The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Shortest day yesterday, which meant the sun was over the yard arm before 4pm and, if you didn’t see us, we were wearing shorts all day but if you did see us, you know what you saw!  The good news that goes alongside this is that the days are now getting longer and, in anticipation of summer being on its way, we have good supplies of Provence Rosé, pink Cremant de Loire and, of course, ice.

By all accounts though, before we reach full summer-summer- summertime we need to hurdle Easter.  Oh, and before that Valentine’s Day, I’m told.  Prior to that, we have New Year’s Eve to toast in but not much else worth mentioning, I think.

However, in a stoke of diary serendipity, it seems that we all have next Monday and Tuesday off, so what better excuse to have a few people round.  Drinks, nibbles and a roast containing at least three styles of potato, carrots prepared two ways, bacon sprinkled over sprouts, chestnuts, chipolatas, chipolatas wrapped in bacon, parsnips (again cooked in two ways because Martin doesn’t like them cooked the way you normally do them), red cabbage, broccoli with pancetta, minted peas and, in some rogue households, cauliflower cheese and Yorkshire pudding?!  Oh, and of course a turkey, a sirloin, cold gammon and a side of smoked salmon – some with stuffing, at least three kinds… seems like the only way to celebrate such universal, coincidental fortune!

And, since there are whopping 8 of you at the table, you probably need something extra to ensure you don’t get hungry later: Christmas Pudding, Mince Pies, Yule Log, Profiteroles, Treacle Pudding and then a cheese platter including a half-wheel of Long Clawson should just about cover it.

Brandy butter or cranberry sauce with all that?  And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint?

Boom!

Anyway, as a consequence of having Monday and Tuesday off (and in fact Wednesday and Thursday too), we will be working some extra hours this weekend:

TODAY – 12 – 7PM

TOMORROW, 23^RD DECEMBER – 12 – 7PM

SUNDAY 24^TH DECEMBER – 12 – 4PM

And, whilst toiling away, we will be getting very tucked into the Foxdenton Estate Christmas Liqueur – £25 which Wayne tells me is excellent over an ice cube, or mixed with some sparkling wine but also quite fun in a hip flask on Tuesday’s ‘recovery’ walk!

However, before we get too tucked in, we’re going to open up some Burgundies for everyone’s delectation, from one of our favourite producers, Domaine Belleville.

Rully ‘La Crée’ 2020 – £32.49 – Founded in the early 20th Century, Domaine Belleville have expanded and now cover 18 hectares.  ‘La Crée’ refers to a stony piece of land to the east of the village, just below Premier Cru ‘La Pucelle’.  We really enjoy their wines as they have a real sense of place – the wine itself is a pale gold with aromas of melon, citrus and buttercream whilst the palate is open with a luscious richness, citrus fruit character and a lovely fresh finish.  Top quality burgundy that would be rather delicious with the main event!

Mercurey ‘Champ Ladoy’ 2019 – £33.00 – This is from two very different parcels of vines one facing north and one facing east, resulting in a good balance of freshness and richness.  The vines are around 45 years old adding some great intensity too.  Lovely and open with raspberries and blackberries giving us the fruity attack, fine delicate tannins and a nice length just hinting at a little earthy spiciness.  An excellent foil to Monday’s banquet but equally great with Tuesday’s ‘Round Two’!

Who knows, if you twist our arm we might open some fizz too and I fully expect some port to be passed to the left…

So pop in and see us, greet our seasons and then stock up well because we won’t be back in again until Friday 29^th December!

Top to toe in tailbacks?  Thanks but I think I’ll miss this one this year!

Eat, drink and be merry!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

The verbal evidence part of the Covid inquiry ended this week with Rishi Sunak. Our poor beleaguered Prime Minister was unable to recall so many discussions, meetings or passwords to his WhatsApp that we found ourselves wondering if all prospective Cabinet Ministers should undergo memory tests before being offered the job.

Parliament then passed a bill basically stating that, regardless of anyone else’s opinion, Rwanda was a safe country. It seemed to us rather like passing a law that stated that all cats are now dogs in the eyes of the government but what do we know?

Just when you thought the world couldn’t any sillier, we find that Kemi Badenoch is rather keen to fill the shoes left behind by mad Nads. This week the Business and Equalities Minister called a study into the 14^th Century plague ‘woke archaeology’ and that the study risks undermining trust in modern health services. What is she expecting it to unearth? Will we discover a stock of hessian masks that have been stored for centuries? Is there a luxury hoy out there, paid for with the ill-gotten gains of a fast-track herb saleswoman?

We were all of a flutter to discover that Tesco has had to recall its Finest Apple & Cranberry Stuffing Mix because it may contain moths! Over the pond, Tesla has recalled two million vehicles after the autopilot software was found to be less good at avoiding things than it should be.

Speaking of Christmas treats, many of you will recall that we have a seasonal beauty in Foxdenton Christmas Liqueur (£25). Made with Winslow Plums and a blend of traditional Christmas spices including Ginger, Clove, Cinnamon, and Star Anise, our Christmas Liqueur, is the ideal winter warmer. All this needs is a mince pie and an open fire. It’s been known to share a glass of fizz too, in a Christmas spiced upgrade to a Kir Royale.

