The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week we had a look at our calendar and noticed that Thanksgiving is almost upon us. This got us pondering on the things we might be thankful for.

We started off by being thankful we weren’t Wayne Rooney. Poor guy plays a game of footy,  has a couple of ales later on, gets an impromptu invite to a wedding, and basically just carries on playing. Before he can say congratulations to the lovely couple, the press are all over him like a cheap suit. We couldn’t help but think he was just being human.

We’re thankful that when researching this email, Google searching with the words “cheese makes you…” gave us the top four options of: dream, happy, fart and taller!

We’re thankful to the team at Nature Medicine for even entertaining the idea that eating cheese could be good for us.  http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.4222.html

We’re thankful that our chums in New Zealand are all ok and in fine fettle. We may have been more thankful if they’d lost our invoice in a crack in the road with all the missing homework.

We’re thankful that we’re not the poor lady who sadly had to cancel her birthday Champagne tasting last night due to illness. Get well soon and we’ll all celebrate then!

We’re thankful not to be England’s bowlers, now that Virat Kohli has found his mojo.

We’re thankful that Wimbledon is staying on the BBC till 2024, and would be ever so thankful if we get lucky in the ballot. Nudge, nudge!

Always thankful that we’re not turkeys.

We’re definitely thankful that Alex had a day off and Wayne snuck some fine Brunello di Montalcino into the building. Brunello di Montalcino 2010 by Sesti £65.

“Sesti’s 2010 Brunello di Montalcino is a wine of real class and personality. In fact, the 2010 is one of the best wines I have tasted from this estate in Sant’Angelo in Colle. Iron, sweet red cherries, wild flowers and earthiness are some of the many notes that inform a juicy, plump Brunello that already drinks well. The 2010 is quite forward and fruit-driven, but there is good underlying complexity as well as enough acidity to ensure a decade-plus of fine drinking. My only quibble is that the aromatics could be a little more focused, but that is a relatively small critique for a wine that delivers this much pleasure. 94/100” Antonio Galloni, vinous.com, February 2015

“Wonderful aromas of dried flowers and fruit. Hints of mushrooms and earth. Full body, ripe and juicy fruit and a berry, spice and cherry aftertaste. Delicious now. Why wait? 94/100” James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, January 2015

Not to mention a cheeky parcel of Chateau Musar 2003 (£26.99).

“The lush texture and surprising richness make this a rather luscious wine by Musar standards. It is showing little but baby fat right now. Fresh and youthful, it is just a friendly puppy today. I’m not so sure it is in the winery’s preferred style, but it should be a very enjoyable vintage for consumers. Showing not a trace of age, it has a lot of potential and a long life ahead. It may yet be entitled to further upticks in score, but let’s be a bit conservative at the moment. Drink now-2035. 91/100” Mark Squires – erobertparker.com #207 Jun 2013

Wine School

The perfect gift for that difficult to buy for wine lover in your family. Six weeks, somewhere around sixty wines tasted including sweet, red white and bubbly. £150 per person full details attached.

As I mentioned above, Thanksgiving rears its head on Thursday. We’re not entirely sure what we’re thankful for in this case, but we’ve never been the type to let the news get in the way of a party.

Tasting This Weekend

So in honour of turkey, sweet potatoes and general North American feasting, we shall be opening some tasty wines from California. The white corner will be featuring Morning Fog Chardonnay by Wente Family Vineyards (£13.99). This hails from Livermore Valley at the back of San Francisco Bay, which may just give you a clue as to where the name comes from!

Red corner is definitely Zinfandel territory this week, Maggio Old Vine Zinfandel (£12.99). This one hails from Lodi, long time a source of great Zinfandels, and where Rudi Maggio planted his first vines in 1954.

Music selection for this week “Be Thankful For What You’ve Got” William DeVaughn.

Thankfully, that’s it from us this week.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Well, that knocks Brexit into a cocked hat!  Who knew?  POTUS – Possibility of Trump Upsetting Someone?  The world has gone to hell in a handcart this year and frankly we should have realised that Donny T would end up in the egg shaped office as soon as the poll of polls told us he definitely wouldn’t and with the odds at 9/2 just before the voting started, how did we not see the writing on the wall.

Speaking of walls and of odds, here are a couple of current bets being offered on Paddy Power:

• Trump to build wall covering entirety of US-Mexican border before end of 2020  – 4/1
• Trump to be successfully impeached before end of 2020 – 8/1
• Trump to turn the White House gold – 66/1

And to win the 2020 Presidential Election:

• Trump – 11/10
• Michelle Obama – 8/1
• Hillary Clinton  – 12/1
• Jeb Bush  – 40/1
• Kanye West – 90/1
• Chelsea Clinton – 100/1
• Kevin Spacey – 150/1
• Kim Kardashian – 275/1

Plenty of opportunities to lose some money there – trying to imagine what Kim Kardashian’s manifesto might be…. extremely wealthy with no political experience and an ability to annoy people, surely that should make her unelectable?  Oh, hang about….

So, anyway, as you can imagine, we’ve been a bit distracted by the if’s, what’s and maybe’s of the events in America this week so haven’t formed a sensible opinion on Toblerone-gate, given thought to Prince Harry’s love life or critiqued the new John Lewis Christmas advert – apologies.

Meanwhile, back in Wimbledon Park…

We’ve been tasting, tasting, tasting.  A whole load of wine has been sniffed, swirled and spat (in our case) or swallowed (in your case) this week.

