The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

And the answer to Tommy & Alice’s maths puzzler from last week? Well, a number of you made good stabs at it but in the end, and with a big dollop of hindsight, it seems the best answer was to forget about watching sport completely and read the paper – far less frustrating and fundamentally more educational!

But we move on, we’re in a new month, we’re just days away from summertime (clocks leap forward in 22 days) and I’ve taken to wearing just one sweater in the shop. And the sun has been seen on consecutive days – get in!

Somewhere in the depths of winter – Guy Fawkes night perhaps or when Christmas shopping in New York or up a hill on New Year’s Eve – anyway, sometime over winter a few of you turned to your other half as you gazed into the embers/blizzard over Central Park/horizontal drizzle and said:

You know what, I could do this forever, but only if I could do it forever with you by my side – will you marry me?

Your other half dissolved into tears/giggles and before you knew it you had been introduced to far flung members of both families, you had developed a keen interest in marquees and for the first time you have had to grade your friends into some sort of league system relating to their worthiness and thus their likelihood of getting invited to your wedding.

There are chores and bores to organising a wedding and sometimes you wonder why on earth you are doing it this way – wouldn’t it be easier to slope off to the Seychelles and get married on a beach with a crab for best man. However once you have chosen venue, dress, transport, first dance and guestlist the fun really begins – you now have to choose your menu and more importantly you now have to choose your drinks.

If you are at a venue that has its own wine list and won’t allow you to BYO then you are restricted by their choices. However if the venue does allow you to provide your own drinks then this is the time you need to come and speak to us.

Here’s how it works. You come to us and tell us what you’re having to eat, how many people there are and what sort of drinks you’re after – usually it’s bubbles, white and red with perhaps some beers too. Hopefully you have an idea of budget, more often you know how much it would cost to do the drinks through the venue and are looking to get better wine for less money. Once we have all the details we make a selection of wines and drag you into the shop for a tasting – see I told you it was the fun bit. We talk to you about the wines, you taste them, we talk some more, you take a couple of them home with you to taste with your friends and we then proceed to quantities and delivery arrangements. How easy was that, all in one paragraph.
So, if you’re getting married this summer and are underwhelmed by the products on offer at your chosen location, come and have a word with us – we’ve done loads of these events over the years of differing size and budget – we’ll definitely be able to help you out.

Pitch complete.

Other news

We have a few seats still available at the table for our Wine & Cheese Tasting next Thursday 12th March at 8pm. If you haven’t been before and were wondering what goes on, here is the plan in a nutshell. We consult with our local cheese wholesaler – Norbiton Cheese – to source four seasonal, ripe cheeses around about 2 kilos in total. Once we know what the cheeses are we select a range of wine, always including a white and a sweetie, that we consider to be good matches. Now, we know a lot about the wines but are very much the keen amateurs when it comes to the cheese – so together we all taste the various wines with the various cheeses and consider their relative merits. Some call it educational, some call it social, Wayne calls it dinner – it doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a Thursday night!

It costs £20 per person – to book one of the spaces you can either reply to this email, phone us on 020 8944 5224 or pop in and see us in the shop.

This Week’s Wines

We’ve got a few new wines in stock, a couple of old favourites have finally landed to (Crusher Pinot Noir, for example) and with this in mind, coupled with the fact that it’s threatening to be a lovely weekend, we thought we’d open a couple of lighter wines tonight.

Quinta das Maias Branco 2013 – £11.39 this organic white comes from 600m up in the foothills of Serra da Estrela, Portugal’s largest mountain range. The wine is fleshy, with almost Golden Delicious apple fruit and a long balanced finish. Unoaked and made from Malvasia Fina and Encruzado, we think this is one of the Dao’s finest whites.

Calusari Pinot Noir 2013 – £8.69 those of you with memories akin to Nellie will recall that we used to sell this wine. In 2011. It then disappeared from our radars for a few years until we rediscovered it at a tasting in early February. Made in Romania, this is the best value Pinot Noir we have ever come across – beautifully balanced red fruits, integrated tannins and a decent length finish, frankly, what’s not to like?
Both these wines will be open today and tomorrow, as will the shop, so swing by and have a try, if you can get through the scrum of recently engaged couples!

Bon Weekend one and all.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We’ll start today’s lesson with a parental maths puzzler:

Tommy and Alice have two children, Neil and Josie. Sunday 1st March is Josie’s Birthday. In the morning Josie plays netball, escorted by Alice, until 11am. At the same time Neil and his father will be at rugby training until 12pm. Josie has arranged to meet 8 friends at the famous farm-shop and bistro café, McDonald’s, at noon, prior to going to the cinema at 12.40pm as part of her birthday celebration. How can Tommy and Neil be at rugby until 12 whilst supposedly simultaneously enjoying quality beef patties and retailored chicken bits on the other side of town?

