The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week I awoke one morning to sounds of outrage. Belgium had beaten the USA in the World Cup and all my Belgian wife could find was praise for the USA. “Surely if the goalie had to make more saves than anyone since 1966 that just proves how good Belgium were, why is everyone talking about the USA?” Unable to provide a suitable answer I suggested the purchase of a Fellaini style wig should they beat Argentina!

Tennis has been fabulous with all sorts of upsets and excitement.

Real Sport… The world’s greatest race is in the UK for three days. Le Grand Depart is Saturday; we have some ups and downs from Leeds through the Yorkshire countryside before Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel sprint into Harrogate to get to the front of the queue for the Turkish Baths and a rub down! Hopefully it’ll be Cav in yellow for the first day!

This week we discovered that a company in Florida has produced two wines with coffee: Cabernet Coffee Espresso and Chardonnay Coffee Cappuccino. What we didn’t understand was – WHY?

Cheese & Wine – 24th July 2014 SOLD OUT

Wine School – Starts 17th September for six weeks. Taste 60 wines and put the capital W into Wine Wednesday!

Fame and Fortune
Matthew Jukes has mentioned a couple of our wines lately in his columns…

In Moneyweek 20th June: “2008 Botham Merrill Willis Cabernet Sauvignon (£16.99) I sat next to Geoff Merrill and Bob Willis the other day at a big winey event at Australia House and we drank a few flagons of top Aussie red. I have known Geoff for years – he is a superb winemaker and what one would call a top Aussie bloke. He is a prodigious party animal and it is not surprising that he partnered up with his two best mates and cricketing chums to create a delicious range of wines. Bob is an experienced wine lover and Beefy is an accomplished drinker and my featured wine is their finest current release. Made from a blend of Coonawarra and McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon this is a stunning cassis, eucalyptus and mint leaf-imbued wine. The texture is chocolaty and indulgent. Fire up you (sic) barbie, knock the top off this delicious red and raise a toast to these heroic lads.”
In The Daily Mail 7th June: “2012 Gran Passione, Veneto Rosso, Italy (£12.99) I tasted this superb Merlot / Corvina blend earlier this year and I have been itching to tell you about it. Like a super-smooth Valpolicella with impeccable flair and breeding you must track this red down because it is downright delicious!”

Attitude
We witter on about this wine and that wine having personality, but this week we’ve only gone and bought one with attitude!

A Sauvignon Blanc made by Pascal Jolivet, one of the acknowledged masters of Sancerre, called Attitude Sauvignon Blanc 2013 (£12.49). Crisp and dry with lovely Sauvignon Blanc character and a seam of minerality through the mid-palate like a top shelf Sancerre. Don’t take my word for it though, why not have a taster yourself? Open from 5pm on Friday…

And since Gran Passione got such a good write up why don’t we give that a gargle.

Have a nice weekend one and all,

Allez! Allez!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We find ourselves quite entranced with this World Cup despite a few teething troubles (sorry I couldn’t resist it), England have done what we expected them to, Spain have surprised us and Brazil, as ever, are doing just enough to progress. Cricket, close but no cigar, the tennis is a work in progress, but let’s face it, the real sport starts in Yorkshire next weekend with Le Grand Depart!
Elsewhere the rain is coming into the west for the Glastonbury weekend.

Wine School
We’ve had a lot of people asking so…
Term Starts on Wednesday 17th September at 8pm sharp. Over 6 Wednesday evenings you’ll taste around 60 different wines discover new favourites and who knows, maybe make some friends too. Cost is £150 and full details are attached.

Wine & Cheese
We had a fabulous evening last night sampling some fantastic cheeses from our chums at Norbiton Cheese and matching them with some of our delicious wines (I particularly enjoyed the Kopke White Port!). The next one is Thursday 24th July so don’t be shy, as we’ll have no more till the end of September. Cost as usual is £20 per person call us on 020 8944 5224 or drop us a line on shop@parkvintners.co.uk .

