The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So, I’ve been banned, apparently for my own good.  Or perhaps I could say I’ve given up for Lent and then perhaps it will seem more worthy.  Whichever way you put it, Wayne has put his foot down and declared that I am no longer allowed to do it, at least until he goes on holiday at the end of next week, after which he doesn’t really care what I do as he will be shoulder deep in yoga and sundowners.

So, what is this nasty habit that has got me this ban?  Nose picking?  Playing B*Witched on Spotify?  Cattle rustling?  No, none of these, in fact it’s something far more prosaic, that we all do, and get away with, everyday – yep, it’s called reading the news.  Now, I’m not talking about doing my best Moira Stewart impersonation or wearing Sir Robin Day bowties, since these are already on the blacklist, but more about the keeping-myself-up-to-date-with-current-affairs aspect.

By all accounts it makes me ranty.  Ranty, moi, how very dare you?  It all starts over breakfast when I flick through the BBC News whilst the dog patiently waits for his walk.  Whilst on the common with Rufus, the aforementioned dog, a particularly annoying and seemingly unstoppable App that Samsung have installed, pings me constantly with breaking news.  This news is never about cats being rescued from trees or old ladies being helped across the road but more about bigger cats becoming extinct, trees being destroyed for ‘industry’, or old ladies being knocked down whilst doing the shopping.  As I still only have Rufus to talk to at this point and his feelings for cats are typically canine, I have to continue with my inner seethe until I get to work.

And then my exasperation becomes too much as I explode in indignation.  Poor Wayne has to nod and tut appropriately, whilst surreptitiously placing his bets for the 2.15 at Lingfield, as I rant about the state of the world, the cruelty of mankind, the seemingly flippant attitude of some to the value of a human life, the overpayment of footballers, the parlous nature of politics and politicians and …. well, you get the gist.

So I’m banned, which is a bit of a bind when it comes to writing this email, since it is usually heavily propped up by some sort of news roundup.   So I’m not entirely sure what to write about now, as there is also an embargo in place on writing about football or rugby – for many of the same reasons as the news ban is in place – such is the life of a Spurs fan and an England rugby fan.  And let’s not talk about cricket.  But if you fancy a rant about footballers and haven’t seen it already then

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/8579607/edin-dzeko-pepe-roma-porto-champions-league/

should make you smile, whilst also gently simmer at such poor sportsmanship. 

However, if you are banned like me, then take a look at this feel-good story and restore a bit of faith

Watch Teens Pull Off Incredible Ski Lift Rescue of Boy Dangling 20 Feet in the Air

NEW WINES!!!!

But I am allowed to talk about wine though, which is handy as this is the main purpose of this missive and excitingly this week we have received some of our new listings…

FIZZ

Champagne Vauban Freres Brut NV – £30.49

WHITE

Australia

Pauletts Watervale Semillon 2016 – £14.99

Chile

Naciente Chardonnay 2017 – £11.99

Czech Republic

Sonberk Riesling 2015 – £22.39

Germany

Deep Roots Riesling Trocken 2018 – £12.99

Italy

Monte Schiavo Pallio di San Floriano Verdicchio Classico Superiore 2017 – £13.99

Vignetti Le Monde Friulano ‘Grave del Friuli’ 2017 – £15.99

Tenute Pieralisi Villaia Verdicchio Classico 2017 – £19.99

RED

Argentina

Pablo y Walter Malbec 2018 – £11.39

Chile

Metic Carmenère 2018 – £10.99

Italy

Cantina Crociani Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2015 – £22.49

Spain

Bodegas Resalte de Penafiel Lecco Crianza 2014 – £19.29

And we also welcome back lots of wine from our favourite Yorkshireman, Jonathan at DOMAINE TRELOAR

One Block Grenache 2015 – £13.99

Three Peaks 2016 – £14.99

Le Secret 2013 – £17.99

Motus 2015 – £18.49

La Terre Promise 2015/16 – £18.49

Tahi 2011 – £25.99

And also in Magnum – Tahi 2010 – £50.00

TASTING THIS WEEKEND

As we’ve got so many new wines it would seem sensible to open a couple of them.  We’ve opted to go New World this week and will open the Pauletts Helmsford Semillon 2016 and the Pablo y Walter Malbec 2018.

The Semillon is a single vineyard wine from their Watervale property and, compared to its counterparts in the Hunter Valley, has more flesh on its bones, as it were.  A typically zesty, tangy citrus nose leads onto a riper palate with plenty of crisp fruit – potentially more interesting than a lot of Sauvignons but in the same vein.

The Malbec is a wine we have known about for some time but never really had shelf space for.  That all changed as some if its peers became more expensive but not necessarily better and a slot appeared on the shelf.  A thoroughly decent drop, plenty of dark fruit and richness without knocking your socks into the middle of next week – we think this will gather a bit of a following.

