The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger, sang Ronnie Wood in 1973, for the Faces…

The Korgis, in 1980, sang the words, Everybody’s got to learn sometime…

In 1985, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush duetted, Don’t give up, you still have us…

And 11 years later, Blur came up with the line, Educated the expensive way, he knows his Claret from a Beaujolais…

What few people realise is that they are all referencing our fabulous 6 week Wine School.

Ronnie’s comment bemoans the advice given to him by Rod about which wines to match with asparagus. The Korgis, having tried to open Champagne with a corkscrew, decided it was time to come and see us.  Damon fully appreciated the investment we had put into our WSET Diploma, and was suitably impressed by our intricate knowledge of all things French.

But what is this course about which they rave?

When we worked in Clapham, a customer asked us how he could learn more about wine but without any pretensions. Or having to do any exams.  And where the only homework involved tasting something different once in a while.

We said we weren’t sure where he could do this but if he could wait a few months we’d try and write a course that would fit these criteria. And this is the course we still do now.  Alex can be a little pretentious in his pronunciation of Italian and Spanish wines and Wayne has been known to get a bit scientific when discussing cork taint or alluvial soil in Marlborough, but otherwise we remain true to our initial promise.

The course runs over 6 weeks, the first week introduces you to the how’s and why’s of wine-tasting, weeks 2 & 3 cover a range of the major white grape varieties (around about 14, normally), weeks 4 & 5 give the major red grapes the same treatment and week 6 examines all things fizzy. Also tucked in there will be a foray into Rosé wines, sweet wines, a selection of wine faults and some blind tasting too.

You don’t get a certificate or a lapel badge but you will finish confident that you have tasted in the region of 60 wines over the course and have a far better view of what wines please your palate the most.

If you’re interested in signing up, the course runs on consecutive Wednesdays from the 27^th January at 8pm until 9^th March.  That is actually a 7 week period as we take a one week half term at the same time as the schools take the week off.  It costs £150 per person and is starting to fill up – many people have taken fliers (see attached) so if you want to confirm your seat at the table then you can either reply to this email or give us a call on 020 8944 5224 – our dedicated sales team will be able to answer any questions you may have (yes Wayne, that’s you).

But hang on; you may be thinking, what about Kate and Peter, what were they singing about?

Well, I have to tell you, honestly, that neither Kate Bush nor Peter Gabriel has been on our course.  Theirs was a song to remind us that, in spite of it being January, with the festive season well buried, we still have friends out there.  We also see it as an imploring suggestion not to abstain in January, or perhaps we’re being unusually fanciful…

… because why would you abstain when we are offering our annual 6 for 5 deal?  Yes indeed, for the sixth year running we will be offering six bottles for the price of five or, if you prefer, 16.66% discount off a case of six bottles, mixed or all the same.  This offer doesn’t include Cristal or the James Bond Bollinger but everything else is fair game – even San Pellegrino, if you are abstaining but still like a deal!

Reasons to be cheerful, part 3 crooned Ian Dury in 1979 – and even though it’s cold and very January outside, we’re inclined to agree!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It’s the Thirty First day of December, the last day of 2015,the last day of the festive season. There’s plenty of news but we didn’t want to talk about Lemmy, Bill Cosby or flooding disasters.  We didn’t even want talk about the cricket, or Leicester City, or FIFA.  We wanted to try and keep sport and news out of our newsletter for once and as you can see, it’s worked a treat.

For many it is a time of reflection and review and this will include a number of high street wine merchants who will publish a splendid selection of spurious figures relating to double digit growth in wines beginning with the letter M, or some other such irrelevance.

This growth, we will read with tingles of excitement, comes from renewed emphasis on strengthening these wines position at the centre of the alphabet, the go-to letter, the letter of the MoMent. Hidden behind tales of this growth will be some trifling small print relating to a 17% decline in earnings and a subsequent share price drop blah, blah, blah – but that is not what the papers want to hear, not now, not at the end of the year, not on the last day of 2015, not with everybody in such a good Mood – with a capital M.

With review in mind I thought I might look at some of our stats for the year, with appropriate analysis.

Calendar performance

The Quietest day of the year was Monday 9^th February, which should be noted, was Wayne’s day off.  Further poor performers that followed up were a couple of days in January and lots in August.  Alex was on holiday in August.

Busiest day – Saturday 19^th December – we were both here…

Product performance

Top selling products was a disappointment in some respects. Sales of English sparkling wine, Romanian Pinot Noir and Rivaner from Luxembourg, whilst strong, were not enough to promote them to the top ten; however we did see 5 new entries this year, which is great news:

Lunetta Prosecco and Chateau de L’Aumerade Provence Rose took the top two spots, unsurprising considering their enduring popularity and the fact we have had some very pleasant weather this year.