Posh
We’ve long been fans of Sean O’Callaghan’s winemaking, raved on about his Sangiovese skills, why we even had a Chianti made by him for the first couple of years we were open.
For those of you who haven’t heard our ravings, Sean O’Callaghan is an Englishman, born in Sri Lanka and trained in winemaking at Geisenheim (Germany’s wine town). We think he makes some of the most sublime wines from Sangiovese you’ll find in Tuscany. Trouble is they are delicious, made in small quantities and sell out easily.
You can imagine our excitement when we managed to taste and lay our hands on some! Riecine 2010 (£46) is on the shelves now, a stunningly elegant Sangiovese, aromatic with wonderful fruit purity and fine tannins. I’ve just seen that one of Italy’s leading wine critics says it recalls a Roumier Chambolle which we’d say is high praise indeed.

…& Becks
Our chums over at Rocky Head have been busy at the mash tun producing new ale for us all to enjoy. The aptly named Rocky Head Session (£2.50) comes in at 4% so is a lighter style than their other beers, enabling the thirsty of us to engage in several slakers. Despite the lower ABV it is as flavour packed as you’d expect from them, packing the hoppy kick of an IPA.

This Weekend
For those of us not going to see Dolly Parton and Metallica at Glastonbury we thought we’d open something suitably tasty in store. Alex has been at my ear all week “can we open the Leira Seca on Saturday, can we?” So for a bit of peace and quiet I thought we’d visit Portugal.

In the white corner… our delicious new Vinho Verde Leira Seca Alvarinho e Trajadura Minho (£10.49), whilst in the interests of balance we’ll head a bit further inland to the Dao region. It is here that our chum Luis resides, making the deliciously juicy Quinta do Correio (£10.49) a cracking red blend of Jaen, Touriga Nacional, Alfrocheiro and Tinta Roriz.
So come in and have a taste of Portugal and we can discuss the merits of Dolly joining Metallica onstage for the encore of “Seek & Destroy”. Wear your wellies for the full Glastonbury experience if you wish, but we can’t promise any mud!

…and finally
On a topically local thingamabob, Glenn Mulcaire of hacking fame, scored AFC Wimbledon’s first ever goal (against Bromley July 2002).

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Two headlines that caught my eye this week:

Women are better tasters than men
Parents warned: don’t reward exam success with alcohol

It would seem that little development is required on either of these headlines but I will add some flesh to the bones nonetheless.

Whilst it has long been accepted that the gatekeepers of all things tasteful are female, we had thought that owing to the wide variety of flavour experience us gents have encountered over the years – ranging from curries and hot chillis through sausage rolls and pickled onions to Guinness and flaming Sambuca’s – that our tastebuds would be akin to a trained sniper, able to pick off a flavour bomb at 1,000 yards. How wrong we were. It has now been proven that, in a blind tasting we were beaten by a camel and a koala bear and we know how discerning their palates are!

Apparently it’s all down to mothering, so we are unlikely to improve our prospects. The constant tasting and testing of food and drink before feeding their offspring has given women a significant edge, so there we have it ladies, you’re in charge!

As a small aside, one of the tests was a blind tasting of different sweetened waters. Yep, sweetened water. What did I miss? When did water need artificial sweetener added? I think I’m getting old…

Parents warned: don’t reward exam success with alcohol

The Big Brother fear is that ecstatic parents will shower their offspring with booze on completion of their exams this summer and some clever boffins somewhere have calculated that this will roughly equate to a bottle of wine per child. I’m not going to take any moral stance here but merely suggest that that nice bottle of wine you just bought from me would look much nicer in your wine glass in front of the telly than with a straw sticking out of it at a teenage house party in Putney.

So frankly yes, reward yourselves with alcohol for exam success and let the kids drink water with added aspartame. Oh, and in an open letter to Big Brother, might we enquire which is preferable a glass of wine in a home environment or a hip flask of vodka bought with fake ID from the dodgy offie….

Anyway, back on track now.

