Fellow Wine Lovers,
Mowing my way through Wimbledon Village this week, avoiding Evian flags and observing that tennis fans, like football fans, dress up in the relevant expensive sporting garb to go and watch their heroes (and that they all seem to have permatans), I happened across a new opening and, disappointingly, a new closure.
It has been a while coming, but following the successful ‘Citizens for Cookware March & Coffee Morning’ in 2011 that resulted in Le Creuset opening up, I have great pleasure in confirming that we now have the Prince Global Sports Flagship Tennis Store just opened up, providing you with a whole range of merchandise, racquets and balls… er… providing they are made by Prince. Every day the Village seems to become more and more about choice. Perhaps we should have opened a specialist Ernst & Julio Gallo store – oh hang about…
Jokes aside, I was saddened to see that Butcher & Grill has decided enough is enough and has returned to Battersea. For those who don’t know the place, it hadn’t been in Wimbledon forever but it had been there long enough to be a definite part of the furniture, just over the road from the Rose and Crown and Hemingways. Specialising in steak and meat (really Alex, with a name like that?) it predated many of the current crop of burnt meat specialists and was, on the occasions I went there, a decent night out and very popular. The story they tell is that the rent was finally becoming too much, even for a busy restaurant. Now it’s gone, a few days before the start of the Tennis, which is a sure sign that, even with the huge sales spike they would get from the fortnight, it was still not enough to persuade them to stay put.
I must say at this point that this is the story I have been told, if anyone knows a different version I am happy to be corrected and will put the correction in next week’s email.
It just reinforces the fact that being an Independent doesn’t seem to be getting any easier – and every day the Village seems to become more and more about choice.
Happy days are here again
Wayne is off this weekend ‘seeing friends’, and by a truly startling coincidence the Tour de France starts on Saturday – I suspect his wife thinks he is coming to work and I suspect that the friends he is seeing have names like Alberto, Froomey, Cadel and Cav….
And there’s other sport too – Round 2 of the Welsh Lions vs Australia on Saturday morning – and knowing that you can never right the Aussies off, plus the fact that they should have won last week and then neatly finished off with their ability to get away with stamping on people’s heads – it should be a belter!
Oh, and there’s tennis. As I write (Thursday) an astonishing 64 brave men and women are still putting their lives on the line in the singles draw, down from the original 256. The ‘dangerous’ grass – grass being an unpleasant necessity at this famous grass court championship – has turned the event into a bloodbath. Of the 173 singles matches played thus far, a mere 162 of them have finished normally whilst the far higher figure of 8 walkovers and 3 retirements is surely the one that we should all be focusing on.
Come on, Andy.
Diary dates
It’s the end of June and very soon a huge number of you will be relocating to sunnier climes for the summer. Before you go we thought we’d give you something to look forward to after the boys of summer are gone:
WINE SCHOOL – yes it’s back for those of you who wish to find out more about what’s in your glass and what Wayne really thinks about Pinotage. Commences Wednesday 18th September for six consecutive weeks, wrapping on Wednesday 23rd October. It all takes place here in the shop, starts at 8pm and you’ll be free to go somewhere between 9.30 and 10 pm. £150 per person, numbers limited to 10 people, and payment confirms your place. We’ve attached the flier to this email but please don’t hesitate to ask us for more info.
WINE & CHEESE – just two dates so far: Thursday 26th September and Thursday 24th October – both start at 8pm and again, we have attached the flier.
OTHER TASTINGS – we’ve left November clear at the moment, but we are hoping to do 3 or 4 events during the month, we’re just formulating a plan….
THREE WINE MEN – One of our suppliers (who sells us the Botham Merrill Willis wines) has been kind to us, the result being we have been given two complimentary tickets to the Three Wine Men event next weekend at Lords (6th/7th July) – Saturday options being 11-3 or 4-7.30 or Sunday 12-4. First respondent gets their name on the door.
Tasting this weekend
… because after an email this long, we all need a drink!
It’s summer party season, so we thought we’d crack open a couple of perennial classics – our Val de Loire Sauvignon and the Maison de Bulliats Regnie from Beaujolais, plus we’ve got a couple of samples to try too, so swing on by and we’ll shoot the breeze about tennis/cycling/rugby/cricket/cookware, whatever you fancy!
If you don’t like the weather blame the combined forces of Wimbledon and Glastonbury and remember – drinking wine may not be the answer but it helps you forget the question!
Alex & Wayne