The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

A week in sport and the national teams are getting it in the neck. The boys with the long trousers who spanked the Kiwis 2-0 in the series are being criticised for not being aggressive enough, whilst the boys in the short trousers are being criticised for just being rubbish. I have to say I think the guys in shorts were rubbish, Brazil have little to worry about. The World Cup in 2015 will be the exciting one for an Englishman.

More importantly this weekend is all about tops and tails, and which nose crosses the line first. Derby Day is upon us and we’ve studied the form, stuck pins in the list, and discussed the merits of wearing a shirt with yellow and red chevrons. Conclusions at the end!

The transfer window springs open to a ridiculous amount of gossip, rumour and nonsense with Monaco rumoured to be spending £100m (that’s two nights takings at the casino surely!), Manchester United and Manchester City bidding £25m for Fabregas in a bizarre job-share arrangement, whilst Arsenal scouts have been spotted at several under 14 tournaments trying to bag a bargain.

Should there be a transfer window for managers?

Wines in print – Not that we like to blow our own trumpets but…(toot toot)

Fresh from having one of our wines featured in one national newspaper, we were chuffed to note another one, no name check for us this time though:

2004 Château Fourcas-Dupré, Listrac-Médoc, France    £ 21.49 

‘With so much rich, mature, truffley, meaty fruit on board, it will be hard not to crack open this lesser Listrac claret now, from a well-regarded property, because it is drinking so deliciously and would be perfect with the new season’s Welsh, or Dorset, rosy-pink roast lamb.

Yet Listracs take longer to mature than most and as 2004 is a good ‘classic’ claret vintage, according to the Bordelais, this one has three or four more years of life in it yet. Claret purists who like their game well-hung and their red Bordeaux extra perfumed, cedary and silky, should hang on to this until 2017.’   Jane MacQuitty, the Times, 25^th May, 2013

Tasting this weekend

It’s been a tough week at the museums, grandparents have been run ragged, and that nice couple at number 32 has been happy to play volleyball over the fence with the kids despite having all those boxes to unpack.

It surely must be time to taste some wine. This week we’ve chosen:

False Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2012, Western Cape, South Africa – £8.29 is tasty, and comes from somewhere that sounds like it may get some sunshine.

Emilio Valerio Laderas de Montejurra 2010, Navarra, Spain – £12.39 is basically 1/3 each of Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. We found it fruity and easy drinking but with complexity too.

So come and have a sip slurp and gargle and tell us what you think. It’ll be Wayne pouring this week as Alex is waving sticks at a white ball in a sand pit.

Finally, as promised for those of you who follow our distinctly average racing tips we ruled out Dawn Approach because he’s so well favoured. We’re going each way on Ruler Of The World. Follow us at your own risk, but rest assured, neither of us will be wearing a shirt with yellow and red chevrons!

Don’t forget the sunscreen!

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

As I sit here, gazing across the Park Vintners estate, watching the red plumed Royal Mail van going about its daily tasks on Melrose Avenue, listening to the gentle twitter of scaffolders crowding around the feeding table at Manuel’s The Baker, drowsing to the reassuring buzz of diesel vans flitting up and down Arthur Road, I reflect that there is very little not to like about British summertime in London.  As shards of dull, grey light flood the front of the shop and the cooling North Easterly wafts through the door, keeping the temperature easily within single figures, it seems to me there is nowhere else I would rather be right now…

For sure.

Doom and Gloom

But it’s not all doom and gloom.  At long last the EU has addressed the malevolent trend that is ‘dipping oil’ in restaurants and bars.  For too long we have had to put up with generous restaurateurs, often Italian, offering us a basket of bread and with it a little bowl of virgin olive oil and perhaps a little balsamic dropped in there too.  Take the bread, dip, sprinkle some salt on it and eat.  Disgusting, but fortunately now this sort of behaviour will be stopped as the busy Brussels bureaucrats have demanded oil be served in tamper proof glass bottles, to maintain authenticity.

But is this enough?

