The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Top to toe in tailbacks, Oh, I got red lights all around, I’m driving home for Christmas, yeah….

Thankfully, today marks the last day that we have to pay royalties to Chris Rea, Shakin’ Stevens, Noddy et al for wishing us festive joy, 1980’s style, and we can go back to listening to The Prodigy and Morbid Angel.

IN the meantime, we need to keep this short and sweet as the queue at the tills is starting to resemble the Centre Court Booster Jab line.  We’ll be here until 5pm today and then we are shut until Wednesday.  In fact, our opening hours for the next week go something like this:

Saturday 25th – Tuesday 28th December CLOSED

Wednesday 29th December – Friday 31st December Noon – 6pm

Saturday 1st – Wednesday 5th January CLOSED

Thursday 6th January Noon – 7pm

So, have a very jolly Christmas, eat, drink and be merry and don’t watch the news – you’ll have a much better time if you follow that advice. 

Finally, to show empathy for all of those isolating over Christmas, some wise words, with apologies to The Waitresses:

So deck those halls, trim those trees, Raise up cups of Christmas cheer, I just need to catch my breath,  I think, I’ll miss this one this year…

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Well folks, to paraphrase, it’s beginning to look a lot like last Christmas….

Which is not at all where we expected to be when we all sacrificed our plans in December 2020, all for the greater good.  Plus, here in London, we’ve finally reached another ‘world-beating’ milestone, where Omicron is most deeply imbedded and case rates are highest and rising fastest.  Clearly, the fact that the Houses of Parliament and all its law abiding inhabitants are based here is pure coincidence, nonetheless high fives all round – mind my arm though, it’s a bit sore after the booster.

But my God, aren’t we bored of this?  At a time when we should be gearing up for festive fun and frolics we are instead spending all our time worrying about the prospect of getting ill which is no way to lead a life and if we don’t get Covid then we’ll get sick with something else and become a nation of psychosomatics.

Anyway, let’s move on.  There’s nothing good in the news to talk about, any sport that is still going on actually isn’t, due to illness, and we are praying for rain in Adelaide as The Ashes already hangs in the balance and we’re only on Day 6 of the 25!

So, let’s bury our heads in the sand and transport ourselves to a parallel universe where all is tickety-boo.  In such a universe, Wayne is Global President of Everything and as such has decreed that the sun should shine every-day and all rain should take place between the hours of 2am and 5am.  In this utopian idyll there is also no disease, hangovers have been outlawed and the idea of Christmas being cancelled would never cross anyone’s mind.  I have to say, if you like it here, vote for Wayne.

In Utopia you still have to make some decisions but happily you only have to make interesting and fun ones – right now the decisions revolve around what you should drink next week and what to give your nearest and dearest to enjoy.

How about some suggestions from the Global President of Everything?  As mentioned last week, Alex has been busy putting together some interesting selections which I think might not have successfully attached to everyone’s email so here they are again:

THE CHRISTMAS MIXED CASE – £100 (including tasting notes)

• Lété-Vautrain 204 Brut NV, Charly-Sur-Marne, Champagne, France
• Hugel Classic Riesling 2019, Alsace, France
• Flametree Chardonnay 2020, Margaret River, Australia
• Paddy Borthwick Paper Road Pinot Noir 2020, Wairarapa, New Zealand
• Chateau Haut Barrail 2016, Cru Bourgeois Medoc, Bordeaux, France
• Monte del Frá Tenuta Lena di Mezzo, Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso 2018, Veneto, Italy

RED SELECTION FOR CHRISTMAS – £100 (including tasting notes)

• ‘The Chocolate Block’ 2020, Swartland, South Africa
• Embers Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, Margaret River, Australia
• Petit Clos Pinot Noir 2019, Marlborough, New Zealand
• Le Corti Chianti Classico 2018, Tuscany, Italy
• Sottano Selección Blend 2019, Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina
• Altos Ibéricos Parcelas De Graciano 2015, Rioja, Spain

FRENCH REDS FOR CHRISTMAS – £150 (including tasting notes and gift box!)

• Chateau Haut-Beychevelle Gloria 2016,Saint-Julien, Bordeaux
• Chateau Relais de la Poste ‘Cuvée Malbec’ 2014, Cotes de Bourg, Bordeaux
• Bouchard Pere & Fils Beaune du Chateau 1er Cru 2018, Burgundy
• Domaine Belleville Mercurey ‘Les Perrières’ 2018, Burgundy
• Domaine Lafond Roc-Épine Lirac 2019, Rhône
• Domaine Treloar ‘Tahi’ 2013, Côtes du Roussillon

If any of these sound like they might solve a few last minute gift problems then just drop us a line and we can put a case together for you, whilst stocks last!

