Fellow Wine Lovers,
It’s Saturday morning just after opening, and Alex is sitting in the armchair polishing his glasses surrounded by Rioja. In walks the postman with a cheery greeting, bringing us a couple envelopes that are obviously bills, a magazine about mining for somebody who left years ago, and a suspicious looking brown envelope, both bulky and floppy at the same time.
Which package do we open first? Patient as we are, the suspicious looking item gets it. Immediately torn open, a bevy of cards onto the counter and in the envelope is a poster.
All of them contain the phrase “Time Out Love London Awards”. It would seem somebody out there loves us and has shortlisted us in the local shops for Wimbledon. So now that we’ve been nominated we’d really like to win. We know that may come across as a trifle needy and for that we apologise.
We know our clothes are not as fashionably desirable as some of the items in Matches, and that the Two Sisters know far better than us the correct positioning of your Barcelona chair and vintage mirror. We do think, however, we manage to do a half decent job of providing a chipper comment, sympathetic smile and even the odd bottle of wine.
If you agree with us please do have a vote on our behalf, we’d be diluted to win.
http://www.timeout.com/london/lovelondonawards#/vote/wimbledon/shops
Don’t forget to tell all your friends and their Nans too. We’d love all those votes!
Bond: James Bond
The reviews are in and everyone seems fairly to be pleased with the film, with the chap from The Guardian positively gushing on the radio yesterday morning. We have just a couple of the Limited Edition Spectre Bollinger bottles left so don’t be slow if you’ve been thinking about it! ‘SPECTRE LIMITED EDITION’ – £125
Wine School – New Year Term
We’ve put together the dates for this next term of our ever popular Wine School. At this time of year it seems a popular idea for a present. We’ll start on 27th January 2015 to 3 weeks, take a break for a week for half term and then do 3 weeks with the last week on 9th March.
We’ll taste about 60 wines, talk about wine faults and generally shoot the breeze about all things vinous. Coming along? £15o per person, full details attached.
Tasting this Weekend – Shop Rioja
So we’re still flinging the Rioja around, and this week we’ll be pulling the cork on Valenciso Reserva 2008 (£23.99). Founded in 1998 by Luis Valentín and Carmen Enciso, who are two talented winemakers with 30 years’ experience, who’ve spent too long working for other people. This is a fabulous Reserva, 100% Tempranillo fermented in concrete vats, aged for 17 months in French oak barrels and open for your delectation this weekend.
Chilling in the white corner is Mas Macia Cava Brut NV (£10.99). Although, these days a small amount of cava is produced in Rioja itself, ours is from the Penedès region, near Barcelona. This is cava’s real heartland with production of around 200 million bottles annually. The Mas Macia spends around 24 months aging on its lees giving a nice bready character. So white and bubbly, still clearly Spanish, but from a tad further east than the Rioja.
That about raps it from us this week,
Vote for us, give us a review on Time Out’s website and tell all your friends, family, acquaintances, and maybe even random strangers on the tube if you’d like to meet new people!
The magazine about mining for the absent friend? Sent back like every other quarterly issue for the last 5 years!
Wayne & Alex