Fellow Wine Lovers,
Finally, some news this week that made us smile, as the bar we never knew we needed gets ready to open its doors…
- Sausage Roll with hot honey sauce
- Vegan Sausage Roll with harissa coconut yoghurt
- Cheese & Onion Bake with romesco sauce and almonds
- Steak Bake with peppercorn aioli
- Chicken Bake with katsu curry sauce and pickled cucumber
- Sausage, Bean & Cheese Melt with Bloody Mary ketchup
This is the menu, as of next Thursday until the end of the year, being offered to the good people of Newcastle who visit the famous Fenwick department store. Yep, in a collab none of us would ever have imagined, Greggs, the health food specialists, have met with Fenwick Executive Head Chef Mark Reid to create these masterpieces to be served at their pop up champagne bar.
Yep, Greggs Champagne Bar.
In their words: “Inspired by 1920s Paris wine bars and paired with champagne from France and Italy (?) – now’s your chance to sip and snack your way through a boujee twist on our iconic menu… After all, it’s widely known that a Sausage Roll is infinitely better with a glass of Perrier-Jouët.”
Whatever next, a Twiglets and Prosecco booth at Harvey Nicks?!
Elsewhere the news is less jolly. In two weeks, we’ll have had the budget. We will know whether the ‘pro-business’ government is going to make us put up our prices before Christmas with an interim duty increase, before we get the next duty increase at the end of February 2025…. And in three weeks we’ll be getting an idea as to whether the USA will be welcoming its first female president or its first convicted felon.
It’s enough to make you turn to drink.
Sticking with duty for a moment, I mentioned this to a couple of customers last week and they suggested it needed broadcasting further afield. In Europe, large wine producers like Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain have no tax levy on wine, whilst in France it is only 3 cents a bottle. This would seem quite supportive of their local producers and, in the absence of tariffs within the EU, of producers in neighbouring countries too.
In the UK (not EU), we currently charge duty of £2.67 per bottle, £3.21 after VAT.
Now, in the shop, one of the stumbling blocks we regularly face when selling English wine is the perception that it can be seen to be comparatively quite expensive, particularly the sparkling wines that are getting all the press. Often we find customers will see that the English Sparkler is the same price as the Real Champagne and opt for the french offering, the ‘real thing’ if you will.
Imagine if they removed duty from all wine made over here? Suddenly the English Sparkler would be significantly cheaper than the French one and sales could soar – sounds pretty pro-business to me!
Elsewhere, I think we can finally call time on the cycling season, so Wayne can now go back to talking about music again. Oh no, hang about, I’m wrong. Apparently the wheels are still turning, they’ve just gone inside. Fab. In the cricket, following last week’s romp for the men in Multan, it seems that the Men’s Test team have forgotten how to play spin and the Women’s T20 team has lost the ability to catch, achieving some sort of record by managing to drop the same person 5 times!
And then we come to football. I have to say I find it astonishing that we have hired a German coach for the national men’s team. I mean, what have Germany ever achieved in international football? Nothing. Unless you include 4 World Cups and 3 European championships. Plus, what on earth did Thomas achieve in his 18 months at Chelsea? Nothing. Unless you include the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Of course, what clinched the job for Mr Tuchel was the fact that whilst at Chelsea he also got them to two FA Cup Finals and one League Cup final. They managed to lose all three, two of them on penalties, which made him an absolute shoo-in!
Anyway, time for that drink that I suggested earlier. Sadly I don’t have any sausage rolls so we won’t be opening any Champagne and clearly English fizz is to pricey so instead I’m going to venture across the pond, before they close the borders and open a couple of tasty Californians for a change.
De Loach Russian River Valley Chardonnay – £30.99 – De Loach was purchased by Jean-Claude Boisset in 2003, recognising similarities between the Russian River Valley and his native Burgundy. The head winemaker, Brian Maloney has been involved with the winery since 2003 and has focused throughout on high quality, small-lot winemaking. The wine has a nose of nectarine and ripe pear leading onto a citrus and baked apple palate with integrated hints of vanilla cream, spice and crème brûlée. You definitely won’t like it.
The Crusher Pinot Noir – £18.99 – A perennially popular wine, this one, from Clarksburg just south of Sacramento and about 100 miles northeast of San Francisco. The morning fogs and cool coastal winds from the bay help to keep the Pinot Noir in balance and as a result we get lovely open aromatics of cherry, rhubarb and wood spice that lead onto a soft easy going palate with those same fruit characters and a touch of vanilla cream from its 8 months in barrels. I think a youngster like Wayne might call this ‘smashable’, I’m too old to know if that is true or not but I’ll certainly have a second glass if you’re offering!
That’s it from us, we’re off to have a Gin & Ginsters lunch – spicy chicken slice for me please!