I want my salt to have geographical reference to which sea it originates.  Clearly the balsamic should be from Modena, that’s fine, but what of the bread, I hear you cry.  Well I personally will only be happy once I am cutting it myself at the table with an approved knife on an EU sanctioned board.  Or perhaps I should bring my own from home.  Or perhaps I should just stay at home and avoid any risk of contamination from ‘food’.

We thank you, Brussels.

This weekend we greet the second May Bank Holiday (as a result we’ll be shut on Monday, dozing in the hammock) , we welcome the Germans to Wembley on Saturday night for the Champions League Final and we have local golf at Wentworth.  The second Test against New Zealand starts again today and please, no-one call it an ‘Ashes Warm-Up’ because firstly that sounds a bit weird and most likely illegal, and secondly it could be seen as disrespectful to our honoured guests…

Something for the long weekend….

So, as we now move swiftly away from summer and more towards the wintery red season, we would like to remind you all that our delicious Chateau de L’Aumerade Rose Cru Classé 2012 (12.99) from Provence has a six bottle discount of 10% – six being the universally recognised quantity required for a Bank Holiday weekend.  To refresh your palates we will have a bottle open this weekend, from sundowners on Friday until late on Saturday and we’ll happily carry the box to your car for you!

We’ll also pour out a bottle of red, as is our wont, and this week the lucky fella is Colonia Las Liebres Bonarda 2012 (10.99).  Bonarda is a grape variety brought to Argentina by Italian settlers at the beginning of the 20th century and is now the 2nd most planted variety. It produces lighter wines than Malbec with a juicy succulence and freshness without giving up on richness. This one has a lovely raspberry fruit character that sets off its soft tannins beautifully.

Pop by and see us anytime but don’t forget to bring us some sunshine!

Alex & Wayne

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I was wondering how to open this week’s email when I came across the headline “Star Wars and Doctor Who fans clash at Norwich convention”. It would appear that police were called to the 4^th Norwich Sci-Fi and Film Convention at the University of East Anglia. Luckily no lightsabres were drawn and a police spokesman said “The two rival groups were spoken to and advised to keep out of each other’s way.”

Elsewhere, it’s a goodbye to David Beckham who is hanging up his boots now his beard has gone a bit grey. Never mind Becks there’s always a kickabout on Sunday afternoons down the rec.

The first test against the Kiwi’s has started at Lords. albeit a bit slowly.

The hunt for the last place in Champions League should be decided on Sunday, although there is a slight chance that an algebraic equation may be triggered that could result in Rule C14 being invoked and a play off between Chelsea and Arsenal!

For those who like their sport with two wheels rather than two goals the race for the pink jersey is still on in Italy with Nibali still “in the pink”. Sir Bradley, still battling his chest infection, sadly has withdrawn from the race. Mark Cavendish is still the man to beat in a sprint though, and so far they ain’t managing it (100 wins)!

Windmill Market

Alex had a great day out last weekend, he spent much of last Saturday meeting, greeting and pouring at Windmill Market. It’s held on the 2^nd Saturday of each month at St Mark’s Church in Wimbledon (which is between the Library and the Alexandra pub).

The next one is 8^th June and we’ll be there again with a selection of our wines and Rocky Head beers, so tell all your chums.

Do you follow us on Twitter? Are you our Facebook Friend?

You’ll find us @parkvintners

Join the conversation…

En Primeur Bordeaux 2012

We’ve been asked a few times what we think. I’ll stress that up to this point we’ve tasted none at all. We have spoken to a few chums with black teeth (hello Clive!) and understand the quality is pretty decent given the summer’s weather. Sadly, the pricing by most estates is somewhat higher than the market expects, which leaves little rhyme or reason for you or I to stump up the cash now.

If you do have a bit of cash burning a hole in your pocket with “Drinking: Destination Bordeaux” written on it come and have a chat with us about some older vintages. There is considerably more value there than in 2012 futures, we think.

London Wine Fair

Many of you have asked us how we go about buying wine and we’ve told you about attending various tastings and fairs in London.

Well there’s one next week so we’ll be sacrificing ourselves in the usual manner, we’re even going to try tweeting about some of the things we taste. It’ll be Wayne’s taste buds and tweety thumbs on Monday and Alex’s on Tuesday.