We still have some stock of the six bottle Claret Case at £135 and the enormously popular Christmas Case at £150. Tasting notes attached for your perusal.

CHRISTMAS OPENING HOURS

MONDAY 18th – SATURDAY 23rd DECEMBER 12 NOON – 7PM

SUNDAY 24th DECEMBER 12 NOON – 4PM

MONDAY 25th – THURSDAY 28th DECEMBER CLOSED

FRIDAY 29th & SATURDAY 30th DECEMBER 12 NOON – 6PM

SUNDAY 31st DECEMBER 12 NOON – 5PM

MONDAY 1st – THURSDAY 4th JANUARY CLOSED

FRIDAY 5th JANUARY 12 NOON – 7PM

BACK TO NORMAL

On the tasting front this weekend, we’ll dip our taste buds into Sylvain Dussort Bourgogne Blanc Cuvée Des Ormes 2020 (£27.99). Some of you are familiar with this wine and know how close to Meursault it is, style wise. Those of you who have yet to experience the pleasure should really drop in and try it.

On the red front, we’ll go and visit Spain, specifically Ribera del Duero. Corimbo 2018 (£27.99) is a deliciously polished red, rich and spicy with forest fruit and a little fuller bodied than a Rioja. What’s not to like?

Plus, for the sweeter toothed, we have the Krohn LBV 2016 (£18.99), which appears in our Christmas Day case.  Krohn ports always seem to punch above their weight for us and the generous plummy characters, freshness and pure berry fruit are surely the best way to end the day!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So, it’s the first full week of December and news is inundated with the spirit of Christmas and goodwill to all.

The busiest giver of glad tidings has been James who, fresh from signing dodgy deals in Rwanda that filled us all with joy, encored by raising the minimum salary a skilled foreign worker would need to get a visa.  £38,000 is a lot of money, a lot more than £26,200 and a lot more than half of the population earn – if you want a visa now it would be better to retrain as a brickie or a plasterer rather than a master butcher.  The news that we paid Rwanda an extra £100m in April ahead of another £50m next year had us fuming to be honest. That’s a total of £290m spent on dog whistles and we are not even including the millions of pounds spent on legal fees. We could have employed 7631 more people at the Home Office on £38,ooo a year to sort it out properly.

Moving away from Westminster we then watched Boris squirming and fibbing in Paddington whilst Nigel was singing and stripping and making us squirm, all the way from Australia.  Meanwhile Rishi, our Prime Minister, has hit the bottom in the Conservative Home Net Satisfaction Ratings for the Cabinet league table with a whopping -25.4 points.  For context, Jenrick was at +6.6, Cleverly was at +10.6 and Badenoch topped the league with +63.4.  To quote Suella, electoral oblivion beckons… I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Meanwhile, in news from niche sports, the R&A and the USGA have announced changes to the performance of golf balls.  I know, thrilling stuff.  Suffice to say, the idea is to stop the ball travelling as far as it currently does which in real terms means, for the pros, that their drives will now go no further than 320 yards.  If we consider that Rory McIlroy can hit a ball about 335 yards that would mean a 15 yard/4.5% decrease in distance – is that really worth all the upheaval?  A nice new business opportunity for rubber and plastic recycling companies though. John Rahm no longer needs to worry about how far he hits a golf ball, having just signed with LIV golf for a rumoured £450m. Perhaps he could start up a recycling company?

Anyway, that’s enough of the real world, let’s talk more about us.  Fresh from our last outside event of the year on Monday (thank you Emanuel), it’s now eyes down for the next couple of weeks as Christmas starts to lurch into view and the focus is entirely shop based.  With this in mind it’s probably best I let you know our opening hours going forward:

MONDAY 18^th – SATURDAY 23^rd DECEMBER:  12PM – 7PM

SUNDAY 24^th DECEMBER: 12PM – 4PM

MONDAY 25^th – THURSDAY 28^th DECEMBER:  CLOSED

FRIDAY 29^th & SATURDAY 30^th DECEMBER:  12PM – 6PM

SUNDAY 31^st DECEMBER:  12PM – 5PM

MONDAY 1^st – THURSDAY 4^th JANUARY:  CLOSED

FRIDAY 5^th JANUARY 12PM – 7PM – BACK TO NORMAL!

For those of you yet to dip into our Christmas offerings, the Claret case currently seems to be the most popular, closely followed by the Christmas Day case but all are starting to gain some serious traction, which is very exciting, once again we have attached tasting notes for your perusal.

And of course, the fabulous Foxdenton Christmas Liqueur (£25) is back in stock.  Made with Winslow Plums and a blend of traditional Christmas spices including Ginger, Clove, Cinnamon, and Star Anise, this is the ideal winter warmer.  All this needs is a mince pie and an open fire. However, it is equally at home in a glass of fizz or perhaps mixed with some Canada Dry to make it into a longer treat?  Anyway, we’ve got it here, open for tasting so you can make your own minds up!

But before you taste the liqueur, how about sampling some wine?   White, red or port?  Or all three?  Go on then, why not??