As we’re now only 8 sleeps away from the big fella’s birthday we’ll be opening a couple of bottles of the good stuff…

Sylvain Dussort Bourgogne ‘Cuvée des Ormes’ 2018 – £21.99

This is the estate’s flagship wine, with the grapes hand-harvested from vines between 35 to over 60 years; the wine is aged for 12 months in barrels on the lees.  The wine is racked off once and assembled in a single vat before bottling.  This takes place at between 16 and 18 months, depending on the vintage.  Delicate, rich and elegant, with good length, we reckon in a blind tasting it would easily be mistaken for a Meursault.  Awesome value for money, we always think.

Domaine Belleville Mercurey Les Perrières 2018 – £27.99

We’re big fans of this estate, their quality is evident in both reds and whites.  This is from 40 year old vines on a stony sloped rock outcrop, one of the finest terroirs for Mercurey.  Blackberries and a touch of spice on the nose.  The palate is juicy with again those dark fruit characters, a touch of spice from the barrel and a mere hint of mushroom rounded off with fine tannins and a lovely long finish.

Quinta de Val da Figueira 10 Year Old Tawny – £26.99

A rich amber hue as you’d expect from 10 years in barrel.  Medium intensity aromas of dried fruits, caramelized orange peel and slightly balsamic whilst on the palate it has a medium to full body, crisp acidity with hints of dried apricots and figs.  A lovely, long and spicy finish make this a bit of a treat for everyone!

And of course, the Foxdenton Estate Christmas Liqueur – £23.00 – will also still be open, so plenty to tempt the taste buds with, especially when you add in all the other whiskies and gins we always have open – come on, it’s Christmas, have a taste!

Finally, a bit of admin – below are our opening hours for the next few weeks:

Saturday 18th December 11am – 7pm

Sunday 19th December noon – 3pm

Monday 20th – Thursday 23rd December Noon – 7pm

Friday 24th December 10am – 5 pm

Saturday 25th – Tuesday 28th December CLOSED

Wednesday 29th December – Friday 31st December Noon – 6pm

Saturday 1st – Wednesday 5th January CLOSED

Thursday 6th January Noon – 7pm

That’s quite enough from us for now, back to work you lot!

Cheers

Prancer and Dancer

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Here at Park Vintners we like to think of ourselves of being somewhat involved in the fun business, even if it’s just as supplying some of the ingredients. You can imagine then, our dismay at all the hoo-haa over a Christmas Party.

We normally like to have a festive party and the format involves Alex and Wayne going out to dinner together with their wives. Previous venues that may have featured on the invitation include The Fox and Grapes, The Lighthouse, Nutbourne, Santa Maria del Sur and The White Onion, All are places we feel you can have something tasty to eat and a glass or two of something suitably agreeable to accompany it.

At this point we would like to clarify the actions that were taken last year. We will confess to having not one but two parties. Both of them had the same menu and wine list but no party games or dancing. Because of the government’s rules we found plans changing rather rapidly. In the end we had a really rather delicious hare ragù takeaway from our chums at Whisk and some rather tasty wine from a shelf in this very building.

The first party was here in Wimbledon Park with the second occurring simultaneously in Balham, the two linked by Zoom. We can attribute the Zoom link to the technical abilities of our wives, who spend a large part of their working days enjoying its attributes. We can attest that no other staff, press officers or journalists were present. There was no sleeping Prime Minister upstairs having an early night in a defiant ‘non-attending’ manner. Two teenagers may or may not have been in the building watching television but we cannot confirm or deny because their phones have been changed.

Other than that, we have nothing further to say on the matter.

Have you been following the Grand Prix? All to play for in the Drivers’ Championship with Hamilton and Verstappen on equal points going into the final race of the season. Could be a nail biter, could be two cars off at the first corner, let’s see on Sunday shall we? We weren’t sure we wanted to mention the cricket but on reflection we’ll just reference our email of 26^th July 2019, the blond scarecrow had just become Prime Minister when we wrote: 

“Theresa was seen sipping a clear drink with a slice of lime in it at Lord’s yesterday; she looked remarkably relaxed, unshackled and about 10 years younger – easy lays the head that no longer wears the crown, to horrendously misquote the Bard.

She did witness a bit of a fight back by the England team though, including an extraordinary innings by a number 11 plus the traditional mid-order collapse.  Good to see Roy in the runs, bit of a concern about Burns though, is the step up to Test a bit too big – Australia will be watching and learning.”

Nothing further to say on that matter either!

