The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Reasons to be cheerful:

• The clocks went back,  thus the sun crosses the yard arm sooner after lunch
• You’re not a referee trying to run a Chelsea game
• Halloween is now done, no longer will mutants be knocking on your door demanding sweets
• Half term is nearly over
• You’re not stranded in New York, and you’re alive
• The face fur you’re growing for Mo-vember makes you look more Errol Flynn than Bruce Forsyth
• South Park have aired in the US their ‘We all got duped’ Lance Armstrong special
• You’re not a relative of Jimmy Saville
• You’re not an Ash tree
• The red wine season is now officially open, you can bag yourself a brace with no guilt!

Feel free to add your own reasons, this is just a selection that has been keeping us going/sane this week!

Red Wine Season

As mentioned above, the season is now in full swing.  Today I am expecting the return of my Rioja, Decenio, both the Crianza and the Reserva.  Also from Spain the ever popular Zorzal Graciano should be returning to the shelves.  Elsewhere, Italy will be getting a few new arrivals covering North to South, Les Clos Perdus will be joining us from Corbieres and a new very fabulous Syrah from South Africa called Tamboerskloof will be jumping into your shopping bags quick as you like!

Not forgetting the Whites…

Mulderbosch Chenin is back in, English fizz returns in the form of Gusbourne Estate and also back is our Austrian Eiswein by Hiedler.  Did I mention our new Tokaji 5 Puttonyos and halves of PX?   Now you know…

All this exciting new wine glut depends on the delivery drivers getting here, since as yet I haven’t seen any of them, but I remain hopeful!

Tasting this weekend

If the Rioja arrives, then I will be pulling the cork on the Decenio Crianza 2009 (£11.49), mainly because I haven’t had it for a while and we have missed each other enormously.  For the white I’m going to Austria, Turk Gruner Veltliner 2010 (£14.99), which we tasted again last week and my god does it remind you there is life after Sauvignon Blanc…

So, pop in and say hello any time today or tomorrow, lots of wine back in, bottles open, plenty of reasons to be cheerful!

All the best,

 Alex & Wayne

Fellow Wine Lovers,

“That’s pretty potent.  Not the cork.  Your after-shave.  Strong enough to bury anything. But the wine is quite excellent.  Although for such a grand meal, I would have expected a claret.”
“ Of course. But unfortunately, our cellars have run out of clarets.”
“ Mouton Rothschild is a claret. And I’ve smelt that after-shave before, and both times I smelled a rat.”

Oh yes, he’s back.  The man they call Bond, James Bond.  Skyfall premiered on Tuesday night, Wayne lent Bear Grylls his special Saturday night strides, the red carpet groaned beneath celebrities ranked from A to Z, and they all drank Heineken and Martinis into the wee hours.  Hopefully only the Martinis were shaken, otherwise it could have been a touch messy…

But, as you see from the opening quote from Diamonds Are Forever, times have changed a bit for Mr Bond.  Clever wordplay about First Growth Claret has given way to, well, lager.  WKD, Magner’s, Hooch – get those cheque books ready, there’s a new film due in a couple of years.

Doesn’t mean to say we won’t go and watch the film though!

Otherwise the week has carried on in its own sweet way.  Some brilliant results in the Champions League, Malaga beating AC Milan, Olympiakos beating Montpellier and Borussia Dortmund beating Real Madrid – not sure if any English teams were playing though, perhaps not…

Cycling is still taking a battering, the Kick it Out anti-racism t-shirt standoff seems to be getting more polarised on a daily basis, and two Olympic medallists lose their medals sometime between midnight and five in the morning – if you know you’re going out late, dancing and perhaps even carousing a little, maybe don’t take the most valuable thing you own with you, chaps?

“Red wine with fish. Well that should have told me something.”

Loving these Bond quotes, managing to waste many hours ‘perfecting’ the accents!

Anyway, I suppose I best talk about wine now.  As an opener, you can have red wine with fish, Pinot Noir with tuna is a common favourite, but perhaps not the bottle of Chianti to go with Sole that Bond is referring to.