I can suggest all sorts of wines as suitable rewards but am particularly excited this week about my new wines from Galicia. We like Spain, we like the regional diversity, we like the accessibility of the wines and we love the flavours. For a long time we have been trying to find some decent red wine from the northwest and have finally struck gold. In list form our new red wines are:

Alodio Joven Ribeira Sacra 2012 £11.99
Casa de Paula Tinto Ribeiro 2012 £13.99

Our new whites are:

Bioca Godello Valdeorras 2013 £12.99
Quinta de la Erre Albarino Rias Baixas 2012 £14.99

And just for fun we picked up a new Vinho Verde from just over the border in Portugal:

Leira Seca Alvarinho e Trajadura Minho 2012/13 £10.49

I’ll be opening the Bioca Godello and the Alodio Joven today should you wish to taste them. The Godello is very appealing and more-ish with hints of orange and lemon on the nose following onto a vibrant, crisp and focused palate with hints of minerals in the background. Crying out for some fish or calamares. The red chap is made from one of our favourite lesser known varieties, Mencia. Similar in style and weight to the crunchy reds of the Loire Valley, zesty with dark fruits, fine tannins and a lick of spice – one of those wines that oft leads to the exclamation – ‘bugger, I’ve finished the bottle already!’

Come and taste them both today.

Whilst I’ve got your attention, have a quick look at your diary and see if you are free on Thursday 24th July at 8pm.
We’ll be hosting another one of our deeply educational Wine & Cheese events here in the shop. It costs £20 per person, is limited to a maximum of 12 people and will be the last one until late September. Spaces tend to go quickly so if you’d like a seat at the high table give us a call on 020 8944 5224, email us on shop@parkvintners.co.uk or book a ticket whilst you’re in here tasting the Mencia!

Not seen any sport this week, did I miss anything?

Fellow Wine Lovers,

In the land of televisions, the remote controller is king….

So here’s our problem, we don’t have enough tellies. The Test match starts at 11am, during which time Wayne wants to watch the Criterium-du-Dauphine cycling, then Queens wakes up for the tennis, now without Mr Murray. At 2pm the US Open golf starts its day and then later on we have World Cup football. Oh, and did I mention the Men’s Hockey World Cup semi-finals?

Tomorrow is no better as we have to contend with most of the above plus the rugby 2nd Test against the All Blacks, Australia v France, South Africa v Wales, Canada v Scotland, Argentina v Ireland plus at some point we have a shop to run. Basically we need 5 screens, and that’s before we put any music on Spotify!

And we can say goodbye to any real news. For the next six weeks it will be all about football. It’s a bit more exciting this time around though as clown-king Sepp Blatter seeks to surpass his own low standards moaning about a lack of respeck from everyone and displaying a Berlusconi-like desire to cling to power. Cannot exactly remember what happened to the robber Baron Silvio, but I’m sure the same fate would never befall Great-Uncle Sepp.

Oh and of course as I mentioned last week, England are going to win the World Cup – FACT.

Elsewhere English born and bred not-Scot JK Rowling has caused a kerfuffle by donating her money to the ‘wrong’ side; Nigel Farage has suddenly decided to declare over £200,000 of benefits in kind dating back 10 years – feels a bit like he’s clearing out all his skeletons before he hits the big time, god help us; and DJ Casey Kasem, the voice of Shaggy in Scooby Doo, has had end-of-life measures implemented by his daughter, which basically means food and water are withheld, a terrible way to go.

What about wine though? We’ve ordered a whole load of new Spanish wines, some spirits, a couple of new Italians and some Portugeezers – they should all be here next week probably just as it starts to rain. Rosé is still charging out the door incessantly and Bordeaux seems to have ground to a halt. Must be the weather.

The A-board outside the shop this week, for those of you who haven’t passed by, has been promoting wines ‘For those who don’t like Rosé’. We reckon that since we’re both here this weekend before Wayne flits off to ‘Abroad’ for a week, that we might as well open our suggestions – Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2013 – £17.99 from Marlborough and Geoff Merrill Reserve Shiraz 2006 – £29.99 from McLaren Vale. Sauvignon and Shiraz the way they should be, say no more.

If you’re at a loose end on Sunday, Alex will be propping up a stall at the Wimbledon High School Association Summer Fair from 12 until 4pm – the theme is Around the World in 80 days and he’s guaranteed to have a few wines open there too, so please go and keep him company and also make sure he’s standing up straight and smiling at customers.