So come and taste the wines, admire the new listings, bring joy to my curmudgeonly existence and perhaps let me know what’s going on in the world!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

A week full of surprises seems to have been the long and short of it. First surprise was really rather a pleasant one. The nice people in the Canary Islands have been sending us some of their wonderful weather, so, barely a minute after putting St. Valentine to bed for another year, it feels like spring has sprung.

In what should come as no surprise, news reaches us that restaurants and pubs suffered a slowdown in spending in January.  Not only were those who did visit only drinking water but apparently they wanted to eat only vegetables too!

There’s also a new movement afoot. It’s been creeping up on us for ages, lurking suspiciously in the background, a small but increasingly confident minority who may at some point be the mainstream. Until quite recently there were basically two pre-dinner drinks that were popular. On the one hand you had the folks that like to drink a glass of champagne or something bubbly in a flute. On the other hand there were the people that liked to have a beer, some chilled, some room temperature, but beer nonetheless.

But this emergent minority we mentioned above appear to prefer drinking a gin and tonic before dinner. Not only that, but they are also recruiting from both sides.  Champagne producers have spotted a fall in their sales and responded with a typically Gallic shrug and an increase in prices. The beer producers have grown their beards longer, shrunk their trousers, added more hops and started going to the same cool places you find gin producers. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out as something similar happened in the late 70’s/ early 80’s – but barely anyone drinks Babycham now!

On the politics front, in a rare show of humour, the Labour Party re-instated Derek Hatton for 48 hours. Theresa May has been in Brussels again this week, allegedly for negotiations but we’re starting to think she just goes for dinner at Quincaillerie or Comme Chez Soi on the government dime.

Otherwise some renegade former Labour MP’s (known in some circles as The Hateful Eight) have joined up with some renegade Conservative MP’s  (known in some circles as the Three Amigos) to form a mixed commons football team called Independent Group. To what aim remains unclear as they have nobody to play with but rest assured we’ll keep you abreast of developments.

On the science front, scientists believe they have discovered why zebras have stripes and it’s nothing to do with running faster. It would appear the stripes are there to confuse flies. After dressing several horses up in zebra outfits it was discovered that the poor flies are too confused to land because of the stripes. To us this seemed like something you’d dream up after a long and challenging afternoon in the pub… “Hey, I’ve got this great idea; we’ll dress up some horses as zebras…” Kudos definitely goes to the person that managed to sell it to the funding committee.

That’s quite enough guff from us for this week except to say that we’ll be opening a couple of Portu-Geezers on the tasting table this weekend.

Wearing the white waistcoat will be Ai Galera Mistico 2017 (£8.79). It’s a cracking blend of Fernão Pires and Verdelho from the Tejo region.

Adorned in the red slacks will be its sibling Ai Galera Poetico 2017 (£8.79). Funnily enough, it too is from the Tejo region, but sports a blend of Castelão, Trincadeira Preta and Tinta Miúda.

So there you have it, a weekend of lovely weather and five indigenous Portuguese grape varieties to tantalise the taste buds.

Saúde!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Tidied up all the rose petals?  Paid off the a cappella group and the mariachi band and the Whitney Houston impersonator?  Washed up the champagne flutes and lobster picks and wondered to yourself –well, how did we get here already?  I know we have…

Two sessions into the 6 Nations, Valentine’s Day behind us, half term starting today, the mercury hitting 15 Celsius yesterday afternoon, daffodils in the shops, sunset after 5pm – all these factors can only, surely, mean one thing – that spring is well and truly on its way!  I’ve even tasted a variety of rosés this week and last, with a view to what to have on our shelves this summer, whilst Wayne has been ironing his shorts and talking about cycling.

It really does seem that not a huge amount has happened in the world this week.  Brexit rumbles on but still flatters to deceive; as discussed, Valentine’s day passed in a flash of consumerism and for us, cheese; rugby continues to surprise and delight us; our Poundland George Best, Wayne Rooney, gets drunk and embarrasses his wife and family, quality bloke; in St Lucia, we win the last (irrelevant) Test match before an Ashes Summer, having lost, comprehensively, the previous two and yet somehow this is being lauded as a huge boost – did none of the journalists watch in Barbados or Antigua?

So, with little to light our candle on the news front, let’s talk about Gin shall we?  We have all watched in awe as the juniper infused potion, which was once firmly confined to the drinks globe of retired Rear-Admiral’s in Plymouth, has become the darling of the cocktail classes.  According to figures released by HMRC this week, the value of gin exports has more than doubled in value since 2010 and overall sales of gin, here and abroad, have now topped £2.5 billion.  Clearly it’s not just Hepple making all this money, or even Beefeater, it’s the whole shooting match from the big boys at Diageo down to the wee fella on Garratt Lane.

For those of you familiar with Garratt Lane, particularly the stretch near the station, the name Ben’s Canteen will no doubt be familiar.  For years this corner site was home to Willie Gunn’s Wine Bar, a popular haunt for long lunches and lost weekends.  We used to sell an indecent amount of Plymouth Gin to this bar but it closed its doors in 2014 and was soon taken over by Ben’s Canteen, a business already established up in Clapham Junction looking to spread its wings. 

