Fellow Wine Lovers,
Us again, another week gone, not so many weeks to go, just 5 at the last count.
And it certainly feels like life is gearing up for a big December. We’re getting daily enquiries as to whether we loan glasses (we do by the way, if you buy wine from us) and these enquiries usually also contain the words ‘party’, ‘first time for almost 2 years’ and ‘two Christmases rolled into one’. So, from our research, it would seem you are all planning on having a drink or two. Last time it was even close to this it was 1999 and the booze trade (myself included) was peddling a sort of apocalyptic end of the year – Y2K was on everyone’s lips, global meltdown had been forecast and a sort of communal masochism had taken over. We all knew it was bad for us but we were enjoying it too much and everyone quickly bought into the frisson that whilst the world probably wasn’t going to end at one minute past midnight it would be a shame to have not done as much as we could possibly do to go out with a bang, should we need to…
But we didn’t need to, we woke up on January 1st 2000 physically intact but with just the faintest whiff of a hangover and realised that it was all going to be alright. Fast forward to now and there is a similar sort of Carpe Diem mood in the air – people are organising get-together’s on Monday nights, historically the Day of the Gym but for now the Day of Gin and everyone is getting on board because you never know when it might all be taken away from us again.
With this in mind, should you have a space in your calendar, we thought we might just do a one of Sparkling Wine & Champagne Tasting on Thursday 2nd December. We’ve lined up 4 sparklers and 4 Champagnes, we’ll round up some light nibbles and lay up a table for 12 lucky souls – just like the old days! It’ll start at 7.30pm, it costs £30 per person and we work purely on the basis of first come, first served.
Check your diary straight away…
Elsewhere sleaze and racism sadly seem to be flourishing – sometimes we have to remind ourselves that there are still good people in this world, not all MP’s are corrupt and not all cricketers are bigoted bullies. Speaking of which, cricket that is, David Warner somehow steered Australia to victory last weekend against New Zealand in the T20 which should never have been possible after his walk in the semi-finals. Some people get what they deserve, some people don’t always deserve what they get. Elsewhere in sport, England risk being brought back down to earth this weekend as they face South Africa in the rugby – my question is, what crime has Adam Radwan committed to be completely dropped – genuinely, if someone can tell me I’d love to know.
Now back to Wimbledon Park – next week we have the prospect of the first orgy of over indulgence of the season as Black Friday rolls around once more. Suffice to say, for some it won’t necessarily be the first indulgence overload as American Thanksgiving is of course next Thursday. I emphasise American Thanksgiving, just to appease Francis and Adam who will be keen to remind me that Canada has already had their Thanksgiving in October and then will rebuke me for failing to mention this in an email… bullet dodged.
Anyway, this never used to be a big sales opportunity for us, for obvious reasons, but as time has gone on and we have seen what I suppose you would call greater globalisation, it is now a thing. So with this in mind we thought we might open a couple of wines from the good old US of A this weekend to whet your appetites.
Wines with a bit of body are the best with Thanksgiving offerings and on the white side, Vina Robles Viognier 2018 – £19.99, fits the bill perfectly.
Civil engineer Hans Nef, from Zurich, discovered Paso Robles in the mid-1990s and quickly became enamoured with the emergent wine country. Here, where the Pacific coastline unfolds into rugged ranch-lands and cowboy ambiance (and who doesn’t love a story with cowboy ambience?), a new generation of California winemakers was turning Paso Robles into one of the world’s most dynamic winegrowing regions. This Viognier is planted in the highest part of the Huerhuero Vineyard benefitting from the cooling afternoon pacific breeze. Crisp and medium-bodied with peach and mandarin fruit with a long lively finish – really rather fabulous.
For reds we have usually gone with Zinfandel, that being the grape that one associates most with the US, however this year we thought we would spread our wings. The Crusher Pinot Noir 2018 – £16.99 fits the bill perfectly, hailing from the Napa in California – a fabulously fruit forward style of wine, soft on the palate sumptuous cranberry and cherry fruit, a touch of oaky spice and a pleasingly long finish. Last time we had this, the Americans crushed Europe in the Ryder Cup, thankfully we’re not competing against them this weekend!
Yee haa!