Fellow Wine Lovers,
Even those that normally scoff the most at us sports fans have been swept up in the current football fever.
They have learnt what VAR means, have become experts in simulation in the penalty area (which is something they would have frowned upon previously) and fail, like us, to understand how Neymar was in such excruciating pain when the linesman didn’t flinch as Miguel Layan stood on both their feet, simultaneously. Whilst learning how to spot the cheating they have also learnt to love the teamwork of the Japanese team, the nuanced short passes of the England defence and the electricity pulsing through the French team.
We even hear reports that one of the most disparaging critics of international sport we have ever met got so distracted by the England game on Tuesday – I was only watching whilst waiting for the news – that he completely destroyed a saucepan, and the broccoli within, as it boiled dry in the penalty excitement! Takeaways next week if we get past Sweden, I reckon….
However, we mustn’t dwell on sport when there’s wine to be talked about. If you think the tone of this missive drops when we talk about football, I’m not sure what you’re going to think of me when I mention my next topic – Ernst & Julio Gallo. Now, whilst we all love a drop of Gallo Family Vineyards White Grenache (which is, of course, pink) and what they’ve done with Moscato is extraordinary/criminal, one must occasionally look beyond such exceptional wines and boutique winemaking and examine their intellectual endeavours. A survey of 2,000 punters was published this week by one of their more premium labels, Dark Horse, with the following results:
• 73% are intimidated by the wine list when in a restaurant or wine bar
• 58% believe they do not know enough about wine to be confident ordering
• 36% have no idea what they are meant to be looking for when a waiter invites them to try a wine but will not admit it
• 29% only buy wine that is on offer
• 23% choose wine from the same country or region.
• 18% think about what they are eating when choosing wine
The most obvious thing that benefits Dark Horse here is that the punter feels under pressure and lacking in knowledge most of the time and will thus return to the wine they always buy – Dark Horse, of course which you’ll never find on a wine list.
The other obvious take home from these figures is that still, in spite of the fact that over the last 20 years wine consumption has seen near continual growth and the choice we have now is so much greater, most of us still feel the world of wine is a secret and impenetrable society.
73% are intimidated by the wine list. It’s funny for us to hear this in some respects because, as a result of many conversations with different customers when we ran a store Clapham, this was the thing that bugged people the most – what to choose on the list when out to lunch with your boss/on a first date/meeting the in-laws for the first time.
It’s funny purely because these conversations were going on way back in 2007. And back then we listened to our customers intently (!) with the result that we wrote a 6 week Wine School, with the unofficial sole purpose of ‘solving the winelist’ and generally de-mystifying wine.
11 years later, we still run this course and, if surveys are to be believed, ¾ of you reading this would like to go on it!
PARK VINTNERS WINE SCHOOL
6 WEEK COURSE – WEDNESDAY 10TH OCTOBER UNTIL WEDNESDAY 21ST NOVEMBER
(NO CLASS ON WEDNESDAY 24TH OCTOBER, HALF TERM)
£150 PER PERSON
Tasting this weekend
The last part of the article that I got the stats above from was a nice punchline for us:
Brits typically spend £25 on a bottle of wine for a dinner party but one in ten will splash out £100.
10% of you want to spend a ton!? Do please step this way, madam, and let me recommend the Chateau d’Issan 2005, the Sassicaia or the Vega Sicilia Valbuena, all drinking beautifully and well within your pricepoint…..
Back on planet earth, we’ll be opening a couple of wines more for the everyday rather than the dinner party.
Les Vignoble Foncalieu Piquepoul Rose 2017 (£12.99) is a cracking dry rosé from the plain between Bezier and Narbonne in the Languedoc, France. Made from Piquepoul Noir which is a relatively rare grape variety more normally found as part of the blend in a Chateauneuf-Du-Pape. This wine though, is deliciously fresh and delicate drop with dry strawberry and redcurrant notes and a lovely freshness.
Bodegas Arráez Vivir Sin Dormir 2016 (£12.99) is an organic wine made from Monastrell grapes grown in Jumilla, Spain. We thought its dark plummy roundness would make it great with some barbecued food, winemaker Toni seems to think it a great partner for people who love to dance under the moon. The choice is, of course yours, but I might suggest doing both as it’s the weekend!
That’s it from us this week, busy day tomorrow with football, the start of the Tour de France and of course, the tennis.
I’ll leave you now with a conversation I had with a customer yesterday:
How many wines you got from Sweden, mate? And how many from England?
Strange question, I thought but I replied anyway:
England two, Sweden nil!
Bye now!