Camden Town Brewery Hells Lager, Paulaner Munchner Hell Munich Lager and Sambrooks Wandle Ale took 3^rd, 4^th and 8^th places – beer always ranks well as people usually buy numerous bottles and interestingly the appeal of lager still outweighs the rise of Pale Ale.

Leveret IQ Brut, Cuvee JP Jean Paul Rose, Gavi di Gavi Sarotto and Macon Charnay Reserve Personelle were all new entries and further bolster the supposition that the weather had a very positive impact.

The last member of our top ten is a perennial favourite, Champagne Moutard Grand Cuvee, our house Champagne and the one we’ll be opening today to help it push up the rankings even more.

Interestingly, we sold almost double the amount of red wine than white wine from a value point of view, yet not a single red wine appears in the top ten!

Staff performance

For the fifth year running Wayne was star performer, he now gets to keep the medal and his till number, #1, will be retired with him but not too soon we hope!

Alex claimed second position, again for the fifth year running. Could do better.

Mention must be made of Rufus, the downstairs-dwelling dog, who turned up for work everyday at 11am for 38 weeks of the year and still failed to sell a single product or catch a mouse.

Finally, this computer deserves a mention for sheer graft: for, when not being used for work it is either playing Spotify, Sky Sports or Channel 4 racing – making it undoubtedly our most valuable member of staff!

Conclusion

Thanks to much valued support over the years, we’ve now just completed our sixth Christmas on Arthur Road. We can’t thank everyone individually but you know who you are and we know who you are, and we also know what wines you like, what wines you don’t like and whether you’d like us to deliver – it’s a perfect relationship which we hope will see us well into next year and beyond!

Notes

We will have wine open today as is our custom – Moutard Grande Cuvee (£28.99) will do it’s best to compete with last week’s Bollinger, Pieropan Soave Calvarino (£20.99) will represent the delicious white wine side, whilst the red representative has to be the out-of-this-world, Joan Giné Priorat 2009 (£22.19).

And that’s it from us for 2015 – Ben Kingsley, Val Kilmer, Richie McCaw, Anthony Hopkins, Alex Ferguson and anyone else who is celebrating a birthday today – here’s looking at you, kid!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out of the dawn there arose such a thought,

I’d left it to late and no wine had I bought.

Luckily for me twas just a bad dream,

And the Saturday before, to Park Vintners I’d been.

So with our apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, we’ll be pulling corks on…

Hoffman & Rathbone Rosé Reserve 2011 – £38.00

 Award winning English bubbles on a Saturday before Christmas – what’s not to like?

Stephane Aladame Montagny 1er Cru Selection Vieilles Vignes 2012 – £25.99

 Stéphane Aladame is one of the rising stars of the younger generation of French vignerons, already attracting a considerable amount of attention in France…

This wine is from his oldest vines, 50% fermented in oak barrels and 50% in stainless steel vats. Crisp, medium-bodied, with a vibrant, intense core of citrus and stone fruit alongside a firm mineral zip that continues through the long finish. Delicious for drinking now and over the next couple of years.

Fattoria Le Corti Principe Corsini Cortevecchia Chianti Classico 1996 Toscana – £30.99

 A fourteenth century estate, still in the hands of the original family, that produces critically acclaimed wine year in year out. Sometimes they keep some back and release it as a ‘museum’ release. This is one of those, lovely rounded and complex with that mixture of fruit and secondary characters, drinking beautifully!

Diane de Belgrave 2010 Haut-Médoc – £22.49

This is the very classy second wine of Chateau Belgrave, a fifth growth in Haut-Médoc. It’s 52% Merlot and 41% Cabernet Sauvignon with the balance made up of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Rich with raspberry and blackberry notes, a touch of liquorice and some fine polished tannins. Good and long in the finish with a smattering of vanilla.

SUNDAY OPENING – This Sunday we’ll be open from 11am to 3pm.

That’s all from us folks, you know where to find us!!!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

No use crying over spilt milk. Actions speak louder than words.  Thank your lucky stars.  You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.  Blood is thicker than water.  Do as you would be done by.  Live and let live.  An eye for an eye.

All idioms that have crossed our mind this week, rightly or wrongly, although Blood is thicker than water could be regarded more as a cleaning tip, with the follow up, but comes off easily with a spot of bleach.

To elaborate, on Sunday morning, just a few days into our 6^th year here, someone took particular offence to our shop window and manifested his ambivalence towards our display by firmly punching his way through the window.  Indeed, by firmly I mean really, really hard.

