The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Wow, what a week  – to summarise:

England beat Senegal to get through to the Quarter Finals in Qatar – lots of goals, lots of different goal scorers in the England team, lots of pace and the prospect of putting some shots past the fading Hugo Lloris on Saturday has them licking their lips…

England beat Pakistan in the First Test, breaking many records en route – lots and lots of runs, lots of digging deep, lots of different wicket takers in the mix, bring on round two…

Eddie Jones has been given the Spanish archer – not before time for many of us. 

The Trump Organization have been found guilty on 17 counts of tax fraud – of course DT has nothing to do with any of this with his defence lawyers stating that, despite personally signing several cheques and leases, Trump was unaware of the tax fraud being committed by his closest lieutenants!  Can’t wait to see what happens next…

Baroness Mone of Mayfair might need similarly brazen lawyers as she faces various investigations into her and her husband’s use of the £200million they were given in 2020 for inappropriate PPE.  Currently the National Crime Agency, the House of Lords standards commissioners, the House of Commons public accounts committee are all very, very interested… as is typical of people blatantly in the wrong (see also Paterson, Owen) Michelle  is taking leave of absence from the Lords with immediate effect, “in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her”.

Rishi Sunak is reportedly a bit surprised and shocked by all this – perhaps, as Sir Keir said, he should consult immediately with whoever was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2020…. perhaps the quote from Trump’s lawyers could fit here too?  Despite personally signing several cheques and leases, Sunak was unaware of the fraud being committed by his closest lieutenants!

Meanwhile, whilst we get closer to a General Strike, the rich just seem to get richer. 

Earlier this week, Bernard Arnault temporarily became the world’s richest person on Forbes’ real time billionaires list, surpassing everyone’s favourite chancer Mr Musk.  For those of  you unaware of Bernard’s monetary pursuits, he is the owner of LVMH, who have in their portfolio, amongst others: Acqua di Parma, Ardbeg, Belvedere, Birkenstock, Château Cheval Blanc, Château d’Yquem, Christian Dior, Cloudy Bay, Dom Pérignon, Fendi, Givenchy, Glenmorangie, Guerlain, Hennessy, Hublot, Krug, Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Mercier, Moët & Chandon, Ruinart, Tiffany & Co. and Veuve Clicquot – yeah, I know, can’t begin to understand how he became so wealthy!

Anyway, enough of all this nonsense, let’s talk wine and Christmas.  Two weeks to go, plenty of shopping days left but perhaps time to start thinking about it all – with this in mind, let me introduce you to the Christmas survival kits we’ve put together:

THE CHRISTMAS MIXED CASE – £100

Lété-Vautrain 204 Brut NV, Charly-Sur-Marne, Champagne, France

De Wetshof Bon Vallon Chardonnay 2021, Robertson, South Africa

Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2021, Marlborough, New Zealand

Domaine Fournillon Pinot Noir 2019, Bourgogne Epineuil, France

Flametree Cabernet Sauvignon – Merlot 2018, Margaret River, Australia

Magnifico Rosso Primitivo di Manduria 2021, Puglia, Italy

CHRISTMAS REDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD – £140

La Colombaia Amarone 2018, Veneto, Italy

Paringa Estate Peninsula Pinot Noir 2019, Victoria, Australia

Sottano Selección Blend 2019, Lujan de Cuyo, Argentina

The Chocolate Block 2021, Swartland, South Africa

Valenciso Reserva 2014, Rioja, Spain

Viña Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, Pasa Robles, USA

FRENCH CLASSICS FOR CHRISTMAS – £150

Cave de Turckheim Riesling Grand Cru Brand 2018, Alsace

Domaine Moingeon St Aubin 1er Cru ‘Les Frionnes’ 2019, Burgundy

Domaine Roblin Sancerre ‘Terres Blanches’ 2021,Loire Valley

Domaine Belleville Mercurey ‘Champ Ladoy’ 2017, Burgundy

Domaine La Font de Notre Dame Gigondas 2019, Rhône

Domaine Valmengaux 2016, Bordeaux

THE CHRISTMAS CLARET CASE – £150

Château Grandis 2009, Haut-Médoc

Château La Menotte 2016, Lalande de Pomerol

Château Lucas 2015, Lussac-St-Émilion

Château Patache D’Aux 1996, Médoc

Domaine Valmengaux 2016, AC Bordeaux

Vieux Château Gaubert 2010, Graves

All the cases come with tasting notes, which we have attached for your perusal.

Tasting this weekend

Well, with two weeks to go, why not push the boat out, as they say?

Valenciso Blanco 2021, Rioja, Spain – £21.99 – This is a blend of 70% Viura and 30% Garnacha Blanca, sourced from 80 year old vines and then  fermented with wild yeasts before lazing around for 9 months in Caucasian oak barrels.  Complex aromas combining pretty, floral characters with preserved lemon, truffle and smoky notes.  The palate is broad and well integrated with nuts and stone fruit characters.  Fresh candied peel, minerality and crisp citrus acidity on the finish.  The texture in the mouth was similar to a posh Graves but believe me when I say it’s unmistakably Spanish in style which is why I often pair it with the Christmas Eve fish extravaganza!

La Colombaia Amarone Della Valpolicella 2018, Veneto, Italy – £26.99 – The grapes are hand harvested at the end of October and these late harvested grapes are dried for four months until January following the vintage. Four months fermentation followed by two years barrel ageing gives us a richly flavoured and approachable Amarone with layers of ripe plum and cherry fruit, mocha and spice. Absolutely perfect to partner with a comfy chair!

Meanwhile, in the eto:

Porto Krohn Vintage 2003 – £50 – Wet weather in winter and spring of 2003 was followed by a very hot August which led to the grapes showing high concentration and sweetness but relatively low acidity.  The result is this award-winning Port – rich, powerful and complex.  Retaining a deep and youthful colour, the nose has intense black fruit characters, with notes of plum, black cherry, sweet spices, liquorice and vanilla.  The palate has structure and concentration, with more of that rich, ripe plum and cherry character, more spice and firm tannins.  Drinking really well right now, this had Christmas written all over it when we tasted it in September!