Wednesday night saw Week 6, the final week, of our Wine School, which saw us opening 10 bottles of bubbles, including Prosecco, Cava, English Sparkling and, of course, Champagne.  Star of the night was the 2002 Cuvée Alain Thiénot – £75 showing fabulous caramel, brandy snap and toffee apple character with a deliciously soft mousse.  Once the hubbub had died down over the price, we had explained the scarcity of this excellent vintage and the fact that most other houses start north of £100, its #1 status was confirmed.  A close second, and perhaps more wallet friendly, was Leveret IQ3 NV – £20.99, showing lots of luscious lees character, a real apple strudel and cream character with an elegant and long finish.  And at the end of the night we released 10 newly qualified wine drinkers into the cold night air, free to indulge their palates and explore the nether regions of the wine list!

Last night was Wine & Cheese.  You’d have thought that, having hosted over 40 of these evenings, we’d be like a well-oiled machine and have all the answers and the perfect matches.  Sadly this is still not true, whilst occasionally well-oiled, we definitely do not have all the answers but I think that is half the fun.  Wine was excellent, cheese was very tasty and a very good time was had by all.  Who knew that dry Amontillado sherry would be such a fabulous cheese match?

All our tastings are now full up until the end of the year but if you fancy learning more about wine in the New Year, why not join our next wine school.

Who is this course aimed at?

You!  We assume you have tasted wine and enjoyed it enough to come along and explore further. Our course is aimed at the enthusiastic beginner.

What’s our goal?

Our course is designed to give you an excellent opening to the world of wine. Based entirely around what you taste, the course will give you the confidence to trust your palate, understand the characteristics of the main grape varieties and to explore new styles and varieties.  We keep the size of the group small, between 8-12 people, to allow for discussion.

What will we cover?

We cover all the classic grape varieties with styles from both the Old and New World.  Some of the wines are shown “blind”, so that you learn to trust your judgement based on the taste of the wine rather than what it says on the label.  We will show you how to evaluate and assess quality, discuss wine production methods as well as the wine’s acidity, tannins and flavour. On our journey we shall cover ageing potential, wine and food matching, wine storage conditions and, importantly, wine faults.

Weeks 1-3

We’ll show you how to taste wine and cover the main white varieties along with a couple off-the-beaten-track selections.

Weeks 4 & 5

We’ll cover the classic red varieties as well as a few lesser known varieties.

Week 6

This week is all about bubbles. Sparkling wines from around the world, alongside several styles of Champagne.

You will taste 8 to 10 wines each week and we will even manage to sneak in a little pudding wine and perhaps a rosé somewhere amongst that lot!

What venue?

The course takes place in the shop after we close. We put out the tasting table, pull up some chairs and get stuck in.  Our courses are relaxed and about enjoying wine and sharing knowledge.

When?

Wednesday evenings from 8 till about 9.45 for six weeks, over a period of seven weeks whilst we deal with half term, starting Wednesday 25^th January until Wednesday 8^th March.

What do I bring?

Just yourself! We’ll provide everything you need… notes, pens, paper, water biscuits and wine.

Cost – £150.00

Meanwhile, back in the here and now…

If you can’t wait until January to taste wine, we’ll open some tonight for you instead!

A couple of party wines this week: from Chile we have Oyster Shack Chardonnay 2014 – £7.49 and from Romania we have Calusari Pinot Noir 2015 – £8.69.  Probably useful to point out here that if you are having a party we can lend you glasses, supply ice, deliver and also provide you with a discount of 10% of twelve bottles or more!

That’s all from us this week and we’ll finish with a quote, which could be attributed to Wayne, commenting on Alex’s working practices, but is actually one made by a previous employee of DT:

“I cannot imagine him doing a job where he doesn’t just pick and choose what he wants to do, where if he feels like coming in he comes in, and if he feels like going to a meeting he goes to a meeting.”

God bless America.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

My daughter hasn’t eaten a proper meal since Monday lunchtime, or at least that’s how it feels.  However, she has certainly eaten Love Hearts, Maoam’s, Parma Violets, countless lollipops and too many funsize Mars/Snickers/Twix.  My son had a binge on Sour Patch Kids but then felt sick.  And my saintly wife has been surviving on lettuce and dried bread, never once dipping her hand into the gargantuan bowl of child size sweets.

Isn’t Halloween great?

And now we are in the midst of Guy Fawke’s fever/fervour.  As one of our customers pointed out earlier, in this super-sensitive politically correct environment we inhabit, it’s quite amazing that we are allowed to celebrate, and indeed celebrate quite so vigorously, a foiled catholic plot that took place over 400 years ago!  But celebrate we do, by lighting a bonfire and setting off fireworks – ironic considering these are exactly the things that the plotters failed to do.

Remember, remember the 5^th November, although if you wanted to see fireworks in Wimbledon Park, they were held last night, bizarrely, as opposed to Saturday…

Back in the modern day another plot has been foiled, if only temporarily, as the High Court rules that Parliament must vote on whether the UK can start the process of leaving the EU.  Talking of Brexit, a much quoted line from The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards on Wednesday evening, whilst receiving an award for Comeback of the Year:

In the words of our great prime minister… I understood that Brexit means Brexit and we are going to make a Titanic success of it

Isn’t Boris great?

Meanwhile, a small wine merchant in Wimbledon Park….

… has been continuing about its business whilst trying not to uspet anyone or get caught up in any plotting.  We’d like to confirm that the darker afternoons and colder mornings are not of our doing – if we had our way it would be shorts and t-shirts 24/7/365 – but we have plenty of Whisky and Gin and King’s Ginger and Amaretto and Kummel open to taste all the time to keep our cockles warmed when required, so pop in on your way past if you feel chilly.

