Fellow Wine Lovers,
Did you vote? Did you get it right? Are you now in charge, or are you one of the repressed minority? Did you stay up all-night? Do you think that changed the result? Are you mad with sleep deprivation?
Enough questions for now, I think. Neither of us got the result we hoped – Wayne’s dream of a government banning everything apart from Wine, Cycling and Protein failed to arrive – too many beer drinking, pizza-eating runners was his gripe – whilst Alex’s dream of a bearded, golf loving Prime Minister is still just a dream – perhaps he should stand for election.
We did have a quick vote amongst ourselves though – spot the clumsy segue – as we elected the cheeses to have on our Wine & Cheese tasting next week (Thursday 14th May). The winners were:
• Crofton – a semi-soft naturally rinded cheese made with unpasteurised cow’s and goat’s milk from Cumbria
• Soumaintrain – a soft washed rind cheese made with unpasteurised cows’ milk from Burgundy
• Shropshire Blue – a semi-hard blue cheese with a natural brushed rind made from pasteurised cow’s milk from Shropshire one would imagine
• Wild Garlic Yarg – A hard mould ripened cheese, leaf-wrapped made, with pasteurised cow’s milk from the republic of Cornwall
Although there are doubts as to whether Soumaintrain will be able to take his seat, being French and all that. The votes are still being counted with regards to the winning wines, the only certainty, thus far, is Clos des Eglantiers Rivaner 2014 (£12.89) from sunny Luxembourg.
So, if you want to find out which other wines make it in to the (drinks) cabinet and whether Soumaintrain gets past the border police, then join us next Thursday at 8pm. It promises to be great fun as always, the formula of wine + cheese being a winning coalition! Tickets cost £20 per person and need to be bought in advance – you can do this by phoning us on 020 8944 5224, responding to this email or, if you’re passing, pop in and see us. There are still spaces but they won’t last forever!
Anyway, enough election tomfoolery, it’s now time to indulge in a bit of Schadenfreude. In our missive on 17th April we were meandering around the subject of American craft beer, when craft stops being craft, and Anheuser Busch (not craft). Well it seems that Miller Coors (not craft) owners of Blue Moon (allegedly craft) are being sued in California for engaging in deceptive marketing – apparently the Miller Coors chaps have gone to great lengths to disassociate their name from Blue Moon Belgian White, to give the impression that it is a small brewery and as a result allowing them to charge more. Crafty, but not in a good way. Miller Coors production is said to be in the region of 76 million barrels which is suspect is almost 76 million more barrels than Steve at Rocky Head is producing in Kimber Road!
Otherwise, not much more to add from us. The 6 week Wine School starting on 3rd June is gradually filling up so if you had ambitions to enliven your palate prior to the summer hols, don’t hesitate, give us a call today. It’s £150 per person, you’ll try at least 60 wines over the course plus you’ll get to hear Wayne’s oldest and best jokes each week – who could resist?
We will be opening some wine this weekend because we like wine and we like weekends. We have just listed a Sancerre Rose for the first time which surprised us a bit. For more years than we care to remember we have been shown the pink wines from Sancerre by a variety of producers and never managed to convince ourselves that the juice in the bottle was worth the price on the shelf. Then this chap called Simon wandered in and insisted we taste his one. Fully expecting another disappointment, we dutifully put it in the fridge and tasted it that evening with a few customers:
‘Blimey, that’s really good!’
said Wayne, and before we knew it, we’d ordered it in!
Ignore any derogatory comments we may have made previously, this is the real deal and definitely deserves a space in your fridge – if you don’t believe us come and have a taste!
Pascal Jolivet Sancerre Rosé 2014 £19.99 – 10% off six bottles
We’ll also be opening a red, the magnificently named Magnifico Rosso Fuoco Primitivo di Manduria Riserva 2010 £14.99 which, according to my tasting note, has ‘lovely voluptuous rich black fruits and oodles of spice on the nose – concentrated black currants and berries and bright sweet fruit on the palate with masses of crowd appeal – we’ll sell masses of this!’ Come and tell me if you agree.
So, now I’ll let you return to your daily business and, if you need a drink at the end of today and I suspect you might, you know where we are!