We finished our wine course this week, 6 weeks of vinous discovery rounded off with a foray into the world of fizz. 

As ever Moutard Grande Cuvée (£26.49) was highly acclaimed, as was our new vintage Champagne, Chassenay d’Arce 2004 (£33.99).  From the non-champagne side the dry Mayerling Crémant d’Alsace Rose (£15.49) and the Mas Macia Cava Brut (£9.89) both showed that there is oodles of quality to be enjoyed outside the realms of Champagne, and the Emeri Sparkling Shiraz (£13.49) became everyone’s guilty pleasure.  We’ve also formulated a strategy for ‘a day of bubbles’ starting at breakfast and finishing after dinner, but this is still Top Secret, I’m afraid.

So what shall we taste this weekend?  Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2011, Marlborough, New Zealand (£16.99) and Domaine des Pierres Blanches 2008, Faugères, France (£9.99), simply put.

Greywacke is the pet project of former Cloudy Bay winemaker, Kevin Judd.  When I say former, he was the winemaker for 25 years from its birth until his last vintage in 2009.  In 2009 he decided that the Cloudy Bay world was not enough, and that he should set up his own label and thus Greywacke was born.  Universally acclaimed with near Universal Exports, this is a golden opportunity to taste what all the fuss is about!

The Domaine des Pierres Blanches is one of the wines that we fell in love with at a southern French tasting earlier in the year.  Grenache, Carignan, Syrah, Mourvedre from the hills above Beziers, just east of St Chinian, this has dark fruits, herby spice character and a rich mouthfeel.  Faugères Eyes only….

That is probably enough bad wordplay for this week, I must apologise, please don’t unsubscribe, I think you’re all Thunderball!

Halloween next week, trick or treating, ghostly pumpkins, scary skeletons, enough to scare the Living Daylights….

Park Vintners Will Return!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Where to start this week? I think we’ll start with something relatively low key.

Some of you may have heard of a horse called Frankel. He’s been relatively successful so far, and has caused a somewhat unseasonal sell out at Ascot this weekend, where he will be running his last race. By all accounts he will then enter an entirely different training regime, lazing around in the fields, chatting up the ladies: bet he can’t wait!

Rolling Stones tickets are HOW MUCH!

Awesome Sauce

Now, I know we always deny sitting around tasting wine and shooting the breeze with our chums from the wine world, but sometimes it just has to be done.

On one such occasion, over the summer, we met a couple of very nice chaps, Tom and Paul, who are agents for a small champagne producer: Chassenay d’Arce. We tasted several of their wines (it’s work I’m telling you!) and filed them under ‘To Be Listed’.

Well, they are here (the Champagne, not Tom & Paul) and Awesome Sauce they are too…

Chassenay d’Arce Cuvée Première Brut – £33.99 – an appealing blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay which has a beautiful lemon/gold colour and a fine, vigorous mousse. Rich and elegant on the palate, with apple fruit, honey and spicy floral notes. In short, it’s delicious.

Chassenay d’Arce Blanc de Blancs 2004 – £40.99 – is a pure Chardonnay, matured on its lees for 5 years. Golden coloured, with a persistent fine mousse and pretty acacia and white fruit aromas. On the palate it is crisp and delicate with a lovely elegant tension between citrus and honey notes.  Way more exciting than some of the more famous vintage champagnes knocking about.

If you need an excuse to drink some champagne, just ask, we have an extensive excuse list, from the sublime to the ridiculous!

Claret shelves restocked!!!

“I hover over the expensive Scotch and then the Armagnac, but finally settle on a glass of rich red claret. I put it near my nose and nearly pass out. It smells of old houses and aged wood and dark secrets, but also of hard, hot sunshine through ancient shutters and long, wicked afternoons in a four-poster bed. It’s not a wine, it’s a life, right there in the glass.” ― Nick Harkaway, The Gone-Away World

Cheese & Wine Evening

Is this Thursday, 25^th October, at 8pm. As I type this there are 2 places left. You know you want to come, but have you just missed out?

