The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Whoop, whoop-di-whoop, it’s the 30^th January!  The first and worst month is drawing to a close and February is ready to go… however, before we get carried away, some important admin:

• As a reminder, tomorrow, Saturday 31^st January, we will be closing promptly at 6pm as we need to be elsewhere in a hurry!
• Tuesday 3^rd February we will be opening a bit later, as we need to attend a supplier tasting in the City but we should be back by 3pm.
• The famous January sale, 6 for 5 etc etc etc will finish on Saturday 31^st January, at close of play.
• We still have a number of spaces available on our Wine & Cheese Tasting on Thursday 12^th February – starts at 7.30pm – £30 per person (tickets need to be purchased in advance) – don’t miss out!

Right, enough of that, more of this.  I won’t be telling you anything you don’t know but frankly, it’s been another week worth forgetting.  Hosepipe bans have finally been lifted all over the country and our Exeter correspondent tells us that since they have already had 222% of their expected January rainfall, the local Wetherspoons has also experienced a 222% increase in takings.  Spooners – keeping the southwest saturated.

Speaking of pubs, this week’s government U-turn announcement was that pubs and music venues would receive a rates relief package giving a 15% discount and then a two-year freeze in real terms, followed by a change in revaluation methods before 2029.  Hooray, I hear you say and you’d be right, they’ve saved the pub!  However, what about wine bars and restaurants, why haven’t they been afforded the same treatment?  Shouldn’t pubs and bars and restaurants all be under the same umbrella, don’t they offer similar services?  How can the government be so inept and unable to see the whole picture – oh, wait a minute… During Covid, one of the rumoured reasons for why we were allowed to stay open as ‘essential’ was based on the idea that since the supermarkets were allowed to sell alcohol, we should also be allowed to, in order to prevent them having an advantage/a monopoly/taking away our business.  I know it’s different now to 2020 but surely the cafés, restaurants and wine bars are being disadvantaged for no good reason.

We expect an imminent U-turn addendum.

In other news, the Australian Open tennis continues in sweltering heat and we’ve got a Brit in the Men’s Doubles final.  Another Brit, Emma Raducanu (2021 US Open Winner) has parted ways with her 9^th coach since that slam win, a man whose CV includes being a coach to Rafa Nadal for 17 years, during which time he won 22 Grand Slams.  It’s not me, it’s you…

Speaking of faded sporting glory, Tottenham Hotspur FC (First Division Winners 1950–51 & 1960–61) who can just about score a goal a game in the Premiership and have only won 7 games thus far, somehow managed to finish 4^th in the Champions League first round.  They won 5 of their 8 matches, scored 17 goals and have a coach who looks baffled by the whole thing – perhaps Francisco Roig might be able to help.

As we’re February bound, we are also Six Nations bound.  In a first, France will be playing Ireland on Thursday night (5^th February) which is clearly a fixture scheduled with travelling fans in mind rather than big money TV deals.  They claim that they don’t want to clash with the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics that takes place on Friday but I’m honestly not sure how much audience crossover there would be!

Back here in SW19 we’ve decided that the wines on tasting this weekend will be French.  With the risk of a 222% tariff being put on their wines exported to the USA, we thought they could do with some help.

The white, with a nod to their President, will be Genetie Mâc(r)on Charnay ‘Les Piliers’ 2023 – £17.49.  Charnay is one of the smallest of the Mâcon Villages, also renowned as one of the best.  The name Genetie is from an engraving on a protected pillar at the estate.  The wine is excellent, crisp and mineral with spring floral notes and stone fruit character and a full citrusy palate with a lingering finish.

The red, with a nod to the weather, is a classic claret.  Château Curton La Perrière 2020 – £18.29 was a new one to us late last year.  It is 100% Merlot from 30-year-old vines grown on clay and limestone just 15km south of St Émilion.  Blah, blah, soil types grapes… I know.  To put it another way perhaps we could say… “this is like a Pomerol for less than £20.  Form an orderly queue!”