Glass was everywhere, blood everywhere – quite how the police missed the opportunity to use the slang ‘there’s claret all over the shop’ we will never know – and a number of hours were spent calling glaziers, sweeping up, thanking our lucky stars nothing was stolen and wondering how much it would all cost to repair.

We’re still not sure about the costs, about when it will be fixed or who it was that did it but we do know that it’s done, it can’t be changed, moaning won’t make anything better and whoever did do it has problems and issues far greater than any we might have.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

The idioms at the top can also be applied to the delightful trio of Oscar Pistorious, Donald Trump and Tyson Fury – charmers one and all – who could also take head from think before you speak, look before you leap, don’t believe your hype…

Anyway, enough of that, let’s move on to matters more festive. Less than two weeks to go.  Actually, less than four days to go for many of us, work and social being what they are at this time of year.

So let’s talk turkey. I know a significant number of you will not be partaking of the oversized chicken this year, and all power to you antiestablishmentarianists, the clarets we got you to taste last week will be glorious with your beef.  For the larger majority of you tucking into Mr Matthews finest Norfolk Bronze, the wines this weekend are more for you.

Having popped into Bordeaux last week, it seems sensible to shift over to Burgundy for our fun this weekend.

Both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay have a strong affinity with the classic British Christmas feast and indeed, it’s not just the French that do it well – New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Chile even, offer some fabulous matches – but at this time of year it seems a good idea to go back to where all the fuss started and thus we will pull the corks on the following:

WHITE

Mallory & Benjamin Talmard Mâcon-Uchizy 2014 – £14.99

Mallory and Benjamin produce just one cuvée of Macon each year from their 20 hectares just north of the Macon 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 and a long fresh, finish with hints of apple.  A good all-rounder from start to finish, this was our best selling white wine last Christmas, so we figure if it ain’t broke…

Domaine Génot-Boulanger Meursault Les Meix Chavaux 2012 – £40.99

This is tip-top Meursault from an estate that has been going gangbusters since 2008. Les Meix Chavaux is a good vineyard really starting to make a name for itself.  A cracking wine with a good, flinty minerality whilst not sacrificing any of that lush broadness you get with top notch Meursault.

RED

Maison Ambroise Bourgogne Rouge “Cuvée Vieilles Vignes” 2007 – £20.99

Bertrand’s Bourgogne Rouge offer us sensational value, all organic grapes, handpicked from 50 year old vines with a south/south east exposure in Premeaux Prissy and Nuits-Saint-Georges.  Very classy and elegant, we consider this is absolutely bang on the button, having evolved very slowly under screw capsule and displaying a great balance between silky, pure red fruits and sous-bois notes.  Don’t ask me about sous-bois, Wayne’s the linguist.  A spot of declassified NSG with Christmas lunch?  Don’t mind if we do…

Domaine Coche-Bizouard Monthelie 1er Cru Les Duresses 2009 – £28.99

This family run domain, based in Meursault, was created by Julien Coche in 1940 as just one hectare of vines. His son Alain took over from him and built a strong reputation during the 1980’s and 1990’s.  What goes around comes around, and Alain’s own son Fabien has been involved since 1995 and oversees the day to day running of the domains 12 hectares.

This is absolutely spot on, with plenty of plum and berry fruit, silky tannins keeping it tidy and a lovely weight and length of finish. Our tasting note when we tried it said: ‘… and really extraordinatry at this price!’  We’ll let you be the judge of that.

PORT (clearly not from Burgundy)

Krohn Colheita 1995 – £32.99

This is just so darned tasty. Rich plum fruit combined nicely with dried fruits, spiced molasses and complex nutty flavours from its 18+ years in oak pipes.  A very good length finish and an obvious choice with your stilton.

Not much more to add really – Wine School is gently filling up, so if you were thinking of giving it to a loved one as a gift that keeps on giving, be careful not to miss the boat. 6 weeks, 60+ wines, Wayne’s witty insight – all for £150!

We’re off to a 21^st Birthday party in Tooting tomorrow evening (many happy returns of the day young lady) so we will be very excitable all day – we don’t get out much you see – and certainly not in such glamorous company!

So it would seem that a week that started off looking pretty bleak is going to finish off with a bang – he who laughs last, laughs longest!!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We have been investigating our options this week. Netmums suggested a football party, or maybe bowling, a customer’s son suggested a Star Wars party in the garden, and there was some talk about Winnie the Pooh till we discovered the real name of the book (When We Were Young-Ed).