We’ve taken delivery of more wines with a distinctly festive feel, sometimes more traditionally described as wines from Bordeaux, and we’re getting quite excited about how things are shaping up.  Latest arrivals (just today in fact) are

Chateau Corbin 2010, Montagne Saint-Emilion – £19.99  – 80% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon – the winemaker has spent some time in Australia so he likes a bit of ripeness and so we have nice bright fruit, plums and damsons here.  Really fresh and a bit broader on the palate with quite delicious and softened tannins on the finish.

Chateau Haut Ferrand 2009, Pomerol – £43.99 – 60% Merlot 40% Cab Franc – a beautiful nose, showing the ripeness of the vintage and a very smooth palate – extremely delicious and very habit forming.  Smooth, ripened soft blackberry fruits perhaps even some background hints of strawberry.  Proper wine.

Chateau Relais de la Poste 2012, Cotes de Bourg – £18.49 – known as Cuvee Malbec.  This has deliciously dark blackcurrant fruit, appealing with a hint of violet too, and is frankly really tasty but with a bit more weight and juice than a normal Bordeaux.  Unusual to be 100% Malbec and thus, very interesting.

Smooth palate, plums and damsons, fresh and broad – what are you on about?

If you want to know what we’re on about and fancy learning how to write tasting notes as erudite as Wayne’s then the Park Vintners Wine School is the place for you!

School starts again in the New Year – Wednesday January 25^th 2017 to be precise, at 8pm, to be even more accurate.  It will then proceed on a weekly basis until Wednesday 8^th March – a break for half term will be taken on the week containing Wednesday 15^th February.  You’ll taste around 60 wines, you’ll learn lots of clever wine terms to use at dinner parties and you’ll get a thorough grounding in the key grape varieties plus a foray into the exciting grapes that sometimes hide in the shadows.

The course costs £150 per person and full details are attached to this email.

If you can’t wait until January…

… then come and taste some wines with us this weekend.  We’ve finished #ShopRioja now so will be leaving Spain for a bit.  How about a quick trip to Argentina …

Pulenta Estate Chardonnay 2014, Mendoza, Argentina – £12.99 Pulenta Estate is located in Alto Agrelo, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza, its high altitude, at 980m, ensures a wide temperature range and a slow ripening of the grapes. This is a lovely crisp yet full bodied Chardonnay with a good finish.

And…

Susana Balbo Signature Malbec 2013, Valle de Uco, Mendoza, Argentina – £25.99 “Bright ruby-red. Pure, vibrant aromas of blackberry, blueberry and mint. A smooth, densely packed midweight with noteworthy inner-mouth tension and lift to the flavors of dark berries and violet. There’s something a bit Syrah-like about this very fresh, juicy, long Malbec. Has the strength of character to evolve slowly but this is already easy to appreciate. Drink 2016-2023. Score – 91.”  (Stephen Tanzer, vinous.com, Jan. 2015)

That’s all from us this week.  By next week we’ll know the next POTUS – scarily it’s now shaping up to be a bit of a nailbiter!

Cheers,

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week a couple of internet pranksters spent the night fooling around, sliding down bannisters and having a picnic in M&M’s World, pointing out to everyone the lack of an alarm system. No chocolate was harmed in the encounter.

Some West Ham fans demonstrated what fine upstanding people they are by ripping up seats and throwing coins at an 8 year old girl, in celebration of their victory over Chelsea. When did we travel back to the 70’s?

A poor, hapless waiter at the British Museum, last December knocked the thumb off of a priceless 2000 year old statue of Venus. The digit has since been restored but the news has only just come to light, with the British Museum assuring us that “all concerned individuals have been retrained”. We’re not entirely sure how you retrain a marble statue but there you are.

We also had the finale of Bake Off this week, there was the distinct smell of cake in the air as we headed home after the shop closed and apparently 15 million people were watching the final episode. I suspect the big winners are the sugar manufacturers…all that icing!

Poor old Jose Mourinho says he is leading a sad and lonely life in a hotel suite in Manchester and can’t even go out for a walk without the paparazzi following him. We couldn’t help wondering if a Mickey Mouse mask would help!

Someone has taken a sledgehammer to Donald Trump’s Star on Hollywood Boulevard. Apparently, previously somebody had built a small wall around it – sometimes you just can’t make it up, eh?

In wine related news, 2016 is globally one of the worst harvests in 20 years, with poor weather affecting mostly Europe but also South America. The shortfall is 15 million hectolitres or 1,950,000,000 bottles on 2015! That said, the guys in Bordeaux seem pretty pleased with the quality at harvest, particularly on the Left bank with the Cabernet. We’ll see as it unfolds, for the moment they’re still just being squished.

Wine School

Many of you have been asking when we’d start the new term of Wine School in the New Year.

New Term starts on Wednesday 25^th January and continues for 6 weeks over a seven week period as we’ll take a break for half term (Wednesday 15^th Feb).

Price remains at a pre-Brexit level of £150.

Full details are attached and we think it’ll make a fantastic Chrimble pressy.

New Stuff

Last week we mentioned a few Magnums, and the return of our Sloe Gin but completely forgot to mention our new Biltong. We’ve managed to get a small amount of something a little bit special from our usual supplier m-eat: Ostrich Biltong – 100g – £6.50.

Are We Your Favourite Shop In Wimbledon?

Voting closes this weekend so it’s the last chance saloon to vote for us, on this link…

http://www.timeout.com/london/lovelondonawards#/vote/wimbledon/shops

Now we appreciate this is a difficult decision to make so we’ve come up with a handy helper:

Is it owned by Alex & Wayne?