We’ll start with one of Alex’s festive favourites, in fact the last time we showed it was this time last year – Valenciso Blanco 2022 – £24.99.  A blend of 70% Viura and 30% Garnacha Blanca, this is sourced from 80 year old vines and then fermented with wild yeasts before lazing around for 9 months in Caucasian oak barrels.  Complex aromas combining pretty, floral characters with preserved lemon, truffle and smoky notes.  The palate is broad and well integrated with nuts and stone fruit characters and fresh candied peel, minerality and crisp citrus acidity on the finish.  The texture in the mouth was similar to a posh Graves but believe me when I say it’s unmistakably Spanish in style which is why I often pair it with the Christmas Eve fish extravaganza!

The red is one of the wines in the Christmas Claret Case – Château Puy Guilhem 2009 – £32.  Based in Fronsac, the stunning 18th century Château Puy Guilhem is located on the hills of Saillans overlooking Pomerol and Lalande de Pomerol.  This wine is from a stellar vintage and now showing some nice maturity.  Made using 100% Merlot, it has a very appealing developed nose with dark berry fruits and a hint of earthy spice.  The palate has a nice richness with full body, juicy and rich fruit with a lovely savoury note to finish – exactly what good Fronsac is all about!

And the port? Well. Let’s open the Krohn LBV 2016 – £18.99, which the eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted in our Christmas Day case.  Krohn ports always seem to punch above their weight for us and the generous plummy characters, freshness and pure berry fruit are surely the best way to end the day!

That’s about it from us for this week, that’s it from Boris and his gulf war syndrome side-tracking at the inquiry; roll on Monday when Mr Rishi Sunak will give his opinion on how history should view him!

Can’t wait.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

There’s a lot to get through this week so, if you’re sitting comfortably, let us begin.

Cop28 has started in Dubai. This, of course, is the United Nations Climate Change Conference where heads of state, government officials, global industry leaders, climate experts and private sector representatives fly in to discuss how the rest of us need to cut down on our flights, recycle our sandwich wrappers and stop breathing out so much CO2. Some of you may recall that at COP25 in 2019 Greta Thunberg suggested that it “seems to have turned into some kind of opportunity for countries to negotiate loopholes”. With these words echoing in their ears, this year the hosts, United Arab Emirates, have denied it’s just an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals!

The Covid enquiry has been plodding along at its own pace and we’re getting to the pointy end now with members of the then Cabinet taking their turn to help out. We’ve had Dominic Raab demonstrate why he may be considered a bully by talking over everyone, Michael Gove being as slippery as any snake you’ve encountered and just yesterday Matt Hancock was helping out. Only a year ago he was dining out on kangaroo parts for considerably less than Nigel Farage is – that’s inflation right there ladies and gents, less is more!

Elon Musk, owner of the platform formerly known as Twitter, this week launched a bit of a rant against all the companies that have withdrawn advertising from the platform describing it as “blackmail” and that it was likely “to kill the company.”  You have to admire his self-awareness, eh?

This time of year we find ourselves thinking of music rather a lot. Spotify has sent us all our playlist round up for the year. We were a bit surprised to find Dorothy Ashby’s ‘Afro Harping’ at No1 and certainly they seem to think we’ve listened to a lot more Jah Shaka than we imagined and about the correct amount of Demis Roussos!

Whilst on the subject of music, we’d like to pay tribute to wordsmith Shane MacGowan who has passed away this week – he lived it large!

As has become something of a tradition for this time of year we have prepared a number of cases that we hope might inspire you all. Tasting notes are attached, but to whet your appetite here’s a taster…

6 Bottles of Claret – £135 (Includes tasting notes and gift box)

Château Gabelot 2016, AC Bordeaux

Chapelle de Potensac 2017, Médoc

Seigneurs d’Aiguilhe 2016, Côtes de Castillon

Château Saransot-Dupré 2016, Listrac-Médoc

La Fleur de Boüard 2012/14, Lalande de Pomerol

Château Puy Guilhem 2009, Fronsac

6 Bottles For Christmas Day – £150 (Includes tasting notes and gift box)

Lété-Vautrain 204 Brut NV, Charly-Sur-Marne, Champagne, France

Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2022/23, Marlborough, New Zealand

Sylvain Dussort ‘Cuvée des Ormes’ 2020, Burgundy, France

Domaine Belleville Mercurey Les Perrières 2019, Burgundy, France

Le Volte dell’Ornellaia 2021, Toscana, Italy

Krohn Late Bottled Vintage 2016, Portugal

6 Bottles of Posh – £300 (Includes tasting notes and gift box)

Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut NV, Champagne, France

Joseph Pascal Puligny-Montrachet 2020, Burgundy, France

Pieropan ‘La Rocca’ Soave Classico 2021, Veneto, Italy

Pintia 2015, Toro, Spain

Tenuta Guido al Tasso Cont ‘Ugo 2018/2019, Bolgheri, Italy

Porseleinberg Syrah 2019, Swartland, South Africa 

As always, numbers for some wines are more restricted than others and we have chosen them all for their deliciousness.

The Cresidents will be illuminating the street with seasonal cheer on Saturday with the turning on of the Christmas Lights at Christ the King. The St Luke’s Choir will be leading the carols, 4.15pm for the big switch on.

