you been enjoying the sunshine? I had a spin on the bike early Tuesday morning and was a little surprised to see pockets of frost! Definitely should have had a warmer top on! The blossom is all rather stunning as well; let’s take those wins where we can get them, eh? I’ve spent half the week letting dozy bees out of the back window!

In the wine world there’s talk of bottles being made from aluminium on the great green frontier. Quick to chill, infinitely recyclable, low weight for shipping all seem to be in its favour. Quick to chill’s obvious flipside is quick to warm up once out of the fridge. Seems a good idea in principle but can you see Domaine Leroy popping their Meursault in an aluminium vessel? Is it a bottle or a bottle shaped can? What about the Appellation rules where they specify bottle shape? So many questions but, on the face of it, a relatively sound idea.

In proper sports this weekend sees the return of the ‘Hell of the North’. The route from Paris to Roubaix with all its terrifying cobbles is, as usual, providing the parcours. Will Tadej Pogačar be the first to enter the velodrome on his debut, will Neilson Powless snaffle it from a group of Visma riders, or will Wout van Aert get his name in the showers at last? Wout almost came off yesterday with a puncture on his recon, so let’s hope that’s got that out of the way! In the women’s race it seems Lotte Kopecky is the nailed on favourite, but Elisa Balsamo, who was second last year, is on some fine form winning midweek. That said, you can’t rule out Alison Jackson repeating her 2023 exploits! There’s a slight chance of some early morning rain, so it could be just a bit slippery on the cobbles.

Tasting This Weekend

We thought we’d go with Domaine d’Altugnac ‘Les Turitelles’ Chardonnay 2023 (£15.99) Childhood friends, Christian Collovray and Jean-Luc Terrier each grew up in a family of winemakers and shared a bond from a young age.  They became closer still, when they married sisters, Brigitte and Florence, also from a winemaking family.  They now boast two properties, Domaine des Deux Roches in Mâcon and Domaine Altugnac in Languedoc  which means you’ve got Burgundy winemakers bringing all their skill and experience to their property in Limoux – what’s not to like?!  Bursting with white floral aromatics and a touch of citrus on the palate, followed by a concentrated and lingering finish this is a complete joy, perfect any day of the week!

Côtes du Rhône Villages ‘Les Coteaux’ 2023, Rhône, France (£13.99). Common practice in the Côtes du Rhône is to bottle the best cuvées as a single named Village wine and the rest as basic Rhône Villages.  The philosophy here, on the other hand, is to start with the intention of making the very best Côtes du Rhône Villages possible.  They source wine from the vineyards of named villages and enrich them with a small proportion of barrel-aged wine from Sablet, Séguret and Cairanne.  The results are fabulous, as you can taste here, with well-balanced brambly fruit and soft tannin that is bang on the money.

EASTER OPENING HOURS

Thursday 17^th April – Noon – 7PM

Good Friday 18^th April – Noon – 5PM

Saturday 19^th April – Noon – 5PM

Easter Sunday 20^th April – CLOSED

Easter Monday 21^st April – CLOSED

Tuesday 22^nd April – As you were – Noon – 7pm!

Lastly, F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was 100 years old yesterday so we’ll leave you with: “I couldn’t forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

Cheers!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So, we looked at the map and eventually we found it.  Two Chimneys Winery is located on the appropriately named Two Chimneys Road, about 5km/10 minutes by car to the north west of Kingston, the capital of one of the oldest territories and most isolated communities in the world and the second oldest town in Australia, apparently.  Welcome to Norfolk Island, lucky benefactor of a 29% TRUMP TARIFF this week.  Having done our research it is hard to imagine why this tiny pacific island is being targeted by the USA government – there is no obvious Chinese influence here, which has been an issue in Laos and Cambodia; there is no aluminium smelting and there is no fentanyl production, even growing medicinal cannabis has been mothballed.  To be fair, they don’t actually have any ports or harbours here so the export of high end automobiles has had to be suspended for now.  They do have cattle and sharks though.  They also have the aforementioned winery that, by looking at their website, doesn’t seem to be producing any wine.

It feels to us that the POTUS doesn’t know anything about Norfolk Island and has got his facts wrong which surely, as the most powerful man in the world, shouldn’t be possible?  Discuss…

Away from the calamities across the pond, we’ve all had a bit of a hit in the pocket this week.  As we watched energy, water, council tax, broadband and mobile phone bills go up at home on Tuesday, we also saw NI and EPR go up at work.  NI you all know about but EPR, who he?  Extended Producer Responsibility, to give him his full title, is the strategy that requires producers to add estimated environmental costs into the original cost of a product – effectively to cover the costs of future waste management.  Paying for plastic bags is an easy example to cite whilst the car and tech industries are obviously heavily scrutinised.  Now the booze trade is being hit, in the bottles.  One of our suppliers sent us this explainer:

‘An EPR fee will apply on all orders placed from 1^st April 2025 in addition to your normal pricing.  This fee will vary by product dependent on the packaging used by the producer and the latest base-fees advised by Defra.  Glass is currently advised at £240/tonne and makes up most of the EPR charge.  The fee ex-VAT for a 75cl bottle of still wine will be between £0.09-£0.12 and £0.22-£0.25 for sparkling.’

We ordered wine from this supplier this week – we were charged EPR of £0.13 on the still wine we bought.  The Spirits Business pointed out on Wednesday that: After last week’s spring budget and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast, it was admitted the scheme won’t improve recycling, with Defra revealing that “the policy is unlikely to have a material impact on rates of recycling or packaging waste volumes in the next five years.”

So, to summarise, all wines went up by at least 10 pence this week, depending on the weight of the bottle, some of the heavier Italian and Argentine bottles probably went up by double this.  Meanwhile, our council tax that, amongst other things, pays for our rubbish and recycling to be taken away, also went up – double bubble!

It feels to us that Defra doesn’t know anything about anything and will not have confirmation of exact fees until the summer which surely, as the people in charge, shouldn’t be possible?  Discuss…

But let’s move away from all this and talk about the weather.  The Daily Mirror, which always seems a bit obsessed by gloomy meteorological reports, announced late on Wednesday – All the parts of the UK set for SNOW as the mercury plunges to just -8C whilst the BBC yesterday was happy to tell us – Parts of UK set to be hotter than the Algarve.

As we’ve said before, we really should be in the weather business, you can say what you want and you always get paid!  In this instance though, we’re going with the BBC and will be opening two wines this weekend that we think should be drunk outside, near to a hot griddle…

M & B Talmard Mâcon-Uchizy 2023 – £20.79.  Mallory and Benjamin produce just one cuvée of Mâcon each year from their 20 hectares just north of the Mâcon hills.  Richer and riper than many, it has a generous weight, subtle, almost tropical fruit with aromas of melon, ripe pear, lemon oil and almonds and rich, bready character on the palate from extended lees aging.  A long fresh, finish with hints of apple make this a good all-rounder particularly for those who want to eat steak but don’t like red wine!

For the red, we’ll venture to South Africa and open the Idun Syrah 2019 – £26.99.  A complex wine from 3 different vineyard sites in the Elgin Valley.  These parcels are situated 200 m above sea level caressed by the cooling sea breezes from the Atlantic a few kilometres away.  Due to COVID, the wine was matured for longer than usual (16 months) using 30% new French oak barrels.  A lovely savoury bouquet of black olive, spicy fruit and white pepper on the nose.  On the palate we have berry fruits joining in the fun finishing with fine ripe tannins giving us a very elegant drop perfect for those who want to eat steak and do like red wine!

With that, I think we’re done.  The last words this week will be from Jim Morrison:

“Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts”

Valete, Val Kilmer.