Tasting This Weekend

Given the time of year I was wondering about a Beaujolais and maybe our Provence rosé  but having just looked at the weather forecast I’ve decided upon Alpataco Malbec (£11.49). The wine hails from the Neuquén Valley in Patagonia, Argentina. Named after the Mapudungun word for drafty, the region has warm summers, cool nights and frequent breezes. All this conspires to give us a long ripening season with good flavour richness but also elegant freshness in the wines. Come and give it a taste and tell us what you think!

In the white corner we’ll head for the Pfalz in Germany, for it is from there that Reichsrat Von Buhl’s Riesling Trocken (£14.99) hails. Crisp, deliciously vibrant and drier than this week’s weather we think it’s high time you all had a gargle!

Cheers

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

 Fergie Headlines

… Premiership football team in shock as successful 71 year old man retires.

 … David Beckham pays tribute to 71 year old Ferguson hairdryer: “Without whom I’d have to have had a crewcut!”

 … David Moyes is Ferguson’s natural heir.

 Pink Shirt Update

The Maglia Rosa (pink shirt) is awarded to the person leading the Giro d’Italia. So far Mark Cavendish has worn it (indeed has won two out of six stages) and local boy Luca Paolini is currently wearing it. We’ve had a hilltop finish in a town called Matera that looked so beautiful we shall investigate it for possible future holidays, and tomorrow is the all-important Time Trial. Over to you Wiggo you have 34 seconds to pull back.

 Wedding Gifts

Going to a wedding over the next couple of months?

 Stuck for a gift for the lucky couple?

 We can help you with this. I attach details of a case of wine that costs £100- we regularly put together this kind of thing, with tasting notes too. If you think it’d make the perfect gift for your chums (we certainly do!) come and see us. If you don’t leave it until you’re on the way to the venue we may even be able to customise some tasting notes for you!

 A Massive Thanks

 What can we say?

 We are positively chuffed with the response to our request to VOTE FOR US. We’ve been stopped in the street, accosted in the Co-op, and emailed from all over, by people telling us they have voted.

If you are clueless as to what I’m talking about, last year we entered Time & Leisure’s Food and Drink Awards for Best Local Wine Retailer thinking we’d get our name mentioned in a local magazine. But, thanks to you lovely people, we won it!

 We now feel honour bound to defend the position, so please tell all your friends that we are nice chaps and sell the odd bottle of wine.

 Or tell them we’re odd chaps that sell a nice bottle of wine.

 Most importantly though please tell them to VOTE FOR US, just as soon as you have voted yourself with this link…

 http://www.timeandleisure.co.uk/food-and-drink-awards/2279-best-wine-retailer.html

 Or you can text Time03703 to 81400 which is charged at 50p plus the one standard network rate text.

 Cheese & Wine

 23^rd May is now SOLD OUT

20^th June we can squeeze in 2 more people

18^th July the world is your oyster. 8pm cost is £15 as usual…

 Taste this Weekend

 Given all the chat about Giro d’Italia and the fact that as far as we can see we’ve never opened a bottle with you all we shall start proceedings with Cantina Tramin Pinot Grigio (£13.99). This is the real deal from Alto Adige not one of those “can’t believe it’s not water” efforts you find all too often.

On the red front we will have a look at Oyster Shack Merlot (£6.99) a great everyday all-rounder happy with your Monday mushroom risotto or Tuesday Toulouse sausages!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week a judge in Spain decided that the 211 bags of blood & plasma seized in the Operation Puerto doping case should be destroyed. Whilst we appreciate that doping was not illegal in Spain when the bags were seized, we are amazed that the Spanish court feels unable to co-operate with either WADA or even the Spanish anti-doping agency. Surely this alone must rule Madrid out of hosting the 2020 Olympics? Is an all German Champions League Final connected, we wonder?