Anyway, that’s enough history, what is important for now is that these forward looking chaps have started to make their own gin, on the bar, in the bar.  It’s a proper micro-distillery, by all accounts they produce about 40 bottles per batch, which we imagine just about covers their own requirements but when they have some spare they sell it to local people like us.

Thus Bloody Ben’s Signature Gin – £38 – or Earlsfield Gin as we keep finding ourselves calling it, is the newest kid on our block and is proving to be a bit of a hit.  I’m going to shamelessly lift the marketing blurb they gave me now:

The micro copper Gin Still in Earlsfield makes 30-40 bottles per batch. It’s a London Dry Gin with Wandsworth Honey and orange notes.

This gives it a Spanish theme. The local honey represents London living and the Sweet Orange Peel represents escapism, in our case time in Mallorca where the firm was inspired.

As well as G&Ts, the Orange peel makes it ideal for Negronis.

Botanicals:

1.          Cloves

2.         Angelica Root

3.         Cardamom Seeds

4.         Liquorice

5.         Cassia

6.         Lemongrass

7.         Sweet Orange Peel

8.         Coriander Seeds

9.         Juniper Berry

10.       Honeysuckle

Ok, agreed, it’s a puff piece.  Our tasting note described it as a deliciously juniper forward drop with fabulous orange citrus and honeyed notes.  Significantly, it doesn’t taste like any of the other Gins on the shelf so it can carve its own niche.

We have a little open to sample and we have some stock so, if you’re of a mind, come and have a taste.

Wine open this weekend

As ever we realise that you don’t all want to taste gin so we’ll get some wine open too.

For the white lovers we’ll open Domaine de Vedilhan Viognier 2018 – £9.99.  This Languedoc estate belonging to the Fayet family based in the village of Moussan close to Narbonne.  The property has a small brook running around the outskirts which provides natural irrigation to give much needed water.  This gives the wines their freshness and appeal; keeping the vines cool in a very hot climate.  A flirty Viognier: shimmering hay and peaches with a lush viscous texture give way to a sensual palate of roses, pineapples and mangoes.  Delicious with Thai or fusion food, or some big, juicy langoustines.

And for the red heads we will taste Chateau Thieuley 2014 – £16.99.  Predominantly Merlot but with a healthy dollop of Cabernet Sauvignon, this Bordeaux estate has been family run since the 1950’s, now under the guidance of two sisters, Marie and Sylvie.  Marie is in charge of winemaking and Sylvie concentrates on the commercial side sensibly keeping out of each other’s way!  The wine has a lovely red plum character, a touch of chocolate and spice, medium to full-bodied with a long juicy finish.  Spot on with a Sunday roast or a steak even.

So, swing by and have a taste tonight or tomorrow and perhaps even see how the Cambria is getting along in the eto?

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week we feel we have discovered the mistress of the understatement:  Susannah Gill, a lady from London who has just broken the women’s record for the World Marathon Challenge.  She ran seven marathons in seven days, enjoying the chill of -35˚C in Antarctica and toasting her toes in 35˚C in Cape Town, before finishing the feat in Miami. Her average time was 3hrs 28mins per marathon  and afterwards, Gill admitted the challenge of running successive marathons in Antarctica, Cape Town, Perth, Dubai, Madrid, Santiago and Miami in the space of a week, while having very little sleep, “had been tough”.

In other news this week, Brexit seems to continue to dominate the front pages, despite Liam Neeson’s best efforts. We saw that deals had been signed with the US and Chile on the wine front, ensuring no disruption of supply. Meanwhile, Theresa May got some more points on her Eurostar loyalty card, popping over to see her old mates for a quick chinwag in Brussels. The real news in Europe, aside from all the clickbait stories surrounding Brexit, is that France has recalled their ambassador to Rome after the Italian Deputy Prime Minister met leaders of the Gilet Jaunes. Finally, we were amazed at Donald Tusk’s suggestion that there may be a special place in hell; we’d always thought it was amongst the small print on the terms and conditions you click for new software.

I don’t know about you but if the rest of the games in the Six Nations are as exciting as last weekend, we are in for a treat. If France turn up for both halves on Sunday it should be quite a game; on Saturday, Scotland will host an Irish team keen to make a point and a much changed Welsh side travel to Rome.

On the football front, Tottenham have had another knockback on their stadium which is great news for Arsenal as they will get a game at Wembley this year after all!

Often at this time of year we turn some of our attention to the horses, it is barely a month till Cheltenham, a festival which holds a special place in our hearts. Disaster struck this week though, as up to 100 stables are on lockdown following an outbreak of equine flu. So if you see horses on the common, stay away from their sneezes!

