The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Queens tennis in the afternoon, Euro football in the evening, US Open Golf following on from that – it’s already a busy weekend in Park Vintners World (new theme park coming soon), before we’ve even thought about selling any wine!

Elsewhere the Leveson enquiry is keeping us all entertained, although it’s doubtful whether any findings will really affect the lives of us in the ‘real’ world; Spain is having a ‘Uganda’ moment, although we can confirm that temperature wise you would definitely prefer to be in Malaga rather than Merton; and Harry got the sack – finishing fourth in the Premiership is now considered failure, or are there more skeletons in the Redknapp cupboard yet to have their day in court?!

Don’t forget…

As I ran out of aftershave on Monday morning, it made me realise that we were rapidly approaching one of the most important days of this year (after the Gold Cup and Olympic Mens 100m, of course) – Fathers Day. 

Yes indeed, this Sunday, 17^th June, is the day when men around the country are awoken by cold cups of tea and undercooked bacon sarnies, accompanied by more child-produced noise than is strictly necessary at 8am on a weekend morning… Go on Dad, enjoy your day.

However, if you had forgotten until now, we can help.

We have sturdy red wines, bubbles, Port, Whisky, sipping Gin, local beers and much, much more, all of which would work a treat to revive the aforementioned cold cup of tea…

Sud de France

As mentioned last week, we’ll be looking at wines from the south of France on our tasting table over the next couple of weeks.  This week we are visiting the Pays d’Herault.

Hérault is surrounded by the departments of Aude, Tarn, Aveyron, Gard, and the Mediterranean sea on the south. Top quality land here is hard to find, but ever-improving wine-making and use of top international varieties rather than lesser local ones, has resulted in wines of truly excellent quality.  Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Grenache are the dominant red grapes, while Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Marsanne and Viogner are the main whites.

The reputation of Hérault received its biggest boost by the success of the wine Domaine Mas de Daumas Gassac, located to the north of Montpellier.

Aimé Guibert, the founder of the Domaine, planted an eccentric mixture of vines on fine, volcanic soil that was identified by oneologist Emile Peynaud to be capable of producing wines of Cru standard, which led to it famously being described as’ The First Growth of the Languedoc’ by vinous luminary Hugh Johnson – and over the last 30 years the wines have more than lived up to these words.

Now, having got your palates tingling in anticipation, I hate to say that we will not be showing the top wine this weekend (although we do have it in stock!) but will be showing the more everyday drinkers produced by the Domaine for enjoying whilst waiting for the top wines to grow into themselves.

Réserve de Gassac Blanc 2011 – £10.99:  Unoaked Viognier with the addition of Marsanne, Roussanne and Chardonnay.  Tropical fruits and herbs on the nose, soft and ripe on the palate, a good aromatic finish with a streak of minerality too.  Superb with snails…

Moulin de Gassac Classic Rouge 2010 – £8.99:  A blend of Mourvedre, Syrah and Grenache.  Typical wine of the region – a pleasantly spicy palate with abundant savoury red fruits, and an enduringly tasty finish.  On their website they recommend it with Chicken Tikka Masala, which seemed so out of character for a French estate that it has to be tried!

Oh, and did we mention, they’re both organic too.

So, you simply have to come and see us this weekend – if not to catch up on sport, then at least to buy a Father’s day gift – and whilst your here, you might as well try the wines too!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

The thing that caught my eye this week was news that the town of Dull in Perthshire, is pairing up with Boring in Oregon. There are signs going up in both places, and plans are afoot for t-shirts and parties! The fun just writes itself…population wise we have less Dull (84) and more Boring (10000) people. Dull community councillor Marjorie Keddie said “It might seem like a joke but this could have real benefits for Dull.”

Elsewhere it’s time for the Euros. I mean the football tournament rather than foreign exchange foolishness!

I don’t know about you but I’m quite looking forward to reading something about football rather than what may, or may not, be chanted on the terraces, and how big the police guns are in Poland.  What price a Rooney hissy fit before the end?

Coming Soon

Wayne snuck off to Clerkenwell this week to taste a couple of staggeringly good wines from the Mornington Peninsular. We’d tried to buy some already but the old vintage was finished. The good news though is that the new vintage is on a boat headed for Tilbury as we speak, so as soon as they are in we’ll let you know.

Cheese & Wine – 14^th June 8pm £15.

We’ve ordered the cheeses already so that we pick them up in peak condition. We chose all French this time, just the wines to select now. Mmm.