This question is worth one mark. For further credit, you may continue with the following:

Josie, her friends and her family will emerge blinking into the sunshine post-cinema sometime around 3pm. At 3pm England play rugby against Ireland in Dublin whilst here in London at 4pm, Chelsea play Tottenham Hotspur in the Capital One Cup Final at Wembley. Tommy and Neil are keen rugby fans (see morning activity) and Tommy, despite living in a Chelsea encampment, is a Lilywhite rather than a blue and would thus be interested in seeing both games. England will already have lost the cricket to Sri Lanka in the morning, so this is not a variable in the calculation. At all times Tommy and Neil must remember it is Josie’s birthday and thus she is in charge and they must at least pretend to be enjoying themsleves. How can everybody be kept happy in this scenario?

This question is worth limitless marks.

Using the information provided, please come up with a working solution. Whilst it may seem an impossibility to keep everyone happy, full credit will be given for well worded attempts, supported by relevant, full workings, Venn diagrams if possible. Bonus credits available for those who also manage to factor into their calculations that Rupert, the family pet, will definitely need to be taken for a long walk at some point during the day.

So whilst you’re all puzzling on that, what else can we report?

Because they can

Football seems to have plumbed new depths with FIFA running roughshod over most everybody and plonking the 2022 World Cup Final on the 23rd December – what chance anyone getting home for Christmas on a budget? Their dated attitude of ‘we can do whatever we want and you’ll just have to fall into line because we are FIFA’ has to be discredited sometime very soon, one hopes.

Because he can

In the early 80’s, Robert Parker, through his Wine Advocate musings on the wines of the 1982 Bordeaux Vintage, gave Le Pin, a relative newcomer (first vintage 1979), a 100/100 score. Perfect, in his eyes. At the time he was just a man with a keenly developed interest in wine who would score various wines within a hundred point scale. However time has passed and his reputation, influence and indeed power – 90+ Parker Points now being a much used sales tool by fine wine merchants – have all blossomed from his opinions and musings on that 1982 Bordeaux vintage. Well done, Bob.

Yesterday, he announced that he won’t be attending the Bordeaux en-primeur bunfight this year and has handed over the reins to Neal Martin, whom many consider to be his natural heir. For more than 30 years Parker has been doing the en-primeur, so this is maybe another sign that he is handing over more and more of his domain to the team or is it perhaps a sign that he knows what a sham the whole thing is? It is murmured that some producers in the past have waited for him to announce his points before stating their release price, a good score supposedly justifying a huge price hike, which has resulted in the unsustainably high prices we now see for some very ordinary Bordeaux reds from some very ordinary vintages (2007 anyone?).

So we reckon his stepping away from the limelight can only be a good thing for everyone, well done Sir!

Oh, and whatever happened to the 1982 Le Pin? En primeur, the release price was $400 for a case of twelve bottles. If we consult the January 2015 edition of Decanter Fine Wine Price Watch, which shows the latest prices top wines have reached at auction, we can see that the same case of wine has sold for £57,577. Or approximately $88,690. Gadzooks!

Because we can

Feet firmly back on the ground now, everyone. Not sure whether we had a market for £5,000 a bottle Bordeaux, we decided to cancel our order of Pomerol and instead order some new beer. Breaking with our unofficial tradition of buying local we have gone global, or European at least. We had been selling Krombacher Pils for a few years now but our supply dried up. As a result we had to find a new German lager beer and so, remembering how much we enjoy it in the pub, we bought Paulaner Munchen Hell £2.49 in 500ml bottles. We also finally managed to get our hands on a Gueuze from Belgium – Lindemans Gueuze £3.29. Like all things Belgian(!) this is absolutely delightful, I’m not going to go into its complicated production process here but suffice to say it has a tangy sourness that is extremely refreshing and moreish – go on treat yourself!

Because you can

We still have a few places left on our Cheese & Wine evening – Thursday 12th March at 8pm. Tickets are £20 per person and if you’ve not been before you should, because you can. These evenings are enormous fun – fine wine, four fine cheeses, plenty of chat and a splash of education in there too, all on your doorstep.

To book a seat at the table either reply to this email, phone us on 020 8944 5224 or tell us in person when you’re in to stock up on Gueuze!