Elsewhere a 16.5 m high Rubber Duck floated into Hong Kong yesterday…

Cheese & Wine Tasting

Following the success of last week’s event we thought we’d follow on with another one. We choose four cheeses, put six wines alongside them and discuss the merits (or otherwise) of the choice. Our next evening is Thursday 23^rd May here at the shop 8pm start. £15 buys your place at the table and you can call us on 020 8944 5224 to book.

Oh look at us!

The sharp eyed amongst you may have noticed we got a brief mention in last Saturday’s Victoria Moore column in The Daily Telegraph…

“Brezza Barbera d’Alba Santa Rosalia 2010 Piemonte, Italy (13.5%, Park Vintners, SW19, £19.29)

One of the Brezza wines as raved about in my column this week. These reds are as gentle as chiffon, and the tannin that gives them bones and structures feels as if it has been hand-stitched with a tiny, fine-pointed needle. The barbera would light up any evening. I might nibble at some prosciutto or have a simple risotto Milanese to keep hunger pangs away.”

Bank Holiday Weekend

We have checked several weather pages on the interweb and all of them seem to agree there will be a circular orangey thing in the sky. This can mean only one thing…

Cycling season is amongst us.

The Giro d’Italia starts Saturday with Sir Bradley battling to be the first Brit to win the “Maglia Rosa”. He’s up against it though with 2012 winner Ryder Hesjedal and local hero Vincenzo Nibali both keen to wear pink too.

With all this in mind we shall have on the tasting table…

Cuvée Jean-Paul Rosé – £7.29 a deliciously elegant pink form the Gascony region of France.

Brezza Barbera d’Alba Santa Rosalia 2010 – £19.29 is Italian, elegant and apparently well regarded in press circles.

We shall be closed on Bank Holiday Monday.

Finally, it is with a heavy heart that we report news that The Spice Girls musical will be closing in June, clearly not “Viva Forever”. You have but a few weeks left to ‘Spice Up Your Life’.

Allez Allez

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Happy days are here again, the sun is shining, the rosé is in the fridge, as is the Cidre Breton and thus we’re altogether more jolly this week.  Many things have made us smile over the week, here is a quick snapshot:

• The fittest man in football made his debut for Guernsey FC in their 4-2 defeat by local heroes, Colliers Wood.  Welcome back Matt Le Tissier, what was your nickname again?
• Luis Suarez gets banned.  He should also get muzzled and vets with tranquiliser darts should be on hand whenever he is out in public.  Animal.
• The trainer for Godolphin claims he thought his use of steroids with 15 of his horses was fine because they were in the off-season.   Oh, and this is the same stable that decided not to renew Frankie Dettori’s contract for 2013, due to his recreational drug use.  Seems, perhaps, that the basic rules on drugs in horseracing need to be made a bit clearer.
• Germany show Spain how to score goals.  Twice, in two nights.  Mourinho’s face…
• Chris Gayle scores 100 off 30 balls.
• We avoid triple dip.
• After a year of Merton Council stupidity they have re-instated the 20 minutes free parking on Arthur Road – press the green button, get the free ticket, buy a steak from the butcher, come and see us for wine, get back in the car, job’s a good’un.
• The London Marathon went off hitch-free, made us all very excited, so we’re signing up to run it next year, who’s with us?!

Time & Leisure

It’s not easy winning anything.  It takes hard work, good support, a dollop of luck and a touch of being, perhaps, just that little bit better than the others.

The only thing harder than winning a trophy once, is retaining it the following season.  Never happens.  Just imagine if Sir Alex Ferguson, Roger Federer, or Lance Armstrong even, had managed to capitalise on their early promise, consider how amazing it would be if they had kept on coming back and winning year on year!

Keener to be associated with the first two names on the list (rather than the disgraced habitual drug cheat), we come to you with our begging bowls in hand/hearts on sleeves/destiny in your hands.

PLEASE VOTE FOR US, AGAIN.

 http://www.timeandleisure.co.uk/food-and-drink-awards/2279-best-wine-retailer.html

Ideally, we would ask you to select Park Vintners.  I’ve just voted, Wayne has yet to do so but I have high hopes, and if as many of you as possible could put ‘x’ in the correct box we would be oh so very thankful!  Voting closes on 12^th July I believe so you will be receiving reminders…

Or you can text Time03703 to 81400 which is charged at 50p plus the one standard network rate text, whatever that means.

