The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

As I write, I am imagining you all squinting to read this, trying to make sense of our latest missive under the glare of a warm sun. Possibly even wishing the phone screen wasn’t quite so reflective.

Whilst you’ve been away I’ve learnt the names of your colleagues, and who to escalate to should I need to. I’ve discovered quicker journey times, seen less people on my morning run, and watched the Olympics late enough into the night, that I feel a little jet-lagged.

We’ve had great news from the Olympics as Team GB haul in medals from the most unexpected places as well as the more usual ones. Best news of all though for this chap from Essex, is that his hometown has been voted the happiest place in the country to live. Leigh-on-Sea came top of this year’s Rightmove study with Troon in 2^nd place and Harrogate in 3^rd. For those of you who don’t know, Leigh-on-Sea is at the seaside end of the Thames (clues in the name!) about 3 miles before you get to Southend. That’s enough of a plug… you can take the boy out of Essex eh?

Elsewhere in the news Southern Rail continued its domination of the headlines with a ceiling panel falling down on to commuters.

The government’s plan to tackle childhood obesity seems to be rather toothless, especially when you consider that even the CEO of Sainsbury’s doesn’t think it goes far enough. With so many of the changes voluntary, you would be forgiven for thinking it was written by food industry lobbyists.

In an interesting move, ITV is shutting down all channels for an hour at 9.30am on 27^th August as part of their I Am Team GB celebrations. So if you come across a test card that says “We’ve gone running – why don’t you join us?” you’ll know what to do.

Normally I’m out on my bike then, so I’m hoping to catch it on demand later.

Congratulations to all the students receiving their A-level results this week. I know most of them shouldn’t be reading this, but please Mum & Dad, do convey our congratulations. It might have been back in black & white when we received our exam results but it seems like only yesterday.

Lastly, if it was difficult enough to decide what to watch on TV, the Vuelta a España starts this weekend. The 21 stage tour stays mostly in the north this year and starts with a team time trial on Saturday. Froome, Contador, Valverde and Quintana are all participating, there are more hills than you can shake a stick at, and the scenery should be beautiful. Who’s in?

Last Orders

Three places left for Wine School. It costs £150 each, starts 8pm 28^th September. Ding Ding!

Tasting this weekend

Are we here already? I was just getting into the swing of it. The white corner this week will be inhabited by Max Ferd. Richter ‘Zeppelin’ Mülheimer Sonnenlay Riesling 2014 (£12.99). Wines from this vineyard were served in the luxurious restaurant of the Zeppelin airships in the 1920’s and 1930’s and have been served at state functions at Buckingham Palace, so if it’s good enough for Her Maj…

Squatting rights in the red corner will be claimed this week by Emilio Moro 2013 (£17.99) a delicious drop of Tempranillo from Ribera del Duero. Seems rude not to, what with La Vuelta and all!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Finally we’ve managed to stop focusing on Zika, unfinished stadiums and leaky pipes in the Olympic village to concentrate on the main purpose of Rio 2016 – to make us all vocal experts on sports that we hadn’t worried about since 2012.

Wayne is an acknowledged expert on cycling and thus we have had reasonably coherent, technical conversations on this subject, however handball is discussed more at the level ‘don’t they throw the ball hard’, gymnastics is ‘wow, they’re strong’ and double trap shooting ‘looks fun to do but is no real spectators sport’.

However, with our perceived expert status, we have also had to field questions from the younger members of our families regarding the penalty system in water polo – ‘I think something must have happened underwater’, the scoring system in beach volleyball – ‘I don’t know why they only go to fifteen in the third set, nor do I know why the ladies only wear bikinis and the gents surf shorts and singlets…’ and ‘yes, that is what happens if you pee in the diving pool!’

Suffice to say, we’re thoroughly enjoying the games and debates that ensue.

You can be an expert too…

According to an untraceable survey conducted by the Coop, and subsequently rewritten in a number of trade rags trying to fill pages during slow news August, 38% of British wine drinkers consider themselves to be extremely knowledgeable about wine and 70% of those polled are more interested in wine than they were 10 years ago. Quite where the Coop fits into this wine revolution I’m not sure, having watched their selection over the years, I don’t think they have brought a great deal to the table.

