Fellow Wine Lovers,
Well, that knocks Brexit into a cocked hat! Who knew? POTUS – Possibility of Trump Upsetting Someone? The world has gone to hell in a handcart this year and frankly we should have realised that Donny T would end up in the egg shaped office as soon as the poll of polls told us he definitely wouldn’t and with the odds at 9/2 just before the voting started, how did we not see the writing on the wall.
Speaking of walls and of odds, here are a couple of current bets being offered on Paddy Power:
- Trump to build wall covering entirety of US-Mexican border before end of 2020 – 4/1
- Trump to be successfully impeached before end of 2020 – 8/1
- Trump to turn the White House gold – 66/1
And to win the 2020 Presidential Election:
- Trump – 11/10
- Michelle Obama – 8/1
- Hillary Clinton – 12/1
- Jeb Bush – 40/1
- Kanye West – 90/1
- Chelsea Clinton – 100/1
- Kevin Spacey – 150/1
- Kim Kardashian – 275/1
Plenty of opportunities to lose some money there – trying to imagine what Kim Kardashian’s manifesto might be…. extremely wealthy with no political experience and an ability to annoy people, surely that should make her unelectable? Oh, hang about….
So, anyway, as you can imagine, we’ve been a bit distracted by the if’s, what’s and maybe’s of the events in America this week so haven’t formed a sensible opinion on Toblerone-gate, given thought to Prince Harry’s love life or critiqued the new John Lewis Christmas advert – apologies.
Meanwhile, back in Wimbledon Park…
We’ve been tasting, tasting, tasting. A whole load of wine has been sniffed, swirled and spat (in our case) or swallowed (in your case) this week.
Wednesday night saw Week 6, the final week, of our Wine School, which saw us opening 10 bottles of bubbles, including Prosecco, Cava, English Sparkling and, of course, Champagne. Star of the night was the 2002 Cuvée Alain Thiénot – £75 showing fabulous caramel, brandy snap and toffee apple character with a deliciously soft mousse. Once the hubbub had died down over the price, we had explained the scarcity of this excellent vintage and the fact that most other houses start north of £100, its #1 status was confirmed. A close second, and perhaps more wallet friendly, was Leveret IQ3 NV – £20.99, showing lots of luscious lees character, a real apple strudel and cream character with an elegant and long finish. And at the end of the night we released 10 newly qualified wine drinkers into the cold night air, free to indulge their palates and explore the nether regions of the wine list!
Last night was Wine & Cheese. You’d have thought that, having hosted over 40 of these evenings, we’d be like a well-oiled machine and have all the answers and the perfect matches. Sadly this is still not true, whilst occasionally well-oiled, we definitely do not have all the answers but I think that is half the fun. Wine was excellent, cheese was very tasty and a very good time was had by all. Who knew that dry Amontillado sherry would be such a fabulous cheese match?
All our tastings are now full up until the end of the year but if you fancy learning more about wine in the New Year, why not join our next wine school.
Who is this course aimed at?
You! We assume you have tasted wine and enjoyed it enough to come along and explore further. Our course is aimed at the enthusiastic beginner.
What’s our goal?
Our course is designed to give you an excellent opening to the world of wine. Based entirely around what you taste, the course will give you the confidence to trust your palate, understand the characteristics of the main grape varieties and to explore new styles and varieties. We keep the size of the group small, between 8-12 people, to allow for discussion.
What will we cover?
We cover all the classic grape varieties with styles from both the Old and New World. Some of the wines are shown “blind”, so that you learn to trust your judgement based on the taste of the wine rather than what it says on the label. We will show you how to evaluate and assess quality, discuss wine production methods as well as the wine’s acidity, tannins and flavour. On our journey we shall cover ageing potential, wine and food matching, wine storage conditions and, importantly, wine faults.
Weeks 1-3
We’ll show you how to taste wine and cover the main white varieties along with a couple off-the-beaten-track selections.
Weeks 4 & 5
We’ll cover the classic red varieties as well as a few lesser known varieties.
Week 6
This week is all about bubbles. Sparkling wines from around the world, alongside several styles of Champagne.
You will taste 8 to 10 wines each week and we will even manage to sneak in a little pudding wine and perhaps a rosé somewhere amongst that lot!
What venue?
The course takes place in the shop after we close. We put out the tasting table, pull up some chairs and get stuck in. Our courses are relaxed and about enjoying wine and sharing knowledge.
When?
Wednesday evenings from 8 till about 9.45 for six weeks, over a period of seven weeks whilst we deal with half term, starting Wednesday 25th January until Wednesday 8th March.
What do I bring?
Just yourself! We’ll provide everything you need… notes, pens, paper, water biscuits and wine.
Cost – £150.00
Meanwhile, back in the here and now…
If you can’t wait until January to taste wine, we’ll open some tonight for you instead!
A couple of party wines this week: from Chile we have Oyster Shack Chardonnay 2014 – £7.49 and from Romania we have Calusari Pinot Noir 2015 – £8.69. Probably useful to point out here that if you are having a party we can lend you glasses, supply ice, deliver and also provide you with a discount of 10% of twelve bottles or more!
That’s all from us this week and we’ll finish with a quote, which could be attributed to Wayne, commenting on Alex’s working practices, but is actually one made by a previous employee of DT:
“I cannot imagine him doing a job where he doesn’t just pick and choose what he wants to do, where if he feels like coming in he comes in, and if he feels like going to a meeting he goes to a meeting.”
God bless America.