Because we all can

Wines will be open for tasting this weekend, as is our wont. We have the just moved onto the 2013 vintage of Reichsrat Von Buhl Riesling Trocken – £13.99 always a stunning wine with apple and citrus notes, a streak of minerality and a magical finish. Very much looking forward to it.

For the red, Vista 2013 – £8.29 tickles our fancy. Weirdly, we haven’t shown this for a couple of years but it has been the backbone of our Portuguese range forever. A blend of Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional and Cabernet Sauvignon this is what is commonly known as a ‘cracking’ drop. Ripe brambly fruits with hints of spice on the finish – very much suited to the weather we’re having at the moment.

That’s just about it from us – anyone managed to solve the maths problem? No, us neither. However, I’m sure we’ll know the answer by Monday….

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We’ve looked at the calendar and found no Six Nations games, no Premiership matches, and with Lewis Hamilton skipping out of season testing due to illness, what on earth will we talk about this week? Cricket? The ¼ of me that is Kiwi is too embarrassed for the ¾ that is English!

Chinese New Year was considered, but we felt two days late is bordering on rudeness rather than fashionably late. We also considered Eastenders, but with their “Who killed Lucy?” storyline having more suspects than a Cluedo convention, we thought it best left alone.

We had a look at international news and discovered that Putin was still being problematic with some of the air force popping up over Cornwall. Perhaps he has a passion for pasties, someone should invite him to the annual taste off. Make him wear a shirt though!

Germany’s Finance Ministry spokesman, Martin Jaeger, bombed Greek hopes of a short term solution to this act of the tragedy. Looks like it could extend its run further, with what started off as a one act play gaining several more acts in the re-writes already. On the plus side, we tasted some delicious Greek wines earlier this week, so watch this space for further details.

We struck gold with news that, not only may drinking red wine help your memory, but a joint study by the Universities of Florida and Nebraska suggests it may also help your body burn fat better. As usual we’d err on the cautious side, if only because so far the studies have been on mice. Wayne said he might volunteer if they’re taking it further though!

I think we mentioned last year when Niagara Falls froze that it was an extremely rare occurrence but that the pictures were stunning. Well, perhaps a bit alarmingly, it has happened again and the photographs are no less beautiful.

Thursday 12th March will see us pulling the table out, cutting some delicious cheese from our chums at Norbiton Fine Cheese and matching some wines with said cheese. Coming to join the fun? We’ll start as usual at 8pm and £20 buys your place at the table. Give us a call on 020 8944 5224 if you’re up for it.

Tasting This Weekend

We’re going to kick off in the red corner with a wine that arrived just this week. We tasted it ages ago, but only just got round to ordering some. Quieto Malbec 2011 (£14.99) is a proper bobby dazzler with juicy damson and blueberry fruit and a touch of tobacco and liquorice spice to the finish. In the white corner we’ll pull a cork on Domaine Jacques Dury’s Rully La Chaume 2012 (£16.99), a delightful drop that hails from the slopes of the Côte Chalonnaise in Burgundy.

That’s us, have a great weekend and stop by for a taster!

Wayne and Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Bit of a busy old weekend this one.

Home

Tomorrow marks the unofficial start of the drinking season, as all those hardy souls who gave up booze on the 1st January finally fall off the wagon as they tuck into a bottle of Rose Champagne with their loved one.

Away

It’s half term too, so the annual pilgrimage to Gatwick and Heathrow starts to get into full swing and airlines make record profits transporting winter sports equipment to the wrong resorts.

Home

England keep their Six Nations Grand Slam hopes on track but need six penalties to beat an impressive Italy 18-11 at Twickenham – BBC Website 10th March 2013

Based on the fact that England somehow managed to emerge victorious last Friday night, purely as a result of our encouraging email, we thought we would try the same strategy this week when faced with Azzurri this weekend at Twickenham. La Repubblica quotes winger Giovanbattista Venditti as saying:

‘Noi non staremo a guardare, abbiamo le capacità per essere pericolosi in attacco palla in mano ed io e Leonardo (Sarto) abbiamo voglia di dimostrare di cosa possiamo essere capaci palla in mano.’

Which is, as we all can tell, is definitely fighting talk.

If we then also look at our prediction from 31st December 2014 we stated:

Also on the 14th Italy beat England for the first time ever, at HQ and dreams of a World Cup lie flaccid in the Twickenham mud. (Italy will go on to beat New Zealand in the quarter finals before losing to eventual winners Argentina in the semis)
So come on England, make a lie of all these predictions, keep your heads held high and please score a try!