Tasting This Weekend

We shall bring our Rhône extravaganza to a gentle close this weekend and open up Vignes du Prince Côtes du Rhône (£8.99) which is made by Celliers du Prince, the only co-op in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape area. When we tasted this wine with our chum Adrian, we thought ‘an inexpensive Rhône red from the Chateauneuf-du-Pape vineyards, what’s not to like?’

We will also open Domaine de Coyeux’s Muscat de Beaumes de Venise (£11.99) if only because it’s ages since we opened a sticky. Don’t say we don’t spoil you!

And finally…

A happy birthday to Tarzan, who is 100 today.

Aaah aaah aah aah aah!!!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We’ve been people watching this week…

We watched as Australian PM Julia Gillard showed the leader of the opposition the perils of choosing the wrong battleground. 

We watched as The Rolling Stones (a band that’s had even more birthdays than Wayne) released their first single in seven years. (Thought it sounded pretty good too!)

We watched as the USADA unveiled their case against Lance Armstrong (and it seems pretty damning to us). It’s tough to lose seven titles I’m sure, but you know what, I guess it really wasn’t about the bike.

We watched as Steve, the man with the keys at Rocky Head Brewery brought us our first shipment of…

Rocky Head Pale Ale 6.5% – £3.00

A truly handmade (hand bottled and labelled for that matter!) beer, packed with an enormous amount of New Zealand and North American hops giving it a beautiful floral character. Unfiltered and bottle conditioned, it is a really satisfying brew, exuberant and fully flavoured. We feel pretty honoured with this, being the first people outside the brewery to taste it and now one of the first to sell it.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the brewery is only about a mile from the shop. You couldn’t get much more local than that unless Alex starts with his barley wine in the cellar!

Keep your Spirits Up

We know the nights are drawing in and the sharper eyed amongst you will have noticed our spirits section has got a little more crowded. We’ve added Maxime Trijol VSOP Grande Champagne Cognac (£45) which has a character more akin to most houses XO. Indeed it won the Cognac Trophy at the 2003 Wine & Spirits Competition beating all the XO’s in the process. We’re fairly sure it comes down to the large portion of older matured cognacs in the blend (some is 40 years aged) adding a rich, mellow complexity.

We’ve also added Salizá Amaretto (£24.99) which is distilled from only the finest peach kernels by Bepi Tosolini, probably Italy’s finest distiller. It’s a little drier than some, which we find makes it seriously moreish.

There are other delicious post prandial delights too, so come and have a browse.

Taste This Weekend

We’re still droning on about the Rhône (sorry couldn’t resist it) so will kick off this week with a glass of Domaine les Chenêts Crozes-Hermitage (£17.99) a family run estate in the northern part of the Rhône who, until 1993, used to sell their grapes to other more famous estates.

The grape here is Syrah and, when we tried it, we were bowled over with its lightly spiced red berry fruits and touch of pepper in the finish. Food matching I’d say it’s a delicious partner to Sunday’s roast pork, but if you’re feeling more adventurous give Mark Hix’s pigeon tagine a go, it is game season after all.

Often we find a fantastic bedfellow to a good red Rhône is a crisp and zingy white from the Loire Valley.  We see no reason to upset good bedfellows, so the white on tasting will be the Val de Loire Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (£8.99). This Sauvignon Blanc is from the vineyards of Valencay, which are about 80 km south-west of Sancerre, and thus share similar soil types.  Crisp and dry with elegant, grassy fruit character and a seam of precise minerality, we think of it as one of those must have wines that are always in the fridge.  Food match?  Goats cheese, goats cheese and perhaps goats cheese!

So come on over and sample some French wine pleasures, it’s what weekends were invented for!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We read this week David Blaine is planning to wear a chain mail suit for three days with a million volts passing through it. Two questions come to mind…Why? … and who is quoting odds for the Darwin Awards?

Winning

Here at Park Vintners we like to talk about winners, so I’ll start with the Ryder Cup. Well played chaps, and a great quote from Capt. Olazabal “All men die but not all men live and you made me feel alive again this week”.