Of course, we also have our usual selection of spirits open to taste, joined once again by this year’s batch of Foxdenton Estate Christmas Liqueur – £23 – made with Winslow Plums and a blend of traditional Christmas spices including Ginger, Clove, Cinnamon, and Star Anise, our Christmas Liqueur, is the ideal winter warmer.  All this needs is a mince pie and an open fire!

That should be all from us for this week, we’ve taken up too much of your time already, so have a lovely weekend and stay warm!!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

How’s your week been? We’ve had a bit of a busy one – it seems some of you are having parties and getting organised. To join in, we’re having a birthday on Saturday, it’s the shop’s 12^th anniversary, I’m sure we’ll be celebrating!

Happily, Matt Hancock didn’t win I’m a Celebrity. Sadly, they did get him out of there though so he’s not left wandering the jungle for 30 years, reflecting on his shortcomings…

Happily, Emma Raducanu was awarded an MBE. Sadly, it appears the Royal Household is still having racism issues…

Happily, England’s football team qualified for the next round of the World Cup. Sadly, that’s not true for the Welsh.

Happily, some of you got last week’s message about Claret. Sadly, not enough of you have tucked into the selection yet!

Happily, Trump’s tax returns have been handed over. Sadly, we have no further news on that and he’s so slippery…

Happily, there’s been a big breakthrough with a drug to treat Alzheimer’s. Sadly, it’s not available yet.

Happily, England broke some cricket records on Thursday. Sadly, we all know that we can still lose from here.

Happily, we could go on like this for pages. Sadly, we’re not going to.

There’s stuff to be done, lunch to be eaten, cycling to be discussed and wine to be moved down to the cellar, up from the cellar, and out to that chap’s car please Wayne!

We had our end of year Spotify Wrapped round up this week; they’ve decided we are Adventurers because we have listened to 129 genres of music. Sadly, they failed to name them all as, having discussed it, we certainly couldn’t!

I think this is an ideal opportunity to mention that we’ve been in touch with the lovely Nick at Foxdenton and can confirm than not only is Foxdenton Christmas Liqueur (£23) back in stock but it is absolutely the same price as last year.  For those with short memories, we might even be able to let you have a taste!

Whilst we are on the subject of tasting, we will of course open a bottle of our house champagne on Saturday. Lété-Vautrain Brut 204 (£30 – £75 if you buy three bottles) is of course the perfect bubbly to celebrate the shop’s birthday, or indeed any other occasion that might crop up in the next few weeks.

We’ll also be wading into a bottle of Mountford Liaison Pinot Noir 2019 (£23.99). It’s a cracking Pinot Noir from Canterbury in New Zealand’s South Island. Fermented with natural yeast, low sulphur and aged in old french oak for 24 months it’s bright red with a touch of smoke, red plum fruits a hint at leather and a long supple finish. It’s also suitable for vegans if that’s a concern.

White wise we’ll stay south of the equator and head to Swartland, more specifically the Goldmine vineyard owned by Boekenhoutskloof.  Patina Chenin Blanc 2019 (£25.49) is a wine we only came across this year but we’ll let local MW Tim Atkin describe it:  “Patina comes from a 1.6-hectare parcel planted on schist soils in 1996. Partially fermented on skins, it has good grip, taut acidity and layers of pear, green apple and beeswax. Concrete eggs add some focus to the vanilla oak spice.”

I suspect that’s enough from us for this week.

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow

Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here

Christine McVie RIP

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Black Monday – famous for multiple stock market crashes, dating back to Wall Street in 1929

Black Tuesday – following straight on from Black Monday, marks the start of The Great Depression

Black Wednesday – the Sterling Crisis of 1992 – a bonkers day, according to Wayne who at that time he had a proper job, and one where George Soros made a huge profit by selling short – if things had turned out differently George would be working here and Wayne would be worth about $10 billion….

Black Thursday – the global stock market crash in March 2020 caused by your friend and mine, the Covid-19 pandemic

Black Friday – is a 1940 American horror film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi…. Also the day when, without any help from the stock markets or the bankers, people across the world attempt to bankrupt themselves faster than their neighbours in a bid to grab ‘bargains’ before they do!

As you can no doubt tell, we don’t entirely buy into the whole one day shopping frenzy, especially as nowadays with some businesses, it seems to have turned into a multi-week extravaganza of unreal prices.  Add to this the news from Which? Magazine, who analysed a selection of deals last year from 7 major players to discover that

1. less than 15% of the deals offered a genuine discount and
2. many of the promotions are cheaper or the same price in the previous six months….

Having said all that, we’re always keen to help people out so can tell you all that the information we have received from  Elys in Wimbledon says that the best deals this year are in winter coats and female fashion, if you’re interested!

We’re avoiding dwelling too much on the news this week. 

The frustration evident on Alex’s face when I told him that arch-Brexiteer, Eurosceptic and disgraced lobbyist Owen Paterson was suing the British government at the European Court of Human Rights for ‘damaging his good reputation’ was enough for me to stop talking.  However, I can tell you that there is perhaps a point to be made that he damaged his own reputation by committing “an egregious case of paid advocacy”.  Nor should the irony be lost that Owen has also previously campaigned for the UK to break away from the ECHR – where would he be now if that had happened?!?  I then started to tell him about PPE and government scandal and Lady Mone and he muttered something about ‘pigs’ and ‘snouts in troughs’ so we left it there.