Home and Away

England also start their World Cup Cricket campaign tomorrow morning, down under, against the hosts. What could possibly go wrong?

Fade to Grey/50 Shades of Grey

Sadly, Steve Strange dies in a hospital in Sharm on the same day that soft-porn hits the mainstream. As a side note, according to the Beeb, ‘London Fire Brigade said it was “concerned” the 13 February release could lead to a “spike” in people being stuck or trapped in handcuffs or rings.’
Valentine’s day could be one to remember.

Home

So, to welcome all the abstainers back and to cheer up all of you who haven’t gone skiing or perhaps didn’t receive a Valentine’s Card, we will have some wine open tonight and tomorrow here in the shop for your delectation.

Perhaps not the most sensitive choices for those who haven’t struck lucky in love we have chosen Manawa Sauvignon Blanc 2013 – £12.99 and Passion has Red Lips Shiraz Cabernet 2013 – £15.29

Manawa Sauvignon Blanc is your classic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Crisp and zesty with grapefruit citrus notes, tropical fruit characters and just a touch of minerality. Also, Manawa is the Maori word for heart and it has a heart on the label, so it was the romantic in us that chose this!

Passion has Red Lips is made by renegade wine folk Some Young Punks in McLaren Vale, Australia. We chose this because it has a great name, fabulous label, is a delicious Shiraz/Cabernet blend and we sold masses of this on Valentine’s day last year! A truly lip-smacking (!) wine with red cherry, blackberry, vanilla and violets on the nose and cranberry and red cherry on the palate alongside some savoury tapenade notes. Enjoy whilst reading the original Pulp Fiction novel “Sin on Wheels” or something quality by EL James….

One man on a lonely platform/One case sitting by his side/Two eyes staring cold and silent/Shows fear as he turns to hide
Ah, we fade to grey, fade to grey

Fellow Wine Lovers,
30-3
Sensational Wales seize moment to take place in folklore with stunning England win – The Mail on Sunday
Wales bask in Six Nations title after slamming England in Cardiff rout – The Observer
History should remember the Welsh brilliance not England’s defeat. This was an annihilation of England’s claim to be potential 2015 Rugby World Cup favourites – The Telegraph
Let’s not let this happen again.
Mike Brown, Ben Youngs, Joe Marler, Dan Cole, Chris Robshaw – you are the only survivors from that test two years ago, so tell your teammates about that awful journey home through Cardiff and down the M4 with your tails tucked far between your legs, tell them about the humiliation of opening the Sunday newspapers and reading the headlines above, tell them how long it took to wash away the taste of daffodils and leeks. Make the headlines on Saturday all about the quality of the English victory and not about the politics of having the roof open or closed.
And now I sit back down, vented, and return the podium to matters of wine.
Fizz February
Face it, January is rubbish. It’s like the a month full of Tuesdays – the fun and frolics of Christmas are distant memories and the metaphorical weekend is still 3 days away – all you have left is work and an evening spent in the gym.
February is fantastic though. It’s short, to the point and starts with F, which makes it alliterate beautifully with fizz, and Friday. So if January is Tuesday, then February is Friday.
In order to slake your new found thirst for fizz we have all the old favourites in the fridge, Cava, Prosecco, a couple of traditional methods from New Zealand and a sparkling Shiraz. Next week, Wednesday hopefully, we will receive our first shipment of our new English Sparkler – Hoffmann & Rathbone – that we tasted, to much delight, in January. We’ve listed all their wines because they were all darned good so we will have:
Hoffmann & Rathbone Classic Cuvée 2010 – £36
Hoffmann & Rathbone Rosé Réserve 2010 – £38
Hoffmann & Rathbone Blanc de Blancs 2010 – £40
In the Champagne department we have all our Moutards (Brut, Rose, Six Cépages, Half Bottle, Magnum, Jeroboam), we welcome the return (if in slightly limited numbers) of Beaumet 2004 and we continue on with Bollinger NV and Vintage. Here too, we have a new edition to the ranks
Champagne Barons de Rothschild Brut NV £50
Now here’s a story. The three branches of the Rothschild family, you know, the characters who own Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Lafite, were having a chinwag over a pie and a pint a few years back and decided that their domination of the ‘World of Fine Wine’ was never going to be complete without a Champagne in the portfolio. Being fairly well connected, they contacted some chums in Champagne and got to work. The result of this work is a collection of very fine champagnes all bearing the distinctive five arrow Rothschild emblem.
How do we fit in? Well one of the chaps we know dropped by last week and excitedly told us that he had scooped distribution rights in the UK and did we want to try some. It being Friday, which alliterates nicely with Fizz as discussed, we said Yes, please. So he left us a bottle.
To say we were sceptical of the gimmick nature of such a product would be an unfair. Anyone who knows us well knows that
a) we eschew scepticism, and certainly are never cynical,
b) we are not suspicious of strangers bearing gifts, not at all
c) we were born yesterday
So we opened it up and, in our hearts, neither of us wanted to like it. We were sure it was going to be overhyped and filed in the same cabinet as Moet & Chandon Ice.
But it wasn’t. We looked at each other and the silence was broken by one of our more erudite tasting notes: Bugger, that’s really rather good!
So we’ve got it in the fridge. It has a deliciously smooth mouthfeel. However the key to its pleasure is the time it has spent aging on its lees and the character this aging has imparted – bready autolysis is the wine wonk term but in simple English there is a moreish, creamy, richness. And it’s elegant, as if anything produced by this family could be anything but. Bonnes bubbles.
So if you’d like a bottle, we can sell it to you. We passed the vetting process – apparently there is one, a well-known Gentleman’s Club, of the semi-clad ladies variety, was refused supply – and are now up and running.
How very convenient, with Valentine’s Day just a few steps away….
Early Close/Late Open
As mentioned earlier in the week, we will be shutting at 6.30pm today as we have an offsite tasting called ‘Teaching the Teachers’ – no prizes for guessing where that’s taking place.
Just as a reminder, the other dates were:
Monday 9th February – we will close early today as we are attending two different events so the doors will close at 5.30pm.
Thursday 12th February – we are away at a trade tasting so we will open later today but we will be here by 4pm.