Does it sell Wine?

Is it called Park Vintners?

Should I vote for them then?

The answer to all the above questions is yes – ignore all other options on the ballot sheet!

Tasting this weekend

We’ll be rounding up our Rioja feature this weekend, it’s been fun and we’ve tasted some fantastic wines together. This weekend we’ll be featuring Lopez de Haro Crianza 2013 (£10.99) a cracking every day drop and Viña Arana Reserva 2008 (£23.59) which is our favourite from the talented crew at La Rioja Alta.

That’s about it from us for this week, don’t forget to vote!

Cheers!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Some questions and thoughts for you to ponder that have arisen around the Park Vintners water-cooler/spirits tray this week…

 

• If the US Presidential election has been ‘rigged’ in the way ‘The Donald’ seems certain of, then what is he going to do if he wins in November – call for a re-election, surely?

 

• Is it possible to bet the double on Leicester winning the Champions League whilst being relegated from the Premiership?

 

• Does Chris Froome believe in Bradley Wiggins?

 

• If the pound reaches parity with the currency used over the channel, does that mean we have effectively joined the Euro? Certainly not a Brexit side-effect that was voted for…

 

• Whatever happened to the bear in the porkpie hat? Hofmeister (low alcohol, low flavour, low cost) was put out to pasture in 2003 but apparently is about to be re-launched as a 5% abv Helles lager, made in Bavaria.  Was Kumbuka, the roving silverback gorilla who made a bid for freedom last week at London zoo, making an early audition for the adverts, which included necking a 5 litre cask of squash?

 

• Wine is going to get more expensive – all our suppliers are telling us this and we understand. However, will it get cheaper if the pound strengthens?  We suspect not…

 

• Did anyone know who ‘that chap in Manchester’ that Wayne referred to last week in relation to Bob Dylan was? Puzzled looks everywhere, here.

 

• How do you solve a squeeze on finances? Buy lots of wine – which is what we did this week.

 

Every now and then we receive a catalogue from Forman & Field (strapline: Restaurant quality food direct to your door), which is the mail order side of H. Forman & Son, purveyors of quality smoked salmon and, we later learnt, £1,000 Christmas Hampers.  Anyway, we looked through the catalogue before lunch the other day, salivating gently and realising that the offering from Coop was not going to be able to match what we were seeing on the page.  We also observed, scattered through the catalogue, various bon mots to encourage you to buy – “The Queen said our brownies were the best she had ever tasted”,  “Oh my word! The best pudding ever. (Mr & Mrs Slater, East Dulwich)”, or “See page 88 for more gifts and gourmet hampers”. 

 

Our favourite, however, was: “Our advice: Order more than you think you’ll need!”

 

Brilliant.  So we did.  Not smoked salmon from them, mind, but Claret from other people.  Oh, and magnums.

 

Claret                       

2011     Chateau La Providence         Bordeaux Supérieur                          £12.49

2012    Chateau Deville                     Cotes de Bordeaux                            £11.89

2010    Diane de Belgrave                 Haut Medoc                                       £22.99

2006   Chateau Fourcas-Dupré       Listrac-Medoc                                    £23.99

2010    Chateau Fourcas-Dupré       Listrac-Medoc                                    £20.99

2010    Chateau des Cabans                         Medoc                                     £17.49

2005    Chateau Beau-Site                St Estèphe                                          £28.99

2009   Chateau Le Boscq                 St Estèphe                                          £40.99

2010    Chateau Brown                      Pessac Léognan                                 £36.99

2004   Clos Sainte Anne                   Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux         £16.99

2010    Jean-Pierre Moueix             Lussac Saint Emilion                        £15.99

2011     Chateau Chereau                  Lussac Saint Emilion                        £16.99

2010    Chateau Roudier                   Montagne Saint-Emilion                  £18.99

2009   Chateau Grand Barrail

Lamarzelle Figeac                 St Emilion Grand Cru                       £31.99

2010    Chateau Grand Barrail

Lamarzelle Figeac                 St Emilion Grand Cru                       £31.99

2006   Chateau Chantalouette         Pomerol                                              £33.99

 

Magnums                

NV       Moutard Grande Cuvee        Champagne                                        £60.00

NV       Moutard Prestige Rose         Champagne                                        £62.00

2009   Chateau Le Crock                  Saint-Estèphe                                    £70.00

2005    Chateau Liversan                  Haut-Medoc                                       £46.99

2010    St Emilion JP Moueix           St Emilion                                          £38.99

2005    Vieux Chateau Gaubert        Graves                                                £46.99

2000   Vieux Chateau Gaubert

DOUBLE MAGNUM              Graves                                                £125.00

2012    La Cote Sauvage

Cairanne                                 Rhone                                                 £29.99

2014    Meerlust Red                         Stellenbosch                                       £26.99

2012    Meerlust Rubicon                  Stellenbosch                                       £52.00

2012    Ramon Bilbao

Edition Limitada                    Rioja                                                   £31.99

2014    Talmard Macon Uchizy         Maconnais                                          £29.99

 

Rigged voting

 

By my reckoning, the best and most honest way to get votes rigged in your own favour, Mr Trump, is to appeal to the voting on a platform of honesty, integrity and personality and thus just get more people to vote for you.  Simple.