Looking down the list of different nominations in other categories I notice local seafood specialist The Fish Peddler in there, and I wipe away a tear.  I’m sure many of you have visited Roger in Southfields and bought a nice chunk of turbot and some brown shrimps for Friday supper, ordered your smoked salmon for Christmas, treated yourself to some scallops over the years… well I’m sorry to say that this will no longer be possible come the end of next week.  It would seem that battling daily the combined forces of the Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores within feet of his shop has finally taken its toll and Roger is hanging up his apron for good. 

He’s always been good to us, he was a local independent trying to make a few quid in a marketplace awash with big bullies, and we’ll miss him.  Good luck Roger, sorry to see you go.

Tasting

Just a quick recap, a few places left on our Wine School that starts next Wednesday 1^st May at 8pm,

• 2 hours a week, for 6 weeks, tasting wine…

And if you fancy a warm up, this weekend we’ll be cracking open the Cidre Breton £4.75/litre to give you all a glimpse of life beyond Magners.  We’ll also open the recently returned Fattoria Lavacchio Chianti Rufina Cedro 2008 £14.39, which is a lovely, rich yet elegant Chianti with cheery cherry fruits, a touch of spice, some fine tannins and hints of earthy minerals.  It was a big hit last summer and it should be again this.  Plus it’s organic.

So that’s us for this week – a missive that encompasses Matt Le Tissier, triple dip, cider and voting is a mighty rare beast and you saw it here first!

Alex & Wayne

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It’s been a distressingly sombre week, with very few laughter moments, so I feel a bit of whimsy is called for.

You’re born.  You grow up, you go to school, you become a teenager.  You rule the world for a few years because you now know everything.  Perhaps you then go to University, become a nurse, join the armed forces.

You go out for drinks.  You find suddenly that you’re going out for drinks more often with just one person.  Suddenly that person is stealing half your duvet in the middle of the night and resting their cold feet on the back of your legs.

Sod it – would you do me the great honour of…. etc .  You get married, you smoke cigars.  You give up cigars in order to be allowed back in to the marital bed.  You carry on going to work.

Children arrive.  You smoke cigars again.  This time you really do give them up when you see yourself in the mirror looking more Churchill than Tom Selleck.  You sell your flat, buy an estate car, start to seriously consider the merits of owning a shed.  And a lawnmower.  Before you know it you have all of the above, plus 6 fish, a dog, a hamster and more High School Musical DVDs than is safe.

Someone, your Mum usually, mentions schools.  What do you mean schools?  I only just left… twenty years ago.  Blimey.

And so it comes to pass.  It’s 8.30pm, kids are in bed, dinner’s in the oven, time for a cheeky glass of wine.  You’ve earned it, not just today but the whole of your life you have been earning this glass of wine.  Respect it, enjoy it, sniff it, swirl it, savour it, luxuriate in it – this is what it’s all been building towards. 

But what is it?

Erm, I think it’s a Sauvignon, but it might be a Chenin Blanc, I’m not sure, but I quite like it and the bloke in the wine shop rattled on about citrus and acidity and balance and mouthfeel and apples and floral blossom and good long finish and… aaaah, why don’t I know more????

Because you haven’t had time.  In your Mars life of work, rest and play, you have never actually had the chance to appreciate your drinks.  You can change a car tyre, juggle spreadsheets, juggle even, snowboard, cook a mean Paella and explain the nuances of being offside to a six year old, but you still haven’t got a Scooby what’s in your glass.

Time for us to offer some help.

Our offer

How do you fancy a couple of hours a week, for six weeks, out of the house, tasting wine?  We’ll provide spittoons (still in mint condition, but there just in case!) and some gentle education. 

The first week we’ll learn how to taste wine and you will get to practice with at least 8 different wines.

Weeks 2 and 3 we will continue our tasting practice with many different white wines and different grape varieties – let’s say about another 20 wines.

Week 4, Wayne will guide you magnificently through the wines of Bordeaux and their alter ego’s in other regions of the world.