Tuesday 17th February – we are away at a trade tasting so we will open later today but we will be here by 4pm.
Tasting this weekend
We will be here all day Saturday of course, and to make you all happy, we will have some wines open: as a white we will open Barton Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon 2013 – £11.59. From Walker Bay in South Africa – a region with exciting potential: it has varying altitudes and ideal soils that help produce some world class, elegant wines. A little bit of weight and texture is achieved adding some Semillon to the Sauvignon – you still have tropical fruit, grass and capsicum but also a nice lemon edge too which goes well with many a light midweek supper.
Sticking with South Africa for the red we will open a wine that we just re-listed: Hughes Family Nativo Red Blend 2008 – £17.49. Bill & Penny Hughes have 27 ha planted in Malmesbury with views over the Kasteelberg Mountains. Bill does all the work in vineyard and winery, Penny does the sales and marketing. Over to Wine Detective Sarah Ahmed: “A slightly different composition in 2008, with 48% Shiraz, 16% Merlot, 13% Grenache, 11% Mourvèdre, 9% Pinotage and 3% Viognier has a deep seam of sweet but earthy raspberry fruit, really fleshy with gamey notes without losing freshness.” (25/11/12)
That’s all from us this week and we just hope that George Ford doesn’t pack two left boots for his kicking duties this evening!!

Hello chaps,

Some dates that we ought to have put into the email last Friday but simply forgot because we are simple and forgetful. In order to keep our fingers on the pulse and check that we have on the shelves what we want to have on them, sometimes we have to go on the hunt for new wines with personality. As a result, due to a few offsite events over the next few weeks there will be some slightly different opening hours on certain days, to wit the following:

Wednesday 4th February – we are away at a trade tasting so we will open later today but we will be here by 4pm.

Friday 6th February – we will close early today as we are running a private tasting so the doors will close at 6.30pm.

Monday 9th February – we will close early today as we are attending two different events so the doors will close at 5.30pm.

Thursday 12th February – we are away at a trade tasting so we will open later today but we will be here by 4pm.

Tuesday 17th February – we are away at a trade tasting so we will open later today but we will be here by 4pm.

It’s not so much a case of putting the dates in your diaries more a case of forewarning you and hopefully avoiding too much upset. We promise to buy some new wines….

Apologies for any potential inconvenience and hopefully see you when we are open!

