Fellow Wine Lovers,
This cold snap has certainly caught us all out. Wayne had to get his gloves out having watched his fingers turn blue on the ride home Monday night; Alex has got his running hat out of the winter drawer and we’ve had several disappointing reports from the continent too!
Champagne was struck by a sudden frost this week, which is not so unusual in itself but the mild weather in March has caused the vines to be a bit ahead of themselves. Our chum Benoit Tarlant, whose delicious Champagne Tarlant Zero (£39.99) we stock, was sadly quoted this week as having “a potential 70% loss of the house’s 2017 vintage, with almost its entire Chardonnay crop having been wiped out.”
Even as we write this, Vignerons across Bordeaux are assessing the damage to their vineyards after this week’s cold snap, too. Ex-pat winemaker Gavin Quinney, in typically erudite fashion, described it as “Squeaky bum time”.
But should it be catching us all out? I notice that this very same week last year, we wrote:
“Fellow Wine Lovers,
Unfortunately, you can lay the blame squarely at our door this week. Confident that the rain on Monday was the last dampness we’d see until September, we decided to write this message on our blackboard outside:
BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND – Is this the official start of the Rosé season? I think it probably should be!
And I think you all know what happened next – hail, snowstorms and stair-rod rain, blue skies interspersed with darker-than-night grey clouds, stiff breezes, all rounded off by a rumbling thunderstorm on Wednesday evening. Well, at least the storm cleared the humidity…!
Living in the UK has made us stoic when faced with poor weather and it has been a pleasure to be selling plenty of Provence Rosé all week in spite of the climate – it’s the stiff upper lip, it’s the blitz the spirit, it’s the ‘this could be as good as summer gets so let’s pretend we’re on the Côte d’Azur’.
18 Celsius and bright sunshine in Cannes, as I write.
So, do we all forget, do we have enormously short term memories, or do we all just prefer to stroll on the sunny side of the street?
Elsewhere, Mayor of London Sadiq has pulled the plug on the controversial Garden Bridge – only £46 million of public money has been wasted or about 23 state of the art MRI scanners, if you prefer!
Otherwise, there’s campaigning for a general election with all sorts of claims being made by all parties. I’m beginning to wonder about Mark Twain’s words… “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it”
Bank Holiday Monday
We’ll be closed, as usual…
New Beer
Frankie, from Park Brewery in Kingston, swung by with a delivery this week. She and Josh have a new seasonal brew on the go…
Reasons To Be Cheerful (£2.89) is a new IPA dry hopped with Amarillo and an Aussie interloper Vic Secret. This brings an orangey, citrus sweetness to the front palate with a nice bitterness keeping it tidy and fresh in the finish. You may have noticed it is named after a song by Ian Dury, who has a bench dedicated to his honour at Poet’s Corner in Richmond Park. Brilliant name for a beer!
Tasting this Weekend
In the white corner we’ll be visiting Beiro Atlantico in Portugal, for this is the home of Luis Pato’s Maria Gomes 2015 (£11.99). A white that is wonderfully fresh and aromatic in its grapey nose, then with a broad, smooth texture in the mouth with melony flavours and a beautifully pure finish. What’s more, it’s just 12.5% too!
Red wise, we’ll be journeying to the Riebeek Valley in Swartland for a glass or two of Post Tree Pinotage 2013 (£9.99). It displays bags of juicy red berry fruits, rounded tannins and a nice elegant finish. We’d suggest this as a marvellous partner to some spicy roast chicken, give the chicken a rub with either some Jerk Seasoning or Ras El Hanout and roast in the usual fashion. Yum!
That’s it from us this week, enjoy the long weekend!