Fellow Wine Lovers,
We have to confess we’re a little puzzled. We thought we’d read that the President wasn’t coming to London. Suddenly, without warning an entire club arrives, and in one evening manages to unleash front page Fire and Fury from the FT no less.
As we read the story, we found ourselves wondering if all these important people shouldn’t be in Davos rather than The Dorchester, and then it dawned on us that it could be some weird publicity stunt for the new Aardman Animations film “Early Man”. Settled on this explanation, we wondered about some Wensleydale for lunch…
Elsewhere, we learn that Chinese scientists have successfully cloned macaque monkeys using the same technology that produced Dolly the sheep. Fifteen of the UKIP senior team have resigned over differences with their leader (the fourth in 12 months!) – let’s hope there are no scientists working on Dolly designs in the Farage garage!
Otherwise, whilst the world is still turning, a distillery in South Carolina has released a vodka made from cloud vapour. Now, I’ll confess to be being somewhat less than on message when it comes to modern terms, but I’m fairly sure I spent most of my day off on Wednesday in ‘cloud vapour’. Indeed, I might go as far as suggesting that I was taught at school that the water we drink actually comes from cloud vapour. Maybe I wasn’t listening… probably had my head in the clouds!
Cheese and Wine Tastings
Cheese and wine have been rumoured to be nearly as tasty a combination as wine and cheese and over the years you have been in to help us along with our research into which is best. We chat to our chums at Beillevaire who suggest some cheeses, from which we choose four. Then we choose some wines to go with them, taste them with you and discuss the success of the choice.
One of the side effects of our research has been to discover just how many cheeses there are, hundreds of the blighters. You seem undaunted by the maths though, and have demanded more dates for cheese and wine tasting evenings.
So, if four cheeses tasted with half a dozen or so wines over a couple of hours sounds like fun, these are the dates to check in your diary!
Thursday 8th February at 8pm
Thursday 15th March at 8pm
Thursday 19th April at 8pm
Thursday 17th May at 8pm
Thursday 21st June at 8pm
Thursday 19th July at 8pm
As usual, book tickets by popping in or else call us on 020 8944 5224. Prices held at £20 per person.
Tasting this Weekend
There’s been talk of haggis this week, something to do with Burns Night. Now, as someone that likes to eat haggis, I would argue that much like puppies and Christmas, a haggis is not just for Burns Night. We thought we’d suggest a couple of reds that might make rather tasty accompaniments to the beastie, so we’ll kick off in the red corner with a brace: Maggio Old Vine Zinfandel 2015 (£12.99), whose cherry fruit will slide along just nicely with the peppery savouriness, whilst the slightly darker brambly fruit of Domaine Coyeux Beaumes de Venise 2013 (£15.99), will bring its own slightly savoury note to the party.
The white corner will have Lazos Terra Chardonnay 2016 (£13.99), not because it goes with haggis but because it’ll be a wow with that smoked salmon starter!
We appreciate that every tradition has its traditionalists so, if it must be whisky, then why not Finlaggan (£32.99) for the Islay team, or Strathmill 2002 (£50) for the Speyside team.
Neither of us were invited to Davos this year, so we’ll be here to answer questions, shoot the breeze or take your cheese and wine bookings.
Lastly, if you have a spare couple of hours, Icarus is a cracking documentary worthy of a stream!
Cheers,
Wayne & Alex
PS: Our 6 for 5 offer ends at close of play Wednesday 31st January and we will be out for most of Tuesday daytime for tastings – so, as I write, there are approximately 40 hours left to shop – you have been warned!