Fellow Wine Lovers,
It’s all over, red rover. Pink champagne waltzed out the door, as did Armagnac and, possibly significantly, but I’m not sure why, cider was also a popular tipple on Valentine’s Day. Best joke of the day, which came courtesy of Twitter:
– Men discover quality florist that also sells fuel and pasties.
As we stride boldly towards the 50th day of 2013, it’s hard not to reflect on how much the world has changed over the last few years.
We have papers filled with horsemeat, the only real conclusion being that it’s highly likely that most meat eaters will have ingested Shergar at some point; we have more pap-pictures of our future Queen in a state of undress; we have a retiring Pope; we have Paxman accused of bullying; and we have Oscar Pistorious – what strange times we do live in.
But here at PV our glass is always just over half full, so we embrace the fact that we might at some point have eaten a champion racehorse – how often can you say you’ve eaten a celebrity?
Speaking of glasses and their contents, this weekend we will taste a pair of wines that we have had on the shelves for ages, which we sell quite a lot of and yet strangely have never opened them on a weekend. The two wines are from the same producer, Bergerie de la Bastide, which is in the Pays d’Oc region of France. Great value (these are £7.49) and great tasting wines continue to pour from this area and hopefully you’ll agree.
In the white the principle grape is Vermentino (30%) with the balance made up of Grenache Blanc, Sauvignon and Ugni Blanc. There are dried herbs, white flowers, fennel, juniper, green olives and a nice tang of citrus on the finish to stop it running away with itself.
The red is 40% Grenache Noir, 30% Cinsault and 30% Merlot. Loads of cranberries, redcurrants, and red cherries but reassuringly light, clean and fresh on the palate. Exactly what you’d expect in your carafe at the bistro.
On a different note, we’ve just spent the whole of Thursday attempting to use our Microsoft Office 2010 which decided that our licence had been exceeded or something, so if anyone is an expert on the inner emotions of Microsoft software and has a good idea as to how we can seduce the system into working for us again, we’d love to hear from you! Although, of course, if you’re getting this email it would imply we have cured the problem – perhaps.
That’s it from us – it’s half term next week, so the roads will be strangely quiet and the museums and cinemas will be teeming and more importantly we’ll be open every day offering our support and a safe haven on the journey back from the tube.
Toodle pip!
Alex & Wayne