So let’s focus on our news instead.  We’ve had quite a few deliveries this week  and perhaps most excitingly, we think our Bordeaux offering is now ready to go – and we’re quite pleased with it… it’s a bit of a list but here you go:

LEFT BANK

MÉDOC

Château Haut Barrail 2016                                                                                       £16.99

Chapelle de Potensac 2016                                                                                       £23.99

Château La Tour de By 2014                                                                                      £27.99

Château Patache d’Aux 1996                                                                                     £35.00

Château La Grave 2016 MAGNUM                                                                         £38.00

HAUT- MÉDOC

Château Grandis 2009                                                                                              £20.99

LISTRAC- MÉDOC

Château Saransot Dupré 2016 (V)                                                                          £23.00

Château Saransot Dupré 2015 MAGNUM (V)                                                        £46.00

MARGAUX

Château De La Coste 2018                                                                                       £28.99

Le Margaux de Brane 2016                                                                                      £38.00

Brio de Cantenac Brown 2015                                                                                  £53.00

Château du Tertre 2010                                                                                            £90.00

SAINT-JULIEN

Château Lalande 2017                                                                                              £32.00

Château Haut-Beychevelle Gloria 2016                                                                 £33.00

Château Langoa Barton 2008                                                                                    £82.00

GRAVES

Vieux Château Gaubert 2010                                                                                    £28.99

RIGHT BANK

CÔTES DE BOURG

Gaia de Château Puybarbe 2018/19 (V)                                                                  £11.99

Château Relais de La Poste Cuvée Malbec 2017                                                     £19.49

POMEROL

Château Valois 2018                                                                                                  £47.00

LALANDE DE POMEROL

Château La Menotte 2016                                                                                         £26.99

Château La Fleur de Boüard 2012                                                                           £30.00

FRONSAC

Château Mayne-Viel 2018                                                                                        £14.99

SAINT-ÉMILION

Château Fleur de Lisse 2016                                                                                      £35.00

JP Moueix 2015 MAGNUM                                                                                     £46.00

Château La Serre 2005                                                                                              £70.00

LUSSAC-SAINT-ÉMILION

Château Lucas 2015                                                                                                   £21.79

MONTAGNE-SAINT-ÉMILION

Château Cardinal 2018 (V)                                                                                       £19.99

SAINT-GEORGES SAINT-ÉMILION

Clos Albertus 2018                                                                                                    £28.99

AND THE BIT IN THE MIDDLE…

AC BORDEAUX & CÔTES DE BORDEAUX

Château Gabelot 2016                                                                                               £13.99

Château Deville 2016 (V)                                                                                          £13.99

Domaine de Valmengaux 2016 (O)                                                                          £27.79

Château Le Grand Verdus 2018 MAGNUM                                                               £31.00

As I say, were quite pleased with this – if something catches your eye do let us now because some wines will certainly start to disappear over the next few weeks!

Back to now and this weekend’s tasting offering.  We shall tip our hats in acknowledgement of American Thanksgiving and open one of our perennial favourite whites – Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2020 – £17.99 and for the red we will pull the cork on the Long Barn Pinot Noir 2020 – £14.99 a richer style of Pinot from California.

And with that we must be almost done.  We know the World Cup has started in Qatar with some shock results and small crowds and certain controversy but I imagine that those of you who are interested know what is going on and those of you who are boycotting aren’t interested.  I suggest watching some rugby this weekend perhaps…

Have a lovely weekend, do come and buy some claret – we’ll be Down By The Jetty with Wilko if you can’t find us….

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Smoke and Mirrors.

Musically… a song by Gotye, the Belgian-Australian multi-instrumentalist better known for the song: “Somebody That I Used To Know”.

Visually… a special effects company whose work you may have seen in a broad selection of adverts ranging from Adidas to Sol via Toyota and Nissan. Be sure to have the Sol after the motors…

Internationally… a rather swish looking cocktail bar on the roof of the National Gallery in Singapore. A Kaleidoscope for me if you’re buying!

Topically… an intimate magic-themed pub in Bristol that serves a selection of real ales and hosts magicians at the weekends. We think this is where Jeremy Hunt might have been sipping on his inspiration!

Traditionally (from Cambridge Business English Dictionary) … Something that is described as smoke and mirrors is intended to make you believe that something is being done or is true, when it is not:

The new budget isn’t smoke and mirrors; it’s an honest attempt to reduce the deficit.

Economically… it has, of course, been the modus operandi of many chancellors but I’m not sure so many of them had it so freely available in the press before they stood up and started speaking. Normally the contents would be subject to an embargo commonly known as purdah. But whilst the speaker continues to leave rule breaking unpunished, rule breaking will continue. So adios purdah, just another part of our parliamentary tradition being trashed.

Freezing the tax thresholds till 2028 sounds good till you realise it is very similar monetarily to raising the basic rate of tax by about 5p. It seems we’re about to stroll into the largest fall in our living standards since 1956, a year when Wayne’s mum was younger than Alex’s daughter is now and only two years after rationing from WWII finished.

Not removing the ‘Non Domicile’ loophole we think is rather disappointing, surely if you choose to live in a society you would want to contribute to that society?

We won’t even mention the tax cut to bank profits hidden away in the small print where the surcharge was cut from 8% to 3%.

Announcing, yet delaying most of the austerity measures till 2025 tells you everything you need to know about who they think might win the next election.

Elsewhere, it is the 70^th anniversary of the pop charts this week and the Guardian was kind enough to share their view of the 70 greatest no.2 songs. There are some surprises in there; Outkast’s Ms Jackson being 22 years old was one. Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks as number one number two (if you get my drift) is something we can definitely get on board with. How many times do you walk across the bridge and that pops into your head?

The 70 greatest No 2 singles – ranked! | Culture | The Guardian

In wine news, American wine magazine The Wine Spectator announced its top 100 wines for 2022 this week. Kevin and the team at Greywacke were chuffed to discover they were the top NZ wine at number 13 with their Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2021.

You’ll never guess what happened to arrive on Wednesday! Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc 2021 (£21.99 or six for £120). We’ll be opening this at the weekend too so pop in and give it a go yourself.