Weekend Wine Tasting

We’ve linked up with Sud de France to try and bring some sunshine to our corner of SW19, so over the next few weeks we’ll have a waltz round the vineyards of the Mediterranean end of France.

We’ll start off with 2011 Domaine Antugnac Chardonnay (£10.99) which is from 50 km south of Carcassonne. The estate’s vineyards are planted on slopes at about 500m in a high valley in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Here we have shallow clay-limestone soils, where the cool night time temperatures’ mitigate the warm Mediterranean heat. I can tell you about the cool fermentation temperatures, the malolactic fermentation and the time resting on lees in tank but let’s face it what you want to know is… Does it taste good? Come try it and find out!

We’ll follow up with a red 2011 Domaine Massamier La Mignarde (£9.49) who can trace their history back to a Roman legionary called Maximus whowas given a villa on this land which still stands to this day. The estate is at Pépieux, in the heart of the Minervois, just below the Montagne Noir with its rich soils. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Cinsault, Syrah and Grenache, it displays typical southern French concentration of garrigue herby notes but with juicy red and dark fruits. Nice one Centurion!

See you at the weekend folks!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week has been a busy week for the wine trade. Natural wines showed their affinity with number 9 buses by having not one but two wine fairs, the annual London Wine Fair was on at ExCel (so was a Defence Industry fair (just me or are wine and guns a scary combination?).

But we toughed it out, putting in a palate testing couple of hours at The Real Wine Fair on Monday and then each spending a day at ExCel. Neighbours, be assured though, we resisted the pull of the sparkling new guns and opportunity to wear combats, and stayed in the chino comfort zone that is the Wine Trade Fair. Wayne even managed to squeeze in some Elvis Costello at the Royal Albert Hall.

Wedding Wine Gift

This time of year we often chat with customers who are heading off to the weddings of chums who have been together a while (indeed Alex is doing just that in a few weeks time).  They are struggling with what to buy as a gift, said couple already having a toaster, rolling pin and pillow-cases, so might we be able to suggest a wine or two?

Well we have gone one better than that, we have put together a Six Box in a Gift Pack. There is Champagne to celebrate having survived the day itself, a red and white to help with the thank you cards and the first dinner as “marrieds”, and a further three bottles that can be enjoyed as the mood takes them, but are of such quality that they could be kept for toasting anniversaries over the next five years or so.

All this will set you back £105 (Which is less than a set of bedding from Cath Kidston!) and full tasting notes are attached.

Twitter

One of the conferences Wayne attended was on the use of social media, and we are expecting to him to be more clued up as a result. If you are interested in joining in the fun as we explore this brave new world you’ll find us under our name…ParkVintners. We’ll confess we’ve been there a while and have thus far been fairly rubbish at it, we’re hoping to change that.

Giro d’Italia – Tasting this Weekend

As I write this on a sunny Thursday evening in Wimbledon Park, the 18^th Stage has just finished in Vedelago and Mark Cavendish has a slender lead of 29 points in the Red Jersey points competition, despite being outwitted and pipped on the line by rookie Andrea Guardini.

We of course haven’t had to expend anywhere near as much energy, just gently swirling, then raising glasses and tipping our heads. In those glasses this week we shall have Rami Falanghina 2010 (£12.49) and Brunato Il Cocco 2010 (£12.89).

Rami Falanghina 2010 is from Molise in the Southern Apennine Mountains where wine has been produced since the time of the Romans and Alessio di Majo is the latest in a line of Di Majo’s who have farmed this land since the 1800’s. That said, I’m not here for history lessons, I am here to tell you about the wine. He uses only organic vineyard techniques and has a new modern winery,   but it is his choice of the best of his old vine Falanghina that drew us to this wine with its wonderful peachy, apricot flavours and zippy fresh acidity. Food match… seafood clearly, but a plate of antipasti, pile of salad, and a group of chums would do it for us.

Brunato Il Cocco 2010 hails from Tuscany, a region famous not only for holidaying but also as the spiritual home of the best wines made from Sangiovese. This particular wine is from the Bindi Family’s 300 year old estate. Again I’m not here to talk about history, but the fact that they do have the highest vineyards in Montalcino, and that this wine is lovely and juicy with fresh cherry fruit flavours. That could be down to the fact that they grow Sangiovese Grosso, famous as the Brunello grape and bigger berried (hardly a surprise given the name!), or it could be that they have been recognised as organic since the ‘80’s? Personally I think it’s because Giacomo is a nice bloke and that’s reflected in his wines. Food match… get that barbecue hot and pop some meat on it!