In other news we found lying around in the internet’s dusty shoebox, Santa has survived another summer in the Bahama’s and is back in Lapland working hard for the big day. A victim of soaring electricity prices and collapsing energy providers just like the rest of us, he has been harnessing the power from the Aurora Borealis to power the Elves workshop which explains why the colours have been so green lately.

Talking of Elves, Alex has put together some selections of seasonably suitable reds that may tickle your fancy on the gift or drinking front. We’ve taken the liberty of attaching the details.

All that remains is for us to enlighten those of you who’d like to taste some wine at the weekend.  In the celebratory corner we’ll pop the cork on Joseph Perrier Cuvée Royale Brut NV (£36.99 or £184.95 for six) because it’s delicious and we’ve not had it on tasting for ages.  Running around in the white ski jacket will be Flametree Chardonnay 2020 (£18.99) a stunning example from Margaret River and if those fishy folk at the farmers market have some brill, that might be just the ticket! Arriving with the speed of a Pat Cummins delivery will be Geoff Merrill Bush Vine GSM 2013 (£19.49) if anyone is watching the cricket it’ll certainly be Geoff!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week, we’ve mostly been cold but we really should get over that because we’re not in the coldest part yet.

Also this week we have mostly been failed.  Words have failed us too often lately and it doesn’t feel terribly much like we’ve reached the end of this cycle.

So, we’re back to wearing masks in shops and trains and suchlike.  However, suchlike doesn’t actually encompass much else unless you happen to be in a hair-dresser, nail salon, bank or caught walking down a school corridor by the local bobby and fined £200.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that I want to wear a mask down the pub or in a restaurant but it does feel like this policy on masks is a little piecemeal.

Thérèse Coffey then took measures to help her avoid any awkward moments at the upcoming Number 10 shindigs by discouraging mistletoe kissing, seemingly blissfully unaware that ‘snogging’ is an all-year-round activity and not just reserved for December.  George Freeman then joined this free advice service, saying that the government wasn’t trying to tell the public who they should kiss and where, which we all agree might be a little too prescriptive and invasive.  Boris has yet to join in with his tuppence, perhaps because his advice might be slightly different regarding kissing strangers.

Speaking of the Johnson, seems that whilst he was upstairs reading nursey rhymes to 6 month old Wilf this time last year, his buddies were getting loaded on eggnog downstairs, partying like it was 1999, fiddling whilst Rome burnt and generally observing the famous lyric from Killing in the Name – all whilst we were wearing masks everywhere, seeing no one outside our bubble and exchanging Christmas gifts in chilly lay-bys on the A3.

Before we leave Westminster, we mustn’t forget everyone’s favourite mansplainer, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who seems to be in trouble for lending himself £6 million to buy a house in Westminster…. is there perhaps some sort of financial manipulation going on there Jacob?!

In the rest of the world we have vaccines, boosters, more vaccines, a variant that perhaps can avoid such vaccines and then talk in Europe of mandatory jabs and fines for non-compliance.  We’re both on board with the roll-out, have stepped up every time we’ve been invited to have an injection but at the same time we are a little discombobulated by the words ‘mandatory’ and ‘fines’ – not sure anyone wants to go too far down that road… although Germany now seem more than happy to poke that bear, banning the unvaccinated from shops and bars!

Words fail us.

Back in the world of booze, the panic surrounding Champagne shortages was dealt another deadly blow last night as we hosted our annual Sparkling Wine and Champagne Tasting – Thirsty Thursday is no misnomer and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves like they were at a senior aide’s leaving do.  Much fizz was consumed and I think it fair to say that there were no outright winners or losers and the absence of Prosecco from the list was not greatly missed!

For those of you unable to attend the tasting, fear not, we’ll open a bottle of Champagne today for you all.  For on this day, Friday 3^rd December 2010, we opened the Park Vintners doors for the first time!  So, when you consider that Wayne just celebrated his 30^th birthday earlier this week too, means we should certainly crack open a bottle of bubbles or two, no?

Lété-Vautrain Brut 204 NV – £30 – 3 bottles for £75

This champagne has been our house fizz for a couple of years now and is a constant delight.  A blend of the usual suspects, 50% Pinot Meunier, 25% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Noir this is an ideal aperitif champagne, crisp and dry with complex apple and stonefruit notes with a touch of breadiness and dried fruit on the finish.  However, don’t take our word for it, come and try it yourselves!

Whilst we’ve got you in the shop, why don’t you also taste the wines we’ve got open?  And perhaps a drop of the perennially popular Foxdenton Christmas Gin?

Valenciso Blanco 2019 – £21.99

We think white Rioja is an oft overlooked style and works particularly well with much of the festive feasting.  A blend of 70% Viura and 30% Garnacha Blanca fermented and then aged for 9 months in Caucasian oak barrels it has 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.  A delicious broad mouth-feel and a great length finish cap it all off – we generally cannot understand why we don’t sell this by the caseload!