What am I wittering on about? Park Vintners is now officially five years old and we were contemplating how best to celebrate the fact. We have decided to eschew both football and bowling, and having investigated our insurance for light sabre related incidents, had to park Star Wars ideas too. That left us with going with what we know best and pulling a cork or two on something delicious. Full details later on…

Spirits

One or two of you have noticed Hepple Gin in our window, but we’re not just about Gin you know! Alex has gone Malt mad and listed an entire bevvy of beauties from North of the Border, as well as an old favourite Bourbon. Whisky as per our shelf, as follows:

Highland

Glenalmond Highland Blended Malt – £29.99 (Vatted)

Connoisseurs Choice Royal Brackla 1998 – £46.99

Island

Highland Park 2006 Cask Strength 57.9% – £50

Islay

Finlaggan Old Reserve Islay – £30.99

Speyside

Benromach 10 year old – £36.99

Speymalt Macallan 2006 – £37.99

Linkwood 15 year old – £46.99

Glenrothes 1997 (Coopers Choice Bottling) – £69.69

MacPhail’s 21 year old – £69.99

Bourbon

Heaven Hill Old Style Bourbon – £22.59

Blantons Original Single Barrel Bourbon – £44.99

Meanwhile Wayne has been busy exercising his sweet tooth in other areas…

Kummel Mentzendorff – £20.99

Limoncello – £21.99

Colazingari Sambuca Fina – £22.99

Foxdenton Sloe Gin – £22.99

The King’s Ginger – £23.99

Express Espresso Liqueur – £25.99

Saliza Amaretto Veneziano – £25.99

Doorly’s XO Barbados Rum – £32.49

Wine School

Do you have a chum that’s always really difficult to buy for? Why not try our wine school? A six week course that starts on 27^th January at 8pm. Cost is £150 per person and full details are attached. The gift that keeps on giving!

Birthday Drinks Tasting this Weekend

 No jelly or ice-cream I’m afraid but how about we go with:

Champagne Thiénot (£32.99) one of the new kids on the block champagne wise, having been founded in 1985 but being owned by a former grape broker, they definitely get the pick of the bunch (sorry). Deliciously rounded and with a nice bready note.

Domaine Langlois-Chateau Saumur Blanc VV 2009 (£19.99) we discovered the previous vintage too late for Christmas last year, but this year we’re on it. Old vine Chenin Blanc with some nice gentle oaking giving us a lovely rounded white that can give a lot of white burgundy a run for its money. Turkey wine, perhaps?

Chateau Beauregard Ducourt 2010 (£11.99) we tasted this with our chum posh Jeremy back in September and it was just what we were looking for. Rich plummy fruit a good finish with some nice, fine tannins keeping it tidy.

Chateau Cabans 2010, Medoc (£17.49) this is a really good Cru Bourgeois Medoc from a stonking vintage. Opening up beautifully now, Stephen Spurrier raved about it in Decanter: “Solid, concentrated red, quite robust, concentration of berry fruit on the nose, quite open and oak already blended in while adding to structure, good broad flavoured wine, more earthy than elegant. 17/20”

Chateau Barrail Lamarzelle-Figeac 2009, St Emilion Grand Cru (£29.99) this’ll be a first taste for Wayne, as Alex came back from a trip saying “We had this great wine with lunch, it was absolutely bang on and we really must buy it!” and here it is!

We’ve also attached our Christmas opening hours.

That’s about it from us five year olds for this week. Do come in and have a taste, there is something for everyone we think.

Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us…

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Black Friday.  36 ‘unmissable deals’ in my inbox before I had even got up this morning…

‘Why is it called Black Friday – black doesn’t sound very nice?’ my daughter asked yesterday ‘And the day after Thanksgiving too, which does sound much nicer….’

‘Because black is the colour of the bruises, because that’s the mood it puts you in, because that’s the karate belt you need – oh, I don’t know sweetheart, ask Wal-Mart’ was all I could respond, befuddled by the fact that a nine year old from Wimbledon could be so in tune with life in America – thanks iCarly.

In order to avoid violent queues, people competing with each other for parking spaces on The Crescent and unseemly grappling over the last bottle of Hepple Gin, we will not be involving ourselves in any deep discounting today, sorry.  It means there are no winning bargain hunters but equally there are no losers either.  Everyone gets to pay the same price here and no one gets to gloat.

Significantly, as it is Black Friday, that means that Thanksgiving is now behind us – and we can now fix our sights firmly on the next major event in the calendar.

No, I’m not talking about Wayne’s birthday next week – although judging by his comment just now, in his best Fast Show accent, ‘This week I ‘ave mostly been freezing in the shop’, he might be grateful to receive a sweater or two…

But no, not that.  The next major event is the ‘Lighting up of the Christmas Tree and Carol Singing’ which will take place outside Christ The King Church tomorrow, Saturday 28^th November at 4.15pm. 

