Fellow Wine Lovers,
Sorry to say it so early but Christmas arrived here yesterday at Park Vintners.
As with many of us whose survival relies entirely on goods arriving from abroad, when we heard faint rumour of a proposed exit from the Union of Europe at the end of last month, we made certain that we had ordered enough stock to arrive in the UK before we were confined to solitary. As a consequence, since mid-October, we have had what is professionally known as a stinkload of stock sitting in a repurposed bunker, somewhere underneath the plain of Salisbury. Whilst our wine was undoubtedly safe there, given the amount of military manoeuvres going on overhead, it was costing us too much money in rent. Thus, with a heavy heart, we got them to deliver the bulk of it to us yesterday and, given that Alex is suffering from an entirely self-diagnosed bout of housemaids knee, Wayne moved over 100 cases of wine downstairs by himself yesterday – he definitely earnt himself that pint in the pub last night!
Obviously, since he wouldn’t have had to have done this had we not had to order in anticipation of EU exit that never happened, we can still happily blame Brexit for making us mention Christmas so early in November!
In the world outside the shop, Westminster seems to be continuing its clear-out as more MP’s decide they don’t fancy the coalface anymore, all of this published on Twitter of course, the modern day politicians social media conduit of choice. And the twitter supremo, Mr Trump is also facing a potential clear-out of his own, should his impeachment bear fruit.
Sport ceased to exist at about 11am last Saturday and we’re now all about Chamber Music.
Actually it came back to life for all the wrong reasons as rugby club Saracens were found to be doing a Man City and got a fined and docked 35 points for basically paying their players more than they should. They are of course appealing this fine and points cull but in the meantime should they still be allowed to play in Europe? Probably not. The man sitting on the fence did observe that since Saracens contributed the spine of the England Rugby team, was their rule-breaking in fact a good thing? Hmmmm. He also pointed out that until just over a year ago Sarries was 50% owned by South African investment company Remgro – here I think he’s just trying to stir up trouble so we’ll move on…
Happily, not all the cases of wine ended up downstairs, so here’s a quick list of our new listings:
FRANCE
Champagne – Delavenne Père et Fils Grand Cru Brut Rose NV – £45
Burgundy – Domaine Fournillon Chablis 2016 – £16.99
Loire – Domaine Jouan Frère et Soeur Menetou Salon 2018 – £15.99
Rhone – La Cave de Gigondas Vacqueyras Raveil 2016 – £18.49
ITALY
Abruzzo – Collequieto Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2018 – £10.99
Piedmont – Cantine Povero ‘Priore’ Barolo 2015 – £33
SPAIN
Costers del Segre – Mas Blanch I Jove Sao Abrivat 2016 – £17.99 & Mas Blanch I Jove Troballa 2018 – £17.99
Priorat – Marco Abella Mas Mallola 2015 – £27.99
USA
California – Vina Robles Viognier 2018 – £19.99 & Vina Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 – £24.99
SPIRITS
We’ve restocked a few of these and listed a couple of new ones, so here’s a snapshot:
From Calvados we have reshelved the Chateau du Breuil VSOP – £35.99 and also the fabulous Champagne Cognac Jean Fillioux La Pouyade – £54.00.
And then we went to Scotland.
From Islay we got the Finlaggan Old Reserve – £36 back on the shelf and also the Speyside favourite, Benromach 10 year old – £40.
New listings that we’re extremely excited about are the Benromach 2011 Sassacaia Wood Finish – £48, which is the perfect storm of quality whisky finished in fancy supertuscan barrels! We’ve also managed to snaffle a bit of Macallan Double Cask 12 year old – £58.50 usually they won’t let us have any!
And then we went to Japan (gulp!). We’ve been selling whisky from here for over ten years and frankly we should have invested in some of these when they only cost 50 quid:
Hibiki Harmony Blended Whisky – £75, Yamazaki 12 year old – £120 and Hakusha 12 year old – £140.
TASTING THIS WEEKEND
It would be churlish not to open something new so I think we’ll broach the Domaine Fournillon Chablis 2016 and the Collequieto Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2018. For those of you interested in the spirits, we do have the Benromach Sassicaia open, and also the Finlaggan and the Benromach 10 year old, along with numerous other gins and things. Sadly, the Japanese ones are not open because we have so few of them, and no, not even if you ask really nicely…
That’s it from us for now, come and see us for a taste and a natter!