Oh and last up, it’s Father’s Day on Sunday, let’s talk Amarone shall we?

*

Rick: We NEVER clean the toilet, Neil. That’s what being a student is all about. No way, Harpic. No way, Dot. All that Blue Loo scene is for squares. One thing’s for sure, Neil. When Cliff Richard wrote “Wired for Sound”, no way was he sitting on a clean lavatory. He was living on the limit, just like me. Where the only place to put bleach is in your hair.

Vyvyan: Living on Limits? What, are you on a diet?

Rick: No, I live on The Limit, Vyvyan. The Limit. Because I’m a Rider at the Gates of Dawn and I take no prisoners.

A life well lived.

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

They’re liars, the lot of them. Spinning webs of deceit and misdirection. I can confirm that the rain in Spain does not fall mainly on the plain. It falls mainly on the second tee at La Quinta golf course which to all intents and purposes is a mountain. Not a plain. We woz mugged.

Anyway, that’s in the past now, although I did bring you all back a souvenir:

Saturday, humid with some heavy and thundery rain. Mostly dry and fresher on Sunday then perhaps some further thundery rain overnight followed by showers on Monday (BBC Weather)

No thanks necessary.

We have a packed sporting calendar this weekend, commencing with Wayne’s early Saturday morning cycle all over Box Hill. Whilst he is completing this challenge, the saner amongst us will be tucking into a bacon sandwich and a latte in front of the box watching the first rugby test as England thump the Kiwi’s in their own backyard. Well, the sarnie and the coffee are certainly a possibility…

French Open tennis will be going on all weekend, the Men’s final I suspect will not be Murray-Gulbis, but as I write, anything could still happen.
And then, once the rain has finally given way to the hail, we have the Derby. Currently the going is good, and on that basis we are tipping EBANORAN and TRUE STORY. However if the weather does what it threatens to do, we are tipping the Irish horse with the longest legs!
Looking further ahead, we are going to win the Football World Cup in Brazil – FACT.

We are also feeling a trifle concerned at the lack of suitable wicket keeping cover in our Test side, considering the incumbent is just now returning from Achilles injury, but what do we know…

We know about wine, that’s what we know, so more about that now.
It may be hell and high-water tomorrow but let’s seize this sunny Friday. We haven’t opened our best-selling Rosé yet this year, so today would seem the perfect opportunity. Chateau de L’Aumerade ‘Cuvée Marie-Christine’ Rosé Cru Classé 2013, Côtes de Provence, France – £13.99 is a 400 year old vineyard in the heart of Provence. Its red soils are rich in minerals, giving it an edge on the quality stakes amongst its neighbours. This edge was recognised in 1950 when the estate was designated “Cru Classé”. A lovely pale salmon colour, it is indeed cracking stuff with delicate red berry fruits, slightly floral with a touch of minerality and an impressively long finish. We think it is the perfect wine for summer, great with all manner of foods, great without! Plus, as it’s sunny, we can offer you all 10% off a box of six, I know, summer madness!

We will also crack open our new red wine from the Toro region in Spain. This is another region where it shouldn’t rain very much (around 350-400 mm per annum) and the wine is made from 50 year old Tempranillo vines, known locally as Tinta de Toro. Following a 100 day recline in oak barrels the wine is sloshed into bottles, labelled up and then sent to us.

It’s called Cien Roble 2012, Toro, Spain – £9.49 and it’s darn delicious; if you don’t believe me then I’m more than happy to have your glass!

It’s International Sherry Week this week and there’s a bottle of Fernando de Castilla Oloroso – £14.99 open, just to show how international and sherry-tastic we are.

Something you may not know about Wayne is that he is a sucker for Awards Ceremonies, canapés, glad-handing and above all, small talk. The past two years we have entered the Time & Leisure Food and Drink Awards with success on both occasions – if we are still tantalising your taste buds and offering you superb customer service then please vote with your fingers at:

http://www.timeandleisure.co.uk/food-and-drink-awards/2279-best-wine-retailer.html

Don’t think of it necessarily as a vote for Park Vintners, think of it as a way of getting Wayne back into his Dinner Jacket and spats…
D-Day today, blanket media coverage of events will never, ever do justice to what was achieved or how lucky we are.