Fellow Wine Lovers,
We heard surprising, nay shocking, news this week, and it is with very mixed emotions that we report it. “Dippy”, the resin boned Diplodocus skeleton that has welcomed visitors to the Natural History Museum for the best part of 40 years, is to be given his marching orders. As part of a big shake up, poor old Dippy has become a victim of the search for authenticity.
“Everyone loves ‘Dippy’, but it’s just a copy,” commented Sir Michael Dixon, the NHM’s director, “and what makes this museum special is that we have real objects from the natural world – over 80 million of them – and they enable our scientists and thousands like them from around the world to do real research.”
It’s unlikely it’ll be put out to grass though; there is talk of Dippy going on the road touring regional museums. Currently, it’s not clear if The Science Museum’s robotics division will be involved in this!
The museum will be replacing him with the blue whale skeleton that currently lurks in the mammal room. “Bluey”, who came to the museum in 1891, will be disassembled, scanned and reassembled in Hintze Hall in Dippy’s place. Positioned in a diving pose hanging from the ceiling, I’m sure Bluey will be very impressive.
Also, the scanning process will allow those lucky people with a 3D printer to print their very own whalebones. How cool would a whalebone bench be on the garden terrace, eh?
Who knows we may even be able to get a crystal company to sponsor the exhibit and have the world’s largest, most bling chandelier!
So, whilst we have a great fondness for dinosaurs (just look at Wayne!), we’re looking forward to a change of scene, but will of course raise a glass to Dippy and thank him for all the memories.
Elsewhere, Andy Murray reached the final of the Australian Open which I’m sure has changed the nature of a few peoples plans for Sunday morning. Burns Night last week, Andy Murray this week, we’ve gone Scot-tastic – we’ll be selling whisky next! Finlaggan £29.99 single Islay malt from a secret distillery.
January Sale – 6 bottles for the price of 5
January ends on Saturday, and so does our fabulous offer.
Once 8pm arrives on Saturday we’re done, no more 16.66 % discount, you have been warned!
Tastings
Thursday 12th February – 8pm – Wine and Cheese Tasting £20 per person
Thursday 12th March – 8pm – Wine and Cheese Tasting £20 per person
Wednesday 25th March 2015 – 8pm – The ‘Definitely No Sauvignon’ Tasting (Wayne’s Weird Grapes) £20 per person SOLD OUT
Thursday 16th April – 8pm – Wine and Cheese Tasting £20 per person
This Weekends Garglers
Tickling your tonsils this weekend we’re going to start off with a museum release Riesling from Clare Valley. Pauletts Aged Release Riesling 2008 (£18.99) is from the Polish Hill River vineyards and has aged gracefully, picking up some honeyed notes along the way. We reckon its bang on with a spot of Korean barbecue.
In the red corner, we’re heading to another country enjoying their summer. South Africa’s Stellenbosch is the stomping ground for the Helderburg Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 (£13.49). A lovely rich red we’re thinking it will be the ideal partner to all those casseroles we’re contemplating.
Last word this week we will leave the final words to Sir Michael Dixon: “We’re not just nerdy guys who can identify every species of butterfly.”
Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

If you think it’s glum now, imagine how you might have felt 96 years ago in the US?

On January 16th 1919 the 18th Amendment to the US constitution was ratified which, a year later, resulted in the nationwide ban on alcohol, more normally known as Prohibition. This lasted almost 14 years, which is 5,072 days or 724 weeks and 4 days in common parlance.

Makes a 31 day detox in January seem trifling.

And then we read, slightly after the event admittedly, an article that in April last year appeared in a number of newspapers: A bottle of wine a day is not bad for you and abstaining is worse than drinking, scientist claims was The Independent’s take on it, whilst the Daily Mail led with: Bottle of wine a day ‘is not bad for you’: Leading scientist also claims those who exceed recommended dose could live longer than teetotallers. This sounded much, much more exciting than Prohibition (even if, on reading the article, the science was somewhat flawed) and certainly more in line with our business plan.

So we have struck a sensible balance here at Park Vintners – not a bottle a day but also not 5,000 days without a bottle!

Although, saying that, we have actually tasted a reasonable amount since last week. The sparkling wines we opened last Saturday from Hoffmann & Rathbone went down an absolute storm with masses of positive feedback – I have to say the last bit of the Blanc de Blancs was a treat with some oysters on Saturday night!

Sunday was freestyle wine drinking in the comfort of our own homes but once we were back in the saddle on Monday, we very soon found ourselves on a DLR to Shadwell. Wapping, previously known as the wrong end of nowhere, is now firmly on the map for tastings, courtesy of the recently re-launched exhibition space that is Tobacco Dock. Here we found ourselves fully immersed in Gallic charm and culture as we tasted our way through a large spread of wines from the Loire Valley – we thoroughly enjoyed them and, if everything goes according to plan, you will also get to sample them in the not too distant future, watch this space.

The rest of the week has been very dry, so as we approach the weekend we really need to get some wine open for tasting in the shop, as I’m sure you’ll agree. In June last year we tasted these two wines on the same weekend as Glastonbury and they injected some southern European sunshine into those stormy nights – hopefully that same sunshine will appear in our glasses tonight?!