Marco Abella Mas Mallola 2017 – £27.99

A classic rich and fleshy Priorat made principally from Grenache and Carignan.  The style of wines from Priorat comes from the arid soils characterised by slate strata known in Catalan as licorella.  Marco Abella has 23 hectares of land, distributed over four different vineyards located between 450m and 700m altitude, which make their wines uniquely refreshing. They believe firmly in biodynamic viticulture and follow the principles throughout the vineyard and the winery.  Polished and rich, with firm dark fruits and a bit of grip to keep it honest, this is not a wine we open very often but, as the Philadelphia girls once said, it is my birthday!

So come and try some sumptuous wines on what promises to be a cold weekend and help Wayne celebrate his multiple birthdays. 

We finish with an apology after a longer missive – clearly words haven’t failed us that much!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Forgive us, this week we have been, much like the PM, on our travels. We might mention Aesop’s assertion that “A man is known by the company he keeps” so not for us the charms of Peppa Pig World but something a bit closer to home. In this context, Alex found himself fully immersed in a Sparkle Evening with 170 people all out on a Monday night having a glass of bubbly. There was also some gift shopping and a raffle; it was a local school’s Christmas event.

Tuesday evening saw us whizz off to watch AFC Wimbledon for one of their rare midweek home games, a rather satisfying 3-2 home win against Crewe Alexandra. Wayne found a certain amount of hilarity in the away fans kept chanting “Alex”, must have been embarrassing as a youngster out on his first date etc… you get the picture. We managed some chips and a pint and at half time and even bumped into a customer and took an order!

Whilst chatting about things local, it would be absolutely remiss of us not to mention the Lighting up of the Christmas Tree at Christ The King. At 4.15 on this Saturday (27^th November) will find the St Luke’s Choir leading the carols on the corner of the Crescent as usual. Do come along and join in, carol sheets will be available for the singers amongst you. Not you Wayne!

I guess with the lights going on and School Events happening we’re safe to mention the arrival of Foxdenton Christmas Gin 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. As usual there is limited stocks so don’t be shy.

We’ve also managed to wrestle some mature clarets out of the hands of our chum Jack, all bang in the drinking zone including d’Angludet 2006 (£60) from Margaux and Cambon La Pelouse 2000 (£50) a wine that seems to be forever under the radar despite offering great drinking for years.

The Fizz tasting on 2^nd December has but one space left, so if you’ve nothing better to do on a Thursday night than drink some top quality fizz…

If you thought Stella Creasy being reprimanded for bringing her baby to Parliament (one of the better behaved in the chamber we thought!), Nadine Dorries talking about Channel Four’s “taxpayer funding” or Johnson’s cynically ridiculous speech to the CBI were the silliest things in politics this week then you may be mistaken. Forgive us, but you have to  have a look at Nick Fletcher MP suggesting young men turn to crime because Dr Who is played by a woman. Do these people know they are actually talking aloud?

Whilst on the subject of silliness our attention is drawn to snooker player Shaun Murphy, who crashed out in the first round of the UK Championship to amateur Si Jiahui. His rather ranty take on losing, was that Si “played like a man without a care in the world” because he was under no pressure having not turned professional. That’s the same Shaun Murphy who failed to qualify as an amateur in the 2019 Golf Open Championship at County Louth with the words: “I won’t be under the pressure they are under. Most of them are trying to win the Open Championship. I’m just trying to have a good day.” What’s that saying about people in glasshouses?

Tasting This Weekend

We’ll start with Domaine Landrau Cremant de Loire Rose (£16.99) a fabulous party bubble and excellent for celebrating silliness, Christmas lights and Carols.

The cue ball will be represented by Domaine Lebrun Pouilly Fume (£17.99) a lovely example full of elegance and restraint that we all enjoy from the Loire.

Rolling us off with the red ball will be Tom and the Peleton (£14.49) a blend of Syrah and Grenache from Ventoux experts Domaine des Anges. I have this down as being a rather tasty partner to that venison you’ll pick up from the game man in the farmers’ market in the morning.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Us again, another week gone, not so many weeks to go, just 5 at the last count.