We have been telling you all for ages but now it’s official. Wandle is the Best Beer in the World having won “World’s Best Bitter up to 5% Pale Beer 2012” at the World Beer Awards 2012. Congratulations to Duncan, Mary and the crew at Sambrook’s.

Come and taste it at the weekend!

Wine & Cheese Tasting

Fancy a spot of Wine & Cheese action? Me too!

Thursday 25^th October at 8pm. £15 gets you a chair at the table and the aforementioned Cheese & Wine. With four cheeses, six wines and something cheeky to finish, what’s not to like?

Rhône Valley

Alex and I are fans of the region generally, but don’t often get much of a chance to feature it. Given that it’s been a good friend to us over the years we thought it was high time to change that.

We’ve had a chat with our chum Romain who is able to spend a bit of French taxpayers’ money on this sort of thing and have got a competition going.

There are scratch cards in-store and the chance to win a pair of wine glasses, a bottle carrier or if you’re really lucky a trip for 2 to the Rhône. It’s easy, buy a Rhône wine, scratch an entry card, pack your bags.

Tasting this Weekend in Wimbledon Park

Wandle (£2.59) – World Champion beer – see what the fuss is about.

La Fleur Solitaire 2011 (£10.49) – Grenache Blanc, Viognier and a splash of Marsanne and Roussanne are the grapes here, giving us rich stone fruit flavours. Fabulous with that brace of Partridge you ordered from the butcher.

Cairanne Cuvée du Belvédère 2009 (£11.49) – Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre are the grapes here, giving us a smooth, rich palate with cheery cherry fruits and it’s just starting to pick a bit of savoury character. Try it with a beef and mushroom stroganoff.

That’s it for us this week.

Happy Birthday Mr Bond, nobody does it better.

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

To our mind there is absolutely nothing better than a good old fashioned grudge match, whether it be the Ashes, any sport versus the French, or just trying to beat your wife at a ‘friendly’ game of tennis.  Losing is not an option, all the glory is for the winners, no prizes for second place.

And this weekend we have the Ryder Cup.  Us (Europe) vs US (them).  Brilliant.  We’ve got Rory for glory, Sergio and Luke with fantastic records and fancy pants Poulter to stir up the crowds.  Them, they’ve got Tiger, Bubba and Snedeker, who apparently is ready to “beat their brains in”, however that translates onto a putting green.  Oh, and we beat them last time.

If you think golf is boring, this is the one weekend that will change your mind.  Do you think if I now mention that it’s live on Sky Sports^TM, that they might give me a subscription…?

But apparently it’s not all about golf.  There’s cricket to be played in the T20 World Cup (now including the champagne super-over), football seems to have torn up the rule book (Villa beating City?) whilst JT resigns from England duty and gets a fine that only a footballer could afford, and the mighty Quins go from strength to strength.

The weather seems to be claiming much of the north and, if this is what happens in September, I dread to think what December might bring.  Joking aside, there has been some pretty horrendous weather in Bordeaux early this week and it is probably fair to warn you that 2012 will be a ‘difficult’ vintage, globally.  New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc production is down 40% for example, and yesterday they had the first rain in Jerez, Andalucia, since April.  The rain in Spain stays mainly on … York.

So, as any good wine merchant should say, we strongly suggest you all stock up with as much wine as possible, as soon as possible!!

A propos of nothing, stats just into my inbox

Supermarkets’ value share of the market: 81%

 Impulse (the Majestic, Wine Rack, Bargain Boozers) share of the market: 19%

 Independents’ share of the market: 3%

That means that on Arthur Road for every 3 bottles we sell, Wine Rack is selling 19, and the Co-op is selling 81!  Gosh…

After all this good news, I think I need a drink…

And so, as September closes its doors, we reach the last week of our ‘don’t be silly, drink wine from Chile’ extravaganza.  We started in the far North at the end of August and we now find ourselves journeying ever further south towards the Bio-Bio Valley, via Maule.