Leira Seca Vinho Verde Alvarinho e Trajadura 2013, Minho, Portugal – £10.49
From the sloping banks of the Minho River, which is the natural border of Spain and Portugal. Ripe, soft, stonefruits on the nose which continue onto the palate, where they are joined by deliciously crisp lemon and lime citrus notes. These characteristics are then tied together in a lingering fruit zing finish with evidence of ripe apple and even some hints of minerality. We likey a loty.

Quinta do Correio Tinto 2011, Dão, Portugal – £10.49
Wayne first met Luis Lourenço at a talk on Portuguese wine. He is one of the Dão regions innovators, staying loyal to his regions grape varieties, but really shaking up how the wines are made. This wine has a large percentage of the Jaen grape variety, giving it a real crunchy juiciness. The Touriga Nacional brings a bit of grip and darkness whilst the Alfrocheiro adds some perfume to the blend. Just the ticket on a cold January evening!

Last but not least, we have made a resolution to be better organised this year. We all know resolutions are there to be broken but at least our hearts are in the right place. Putting the resolution into practice we have organised a schedule of tastings, which will be added to over time I’m sure, but in the meantime here are the first confirmed dates:

Cheese and Wine tastings – 8pm – £20 per person
Thursday 12th February, Thursday 12th March, and Thursday 16th April – usual rules we source fine cheese, match some wines and then you tell us how marvellous we are at choosing cheese but did we really think that wine would ever work well with it?

The ‘Definitely No Sauvignon’ Tasting – 8pm – £20 per person
Thursday 26th March – A few of you have asked us to put this tasting on, so we will. We will open some of our more esoteric wines for your delectation and have a jolly fun time doing so. Wayne has given this tasting a working title ‘Weird Grapes’ but don’t let that put you off!!

That’s it for now, if you want to join any of the above tastings then please just reply to this email, phone us on 020 8944 5224 or come and say hello in person.

Did we mention 16.6666% off six bottles until the end of the month – well now we have!

As our friends in Muswell Hill always say – Plead the 21st!!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It being January, things have been a little quiet during the day here in Wimbledon Park. Wayne keyed the VAT return, whilst all the time quietly rueing the folly of letting Alex do the considerably smaller previous quarter, and Alex had his nose buried deep in some research. Reading aloud from the study, Alex stated that scientists had discovered that drinking sparkling wine gets the alcohol into your blood quicker than still wine – DUH!

They concluded that this faster action may increase the chance of a hangover.

As you can imagine we were impressed. Impressed that anybody had been persuaded to research something that for all our years in the trade we’d taken as a given. These researchers should be in sales not academia!

We further extrapolated the research and concluded that those of you detoxing this month with fizzy water might possibly be feeling worse than those slaking your thirst with still!

Sunblock Grapes

As Australia struggles through one of its hottest years on record we read, with a mixture of alarm and amusement, that winemakers in the Hunter Valley have been spraying their vineyards with sunblock! So, if in a year or two’s time you open a bottle that has a whiff of the Hawaiian Tropic about it, you’ll know what vintage it is and from what country.
Tasting tips as they happen folks, keeping you ahead of the curve!

Vote For Us, please

West London Mums have very kindly nominated our private tastings as one of the area’s top nights out. If you’d agree please do vote for us (voting closes on the 10th Jan) on the link below. We’re chuffed somebody mentioned us and always like something to brag about on a Saturday!

http://westlondonmum.co.uk/wlms-live-love-local-awards-2014/

January Sale

Our super deal for January is Six For The Price Of Five. Rest assured it is not one of those big chain fake deals, we’ve not bought a lorry load of slightly iffy toasters or tellys, and we’ve not randomly increased the prices by 15% first.

Buy six bottles and you’ll get 16.66666% off. Simple, straightforward and helping us to pay the previously mentioned VAT!

Wine School

Term starts on Wednesday 28th January at 8pm. There are no exams, plenty of practical, and let’s face it, the TV is rubbish on a Wednesday.
So if you’d like to know more about wine, want to taste around 60 wines come join us, there are, as I write, four places left and it costs just £150 per person.

Phone us on 020 8944 5224 or email shop@parkvintners.co.uk to join the throng.

Tasting This Weekend

We started with fizz and we’ll end with fizz. Having spoilt you all rotten with fine wines, spirits and sparklers throughout December, we’ve discovered a bit of a taste for the highlife.

