Archive for April, 2018

Wayne is not a muse…

Friday, April 27th, 2018

Fellow Wine Lovers,

First up, the usual plea:

I’m sure you have heard that data protection laws are changing from 28th May 2018 and this will affect how all businesses hold and use customers email addresses.

As you know, we regularly send you Park Vintners Weekly Wine –  however, as a consequence of this law change, it will be necessary for you to opt in again to our communications moving forwards.

All businesses, including Park Vintners, will have to update their database and effectively create new lists of “subscribed/legal” users.

To do this, all of our emails from now until late May will have a reminder that asks whether you want to “want to keep hearing from us”.

Please do send us an email in reply to stay subscribed – currently we have about 30% of you opted in and by opting in this  ensures you’ll be kept up to date with all of our usual nonsense the information we send out.

You will no longer hear from us after 28th May 2018 if you haven’t.

Thank you for your time – now, on with the show…

You know what, we’ve been writing this Friday email/blog in one form or another for just about 11 years now, first with Wines of the World and, since 2010, for ourselves.  Over time we’ve seen it as a challenge to produce one every week and so far we have risen to this challenge.  We scour the news both from the real world and the wine world, we often research random topics to gain everyone that extra edge in dinner party conversations and, occasionally, we mention sport.

Some weeks the email writes itself.  Give us lots of exciting wine news or something to rant about and we are on it like a car bonnet.  But every now and then we have weeks like this one.  The majority of the news seems to only have six degrees of obsessive separation from the Royal Family – yesterday afternoon the front page Reuters headlines included:

Prince William will be brother Harry’s best man at wedding

Florida man’s Princess Di collection celebrates her legacy, fills house

Meghan Markle marries in last ‘Suits’ appearance before royal wedding

And these do not even include mention of the new royal baby, what the new royal baby might be called (which we now know and can expect real-time reactions to this news all day), the fact that Prince Charles is delighted to be a grandfather again or the fact that the Queen was 92 last weekend.  And it doesn’t look likely to abate in the near future.

So, the news is giving me nothing this week, which has left me slightly bereft of inspiration.

Add to this the fact that Wayne is currently knee deep in Sake, Sushi and Sumo somewhere in the Japanese hinterland and I come to the worrying conclusions that, firstly, my muse has deserted me and, massively more disturbingly, that Wayne is perhaps my muse?!

Moving swiftly on from such aberrations, I scour the wine news and find myself reading about Bordeaux 2017 – a subject that Wayne would usually talk about – is there no end to his power over me?

Anyway, moving away from my paranoia, it seems appropriate to dally with Bordeaux for a moment since it was this day last year, 27th April, in the early hours of the morning, that a ferocious frost hit Bordeaux and destroyed so many young buds, shoots and bunches at the onset of the growing season that approximately 40% – 50% of production was lost.  Not since 1991 had Bordeaux been hit so hard and the obvious knock on effect is that we will see less wine in the market – perhaps more worryingly for many of us, it was the daily drinking Chateaux that seem to have been hit the hardest, whilst the majority of top growths got away with it!  However, it was still a very ordinary summer with a bit more rain than necessary until August turned up, hot and dry.  Then it was wet in September, which has made some of the daily wines a bit dilute…. all in all a tricky vintage, the right bank really suffered worse than the left, so good for you Cabernet lovers, a lot less good for the Merlot fans.

And what of the prices?  Well, as we all know, reality and Bordeaux property owners don’t go to the same parties, so don’t expect miracles.  Having said that, Chateau Palmer 2016 was 240 euro per bottle on release whilst the 2017 was released at 192 euro this week.  In the more realistic world, Chateau Labégorce in Margaux has released at 17.80 euro per bottle, a 10% drop.

A bargain.

Well, actually yes, if one considers that Chateau Haut-Batailley has released at 42 euros a bottle, up about 46% from the 28 euros it released the 2015 for.  Apparently they want to ‘reposition the brand’ and raising the prices like this is how you do it.  I’m fairly sure if we tried to ‘reposition our brand’ and make everything 50% more expensive we would soon find ourselves repositioned in the queue at the job centre.

The conclusion I draw from all this?  Drink Rhone wines, or Portuguese, or Spanish, or south Italian, or Czech, or Hungarian, or South African or….

With this in mind let me introduce you to the wines of Ai Galera.