And it certainly feels like life is gearing up for a big December.  We’re getting daily enquiries as to whether we loan glasses (we do by the way, if you buy wine from us) and these enquiries usually also contain the words ‘party’, ‘first time for almost 2 years’ and ‘two Christmases rolled into one’.  So, from our research, it would seem you are all planning on having a drink or two.  Last time it was even close to this it was 1999 and the booze trade (myself included) was peddling a sort of apocalyptic end of the year – Y2K was on everyone’s lips, global meltdown had been forecast and a sort of communal masochism had taken over.  We all knew it was bad for us but we were enjoying it too much and everyone quickly bought into the frisson that whilst the world probably wasn’t going to end at one minute past midnight it would be a shame to have not done as much as we could possibly do to go out with a bang, should we need to…

But we didn’t need to, we woke up on January 1^st 2000 physically intact but with just the faintest whiff of a hangover and realised that it was all going to be alright.  Fast forward to now and there is a similar sort of Carpe Diem mood in the air – people are organising get-together’s on Monday nights, historically the Day of the Gym but for now the Day of Gin and everyone is getting on board because you never know when it might all be taken away from us again.

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 2^nd December.  We’ve lined up 4 sparklers and 4 Champagnes, we’ll round up some light nibbles and lay up a table for 12 lucky souls – just like the old days!  It’ll start at 7.30pm, it costs £30 per person and we work purely on the basis of first come, first served.

Check your diary straight away…

Elsewhere sleaze and racism sadly seem to be flourishing – sometimes we have to remind ourselves that there are still good people in this world, not all MP’s are corrupt and not all cricketers are bigoted bullies.  Speaking of which, cricket that is, David Warner somehow steered Australia to victory last weekend against New Zealand in the T20 which should never have been possible after his walk in the semi-finals.  Some people get what they deserve, some people don’t always deserve what they get.  Elsewhere in sport, England risk being brought back down to earth this weekend as they face South Africa in the rugby – my question is, what crime  has Adam Radwan committed to be completely dropped – genuinely, if someone can tell me I’d love to know.

Now back to Wimbledon Park – next week we have the prospect of the first orgy of over indulgence of the season as Black Friday rolls around once more.  Suffice to say, for some it won’t necessarily be the first indulgence overload as American Thanksgiving is of course next Thursday.  I emphasise American Thanksgiving, just to appease Francis and Adam who will be keen to remind me that Canada has already had their Thanksgiving in October  and then will rebuke me for failing to mention this in an email… bullet dodged.

Anyway, this never used to be a big sales opportunity for us, for obvious reasons, but as time has gone on and we have seen what I suppose you would call greater globalisation, it is now a thing.  So with this in mind we thought we might open a couple of wines from the good old US of A this weekend to whet your appetites.

Wines with a bit of body are the best with Thanksgiving offerings and on the white side, Vina Robles Viognier 2018 – £19.99, fits the bill perfectly. 

Civil engineer Hans Nef, from Zurich, discovered Paso Robles in the mid-1990s and quickly became enamoured with the emergent wine country.  Here, where the Pacific coastline unfolds into rugged ranch-lands and cowboy ambiance (and who doesn’t love a story with cowboy ambience?), a new generation of California winemakers was turning Paso Robles 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.

For reds we have usually gone with Zinfandel, that being the grape that one associates most with the US, however this year we thought we would spread our wings. The Crusher Pinot Noir 2018 – £16.99 fits the bill perfectly, hailing from the Napa in California – a fabulously fruit forward style of wine, soft on the palate sumptuous cranberry and cherry fruit, a touch of oaky spice and a pleasingly long finish.  Last time we had this, the Americans crushed Europe in the Ryder Cup, thankfully we’re not competing against them this weekend!  

Yee haa!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So, how do you manage to keep it up?

Keep what up? I said

Manage to write an email every Friday that I can read over my lunch and glean some random titbit of trivial information that I didn’t know before and that I can repeat in the pub later on, whilst pretending I’ve known it for ages

And so the conversation continued last weekend, whilst chatting with a couple of customers in an off-site location that may or may not have been selling Guinness.  I suspect that the only reason they were even talking to me was because I had just said ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ but nonetheless, they feigned suitable levels of admiration and even laughed at a joke or two whilst I was buying the beers.  It was such a shame that they suddenly realised that they were meant to be washing their hair/watching paint dry/grass grow/get the last train to the coast at exactly the same time that the bar shut and my card went back in my wallet but tant pis.

Anyhow, I bathed in their kind words whilst reflecting inwardly ‘you know what, they’re right, how do we do it every week?’  I mean, I do know that one of us just gets his kids or his Dad to write it and I know that someone gets their wife to check the grammar and punctuation but where does the inspiration come from? 

17^th December 2010 was the day we typed Fellow Wine Lovers for the first time.  Since then it has been a published weekly, which, without doing any proper maths, equates to more than 560 missives, three of which even were written by Team Alex.