Week 5, more red wines, from all over the world.

Week 6, bubbles, bubbles, bubbles.

In amongst all this we’ll try some Rosés, some sweet wines and examine common wine faults.  We’ll also discuss food and wine matching and cellaring.

You’ll try in the region of 60 wines, and if nothing else, by the end you should have a fairly good idea of what you do and don’t like, and you’ll have discovered a number of new grapes that you hadn’t previously dared to try.

Sound good?  The course starts on Wednesday 1^st May at 8pm, and wraps up on Wednesday 12^th June.  There is a week break (Wednesday 29^th May) for half term, or as we like to call it, a revision week.

It costs £150 per person and we provide everything you need.

To recap

• 2 hours a week, for 6 weeks, drinking wine
• That’s probably enough of a recap…

As they say on those marvellous TV adverts, our team are here and ready to take your call on 020 8944 5224.  Or you can email us – shop@parkvintners.co.uk – or pop in and see us, which is by far the best idea, because we’ll have wine open to taste tonight and tomorrow.

Wine open to taste

Wow, I’m slick.

Wayne’s off on his bike somewhere this weekend, so I’m in charge for once.  Pandemonium.

Whilst I would love to open every bottle in the shop when the guvnor’s not here, I’m under strict instructions and am limited to just the two bottles.  I’ve opted for two wines from the Australian estate De Bortoli The Accomplice Semillon-Sauvignon 2012 and The Accomplice Shiraz 2012 (both £8.49), which we believe are extremely good value, really approachable everyday quaffing wines. 

If you haven’t earned that glass of wine…

… but actually consider a cold beer to be a suitable lifetime achievement award then you may be interested to know that we have taken on two more beers from our new local superstar , Rocky Head Brewery.  Steve, who creates the magic down there on Kimber Road, has an extremely efficient sales patter – I’ve brewed a couple of new beers, how many would you like?! – and we then tell him how many, and he drops them round, no messin’.

The two NKOTB (if you know what that is without looking it up you should be feeling as ashamed as I feel for writing it) are:

Rocky Head AAPA, which stands for Anglo American Pale Ale, is described as a hoppy, fruity pale ale brewed with the finest English malts and yeast and huge amounts of aromatic American leaf hops.

Rocky Head Hop Ditch is their take on a Belgium sour.  Masses of tropical hop flavours a just a refreshing kiss of acidity.

Both come bottle conditioned in 500ml format, both are £4.00, and both arrived in the shop last Saturday.  So they really are new.

I’m here today and tomorrow, tasting wine, writing tasting notes, signing people up to the Wine School, so why not swing on by and see me and remember, if you’re running the marathon, all that pasta-based carb loading can only be enhanced by a nice glass of wine!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

A momentous week for many reasons, the cricket season started, the snow melted, the Masters started at Augusta (who incidentally allowed their first two female members, one of whom is Condoleezza Rice) and the Dubai Police department launched their best ever recruitment tool…a Lamborghini Aventador as your jam jar. I bet its rubbish over speed bumps though!

Wine School

Want to taste 60 wines and learn the difference between Malbec and Merlot? Some past students have even discovered they like such outlandish things as Chardonnay and Riesling. Term starts Wednesday 1^st May at 8pm sharp.  Come along, you’ll meet friendly people as well as friendly wines!

Burgundy

The man from Faiveley swung by in his 2CV this week and dropped off some delicious kit. We have the perennial favourite Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire 2010 at £11.99 a glass full of freshness and tart red cherries; then, at the other end of the scale, some Mercurey 1er Cru ‘Clos du Roy’ 2009 at £24.99 which, like all the other 2009 red burgundies we’ve had, is just too delicious to make old bones!

Heatwave

I notice that in our email of this week in 2012 we were discussing drought, Manchester United being a rich club and Abu Qatada not being deported.

I can happily report that there is no drought.

We are expecting something of a heatwave this weekend but rest assured we have some rosé, some bubbly in the fridge and a delicious South African white for the keen gardeners amongst you.