Whilst we’re talking about tasting we’re going to open Famille Gras ‘Les Plans’ 2019 (£14.99). Hailing from the Vaucluse, it is a soft and pleasing blend of mostly Grenache and Syrah but with the added excitement of Cabernet and Merlot too. It’s always nice to see what one of the longest established Rhône families are up to.

We notice that Elon Musk has managed Twitter from a $44bio valuation two weeks ago into something closer to around $5bio now and couldn’t help but wonder if we shouldn’t put him in charge of the National debt?

Cheers,

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So let’s get this clear, it’s all a bit full on if I’m going to try and watch all the sport this weekend:

Saturday

6.30am Women’s World Cup Rugby Union FINAL – New Zealand vs England

2.30pm Men’s World Cup Rugby League SEMI FINAL – England vs Samoa

3.15pm Men’s Autumn International Rugby Union – England vs Japan

Sunday

8am Men’s T20 World Cup Cricket FINAL – Pakistan vs England

2.30pm Men’s Wheelchair World Cup Rugby League SEMI FINAL – England vs Wales

Monday

7.30pm Women’s World Cup Rugby League SEMI FINAL – England vs New Zealand

As you may have noticed, with the obvious exception of the men’s rugby union team who frankly still look a long way off, there are a lot of events with the word FINAL in their title, which is very exciting indeed. Wayne was pleased to work out that his accumulator of Six England World Cup wins in the next Six weeks will fulfil his retirement yacht budget requirements until I explained that, whilst the first five are very doable, the sixth would be his heartbreaker, especially since no AFC Wimbledon players have made the squad.

However, at least all the sport will be a distraction from politics which I know we tend to get a bit bogged down by. Nothing to report in the UK, all ticking along nicely just like last week; ditto in the USA, no outrageous Trump led distractions there; meanwhile, in a jungle far, far away and probably not far enough away, Matt Hancock is getting far more attention than he deserves.

In the world of wine, we have just taken delivery of the new vintage of Chocolate Block. For those of you new to this wine, it is made by Boekenhoutskloof, in Franschhoek, South Africa and the 2021 vintage is the 20th iteration of this great wine. Mark Kent, the winemaker, tells us: “We made an important decision in 2015 to shift from general appellation Western Cape to Wine of Origin Swartland. The significance is that we can directly manage the majority of the fruit being vinified for The Chocolate Block and farm the vineyards using our sustainable approach to viticulture. After more than a decade of working with these Swartland vineyards, our Porseleinberg and Goldmine farms represent about 60% of the fruit in the final blend. Notably, we can see that the wines have changed stylistically. It’s about the purity of fruit, elegance and structure.”

The 2021 is a whopping 74% Syrah blended with 10% Grenache, 8% Cinsault, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Viognier. Although somewhat riper it shows lower alcohol and good natural acidity, which should develop very well for years to come but they would say that wouldn’t they! How about we ask someone a bit more independent but nonetheless very knowledgeable:

“It takes a lot of talent – and good grapes -to make one million bottles of something this impressive. Using fruit from Goldmine, Porseleinberg and a block in Malmesbury, it’s a seamless cuv?e of Syrah with 26% Grenache, Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon and Viognier. Polished, scented and glossy, with blueberry and blood orange flavours, fresh acidity, good structure and nuanced oak. 2023-30” 93/100 Tim Atkin MW

The Chocolate Block 2021

” Half Bottles – £15.99

” Bottles – £25.00 (6 for £135) – we also have a few 2020 left, if anyone is keen to compare them

” Magnums – £55 (arriving mid-December we hope!)

” Jeroboam – £130

And if you really fancy pushing the boat out, we also have the single vineyard wine, Porseleinberg Syrah 2019 – £65 which again Mr Tim Atkin MW has thoughts about:

“This remarkable site has established itself as one of the world’s great Syrah vineyards in less than a decade. Sourced from four blocks totally 4.5 hectares, Callie Louw’s stunning red is just short of perfection this year, but is still brilliant, confirming the evolution in style of the Jamet-inspired 2018. Leafy, spicy, rose petal aromas are supported by pure red berry fruit, detailed tannins and the faintest hint of oak. 2022-32.” 99 points

Nice.

However, if you’re not in the mood for iconic South Africans this weekend perhaps the two wines we’ve got on tasting might be more up your street?

We’ll start off with a trip to Epanomi, which is about a twenty minute drive south from Thessaloniki airport. Lurking in this vicinity, we find Ktima Gerovassiliou who are entirely responsible for this week’s choice white: Ktima Gerovassiliou White 2021 – £19.49. In 1981, Vangelis Gerovassiliou started reinvigorating the 2.5 hectare family vineyard approximately 25km south-east of Thessaloniki. The vineyards are about 3 km from the sea, which borders the vineyards on three sides, tempering the warm summer days. This wine, a blend of Malagoussia and Assyrtiko, is a deliciously crisp citrus and peach flavoured drop with a splendid seam of minerality. Ktima Gerovassiliou is internationally recognised too – US publication Wine and Spirits Magazine has named them ‘Winery of the Year’ four times.

The red this week is from the Mas Blanch I Jove winery in Costers del Segre, which is just west of Priorat. We’ve spoken about them before but just to recap, most (99%) of the energy they use is solar, the vineyard has been certified as organic since 2015 and they have a great arrangement with artists and sculptors in the vineyard too – they have more than a dozen masterpieces scattered over the property, which look awesome.

Mas Blanche I Jove Sao Abrivat 2019 – £18.99 is a blend of 40% Tempranillo, 35% Grenache and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon matured in a mixture of French and American oak barrels for around 12 months. The wine is soft with a lovely dark red fruit character and a melange of vanilla, cinnamon and black pepper spice notes before the long balanced finish. A regular visitor to both our dining tables?.

And now that we think we’ve kept you away from your work for far too long, we will wish you well and look forward to seeing you soon!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

The craziness just goes on and on doesn’t it? It’s so exhausting trying to keep up that we thought we’d try and keep a diary.

