Fellow Wine Lovers,
A quick apology – all the fantastic, efficient service, witty repartee and solid wine advice that you have become so accustomed to over the last six weeks has been heavily diluted over the last few days. Yep, Alex is back; he seems to have forgotten where everything is and how much it costs, brought bad weather and a broken toe with him plus post bank holiday gloom and doom. Welcome back chum, we’ve really missed you!
However his return didn’t cast a cloud over everyone’s week, we’ll leave that to Berlusconi’s Icelandic volcano. Whilst we are deep in AFC Wimbledon country here, and I’m sure we have a few Man U fans out there, one cannot help but admire the MK Dons 4-0 scoreline from Tuesday evening. One hell of a beating and one can only guess at how much claret was spilt at the Ferguson household!
Otherwise it’s business as usual. Heather Watson loses in the first round of the US Open, Andy Murray strolls through his second round match, the media pundits are debating the future of Alistair Cook and Tottenham top the Premiership.
Elsewhere, in the wide world of wine we have an earthquake in Napa causing an estimated 4 billion dollars worth of damage. Kerala in southern India continues with its plans to have a dry state within 10 years by closing hundreds of bars throughout the region. Except for the ones in 5* hotels – know thy master, perhaps. Pernod Ricard post a decline in net profit that can be linked directly to the clampdown on gift giving in China – they own Chivas Regal and Martell, so say no more.
WINE & CHEESE TASTING – Thursday 4th September – 8pm
Owing to a bit of diary mismanagement we now have two spare tickets available for the tasting next Thursday. For those of you who haven’t been before the tasting goes something like this: we select 4 cheeses with the aid of the chaps from Norbiton Fine Cheese and then we match 5 wines, a sweetie and a beer with them, hopefully successfully! We taste them altogether and discuss the various merits and drawbacks of each selection. Fun, informal and full of cheese – what more does one need on a Thursday evening?
Tickets are £20 per person – clearly they are in short supply so first come, first served.
WINES ON THE TABLE TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
As ever we will have a couple of bottles open for you to sample from 5pm this evening. In a massive break with tradition we will be opening a Pinot Grigio for your pleasure. We have often found Pinot Grigio to be a bit over-rated, with the obvious exceptions of the ones we sell, and have never put one on tasting before, until tonight.
DI LENARDO ‘GOSSIP’ PINOT GRIGIO RAMATO 2013, VENEZIA GIULIA, ITALIA – £14.99
Ramato means ‘coppery’ in Italian and this refers to the colour of the wine rather than the taste. The wine gets this gentle rosy tinge from 18 hours of skin contact with the grapes. The nose has delicious red fruit and pear aromas whilst the palate has some real fruit character and a lovely crisp finish. Pink Pinot Grigio never, ever tasted this good!
BREZZA VIGNA SANTA ROSALIA BARBERA D’ ALBA 2012, PIEMONTE, ITALIA – £19.99
A beautiful Barbera with a distinctively elegant, floral character. Vinified with no oak contact whatsoever and capped with a distinctive glass closure to help keep freshness. Designed to be drunk young it has delicious cherry character and some balanced tannins on the finish which make it a natural match for cured meats and foods with a bit of fattiness.
Bit of a watershed weekend this one as we all transition from August to September, from holidays to school, from flop-flops to brogues. We suggest keeping the August, holiday, flop-flop thing going for one more weekend with a glass of wine and a barbecue and worry about September school brogues on Monday!
Glass of Pinot Grigio Wayne? Don’t mind if I do….