Over and out.

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

What can we talk about this week? You all sent out of office replies to last week’s mail and are now hiding out in museums or have snuck off to the countryside for a few days. It’s a slow news week in the wine world as next week sees the London Wine Trade Fair so everyone saves up the press releases and gossip for that. How about a bit of sport?

The Giro d’Italia draws to a close this week with three mental climbing days including a climb up Zoncolan which at points is a leg wrecking 25% climb. A cable car for me please!

In the cricket England and Sri Lanka seem to have engaged in an “I can score less than you” competition, let’s see what happens in the test. Freddie Flintoff is un-retiring after four years of gardening, playing in the T20 Blast for Lancashire.

Scotland and Nigeria draw 2-2 after allegations of potential match fixing, I wonder if it’s that nice man whose dad stashed $20 million in a Swiss bank account for me? I really must send him that number.

We also noticed that for the years 2012 & 2013 close to 50,000 bottles House of Commons Sauvignon Blanc and 26,000 bottles of House of Commons Merlot were drunk by our esteemed leaders and their guests, not to mention 10,989 pints of Guinness. Thirsty work this politics business!

Tasting this Weekend
I’ve a suspicion that it’s high time we introduced you to our chum Bernie. He has a tower in his back garden you know! He also makes our delicious Chateau Carré Muscadet Sèvre et Maine (£10.49) which looks like a good place to start. It is crisp dry and summery (listen to me ever the optimist!) with a decent finish.
On the red front I’m going with a cracking red that’ll work a treat should the barbecue get a visit this weekend. Chakana Malbec (£11.99) is just the ticket, lush and juicy, a bit spicy and long in the finish with just enough tannin to keep it honest.

Final word this week goes to Maya Angelou: “Life loves the liver of it.”

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Students invent first hangover free alcohol The Drinks Business 21/05/14

‘Didn’t think students got up early enough to get hangovers’ harrumphed Wayne as we sat and sipped our coffees at 11am yesterday, having just opened the shop…

He might have a point regarding the reveille of our future leaders, but it seems that whether or not they suffer on the morning after, they do understand that there is a danger that they might in the future.

A synopsis: Rage on Saturday. Up for Church on Sunday.  The three students from California have devised a formula that they claim will quell the effects of a hangover if added to every fourth alcoholic drink consumed of an evening.  Not quite sure about the flavours or quantities of powder involved, but on their crowd-funding page they promote the idea of Prime (that’s what it’s called) mixed with vodka and lemonade.   It looks like blue WKD, which doesn’t strike me as the best brand alignment, but anyway.

I appreciate it’s an idea in development, that it is focusing on the loss of electrolytes and vitamins one suffers on a ‘night out’ and that it is potentially aimed at the youth market but it still doesn’t quite work for me.

I can’t imagine being out at an important dinner, supping on fine Bordeaux and the like before requesting a break in proceedings to hustle up a vodka and lemonade from the sommelier, add some blue powder to it, drain glass and then continue with the fine wine.

Even more, I cannot imagine adding aforementioned blue powder directly to my 2001 Fourcas Dupré or Moutard Brut Grand Cuvée and certainly not to my Ardbeg Uigeadail.  I’ll take the hangover, ta.

Or perhaps I’ll work on hangover alleviation through the age old, tried and tested systems.  Drink plenty of water and have blind faith it will be alright on the morrow.

For development of this wonder formula they hope to raise, through crowd funding, $20,000 by 15^th June.

By yesterday afternoon they had raised $520.

