Fizz February

Fellow Wine Lovers,
30-3
Sensational Wales seize moment to take place in folklore with stunning England win – The Mail on Sunday
Wales bask in Six Nations title after slamming England in Cardiff rout – The Observer
History should remember the Welsh brilliance not England’s defeat. This was an annihilation of England’s claim to be potential 2015 Rugby World Cup favourites – The Telegraph
Let’s not let this happen again.
Mike Brown, Ben Youngs, Joe Marler, Dan Cole, Chris Robshaw – you are the only survivors from that test two years ago, so tell your teammates about that awful journey home through Cardiff and down the M4 with your tails tucked far between your legs, tell them about the humiliation of opening the Sunday newspapers and reading the headlines above, tell them how long it took to wash away the taste of daffodils and leeks. Make the headlines on Saturday all about the quality of the English victory and not about the politics of having the roof open or closed.
And now I sit back down, vented, and return the podium to matters of wine.
Fizz February
Face it, January is rubbish. It’s like the a month full of Tuesdays – the fun and frolics of Christmas are distant memories and the metaphorical weekend is still 3 days away – all you have left is work and an evening spent in the gym.
February is fantastic though. It’s short, to the point and starts with F, which makes it alliterate beautifully with fizz, and Friday. So if January is Tuesday, then February is Friday.
In order to slake your new found thirst for fizz we have all the old favourites in the fridge, Cava, Prosecco, a couple of traditional methods from New Zealand and a sparkling Shiraz. Next week, Wednesday hopefully, we will receive our first shipment of our new English Sparkler – Hoffmann & Rathbone – that we tasted, to much delight, in January. We’ve listed all their wines because they were all darned good so we will have:
Hoffmann & Rathbone Classic Cuvée 2010 – £36
Hoffmann & Rathbone Rosé Réserve 2010 – £38
Hoffmann & Rathbone Blanc de Blancs 2010 – £40
In the Champagne department we have all our Moutards (Brut, Rose, Six Cépages, Half Bottle, Magnum, Jeroboam), we welcome the return (if in slightly limited numbers) of Beaumet 2004 and we continue on with Bollinger NV and Vintage. Here too, we have a new edition to the ranks
Champagne Barons de Rothschild Brut NV £50
Now here’s a story. The three branches of the Rothschild family, you know, the characters who own Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Lafite, were having a chinwag over a pie and a pint a few years back and decided that their domination of the ‘World of Fine Wine’ was never going to be complete without a Champagne in the portfolio. Being fairly well connected, they contacted some chums in Champagne and got to work. The result of this work is a collection of very fine champagnes all bearing the distinctive five arrow Rothschild emblem.
How do we fit in? Well one of the chaps we know dropped by last week and excitedly told us that he had scooped distribution rights in the UK and did we want to try some. It being Friday, which alliterates nicely with Fizz as discussed, we said Yes, please. So he left us a bottle.
To say we were sceptical of the gimmick nature of such a product would be an unfair. Anyone who knows us well knows that
a) we eschew scepticism, and certainly are never cynical,
b) we are not suspicious of strangers bearing gifts, not at all
c) we were born yesterday
So we opened it up and, in our hearts, neither of us wanted to like it. We were sure it was going to be overhyped and filed in the same cabinet as Moet & Chandon Ice.
But it wasn’t. We looked at each other and the silence was broken by one of our more erudite tasting notes: Bugger, that’s really rather good!
So we’ve got it in the fridge. It has a deliciously smooth mouthfeel. However the key to its pleasure is the time it has spent aging on its lees and the character this aging has imparted – bready autolysis is the wine wonk term but in simple English there is a moreish, creamy, richness. And it’s elegant, as if anything produced by this family could be anything but. Bonnes bubbles.
So if you’d like a bottle, we can sell it to you. We passed the vetting process – apparently there is one, a well-known Gentleman’s Club, of the semi-clad ladies variety, was refused supply – and are now up and running.
How very convenient, with Valentine’s Day just a few steps away….
Early Close/Late Open
As mentioned earlier in the week, we will be shutting at 6.30pm today as we have an offsite tasting called ‘Teaching the Teachers’ – no prizes for guessing where that’s taking place.
Just as a reminder, the other dates were:
Monday 9th February – we will close early today as we are attending two different events so the doors will close at 5.30pm.
Thursday 12th February – we are away at a trade tasting so we will open later today but we will be here by 4pm.

Tuesday 17th February – we are away at a trade tasting so we will open later today but we will be here by 4pm.
Tasting this weekend
We will be here all day Saturday of course, and to make you all happy, we will have some wines open: as a white we will open Barton Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon 2013 – £11.59. From Walker Bay in South Africa – a region with exciting potential: it has varying altitudes and ideal soils that help produce some world class, elegant wines. A little bit of weight and texture is achieved adding some Semillon to the Sauvignon – you still have tropical fruit, grass and capsicum but also a nice lemon edge too which goes well with many a light midweek supper.
Sticking with South Africa for the red we will open a wine that we just re-listed: Hughes Family Nativo Red Blend 2008 – £17.49. Bill & Penny Hughes have 27 ha planted in Malmesbury with views over the Kasteelberg Mountains. Bill does all the work in vineyard and winery, Penny does the sales and marketing. Over to Wine Detective Sarah Ahmed: “A slightly different composition in 2008, with 48% Shiraz, 16% Merlot, 13% Grenache, 11% Mourvèdre, 9% Pinotage and 3% Viognier has a deep seam of sweet but earthy raspberry fruit, really fleshy with gamey notes without losing freshness.” (25/11/12)
That’s all from us this week and we just hope that George Ford doesn’t pack two left boots for his kicking duties this evening!!

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