Tejo is a region east of Lisbon that has been overlooked for too long, as indeed has the whole of Portugal.   This is absolutely where the value lies nowadays and I hope we will list more wines from this part of the peninsula as time goes on.  We have two wines from the winery:

Ai Galera Mistico 2017 – £8.79, is a blend of Fernão Pires and Verdelho.  Golden-yellow in the glass, entirely unoaked and with a lovely soft, satisfying, juicy fruit character.  Wayne thought some grilled sardines, Alex thought some lemon sole, what do you think?

Ai Galera Poetico 2016 – £8.79, this is a blend of the indigenous varieties Castelão 40%, Trincadeira 40% and Tinta Miúda 20%, since you ask and is utterly delicious.  Unoaked and juicy, with soft tannins, a medium body and red berry fruits that would partner up nicely with that chicken leg you’ve roasted up to a tasty crispiness for Tuesday’s supper!

So, bye bye Bordeaux, hello Tejo!

That’s it from me this week apart from admin – as an advance warning, the shop will be closed on Wednesday 2nd May during the day, hopefully opening in the evening – I have a rather important appointment out of town and will endeavour to get back as soon as I can, apologies in advance for any inconvenience – I will be here all the rest of the week, I promise!

Enjoy the weekend, drink some wine and recycle your bottles because, as Mr Macron told congress, there is no planet B!

Mum’s the Word

Friday, April 13th, 2018

Fellow Wine Lovers,

As the fine line between missives and missiles appears to get ever more blurred, we’ve found our week to have been taken up with administration. Mostly the double input of a quarterly VAT return if I’m honest, and fortunately for me I seemed to have bagged the quietest quarter for my turn!

Some news that has amused us arrives from Argentina, the land famous for Malbec, meat and, it would appear, marijuana.  Eight police officers have been sacked after it was found that the 6000kg of marijuana they had under lock and key was, in fact, only 5460kg. The missing half ton or so was explained as having been “eaten by mice”. Now, while we may have some sympathy with how the story started…mice eats hash, gets the munchies, eats more hash….even our sympathetic ear finds 540kg a lot for a mouse.

It did make us go and listen to Eek-a Mouse’s “Ganga Smuggling” for the first time in a long while. Dung dung dilli dung dung…

In wine related news, the remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge have been found in a 17th century wine cellar below a 19th century church in Highgate. The author of Kubla Kahn and the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, was, by most reports, no stranger to a glass or two, so I’m sure would be fairly happy with his position. He lived the last few years of his life in a house overlooking the church, Kate Moss owns it now, a different sort of poetry I’m sure.

Otherwise it’s all quiet on the western front.  The Commonwealth Games have been progressing and it gives me great pleasure to tell you that Last came first. Yes, we’ve medals in the cross-country mountain biking, a gold and silver for England with Annie Last and Evie Richards.

It’s the Grand National at 5.15 on Saturday, I really have no clue who might win, but will have an each way on Baie des Iles as I like the idea that Katie Walsh would become the first woman jockey to win it (she was 3rd in 2012). I would warn you however, that the horse is a seven year old grey mare trained by her husband. A grey hasn’t won in 50 years, and a mare since 1951, which was more recent than 1940, the last time a seven year old won.

Tasting This Weekend

We thought it might be nice to have a red and white from the same place this week so are heading down towards the Pyrenees for a couple of wines from our chums at Domaine Treloar.

Jonathan and Rachel own and run this small, highly-regarded vineyard and winery in the Roussillon. Their path was rather unusual, after working in IT for 15 years, they were living almost next door to the World Trade Center when it was destroyed in 2001.

Having experienced that disaster at first hand, they decided to change direction, heading to Rachel’s native home of New Zealand where Jonathan studied oenology and viticulture at Lincoln University. He graduated top of the class, and then worked as the Assistant Winemaker at Neudorf Vineyards for 2 years. In 2006 they founded Domaine Treloar where they do everything in both vineyard and winery themselves.

In 2013 they were chosen as the Coup de Coeur (Favourite) Roussillon producer by La Revue du Vin de France, the country’s most influential wine magazine.

We love their wines and sporting the white jacket will be La Terre Promise 2016 (£18.49). A blend of Grenache Gris (50%), Macabeu (30%) and Carignan Blanc (20%).  A rich weighty white that’ll be delicious with some garlic and herb roasted chicken, or Boullabaise if you have time.