I am informed, to add to the excitement, that a local personality will perform the ceremony – no coincidence that Wayne has taken that day off I’m sure…

Anyway, once you’ve sung your socks off in the cold early evening, I suggest you pop up the road and come and see us – we’ll have wine open, which I’ll get to later, but also we’ll have The King’s Ginger (£23.99) and Foxdenton Sloe Gin (£22.99) open and ready to taste, sip and gargle – a perfect salve for those fatigued vocal chords!

Fizz

We’ve had a few enquiries regarding our Christmas fizz offering this year, so here’s the not-so-big reveal…

Like last year, we will be leading with Bollinger Special Cuvee Brut NV £45.00 for a bottle but down to a mere £33.33 per bottle when you buy half a dozen.

For all our other fizz our usual 6 for 5 deal applies, or 16.66% discount off a half dozen if you will.

As a timely reminder of what we are stocking currently, here’s the list:

Champagne

Champagne Moutard Grand Cuvee NV (half bottle) £15.99

Champagne Moutard Prestige Rose NV (half bottle) £16.99

Goutorbe-Bouillot Champagne Carte D’Or Brut NV £27.99

Champagne Moutard Grand Cuvee NV £28.99

Champagne Moutard Prestige Rose NV £31.99

Champagne Thienot Brut NV £32.99

This is a new listing – Alex visited them in September largely as a result of Wayne having been very impressed when he tasted it previously.  Suffice to say, Wayne was absolutely right and now it’s on the shelf!

Champagne Beaumet Brut Vintage 2006 £35.99

Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve NV £39.99

Champagne Moutard ‘6 Cepages’ 2007 £44.99

Champagne Barons de Rothschild Brut NV £50.00

Ruinart Blanc de Blancs NV £60.00

Champagne Moutard Grande Cuvee NV (Magnum) £60.00

Champagne Moutard Prestige Rose NV (Magnum) £62.00

Billecart Salmon Rose NV £62.00

Krug Grand Cuvee NV (half bottle) £70.00

Bollinger Grand Annee 2004 £80.00

Bollinger James Bond 2009 (Limited Edition Gift Box) £125

Moutard Brut Grande Cuvee NV (Jeroboam) £130

Billecart Salmon Cuvee Nicolas-Francois 2002 £130

Louis Roederer Cristal 2006 £150

Sparkling wines that aren’t allowed to call themselves Champagne and probably don’t want to anyway

Lunetta Prosecco NV £10.49

Mas Macia Cava Brut NV £10.99

Mimi Pink Sparkling NV £12.99

Mimi Sparkling NV £12.99

Pauletts Trillians Sparkling Red NV £14.49

Leveret IQ Brut NV £14.99

Leveret IQ3 NV £20.99

Hoffman and Rathbone Classic Cuvee 2010 £36.00

Hoffman and Rathbone Rose Reserve 2011 £38.00

Hoffman and Rathbone Blanc de Blancs 2010 £40.00

Beer

After much froing and toing, our new beer listing has finally arrived.  We were first approached by The Park Brewery, based in Kingston, in April this year.  However, life took over and so did the summer, holidays, and other stuff.   Anyway, it’s here now.  They make a range of beers named after various parts of Richmond Park – perfect bidon top ups for those cyclists amongst you – and for the rest of us, nice beer to drink.

We have three of their beers in stock:

Killcat Pale (3.9%) £2.59 – a refreshing pale ale, with the hoppiness and punch of an IPA but without the high ABV.

Gallows Gold (5%) £2.79 – their version of an American Pale Ale – fruity and sweet with a fine aroma.

Dark Hill (6.2%) £3.19 – their version of a black IPA.  Not too malty on the palate which allows the hoppy flavours to come through.

Wine

What are we going to taste this weekend?

We know we’re going to taste Bordeaux next weekend, Burgundy the week after and then Italian wines the weekend before Christmas (yes chaps, it really is that soon) but have not thought about the here and now.  But as the theme seems to be Thanksgiving I suppose it would be pleasurable to taste a couple of wines from across the pond.

Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2013 £13.99 – this is a delicious Chardonnay from San Francisco Bay.  Fermented half in barrel and half in stainless steel we have green apples with hints of tropical fruit on the nose and in addition some subtle vanilla notes on the palate.  Fabulous balance and a really nice texture – a real all-rounder.

Marimar Estate Don Miguel Vineyard Cristina Pinot Noir 2009 £24.99 – coming from the Russian River Valley in Sonoma this is the absolute mutts.  It was offered to us at a very good price last week so we bought as much of it as our little hands could carry.  A blend of the best Pinot Noir on the estate makes an extremely elegant, soft and complex wine.  We tasted it last night on our Wine & Cheese tasting and it was definitely the wine of the night.  And if you were thinking of roasting a duck…

Marimar Estate Don Miguel Vineyard Cristina Pinot Noir 2009

£24.99/bottle or 6 for £120.