This weekend also marks our thirteenth birthday. Yes, Park Vintners officially becomes a teenager, hoping to avoid acne, we’re not going to start smoking, we’re not promising to get up early and we’re certainly not listening to what anyone tells us to do.

Today, to celebrate we will open a bottle of Sancerre Le MD de Bourgeois 2020 (£35) tiptop Sancerre from a family with 10 generations of experience and a decent size plot on Les Monts Damnés, a very steep slope just outside Chavignol which Wayne thinks is just about the best site to grow grapes for Sancerre and is often regarded as an ‘unofficial’ Cru.

To add a red, we’ll head down to the southern Rhône for a sip of Domaine de Côte de l’Ange Chateauneuf du Pape 2019 (£33.50) a delicious blend of 70% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 15% Mourvèdre that got a whopping 96 point score in Decanter. Why not see if you agree with them?

Then tomorrow (Saturday) we shall open a bottle of Joseph Perrier Cuvée Royale (£45 or £100 for a magnum). Founded in 1825 and with six generations of handed down knowledge, we are rather fond of this champagne house and we always like to celebrate our birthday with some bubbles!

Lastly, we say goodbye to Alastair Darling, one of our better Chancellors, Henry Kissinger adviser to twelve American presidents, Charlie Munger, one of the world’s best investors and, of course, El Tel…

We’d like to leave you with two views of wisdom:

“Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.”― Charles T. Munger

“The most important thing to remember about drunks is that drunks are far more intelligent than non-drunks – they spend a lot of time talking in pubs, unlike workaholics who concentrate on their careers and ambitions, who never develop their higher spiritual values, who never explore the insides of their head like a drunk does.” – Shane MacGowan

Godspeed, one and all.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Not good news, just not bad news.

Having been inflicted with a radical overhaul in duty rates at the end of July, we were very nervous about the rumours that Mr Hunt was going to announce a further hike in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday.  This would have been a real gut-punch and frankly one that we didn’t need in the lead up to Christmas but the rumours proved to be unsubstantiated and we all breathed a small sigh of relief – not good news but certainly not bad news.

Duty is now frozen until 1^st August 2024 (not bad news?) and then, on 1^st February 2025, the second stage of July’s radical overhaul comes into force – happy days.

Still, at least the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, introduced in April 2018, has yet again swerved any increase, which means it is still set at the same level it started at.  Considering it is one of the infamous ‘sin taxes’, the taxes put on products seen as harmful to consumers or costly to society, you’d have thought this might have been subject to review/increase at some point in the last 2,000+ days?  Particularly as it was key to the government plans to reduce childhood obesity by removing added sugar from soft drinks when first announced in 2016.  Without going into too much detail, obesity levels, either in children or adults, have continued to rise over the last 5 years…

Away from tax, Mr Hunt announced his intention to fund £4.5bn to attract investment to strategic manufacturing sectors, including green energy, aerospace, life sciences and zero-emission vehicles – nice idea certainly, two environmentally focused targets wrapped around the less-than-green aerospace climate change providers.

In happier/more exciting news, we were pleased to see that Northvolt has developed a sodium-ion battery that has no lithium, cobalt or nickel – clearly a long way to go but this certainly feels like a move in the right direction. 

Anyway, let’s move away from real world news and closer to wine chat.  When not reading Vice/Rolling Stone/Penny-Farthing Weekly we do occasionally cast a glimpse at the Financial Times – similar to how 30 years ago we read The Daily Telegraph for the sport, we now read the FT for the wine.  Jancis Robinson is of course the star here and last weekend she came up with an amazing suggestion that we just had to share.

In the article Jancis Robinson answers your festive wine questions (FT Magazine – Jancis Robinson – November 18 2023) she was asked for advice for people that find that their long awaited bottle of wine is actually corked on opening.  I cannot copy her response verbatim due to FT rules but, in short, she suggested that if you do end up with a corked bottle then scrunch up some cling-film, push this into the bottle, re-seal it (not with the offending cork of course) and then give it a good old swirl around so that the cling-film gets in contact with all the wine.  Not sure what the science is here, if any, but she states that whilst it’s not a perfect solution, it does seem to reduce the cork taint!  Normally I would raise an eyebrow at such a suggestion but this is Jancis talking, so advice worth taking, we thought!

Not much news for us to report on in the wine world this week – it’s the calm before the storm of Christmas and we know this because it’s Black Friday today and everyone seems to be trying to sell me a cheap iPhone and old model Garmin which is weird because I’ve never previously bought either but I digress.

Black Friday means that yesterday was Thanksgiving in the USA and so, with a nod to those folk across the pond, we thought we’d open two new listings from California this weekend.

Both wines come from DeLoach Vineyards located in the heart of Sonoma’s renowned Russian River Valley.  The winery has over 45 years of experience experimenting with the perfect combination of soil, rootstock, and clones, resulting in a history of producing high-quality, eco-friendly wines.  In 2003, the Boisset family, from Burgundy, brought their sustainable winemaking experience to Russian River Valley and haven’t looked back since!

Alex tried these wines in September whilst Wayne was too busy drinking Marsala in foreign climes to come to the tasting and liked them enough to push for shelf space for them!

Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2020 – £29.99

On the nose this wine reveals nectarine and ripe pear aromas. The palate is endowed with integrated oak structure, hints of vanilla cream, lemon zest, and baked apples. Building momentum across the mid-palate, this wine is formative with lingering flavors of spice and crème brûlée. The finish has refreshing and persistent acidity that is well-balanced.*

Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2020 – £31.99

Aromas of raspberry coulis, red plum, strawberry, and baking spices on the nose. Dried cranberry, Alpine strawberries, and sweet/tart cherries on the palate of this 2020 Pinot Noir. This is a medium-bodied wine with an outstanding texture and a long finish.*

(*tasting notes from winery website since Alex’s notes ran more along the lines of ‘rich, buttery style will appeal to those who like this style’ for the white and ‘nice, medium body, good length, fresh finish, pleasing’ for the red, which aren’t so heavy on detail, thanks Alex….)

And now I think we’re done – we’ll just leave you with this headline which appeared on Reuters on November 21, 2023:

Wimbledon suffers expansion plan blow after council refuses permission

https://www.reuters.com/sports/tennis/wimbledon-suffers-expansion-plan-blow-after-council-refuses-permission-2023-11-21/

Quite good news, certainly not bad news….

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This has been a very good week for fountain pen manufacturers and their colleagues in the headed notepaper business.

Stubbing out her breakfast stogie, Thérèse was one of the first to put quill to parchment and then five junior ministers followed her lead.  Suella quickly wrote Rishi a letter but, as so often with Mrs Braverman, her timing was off.  Then, in a move quite typical of the way Labour likes to react to Tory activities, Kier managed to part company with eight shadow ministers and two parliamentary private secretaries.  I think, perhaps, there might be some trouble in paradise….

Still, the good news is that Call me Dave is back on board, thankfully not in the Treasury though, given his track record in financial services.  Oh, and he got an immediate Life Peerage which has no doubt got Nadine plotting her next move…

Meanwhile, Nigel F from Downe hasn’t resigned.  He has spread himself a bit thin though, travelling down under to earn about £1.5 million for eating termites whilst simultaneously going to court in London to sue NatWest for debanking and, cough, reputational damage – he clearly has no idea of the irony…

In our world of wine there was a bit of sad news.  No resignations, just redundancies. 

Both of us cut our retail teeth working for Oddbins – Wayne mainly running the famous Fine Wine department in the Battersea superstore, whilst Alex was more nomadic – Balham, Clapham South, Clapham, Dulwich, Blackheath, Bellevue Road, Kennington and even Battersea had their doors darkened by the bearded one.  Both of us persuaded the powers that be to pay for us to take our WSET Diploma in Wines & Spirits and amazingly we both passed.  We learnt a lot about retail, we learnt a lot about people and we learnt a lot about shoplifting.  We also helped train a number of now very influential wine buyers who, when we met them, were in charge of sweeping the floor and stocking the fridges.

But now, it seems those days are gone.  We have been informed that, having failed to find a buyer for the estate, Oddbins has closed all of its bricks and mortar operation and reverted to web sales – no floor sweeping or fridge stocking there – and considering they only had 2 Champagnes and 1 Cremant under the CHAMPAGNE & SPARKLING dropdown on their website, I would say the doctor’s diagnosis would be DNR.

RIP Oddies – if anyone needs a job, we’ve got a spare broom and plenty of fridges!

In happier news, The Sports Business Awards 2023 Ceremony took place last Friday at The Hurlingham Club.  The Awards aim to recognise and reward achievement by the teams behind the scenes that facilitate sporting excellence and endeavours, saluting and championing their resilience, adaptability and resourcefulness.  The award for Best Sports Community Scheme – Football was won by our very own local heroes – Dons Local Action Group.  For a charity that was founded in March 2020, this is a brilliant achievement and well deserved!

So, how about we raise a tasting glass to this achievement?

The white we have on tasting this weekend is Sameirás Blanco 2022 – £18.99 – which is made from 5 grapes that simply trip off the tongue – Treixadura, Albariño, Godello, Lado, Loureiro – all indigenous to the Northwest of the Iberian peninsula.  A really quite exotic pineapple and nectarine nose with touches of mandarin and similar orange fruits on the palate followed by a beautiful dry/savoury finish with hints of pithy acidity as it fades we haven’t shown this since May 2019, so it’s well worth a revisit!

The red is a bit of an old favourite and very much of the season – Le Seigneur du Raveil Vacqueyras 2019 – £19.99.  Originally formed by 7 passionate winegrowers in 1956, today the Cave de Gigondas has increased to 78 members across 128 hectares in Gigondas whilst also taking in vineyards in Vacqueyras and Beaumes de Venise to bring the total to 260 hectares.  We loved this wine from the first mouthful – blackcurrant, black cherry, blackberry all make an appearance leading to some plum character on the finish with a dollop of spice to tidy it up.  Classic Rhône quality and poise.

That’s it from us, what’ve you been up to?

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We started the week with the King’s Speech, which Rishi Sunak described as “taking long-term decisions for a brighter future.” I don’t know if you saw it, but the enthusiasm with which the King detailed the measures rather suggested to this watcher that His Majesty remains on the fence in that regard.