Monday found us wondering what Elon Musk would do with Twitter. Clearly he didn’t want too many of the staff and they’ve been exiting stage left with a cardboard box and a coffee mug all week. So far we’ve only heard that he may charge those with a blue tick around $8 for the privilege. We think we’d rather have a pint or a Spotify subscription if we’re honest. Also Guy Fawkes set off again for Parliament, it’s a long way when your legs are made of old tights and newspaper!

Tuesday greeted us with the news that Matt Hancock will be in the Jungle for I’m a Celebrity… Like Mad Nads before him, he has lost the Tory whip for going. It seems a bit strange that he loses the whip for a few days away, yet the blond scarecrow has kept his despite spending most of the year on holiday, before heading to Cop27 and then Singapore as a keynote speaker at a conference on blockchain. What service is he providing to the overly tolerant people of Uxbridge? Does he even know where it is?

We might have to watch I’m a Celebrity though, just to see the Honourable Member from Suffolk gets to be in the Bush Tucker Trials, his constituents seem keen on him eating grubs.

Tuesday was also marked by giant silver balls the size of a transit van blowing down Tottenham Court Road after they were separated from an installation! It looked like an update to The Prisoner!

Wednesday was a veritable treasure trove. We learnt that the government has been ‘wargaming’ a plan in case of seven day blackouts this winter. We also learned from the National Grid that wind has generated 51% of GB electricity for the first time, that’s over 20 Giga Watts!

We learnt that Rishi Sunak is as keen on U-turns as everyone that went before him. He has changed his mind about COP27, quite possibly shamed into it when the blond scarecrow said he would be attending and that King Charles was having a reception for 200 NGO’s beforehand. Also Rishi has said he’ll ditch key leadership campaign pledges. So, if we remember correctly, he resigned because he had fundamental economic differences with Johnson, then he set out his own pledges during the leadership campaign, then becoming PM he said he’ll deliver the 2019 manifesto and now he says that its ‘not the right time’ for any of this. Did we miss anything?

We also learned, and this is the exciting one, that true north, magnetic north and grid north will all combine at a single point in Great Britain this week for the first time in history. The village of Langton Matravers west of Swanage is preparing itself! The three norths will travel together slowly up the country (Poole for Christmas!) for around three and a half years, eventually leaving our landmass at Fraserburgh around July 2026. More details over at the Ordnance Survey website.

Rolling into Thursday we learned the monetary policy committee of the Bank of England would be increasing interest rates to 3%. We also learned that the same monetary policy committee thinks that the UK is already in recession and they expect it to be the longest in history, without taking account of the coming austerity in the 17^th November budget. Which kind of makes the rate rise a bit questionable in my view.

Thursday also brought us a step too far in cancel culture. It seems that Mars will be removing Bounty from packs of Celebrations this year. Whilst it could, of course, be just a ruse to get us all talking about their product, it could also be turning a selection of us into Bounty Hunters. Perhaps like grown up Milky Bar kids!

In wine news, we heard that Spanish police are looking for masked thieves who stole 132 bottles of wine worth £172,000 from Coque, a two-star Michelin restaurant in Madrid. They broke into the upmarket Coque restaurant in the early hours of Sunday morning via a chemist’s next door, which closed last month. Detectives believe the collection, said to be ‘one of the best in Spain’, was stolen by criminals who could have posed as customers in recent days.

Which brings us to today and given the current ubiquity of U-Turns (even Vlad the Invader with grain shipments) we wished we’d trademarked it!

Time for a glass of something suitable…

The white will be Dog Point Chardonnay 2018 (£27.99) from Marlborough in New Zealand. Doug and Ivan were part of the pioneering team along with Kevin Judd of Greywacke who set up Cloudy Bay in 1984. This is a wonderful white and it’s far too long since we opened one.

Red we’ll stay down under and open Flametree Shiraz 2017 (£18.99) from Margaret River in Western Australia this seems just the ticket for bonfire night.

That’s it from us, we’ll be hopping in the Chinook to Balham later!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

And so it finally came to pass, Alex parted company with Park Vintners last Friday. 

It would seem that he had been sharing top secret tasting notes with a number of parties at Regal Wine Cellars via his googlemail account.  In fact, as he wrote in his letter of resignation:

‘Earlier today, l sent some Bordeaux tasting notes and a beer recommendation from my personal email to a trusted former colleague with the aim of garnering support for a visit to the pub next week.  This constitutes a technical infringement of the rules.  As you know, the tasting notes were also written by you and were due to be written on little pieces of card and attached to bottles imminently.  Much of them had already been seen by customers, their dogs and various delivery drivers.  Nevertheless it is right for me to go.’

He then yattered on a bit about high standards, business, responsibility and mistakes.  It was sometimes unclear whether he was referring to himself or was in fact using a not so clever allegorical device to make a point – it was all a bit laboured though.  The fact that he then decided to reiterate ‘l have made a mistake; l accept responsibility; l resign’ had me starting to believe that in actual fact he didn’t really think he had made a mistake and that actually he was resigning because he’d received a better offer from Regal but just didn’t want me to know about it just yet.

Either way he’s gone, thank goodness.

As a result I have been running the shop for the first part of this week on my own and it has felt quite liberating.  This has also given me the opportunity to put together a whole fresh new team in time for the weekend and one that I hope will take us through to Christmas.

So, let me introduce you to my newest recruit – Alex. 

I was very fortunate to be able to hire Alex at such short notice due to him finishing rather abruptly with his previous employer last week, perhaps under a cloud.  However, Alex recognises that he made an error of judgment and has accepted his mistake which is why I was delighted to welcome him back into wine retail particularly considering the experience and stability he brings to the heart of Park Vintners.

You couldn’t make it up!