That must be it from us, and it needs to be, as my hands have gone numb from the cold.  Any of you Dry-Janners, well done, welcome back, now don’t do it again!

Santé!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Things that one might say if they were under-researched or perhaps deliberately wanted to mislead people to fit an agenda:

I haven’t been able to find any Big Macs in McDonald’s – surely the only place to buy them?

I haven’t been able to find any Catholics in Vatican City – surely a 100% catholic population?

“I haven’t been able to find any windfarms in China” – surely the world’s biggest producer of wind energy (with USA in second place)

“Stupid people buy windfarms” – to confirm, the USA has 75,000 of these windmills, Sancho.

I must apologise, I spent Wednesday afternoon doing paperwork and listening to Davos discourse whilst wondering why I subject myself to such unedifying tasks.  Sadly, because the weather was so dreary, I wasn’t overwhelmed by customers and, consequently, was able to spreadsheet uninterrupted and listen to the entirety of the 70-minute POTUS speech, which is an hour I will never get back.  In truth, he didn’t cover any new ground, occasionally reinventing the laws of maths (percentages again) and promising that the attraction of Greenland had nothing to do with rare earth mineral deposits as it’s just a “very expensive, very big piece of ice.”

Pants on fire.

So, that’s the last of my New Year Resolutions up in flames.  The Dry January thing was never going to have any traction and, whilst the gym membership is being paid for, the treadmills haven’t been under too much threat from these feet.  Now, I’ve only gone and given Trump some airtime which is something I’ve been trying to avoid and, frankly, I’m both angry and disappointed with myself but at least I’ve avoided talking about the Beckham’s!

In positive news, we tasted 152 wines on Tuesday, which is more taxing on the palate and a lot less fun that it sounds.  Just about half the wines tasted were En Primeur 2024 Burgundies which can make life even harder as you basically taste 36 Chardonnay of similar quality followed by an equivalent number of Pinot Noir.  I know, tune up the tiny violins but not every wine is a superstar and, as Adam Bruntlett from BBR surmised, “A challenging vintage, but it was possible to make good and very good wines for short- and medium-term drinking”.  For us, the whites were showing better than the reds but then, that’s often our position with Burgundy.

But it’s not just us that can do wine tasting, you can too.  We still have spaces on our first Wine & Cheese tastings of 2026:

Thursday 12^th February – 7.30pm

Thursday 12^th March – 7.30pm

The cost is £30 per person and as ever, first come – first served, we have more spaces available in February than in March, just so you know!

‘Go bring to me a pint o wine, And fill it in a silver tassie;’

Neither of us are at all Scottish but we do like a bit of Burns Night.  Robert, as seen above, and whilst famously a lover of whisky, clearly also had time in his calendar for a hearty draught of wine, which we admire.  For those unversed in such things, this Sunday, 25^th January, would be Mr Burns’ 267^th birthday and will be celebrated worldwide with haggis, neeps, tatties and over exuberant cod-Scottish accents addressing the ‘Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race’!  Oblivious as to whether or not you will be indulging on Sunday, we will be tasting wines this weekend that would match the aforementioned dinner.

The white is a wine we have sold ever since we opened but rarely gets put out on tasting (no idea why not!) since Percheron Chenin Blanc-Viognier 2024 – £10.49 always hits the spot!  A deliciously rich blend of 80% Chenin Blanc (where some of the vines are over 40 years old) and 20% Viognier, it is vibrant and aromatic with delicious generous fresh apricot, nectarine and hints of passion fruit on the nose and a creamy palate with real fresh fruit flavours, fleshy, just-picked apricots and hints of guava.

We would always prefer a red with our Scottish dinner and the Rhône makes for happy hunting ground.  This week’s choice is ‘La Côte Sauvage’ Cairanne 2022 – £21.99.  Fully ripe Grenache and Syrah grapes are hand-picked from old bush vines within Cairanne, giving us a rich and intense wine drenched in dark red fruits.  Morello cherry and a touch of sweet spice on the nose, ripe berry, liquorice, chocolate, summer pudding and a hint of cinnamon spice on the palate, this wine is full flavoured and smooth with supple tannins.  Built for Haggis….