There is not much new in it, a lot of words and a few North Sea oil and gas licences that’ll make no difference to the economy at all. Though quite how they’ll be “helping the country to transition to net zero by 2050 I’m not sure. Perhaps that’s why the King sounded rather bored, that and the fact that a third of the proposals are left over from the last parliament maybe. Still, on the plus side, there was nothing about a ban on tents, and there is talk of a Football Regulator, let’s just hope that they don’t involve the folks who run VAR! Probably the cigarette ban isn’t a bad idea either.

We’ve also been tuning in to the Covid enquiry, it’s been heavy going at points but we’ve stuck with it. We felt slightly obliged, given how much time we spent mocking some of the actions or decisions that were taken at points and having listened for a number of days we would say that it was even more mad and chaotic than any of us imagined. You can imagine our shock at the news that “Covid rules were broken virtually every day in No.10”.

On the culture front, Mad Nads’ book is now out. We haven’t read it, but understand from informed folk that it contains all the thrills and spills you’d expect from a fiction writer at the heart of government. A Tory cabal called the ‘Movement’ that really runs everything, a butchered rabbit and claims that Rishi Sunak is a ‘Manchurian candidate’ installed by Dominic Cummings. We’re not sure who has the white cat sat on their lap, but think it might need the cynical setting on your Kindle.

WeWork filed for bankruptcy protection this week as it turned out that it didn’t actually work. Valued at $47 billion dollars in January 2019, the company was worth just $50 million when it filed for protection this week. All those chasing any company involved in AI might just want to do a ‘Fairy Dust’ check before investing the entire pension fund eh?

On the wine front, the figures are in and it turns out that 2023 is the smallest grape harvest since 1961. It looks likely that we’ll experience an overall fall of around 7% and as it’s been Italy and Spain taking the climate hit, France has moved back up to top volume producer for this year. It looks like a good vintage in both quality and volume aspects for the English wine producers and in California, the wet winter and cool summer has done wonders for the producers of Napa and Sonoma.

The OECD released a study into binge drinking this week. The reported headlines were quite a thing:

Daily Express: “Global study names world’s booziest countries – and Britain is NOT number one.”

Daily Star: “World’s biggest boozers revealed – and UK only comes third.”

Daily Mail: “Why ARE British women the world’s biggest binge drinkers?”

You can draw your own conclusions from that, but we would also mention a joint study from researchers at Universities of Washington and California. They found that a glass of wine can help you sleep but only if you’ve already had a coffee. Now I don’t know about you, but I have always had a cup of coffee before I’ve had a glass of wine. Coffee with breakfast, wine later on, even on Christmas Day!

Tasting this Weekend

We thought we’d head to Italy this week, there’s a bit of a treat on the white front, Poggio Al Tesoro Solosole Vermentino 2022, Toscana (£27.99) this delicious white from Bolgheri is crisp and elegant with yellow plum fruit. But don’t take my word for it, come and taste for yourself. It’ll be a top treat with that fish you pick up at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning.

In the red corner, we’ll be bringing out one of our new purchases. Urban Park Appassimento 2019, Veneto (£14.99) is from our chums at Montresor and is made from grapes dried for around 30 days before being made into wine. A mini Amarone, if you will. We’re quite excited about it, so come and tell us what you think. We’ve got a mushroom stroganoff against this one, how about you?

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Well that’s Week 44 just about finished, just 8 more to go. 

Tuesday saw us put Halloween behind us, Sunday sees us put earmuffs on the dog as Guy Fawkes Night does its thing (although I don’t think the kids call it that anymore) and then it’s full steam ahead to Black Friday Eve on 23^rd November.  Christmas adverts are already arriving, Caffè Nero emailed me on Thursday with a preview of their offering and  M&S have already courted controversy, albeit mistakenly.

This leads me to believe that it will soon be Easter.

In the world of wine, not much has changed since we last spoke.  A couple of happy headlines in the trade rag Harpers started the week off well:

Licenced premises down by a third since 2003 – 30/10/23 – A net figure of 44,000 outlets have closed in this period which is roughly six closures per day, every day…

Insolvencies peak driven by hospitality and retail – 01/11/23 – See above

Customer loyalty reins supreme in cost-of-living crisis – 31/10/23 (it’s their typo, not mine, neigh!)

Now this is the sort of business I want to be in.  Zonal Insights GO TECHNOLOGY Report 2023, titled The New Loyalty Landscape: How the cost-of-living crisis impacts hospitality,has been paid by someone to come up with amongst other things, the following insights into Loyalty turn-offs: Consumers’ top five reasons for reducing loyalty

1 If I had a few bad experiences (49%)

2 If they raise the prices (37%)

3= If I had one bad experience (24%)

3= If I don’t get value for money in the cost-of-living crisis (24%)

5 If they were involved in controversy (23%)

This also might be seen as:

51% of consumers don’t mind a few bad experiences

63% don’t find a raise in prices hugely important

76% wouldn’t be put off by one bad experience

76% don’t prioritise value for money

77% don’t really care if they were involved in controversy!