Elsewhere…

In a sort of ‘seven-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon’ scenario

·         we’ve got the golf on at Wentworth this weekend with a newly single Rory McIlroy trying to put his split from Caroline Wozniacki behind him;

·         Wozniacki, a Liverpool fan then tweets something along the lines that she knows she’ll never walk alone;

·         Craig Bellamy, ex-Liverpool player, announces his retirement;

·         Craig Bellamy is Welsh; 

·         so is Gareth Bale;

·         Bale will be playing for Real Madrid against Atletico Madrid in the Champions league final on Saturday night, in Lisbon;

·         Lisbon is in Portugal, as is Val de Lobo;

·         Val de Lobo is where Craig Bellamy, whilst a player with Liverpool, famously attacked John Arne Riise with a golf club;

·         and so we’re back to golf, and to Wentworth….

This Weekend

It’s another one of those bank holiday thingies this weekend and if you couple this with the start of half term then there are plenty of reasons to be filling your glass either to celebrate the break or to numb the pain.

We’ve decided to go to California this week since this is allegedly where the future cure for hangovers will be coming from(!) so we might as well look at what might produce them….

Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2012, Livermore Valley, California, USA (£13.99) – Wente’s vineyards were founded in 1883 and are still owned and managed by the ame family 4 generations later. They were also one of the first to plant Chardonnay and one taste of this suggests they are doing a fine job. Crisp with fine elegant apple notes and a supporting touch of oak, bang on with fish and chips!

Jewel Old Vine Zinfandel 2012, California, USA (£12.99) – An outstanding Zinfandel from Lodi, inland from San Francisco, with rich spiced fruit aromas and a touch of vanilla.  The palate is satisfyingly rich with layers of berry fruit, a touch of blackcurrant and some spiciness leading onto some fine tannins.  We found it to be an excellent partner to some Spenwood cheese recently.

We’re closed Bank Holiday Monday as usual

Have a great weekend folks – we’re cheering for Ernie Els as he designed the course and has his own wine.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Sometimes, this world we inhabit is fantastic. It is a world full of wine and bonhomie, thirsty friends, dusty roads to vineyards, sunshine, smiles, the odd hailstorm and the occasional hangover.

Sometimes this world we inhabit is bonkers…

This week we learned of a Bodega in Murcia, Southern Spain that has been playing music to their wine once it has been bottled. The theory is loosely based on the idea that playing music to pregnant mums influences the character of baby.

The playlist, chosen by the head of Spain’s Radio 3, was designed to soften the tannins and make the wine all silky and velvety, and seems to include a chunk of Sigur Ros and other relatively chilled tunes that wouldn’t be out of place at the Café del Mar.

We can’t help but wonder if playing Led Zeppelin’s “Trampled Under Foot” would have made a difference to the outcome.

As I say, bonkers…

Elsewhere in the news football managers have been sacked, county cricket is under an uncomfortable match-fixing spotlight and Bradley Wiggins leads the Tour of California!

More Beer – just in time for the sunshine.

Our chums at Sambrook’s have come up with a couple of delicious new beers.

Battersea Rye (£2.79) is made with Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt, Malted Rye, Crystal 400 and Chocolate Malt. Battersea Rye contains Northdown Hops for bittering and Bramling X and WGV Hops for aroma. Culminating in a bold and spicy rye ale with a well-rounded fruity flavour.

Battersea IPA (£2.79) contains the finest Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt and Caramalt, Chinook Hops for bittering and Chinook and Citra Hops for aroma. The result is a deliciously crisp, hoppy, citrusy India Pale Ale.

Cheese and Wine

The next cheese and wine tasting will be Thursday 26^th June at 8pm. Here as usual, £20 gets your place at the table. Give us a call or drop in if you fancy it.

Tasting This Weekend

There is a fair chunk of you a little disappointed to have missed our sherry tasting but, fear not, salvation is at hand! We shall open the Fernando de Castilla Fino En Rama (£9.99) that was such a hit on the night. This is very much Fino in the raw, only lightly filtered and much fresher than any of Wayne’s jokes. Who knows we might even be able to rustle up an olive or two alongside!

If you’re all sitting comfortably we’ll then zip across Spain diagonally landing in the hills behind Tarragona just south of Barcelona. In these hills lays the region of Montsant, which is home to our red choice, Sola Fred £10.99, a really winning combination of Mazuelo and Garnacha.