In a behind the scenes exposé we can today reveal the following: we do not spend the whole week scouring the newspapers for suitable material; we do take it in turns to write the email but not necessarily alternate weeks; if it’s full of made up stuff it’s probably written by Alex and if it has detail and facts then Wayne has his hand on the tiller but sometimes Alex likes to impersonate Wayne which makes guessing this week’s writer more difficult; we have only ever been told off twice by our readers, once for a joke that sailed to close to shore for some people and the other time when someone felt our sport reporting was not to their taste.  We do try to keep it interesting and realise that a regular email just talking about wines we have in the shop could just seem like a damn repetitive shopping list and thus an instant switch off.  So we talk about other stuff and try not to repeat ourselves.

17th December 2010 was the day we typed Fellow Wine Lovers for the first time.  Since then it has been a published weekly, which, without doing any proper maths, equates to more than 560 missives, three of which even were written by Team Alex.

And we try really hard to be funny, with limited success, as demonstrated above.

Some week’s we are gifted things to write about – the Trump years, whilst being wrong in so many ways, certainly gave us plenty of fodder for Friday.  Boris has also been a regular guest on these pages which is totally undeserved of course, as is much of his CV.

And some weeks there is nothing to talk about so we end up channelling Phil Space of Private Eye fame and, before we know it, we have reached the bottom of the page and we can start talking about wines we will have on tasting this weekend.

Having re-read our first email from 2010, we now know that we tasted the Te Mara Pinot Gris 2009 from New Zealand and an organic wine, Tenuta San Jacopo Poggio ai Grilli Chianti 2006, from Italy.  And so, with a nod towards our first email, we will be opening:

Wairau River Pinot Gris 2019 – £15.99 – these chaps have some of the earliest plantings of Pinot Gris in Marlborough and this wine really captures the essence of the regions clean and pure climate.  Succulent ripe pear on the nose, with melon, apple and apricot flavours, nice mouth weight and an exotic lingering finish, this would sit very nicely alongside the Boxing Day ham as we’re moving towards that time of year.

Principe Corsini Le Corti Chianti Classico 2018 – £19.99 -A classic style, with a youthful and fruity intensity.  Ruby-red in colour with pleasing floral notes of violet and iris, fresh ripe cherries and a mild spicy nuance which is then complemented by well-balanced acidity, medium tannins and a long persistent finish.  And you know what, it’s organic too, how’s that for closing the circle!

And that, my friends, is how we manage to keep it up – we’ll leave you to it now but do please drop in over the weekend and share a glass whilst giving us your guesses as to who wrote all this twaddle!

Cheers,

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Where to start this week, so much has happened since we last spoke. We’ll start out with something that has taken months of planning and a large amount of logistics juggling just to get it off the ground. Wednesday, in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Alex Dowsett succeeded in bringing a lot of attention and fundraising to Little Bleeders and The Haemophilia Society as he attempted to set a new cycling record for The Hour. Sadly, he was unable to best Victor Campenaerts’ record of 55.089km but we’d like to say here that to fail you have to have tried in the first place. Chapeau Alex 54.555 kilometres is a hell of a long way in an hour.

In Glasgow, COP26 has been taking place. The idea being that holding it immediately after the G20 summit in Rome would somehow supercharge the agreements to save the planet from climate change at this, the last chance saloon. We may have expressed a slight degree  of scepticism couple of weeks ago, but we have changed our position to full blown cynicism now. How can hundreds of people flying first to Rome, then to Glasgow on private jets (over 400 of them) count as taking climate change seriously?  We said above that to fail you have to have tried in the first place, rest assured that COP26 will be branded a huge success. 

Boris, our Scarecrow Soprano, had to dash away from COP26 due to time constraints. Luckily a private jet was on hand to get him to the Garrick Club in time for the prawn cocktail starter. Meanwhile, in parliament outrage erupted across the building as the Conservative Party forced through an amendment to dismantle the anti-sleaze system after one of theirs was busted. Unusually, we find ourselves agreeing with Keir Starmer who called the move “corruption that goes to the very top”.

In unrelated news, it turns out that a recent Marbella holiday for the Johnson family was funded by the Goldsmith family.

In other unrelated news, Owen Paterson has resigned as Conservative MP for North Shropshire, can’t think why.

It seems to us that the government has done more U-turns than an Uber on Arthur Road. What a mess.

In wine news, it seems we weren’t the only people to receive late night visits. In Cáceres, a town in South West Spain a restaurant had 45 bottles of wine stolen in the early hours of Wednesday morning including an 1806 bottle of Chateau d’ Yquem worth about £250 000. Can’t imagine that’s going to be an easy fence!