We have two wines on show this weekend, from the same producer, Aromo.  We have been selling these wines since well before Park Vintners was even a glimmer in his daddy’s eye, and have always been impressed by the quality of the wines they produce.

Aromo Viognier 2011 £7.99 – from the Maule Valley, where Aromo make their home.  Our friends at Wines of Chile tell us the following:

Located 250 km (155 mi) south of Santiago, this traditional and long overlooked wine valley—the largest and one of the oldest—has attracted renewed and much-deserved attention of late. Old-bush, dry-farmed vineyards that predate the memories of those who tend them now produce exciting, naturally balanced field blends of Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and other yet to be identified varieties. Newer plantations include Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Carmenere with bright acidity and juicy fruit.

Ok, so they don’t mention Viognier, but we believe they make a really good version with plenty of ripe fruit and a nice clean woomf of acidity on the finish.

Finally we reach the Bio-Bio Valley.  Wines of Chile say:

Located 500 km (310 mi) south of Santiago. Warm days and cold nights make for a long ripening season, but the Bio Bio’s higher rainfall, strong winds, and broader extremes make for more challenging conditions than those of Chile’s more northerly regions. Winegrowing here requires more patience, skill, and nerve than in other valleys, but a daring few have taken the plunge and invested in new plantations of cool-climate varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir. Early results show their efforts paying off in exciting wines with naturally fresh acidity.

Moderate Mediterranean climate. 1,275 mm (50.2 in) of rain per year. Average rainfall is among highest of all Chilean wine valleys, although winds prevent humidity. Conditions similar to northern France.

We will be showing the Aromo Winemaker Selection Pinot Noir 2010 £10.49 – as you can see from the notes the climate is perfect for Pinot, the silky, elegant, lush red fruits really showing beautifully in this wine.  I really think Pinot could be the next big thing in Chile, you heard it here first!

So come on by, taste some wine and try out some funky little glasses that one of our customers has just introduced from the States.

We’re open now, come and ask us about wine!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Wayne is back from his holidays, but be reassured there’ll be no pictures furore; he kept his shirt on the entire time.

People Power

Forget Facebook (though we’re always happy to have friends!)

Forget Twitter (you can follow us @parkvintners)

Look what you all did with the power of your clicks, texts or phone calls….

Time & Leisure Food Awards 2012

Best Wine Retailer…PARK VINTNERS

We would like to say thank you everyone so to celebrate we’ll be offering free wine at the weekend…

Tasting this Weekend

Alex has been keeping all your Chilean geography up to snuff and we will be carrying on this week.

Clos des Fous Chardonnay 2010, Cachapoal – £14.39

Four mad guys go terroir hunting in Chile and settle in Cachapoal, a region 85km south of Santiago. This wine is from Alto Cachapoal in the East, at the foothills of the Andes. The Chardonnay sinks its roots into the gravel and sandy soils soaking up the Mediterranean style climate. Along comes one of the mad guys who spent 6 years working in Burgundy (Vosne Romanée no less) a specialist in small batch fermentations and as quick as you can say ‘Chile’ he has rustled up this delight. Fresh citrus fruits on the nose, medium to full body…why not come and try it yourselves.

Vina Chocalan Reserva Cabernet Franc 2011, Maipo Valley – £14.29

No mad guys here, Vina Chocalan is a family owned estate with about 100 hectares. Six of which are planted to Cabernet Franc on the Pacific side of the Maipo Valley where they too enjoy a Mediterranean climate. Chalky soils with a little clay make for some terrific Syrah from here, but we particularly liked this Cabernet Franc. Rich with the beautiful floral notes that we love about Cabernet Franc we think it would be a delicious match with some pan-fried pigeon breast. Come along and tell us what you’d drink it with.

That’s us for this week so stop by, taste wine, look at our certificate and bask in our thanks for you all being so supportive.

Chuffed.

