Fellow Wine Lovers,
Happy New Year to those of you who are just joining us – how’s it been for you so far? How’s the marathon training going? How many different Seedlip cocktails can you have in one evening without feeling bored? How on earth did you manage to abstain from rich, robust red wine when the last few days have brutally demanded a warming glass or two by the fire? Are you going to stay vegan?
Anyway, chapeau to all of you that did the Dry January thing – a momentous achievement and one that needs celebrating – but I imagine that, with 31 days of planning, such celebration is already underway; if you haven’t planned anything, I’m sure we can help!
It should be a good weekend for lots of kids as all they unexpectedly receive Playstations, Moncler jackets, brand new iphones, ponies, gold coated pain-au-chocolat and the James Charles palette – things that were just unrealistic dreams up to now. Why? I hear you say. Well, whilst these things were never going to happen in normal climates, news has now reached us that, in spite of Donny T’s twitter requests that global warming come back fast, the polar vortex has caused terrible mayhem in the Midwest with Michigan particularly hard hit and thus the neighbourhood of Hell, 200 miles east of Chicago, has frozen over – and we all know what happens then!
However, further research reveals that there is also a village called Hell in Norway, 300 miles north of Oslo and currently surviving on 5 hours daylight which we imagine spends much of its winter months frozen. So, Hell regularly freezes over and another popular idiom bites the dust. We’ll have to hope that this is the only idiom losing validity since the possibility of flying pigs is not what any of us want!
Elsewhere the high street is starting to produce some post-christmas casualties.
Oddbins is up against it once again and this time I’m really not sure who can or will bail them out. It’s a massive shame, especially for all those, like us, who wore Oddbins t-shirts for a number of years and who have that nutty little company to thank for putting us through our wine exams and teaching us the joys (?)of retail. We still have friends there, friends who have worked their way from the shop floor to head office and who now face an uncertain future. And the reason for the collapse? Well, for some reason Brexit was mentioned, probably because it always is. Regular currency fluctuations – yep, I can see those being a problem. Cheap wine in the supermarkets, particularly the European based ones – I can see this also being an issue. Online – again this is, we are told, the brave new world and it certainly has a huge impact on us paying for bricks and mortar. Which leads us onto rents which absolutely have to be the biggest factor. An average 17.8% rent rise at its 100 sites has proved to be insurmountable which isn’t really a surprise. I still don’t get it, I would rather have my property occupied in perpetuity at a slightly lower rate but with a guaranteed income than the feast and famine style that a lot of landlords and letting agents follow. We’ve got a rent review later this year – we’ll see what happens.
But it’s February now and there should be plenty of reasons to be cheerful. We’ve got through the longest, darkest month and will quickly scoot through this short month – before we know it we’ll be wearing daffodils and praising St David. Also, February brings us the start of the Guinness 6 Nations which actually starts this evening with France v Wales. Worryingly, I was due to go to the pub to watch this with one of my Welsh friends but he has now decided against it as he doesn’t feel it’s going to be a good night for the Wales gang – we’ll see. Scotland host Italy and Ireland host England tomorrow – I fear there could be telephone number scores in both games and as such we’ll be watching through our fingers. We’ll then finish off the weekend with a bit of gridiron as the New England Patriots take on the LA Rams, the east coast being tipped as the possible winners here in a tight contest – I’ll certainly start watching it, the question being will I remember to go to bed or wake up on the sofa at 4am?
For those of you not interested in the rugby, how about we distract you with a glass of wine?
As a departure from the norm we will have 3 bottles open this weekend – a red, a white and another red. We’ll be opening the second red because we can keep it fresh for an extended period of time – yep, that’s right, our eto decanters arrived at the end of last week!! You may remember we did a bit of trialling of the eto with Tom, the designer, two years ago. Now, after much back and forth to China over the intervening months, the finished article is finally finished and the decanters are being shipped out – and to celebrate we’re going to christen ours with a bottle of…. Cambria Benchbreak Pinot Noir 2013 – £27.49. It’sfrom Santa Maria Valley in California and is medium-bodied, silky smooth and just the ticket for that crispy duck you had planned for Chinese New year next week, or maybe that roast pork on Sunday.
On a more everyday note we’ll also be opening two wines from South Africa.
Doran Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2015 – £12.99 – since we listed this in November we have sold out of our stocks twice and that’s without ever putting it on tasting! A barrel fermented Chenin from Swartland, with a crisp, fresh palate of ripe orchard fruits and a lovely long finish – this is an extremely elegant white at a great price.
Barton Rouge 2015 – £9.99 – we’ve been selling the 2013 vintage for the last couple of years and, a bit like the Chenin above, we never have it on tasting because it just sells so well anyway. However, this is the new vintage so let’s see if we can get it some more fans. A blend of Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre and Shiraz it has a delicious richness of fruit, good tannin structure and a bit of spice on the finish that make it the perfect foil to a hearty stew, a hunk of steak or a midweek spag bol!
That’s it from us, no excuses any more as January is now well and truly behind us, come and taste some wine and remind yourself what you’ve been missing! u