With this in mind, if you think we are displaying suitable levels of honesty, integrity and personality and, dare I say it, you think we are your favourite shop in Wimbledon and ‘should have gotten it!’, then please vote for us in the Time Out #LoveLondonAwards

 

http://www.timeout.com/london/lovelondonawards#/vote/wimbledon/shops

 

Rioja’n roll

 

If it’s October then it must be time for Rioja.  For the last three weeks, with your help, we have been sipping and slurping our way through the shop’s stocks of the finest wines from this gastronomic heartland, all in the name of #ShopRioja.  Long may this continue we say, and it will for this weekend and next certainly.

 

For this weekend we will be sampling two reds – it is definitely Autumn now – in two different styles.

 

Ramón Bilbao Edición Limitada 2o13 – £14.99. 

Rodolfo Bastida, winemaker since 1999 has a philosophy: ‘Winemaking can be like painting. You can use a big brush and a big pot of one colour to obtain something that’s pretty bland and uninteresting… Or you can use a small brush, with lots of small pots of different colours to give character and complexity.’  The wines have received much acclaim in the press and they were voted Winery of the Year in 2009 and again in 2014.

 

Made in the Crianza style, it is fermented in large oak barrel and then aged in French oak barrique for 14 months and then 9 months in bottle before release.  100% Tempranillo, 100% vegetarian, 100% vegan, 100% delicious.

 

Bodegas Ontañón Gran Reserva 2005 – £25.99.

Raquel, Ruben, Leticia and Maria Pérez Cuevas are part of the 5th generation of the Cuevas family to make wine in Rioja Baja -their father, Gabriel, inherited parcels of vineyards just outside the town of Quel on the higher slopes of the Sierra de Yerga mountain range.

 

A classic blend of Tempranillo with a splash of Graciano the wine spends 36 months in a mixture of American and French oak, and then 24 months in bottle prior to release.  We had this on our most recent wine and cheese tasting and it went down a storm – we have limited stocks currently and if you taste it I suspect you’ll work out why!

 

That’s it from us this week – come and taste some fab wines over the weekend and have a natter by the spirits tray – try some of our  back-in-stock Foxdenton Sloe Gin – £23.99 and put the world to rights.  Last words today will go to Mr Trump, good advice that we all should heed, particularly The Donald himself:

 

“Watch, listen, and learn.  You can’t know it all yourself.  Anyone who thinks they do is destined for mediocrity.”

Fellow Wine Lovers,

How the devil are you? I can’t believe it’s almost a week since we spoke last. Lots has happened, both Alex and Wayne have managed to duck the double input of numbers required for the VAT return but with the deadline looming they’re going to have to pull their fingers out.

Wayne snuck off to swan around the West End for a lunch with a Champagne producer that held some unexpected lessons for him (more below).

We watched the England match, that’s 90 minutes we’re not getting back.

Jessica Ennis-Hill has announced she’s hanging up her boots (and javelin and shot) to retire at the top. We can’t help but wonder if it’s worth a friendly fiver on her being the next Bond?

Elsewhere… Donald Trump!!!

Bob Dylan has won the Noble Prize for Literature for creating “new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”  I wonder how that chap in Manchester feels now?

Unexpected Lessons

I went to a Champagne tasting on Tuesday, Alex had tried some but not all of the wines before and I had tasted none of them until now.  Champagne Tarlant was the producer, a small grower Champagne with a long history, who are doing some really interesting things. I tried 8 wines in all (I know, we call it work!) but what really surprised me was the vintage wine. It was from 2003 and had spent 12 years aging on its lees.

So, 2003 was a really hot summer, certainly not ideal for the production of Champagne. I looked up some notes, and most of the Champagnes I have tasted from that year seem to have the word weird in the note somewhere.  This one too, but only because it was so different from any others I’d tried. So wonderfully fresh and alive, yet with a wonderful richness from the ageing. I really did get taught a lesson about generalising about vintages, I will definitely try and avoid such sweeping statements in the future. Vintage champagne 2003 weird…

Word to the Wise

Straight from the horse’s mouth…Pintia 2011 (£38) is drinking really nicely currently. A bottle made a guest appearance at a recent BYO evening and went down a storm. We have a small amount left.

Democracy in Action

We won last year, we’d dearly love to win again this year – it’s time to vote in the Time Out #LoveLondonAwards

There is only until the end of the month to tell the world we are your favourite shop in Wimbledon, assuming we are of course!

Please do follow this link and click on the box beside Park Vintners.

http://www.timeout.com/london/lovelondonawards#/vote/wimbledon/shops

Thank you very much.

Tastings up until Christmas

All tastings are now fully sold out for this year – sorry if you missed out, hooray if you didn’t!

Tasting This Weekend

Well, I’m not sure we’ll be able to top last week, it was probably our most successful tasting yet, with both wines going down a storm, and the Torres Altos Ibericos Parcelas de Graciano 2011, Rioja, Spain (£14.99)selling out completely (more on its way, don’t worry!) Alex seemed to think that just about every dinner party locally was tucking into something tasty from Rioja.

We’re staying with a winning theme and this week we will put Valenciso Reserva 2009 (£23.99) in the red corner. This is one of Alex’s favourites (he’s even been to visit!) and is certainly a style we both really enjoy.

White wise we’ll have Bodegas Ontanon’s Vetiver Rioja Blanco 2013 (£10.79) a wine lighter in style than last week’s offering, being made from 100% Viura.

Well, I think we’ll leave the last word to Mr Zimmerman:

How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

Yes, ‘n’ how many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, ‘n’ how many times must the cannon balls fly

Before they’re forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,

The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

— Blowin’ In The Wind, Bob Dylan 1962

Fellow Wine Lovers,

What a week, eh? Conservative party conference whizzed by with all the hot air providing temporary localised warming over Birmingham.