We’ve been spotted on the tube by several of you so we’ll come clean and tell you that we’ve been out and about on the town tasting again this week. We like to think of it as working, I’m sure you all have a view. Tuesday saw us on a trip to Vintners Hall.  It’s always a joy to go along to ‘Head Office’ as it were. We tasted a selection of tasty morsels, a couple of the new vintages of old favourites too. Thursday saw us in the function space at Oxo Tower where we managed to whizz round in superfast time despite bumping into a few old chums. We tasted a Sauvignon Blanc IN A CAN!  Can you believe it? The wine trade, full of stuffy old geezers with red trousers and Beaumes de Venise aftershave, has put Sauvignon Blanc in a can! I have to say it tasted fine, and we wondered if it might be just the thing for a picnic, come summer?

If the raucous, and occasionally ribald, Italian tasting we hosted last night is anything to go by, most of us are well over being abstemious and Dry January is just a distant memory of misadventure and misery. Just in time too because we have the celebration of Saint Valentine to contend with next week and, frankly, there is nothing better to help you get through that mountain of cards from secret admirers than a long stiff drink!

With this in mind we’ll have a couple of wines open this weekend with very loose connections to February 14^th.

In the white corner we’ll have a pink fizz which, whilst clearly not white, is often a winning choice on Valentine’s Day – Domaine du Landrau Cremant de Loire Rosé – £15.99 which, as we all know but I’ll remind you, is a blend of Grolleau and Cabernet Franc.  Delicious, with a fine mousse, crisp fresh raspberry tinged fruit and a lovely mouthfeel, this is a perfect aperitif and awesome with an indulgent pile of smoked salmon!

We looked around for a suitably naff red to link with Valentine but it seems we have no wines with hearts and suchlike on them and Meerlust just felt a tad inappropriate.  So the red representative this week is a wine from Valencia, made using grapes from forty year old Monastrell vines, which are then blended with a dollop of Cabernet Sauvignon.  It’s a mouthful of damsons and cherries and is a fab all-rounder from a food point of view. 

Its name?  El Bon Homme 2016 – £13.99 – for the good bloke in your life!

In the eto we have Cambria Benchbreak Pinot Noir (£27.49) from Santa Maria Valley in California – it’s been in there all week so we can see how it has got on under the rubber seal…

And now we must off – have a bon weekend avec your bon homme or bonne femme and batten down those hatches!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Happy New Year to those of you who are just joining us – how’s it been for you so far?  How’s the marathon training going?  How many different Seedlip cocktails can you have in one evening without feeling bored?  How on earth did you manage to abstain from rich, robust red wine when the last few days have brutally demanded a warming glass or two by the fire?  Are you going to stay vegan?

Anyway, chapeau to all of you that did the Dry January thing – a momentous achievement and one that needs celebrating – but I imagine that, with 31 days of planning, such celebration is already underway; if you haven’t planned anything, I’m sure we can help!

It should be a good weekend for lots of kids as all they unexpectedly receive Playstations, Moncler jackets, brand new iphones, ponies, gold coated pain-au-chocolat and the James Charles palette – things that were just unrealistic dreams up to now.  Why? I hear you say.  Well, whilst these things were never going to happen in normal climates, news has now reached us that, in spite of Donny T’s twitter requests that global warming come back fast, the polar vortex has caused terrible mayhem in the Midwest with Michigan particularly hard hit and thus the neighbourhood of Hell, 200 miles east of Chicago, has frozen over – and we all know what happens then!

However, further research reveals that there is also a village called Hell in Norway, 300 miles north of Oslo and currently surviving on 5 hours daylight which we imagine spends much of its winter months frozen.  So, Hell regularly freezes over and another popular idiom bites the dust.  We’ll have to hope that this is the only idiom losing validity since the possibility of flying pigs is not what any of us want!

Elsewhere the high street is starting to produce some post-christmas casualties. 

Oddbins is up against it once again and this time I’m really not sure who can or will bail them out.  It’s a massive shame, especially for all those, like us, who wore Oddbins t-shirts for a number of years and who have that nutty little company to thank for putting us through our wine exams and teaching us the joys (?)of retail.  We still have friends there, friends who have worked their way from the shop floor to head office and who now face an uncertain future.  And the reason for the collapse?  Well, for some reason Brexit was mentioned, probably because it always is.  Regular currency fluctuations – yep, I can see those being a problem.  Cheap wine in the supermarkets, particularly the European based ones – I can see this also being an issue.  Online – again this is, we are told, the brave new world and it certainly has a huge impact on us paying for bricks and mortar.  Which leads us onto rents which absolutely have to be the biggest factor.  An average 17.8% rent rise at its 100 sites has proved to be insurmountable which isn’t really a surprise.  I still don’t get it, I would rather have my property occupied in perpetuity at a slightly lower rate but with a guaranteed income than the feast and famine style that a lot of landlords and letting agents follow.  We’ve got a rent review later this year – we’ll see what happens.

