Fellow Wine Lovers,
It’s been a bad week for Queens.
Donna Summer, Queen of Disco, hung up her crown yesterday, aged 63 – Love to Love You Baby.
Sofia, Queen of Spain, has cancelled her plans to visit the UK to mark the Jubilee, reasoning that the ongoing dispute over Gibraltar makes it inappropriate to come for lunch. Although why she has given up the chance of a decent bit of banquet action makes no sense – does she really want a rocky peninsula filled with Marines, apes and offshore bookies? I’d take the lunch…
And if anyone has seen the photos of our Queen on the ‘duckmarine’ at Albert Dock in Liverpool, you can almost hear her muttering ‘we are not amused…’
I suspect she’ll be quite relieved when her Jubilee tour is over, and she can settle down with a fish finger sandwich and a glass of Pinot Grigio.
Wine & Cheese Evening
We’ve been hosting these evenings for over a year now, many of you have been to one evening, a lot of you have been to two or three, but there are still some of you who haven’t joined in the fun – we know you’re just shy…
If you’ve not joined us, here’s the lowdown.
About every 5 weeks we host these evenings and we source a selection of 4 cheeses from our good friends at Norbiton Cheese, and we then attempt to match half a dozen wines to them. By ‘attempt’ I mean exactly that – we have a good idea what will go with what, but the proof is very much down to the tasting on the night itself – often wines we think will be brilliant lose a bit of their lustre, and the dark horse outsider that we put in for fun, actually turns out to be a thoroughbred winner (apologies for the clunky racing imagery).
What I’m trying to say is that we don’t know the answers. Between the 14 of us on the night we come to conclusions, debate is lively, wine is spilt, crackers are ground into the floorboards and copious amounts of cheese are eaten. If this sounds like your idea of a great night out, then book your place today.
The next event will be on Thursday 14th June at 8pm, here in the shop. Tickets cost £15 per person and we have an absolute maximum of 12 spaces available.
To reserve a spot, give us a call on 020 8944 5224, drop us an email or pop in to see us in the shop.
As a quick note to those of you who have been before, we always endeavour to show different wines and cheeses at each event, and to date we haven’t had any repeats, so you can feel safe that you will be trying something different should you choose to come again!
Wines on show this weekend
So whilst you’re popping in to book your ticket for the 14th, might you be interested in tasting a quick drop of wine. This weekend, continuing our map-less tour of Italy, we have somehow managed to find ourselves back up in the North, in Piemonte no less.
All dressed in white, we have Semplicemente Vino Bellotti Bianco 2011 – £14.29.
Now this is a fully paid up, card carrying, hairy toed, sandal wearing, hemp suited, biodynamic, unfiltered, low intervention, natural yeast, additive free, scrumptious bottle of wine.
It’s brilliant –made from Cortese grapes (the grape more commonly associated with Gavi) we have a lovely fresh petal nose, a touch of lees (yeast) creaminess on the palate and a delicious ripe scrumpy apple finish. If you ever drank Thatcher’s from the barrel then this is the wine for you….
Wearing the dark red suit with the velvet collar, we have Alasia Langhe Nebbiolo 2007 – £10.89.
Now one of the (numerous) secrets to making great wines that will age forever, is to also produce second wines that you can drink whilst waiting for the great wines to do their ‘maturing’ thing.
Step up Langhe Nebbiolo.
You’ve bought the Barolo, and it’s still a robust, tannic beast but you want something similar in style to drink now. The nose is sweetly aromatic with hints of roses, tobacco and spice. On the palate juicy cherry and berry fruits spring out, pursued by an earthy savoury finish with some firm but ripe tannins – it’s not Barolo, but it’s the next best thing, and it’s ready now…
And that’s just about that. Champions league final tomorrow, Kenny Dalglish out, Michael Owen out, the start of the Test series, RIP Fergie – just imagine how much sport comment there would have been in here if Alex had written it….
Salute!
Tags: Tastings