355 Not Out, Cheese and Wine, Rose Tasting

Fellow Wine Lovers,
So we bumped into an old friend of ours the other day, completely out of the blue. He had worked for both of us at different times when we all worked for a larger, high street wine merchant. To avoid continually calling him ‘he’ I am going to give him a name – Bob. Now Bob had first worked with Wayne and was a keen student of fine wine and fine drinking and had received expert tuition from the maestro in all matters ‘fine’. This tuition was worthwhile because Bob was definitely the best salesman Wayne had seen.
However, with great talent usually come personality discrepancies. Suffice to say Bob had a difference of opinion over timekeeping and discipline with those upstairs and was suddenly re-located to work with Alex. Alex was delighted; a pre-trained staff member with dollops of talent and an ability to conjure up a sale from the mist – Bob was a precocious talent, not necessarily the best team player (he was fully aware of his abilities and others shortcomings) but undoubtedly a first pick on the teamlist, a man who could change the way the day went.
Anyway after many fruitful months, Alex too had to say farewell to Bob too when he failed to return from a lucrative month long jolly in Australia – Bob was very much a man to rock the boat when there was no need to rock it – and that was the end of Bob’s career in the 7 days-a-week world of wine retail. He ended up in the city, earning popstar wages just for turning up and recruiting people – living the playboy lifestyle until marriage and children caught up with him.
It was this change of tempo that made him think of returning to his passion – wine – and also to the longer form of the game – 7 days-a-week retail. So he approached his alma mater, cap in hand, hoping to have just one more crack at it, whilst he still could. They initially welcomed him with open arms – the company had struggled over recent years and was in need of an injection of experience and the skills that he offered – and said that, in time, management should be very much in his sights, he just needed to show that he still was the salesman that he had been and that his head was in the right place. Bob happily accepted these terms, the carrot of management being his sort of vegetable, and knuckled down. His first weeks back on the shop floor involved re-acquainting himself with some old pals and some serious selling – he eased through the gears and was top salesman in his first month back. Happy days. He stood on a couple of toes during this month but nothing too brutal, and in fact was responsible for one of the biggest individual sales of the year to date. His talent was no longer in doubt, his path to management surely set, and with this in mind he approached the scheduled meeting at head office in buoyant mood.
And here the story takes a sorry turn. The meeting didn’t go as he’d hoped. It seemed that there were still people in the company who remembered him from before, but not fondly, and as a result he found himself leaving the meeting room with a permanent zero hours contract, a request that he write a training manual for budding salesman, and a niggling cramp in his left calf from sitting on the naughty step.
Misled and dejected Bob booked a flight to India and bade farewell to the wine trade….
In other news, Kevin Pietersen scored 355 not out.
TASTINGS
Fabulous Wine & Cheese tasting last night, loads of cheese, plenty of wine, lots of discussion. If this sounds like the sort of thing you don’t want to miss out on in the future then I can tell you that we have 2 spaces left on our next one on Thursday 11th June – drop us a line if you fancy joining us!
However if you are lactose intolerant and feel like we have been neglecting you, we have our specially formulated Rosé Tasting on Thursday 9th July which promises an evening of fizz, dry and dessert rosé from around the world and we’ll even tell you how they make it – it’s not just a question of mixing red and white and then putting a cork in it, or is it? Come and find out…. It’s the usual entry fee of £20 and is slap bang in the middle of Wimbledon too so we may even rustle up a strawberry!
WINE SCHOOL
Is half full. Which means there’s still space for you, still space for you and your friend, and still space for you two, the couple at the back. £150 for 6 weeks of wine, wine, wine, that’s all we ever do.
Starts Wednesday 3rd June at 8pm but you need to sign up in advance. Phone us on 020 8944 5224 or reply directly to this email or pop in and see us and we’ll sign you up.
WEEKEND WINE
With the London Wine Fair coming up next week, sample silly season is in full swing. As a result we’ll be opening a bunch of wines that have been accumulating on our back shelf for the last few weeks with a view to deciding whether or not to list them. There’s fizz, white, rosé and red to try so there’s a strong chance Wayne’s 150 km cycle ride to Brighton and back on Sunday may well be a trifle slurred.
They’ll be open all weekend so come and have a peek.
ADMIN
Next Thursday, 21st May, we will closing our doors early as we have an off-site tasting in Sheen. Doors will close promptly at 6.30pm. If you need wine for the weekend we will be open again at 11am on Friday.
Oh and while we’re on the subject, having mentioned the London Wine Fair earlier on, we will be going to this during the day on Tuesday but will be back in situ by 4pm, brimming with bonhomie!
So in a nutshell, Tuesday after 4pm or Thursday before 6.30pm will bring greater wine buying success than at other times on those days!
That’s all from us for now but we’ll be back soon….

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