But it’s February now and there should be plenty of reasons to be cheerful.  We’ve got through the longest, darkest month and will quickly scoot through this short month  – before we know it we’ll be wearing daffodils and praising St David.  Also, February brings us the start of the Guinness 6 Nations which actually starts this evening with France v Wales.  Worryingly, I was due to go to the pub to watch this with one of my Welsh friends but he has now decided against it as he doesn’t feel it’s going to be a good night for the Wales gang – we’ll see.  Scotland host Italy and Ireland host England tomorrow – I fear there could be telephone number scores in both games and as such we’ll be watching through our fingers.  We’ll then finish off the weekend with a bit of gridiron as the New England Patriots take on the LA Rams, the east coast being tipped as the possible winners here in a tight contest – I’ll certainly start watching it, the question being will I remember to go to bed or wake up on the sofa at 4am?

For those of you not interested in the rugby, how about we distract you with a glass of wine?

As a departure from the norm we will have 3 bottles open this weekend – a red, a white and another red.  We’ll be opening the second red because we can keep it fresh for an extended period of time – yep, that’s right, our eto decanters arrived at the end of last week!!  You may remember we did a bit of trialling of the eto with Tom, the designer, two years ago.  Now, after much back and forth to China over the intervening months, the finished article is finally finished and the decanters are being shipped out – and to celebrate we’re going to christen ours with a bottle of…. Cambria Benchbreak Pinot Noir 2013 – £27.49. It’sfrom Santa Maria Valley in California and is medium-bodied, silky smooth and just the ticket for that crispy duck you had planned for Chinese New year next week, or maybe that roast pork on Sunday.

On a more everyday note we’ll also be opening two wines from South Africa. 

Doran Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2015 – £12.99 – since we listed this in November we have sold out of our stocks twice and that’s without ever putting it on tasting!  A barrel fermented Chenin from Swartland, with a crisp, fresh palate of ripe orchard fruits and a lovely long finish – this is an extremely elegant white at a great price.

Barton Rouge 2015 – £9.99 – we’ve been selling the 2013 vintage for the last couple of years and, a bit like the Chenin above, we never have it on tasting because it just sells so well anyway.  However, this is the new vintage so let’s see if we can get it some more fans.  A blend of Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre and Shiraz it has a delicious richness of fruit, good tannin structure and a bit of spice on the finish that make it the perfect foil to a hearty stew, a hunk of steak or a midweek spag bol!

That’s it from us, no excuses any more as January is now well and truly behind us, come and taste some wine and remind yourself what you’ve been missing! u

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Blimey, it’s been beastly cold, what? Who’d be an Eskimo? 

Mostly this week we’ve been wishing we were a little bit more Australian, or at the very least in Australia for a little bit – 26 Celsius at the moment, and it’s midnight, admittedly with 78% humidity, but currently a double figure temperature is something we can only dream about.  Plus, the prospect of a long weekend in the sun, celebrating Australia Day with a barbecue and a cold one in hand, feels like something we’d be so much better at doing than standing here, in the persistent gloaming, with cold hands.

But stood here we did, with multiple sweaters and scarves on, feeling more Michelin Man than Pirelli Calendar, with fridges that felt warmer than the outside air and listening to Test match cricket direct from baking Barbados desperately trying to squeeze some warmth from the radiowaves…

Oh for godsake, stop moaning and cheer up, have a word with yourself.  This is meant to be the chirpy, end of week email that gets everyone through their lunchtime and reminds them that there is loads of fun to be had in Wimbledon Park as the weekend looms into view, not a diatribe on your wardrobe shortcomings plus it’s positively sweltering today in comparison – why don’t we look at what’s been going on in the world?

So, Tim Martin, the Wetherspoon equivalent of Michael O’Leary, has announced that from now on his prestige pubco (?) will no longer sell European wines or beers as a metaphorical two fingers to the ‘protectionist’ European Union.  They’ve already binned Moët and Prosecco last year, which for many people is no great loss, but now they are going to get rid of Pinot Grigio, Rioja and the rest.  Bold and impressive moves indeed but perhaps this stand against the evil European empire would feel more bold and impressive if he wasn’t planning to continue selling Stella Artois!

However, the one piece of sense that Tim did espouse was the suggestion that the government drop the duty on draught beer and thus encourage punters back into the pubs – whilst that’s clearly in his interest, I don’t think it’s such a daft suggestion.

Globally, it’s still a mad world.  Shutdown continues in the US and sadly nothing has changed really since last week; Greece and FYR Macedonia seem to be closing in on a name change agreement; Catherine Deneuve is selling her clothes and, in a supremely morally bereft move, three paintings attributed to Hitler are being auctioned in Berlin – where are the snowflake protests about this then?

ALLOWAY

Whilst Sydney swelters, the good people of Alloway on South Ayrshire woke up this morning with the mercury showing a quite Bahamian 10 degrees and a nice bit of drizzle. 

But why on earth do we care about the weather in the south west of Scotland?

Well, we’re not sure we do really but it does work as a clumsy lead in to the acknowledgment that Alloway is Rabbie Burns birthplace and today is his day.