Breaking News

Important news on a global scale.

It has been revealed that Gwyneth Paltrow penned a line on Coldplay’s new song Everglow : “How come things move on/How come cars don’t slow”.

“She came up with the idea so I said, ‘Is there any chance you’d sing that line cos it’s your idea’ Like any human, she was like, ‘I can’t do that! I’m not a professional!'” Martin explained.

Loving the lyric, gloriously inspirational and thought provoking and profoundly poignant; also loving the fact that Chris Martin, with no humour intended, uses the phrase ‘like any human’ in reference to his ex.

Like I said, important news on a global scale.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

“Smart Casual” it said on the invitation. So there we were sitting on the tube, smart jackets on, cycling jackets left at home, as we eagerly anticipated a glass of something suitable on a Monday evening. Now, as many of you know, Wayne regards Monday night as ‘professionals’ night in terms of a glass of wine or two; sadly, we felt anything other than professionals when we realised our tube had been rerouted, just as the doors shut.

A quick study of the map found us choosing the Piccadilly line as a suitable alternative, only to hear the dreaded words “severe delays on the Piccadilly line” as we went to alight. Rerouted again, we discovered Victoria to be a busy place at 7pm on a Monday evening (we don’t get out much!). Finally, we arrived in Bloomsbury Square, our tunnel tour finished and only the guest list to negotiate.

We entered the 1920’s ballroom, a glass of bubbly thrust into our hands, and discover a Gypsy Jazz band playing on stage belting out a distinctly Charleston styled number. Looking around us we also discovered “Smart casual” means many things to many people. What do the lady in the tutu and her friend in the velvet jacket wear if they need to dress up we wondered, or that chap with the tweed suit we thought, suddenly feeling a little underdressed.

We needn’t have worried though, we definitely had an invite and weren’t sporting double denim. It turned out we weren’t the best shop in London (which didn’t surprise us) but that the voters seem to think we were the best shop in Wimbledon (which did surprise us).

So flushed with success (or was that the wine?-Ed) we left the party in full flow, surprised to have won anything, puzzled as to how Time Out found us, and with a certificate that is now proudly sharing the window with Hepple Gin.

Talking of Glamour, Glitz & Parties

Two of our neighbours on Arthur Road – vintage fashion shop Fraubraun and Thom Kirby Hair – are organising a festive event on Wednesday 2 December.

A selection of timeless and elegant Fraubraun dresses from the 1930s – 1980s will be on display in the salon and the team at Thom Kirby are offering hair-styling advice to complete your look. There will also be a raffle which gives you the chance to win one of three bottles of our fabulous Mimi Sparkling Rose. So do stop by for a glass of Prosecco and the chance to discover the ultimate Christmas outfit! We’ve taken the liberty of attaching their invite.

Tasting This Weekend

Given that Movember is in full flow, Thanksgiving is on the horizon, and more importantly, we fancy a drop, we shall open Cabaret Frank (£9.79). It is a delicious Cabernet Franc (see what they did there?) from California, with nice ripe fruit and a satisfying finish. The importers are making a donation to Movember for every bottle they sold during the month too.  In the white corner, we’ll splash a drop of Seifried Riesling (£13.99) into your glass, a delicious mouthful from Nelson in New Zealand.

Lastly, we were much amused to read about a chap called Mike Bloomfield (no relation, Wayne swears, not even distant). He has named his baby son, without consulting his wife, with the un-arguable logic “If Beckham can call his son Brooklyn!”

What his wife commented on discovering their son had been named Bermondsey Millwall Den is unclear at this stage.

Lovely weekend folks, get the furry ear-warmers out!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So it seems Stuart Lancaster has bombed out, athletics is on a fast track to rehab and the cricket is, well, only cricket.

We’re hoping that Sebastian Coe is feeling discomfort for blaming the media when the story first broke some months ago. We’re definitely in Daley Thomson’s camp with the “Stand up and show some leadership” quote, but sadly expect it’ll all just fall on the desk of yet more lawyers!

One of the International Athletics Federations key objectives is “To spread the universal message of the purest of humankind’s sports, regardless of race, religion, colour or country of origin.” So let’s deal with the cheats, sort out independent testing, and get everyone on a passport system! RANT OVER…

In wine news this week, the BBC team filming ‘The Hunt’ up in the Arctic Circle has had problems with their wine stash. A polar bear broke into the cabin and rifled through their food supplies, only to be scared away by the crew banging on the walls. Down, but not out however, the bear returned whilst the crew were away filming and drank deeply of their box of red wine.