Having consulted our calculators we deduce that 62% of people, in a wine survey, don’t consider themselves experts (which I suspect is modesty on many people’s part) yet clearly enjoy wine regularly enough to do the survey – time for a Wine School plug!

Let’s try and get more experts out there before Christmas – Wine School starts Wednesday 28th September at 8pm and continues on until Wednesday 9th November – as we may have mentioned before, it’s a six week course with a week off in the middle (Wednesday 26th October) for half term. According to the Coop, the four favourite wines are Rosé, Prosecco, Merlot and Chardonnay – we’ll show you some of these of course but we’ll also show you so much more exciting stuff amongst the 50+ wines you’ll taste over the six weeks.

Become an expert by Christmas – £150 per person, just 5 spaces left.

Is Pokémon killing the pub?

No, Alex, it’s not. Get off your Pokémon high horse. True, 21 pubs are closing every week but this is better that 27 a week from a few years back. It’ll take 38 years for them all to close by which time Pokémon will be well and truly over. And since we both know how well we supported the pubs in Wimbledon Village last night, I wouldn’t worry too much…

Is it just me, of is it getting hot in here?

Heatwave coming this weekend, lots of people already enjoying heatwaves elsewhere but we’re still here tasting wine and talking twaddle – both before and definitely after.

For those of you lucky enough to still be around, we will be opening a couple of treats, things we just really enjoy.

Kalin Cellars Chardonnay Cuvée W 1995, Livermore Valley, California – £35.00 – we tasted this a few months back and were startled by the freshness, the length and the all round satisfaction a 21 year old Chardonnay could give at this price.

Geoff Merrill Reserve Shiraz 2007, McLaren Vale, South Australia – £29.99 – harvested in 2007, bottled in July 2010, drinking anytime from now until the last pub closes in 2050 – what Geoff can do with Shiraz is a gift few winemakers possess!

Come and taste them both, revel in their fine flavours and get one step closer to becoming an ‘expert’!!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

What did we learn this week then?

We’ve learnt that at last some Republicans are waking up to the horror of Donald Trump, as several of them endorse Hilary Clinton as “the least bad option!”

We‘ve learnt that Lizzie Armistead is not quite up to speed with her administration, clearly we’re hoping that she’s up to speed come race day on Sunday.

We’ve learnt that wine vandalism is still active in France’s south as tens of thousands of litres of wine flooded the streets and underground car parks of Sete, following a break in at a bulk wine company. (Sete is near where Picpoul comes from!)

We’ve learnt that the opening ceremony for the Rio Olympics is less than the name suggests, given that the football has started already.

We’ve learnt that test cricket is different from one game to the next.

We’ve learnt what a joy the roads are in the month of August, clear and traffic free despite the large lorries continually ignoring local width restriction signs.

We’ve learnt the nominees for the Mercury Prize and certainly this correspondent was surprised to discover he’s heard of more than half of them. The other half will be investigated over the next few days, but would mention that if you haven’t heard Love & Hate by Michael Kiwanuka you should give the album a listen.

We also learnt that in the world of Park Vintners not a lot changes. This week last year Alex wrote about Wayne taking liberties and buying posh wines when he was distracted by Mackerel fishing and cream teas in Devon.

Guess who’s been Mackerel fishing this week?

On the assumption that broadband, email and the 21^st century haven’t made it further west than Exeter I’ll let you into a secret.

Sitting on the shelf ready to surprise Alex on his return is Vega Sicilia’s Pintia 2011 (£38). Hailing from Spain’s Toro region and made Tinta da Toro (local name for Tempranillo) grapes from 40-60 year old vines it is a real treat. Dark Damson fruit character, a spot of oak spice and a nice savoury meatiness as it opens up in the glass. Luis Gutierrez writing in The Wine Advocate thought it was worthy of 94 points.