So it’s all about haggis, it’s about neeps and tatties and Cullen Skink, about whisky and kilts and faux Scottish accents assassinating the Address to a Haggis; it’s about cultural appropriation in monster form and it’s all a load of fun.

Especially the whisky bit.  Serendipity was our friend last week, as a gentleman called Graham Hadley dropped in to see us.  We had never met Graham before but it transpires that he owns the trademark to the words ‘Mary Queen of Scots’.  I know, who knew?  Anyway, as a consequence, he was in town to support the launch of the film of the same name and at the same time pop around a few shops to see if anyone was interested in selling his whisky, again, of the same name.  We were one of those shops.  To be honest we were a little nonplussed by the whole thing – but being professionals that we are, we took a sample of his wares, obviously.

Introducing Mary Queen of Scots 12 Year Old Blended Malt – £35

This blend is produced for Graham by the Master Blender at Ian Macleod Distillers of Broxburn, near Edinburgh.  It comprises a minimum of 12 Premium Single Malts, all 12 years old, to reflect the 12 years in total which Mary Queen of Scots spent in Scotland.  We know that there is Glenfarclas and Glengoyne in the Blend but the rest remain the Blender’s Secret, which is quite standard practice. 

We sampled it after Graham had left, slightly concerned that it might be a bit of a gimmick and also unsure of how much it was going to cost – to be honest we were both slightly apprehensive.  However, we pulled ourselves together and gave it a try and we were very, very pleased. 

Quite dark in the glass, as can often happen with a blend, and really, really moreish.  A floral nose with sweet hints of heather honey is followed by a deliciously smooth palate with no sharp edges and plenty of warming floral character again and some characterful spiciness on the finish.  We thought it was absolutely delicious and perfect as a foil to haggis or as a suitably warming digestif, so we bought some so you could try it too!

We do of course have all our other whiskies available too, should you fancy something single malt or smoky – here’s what we have in stock:

Highland     

Ardmore 1998 – £70.00

Royal Brackla 1999 – Connoisseurs Choice – £60.00

Tomatin 12 Year Old – £41.75

Island           

Islay   

Bunnahabhain 11 Year Old – Discovery Range – £50.00

Caol Ila 13 Year Old – Discovery Range – £50.00

Finlaggan Old Reserve – £32.99

Mull

Ledaig 12 Year Old – Discovery Range – £50.00

Speyside      

Linkwood 15 Year Old – Distillery Label – £65.00

Benromach 15 Year Old – £60.00

The Glenrothes Whisky Makers Cut – £54.00

Strathmill 2002 – Connoisseurs Choice – £50.00

Benromach 10 Year Old – £37.99

However, if you would prefer your drinks to be less highly spirited this weekend then rest assured we’ll have a couple of bottles of wine open to try too which will work perfectly with your haggis tonight or even your barbecue tomorrow:

Pulenta Estate Chardonnay 2016, Mendoza, Argentina – £14.99

Pulenta Estate is located in Alto Agrelo, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza, one of the most prestigious winemaking areas in Argentina.  Its high altitude, at 980m, ensures a wide temperature range and a slow ripening of the grapes.  This Chardonnay has citrus and tropical fruit notes, gently underlined with vanilla from the oak, which is delicately balanced with both fruit and freshness.

Imperio Reserva 2011, Valdepeñas, Spain – £10.99

This is made by Bodegas Navarro Lopez, who have been making wine in the area since 1904.  Absolutely classic old school style Tempranillo, aged and rounded, with a colour heading to brick at the rim, liquorice and balsamic aromas combining with vanilla and spiced rich fruit on the nose.  Berry and cherry fruit flavours with spice again and a smooth satisfying finish – enormously food friendly but equally as fab as a glass of wine on its own!

ADMIN

Usually something we are record-breakingly poor at, so don’t get used to this… Anyway, as a warning we will be opening later next Tuesday, 29^th January.  We’re going to steal some warmth in the West End as we have three supplier tastings to charge through – we will be back in the shop for 4pm, hopefully with a sheaf of tasting notes and teeth that aren’t too black

So, that’s it from us for now, come in and taste wine or whisky or perhaps both and marvel at our impersonations of Bibendum whilst we stand awestruck at your impressions of the Ploughman Poet!

Slàinte!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

And never has this felt truer. The Fellowship of Wine Lovers (Wimbledon Park chapter) seems to be going from strength to strength this month, in spite of Wayne’s attempts last week to persuade us all to give up eating meat and grow their hair whilst riding a unicorn or something. Yes indeed, the potency of our 6 for 5 offer has brought plenty of you out of the woodwork, although I suspect most of you were quite near the surface anyway, and has even encouraged a few of the January abstainers to stock up whilst the going is good.

And how long will the going be good, now that’s a question?

