Fellow Wine Lovers,
How the devil are you? I can’t believe it’s almost a week since we spoke last. Lots has happened, both Alex and Wayne have managed to duck the double input of numbers required for the VAT return but with the deadline looming they’re going to have to pull their fingers out.
Wayne snuck off to swan around the West End for a lunch with a Champagne producer that held some unexpected lessons for him (more below).
We watched the England match, that’s 90 minutes we’re not getting back.
Jessica Ennis-Hill has announced she’s hanging up her boots (and javelin and shot) to retire at the top. We can’t help but wonder if it’s worth a friendly fiver on her being the next Bond?
Elsewhere… Donald Trump!!!
Bob Dylan has won the Noble Prize for Literature for creating “new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” I wonder how that chap in Manchester feels now?
Unexpected Lessons
I went to a Champagne tasting on Tuesday, Alex had tried some but not all of the wines before and I had tasted none of them until now. Champagne Tarlant was the producer, a small grower Champagne with a long history, who are doing some really interesting things. I tried 8 wines in all (I know, we call it work!) but what really surprised me was the vintage wine. It was from 2003 and had spent 12 years aging on its lees.
So, 2003 was a really hot summer, certainly not ideal for the production of Champagne. I looked up some notes, and most of the Champagnes I have tasted from that year seem to have the word weird in the note somewhere. This one too, but only because it was so different from any others I’d tried. So wonderfully fresh and alive, yet with a wonderful richness from the ageing. I really did get taught a lesson about generalising about vintages, I will definitely try and avoid such sweeping statements in the future. Vintage champagne 2003 weird…
Word to the Wise
Straight from the horse’s mouth…Pintia 2011 (£38) is drinking really nicely currently. A bottle made a guest appearance at a recent BYO evening and went down a storm. We have a small amount left.
Democracy in Action
We won last year, we’d dearly love to win again this year – it’s time to vote in the Time Out #LoveLondonAwards
There is only until the end of the month to tell the world we are your favourite shop in Wimbledon, assuming we are of course!
Please do follow this link and click on the box beside Park Vintners.
http://www.timeout.com/london/lovelondonawards#/vote/wimbledon/shops
Thank you very much.
Tastings up until Christmas
All tastings are now fully sold out for this year – sorry if you missed out, hooray if you didn’t!
Tasting This Weekend
Well, I’m not sure we’ll be able to top last week, it was probably our most successful tasting yet, with both wines going down a storm, and the Torres Altos Ibericos Parcelas de Graciano 2011, Rioja, Spain (£14.99)selling out completely (more on its way, don’t worry!) Alex seemed to think that just about every dinner party locally was tucking into something tasty from Rioja.
We’re staying with a winning theme and this week we will put Valenciso Reserva 2009 (£23.99) in the red corner. This is one of Alex’s favourites (he’s even been to visit!) and is certainly a style we both really enjoy.
White wise we’ll have Bodegas Ontanon’s Vetiver Rioja Blanco 2013 (£10.79) a wine lighter in style than last week’s offering, being made from 100% Viura.
Well, I think we’ll leave the last word to Mr Zimmerman:
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ‘n’ how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
— Blowin’ In The Wind, Bob Dylan 1962