Alex & Wayne

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Speaking as a thoroughbred Scot (my wife is quarter Scottish) I was delighted to see my good buddy Andy Murray finally win an Open.  I always knew he could do it and it was most certainly not me that said he was no better than Henman or Bates, lacked stamina and that crucial killer punch – I must now go and eat my hat!

Continuing the theme of confused ancestry, it seems that a row is simmering regarding the next Olympics (the ban has been lifted and we can say the word with impunity).  Anyway it may be 4 years away, but questions are being asked of Rory McIlroy.  Will he play in golf’s first outing at Rio and if he does, who will he represent?   Being Northern Irish he has a British Passport, so GBR claim him.  But golf in Ireland is ‘done’ as an island without borders, so the Irish Golf Union, who have funded him over the years, and who he has represented in international competitions, claim him for Ireland. 

Awkward.  Expect more press coverage of this over the years to come.

And a big prize to me for managing to start the countdown to Rio 2016 less than a week after the Paralympics have finished!!

Anything else happening?  The Hillsborough Independent Panel report looks set to turn South Yorkshire Police on their heads, the naked rambler has been put in prison again (this time for refusing to co-operate with social workers tasked with assessing his mental health!) and  Bob Dylan dismisses plagiarism accusations in inimitable style, quoted in Rolling Stone magazine:

“Oh, yeah, in folk and jazz, quotation is a rich and enriching tradition. That certainly is true. It’s true for everybody, but me. There are different rules for me.”

“Wussies and pussies complain about that stuff.”

Oh, to be a musical deity…

Last call

It’s all going on in the shop next week, and now is your last chance to get in on the action.

Wine School:  you’ve patiently listened to me marketing this course over the last few weeks, so I will keep this short and bullet pointed –

• 6 week course , starts 8pm Wednesday 19^th September, here in the shop
• Whites, reds, rose, fizz, sweeties, wine faults will all be attacked over the 6 weeks
• £150 per person
• Approx. 60 wines tasted and savoured over the course
• Notes and relevant information all provided
• As many water biscuits as you want to eat
• Learn more about what’s in your glass in a friendly and relaxed environment
• Increase your range of wines you like

Still a few spaces remaining, first come first served – phone me, email me, visit me – they all work as methods for booking your place!

Wine and Cheese Tasting: I very much enjoyed the bullet pointing, so will use them again now –

• 8pm, here in the shop, Thursday 20^th  September
• Taste wine
• Taste cheese
• Taste them together
• Chat about them
• Repeat for 1 ½ hours…
• £15 per person
• Again, as many water biscuits as you would like, who knows we might even mix it up and get some Matzos or something…
•  It’s cheese, it’s wine and it’s a Thursday night – what’s not to like!

Again, I only have a couple of places available, so come and join us for a thoroughly enjoyable evening.  I’m here, standing by the phone, awaiting the call…

Wine this weekend

And still we are travelling through Chile.  Having conquered the northernmost valleys very successfully last week, we now move onto the Aconcagua Valley and then to Casablanca.

Courtesy of the Wines of Chile (WOC)website, I can relate the following about the Aconcagua Valley:

Located 65 km (40 mi) north of Santiago. At 22,828 feet (6,956 meters), Mt. Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, towers over the valley and its snow-capped peak lends beauty and essential water to the valley below. Red grapes have long grown in the interior, but new coastal plantations are proving the valley’s potential for white wines as well.

Viña von Siebenthal Parcela #7 Gran Reserva 2009, £16.99 – absolutely the bees knees.  40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 20% Petit Verdot, 10% Cabernet Franc. 

Bordeaux gets the Chile treatment via Switzerland (Mauro von S. left the Alps for the Andes in 1998).  It probably says something for this winery that two of their top wines have both received 95+ points from Robert Parker, no mean feat.  Their focus is on small production and high quality and they achieve this in buckets.  Whilst it is a Bordeaux blend with all the usual elegance, there is a ripeness of fruit and a sense of weight that you rarely get in a claret.  Oh, and did I mention that it was top wine in its group at the Wines of Chile Sommelier Chile Challenge?  Still not wowed?  Well, let me just finish by saying that it was absolutely gorgeous with a hunk of spice rubbed roast venison a couple of weeks back!

