Fellow Wine
Lovers,
So, a quiet week,
thus far, in the world of 126 Arthur Road.
Apart from two
Amazon deliveries for the people upstairs and a visit to the Coop for a spot of
quality lunch, Monday flew past in a mêlée of paperwork and tumbleweed. The great and the good of Wimbledon Park,
which is you by the way, had clearly decided that tennis, the gym, running club
or boot camp were far more appealing than a drop of wine and chat with a local
entrepreneur, which is me by the way. Such was my concern that, at 7pm, I had to
call my wife to check for proof of life, concerned that I’d missed some sort of
apocalypse and was now destined to be stuck alone for eternity on Arthur
Road. However, the very act of her
answering the phone confirmed my worst suspicions – I hadn’t missed Armageddon,
it was just Monday and my utopian future
of life surrounded by hundreds of bottles of wine and steaks liberated from the
‘closed on Monday’s’ Casa Argentina, disappeared into the sunset.
And then Tuesday
rocked up, filled with promise and sunshine and news that a tiny white cloud
had been spotted over the Greek islands and all was good with the world. Oh, and I sold some wine, if anyone happens
to ask. Wednesday was early closing at 1pm,
as I always like to do when Wayne is away, traditional market day closing don’t
you know, and a visit to a local hostelry to watch a north London football team
throw away a 2-nil lead to cling onto a draw, not for the first time this
season.
With Wednesday
out of the way, Thursday came next and with it a phone call from the car
insurance people. For those who haven’t
yet encountered the Park Vintners delivery mechanism, we have a 1995 Volvo
estate that has a boot as big as a billiard table and a 2.5 litre engine – it’s
a beast and we love it. It would seem though
that not everyone shares this love. 10
days ago, parked outside Wayne’s house for just one night, it underwent some
fairly major surgery as some local charmer decided to slash all four of its
tyres and destroy all three the windscreen wipers. Genuinely didn’t know people did this sort of
thing still but apparently they do and aggressively vandalising a stranger’s
car is ok. We reported it to the police
who, I am pleased to say, have already closed the case due to lack of evidence
but at least we got a crime number.
So anyway, the
phone call from the insurance company.
Basically, the car is so old, none of What Car?/Parkers/Autotrader were
able to give it a valuation, so they were going to write it off.
‘How much is the
work going to cost’, I asked.
‘£1800’, came
the flat reply.
‘You’re having a
giraffe’, I said, ‘four tyres and some windscreen wipers for the best part of
two grand – I’m in the wrong job!’
‘Oh, is that all
you want done?’ was the response, ‘we thought we were going to do all the
paintwork too?’
At which point I
laughed. It’s almost 25 years old and
lives on a London street, don’t fret about the paintwork was my instruction to
them and, it would seem, the bill has gone down hugely and is no longer a write
off. A perfectly decent, reliable and
useful car was about to be written off due to its paintwork – sometimes I
wonder about the world of insurance!
And now we have
reached Friday, time for the weekend to start up, the suns out again, it’s all
good.
Away from my
travails in Arthur Road, there has been a world going about its business
without me. Two iconic sporting figures
were in the press this week, for reasons out of their control. Whilst Gareth Thomas hasn’t named The Sun, they,
or their like, were undoubtedly behind the blackmail that led to his HIV
announcement. Equally, we know for
absolute sure that they were responsible for the Ben Stokes story this week. It would be really nice to see the headline
‘That’s it Sun, you’re done’ and the end of this sort of sordid car
crash/ambulance chase journalism, which actually isn’t journalism at all, but
sadly I think this tabloid would survive the apocalypse, like a cockroach.
We don’t talk
about smoking much, partly because it mucks up your palate, partly because we
both haven’t smoked for years but mainly because it’s not terribly
interesting. What we both have agreed on
since day one, both being Marlboro purists, is that vaping is just weird. Either smoke or don’t smoke – don’t suck on a
Bic biro/mini walkie-talkie hybrid filled with strawberry flavoured liquid, it’s
just weird. Anyway, there have been a
few deaths recently in the US that have been attributed to vaping but perhaps
not enough to create a serious dent in the vape popularity. However, what will put a dent in their sales
is the news that India’s cabinet has announced a ban on the production, import
and sale of electronic cigarettes, saying they pose a risk to health. That’s a complete ban in India; India, with a
smoking population of 100 million people that would be an absolute goldmine for
the e-smoking industry but clearly the medical experts see clear risks and have
acted. Very interesting indeed – no
smoke without fire, as my colleague might say.
Having just
about closed off the cricket season and the cycling Grand Tour season also coming
to a conclusion for this year (anyone notice that Wayne’s tip, Primož Roglič,
only went and won La Vuelta – chapeaux), we can now concentrate wholly on the
Rugby World Cup. We touched on this last
week with mention of Japan as an outside bet for the finals however for many
people, and by many people I’m meaning the bookmakers primarily, the winners of
the World Cup will come from one of New Zealand and South Africa. Odds on the AB’s are 5/4 whilst odds on the
Boks are 4/1. For transparency , England also are at 4/1
but I feel that has something to do with punters patriotism.
No-one knows how
the rugby will go this weekend, who will win, who will lose but in our own version
of Paul the Octopus we’re going to use wine as our tipster and as a consequence
will actually be opening 3 wines – don’t tell Wayne.
In white, of
course, we’ll have England and an English wine.
New Hall Vineyards Bacchus Reserve 2018
– £14.49. The vineyards of New Hall are located
just outside of Purleigh and are home to some of the oldest plantings of
Bacchus in the UK, certainly the largest (44,500 vines) and they provide grapes
to a couple of well-known English Wineries that, frankly, are not very close to
Essex. The wine has a vinous, limey nose
that leads you into a fruit focused medium dry palate with a reassuring zing on
the finish.
In the absence
of any wine from Tonga, I’m going to boldly pronounce this a walkover and move
on to the main event, New Zealand v South Africa.
In the interest
of fairness I have picked similar wines at a similar price to go head to head
from these two countries, so let’s see how they get on.
From South Africa we’ll have Meerlust Red 2014 – £14.49 which
hails from Stellenbosch and is a classic
Bordeaux style blend of 52% Merlot, 27% Cabernet Franc, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon
and 9% Petit Verdot. Aromas of cassis
and plums drag you into an immediately appealing, medium-bodied red with
crushed black fruit, a touch of vanilla spice and some nicely structured
tannins. We note that this would be a
great partner to a rack of lamb and with that in mind, we move to the Kiwi
offering.
Alpha Domus ‘The Pilot’ 2014 – £13.99. Similar in price,
from the same vintage as the Meerlust, basically exactly what we were after for
a head to head, a typical Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend with nice plummy
fruit, a touch of fragrant spice, a lovely mouthfeel and a nice long finish.
Damn, this one is going to go right down
to the wire.
That’s about it from us for this week save
for a quick tastings update:
Wine School
starts in 10 days’ time – 2nd October – 2 spaces left.
Wine & Cheese Tasting – 10th October – 6 spaces left.
Domaine Treloar Tasting – 17th October – 3 spaces left.
Wine & Cheese Tasting – 7th November – 6 spaces left.
Wine & Cheese Tasting – 28th November – 5 spaces left.
So, pop in and assess the wine offerings,
sign up for a tasting our two, watch a bit of rugby, enjoy the sunshine, ignore
the threat of thunderstorms and generally have a bon weekend!
Mate ne, as they say in
the bars of Tokyo!