Meanwhile, whilst Alex was on his gardening leave he decided to ‘do a Dominic’ and drive all the way up to the northeast, via Barnard Castle and Hadrian’s Wall, to visit with the happy folk of Hepple.  As you are all hopefully aware, Hepple is our un-official house Gin.  We call it un-official because we don’t like to put pressure on our products but, if pushed, this would be the house tipple and is certainly our best seller.  So, when confronted with some unexpected days off, it came as no surprise that Alex would flee to the land of heather, juniper and very large Negronis – wouldn’t you? 

By all accounts he had an absolute ball, brought back the latest news from Walter the Cultivator and Chris the Distiller and, more excitingly for me, came back with more stock for our shelves.  Alongside the usual, he also brought some rather fun little 5cl bottles of Hepple Gin which, as we all know, is a double shot.  These retail at £5 per bottle, add a bottle of Fever Tree and you’ve got a delicious G’n’T for a lot less than the pub – perfect for quiet nights in, perfect for little gifts, perfect for big events.

For the first time in a while we haven’t listed any new products this week so will be tasting some old favourites instead and, as I’m told that it’s Halloween soon, perhaps something with that in mind.

Vina Robles Viognier 2019 – £19.99. When Hans Nef, a civil engineer from Zurich, came to Paso Robles in the mid-1990s a new generation of California winemakers was turning it into one of the world’s most dynamic winegrowing regions.  This Viognier is planted in the highest part of the Huerhuero Vineyard benefitting from the cooling afternoon pacific breeze.  Crisp and medium-bodied with peach and mandarin fruit with a long lively finish – really rather fabulous and by all accounts one of the best matches for pumpkin!

Finca Bacara ‘Time Waits For No One’ 2020 – £13.99.  This is a delicious drop of Monastrell from Jumilla in Spain where, in spite of its latitude, the wines are well managed largely due to the vineyards being at reasonable altitude.  A juicy and opulent red with attractive floral aromas, ripe fruit and balsamic notes in the background leading onto a nicely balanced fresh palate that lifts the vibrant fruit through to a smooth and persistent finish…. and then on to another glass.  Oh, it’s got a skull on the label too!

That’s it from us for now, back to a full team in time for the weekend and hopefully well into next week!

Spring forward, fall back….

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Kakistocracy – a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens.

We knew this week was going to be fun when on Monday Penny Mordant, standing in for Pork Markets, declared that “the Prime Minister is not under a desk.” This was of course during the Urgent Question on the sacking of the Chancellor and the damage to the economy. Pork Markets apologised for not attending, claiming to have been in a meeting with Graham Brady of the 1922 committee. In a bizarre turn of events, Graham Brady appeared to be in the Chamber during said Urgent Question.

The Urgent Question was followed by a statement from the shiny new Chancellor Jezza Hunt who executed a number of U-turns so swiftly that the casting director of the Fast and Furious franchise has been in touch. The bad news for all those looking forward to a tax cut is that we aren’t getting one. Worse than that, it appears that there’ll be a return to austerity measures. Hunt is looking to find some cash to fill a £38 billion gap in the finances and it seems the number he has for Dido Harding might be a little out of date.

Tuesday rolled in with Suella blaming everyone, except the people in charge for twelve years, for the country’s woes. I certainly had no idea that eating Tofu was so bad for a country’s growth but, now you mention it, Japan has had low growth for years and there is plenty of Tofu on menus there; maybe she’s not as daft as she sounds.

Sorry that last comment didn’t age well.  As Wednesday wanders into frame, the carnage continues with former Attorney General Suella Braverman becoming former Home Secretary too. Apparently too stupid not to use her personal email account when sending government documents to “trusted colleagues”. I guess that’ll leave more time for kidnapping puppies. We think Grant Shapps is the new Home Secretary; it could of course be Michael Green, Corinne Stockheath or Sebastian Fox.

Just to make sure we’re all paying attention, Pork Markets also suspended one of her senior special advisers. Jason Stein was allegedly briefing Sunday Newspapers that Sajid Javid was less than competent. Seems this job may have lasted less time than when Mr Stein was Prince Andrew’s PR guru!

The Common’s vote on fracking was advertised as a vote of confidence in Pork Markets in the afternoon, with dire consequences for any Tory that didn’t support it. Ten minutes before the vote, a No.10 spokesman said it was no longer an issue of confidence. With the Chief Whip and her deputy now feeling undermined, they storm off in a huff, apparently resigning. By the Ten O’clock News they were both dramatically un-resigned. At 1.30am a No.10 Press Release says it was indeed a vote of confidence, though Pork Markets herself hadn’t voted, having been too busy chasing the Chief Whip across the Westminster estate.

As I write this it’s not clear if those MP’s who didn’t vote with the Government will lose the whip or not but Pork Markets has resigned at 1.30pm on Thursday after 45 days, the shortest term in our history. The lettuce won!

As it all currently stands, if No.10 doesn’t end up on Air BnB, we have Alex pencilled in to be Prime Minister for a few hours on Thursday next, whilst Wayne might have a look at being Home Secretary on Friday afternoon.

Pity the poor writers of Political satire, what can they possibly add?

On the sport’s front we’re strolling into a plethora of World Cup Tournaments which should last us all the way to Christmas. The Women’s Rugby World Cup has already started with the Red Roses as favourites, having thrashed Fiji and beaten France already. Wales lost to the Cook Islands in Pool D of the Rugby League World Cup on Wednesday night, the Super 12 part of T20 World Cup in cricket starts on Saturday and just as they both finish, the FIFA World Cup will be starting in Qatar.

For those interested in real sports, Dan Bigham’s Hour Record lasted for six days more than Pork Markets’ Premiership!

I don’t know how you feel, but I think it’s time for a drink. With this in mind, should you have a space in your calendar, we thought we might just do a one of Sparkling Wine & Champagne Tasting on Thursday 24^th November.  We’ve lined up a selection of sparklers and Champagnes; we’ll round up some light nibbles and lay up a table for 12 lucky souls!  It’ll start at 7.30pm, it costs £35 per person and we work purely on the basis of first come, first served.

Check that diary!