I appreciate it’s not quite so black and white but it does make you wonder what you can really learn from such studies – perhaps most importantly, right now, that there is more than one way of looking at things…

At a local level, I seem to have ordered too much seasonal Bordeaux.  I don’t have enough space on the shelves and need you all to help me resolve this problem.  Seeing things differently, Wayne doesn’t see this as a problem and has told me he knows a man who can help with this. 

I suspect it might be him.

In the rest of the world, this week I have been mainly listening to the Covid Inquiry and have taken little reassurance from the knowledge that everything that we thought was going on in 2020/21 behind the scenes actually was; that Dominic Cumming wasn’t the biggest villain; that Gavin Williamson got a knighthood and that Matt Hancock lied, all the time, to everyone.

Our peripatetic cycling correspondent, fresh from his post-paella siesta, sent me news of an important event in the world of two wheels.  Dutch headwind championships cancelled – due to high winds was the headline in Cycling Weekly, which went on: Usually organisers and competitors are hoping for strong enough winds – with force seven being the minimum acceptable requirement. But with Storm Ciaràn set to reach force 11, organisers decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valour.

Whoever suggested that cyclists are a breed apart might have a point… however, if you’re a cricket fan, cycling into a headwind might seem more palatable than watching the World Cup!

We don’t talk about rugby anymore and football is on the bench for now.  On 6^th October, we wrote: …I’m not really sure where professional sport will be in 10 years’ time, given all the rising costs and demands on the hosts…. we read that The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia… has announced its intention to bid for the 2034 World Cup. 

On Tuesday, Australia withdrew their application which meant that Saudi Arabia became the sole bidder – I think it’s becoming more obvious where the future control of sport will sit.

But enough of all this, what shall we taste this weekend?

The white will be the Von Buhl Bone Dry Riesling 2022 – £18.99

Seemed appropriate in Halloween week that we taste a wine with a skull on the label!  This is a wonder, with the dryness you experience in Austrian or Clare Valley Rieslings whilst maintaining the texture that makes the more traditional styles so moreish.  There’s a lovely seam of minerality too – who said all Rieslings are all sweet?

The red will be an old favourite bought from our pal and wine guru Jack – Santa Duc Les Plans 2020 – £15.99.  Benjamin Gras is the 6th Generation of the family to run Domaine Santa Duc and he has definitely carried on the great work his father started.  This is from their Vaucluse property and is a slightly naughty blend of 50% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 15% Merlot, 10%, Cabernet and 5% others.  Jack put us onto this one about 4 years ago and he rarely gives us bum steer.  Lovely dark fruits, a touch of liquorice and a slightly savoury note into the finish – it’s unusual to see Cabernet & Merlot in these parts, but it seems to work!

And that’s me done; look forward to seeing all you loyal customers over the weekend, despite the numerous bad experiences we have offered!!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We’ll start with some words from Fiona Beckett, award-winning food and wine writer, one of the world’s leading experts on food and drink matching, wine columnist for The Guardian and the author of 25 books on food, wine, beer and alcohol-free drinks.

Vindependents buys exclusively for independent merchants, and often unearths wines you won’t find anywhere else in the UK….

What the indies do have to offer, however, is wine you just can’t get elsewhere, much of it from small producers who don’t make enough to supply the bigger retailers, as well as a real human you can talk to….

Things are rather better, though, for the 55 members of an enterprising consortium called Vindependents (vindies for short), an agency that buys wine exclusively for the independent sector….

What I like about the wines the Vindependents select is that there’s almost always a good story behind them…

Fiona Beckett on drinks – The Guardian – Fri 20 Oct 2023

So what, I hear you say? 

Well, if you hadn’t guessed already, we are one of the 55 members of the Vindependents buying powerhouse – roughly 20% of our wines come from here, numbering amongst them best sellers like:

• Champagne Lété-Vautrain
• Domaine Landreau Cremant Rose
• Vilacetinho Vinho Verde
• Domaine Fournillon Chablis
• Follas Novas Albariño
• Iris Malbec
• Cantine Povero Cabanè Langhe
• Collequieto Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

So we’re dead excited that Fiona has looked beyond the supermarket offerings and championed us minnows – thank you well, Mrs B.

But that’s enough about us, what about the rest of the world?

I suppose the first thing to mention is that summer is now definitely over.  I appreciate we have not broken news there but it becomes official on Sunday morning when we put the clocks back an hour and it starts to be dark for more than 60% of the day – happy days, red wine ahoy!

I’ve been warned not to mention sport which is easy since there doesn’t seem to be any going on at the moment – both the cricket and rugby world cups seem to have finished quite abruptly and Wayne hasn’t mentioned much cycling recently, so they must be on an eating phase.  Arsenal are third in the Premier League though, which is brilliant news……

And we obviously don’t want to talk about the AELTC, suffice to say chopping down mature trees and replacing them with a 95-metre long, 28-metre high, 8,000-seat show court doesn’t feel terribly Greta….

Back to football, loosely speaking, we see that Eric Cantona, famous sardine/seagull behaviourist is now a singer, having released an EP, I’ll Make My Own Heaven, at the end of last week but more on that later.