UKIP’s new leader lasted a record breaking 18 days which suggests they could be the most difficult employer, even with strong challenges from both the Aston Villa and England football teams.

The real news this week though features a bit of most of the above. It seems that Cod speak with regional accents. On top of this, it seems that scientists at the University of Exeter are concerned for the future of the species. As global warming makes Cod head further north, there is confusion amongst cod, with males unable to ‘chat up’ females because of regional dialect.

The soft burr of Norfolk cod is almost unintelligible to those cod from Sunderland, whilst the fun loving cod from the Irish Sea are really struggling to understand the dark sense of humour of the Icelandic cod.

Full story here:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/05/cod-may-have-regional-accents-scientists-say

Shop Rioja

This month we’ve had a chat with the lovely folk from Rioja Wine UK to join in with their “ShopRioja” campaign.

Vines have been grown here in the Cantabrian mountains forever it seems, with documentary records going back as far as 873 AD. Rioja was first legally recognised for wine production by the King of Navarra and Aragon in the 12^th Century and documents indicate exports in the 13^th century. Everyone got on with it, exporting, drinking, improving their lot, and then in 1926 the Consejo Regulador was founded to limit the production area, control the quality, and use of the name Rioja, a fine job that they do to this day.

Being as on the ball and newsworthy as ever, we thought we should investigate what all the fuss was about. Over the next couple of weeks we’ll taste and talk about the wines from Spain’s Rioja region. So come in and join us, we have some freebies and all sorts of stuff going on!

Time Out #LoveLondonAwards

You’ve all been lovely nominating us, we’ve made the shortlist, and now we’d really like to win. If you could take a second or two out of your schedule before the 31^st October and vote for us we’d be eternally grateful. To make it even easier here is the link:

http://www.timeout.com/london/lovelondonawards#/vote/wimbledon/shops

I know we sound a bit needy, but thanks very much indeed!

Tasting this weekend

Well having banged on about ShopRioja we feel duty obliged to open some.

We shall populate the white corner with: Valenciso Blanco 2014, Rioja, Spain (£19.99) – A blend of 70% Viura and 30% Garnacha Blanca fermented and then aged for 9 months in Russian oak barrels.  Complex aromas combining pretty, floral characters with preserved lemon, truffle and smoky notes.  The palate is broad and well integrated with nuts and stone fruit characters.  Fresh candied peel, minerality and crisp citrus acidity on the finish.

Whilst wearing the red trousers will be Torres Altos Ibericos Parcelas de Graciano 2011, Rioja, Spain (£14.99) a relatively rare beast of a Rioja being made from just the Graciano grape variety. Dark coloured and rounded on the palate with blackberry fruit character and a balsamic note that’ll be marvellous with some lamb.

It’s a grape variety we are both really rather fond of so come in have a taste and see what’s washing down our Sunday lunch!

I think that’ll be us this week.

Cheers!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It’s been an admin week this week.  More correctly it’s been an admin week for Wayne this week.  One of the joys of him going on holiday for a fortnight is not just the fact that I get to sit in the boss’s big leather chair, put my feet on the desk and smoke his cigars but also I get to cherry pick the jobs I do.  This tends to mean that I do lots of tastings, less paperwork and certainly no admin.

‘You wouldn’t believe how busy I’ve been over the last two weeks, I’ve barely had a chance to sit down’, I lie, whilst dusting footmarks off his desk, ‘ so I never quite managed to get all the office stuff done – don’t suppose you could have a look through this pile please, see if anything is urgent?’

Anyway, in the midst of all this paperwork were some follow up requirements regarding the AWRS.  Of course, you all know what this stands for but, just to confirm, AWRS stands for Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme.  Quoting from gov.uk this is ‘a requirement for anyone who, sells, offers or exposes for sale or arranges to sell alcohol to other businesses on or after the point at which excise duty is payable, to be approved by HM Revenue and Customs’.  All very exciting – another layer of bureaucracy but one intended to eradicate the black market and ensure that contraband/fake alcohol doesn’t get onto the high street.

So, anyway, we don’t do much wholesale but applied to register months back.  Consequently, this week, Wayne was required to spend half an hour on the phone with an HMRC representative, explaining our business activities.  It seems they know quite a lot about us, HMRC.  But in a good way – we pay our VAT, we pay our bills, we’re not in jail and we don’t look likely to go there in the near future.  The conversation Wayne had with the helpful chap from HMRC also revolved around things a wholesaler shouldn’t do, loopholes that shouldn’t be taken advantage of, rules that should not be bent and basically temptations he shouldn’t be led into.

He took notes.

He then went out to dinner with his financial adviser and met with some overseas investors keen to import their spirits into the UK but equally keen to avoid too much attention from the powers that be.  Armed with his notes from earlier he confirmed, on hidden tape as it transpired later, that he could take advantage of various loopholes, bypass some rules and would be genuinely happy to represent these investors interests here for a paltry £400,000.  He also said some indiscreet things about Prince William and the Euro’s…….

… No, of course he didn’t do or say any of this, that would be a stupid thing to do, having only just registered for the AWRS 67 days ago and having just had the rules outlined to him very, very clearly regarding what he can and cannot do.  £400,000 is just not enough money to make him throw away his whole career – he would be a dope to even consider it.

In other news, Sam Allardyce is on a last minute holiday to the Costa Blanca.

Muppet.

Things to do as the nights draw in

Lots of different options available here.  Drink more red wine.  Eat more casserole.  Play less tennis.  Drink less Rosé.  Watch more TV.  Take up sewing.  Or Yoga.  Run less.