We understand that “Motus et bouche cousou” means Mum’s The Word in French, and wearing the rather fetching red jacket will be Motus 2015 (£18.49) a very smart red made mostly from Mourvèdre. In fact, a bit more Mourvèdre than is strictly permitted under the rules, Mum’s the Word (taps nose and winks!). It’ll be a delight with some slow cooked lamb.

Lastly, we were chuffed, completely made up even, with the number of you who would like to still hear from us.

Thanks very much.

I’m sure you have heard that data protection laws are changing from 28th May 2018 and this will affect how all businesses hold and use customers email addresses.

As you know, we regularly send you Park Vintners Weekly Wine – as a consequence of this law change, it will be necessary for you to opt in again to our communications moving forwards.

All businesses, including Park Vintners, will have to update their database and effectively create new lists of “subscribed/legal” users.

To do this, all of our email’s from now until late May will have a reminder that asks whether you want to “want to keep hearing from us”.

Please do send us an email in reply to stay subscribed.

This will ensure you’re kept up to date with all of our usual nonsense the information we send out.

You will no longer hear from us after 28th May 2018 if you haven’t.

Thank you for your time – on with the show…

The one about Data Protection Laws….

Friday, April 6th, 2018

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I’m sure you have heard that data protection laws are changing from 28th May 2018 and this will affect how all businesses hold and use customers email addresses.

As you know, we regularly send you Park Vintners Weekly Wine – as a consequence of this law change, it will be necessary for you to opt in again to our communications moving forwards.

All businesses, including Park Vintners, will have to update their database and effectively create new lists of “subscribed/legal” users.

To do this, all of our email’s from now until late May will have a reminder that asks whether you want to “want to keep hearing from us”.

Please do send us an email in reply to stay subscribed.

This will ensure you’re kept up to date with all of our usual nonsense the information we send out.

You will no longer hear from us after 28th May 2018 if you haven’t.

Thank you for your time – now, on with the show…

Easter has passed, we’re all back on the things we were off for lent (very royal ‘we’ since Wayne never gives up anything!) and this weekend is sports-tastic.

First up, the Commonwealth games snuck up on us. Seemingly it snuck up on the Brownlee brothers too who were caught napping and undertrained for the running bit of their triathlon. It was a bit alarming for the podium band too as it seemed they hadn’t practiced enough national anthems!

It’s the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend too, Sebastian Vettel won the first race and indeed this race last year, so it should be interesting to see how the floodlight event pans out. Will Lewis channel his frustrations into a winning strategy and will Bottas manage to stay on the track? It’s all there for the viewing.

Augusta National is apparently in fine shape as we move into the Masters. The battle for the Green Jacket includes Tiger Woods for the first time in three years, and Wayne is hoping all the focus on him may just allow Rory McIlroy to sneak in. I don’t know what he was thinking with his way out January email predictions. Alex is going for Rickie Fowler, more for tradition than anything else, but you never know!

In real sports, it’s the Paris-Roubaix bike race, also known as The Hell of the North. Looks like a relatively short flat race but just remember if anyone asks you to ride the 257km route, the only sensible answer is “Non”. There are 29 sections of energy sapping, tooth rattling cobbles covering a distance of 54.5km. Peter Sagan looks to be the bookies favourite, followed by last year’s winner Greg van Avermaet. We thought Luke Rowe was looking pretty good last week before his disqualification but it’s still early in his comeback from a broken leg, so keep an eye on Belgian cyclocross man Wout van Aert.

If you’re reading this in Beijing, that Napa Cabernet Sauvignon you regularly enjoy with that USDA pork chop just got way more expensive as Trumpolina and Mr Xi engage in silly trade tariff nonsense. A negotiating table looms in the not too distant future we suspect but, in the meantime, try something local.

Tasting This Weekend

We’ll fill the white corner with a bottle of the Barton Blanc 2015 (£8.99), a cracking blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Semillon from down in Walker Bay, South Africa. Alex spoke to Annie this week and it seems there has finally been some proper rain in the last few days, so hopefully that’ll serve to take the edge of the drought. This will quench our thirsts in the interim.

In the red corner we will have Feudo Antico Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2014 (£12.49), a full-bodied, cherry fruited, sappy little number with a touch of smoke in there too and just the thing to partner a rich ragù after a wet and windy Paris-Roubaix!

That’s all from us – please do let us know if you want to keep on receiving these missives as soon as possible so we can keep you on the list.

Cheers!