That’s pretty much it from us for this week – don’t forget we are still in January Sale mode for another week so, if you fancy a six box of your favourites, now is the time!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We seem to be here already, Friday popping up on the calendar as we’ve barely wished the last one adieu! We’ve spent the week chasing up paper work from December, waving at customers as they pass by and trying to stay warm. Even the VAT return has been completed so I think we’re now ready to move gently into tasting season.

First up this week, our thoughts are with the poorly astronauts who had to cut short their stargazing. All those months of training down the Swanee. Being ill on the space station can’t be fun though and an 11 hour flight to splash down in the ocean is a smidge different to us popping to see the folks next door for a pack of paracetamol.

Elsewhere in the world, the news is fairly grim. We wonder if perhaps Donald might like to look up Napoleon to investigate the possible consequences of war on too many fronts, particularly Russia…

He wants Greenland to be part of the USA, apparently being an ally is insufficient. Fairwayland, Bunkerland and Teeland are all speaking to their lawyers, whilst Iceland has offered him a discount of 10% if he shops on Tuesdays. It made me wonder if we could interest him in Canvey Island, there’s a golf course, the remains of an oil refinery and a 17^th century Dutch cottage!

Closer to home, Kemi Badenoch has fired Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership for being about to defect to Reform. It seems the small bump in the polls might have been enough to push him over the top. No chance to succeed Kemi, with an improving Tory Party polling, naturally makes you think Farage I guess. Seems the genius left his resignation letter in the printer tray! Now he’s lost the ministerial car it is the duty of all of us to make sure he pays his rail fares.

Looks like he’s met Big Nige for that pint, as he’s already had his ‘welcome home’ press conference – I laughed out loud at “put aside personal ambition” and then the rather predictable lines were about a broken Britain. Given who formed the government of the last dozen or more years, you might wonder why Reform keeping hiring those who broke it!

Whilst we’re on the subject of Reform, they just announced their leader in Scotland as Lord Offord. Now, call me old fashioned but I struggle to understand why anybody in Scotland, or Wales for that matter, would vote for an English Nationalist Party.  

Points of Order/Diary Notes

It’s that time of year again when a plethora of tastings spread across our calendar. With that in mind, we will be closed for the entire day on Tuesday 20^th January as two of our bigger suppliers have, like last year, both chosen the same date.

Not tasting related but unavoidably we will also close early at 6.30pm on Saturday 31^st January.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

So whilst we’re on the subject of tasting, what are we having on the table this weekend?

White wise we’ll weigh in with Reserve de Gassac 2024 (£14.99) – A wonderful blend of Viognier and Marsanne from the Languedoc.  Fresh and floral with stone fruit and hints of herbs, it has an elegance to it too. The vines are planted in small plots or clearings surrounded by forest and garrigue. The wines consequently soak up the fragrances of the surrounding plant life. Wonderful attention to detail for a wine at this price.

On the red front, we’re going with Palacio Del Camino Real Reserva 2019 (£15.99) – A traditional style of Rioja that is anything but ordinary.Expressive from the first sniff: ripe, with succulent cherry, plum and strawberry fruit notes, complexity from oak spice and a balsamic lift. On the palate it’s beautifully balanced, with silky, well-integrated tannins framing the fruit perfectly. Swish with abandon, it’s a real second glasser!

Two final notes – our January Sale continues with the magnificent 6 for 5 offer on much of the wine on the shelves; also, we still have spaces on our Wine & Cheese tastings on Thursday 12^th February and Thursday 12^th March both starting at 7.30pm, £30 per person, should you care to join us!

That’s it from us, let’s all try and be nice to each other, it might rub off!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Right, it’s day 9, time to get this party started.  It’s the second Friday of the year, the second weekend coming up and January is cantering away, thank goodness.  For those of you who are about to fall off the wagon this weekend, we salute your endeavours and admire your persistence thus far but, let’s face it, it’s cold outside, it’s grey and the world needs to be made to look a little rosier right now (although perhaps not with Rosé, as stocks are quite low!).