Last Saturday, Eileen Ash celebrated her birthday with a glass of red wine. It is red wine she credits, along with yoga, for her long life. In her 110 years on this planet she played cricket for England in the 1930’s and 40’s as well as working as a spy for MI6 during and after the Second World War. Perhaps Jos Buttler  should be the next James Bond?

As we keep hearing stories of wine shortages in the press we thought the tasting table could be a place of discovery this week. We’ll open the voting on the white corner with Domaine Lyrarakis Assyrtiko (£14.99) a crisp dry white that you may well have heard us describe as a Cretan take on Chablis.

In the red socks and hailing from the Loire Valley Antoine de la Farge L’Enfant Rebelle Pinot Noir (£16.99) because it is a truly delicious Pinot Noir from the Menetou Salon area of the Loire, and also it has a shooting star on the label which seems somehow appropriate for a week that contains both Diwali and Guy Fawkes night.

Lastly, with you lot being able to go to the pub we’ve been selling a bit less beer. As a result, we have some that needs drinking over the next couple of weeks. If you think you can drink 5 cans in that space of time we can do them for £10.

Whilst stocks last….

Slybeast Lager (normally £2.80) 5 cans for £10

Belleville Steam Lager (normally £2.50) 5 cans for £10

Belleville Thames Surf (normally £2.70) 5 cans for £10

We’ll even let you mix and match if you like.

With that we’ll fizzle off like a damp sparkler!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

The good news this week is that all our windows are still intact, the less good news is that the insurance company have gone very quiet since we sent in our claim.  Elsewhere, it would seem that most of you have gone well, elsewhere for the half term week.  Parking on the grid has been a joy and the recently increased flow of customers fresh from the tube of an evening has diminished to a weak trickle, temporarily we hope.  Of course, you might not have all gone elsewhere, you might all have Covid and if this is the case I must apologise for my insensitivity, do please get well soon.

Certainly Kier Starmer didn’t time his positive lateral flow test very well, 10 minutes before PMQ’s and with the budget to follow.  However there are murmurs that Ed Milliband asked some tougher questions and Rachel Reeves certainly showed no fear of sticking her knife in – “at least the bankers on short-haul flights sipping champagne will be cheering this budget today!” 

So anyway, just to clarify, wine is not going to get cheaper.  Champagne and Cava could get a small price cut but I imagine any decrease in duty at this end will be more than made up for by ‘difficult vintages’ in France, particularly.  Oh, and before you ask, none of this will take place before February 2023…  

In simple terms, everything stays the same for the next 15 months, at which point Champagne etc fall into line with other sub-15% wines and attract the same duty, as they always should have done.  Everything else goes up except for spirits that seemingly are unchanged.  Oh, and beer and cider, when we go to the pub, might be a few pennies cheaper too, providing it comes from a Firkin or something larger.  Certainly the likes of Heineken and other behemoths will benefit but what size barrels do the craft brewers usually use we ask ourselves?

Still, at least with COP26 around the corner, Rishi addressed many environmental issues.  The most surprising to us was his proposed 50% tax cut on short-haul flights within the UK from April 2023.  Why?  Flying has to be the highest carbon form of transport but is sadly often cheaper than taking the train, which would be far greener.  Two weeks ago, Manchester United took a 10 minute flight to Leicester on a Friday for a Saturday match, because there were traffic issues on the M6.  This new 50% tax cut will in no way discourage this from happening again or encourage them to wait until the traffic dies down.  Just as a context – a domestic flight produces 133g of carbon dioxide per passenger per kilometre, a coach produces just 27g….

But it’s not all bad news as we discover that we are not at war with France.  Unsurprisingly, the fishing rights situation looks like it is nowhere near any sort of post-Brexit resolution but it was heartening to hear that French Maritime Minister, Annick Girardin, has confirmed that, “It’s not war, it’s a fight” – so no need to panic buy fish fingers just yet.

For those of you ‘blessed’ with children, this weekend is one that you face with both excitement and dread.  The exciting news is that, at 2am on Sunday morning, British Summertime finishes and the clocks go back an hour leading to perhaps an extra hour in bed, fingers crossed.  However, you might need that extra hour to cope with the onslaught of Halloween – I wish you luck.

We will not be celebrating All Hallows Eve, however to avoid having to wear the party pooper tiara for the third year running, Alex has come up with a couple of wines to taste this weekend that nod towards the ghoulish…

Von Buhl Bone Dry Riesling 2020, Pfalz, Germany – £16.99

Since Mathieu Kaufman joined Von Buhl from Bollinger in 2013 the estate has undergone some fairly seismic changes.  The vineyards have been managed biodynamically; the winery has been improved with the purchase of 2400 litre oval fermentation vessels and the winemaking too with more lees contact, and the use of wild yeasts giving us slower fermentation.  The result has been an improvement in wine quality year on year, with drier wines than in the past.  This is a wonder, the dryness you experience in Austrian or Clare Valley Rieslings but maintaining the texture that makes the more traditional styles so moreish.  There’s a lovely seam of minerality too.  An old, historic estate suddenly sailing back into the limelight, with bone dry, modern wines plus it has a skull on the label so is seasonally appropriate!

