Fellow Wine Lovers,
Here at Park Vintners we like to think of ourselves of being somewhat involved in the fun business, even if it’s just as supplying some of the ingredients. You can imagine then, our dismay at all the hoo-haa over a Christmas Party.
We normally like to have a festive party and the format involves Alex and Wayne going out to dinner together with their wives. Previous venues that may have featured on the invitation include The Fox and Grapes, The Lighthouse, Nutbourne, Santa Maria del Sur and The White Onion, All are places we feel you can have something tasty to eat and a glass or two of something suitably agreeable to accompany it.
At this point we would like to clarify the actions that were taken last year. We will confess to having not one but two parties. Both of them had the same menu and wine list but no party games or dancing. Because of the government’s rules we found plans changing rather rapidly. In the end we had a really rather delicious hare ragù takeaway from our chums at Whisk and some rather tasty wine from a shelf in this very building.
The first party was here in Wimbledon Park with the second occurring simultaneously in Balham, the two linked by Zoom. We can attribute the Zoom link to the technical abilities of our wives, who spend a large part of their working days enjoying its attributes. We can attest that no other staff, press officers or journalists were present. There was no sleeping Prime Minister upstairs having an early night in a defiant ‘non-attending’ manner. Two teenagers may or may not have been in the building watching television but we cannot confirm or deny because their phones have been changed.
Other than that, we have nothing further to say on the matter.
Have you been following the Grand Prix? All to play for in the Drivers’ Championship with Hamilton and Verstappen on equal points going into the final race of the season. Could be a nail biter, could be two cars off at the first corner, let’s see on Sunday shall we? We weren’t sure we wanted to mention the cricket but on reflection we’ll just reference our email of 26th July 2019, the blond scarecrow had just become Prime Minister when we wrote:
“Theresa was seen sipping a clear drink with a slice of lime in it at Lord’s yesterday; she looked remarkably relaxed, unshackled and about 10 years younger – easy lays the head that no longer wears the crown, to horrendously misquote the Bard.
She did witness a bit of a fight back by the England team though, including an extraordinary innings by a number 11 plus the traditional mid-order collapse. Good to see Roy in the runs, bit of a concern about Burns though, is the step up to Test a bit too big – Australia will be watching and learning.”
Nothing further to say on that matter either!
In other news we found lying around in the internet’s dusty shoebox, Santa has survived another summer in the Bahama’s and is back in Lapland working hard for the big day. A victim of soaring electricity prices and collapsing energy providers just like the rest of us, he has been harnessing the power from the Aurora Borealis to power the Elves workshop which explains why the colours have been so green lately.
Talking of Elves, Alex has put together some selections of seasonably suitable reds that may tickle your fancy on the gift or drinking front. We’ve taken the liberty of attaching the details.
All that remains is for us to enlighten those of you who’d like to taste some wine at the weekend. In the celebratory corner we’ll pop the cork on Joseph Perrier Cuvée Royale Brut NV (£36.99 or £184.95 for six) because it’s delicious and we’ve not had it on tasting for ages. Running around in the white ski jacket will be Flametree Chardonnay 2020 (£18.99) a stunning example from Margaret River and if those fishy folk at the farmers market have some brill, that might be just the ticket! Arriving with the speed of a Pat Cummins delivery will be Geoff Merrill Bush Vine GSM 2013 (£19.49) if anyone is watching the cricket it’ll certainly be Geoff!