Tasting This Weekend

We’ll start with a rather delicious white that we haven’t opened since we first listed it three years ago.

Tenute Pieralisi ‘Villaia’ Verdicchio Dei Castelli Di Jesi 2020 (£19.99)

This is taken from the estate’s Colle del Sole vineyard right next to the winery.  It is their best plot and the quality is really evident in your glass.  The wine is made with wild yeasts that are allowed to start a spontaneous fermentation.  The wine itself is open and expressive with blossom, apricot and citrus aromas.  The textured palate has lovely stone fruit flavours, a touch of minerality and a racy, elegant finish. 

Then we’ll move on to the Cool Coast of Chile for the red.

Casa Silva Cool Coast Pinot Noir 2021 (£18.99)

Hailing from the coastal vineyards of the Colchagua Valley, this is a proper cool climate Pinot Noir with a nose filled with red fruit notes, strawberries, raspberries and a subtle background note of cinnamon and spice from the French oak it spent 12 months reposing in.  An excellent length of finish and a real pleasure to drink.  Lamb leg steaks on the outdoor grill should be perfect.

That’s enough from us, as we go to press there is no sign of another U turn. Pork Markets has left the building!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

How’s your week been?  Action packed?  Monotonous?  Same, same but different?  A bit meh?  Yep, same here – all a bit of a non-descript week, nothing really to report, quite looking forward to the weekend if we’re honest.

In times when not a lot has happened, we tend to nostalgically trawl the archives for inspiration and to see what we found to talk about in other years this week – so we lifted the following:

2010 – no Friday email yet, we were coming to the end of our careers at Wines of the World and were about to requalify as painter/decorators as we started works on the shop here and didn’t even have a computer, let alone a clue, between us

2011 – having had a computer for a while now, this week we were discussing ‘a runner at the Kielder marathon being stripped of his medal after confessing to using a bus for part of the course, Paul McCartney has the noise police visit at 1am (party on dude!), and news reaches us that Yetis really do exist, so be careful if you’re spending the weekend in Siberia!  Oh, and Wayne broke his leg…..’

2012 – ‘We watched as the USADA unveiled their case against Lance Armstrong (and it seems pretty damning to us). It’s tough to lose seven titles I’m sure, but you know what, I guess it really wasn’t about the bike.’  Still annoyed he cheated.

2013 – we just talked about wine, clearly another non-descript week.

2014 – ‘Poor old Kevin Peterson had the mickey taken out of him in the changing room and Roy Keane thinks the song “Dancing Queen” is not an ideal pre-match motivator’  Staying with sport we also reported that on 7th October 2014: MK Dons 2 – AFC Wimbledon 3 – not sure that would be the scoreline if they played today.

2015 – We were getting our knickers in a twist about loopholes ‘multinational companies can use loopholes like a back-to-front telescope so that they end up paying less corporation tax than your local shop.’  Clearly our Private Eye subscription was well used that week.

2016 – Bob Dylan won the Noble Prize for Literature for creating “new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”  Wayne went to a wine tasting with Champagne Tarlant and Alex went to Hawksmoor on the Monday and discovered the joy of steak and Pintia from Toro.

2017 – it was National Curry Week and National Chocolate week and Wayne was very excited.

2018 – Patisserie Valerie discovered a £20 million hole in their books and called in the forensic accountants whilst we rocked back on our heels at the news that nearly 30% of young people in England don’t drink, before looking more closely at the study and noticing that by young they weren’t joking, some 22% of the people discussed weren’t even legally allowed to buy booze!  It’s all about the headline though, isn’t it?

2019 – we revealed ‘it seems Colleen Rooney has been up to mischief trying to find out who has been leaking stories about her to the press. The story is too dull and attention seeking to go into here but headline writers have run amok. It even made it onto Peston which I had believed to be a political comment show. Wagatha Christie indeed!’  Cannot believe this farce took so long to resolve itself.

2020 – in the thick of lockdown, or semi-lockdown or whatever it was, we heard that ‘you and I as taxpayers have employed a selection of consultants from Boston Consulting Group at a bargain basement DAILY rate of around £7,000 to sort out track and trace. I suspect we could have asked a district nurse to run it for considerably less than that!’  Funny, I wonder if any other big corporations benefitted from the ‘business’ of Covid?  I’m sure we’d have heard by now…

2021 – Boris went to Benahavís and stayed for free at Zac Goldsmith’s £25,000/week pad.  And still he managed to cling on as Prime Minister for another 9 months.

And now here we are in 2022 – keeping with the Boris theme for now, we learn that The Office of Boris Johnson Limited has been incorporated this week.  It’s not entirely transparent (really?!) what he will use the office for, particularly given his past history but we hear that, as an ex-PM, he can claim up to £115,000 expenses running his office, a sort of parachute payment for redundant Prime Ministers to help them re-adjust to normal life.  So glad he’s going to be alright, we were worried.

So, it could be said that, historically, the second week of October is not terribly eventful – perhaps next year will be different?

As we said at the top, we’re quite looking forward to the weekend if we’re honest and to help us into it we’ll be opening a couple of bottles to tickle the tastebuds.  Both come from Italy and neither has been opened for tasting for a while.

Ciù Ciù Merlettaie Pecorino 2020, Offida, Marche – £15.99 absolutely nothing to do with the cheese of the same name, this has a pleasing floral nose with clean and refined aromas of banana, broom, apple, hazelnut and plum followed by a hint of vanilla.  The mouth follows the nose, a slightly round attack however balanced, agreeable crispness, good body and intense flavours.  Similar weight to wines from southern Burgundy but more interesting than any at this price!

CentoPassi Giato Nero d’Avola/Perricone 2021, Sicily – £15.99.  My tasting notes remind me that this is an organic wine with spiced black fruits, hints of cloves and decently full bodied.  Equally as interesting is the news that the wine is the result of a project working to rebuild communities and honour Mafia victims using land seized from Mafiosi.  Nice story, nice wine, cannot believe the last time we had this on the table was 2014!

