Fellow Wine Lovers,
Right, let’s start today with Ecclesiastes 1:9 from the King James Bible:
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
These thoughts are attributed to Solomon but a close elderly acquaintance was reflecting yesterday about how life today reminds him a lot of life in the 1970’s – nothing new under the sun.
– – How do you mean, Wayne? – I say
– – Well, we’ve got the summer of ’76, the British Tennis Champion of ’77, and perhaps we have the Ashes winners of 78-79 (5-1 for all you young folk)? Unfortunately the British Open was won by Americans for most of the decade, and Sir BW was the first Brit to top the podium in the Tour de France last year, but I think you get what I mean, Alex.
– – But weren’t we in recession too, I remember talk of the three day week and the commercial power-cuts from my history lessons…
– – Well, the recession was largely over by early 1976, and it was such a lovely summer to celebrate this, although of course the drought and crop failure in the late summer resulted in double digit percentage increases in food prices… but it was such a lovely summer!
And then he settled back into his deckchair to continue his thorough investigation of what goes on when one shuts one’s eyes on a sunny afternoon…
SO WHAT ELSE HAS BEEN GOING ON?
We have doubled the size of our English Wine Range, listed a new beer and discovered that Wimbledon Park in the sunshine seems to have an unslakeable thirst for Rosé wine and white port!
NEW HALL VINEYARDS BACCHUS RESERVE 2012 (£12.79)
Ever since we listed Gusbourne Estate Blanc de Blancs 2008 (£31.99) as our home-grown sparkler from Kent (the Garden of England indeed) our Essex man has been chomping at the bit to get something listed from the land of his birth. We shucked the oysters, tasted the Maldon Sea Salt, even stuck some Tiptree on our toast, but none of it seemed to fit the wine-shop image.
Until now. The vineyards of New Hall are located just outside of Purleigh, apparently if you go down the hill, the road bends round to your left and it’s just there on your right but I digress… these are some of the oldest plantings of Bacchus in the UK, certainly the largest (44,500 vines) and they provide grapes to a couple of well-known English Wineries that, frankly, are not very close to Essex.
Anyway, enough waffle. The wine has a vinous, limey nose that leads you into a fruit focused medium dry palate with a reassuring zing on the finish. Damn tasty and a refreshing change from Malibu and pineapple.
ROCKY HEAD BREWERY ZEN 4.8% (£3.85)
Our local superstar micro-brewery has released its next edition. Many of you have listened patiently when we have promised that a slightly lower alcohol pale ale was in the offing. Well, the wait is over and it’s here now. Beautifully refreshing with a citric hoppiness (new word) and extraordinarily gluggable (next new word). Buy it, drink it, buy some more, trust me, I’m in sales.
KROHN DRY WHITE PORT (£12.99)
We’ve had it in stock for ages but it seems to have caught on in recent weeks. Chilled from the fridge, hi-ball glass filled half and half with tonic water, add a twist of lemon sit in the back garden, rehydrate.
BOTHAM MERRILL WILLIS SHIRAZ 2008 MAGNUM (£34)
We managed to get half a dozen of these splendid fellows, equivalent to two bottles or, as Sir Ian might say, lunch.
WINE SCHOOL 18TH SEPTEMBER – 23RD OCTOBER
The last of the local schools break up next Wednesday and everybody hightails it out of Dodge. Before you pack the speedos, why not sign up for our 6 week wine course, give yourself something to look forward to in the autumn.
6 weeks, around 60 wines, all the major grapes covered, food matching tips, corked and faulty wines, sweet wines, fizz, fun, informal, educational, Wayne’s jokes – all these and more will appear over the duration of the course, all for £150 per person. We limit the class to a maximum of 10 people, so do be sure not to miss out on this opportunity to polish up your tasting skills and wine knowledge before the Christmas party season!
020 8944 5224, shop@parkvintners.co.uk, 126 Arthur Road – phone us, email us, visit us and we’ll reserve your spot.
#moutardroutard
…is the tag for anyone taking photos of Moutard on the road, as mentioned in last week’s email.
So far we have Kew and Westward Ho!, we were hoping for the Tour de France, still hoping for Lords and rumours have it that we may be receiving some photos from Belgium in due course. So if you’re drinking Moutard on a plane going to Spain, with your mates in the States, or in the park after dark, take a snapshot, twitter it to @parkvintners and you’ll be in the draw for a bottle of Moutard on 1st October.
TASTING TONIGHT & TOMORROW
We’ll open the new white from Essex for sure, and for those eating cumin spiced lamb kofta’s off the coals, we’ll try the Barton Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 (£12.49) from Walker Bay, South Africa.
So, nothing new under the sun, but you know what, if the sun keeps on shining that’s good enough for us!
Over and out.
Alex & Wayne