We’re off to change the playlist in the cellar!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

‘Just going to sit down for a minute and write the email’ I said to Wayne last Friday.  Or was it yesterday.  Or five minutes ago.  Not sure about everybody else but this constant bombardment of bank holidays is playing havoc with my sense of time and I’m fairly sure that whilst physically I am here on 9^th May, mentally I am still somewhere in late April.  Not that I’m complaining too much but it does feel like a blink of an eye since I last sat here writing the email.

Bank Holiday was spent celebrating birthdays, swimming through pools of wine, occasionally eating and playing beach cricket, English style, in our winter coats and shorts (although the wind did provide some interesting reverse swing potential).  Returning to London I discovered that Wayne had been so busy on Friday and Saturday that he had raided his bonus and gone on a sunny cycling holiday for a week!

So, on Tuesday I stood alone in the middle of a shop that resembled some sort of post-apocalyptic  supermarket sweep and said to myself ‘If he’s going to cycle up and down mountains for a week then I’m going to build some mountains of my own!’

Fighting talk that resulted in me receiving just over a tonne of wine yesterday, leading to a fabulously character building work out and repeated revision of the correct procedure for picking up boxes – straight legs and a bent back, right?

Now I’ve done my bit, it’s really over to you to start drinking the stuff.  If you’re wondering why the weather is going to be so awful this weekend it’s entirely down to the fact that I have good stocks of my three Rose wines with a fourth to arrive on Monday.  Fear not though, I have plenty of reds to keep out the chills and about 90 different whites relaxing in the fridge ready for those sunny spells we are often told to expect.  Oh, and there’s my dedicated sparkling wine fridge for those of you who believe that Friday is Fizz day.

As you can tell I haven’t seen much news this week – Sunderland surprisingly survive, Fulham frustratingly fall and the Premiership title stays up North.   Katie Price is getting a divorce (number 3) whilst expecting her 27^th child – I do wonder why she can’t find Mr Right….

We have Stuart Hall and Rolf Harris in court again sullying many childhood memories. 

And a warning to all those thinking about leaving the big smoke and seeking bucolic bliss elsewhere – according to UK census data, the top ten local authorities with highest proportion of over-65s are the following:

1. Christchurch, Dorset
2. West Somerset
3. North Norfolk
4. Rother, East Sussex
5. East Dorset
6. East Devon
7. Tendring, Essex
8. Arun, West Sussex
9. East Lindsey, Lincolnshire
10. New Forest

The future’s bleak, the future’s grey.

Anyway, enough rambling.  I’ll be out doing a delivery between 2pm and 4pm today (Friday) and after all that exertion I’ll probably need a glass of wine.  For white I’ll be trying Mezzogiorno Fiano 2012, Puglia, Italy – £8.69 a really tasty drop, indigenous to the south and frankly a bit of a well-kept secret.  On the red side I’m opening CentoPassi Rosso 2012, Sicily, Italy – £12.99.  My tasting notes say it’s organic with spiced black fruits, hints of cloves and decently full bodied.  Apparently the wine is part of a project involved in rebuilding communities and honouring Mafia victims using land seized from Mafiosi.  Nice story, nice wine.

So come and see me tonight or tomorrow and help me diminish this wine mountain I have built before his lordship tries to cycle up it!

Oh and I just received a text from the man stating he was just about to have some Paella for lunch, did I have any wine recommendations!  Not sure what to say really…

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Some headlines that caught or attention this week

·         Ban on Indian mango imports to EU comes into force (BBC)

Where does this leave Mango chutney?

·         Chelsea 1 Atletico Madrid 3 match report: John Terry and Jose Mourinho suffer Champions League semi-final heartbreak (The Independent)

No comment

·         Men fear ridicule over ordering wine (The Drinks Business)

British men enjoy drinking wine at home but avoid ordering it in a pub in case their friends make fun of them, a recent survey has claimed.  Man up.

·         Beer giant Lion buys NZ wine estate (The Drinks Business)

Lion New Zealand has purchased the Morton Estate wine brand, including its Stone Creek vineyard, strengthening its expanding wine portfolio.  Bugger – there goes another independent winery down the supermarket route.