That’s it from us for this week, hopefully next week we’ll have something fun to write about but for now we’ll leave you with quote of the week, courtesy of the BBC last night:

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has insisted he is “not going anywhere”, despite the market turbulence he admitted was caused in part by his policies.  Asked if he and PM Liz Truss would still be in their jobs this time next month, he said: “Absolutely, 100%.”

Bye, bye, bye…

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Hello, hello, it’s us again, heralding the start of your weekend and the tempting prospect of Friday Night Fizz beckoning to you from the wings.  Finally, an email that starts with some positivity….

Unbeknownst to us, it seems that this week is the week of the reverse ferret.  In politics, Kwasi (it was the Queen’s fault) and Liz (it was Kwasi’s fault) famously decided to reverse their tax cut plans; in economics, the pound doesn’t know what to do, one minute it’s in the doldrums, the next it’s rallying, then it’s back down again….; and in boxing, Conor Benn tests positive for a banned testosterone enhancing substance and we were originally told that  ‘The B sample has yet to be tested, meaning that no rule violation has been confirmed. Indeed, Mr Benn has not been charged with any rule violation, he is not suspended, and he remains free to fight.’  A couple of hours later British Boxing Board of Control decided to ‘prohibit’ the match between him and Chris Eubank Jr because, you know, testing positive has to count for something.

And then we had word from across the pond that the world’s greatest diplomat, Elon Musk, had come up with a solution to the ongoing war in Ukraine.  His plans have not gone down well, as you might guess, however Elon’s reaction to the torrent of scorn, derision and anger from well, everyone, was to claim his tweet had undergone the ‘Biggest bot attack I’ve ever seen’.  Bot or not, we did like the twitter response from Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nausėda:

‘Dear @elonmusk, when someone tries to steal the wheels of your Tesla, it doesn’t make them legal owner of the car or of the wheels. Even though they claim both voted in favor of it. Just saying.’

Burn.

Elsewhere, we’ve all started feeling a bit old as we celebrate 60 years since the cinema release of the first Bond movie Dr. No.  Urusla Andress walked out of the sea; Sean Connery said ‘Bond.  James Bond’ for the first time and the famous quote ‘A medium dry martini, lemon peel, shaken, not stirred’ was coined, although not initially by Mr Bond.  We recommend that if you are doing Fizz Friday, a bottle of Bollinger might be a nice treat, although we don’t have the 1953 or the 1955!

Further to our promises over the last few weeks, we have taken delivery of a few more new wines, three from France. one from Italy, one from New Zealand and one from Argentina.

France

Domaine Joel Delaunay ‘Maceration de Soif’ Sauvignon Blanc Vin Orange 2021 – £21.49 from the Loire valley, another adventure with orange wine and if you’re a fan of rich minerals this is absolutely up your strasse – dry, hints of capsicum and as close as you will get to licking stones without actually going into the garden.

Domaine Rolly Gassmann Kappelweg de Rorschwihr Riesling 2014 – £36.59 from Alsace, Rolly Gassmann farm organically and bio-dynamically but haven’t sought certification for their wines.  This wine is a powerful Riesling with a bit of age on it, where rich stone fruit is offset by a racy citric acidity.  We could happily drink this all day….

Château Fleur de Lisse 2016, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru – £35.00 which as you can guess is from Bordeaux.  As you’d expect from a GC from a great vintage and vines with an average age of 45 years, this is a lesson in red berries, black berries, spice, polish, texture, nicely structured tannins and a long rich finish.

Italy

Poggio al Tesoro ‘Solosole’ Vermentino Toscana 2021 – £26.59 comes from the famous Bolgheri estate owned by the Allegrini family, next door to Ornellaia.  Famous for their reds, we decided to give one of their whites a go too.  Crisp and fresh with citrus and herb notes, a lovely texture and a great finish – a fabulous all-rounder.

New Zealand

Akarua ‘RUA’ Central Otago Pinot Noir 2021 – £25.29.  The Skeggs family, owners of the winery, were among the first to purchase and plant vineyards in Central Otago, in the mid 1990’s and as a result, they know a thing or two about making Pinot here.  We tend to benchmark quality Pinot more from how it finishes than how it starts – and this finishes beautifully.  Fruit on the attack which then ushers in some fine tannins and lifted aromatics that linger and linger – very tasty.

Argentina

Colomé Lote Especial La Brava Malbec 2020 – £24.99 is sourced entirely from the ‘La Brava’ vineyard, located 1750 metres above sea level.  After spending 12 months in oak, the resulting wine is vibrant and aromatic, with a fine tannic structure and is delicately poised between being too dry or too fruity – for us, the perfect expression of Malbec.

So, having now tantalised everyone’s tastebuds, what shall we open this weekend?  Some friends of ours are off to sunny Spain on Sunday, so perhaps we should wish them a buen viaje with a couple of wines they should keep their eyes open for?

Macià Batle Margalida Llompart 2019 – £20.99

Bodegas Macià Batle has been making wines in Mallorca since 1856.  This one is a blend of Prensal Blanc, a local variety, and Chardonnay.  It is an almost translucent yellow colour with greenish reflections, with an intense bouquet of tropical fruit, peach, grapefruit, apple and fennel.  The palate is satisfying with ripe peach flavours and a creamy fleshiness that might work rather well with a selection of grilled fish in El Palo.

Torres Altos Ibéricos Parcelas De Graciano 2015 – £17.99

This low yielding grape is usually just a small part of the Rioja blend, bringing medium tannins, deep colour and intense aromas of mulberry, violets and chocolate.  To have it as a single varietal is a bit of a treat (due to the low yields) so it is a regular resident here.  Elegant, with a real velvety palate and a touch of spice from the oak, this has everything we might hope for in a wine and will be a treat with a bit of Secreto Ibérico.

That’s it from us for now, come and see us, buy a bottle of Bollinger and be happy!