Fellow Wine Lovers,
A very good day to you all. I guess you’re away somewhere as there are parking spots galore around these parts. Even the Lime bikes were fitting in their spot when I arrived.
We’ve heard check-ins from people painting near Aberystwyth, mountain biking and hiking near Chamonix, chilling in Ireland and ‘just hot’ in Greece. Southern Spain’s mid-high 20’s temperatures alongside a pool and inexpensive wine proved too big a draw for Alex who has left the building. Manuel next door has headed off for the month, returning on the 26th August.
Mr and Mrs Starmer have had a trip to Scotland to not play golf, Donald Trump was there too, lobbying for the Open to be held at Turnberry, but mostly playing golf to his own rules.
The Lionesses won the European Championship for the second time running, with Lucy Bronze having played the entire tournament with a fractured tibia. No messing, that is Double Hard! With that kind of toughness she could have been a cyclist!
Talking of which, attention has now switched from the men to the women for the Tour de France. Kasia Niewiadoma is hoping to defend her title, Marianne Vos, Puck Pieterse and Demi Vollering among those trying to ensure she doesn’t.
The news that made me smile was the Bishop of Fulham appearing in his dressing gown. The City Academy Voices Choir had hired St Andrew’s in Holborn for an evening concert and was just coming to the end of their repertoire when the lights went out. He then stood at a microphone, barefoot in his dressing gown and said: “You are in my house. It’s gone past 10pm and this is a terrible racket,” “Goodnight. You are in my house – can you leave it now please. Thank you, it’s over.” Now, call me old fashioned, but I’d expect a Bishop to be a little less rude to the Choir that has rented his church and 10 o’clock doesn’t seem to be so late to be finishing a concert. Perhaps he’d hoped to become Archbishop of Wales? Cherry Vann, formerly Bishop of Monmouth, has become Britain’s first woman Archbishop. Chapeau!
Tasting Evenings
The Sparkling Wine evening sold out quicker than you can say ‘Pop’.
We do still have some spaces for the following Cheese and Wine dates.
• THURSDAY 2nd OCTOBER – 7.30PM
• THURSDAY 6TH NOVEMBER – 7.30PM
• THURSDAY 27TH NOVEMBER – 7.30PM
We have a maximum of 12 people per tasting and a seat at the table costs £30, first come, first served. You can reserve your place by giving us a call on 020 8944 5224 or just pop in and see us on Arthur Road.
As we mentioned last week, today is ‘Celebrate Albariño Day’. The Rías Baixas region specialises in Albariño, and is thus considered to be its true heartland, nestled up in the far north-western corner of Spain beside the wind-swept Atlantic coast. We opened some last week that went down so well we had to have a re-stock!
It’s also ‘Yorkshire Day’. We have no wines from there, but do have a great day all those that celebrate!
Tasting This Weekend
We thought we’d head down under this week to the land of the long cloud. Our correspondents on the spot confirm that is indeed rather cloudy and chilly. We thought we’d give a couple of Pinot’s a go.
From Marlborough we’ll crack open the Wairau River Pinot Gris 2022(£18.99) – Wairau River have some of the earliest plantings of Pinot Gris in Marlborough and this wine really captures the essence of the regions clean and pure climate. This has succulent ripe pear character on the nose, with melon, apple and apricot flavours, nice mouth weight and an exotic lingering finish.
Then we’ll hop off to Nelson for Heaphy Pinot Noir 2023 (£18.99) – Heaphy Vineyard is a small winery in the north-west corner of New Zealand’s South Island, a region named Nelson Tasman. First planted in 1973, the vines are amongst the very oldest productive vineyards in New Zealand. This Pinot Noir is from 3 vineyards in Tasman, Upper Moutere and Ruby Bay. When we tasted it we thought it was a bit of a revelation. Nice, easy going, open fruit character with a lovely soft juicy finish.
Amazing what chaos 20 minutes of downtime on a radar system can cause, eh?
Have a great weekend.