Fellow Wine Lovers,
Black Friday. 36 ‘unmissable deals’ in my inbox before I had even got up this morning…
‘Why is it called Black Friday – black doesn’t sound very nice?’ my daughter asked yesterday ‘And the day after Thanksgiving too, which does sound much nicer….’
‘Because black is the colour of the bruises, because that’s the mood it puts you in, because that’s the karate belt you need – oh, I don’t know sweetheart, ask Wal-Mart’ was all I could respond, befuddled by the fact that a nine year old from Wimbledon could be so in tune with life in America – thanks iCarly.
In order to avoid violent queues, people competing with each other for parking spaces on The Crescent and unseemly grappling over the last bottle of Hepple Gin, we will not be involving ourselves in any deep discounting today, sorry. It means there are no winning bargain hunters but equally there are no losers either. Everyone gets to pay the same price here and no one gets to gloat.
Significantly, as it is Black Friday, that means that Thanksgiving is now behind us – and we can now fix our sights firmly on the next major event in the calendar.
No, I’m not talking about Wayne’s birthday next week – although judging by his comment just now, in his best Fast Show accent, ‘This week I ‘ave mostly been freezing in the shop’, he might be grateful to receive a sweater or two…
But no, not that. The next major event is the ‘Lighting up of the Christmas Tree and Carol Singing’ which will take place outside Christ The King Church tomorrow, Saturday 28th November at 4.15pm.
I am informed, to add to the excitement, that a local personality will perform the ceremony – no coincidence that Wayne has taken that day off I’m sure…
Anyway, once you’ve sung your socks off in the cold early evening, I suggest you pop up the road and come and see us – we’ll have wine open, which I’ll get to later, but also we’ll have The King’s Ginger (£23.99) and Foxdenton Sloe Gin (£22.99) open and ready to taste, sip and gargle – a perfect salve for those fatigued vocal chords!
Fizz
We’ve had a few enquiries regarding our Christmas fizz offering this year, so here’s the not-so-big reveal…
Like last year, we will be leading with Bollinger Special Cuvee Brut NV £45.00 for a bottle but down to a mere £33.33 per bottle when you buy half a dozen.
For all our other fizz our usual 6 for 5 deal applies, or 16.66% discount off a half dozen if you will.
As a timely reminder of what we are stocking currently, here’s the list:
Champagne
Champagne Moutard Grand Cuvee NV (half bottle) £15.99
Champagne Moutard Prestige Rose NV (half bottle) £16.99
Goutorbe-Bouillot Champagne Carte D’Or Brut NV £27.99
Champagne Moutard Grand Cuvee NV £28.99
Champagne Moutard Prestige Rose NV £31.99
Champagne Thienot Brut NV £32.99
This is a new listing – Alex visited them in September largely as a result of Wayne having been very impressed when he tasted it previously. Suffice to say, Wayne was absolutely right and now it’s on the shelf!
Champagne Beaumet Brut Vintage 2006 £35.99
Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve NV £39.99
Champagne Moutard ‘6 Cepages’ 2007 £44.99
Champagne Barons de Rothschild Brut NV £50.00
Ruinart Blanc de Blancs NV £60.00
Champagne Moutard Grande Cuvee NV (Magnum) £60.00
Champagne Moutard Prestige Rose NV (Magnum) £62.00
Billecart Salmon Rose NV £62.00
Krug Grand Cuvee NV (half bottle) £70.00
Bollinger Grand Annee 2004 £80.00
Bollinger James Bond 2009 (Limited Edition Gift Box) £125
Moutard Brut Grande Cuvee NV (Jeroboam) £130
Billecart Salmon Cuvee Nicolas-Francois 2002 £130
Louis Roederer Cristal 2006 £150
Sparkling wines that aren’t allowed to call themselves Champagne and probably don’t want to anyway
Lunetta Prosecco NV £10.49
Mas Macia Cava Brut NV £10.99
Mimi Pink Sparkling NV £12.99
Mimi Sparkling NV £12.99
Pauletts Trillians Sparkling Red NV £14.49
Leveret IQ Brut NV £14.99
Leveret IQ3 NV £20.99
Hoffman and Rathbone Classic Cuvee 2010 £36.00
Hoffman and Rathbone Rose Reserve 2011 £38.00
Hoffman and Rathbone Blanc de Blancs 2010 £40.00
Beer
After much froing and toing, our new beer listing has finally arrived. We were first approached by The Park Brewery, based in Kingston, in April this year. However, life took over and so did the summer, holidays, and other stuff. Anyway, it’s here now. They make a range of beers named after various parts of Richmond Park – perfect bidon top ups for those cyclists amongst you – and for the rest of us, nice beer to drink.
We have three of their beers in stock:
Killcat Pale (3.9%) £2.59 – a refreshing pale ale, with the hoppiness and punch of an IPA but without the high ABV.
Gallows Gold (5%) £2.79 – their version of an American Pale Ale – fruity and sweet with a fine aroma.
Dark Hill (6.2%) £3.19 – their version of a black IPA. Not too malty on the palate which allows the hoppy flavours to come through.
Wine
What are we going to taste this weekend?
We know we’re going to taste Bordeaux next weekend, Burgundy the week after and then Italian wines the weekend before Christmas (yes chaps, it really is that soon) but have not thought about the here and now. But as the theme seems to be Thanksgiving I suppose it would be pleasurable to taste a couple of wines from across the pond.
Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2013 £13.99 – this is a delicious Chardonnay from San Francisco Bay. Fermented half in barrel and half in stainless steel we have green apples with hints of tropical fruit on the nose and in addition some subtle vanilla notes on the palate. Fabulous balance and a really nice texture – a real all-rounder.
Marimar Estate Don Miguel Vineyard Cristina Pinot Noir 2009 £24.99 – coming from the Russian River Valley in Sonoma this is the absolute mutts. It was offered to us at a very good price last week so we bought as much of it as our little hands could carry. A blend of the best Pinot Noir on the estate makes an extremely elegant, soft and complex wine. We tasted it last night on our Wine & Cheese tasting and it was definitely the wine of the night. And if you were thinking of roasting a duck…
Marimar Estate Don Miguel Vineyard Cristina Pinot Noir 2009
£24.99/bottle or 6 for £120.
Breaking News
Important news on a global scale.
It has been revealed that Gwyneth Paltrow penned a line on Coldplay’s new song Everglow : “How come things move on/How come cars don’t slow”.
“She came up with the idea so I said, ‘Is there any chance you’d sing that line cos it’s your idea’ Like any human, she was like, ‘I can’t do that! I’m not a professional!'” Martin explained.
Loving the lyric, gloriously inspirational and thought provoking and profoundly poignant; also loving the fact that Chris Martin, with no humour intended, uses the phrase ‘like any human’ in reference to his ex.
Like I said, important news on a global scale.