Upon their return they found the polar bear asleep with red wine around its mouth, and had to set off flares to scare it away.  All the wine had been drunk and all the food eaten except, tellingly, the Marmite.  It’s the unexpected things we learn that are often the most exciting!!

Early Close Monday

We will have to close at 6pm on Monday as we have been invited to the Time Out Awards Dinner, so fingers crossed!

Where’s Alex?

This year’s world tour kicks off this Saturday…full dates below

Saturday 14^th November –  St Matthew’s Church Winter Fair – Durham Road SW20 0DE 11.30am – 2pm.

Wednesday 18^th November – The Wimbledon Rugby Club Christmas Bazaar. – Barham Road SW20 0ET 6.30pm – 10pm.

Sunday 6^th December – Wimbledon Park Primary School Christmas Fair – Havana Road, pouring the mulled wine – one for you, one for him, one for you, one for him… and repeat!

Wine School –

Wednesday 27^th January at 8pm, for six weeks, skipping the 10^th February as it’s half term and all good schools need a half term.

A number of you asked about gift vouchers for this as a present, so pop in and see us or give us a call on 020 8944 5224. Full details attached.

Tasting This Weekend

Always keen to make new discoveries, we made two this week.  Firstly we discovered that Italy makes wine, and quite well to boot.  Ok, we knew that but what we hadn’t realised is that we haven’t opened some of them for a while.  For example, Sarotto Tenuta Manenti Gavi di Gavi 2014 (£12.99) hasn’t been opened for weekend tasting since 6^th December 2013 which means many of you have been missing out on the ripe, rich white peach flavours, stony minerality and long fresh finish emanating from the 50 year-old Cortese vines, grown at altitude in the Maddalena vineyard by Roberto Sarotto.  This will be resolved today.

More worryingly, Monte del Frá Tenuta Lena di Mezzo Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso 2012 has never been opened.  Never. This is properly rubbish on our part, so we’ll get one open immediately. 

For those who don’t know about the wine, the skins of the grapes that have been pressed to make Amarone (and Recioto sometimes) are added to this Valpol towards the end of winter, which allows the fermentation to continue for longer (the yeast now has more food) resulting in a stronger, more complex wine.  To add to this complexity the wine is then aged in 30-hectolitre French oak casks for at least 18 months before bottling.  The result is a mouthful of cherries, plums and liquorice, pepper and cinnamon and even hints of the forest floor.  The palate is dry, fruity and very well-balanced.  You won’t like it…

I suspect Alex will return with some open bottles on Saturday afternoon too, so if you time your visit well, it could be a very nice start to the evening!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Things we have learnt since we last wrote to you….

No caffeine, no protein, no booze or nicotine, remember everything gives you cancer

Joe Jackson was very much playing the oracle when he wrote those lines all the way back in 1982.

The WHO have finally finished their research into process meats and have decreed that the days of hot dogs, ham, sausages, corned beef, black pudding and barbecuing need to be put behind us – they just need to find a problem with seafood and tomatoes to put the writing firmly on the wall for the Mediterranean. Or do we all need to use more olive oil and drink a glass of red wine every day to stave off these illnesses – I think I already know the answer to that.

Anyway, if you want to get the full picture, go to www.numberwatch.co.uk and look up The complete list of things that give you cancer (according to epidemiologists), within which you will find such diverse carcinogens as bracken, dairy products, fruit, not having a twin, railway sleepers and a particular favourite of ours, Vatican Radio Masts.

Vegetables also give us cancer, apparently.

This meant that we read the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall article on the BBC website regarding food waste with a great sense of relief.   Fortunately for us all, tonnes and tonnes of these dangerous vegetable things are thrown away each week because they are the wrong shape, are too big/small or are just not straight enough.  He quotes a figure of 20 tonnes of parsnips a week being dumped at just one Norfolk farm for not conforming to supermarket restrictions.  We both definitely feel like we’ve dodged a bullet here and sincerely hope that plenty more of these dangerous vegetable killers are kept out of our reach.

Phew, time for something safe to eat…

Holy Smoke

Obviously, having read all the guidelines and scare stories above, the most sensible place to find sustenance and safety would be a restaurant that specialises in smoked food.

For those of you who haven’t been, Holy Smoke is the new restaurant on Leopold Road that took Wimbledon (and Trip Advisor, for what it’s worth) by storm when they opened in February this year. Cameron, the affable, flip-flop sporting, South African owner has created a masterpiece local dining experience with a definite hint of smoke about it.