At least in December the raging uncertainty we felt every time March 29th 2019 was mentioned could be allocated to the ‘let’s worry about that next year, for now it’s Christmas’ pile but now the press countdown is in days rather than months. As ever the media is paying close attention to two subjects of particular fascination to the British public – house prices and holidays. Apparently the housing market is stagnant at the moment (isn’t it always at this time of year) and if you’re planning on driving to the continent this year you might need to get all the stuff we used to have to need to get 20 years ago when we drove to Europe. An International driving licence apparently takes 5 minutes in the Post Office whilst the Green Card could take up to a month to get from your insurance company, which seems odd considering you can set up a new insurance policy in about half an hour. All this doesn’t seem so bad really to us but perhaps we have a vested interest in being positive since over the next few months one of us is planning on driving in Europe more than once, one of us is planning on buying and also selling some property, and one of us just likes going on holiday…

The real battle we’ve faced this week is to find some news that doesn’t involve the obvious Westminster based shenanigans. Late night tennis, a new planetary diet that threatens to turn us all into walking mung beans and a 700kg pet crocodile mauling it’s owner to death didn’t seem worthy of further investigation. The USA is still in shutdown, which just serves to remind us that political madness, intransigence and an inability to negotiate with your opponents is not just for these shores.

So, if we can’t tell how long the going will be good, might we suggest we just seize the day and take control of our own destiny – and what better place to start than getting some wine in and not paying for all of it, especially before the duty increases at the beginning of February (yep, that was hidden in the midst of the autumn statement).

6 FOR 5 – as Wayne explained last week, it’s a remarkably simple mechanic but I’ll go over it again just to be sure. Choose 6 bottles of wine, or beer, or a mixture of the two and you’ll only pay for five of them. A straight 16.6666666666666666666666666666% discount in effect but one that we shorten to 16.66% since our till only works to 2 places. It also works for fizz but that is true all year round so needs less limelight but doesn’t work with the posh cuvees or spirits unfortunately. Come into the shop and we’ll walk and talk you through it.

The other thing that the Fellowship of Wine Lovers (Wimbledon Park chapter) seems to have become increasingly engaged with is wine tasting. We have already had about a dozen enquiries for private tastings and February and March are starting to look quite crowded. However, amongst all these private do’s, we are still offering our Wine & Cheese evenings too.

Dates were released last week but I just thought I would remind you that the first of this year’s series takes place on Thursday February 14th at 8pm, here in the shop, £20 per person.

Fully aware that occasionally people have other things to do on this date we have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest that has been shown – a combination of being the last Thursday before half term coupled with the perfect excuse not to go out for a set menu with dozens of other couples trying not to argue on this day, of all days, how could you? means that places will start filling fast – we can only fit in 12 of you in total, so if you fancy it give us a call 0n 020 8944 5224 or respond to this email – don’t tarry!

Tasting this weekend

The Creation wines went down magnificently last weekend and we are looking to get some on the shelves soon. The one issue with showing wine samples is that you can’t buy them on the day so this week we are back to normal, as it were.

So the white corner will be populated with Castanzu Vermentino di Sardegna 2017 (£10.79) a crisp dry white from Sardinia that is a splendid partner to frito misto, fish and chips and a gnocchi pesto.

For the red corner we’ll drop in on somewhere enjoying warmer weather than us. Flametree Shiraz 2016 (£18.99) from Margaret River in Australia would be a great partner to some beef short ribs and horseradish mash, or peppers stuffed with lentils and rice.

That’s enough from us for this week, stay warm and upright!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

A Happy New Year to you all, we’d like to wish health and happiness in abundance with just enough stress to help you appreciate the good stuff more.
Has anyone got any good resolutions going on? At this end of the wire we’ve had Wayne resolving to find a new joke and Alex promising to laugh at it should it happen. Sadly, both seem a bit pie in the sky but we’ll struggle on.

So what is January to you? For us it’s a big VAT return, large gaps between customers and a fair chunk of tastings.

Veganuary certainly seems to have worked for Greggs, whose vegan sausage roll has taken up nearly as much column space as Speaker Bercow.

Dry-January is something we try not to encourage for obvious reasons. If you’re giving it a go, we’ll wish you luck and welcome you back with open arms when you’re ready. Should you have a hankering for a fizz Friday we’d just ask if you’ve tried our alcohol free sparkler Bees Knees (£5.99).

Ginuary is definitely one we like the sound of. For a start, it’s inclusive for all the Veganuarists – there’s definitely no animal slavery in a bottle of Gin. There is also plenty of variety of gins, mixers and cocktails. How about Sloe gin and ginger beer perhaps? Or maybe a ginger martini to ward off this cold weather (Try a slug each of Kings Ginger and Hepple Gin shaken over ice, then served with just a splash of blood orange juice and a twist of peel too!) If you don’t have a cocktail shaker that protein shake bottle will do the trick perfectly well.

Tanuary we believe involves heading somewhere warm and sunny for a month, appealing certainly, but not practical with the commute. Worth investigating in retirement, we suspect.

Danuary involves wearing red sweaters and eating cow pie, the very antithesis of Veganuary!