Secateurs Chenin Blanc 2012 £12.29 is made by Adi Badenhorst, rich yet crisp with stonefruit flavours that’ll be just fab with that fish kebab you’re putting on the braai.

Soli Pinot Noir 2009 £11.29 is a wine many of you were astonished to find us stocking. “Bulgarian wine!” you said, “are you sure?” “Yes” we said, “it’s delicious, you’ll like it, just give it a try.” So try it you did, and suddenly it was all gone. Well Soli has returned, we still think it is astonishingly good value and as delicious as ever.

Don’t forget the matches to light the barby!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Some dates for your diary, past and future:

Sunday 31^st March – BST begins

Monday 1^st April – April Fool’s Day, all japes to be finished by midday (weather, take note)

Wednesday 10^th April – English Cricket Season starts (weather, as above)

Saturday 6^th April – Grand National, Colbert Station E/W

Monday 15^th April – schools go back, life returns to normal

Thursday 25^th April – Wine and Cheese Tasting, 8pm, 4 places left…

Wednesday 1^st May – 6 Week Wine Course commences, 8pm, spaces still available

Wednesday 4^th April 2012 – temp in London – 11c – fine

Monday 4^th April 2011 – temp in London – 12c – fine

Sunday 4^th April 2010 – temp in London –9c – chillier

Yesterday – 4c…

I think you all get the theme of this email.  It’s been snowing too much recently, it’s been too damn windy and frankly our small oil-fired radiator is having to work too hard.  If it wasn’t our own business we would take industrial action against our inhumane working conditions.  The Bordeaux we had on tasting last week became a study in tannins as the shop chilled down whilst the Eiswein was standing there in his shorts and flip-flops wandering what all the fuss was about.  Oh and I may well have started hallucinating…

In my list of dates above you may have noticed mention of the Wine School.  What with one thing and another we have failed to promote this as actively and incessantly as we usually do which is probably a relief in some ways but does mean that we have plenty of space left.

The 6 week adventure starts at 8pm on Wednesday 1^st May and continues on the 8^th, 15^th and 22^nd of the month.  We then take a week off for half term, and re-convene for the last two sessions that will take place on 5^th and 12^th June.

It’s a great experience, we limit the group to a maximum of 10, we taste about 60 wines over the duration of the course, we cover whites, reds, fizz, a bit of rose, a bit of sweet wine and some faulty wines.  We practice some blind tasting, we introduce you to the Noble Grape Varieties and a few less renowned, we feed you water biscuits and, if you’re lucky, breadsticks.

So for two hours each Wednesday you can escape the world and pretend that life is all about sensory pleasure and delicious wine.  All this for £150, who could ask for more?

Booking is easy – phone us (020 8944 5224), email us, pop by and sign up whilst tasting today’s tasting wines – all these methods work.  So join up today for a wine filled May! (sorry)

If you fancy a bit of a warm up prior to joining the course then for just £15 you can book a slot on our Cheese and Wine evening on Thursday 25^th April, 8pm.  Always popular, always well run, never chaotic – if you don’t believe me come and see for yourself!

Tasting this weekend

Wayne has been busy foraging around the Iberian Peninsula, but not in the bit that speaks Spanish but in the other bit that we have been trying to keep to ourselves.  Portugal has fantastic and beautifully approachable wines that suffer in the UK market purely because the grapes are hard to pronounce and for many years Mateus Rose was their most famous export.  Then Cliff Richard started making wine there, just outside Albufeira, which hardly enhanced its reputation, allegedly.

But now Wayne has been on the case and this weekend we will enjoy some of the fruits of his labours; I know little of these wines, so I’ll hand you over to our expert:

We’ll start off in the white corner with… Luis Pato Maria Gomes 2012, Bairrada, Portugal 12% – £11.19 Luis Pato is one of the wine trade’s treasures, outspoken, experimental and very talented. 2012 marked his 30^th vintage at the reins and he shows no signs of slowing down, having just made his first red wine from white grapes (don’t ask!). This wine is a fine example of his work, wonderfully fresh and aromatic in its grapey nose, then with a broad, smooth texture in the mouth with melony flavours and a beautifully pure finish.