Finca Bacara ‘Time Waits For No One’ 2020, Jumilla, Spain – £13.99

We always enjoy a drop of Monastrell from this southern Spanish region 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.  Balanced freshness on the palate lifts the vibrant fruit through to a smooth and persistent finish and then on to another glass.  Oh, and just like the Riesling, we have skulls on the label…

And with that we are gone, disappearing into the night like two wine weary will-o’-the-wisps….

Fellow Wine Lovers,

How’s your week been? We’ll confess to having had better ones if we’re honest. We received an alarm signal at about the midpoint of that biblical storm on Wednesday night and Alex was dead chuffed to test the waterproof nature of his jacket with a stroll in the rain just before midnight.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a false alarm, as some kind person had presented us with the gift of an old London house brick. It turns out that 24/7 glaziers are less 24/7 when the rain is falling and by the time someone had been and boarded up the damage the rain had actually stopped. A rather sleep deprived Alex set off for home pleased with his jacket’s performance but somehow a little disappointed with the performance of human kind.

Fortunately, little was stolen. When you’ve been in the game for 20 years you only ever put dummies in the window so that the other dummies can’t get away with much. So, leave nothing in your cars folks and if anyone is missing a brick…

If all of this wasn’t enough, I’ve just discovered that the history I understood to be true has been torn up. Imagine that, for decades I’ve been wrong, and not just me, possibly all of you too. Scientists writing in the journal ‘Nature’ have discovered that Christopher Columbus was not the first European to sail to America. Dating some wood at a Norse settlement in Newfoundland, it seems the Vikings arrived around 1021 AD, almost 500 years before that slacker Columbus!

Whilst we’re getting the bad news out of the way, some people will be devastated to hear the price of Marmite is on the rise. We’re surprised to discover it’s not covered by the energy price cap!

We’ve just had this year’s World Porridge Making Championship (yes really!). Normally, it takes place in Carrbridge, which is bona fide proper Highland Scotland but this year it was held virtually (Zoom Porridge?). Anyway, top spoils were taken by Dutch food blogger Miriam Groot for her oat arancini with mushrooms and white wine. I don’t know about you but I’m unconvinced that I would find the recipe in my book filed under porridge.   The top 10 included two Americans, two Australians, one cook from Germany, two from England and one from Scotland. They each won a hand-carved spurtle which is a 15th century Scottish wooden kitchen tool, used for stirring porridge. Looking at them, I’m not sure you could pick up arancini with them.

It’s got to that stage of the football season where managers decide to change their commute and Sam Allardyce updates his LinkedIn. Bruce is out at Newcastle United, Nigel Adkins is out at Charlton Athletic and Kevin Maher is in at Southend United. Mourinho could be under a spot of pressure too, it’s not often you see an Italian team taking such a drubbing; maybe they were unsettled being that far north?

Whilst writing this piece I have just discovered there is a computer game called Football Manager. Who on earth plays a game that fires you in October? Is Super Mario in charge at Naples? I have so many questions.

We’ve had a chat with HR and we’ve decided that we’re making Alex Employee of the Month for services to the late night economy of Arthur Road. With that done, should we taste some wine?

We thought we’d visit Portugal this week for some good everyday drinkers.

The white corner will be inhabited by Ai Galera Mistico 2018, Tejo – £9.49

Tejo, a region east of Lisbon, has been overlooked for too long but, as we’ve said before, Portugal is where the value is at and this blend of Fernão Pires and Verdelho is a fine demonstration.  Golden yellow in the glass, entirely unoaked and with a lovely soft, satisfying, juicy fruit character.  Wayne likes the thought of some grilled sardines; Alex thought some lemon sole, so we’re definitely looking seaward!

Whilst leaning on the bar in the red room will be Terra Boa 2018, Beiras – £9.49

This is from the granite based uplands by the Spanish border, grown between 500 and 700 metres altitude.  A blend of predominantly Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz, with a 10% splash of Cabernet Sauvignon, its bramble and plum aromas are very appealing. Generous and supple on the palate, with fresh red cherry and blackberry leaf characters, fine tannins and a touch of spice on the juicy finish.  Our food match – some slow cooked pork with a bit of spice rub and some couscous, wonderful!