Yesterday, I was reminded of a pet peeve of ours which is the inexplicable popularity of celebrity drinks.  Union, a company that runs systems for high volume hospitality in the US, have crunched the data they accumulate from sales at the venues they serve and have come up with the following disturbing trend – punters are paying on average 73% more on drinks made by famous people!  Gulp.  We’ve laughed in the past at Kylie being 10^th in the list of 100 Most Influential People in Drinks but hadn’t actually pondered on the fact that people might be paying more for the pleasure… I mean, I enjoyed Breaking Bad as we all did but I don’t think it ever made me think that I must rush out and buy the Bryan Cranston/Aaron Paul Dos Hombres Mezcal at £60 a pop!

Which brings me back to Cantona – does this mean we would expect to pay treble for his album because he is famous for something completely unrelated?!

I think no….

Back to wine, we thought it apt to taste a couple of the wines that Fiona B highlighted in last week’s article:

Le Veritable Jurançon Sec 2020 – £11.99

A lush, peachy white made from the local gros manseng grape. Fresher than you’d imagine from a 2020 vintage.

Sierra de Enmedio Monastrell – £10.99

Appealingly soft, juicy Spanish red. Easy to drink on its own, better with tapas.

Ok, so I’ve written longer ‘unsubscribe me’ emails but at least we know she liked them as much as we do!

Have a lovely weekend, enjoy the lie in on Sunday and try to avoid midgets demanding sweets on Tuesday!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We found something that made us laugh out loud this week. You may recall past emails where we may have mentioned the madness of transferring the entire European Parliament from Brussels to Strasbourg every other month. We’re rather old fashioned in the view that taxpayers should be able to expect a reasonable value for money approach to spending by their representatives and that this is anything but that. Anyhoo, on Monday, a train full of hundreds of MEP’s and European Parliament officials ended up at Disneyland Paris after being misrouted. You can imagine our mirth and I’m sure you can frame your own ‘bon mots’.   

One hundred miles from the coast of Vanuatu, Tom Robinson has been rescued. Not he of 2-4-6-8 Motorway fame but a young chap who had hoped to be the youngest person to row across the Pacific Ocean. He was nearly there too; he set off from Peru in July last year and was on the last leg, having set off from Luganville, Vanuatu on Monday and expecting to be in Cairns by December. He was rescued by a cruise ship that is now heading to Auckland from where he’ll fly home. I can never make up my mind if adventures of this nature are brave or foolhardy – certainly when I was 24 I never considered rowing anywhere in a homemade boat, certainly not across oceans. We definitely need adventurers like this, brave, foolhardy or otherwise.

Whilst we’re on the subject of water, it seems that Welsh Water, when confronted with independent analysis of their own figures, has admitted to illegally pumping sewage into Cardigan Bay. Their managing director of waste water says “We’re not proud of this at all. It’s a very uncomfortable position to be in – but it’s not for the want of trying. We have been trying to fix this.”

Maybe try harder?

Still on the subject of water, alarmingly, the Amazon is suffering a drought and is at its lowest level in a century, which doesn’t sound good at all.

On a brighter note, we have quite a lot of England versus South Africa World Cup action at the weekend. In Mumbai, it looks like the team will be able to welcome Stokes back after recovering from injury which should give a bit of a boost. At the other end of the day, and closer to home, we have Mahler, Martin and Steward facing an unchanged South African side in Paris. Marcus Smith is still suffering from the battering he took last week. Today’s semi-final is between Argentina and New Zealand – if last week’s games are anything to go by, it should be a fun weekend.

In other news, Rishi Sunak’s Future Fund, the much criticised Covid fund to support start-ups, invested £2 million pounds in four companies linked to his wife. Surprisingly, none of them are mentioned in his register of interests. According to the Cabinet Office, he has spent £650,271.28 on private or RAF jet hire. They say trains are expensive…

In wine news, Aristotelis Valaoritis has set a new world record for glass dancing. Glass dancing is a traditional Cypriot skill that you shouldn’t try at home folks since Aristotelis has been practicing this since 1995, entertaining people at events and restaurants. His world record? 319 wine glasses balanced, one by one, on trays on his head with a total weight of some 30kg – we think it’s certainly not something to try with your Riedels and apparently he’s now aiming to repeat this feat with whisky glasses!

On that note I think we should taste some wine – no rhyme or reason to these choices save the fact that the slow cooker is on duty tomorrow and the red will be a nice accompaniment…

Valenciso Blanco – £24.99 – A firm favourite with both of us, this white Rioja is a blend of 70% Viura and 30% Garnacha Blanca, sourced from 80 year old vines and then fermented with wild yeasts before lazing around for 9 months in Caucasian oak barrels. Complex aromas combining pretty, floral character with preserved lemon, truffle and smoky notes and a palate that is broad and well integrated, with nutty, stone fruit notes. Fresh candied peel, minerality and crisp citrus acidity on the finish and the texture in the mouth is similar to a posh Graves but believe me when I say it’s unmistakably Spanish in style which is why I often pair it with a fish supper!

Château de Paraza ‘Cuvée Spéciale’ 2017 – £16.99 – as discussed, casserole is in the offing and what better to match it than a Syrah, Grenache Noir & Mourvèdre blend. They give us a deep red, garnet coloured wine with cherry and raspberry compote notes, red licorice string in the background and a lovely juicy acidity which make this a great all-rounder of a wine – happy days!