Fellow Wine Lovers,
This week a couple of internet pranksters spent the night fooling around, sliding down bannisters and having a picnic in M&M’s World, pointing out to everyone the lack of an alarm system. No chocolate was harmed in the encounter.
Some West Ham fans demonstrated what fine upstanding people they are by ripping up seats and throwing coins at an 8 year old girl, in celebration of their victory over Chelsea. When did we travel back to the 70’s?
A poor, hapless waiter at the British Museum, last December knocked the thumb off of a priceless 2000 year old statue of Venus. The digit has since been restored but the news has only just come to light, with the British Museum assuring us that “all concerned individuals have been retrained”. We’re not entirely sure how you retrain a marble statue but there you are.
We also had the finale of Bake Off this week, there was the distinct smell of cake in the air as we headed home after the shop closed and apparently 15 million people were watching the final episode. I suspect the big winners are the sugar manufacturers…all that icing!
Poor old Jose Mourinho says he is leading a sad and lonely life in a hotel suite in Manchester and can’t even go out for a walk without the paparazzi following him. We couldn’t help wondering if a Mickey Mouse mask would help!
Someone has taken a sledgehammer to Donald Trump’s Star on Hollywood Boulevard. Apparently, previously somebody had built a small wall around it – sometimes you just can’t make it up, eh?
In wine related news, 2016 is globally one of the worst harvests in 20 years, with poor weather affecting mostly Europe but also South America. The shortfall is 15 million hectolitres or 1,950,000,000 bottles on 2015! That said, the guys in Bordeaux seem pretty pleased with the quality at harvest, particularly on the Left bank with the Cabernet. We’ll see as it unfolds, for the moment they’re still just being squished.
Wine School
Many of you have been asking when we’d start the new term of Wine School in the New Year.
New Term starts on Wednesday 25th January and continues for 6 weeks over a seven week period as we’ll take a break for half term (Wednesday 15th Feb).
Price remains at a pre-Brexit level of £150.
Full details are attached and we think it’ll make a fantastic Chrimble pressy.
New Stuff
Last week we mentioned a few Magnums, and the return of our Sloe Gin but completely forgot to mention our new Biltong. We’ve managed to get a small amount of something a little bit special from our usual supplier m-eat: Ostrich Biltong – 100g – £6.50.
Are We Your Favourite Shop In Wimbledon?
Voting closes this weekend so it’s the last chance saloon to vote for us, on this link…
http://www.timeout.com/london/lovelondonawards#/vote/wimbledon/shops
Now we appreciate this is a difficult decision to make so we’ve come up with a handy helper:
Is it owned by Alex & Wayne?
Does it sell Wine?
Is it called Park Vintners?
Should I vote for them then?
The answer to all the above questions is yes – ignore all other options on the ballot sheet!
Tasting this weekend
We’ll be rounding up our Rioja feature this weekend, it’s been fun and we’ve tasted some fantastic wines together. This weekend we’ll be featuring Lopez de Haro Crianza 2013 (£10.99) a cracking every day drop and Viña Arana Reserva 2008 (£23.59) which is our favourite from the talented crew at La Rioja Alta.
That’s about it from us for this week, don’t forget to vote!
Cheers!