And on a happier note:

·         Protester hits Nigel Farage with egg (BBC)

Anyway, back on track.  After the wonderful warm weather that helped us clamber through the last few days of April we welcome May with galoshes and an umbrella.  However we didn’t allow this climate change to dampen our spirits last night.  12 of us donned our sombreros, put Gipsy Kings on repeat, flipped the doorsign over to say ‘Siesta’ and settled in to some serious Sherry tasting. 

We were guided on our journey by the very talented Bea, a native of Cadiz who now lives over here and who was on hand primarily to pronounce all the names in a convincingly appropriate accent and also to give us the lowdown on all things Jerez.  Last year Bea received her Diploma as a certified Sherry Educator from the Consejo Regulador de la D.O. Jerez-Xeres-Sherry – and as she also managed full marks in both parts of the exam, she was presented with a Venencia for coming top of the class!  Aha, an expert in our midst, not before time.

It was pointed out to us early on that it was a nice change for people to not be  forced to listen to us massacring our Spanish pronunciation but to actually learn from a professional at the top of her game.  So we sat at the back and tucked into tortilla español, habas fritas, almendras, aceitunas, chorizo ibérico de bellota, jamón ibérico de Extremadura curada 24 meses,  pan y chocolate de verde y negros.  Oh, and some sherries from Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla too.

Whilst skulking at the back we took the opportunity to make some notes which we have taken the liberty of repeating here:

Classic Manzanilla 15% – £7.99

Not to be confused with camomile tea (same name be warned!) this has spent 3 years under flor. Fresh and tangy with fresh apple and floral notes and a touch briny into the finish, Wayne’s having this with tonight’s fish and chips.

Fino En Rama 15% – £9.99

This is raw fino, no clarification just a very gentle filtering, it has spent 6 years ageing under the flor. Richer and fresher than the Manzanilla with an almost honeyed note to it, Alex suggests “gambas al pil pil” but then he would wouldn’t he?

Antique Amontillado 19% – £30.99

Oh my! This little number has been ageing in a barrel for 20 years, having started life under flor before additional alcohol added to kill the flor allowing oxidative ageing. Nutty, caramel notes in the nose but the palate is bone dry and deliciously complex. Jamón Jamón!

Classic Oloroso 18% – £14.99

No flor involved here, just oxidation over the course of 12 years. More viscous in the mouth, yet still dry it presents spicy, rich dark fruit notes and a long pleasantly warming finish. We like the idea of mature cheeses with this, but if more serious sustenance is what you’re after game and braised oxtail are good ideas.

Antique Palo Cortado 20% – £34.99

A real treat. This rarity starts life as a fino until the flor goes wrong. Luckily for us when the flor went wrong here it didn’t turn into sherry vinegar but into this rare beast that has hung out in a barrel for 30 years just becoming awesome. It has a lovely umami character that’d be mighty fine with some foie gras. If that’s not your bag then why not give wild boar a go!

Antique Pedro Ximenez 15% – £30.99

When the grapes we on the vine for this Alex hadn’t started shaving! Thirty years in barrels has made this soft, rounded and properly sweet with more sugar than is mentionable in polite company. This is unctuous and delicious and most of us enjoyed it with some 70% Green & Blacks. Chocolate dodger Alex loved it with salted almonds, and there was talking of marinating raisins in it, for a naughty apple strudel!

Solera Gran Reserva Brandy 38% – £50

One of the smoothest brandies that we’ve had the pleasure of. Drier than most Spaniards, a bit richer than cognacs and with such a long finish we’ve forgotten where we started!

Brilliant. 

It was a fabulous evening, the flamenco singers arrived at 1am, Wayne re-introduced us to Gin y Tonica (50/50), we danced until dawn and then went for a swim in the sea… yo no soy marinero, soy capitan, baile la Bamba…..

We’ve still got the Brandy here to taste and joining it this weekend will be…

Bank holiday on Monday so we’ll be shut, business as usual Tuesday onwards.  We have a delivery into town on Tuesday though, so we’ll be here from about 4pm onwards.

Avoid the tube strike and drink wine in Wimbledon Park I say…