Then we head off to the Alentejano region for a spot of red. This area is a hot bed of experimentation and they plant more well-known varieties as well as the unpronounceable ones. Our selection here is Ciconia, Alentejo, Portugal 13.5% £9.99 – which is a kind of stork that settles on the plains here. No stork in the wine though, it’s a blend of Touriga Nacional, Syrah and Aragonez. What does it taste like? Why not come in and try for yourself, we might even use your tasting note!

So that just about rounds it off for this week save for a few final observations.  We’ve just been reminded by one of you that Wales beat England in the Six Nations and why hadn’t we mentioned it in our email.  Now we have.

Apparently the Brits and Russians drink the most when flying – fairly sure David Boon might have something to say about that.  As would the chap who managed 4 quarter bottles of Champagne on the flight to Amsterdam.  As would Mike Tindall.  Oh hang about, the last two are English – point taken.

Jobs for the weekend: taste Portuguese wines, sign up for Wine Course, watch the Grand National.

Over and out.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

How…

• Much longer is this brilliant weather going to go on for?  I played golf last Sunday in the snow, the equivalent event last year was in shorts.
• On earth did we manage to draw the Test in New Zealand?
• Much longer are we going to bother having a national football team?
• Did Lewis Hamilton explain stopping in his old team’s pitstop to the people upstairs at Mercedes?
• Much good does David Milliband’s departure to New York do for the overall perception of the Labour party?
• Will they keep the pasties warm at Lower Sticker’s Annual Cornish Pasty competition (-6.7c today)?
• Much chocolate can two children eat on Sunday?  More than their mother?
• Many of you are still in the office?

Well now, it’s the longest free holiday of the year, ‘Evacuate London 2013’ is in full swing and we are on hand to fill your boots with fine wines to take the edge off the tailbacks and the tantrums that come as part of this exodus.  We will even have some wine open too, for the non-drivers.

For those of you not departing, here are our Easter opening hours:

Maundy Thursday       11am – 8pm

Good Friday                    11am – 3pm

Easter Saturday            10am – 8pm

Easter Sunday                CLOSED

Easter Monday               CLOSED

Tuesday                             Back to Normal, or as close as we ever manage…

So for those of you who are feeling thirsty, we will be opening the following:

Wairau River Pinot Gris 2010, Marlborough, New Zealand £14.99 – the nature of doing what we do often results in text messages from friends in various states of decay saying ‘do you sell so-and so?’, ‘this wine list is impenetrable, here’s a photo, tell me what to buy?’, ‘my mate works at this vineyard and reckons the wines are awesome’… This Pinot Gris falls into the last category.   I, in fact, have met the ‘mate’ in question, at an 18^th birthday party, in a pub, 20 odd years ago – not sure whether this is the best basis for buying the wine, but I digress.  We’ve all changed over the years and I now work in a small wine shop in Wimbledon, he is the Ops manager at a top Kiwi estate, and I now sell his wine.

And it is awesome.  A beautiful, ripe apple and blossom nose, a similar palate with a bit more weight and luscious fruit all capped off by an elegant, long finish.  As they say on the label ‘best savoured with spontaneity and deep belly laughs.’  Can’t remember the last time I read that on a French wine label.

‘Nez intense, arômes de fruits rouges, fine note boisée.  Bouche ronde et fruitée, finale persistente’  is in fact what it says on the next wine – Chateau La Rose du Pin 2009, Bordeaux, France £11.99 – bit of a treat for Wayne and I really this, 2009 Bordeaux, soft and approachable Merlot dominant blend, trust me, you won’t like it.

Speaking of things you won’t like, Hiedler Weissburgunder Eiswein 2007 , Kamptal, Austria £29.99 should probably be perched top of that list.  This doesn’t have a nose of tropical ripeness, the mouth is certainly not flooded with lush, beautifully rich, sweet fruits nor does it have any crisp clean acidity to finish it off.  Lousy, don’t bother.

Come and see us, taste some wine, discuss Easter eggs – it’s what we’re here for.

Happy holidays!