We went on Tuesday night and thoroughly recommend it – if nothing else the smoked French fries alone are worth the visit!

There’s more to Northumberland than Moors and Pete Doherty and Robson Green…

There’s Gin now, too! One of our longest serving customers, previously of a parish near here, upped sticks a few years ago for the wilds of the North.  As often happens when the winters are cold, long and dark, thoughts quickly turn to hard spirit.  However our friend , being of an entrepreneurial bent, decided to take it a step further and create his own Gin using the local available botanicals – particularly Juniper, Bog Myrtle and Douglas Fir.

It sounded interesting to us, he was like an extremely excitable cocker spaniel about it, and so we thought we’d give it a taste.

It’s fab, very pretty, delicious and, according to Victoria Moore in The Telegraph, is “utterly brilliant and original martini gin – maybe the best I’ve ever had.”

It’ll be here on Monday costing £38, plus we have an open bottle here to taste, should you wish to try it before then.

It’s definitely worth it.

And finally, some gentle musings…

Imagine how good a Scotland v Argentina semi final could have been?

Imagine how much you could have won if you’d put a fiver on Sunderland to beat Newcastle 3-0 at the weekend? (answer: roughly 1100 quid, according to one of our customers…)

Imagine being able to go to a private viewing of Spectre at the Bulgari Hotel, courtesy of Bollinger – lucky Wayne…

Imagine what Ontañon Gran Reserva Rioja 2005 (£25.99) tastes like – no need, it’s on tasting today and tomorrow…

Imagine how pink-tickled we would be if you voted for us in the Time Out #lovelondonawards…

Imagine what the world would be like without a bacon sarnie and a barbecued sausage…

Let’s be careful out there!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It’s Saturday morning just after opening, and Alex is sitting in the armchair polishing his glasses surrounded by Rioja. In walks the postman with a cheery greeting, bringing us a couple envelopes that are obviously bills, a magazine about mining for somebody who left years ago, and a suspicious looking brown envelope, both bulky and floppy at the same time.

Which package do we open first? Patient as we are, the suspicious looking item gets it. Immediately torn open, a bevy of cards onto the counter and in the envelope is a poster.

All of them contain the phrase “Time Out Love London Awards”. It would seem somebody out there loves us and has shortlisted us in the local shops for Wimbledon. So now that we’ve been nominated we’d really like to win. We know that may come across as a trifle needy and for that we apologise.

We know our clothes are not as fashionably desirable as some of the items in Matches, and that the Two Sisters know far better than us the correct positioning of your Barcelona chair and vintage mirror. We do think, however, we manage to do a half decent job of providing a chipper comment, sympathetic smile and even the odd bottle of wine.

If you agree with us please do have a vote on our behalf, we’d be diluted to win.

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

Don’t forget to tell all your friends and their Nans too. We’d love all those votes!

Bond: James Bond

The reviews are in and everyone seems fairly to be pleased with the film, with the chap from The Guardian positively gushing on the radio yesterday morning. We have just a couple of the Limited Edition Spectre Bollinger bottles left so don’t be slow if you’ve been thinking about it! ‘SPECTRE LIMITED EDITION’ – £125

Wine School – New Year Term

We’ve put together the dates for this next term of our ever popular Wine School. At this time of year it seems a popular idea for a present. We’ll start on 27^th January 2015 to 3 weeks, take a break for a week for half term and then do 3 weeks with the last week on 9^th March.

We’ll taste about 60 wines, talk about wine faults and generally shoot the breeze about all things vinous. Coming along? £15o per person, full details attached.

Tasting this Weekend – Shop Rioja

So we’re still flinging the Rioja around, and this week we’ll be pulling the cork on Valenciso Reserva 2008 (£23.99). Founded in 1998 by Luis Valentín and Carmen Enciso, who are two talented winemakers with 30 years’ experience, who’ve spent too long working for other people. This is a fabulous Reserva, 100% Tempranillo fermented in concrete vats, aged for 17 months in French oak barrels and open for your delectation this weekend.

Chilling in the white corner is Mas Macia Cava Brut NV (£10.99). Although, these days a small amount of cava is produced in Rioja itself, ours is from the Penedès region, near Barcelona. This is cava’s real heartland with production of around 200 million bottles annually. The Mas Macia spends around 24 months aging on its lees giving a nice bready character. So white and bubbly, still clearly Spanish, but from a tad further east than the Rioja.

That about raps it from us this week,

Vote for us, give us a review on Time Out’s website and tell all your friends, family, acquaintances, and maybe even random strangers on the tube if you’d like to meet new people!

The magazine about mining for the absent friend? Sent back like every other quarterly issue for the last 5 years!

Wayne & Alex