Alternatively you could spend a couple of evenings at your favourite local wine shop, making use of our electricity and heating whilst eating cheese or tasting Whisky.

Yep, we have a couple of upcoming tastings that still have spaces on them.

Next Thursday, 6^th October at 8pm, we have our first Wine & Cheese of the new season – back by popular demand after a summer of leisure – and at a mere £20 per person you not only get electricity and heating but you get copious amounts of cheese and some fab wine to.  I’m definitely going, care to join me – 4 spaces left, if you fancy bringing some pals?

Then later, on Wednesday, 23^rd November at 8pm, we have our Whisky Masterclass.  We’ve never done a spirits tasting before and it seems we’ve been missing a trick.  In fairness we’re not actually doing it this time as we’ve coerced our Whisky expert, Ed, to come and take us on a malty tour of the auld country.  Again, £20 per person is the cost and, frankly, Ed is worth much, much more!

If you fancy either or both of these then please let us know as soon as you know – we’d hate for you to be disappointed.

Thursday 6th October at 8pm – £20 per person

WINE & CHEESE TASTING

Wednesday 23rd November at 8pm – £20 per person

WHISKY MASTERCLASS

Things to do during the day on Saturday

Clearly children need to be driven to sports events in far flung villages, dogs need to be walked and shirts need to be taken to the dry cleaners but, as they say in the gambling adverts, when the fun stops, stop!  So, once you’ve finished these activities why don’t you pop by and see us, have a chat with Alex about the Ryder Cup, have a chat with Wayne about Revenue & Customs and have a taste of the wines we’ve got open.

In order to avoid creating Ryder Cup waves, we won’t be tasting any European or American wines this weekend.  We will be visiting Australia instead and, having considered some of the events of the past week, we will be tasting the two of the aptly named Accomplice wines by de Bortoli.  The white is Semillon/Sauvignon and the red is a Shiraz.  They both retail for £8.99 and by goodness, they’re fair dinkum tasty!

Time for me to go before I get done for cultural appropriation – see you at the tasting table!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It’s been another tumultuous week in what has already been a tumultuous year.

Whilst many of us still come to terms with the reality that Bowie, Rickman, Corbett or Prince will never entertain us again, there has now been even more salt thrown into a very wounded and cornered 2016, with the revelation that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are getting divorced.

It’s like a ‘where were you when Kennedy was shot?’ scenario, as all of us will have the time that we first read it on TMZ (7:28 AM PDT on 20/09/2016 or 3:28 PM London time, roughly) etched into our memories for all eternity.  Sad days, I’m sure you’ll agree.

As so often happens with events of such magnitude, whilst the main news focuses around the principal protagonists and the world and his dog give ill-informed opinions about people they have never met, it is the rippling shockwaves that are fascinating to observe and less reported.

Here is a quick round up of events since Tuesday afternoon that have sent us reeling and definitely have only happened as a result of this split:

• Mary Berry quits The Great British Bake Off, citing loyalty as a key factor
• At Madison Square Garden, Adele performs ‘two hours of misery’ for ‘the elephant in the room’ which is not a terribly nice way to refer to your audience
• Mark Zuckerberg pledges $3 billion to cure everything, forever
• Majestic Wines issued a significant profit warning, possibly from nerves at the stack of magnums of Miraval Rose they still have to shift
• Lionel Messi suffers a ‘groin strain’ and needs at least three weeks to recover from everything that has happened
• Ditto Harry Kane, although he may need longer to get over it all
• MI6 to recruit 1,000 new staff – it seems Mr & Mrs Smith have left the building
• Fancy Bears release files stating they have no files relating to Mr Pitt using a TUE
• Donald Trump offends a vast number of people – although we’re not completely sure this has anything to do with Jolie-Pitt
• Park Vintners Sparkling Wine & Champagne Tasting on Thursday 1^st December quickly sells out
• Ditto Wine & Cheese Tastings on Thursday 10^th November/7^th December
• Whisky tasting also gaining momentum
• The weather got colder and it got darker earlier…

So, now you know.  On the upside, and Majestic can take succour from this too, we still have a little of the Miraval Côtes de Provence Rose 2015, retailing at £20.99.  Not bad for a piece of history, the last vintage that Brad and Angelina crushed together!

Otherwise, little else to report.

However, we would love for you to give us your vote in the Time Out Love London Awards.

Last year, we were lucky enough to win as your favourite shop in Wimbledon.  We’d really like to win again, so if we could persuade you to nominate us on this link we’d be really grateful.

http://www.timeout.com/london/lovelondonawards#/nominate/wimbledon/shops

As hinted at earlier, our tasting calendar is getting booked up, the list of upcoming events being:

Thursday 6^th October at 8pm – £20 per person

WINE & CHEESE TASTING

Pretty self-explanatory, we think…

Thursday 10^th November at 8pm – £20 per person

WINE & CHEESE TASTING

As above! 

SOLD OUT

Wednesday 23^rd November at 8pm – £20 per person

WHISKY MASTERCLASS

Our first ever whisky tasting.  Ed will be the talent, taking us on a virtual tour of Scotland by the power of whisky!

I saw Ed yesterday, as he dropped off some Hibiki Harmony Japanese Whisky, and we firmed up a bit our selection for the night.  Without giving too much away, we will have something from Arran, something Macallan, something from the lower Highlands, an Islay, and a couple of other things.  It’s all about doing a bit of a tour of the regions and styles with a few different age statements in there.  I have to say, when he left, I was a bit sad that I’ve got to wait until the end of November for this!