We also like to use you as guinea pigs as much as we can when we are looking at new wines and the second Saturday in January seems like a good time to start.

A little while back, Alex met a winemaker at a tasting (imagine that) and he got chatting (ditto). Ulrich, the winemaker, explained that he had just made some English Sparkling Wine that he was rather pleased with. This was 2011, so the wine was still maturing.

Fast forward 3 ½ years and Alex bumps into Ulrich again and once more they chat. Ulrich mentions his wines had now been finished and had been released just recently. Being the gentleman and scholar that he is, Ulrich suggested it might be an idea to send us some bottles that we could try and then feedback on.

Fast forward to now. Tomorrow, we will taste three sparkling wines from the inaugural release of Hoffmann & Rathbone in West Sussex.

We have the Classic Cuvée 2010, Rosé Réserve 2010 and the Blanc de Blancs 2010.

These are rare beasts indeed, with a total production of only around 6,000 bottles so we’ll have to fight for an allocation. They look the business from a packaging point of view, so why don’t you come in and have a taste and let us know what you think?

I think that’s all for this week, one down, only three left until Feb!

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,
And so we bid a fond farewell to 2014. Some people take this is a time of reflection, a mental checklist of success and failure over the last 8760 hours if you will. However many of us, blinded by the post-Christmas haze, find it difficult to recall what happened before the 22nd December with any real clarity. For us reflection doesn’t take nearly so long and is easily measured in success levels first established by Oliver Reed, Georgie Best and Man Against Food. Oh, and the bathroom scales.
So with all this in mind, we are going to look ahead to 2015 and assess what the year may have in store…
January
• Temperatures soar in Park Vintners as we discover hidden vents in the wall between us and the dry cleaners
• Wayne & Alex both carry on running but delight in the fact that they’re not doing the marathon, so don’t have to run in the snow
• Did we mention snow? Arthur Road will experience delays similar to those in the Alps this week. Mulled Wine sales will quadruple. (Note to self – buy mulling spices…)
• Torrential rain makes Andy Murray feel very at home in the Australian Open, before exiting in the second round
• Park Vintners offer their, now world famous, 6 for 5 deal throughout the month
• Park Vintners Wine School starts its 6 week semester 28th January – spaces still available
February
• Secret admirers will express their admiration secretly on the 14th
• Also on the 14th Italy beat England for the first time ever, at HQ and dreams of a World Cup lie flaccid in the Twickenham mud. (Italy will go on to beat New Zealand in the quarter finals before losing to eventual winners Argentina in the semis)
• Cricket World Cup starts – spot betting scandals ensue
March
• Lent takes hold – abstinence is King, boredom is Queen and grumpiness is the Crown Prince
April
• April 5th is egg-stremely egg-citing
• London Marathon – watch it on telly with a glass of Champagne
• Cheltenham Festival – Guinness sales in the Cotswolds hit new highs
May
• ‘Margate hotter than Malaga’ headlines hit the newsstands as floods develop in Ottery St Mary
• Giro d’Italia helps those chubby cyclists shed a few pounds
June
• NZ are here to play some crucket whilst we nip to Holland to catch up on the Beach Volleyball World Cup
July
• Tennis and cricket – Wimbledon & The Ashes – what could go wrong here?
August
• Wimbledon Park empties as summer officially opens in Devon & Cornwall
• Wayne sweeps the shop a lot and, in a fit of boredom, goes the ‘full paleo’ and eats his wife
September
• Everybody back, tanned and lovely, ready to pile the pounds back on whilst at the pub watching the Rugby World Cup
• Wayne finally gets the chance to go on holiday now that the school holidays are over
October
• People start talking about Christmas
November
• Wayne makes bail in time for Christmas (see August) and is told to stick to Brussels Sprouts and to avoid all other Belgian dishes
• For the millionth year in a row we try to find a Red Burgundy for Christmas consumption that costs less than a house on the Grid
• We fail
December
• PV celebrates its 5th Birthday – a frenzy of bubbles and biltong ensue and much fun is had
• And now here we are at New Years Eve – I wonder what will happen next year?!
So, plenty to look forward to over the next 12 months. However if you’re looking for more immediate gratification why not pop in today and taste a couple of treats with us – we’ve opened the Neudorf Chardonnay Nelson 2011 (£24.99) from the legendary New Zealand estate and from across the ditch, another legend of a wine – Geoff Merrill McLaren Vale Shiraz 2006 (£29.99) both because we fancied finishing the year up with some nice wine!
Only a few more hours to go before Jools grinds through the gears and brings 2014 to a close – boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!