Again, courtesy of the WOC website, the Casablanca Valley:

Located 75 km (47 mi) northwest of Santiago, the Casablanca Valley was first planted to vine in the mid-1980s. It quickly turned a page in Chile’s winemaking history. Chile’s first cool-climate coastal region soon turned out crisp, fresh wines that caught the world’s attention, and Chile’s search for new terroirs was on. Cool Mediterranean climate with pronounced maritime influence. 540 mm (21.2 in) of rain per year. Proximity to the ocean creates cool foggy mornings ideal for top quality Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir.

Clearly Echeverrria Sauvignon Blanc Reserva 2011, £11.89 is the appropriate wine to taste from here.  Echeverria are a family run estate that has been in the wine business since the early 20^th century.  The entire family works in the running of the estate, and most of their holdings are around Molina in Curico.  Being awkward however, we chose this wine of theirs from Casablanca Valley, particularly enjoying its crisp, fresh fruitiness and long finish.  Food wise, try grilled mackerel, or maybe some chicken fajitas with spicy guacamole.

That’s it from me, the sun’s creeping out from behind a cloud, might it be a nice weekend?

Sláinte!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

An extraordinary thing happened to me earlier this week. 

You know how you carry on your life month in month out, and time passes by quickly, and you get tied up in your day-to-day existence, and before you know it a whole year has passed, and that meet-up you said would definitely happen in a few weeks has never happened, and now it’s almost forgotten about…

Well, the other day, I stumbled around the corner and BANG!, blow me, if it wasn’t Summer just standing there with a ‘bet you never thought you’d see me again’ smirk on his face (because Summer would be a he, something to do with being unreliable and letting people down)!

‘Where the hell have you been?’

‘Europe, like the rest of the sensible people, but school holidays are over now, so I thought I’d hang out in Wimbledon Park for the next few days, drink some rosé, perhaps even come on your wine and cheese tasting on Thursday 20^th September…’

I was impressed he knew the date.

And in the real world

Life goes on, cabinets get re-shuffled (shouldn’t it just be shuffled as it’s the first time of asking), east London still seems to be paved with gold, Mr Murray marches on and Prince Andrew skids backwards down the shard.  The best quote I heard was from one of the esteemed gents who descended after HRH, commenting on the panorama from the top:

‘The view was breath-taking, you could see the south coast, clear as gin!’  Clear as crystal, your days are numbered…

And in Wimbledon Park

For those of you that may have missed the announcements, we have two events coming up shortly.

Our 6 week Wine Course returns after the summer recess.  This starts on Wednesday 19^th September and concludes on Wednesday 24^th October, just before half term, very neat.  It takes place at 8pm and lasts between 1 ½ and 2 hours, and the whole course costs only £150 per person.

You’ll learn about whites, reds, fizz and sweeties plus you’ll get to try, if you want, some faulty wines to educate your palate – if you learn nothing else you will at least have tasted about 60 wines over the course, and you’re bound to like some of them.  Previous alumni have gone on to enjoy wine for many years, and this, I think, is not a bad premise.  So book a babysitter, or tell your other half they’re in charge of kids for the next six weeks, grab a likeminded pal and head on down.

Spaces still available, phone me or email me or visit me, I’m not fussy, and the wonderful world of wine will be demystified for you!

Then, Thursday 20^th September sees another return – the Cheese and Wine tasting evening.  Again this starts at 8pm, costs £15 per person and is always an exciting night.  In a nutshell, drink wine-taste cheese-chat about it.  But it’s so much more than that, it’s food and wine matching heaven, new discoveries are made and common myths exploded, who could ask for more?

As before, phone, write, visit, you know the routine.

And in Chile

Wayne set the Chilean ball rolling last week and I will continue his theme.  We trod carefully last week with the Central Valley, this week I will be venturing to the northern end of the wine lands, visiting the Limari and Choapa valleys. 

