Fellow Wine Lovers,
Some dates for your diary, past and future:
Sunday 31st March – BST begins
Monday 1st April – April Fool’s Day, all japes to be finished by midday (weather, take note)
Wednesday 10th April – English Cricket Season starts (weather, as above)
Saturday 6th April – Grand National, Colbert Station E/W
Monday 15th April – schools go back, life returns to normal
Thursday 25th April – Wine and Cheese Tasting, 8pm, 4 places left…
Wednesday 1st May – 6 Week Wine Course commences, 8pm, spaces still available
Wednesday 4th April 2012 – temp in London – 11c – fine
Monday 4th April 2011 – temp in London – 12c – fine
Sunday 4th April 2010 – temp in London –9c – chillier
Yesterday – 4c…
I think you all get the theme of this email. It’s been snowing too much recently, it’s been too damn windy and frankly our small oil-fired radiator is having to work too hard. If it wasn’t our own business we would take industrial action against our inhumane working conditions. The Bordeaux we had on tasting last week became a study in tannins as the shop chilled down whilst the Eiswein was standing there in his shorts and flip-flops wandering what all the fuss was about. Oh and I may well have started hallucinating…
In my list of dates above you may have noticed mention of the Wine School. What with one thing and another we have failed to promote this as actively and incessantly as we usually do which is probably a relief in some ways but does mean that we have plenty of space left.
The 6 week adventure starts at 8pm on Wednesday 1st May and continues on the 8th, 15th and 22nd of the month. We then take a week off for half term, and re-convene for the last two sessions that will take place on 5th and 12th June.
It’s a great experience, we limit the group to a maximum of 10, we taste about 60 wines over the duration of the course, we cover whites, reds, fizz, a bit of rose, a bit of sweet wine and some faulty wines. We practice some blind tasting, we introduce you to the Noble Grape Varieties and a few less renowned, we feed you water biscuits and, if you’re lucky, breadsticks.
So for two hours each Wednesday you can escape the world and pretend that life is all about sensory pleasure and delicious wine. All this for £150, who could ask for more?
Booking is easy – phone us (020 8944 5224), email us, pop by and sign up whilst tasting today’s tasting wines – all these methods work. So join up today for a wine filled May! (sorry)
If you fancy a bit of a warm up prior to joining the course then for just £15 you can book a slot on our Cheese and Wine evening on Thursday 25th April, 8pm. Always popular, always well run, never chaotic – if you don’t believe me come and see for yourself!
Tasting this weekend
Wayne has been busy foraging around the Iberian Peninsula, but not in the bit that speaks Spanish but in the other bit that we have been trying to keep to ourselves. Portugal has fantastic and beautifully approachable wines that suffer in the UK market purely because the grapes are hard to pronounce and for many years Mateus Rose was their most famous export. Then Cliff Richard started making wine there, just outside Albufeira, which hardly enhanced its reputation, allegedly.
But now Wayne has been on the case and this weekend we will enjoy some of the fruits of his labours; I know little of these wines, so I’ll hand you over to our expert:
We’ll start off in the white corner with… Luis Pato Maria Gomes 2012, Bairrada, Portugal 12% – £11.19 Luis Pato is one of the wine trade’s treasures, outspoken, experimental and very talented. 2012 marked his 30th vintage at the reins and he shows no signs of slowing down, having just made his first red wine from white grapes (don’t ask!). This wine is a fine example of his work, wonderfully fresh and aromatic in its grapey nose, then with a broad, smooth texture in the mouth with melony flavours and a beautifully pure finish.
Then we head off to the Alentejano region for a spot of red. This area is a hot bed of experimentation and they plant more well-known varieties as well as the unpronounceable ones. Our selection here is Ciconia, Alentejo, Portugal 13.5% £9.99 – which is a kind of stork that settles on the plains here. No stork in the wine though, it’s a blend of Touriga Nacional, Syrah and Aragonez. What does it taste like? Why not come in and try for yourself, we might even use your tasting note!
So that just about rounds it off for this week save for a few final observations. We’ve just been reminded by one of you that Wales beat England in the Six Nations and why hadn’t we mentioned it in our email. Now we have.
Apparently the Brits and Russians drink the most when flying – fairly sure David Boon might have something to say about that. As would the chap who managed 4 quarter bottles of Champagne on the flight to Amsterdam. As would Mike Tindall. Oh hang about, the last two are English – point taken.
Jobs for the weekend: taste Portuguese wines, sign up for Wine Course, watch the Grand National.
Over and out.