Thursday 1^st December at 8pm – £30 per person      

SPARKLING WINE & CHAMPAGNE TASTING

Bubbly on the first day of Christmas, that’s what my truelove should send to me, not some random partridge gift…

SOLD OUT

Wednesday 7^th December at 8pm – £20 per person

CHRISTMAS WINE & CHEESE TASTING

We’ll be reviewing our year in cheese and wine and make a selection worthy of a Christmas cheeseboard.  Will Stilton be there?  Port?  Stinking Bishop?  Who knows…?

SOLD OUT

However, if your tasting needs are more immediate, why not come and taste the wines I’ve got open for tonight and tomorrow?

The white is going to be a wine that we sell over and over again but never seem to use on tastings.  It’s our best selling white burgundy and we call it Macon Charnay Réserve Personnelle 2015, Burgundy, France – £11.99.  Charnay is one of the smallest of the Macon Villages, also renowned as one of the best.  This wine, made by Samantha Bailey, a British winemaker, has enticing orchard fruit aromas (nectarine or Cox’s apple maybe) and a ripe, textured and full citrusy palate with a lingering finish.

Representing red interests will be another top seller that rarely takes its cork out in the shop, The Crusher Pinot Noir 2014, Clarksburg, California, USA – £14.49

“Bone Crusher, spine crusher, ball crusher – I don’t care which part of my body it crushes but these are just the kind of wines we want at our show.  The audience love them!”

Oz Clarke, Three Wine Men

Not sure how to follow that… this is definitely one of those wines everyone tells their friends to buy.  We liked it when we bought it but it’s taken on a life of its own now!

And that’s it from us for this week.  Come and taste some wine, taste a few spirits if you fancy, sign up for a tasting or just pop in for a chat about how your life will never be the same again, post-brangelina (with a small b now…)

Fellow Wine Lovers,

And so life picks up its pace as we shift back to normality.  Even the littlest of kids are now back at school.  The lucky amongst us, those who don’t have kids of any size or whose progeny have already fled the nest, are benefitting from some exotic September sunshine for a fraction of the cost of exotic August sunshine.  Today sees the potentially permanent return of drizzle and grey skies, an antidote to the barmy weather of the last few days and a signal that autumn will soon be upon us.  Pretty soon we’ll be packing away the shorts, boxing up the Rosé wines and turning the lights on earlier.

So, how are we going to cope with this change in the seasons?  Well, first up, we’re going to start drinking red wine again as we reacquaint ourselves with tannins and structure.  We’re going to start casseroling, slow cooking, pot-roasting and stop cooking outside for a while.  We’re going to remember how delicious Port is, and remember why we don’t drink it in a heatwave.  We’re going to look beyond the delights of gin and rediscover the ethereal pleasures of whisky and rum.  And we’re going to thoroughly enjoy ourselves – got it!

In order to fruitfully fill the time between now and Christmas we’ve set up a variety of tastings for you to join in with, to make the long nights shorter.

Thursday 6^th October at 8pm – £20 per person

WINE & CHEESE TASTING

Pretty self-explanatory, we think…

 

Thursday 10^th November at 8pm – £20 per person

WINE & CHEESE TASTING

As above!

 

Wednesday 23^rd November at 8pm – £20 per person

WHISKY MASTERCLASS

Our first ever whisky tasting.  Ed will be the talent, taking us on a virtual tour of Scotland by the power of whisky!

 

Thursday 1^st December at 8pm – £30 per person

SPARKLING WINE & CHAMPAGNE TASTING

Bubbly on the first day of Christmas, that’s what my truelove should send to me, not some random partridge gift…

 

Wednesday 7^th December at 8pm – £20 per person

CHRISTMAS WINE & CHEESE TASTING

We’ll be reviewing our year in cheese and wine and make a selection worthy of a Christmas cheeseboard.  Will Stilton be there?  Port?  Stinking Bishop?  Who knows….

 

All these events take place here in the shop, starting at 8pm and spaces are limited – first come, first served!

 

You may have noticed our failure to critique current affairs and sport this week.  Not for want of trying, we were finding it slightly difficult to know where to start.  In a world where more column inch has been devoted to Bake Off moving house than the news that the one person capable of stopping the Trump march on the White House is really not very well at all, I’m not sure what to say.   In sport, the Paralympians are astonishing, the cycling is over and the football is still a bit of a sideshow, although Leicester set off in pursuit of the Champions League Trophy in no uncertain terms.

Not sure really what to taste this weekend – the sun might shine, it might be muggy like last Saturday, or it could just be grim.  So I’m going to hedge my bets with a light white and a heavier red.

The Paddler Riesling 2012, Marlborough, NZ – £12.99 – From a single vineyard in the Blind River sub-division of Marlborough, this is a cracking Riesling, and a little bit of age has fleshed out the palate nicely.  Fruit forward in style, with homemade lemonade and honeysuckle aromas, the palate is fresh and racy with a flinty minerality and lemon/lime notes and a bit of sweetness to balance that racy acidity.

Novas Gran Reserva Syrah Mourvedre 2013, Cachapoal, Chile – £11.99 – Lovely black fruits here, with a hint of vanilla on the nose.  Rich, with fabulous concentration on the palate and some evident but soft tannins.  It’s organic too.  Oh, and it’s never been on tasting before!

It seems I have reached the bottom of the page, so best tidy up.  Come in and taste some wines, come in and book yourself onto some tastings or just come in because you fancy it (and it’s raining outside!)

Cheers,