Our year started with an avalanche of new pricelists blocking our doorway as we tried to access the shop on Monday morning.  Thanks to the Chancellors benevolence, all alcoholic drinks will go up by 3.66% on February 1^st and, given that duty rates are calculated in 0.5% ABV increments, this means that an 11.5% Vinho Verde will now cost us 10 pence more to buy whilst a 14.5% Aussie Shiraz is 12 pence more.  Sure, we’re talking pennies but this is before VAT has been added, so 10p becomes 12p and 12p becomes 15p and then, at some point the retailer needs to put a bit of margin on too, so yes, prices will creep up, again.  Shall we get this party started whilst we can still afford to?

But it’s not all gloom and doom because, as hinted last week, the Park Vintners January Sale is now in full flight.  We’re offering the same discount that we have done for the last 14 years – buy 6 bottles, pay for 5.  This is restricted to beer, wine and Champagne (with a few top shelf exceptions) and is fully mixable – you can buy 5 beers and a bottle of Bollinger and you’ll get the full 16.666666% off your purchase.  See, we can get the party started, at least for now.  This offer will cease at 5pm on the 31^st, so you’ve got a couple of weeks and, let’s face it, even if you are doing Dry January, wouldn’t it be nicer to buy wine that is 16% less rather than 4% more, ready for February?!

Whilst we’ve obviously been as busy as ever in this first week of the New Year, we did manage to grab a couple of minutes to look at the calendar and put some dates in for the first Wine & Cheese tastings of 2026:

• Thursday 12^th February – 7.30pm – 12 spaces available
• Thursday 12^th March – 7.30pm – 12 spaces available

The cost is £30 per person and as ever, first come – first served, don’t dally and risk disappointment!

In Westminster, insincere Keir has been talking beer, or more accurately he has admitted that many hospitality businesses would struggle with the changes in business rates.  Happily, he and his pit-crew are very used to executing U-turns in tight situations so expect one very soon.  Elsewhere, the last thing we never knew we needed is now finally available at eltonjohnzero.com.  Elton John Zero Blanc de Blancs is, according to the Rocket Man himself: “… born from a simple yet exquisite idea – to create a world where every moment of celebration can be shared by all. Our 0% alcohol Blanc de Blancs captures the elegance, effervescence, and joy of a traditional Blanc de Blancs, without compromise”

It’s also available at Sainsbury’s and Amazon and is made by Benchmark Drinks, who are responsible for all of Kylie’s ‘creations’, so I think we can all see what is going on here.  However, really the biggest disappointment must be the completely missed god-given opportunity to call it ‘I’m Still Standing’!

Sport has not been generous to some of us thus far this year: Harlequins, Spurs and England cricket all need to be watched from behind the sofa and the fact that Arsenal didn’t’ collapse over Christmas doesn’t make things any easier, so we’ll move on and return to wine.

To tickle your tastebuds this weekend, we’ll be opening the following brace of beauties:

Highgate Chardonnay 2022 – £14.99 hails from Hunter Valley in sunny New South Wales and has been an absolute hit since we listed it in October, here’s your chance to find out why.  Aromas of ripe stone fruits, citrus blossom and a touch of flinty minerality lead into a palate that’s bright yet textured.  There’s a subtle influence of oak, adding gentle spice and creamy weight, but it remains beautifully restrained, allowing the peach, nectarine and lemon curd flavours to shine.  A lift of acidity in the finish keeps it fresh, vivacious and hugely appealing.

San Marzano ‘Il Pumo’ Primitivo 2023 – £14.49 is from deep in the south of Italy.  Sometimes we think it’s important to just choose a wine because it makes for great drinking regardless of what food you have.  This is one of those – an aromatic wine with plenty of rich dark plum/prune fruit aromas, and some garrigue herbs.  All this is present on the palate too which is soft yet pretty full-bodied with nicely integrated tannins make it perfect for fireside drinking!

I think that’s probably enough from us for now, come and taste some wine, buy some wine and let’s get this year started!