The Limarí Valley is located 470 km north of Santiago and is both an old and new wine region. Vines were first planted in the mid-16th century but more recently winegrowers have been making good use of the cool sea currents just off the coast and the morning fogs, the combination of which creates fresh wines with a distinct mineral edge – De Martino Legado Reserva Chardonnay 2010 £12.49 – is our representative here.

The Choapa Valley is located 400 km north of Santiago at Chile’s narrowest point, where there is no distinction between the Andes and the Coastal Mountains. This small, very dry valley, which historically has been coupled with Limarí, consists of two sectors, Illapel and Salamanca.  Neither have wineries in place as yet, but vineyards planted on rocky piedmont soils are producing limited quantities of high quality Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.  De Martino Legado Reserva Syrah 2010 £12.49 – is our choice here, as I said, there are no local wineries so De Martino make the wine.

That just about rounds it off from me, wines open from 5pm this evening, rosé wines installed in the fridge, butcher has ordered more sausages and is sticking meat on sticks as I write, so let’s do it!

Alex & Wayne

Fellow Wine Lovers,

The Stoke Mandeville Sports Event kicked off in big style this week and with 4,000 athletes competing, I’m sure we can look forward to thrills, excitements and disappointments over the next week or so.

This week also saw the annual Tomatino Festival in Buñol in Spain, where participants threw 120 tonnes of tomatoes at each other in a tradition that started in the 1940’s. Double-check where your passata is from is all I’m saying.

Channel 4 has come under fire for its presentation of the opening ceremony and I have to join in: Jon Snow, white suit with a white shirt, what were you thinking?

The story that gave me the biggest smile was about procrastination.  Craig from Bedfordshire bought a book entitled “52 Steps To Defeating Procrastination” and never read it.  I have to say that struck me as almost artistic!

Wine School

The six-week term starts at 8pm, Wednesday 19^th September, here at the shop.  It goes on for 6 consecutive weeks, costs £150 per person, and in this time you will taste around 60 different wines.  Homework is all on a practical basis, and you can do as much as you want!  

Haven’t signed up yet?  Full details attached for those of you who’ve been boozing snoozing in the sun somewhere – there are just a few places left.

Cheese & Wine Tasting

Thursday 20^th September at 8pm, four cheeses, with six or so wines (whites as well as reds) to match.  Tickets are £15 per person as usual, and there are a few spaces left…

Chile

For September we have teamed up again with Wines of Chile for a closer look at the country’s wines.

Chile is a long, thin, and many would say, fairly isolated country.  To put this in context, pin the top of Chile to John O’Groats and you’d find the bottom hanging out in Niger around the Southern Sahara!  

Isolated by the Andes that run the length of the country’s east, and then barely 100-150 miles to the west you’ll find the Pacific Ocean.  This isolation very often works in the vine growers’ favour since many vines grow on their own rootstocks, whereas in most other parts of the world this is not the case as vineyards have been ravaged (most notably in the late 19^th century) by a root eating louse known as Phylloxera.  Chile is protected, and strict quarantine regulations aim to keep it that way.

The long thin nature of the country gives a variety of microclimates and different soils, all bringing little bits extra to the party.  Running along the coastline we have the Humboldt current, which brings a cooling influence to those vineyards closer to the sea such as Casablanca and San Antonio/Leyda.

All this folks adds up to some very interesting wines, which we hope to explore with you all over the coming weeks.

Tasting This Weekend

To ease us all gently back in to it, we will be tasting the three wines we carry from Oyster Shack.

These wines are all from the Central Valley which stretches south from Santiago, in the corridor between the mountains and the sea.  Within the valley are a number of sub-regions with specific geographical traits – Maipo, Cachapoal, Colchagua, Curicó, Maule, Itata, Bio-Bio and Malleco.  We will look more closely at these regions as we proceed through September, but for now we’ll keep it simple with the Oyster Shack wines.

We have Sauvignon Blanc 2011, Chardonnay 2010 and Merlot 2011 they all cost £6.99 and will be open from this evening – see you after 5pm!

Transfer window closes at 11pm, put your offers in…