Fanuary is, apparently, similar to Movember, don’t ask…

Tri-January we think may involve entering and training for a triathlon. You’ll know better than us if that’s likely to be your thing but do give us a wave if you see us when you’re out training.

Try- January is another version we like the sound of. Try something new each week would be our thoughts, be that a new vegetable, a new magazine or a new radio station. Wayne tried the vegetable salsify for the first time this week, there’s a new compilation album, Step Forward Youth on Greensleeves, that’s definitely worth a listen for the reggae lovers amongst you, it certainly made us feel warmer.

We’d also suggest trying one of our Cheese & Wine evenings. We’ll try four cheeses with seven wines all for £20. Sound good? Here at the shop from 8pm on the following Thursday evenings…

Thursday 14th February

Thursday 14th March

Thursday 25th April

Thursday 23rd May

Thursday 20th June

Thursday 18th July

Book your place promptly as they tend to fill up fast!

January Jollies
As has become our custom we are operating our annual January ‘Buy six bottles and you’ll only pay for five of them’ deal. That’s a whopping 16.66% discount that we like to think of as a thank you for your continued support, rather than a cynical ploy to get you in the shop in this quiet month. As usual we’ll make exceptions on spirits and the posh champagnes for operational reasons.

Closed – Monday 14th January – All Day
We’ll be at a big supplier tasting all day on Monday 14th January so the shop will remain closed. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Tasting This Weekend
In the spirit of Try-January we will be opening some fine samples this weekend.

Alex met a chap from a South African winery a few months ago and he very kindly arranged for us to receive some samples. It’s top, top quality wine from an estate founded on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge near Hermanus. We’ll taste a Chardonnay, a Reserve Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir and a Syrah/Grenache blend all from Creation wines, named the Most Wine Innovative Estate in South Africa at the 2016 Great Wine Capitals of the World Awards.

These are just samples so we don’t have any stock but, depending on your feedback, we could do soon!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So here it is, Winter Solstice, everybody’s having fun… which means we are knee deep in the debauchery of Saturnalia and bang in the middle of the shortest day – Wayne, our own Lord of Misrule, has this year eschewed his ‘must wear shorts on the shortest day’ tradition, on the grounds of Health & Safety or was it perhaps common sense, you choose.

By all accounts the sunrise this morning in London was at 8.03 and it will set at 15.53 this afternoon, which gives us less than 8 hours of daylight today. In truth, it feels like the sun has been well over the yardarm for a lot of us for much of the last week as I’m sure you can confirm – the prospect of the days now getting longer is but a blessing!

So, aside from the deep midwinter and longest night celebrations, what else have we got to look forward to over the next week or so? Obviously a full calendar of football fixtures this weekend and all through next, sadly without that other Abbot of Unreason, Mr Mourinho, who has yet again trousered a fortune for failing – he’s laughing at all of us, you do know that? Hopefully we will see the back of drone disruption and hope that this will not now become a ‘thing’ – air travel is potentially risky enough without added perils. Hopefully the government will take a well-earned (?) break, have a word with their constituents, their families and their friends and finally get it through their heads that the time for name calling and petty point scoring is over, and that when they get back it will be 2019 and we will be out of Europe well before the next solstice – those are my wishes…

And of course, we have Christmas. We’ve mentioned it before, counted out the hours for you last week and now we’re a whole lot closer. Our last courier deliveries for arrival before the 25th have gone, it’s all down to bodies in the shop now – only 4 more sleeps I’m told. So, with time of the essence and a shopful of people right now, I’m going to have to bulletpoint the rest of this epistle, I’m afraid…

• We’re open until 8pm this evening, 10am until 8pm on Saturday, 11am until 3pm on Sunday and then Christmas Eve we open at 10am with the shutters coming down at 5pm
• We will then re-open on Saturday 29th December from 10am until 8pm, Sunday 30th December from 11am until 3pm and then New Year’s Eve we will open at 11am and close for the last time in 2018, at 6pm
• We are then closed until Saturday 5th January when we will have a short foray into retail from 12pm until 6pm before life returns to normal on Monday 7th January…
• We will have wines open all weekend and they will be:
• FIZZ: Domaine de Landrau Crémant de Loire Rosé – £15.99
• WHITE: Alma Larga Godello 2017 – £16.99
• RED: Casa Silva ‘Cool Coast’ Pinot Noir 2016 – £17.99
• SWEET: Osborne Pedro Ximenez 1827 – £15.99
• PORT: Krohn Colheita 1996 – £33.99
• NAUGHTY: Foxdenton Christmas Liqueur – £20
• SPIRITS: our usual selection of gins and other treats

And so, that’s probably it from us. As we will be closed at the end of next week, this will be our last missive of 2018 and so it just remains for us to wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and to thank you all for your custom throughout the year. Hopefully, Drinkember will not be leading into Dry January but if it does, see you in Feb!

We’ll leave with the three wise questions from Mr Neville John Holder:

Does he ride a red nosed reindeer? Does he turn up on his sleigh? Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?

Cheers!