I also managed to secure a tiny parcel of Vega Sicilia’s Valbuena No.5 2011 (£104). “The 2011 Valbuena was fermented plot by plot, something they started after a deep soil study in the 2010 vintage. 2011 was a very warm and ripe vintage in the zone, and the challenge was to keep the freshness. There are more black fruit aromas, subtle spices and hints of complexity, as well as tertiary aromas that are quite classic and turn more balsamic with time in the glass. Again, this is very different form the 2012 Alión, rounder, riper, richer, more polished, mellow, soft, quite exuberant and hedonistic. 94 Points drink 2015-2025” Luis Gutierrez The Wine Advocate

Anyway, with me likely to be in a spot of bother next week we should have a chat about what we’ll taste this weekend, I think I’m going to need a drink.

On the white front we’ll be investigating the delights of Livermore Valley Chardonnay with Wente’s Morning Fog 2014 (£13,99).  Over on the red front, we’re visiting Marlborough in New Zealand, home of our Southern Dawn Pinot Noir (£13.99) a deliciously silky summery example.

So swing by, have a taste of the wines, we can discuss the Olympics (The men’s road race is Saturday), I might even try and see some of the opening ceremony; even if it is past my bedtime!

As we mentioned last week, we’ll close at 7pm on all August Saturdays.

Oh, and the final thing we have learned this week is that the punctuation really is rather better when Alex is around!

Have a lovely weekend all!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Occasionally, we have days where we are less busy.

Commonly referred to as late July, August and January, these are the days when we try and get stuff organised for the days when we are run off our feet.  Within this less busy category of days, we have a small subset known as ‘days when we really, really aren’t very busy at all’, which often tend to be Tuesdays.  It’s important to clarify here that not being very busy isn’t a reference to sales but more a reference to what we do between customer visits.  We haven’t any upcoming tastings to organise, all of our suppliers are stuck in traffic jams outside Dover so there are no wines to be tasted and our VAT paperwork is all up to date.

This Tuesday was one of those days.

We’d read the news, we’d read the wine news, Alex had had a haircut, Wayne had updated his Strava and still it was nearer the start of the day than the busier finish.  We’d researched once more the Clinton /Trump conundrum and decided that Hillary just edges it, providing there isn’t a sustained terrorist attack on the US before November in which case Donald being in power will probably be the least of our problems.  We’d argued about drug cheating in relation to Russian attendance at the Olympics and discovered that, somewhat to our surprise, that we had unusually different points of view.  We moved swiftly on from that debate.  We read about Hepple Gin in the press again (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/gin-cocktails-hepple-gin-english-favourites-a7150871.html ) and thus fixed a date to go to The Goring for cocktails – in about 10 days time, if you fancy joining us?

By now we were looking for new avenues of entertainment and discovered the Wine Quiz on the Decanter website.  If you’ve not had a go, they are great distraction for five minutes, or an hour and five minutes depending on your workload!

If you fancy beating our scores, I can tell you we got 80% on ABC, South of France and Pinot Noir, 90% on Italy, Rosé and Syrah/Shiraz, and a rather startling 100% on Sauvignon Blanc.  Let us know how you get on – there are lots more quizzes on there and there are a lot more Tuesdays!

Summer Saturdays

Please note that throughout the month of August our Saturday hours will be 10am-7pm.

Tasting this weekend

Stung by the fact that we seem to know more about Sauvignon Blanc than Syrah, we have chosen our wines carefully this week.

On the white table we have Willi Haag Braunberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett 2013 – £16.79 which we can guarantee comes from the Mosel, is made from Riesling and is a deliciously palate pleasing 8.5% alcohol.  We don’t know anything more about it because, well, you know, it’s not Sauvignon.

For the red, we have Château de Montfaucon 2013 – £13.99 which, the label assures us is Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise – I wonder what percentage we’d get in a quiz about Counoise – and hails from the Rhone valley.  Someone once likened it to a baby Chateauneuf-du-Pape even – it was Wayne, I believe.

So, without a Sauvignon in sight, I wish you fair passage and hope to see you for a quick tasting later on or tomorrow…. Surrey v Kent at the Oval T20 tonight – should be a Spitfires win, as usual, can’t wait!

Would you like me to bowl a piano and see if you can play that? – Merv Hughes (allegedly)

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Normally we’d start with a little pre-amble, mentioning perhaps an event from the sporting calendar, poking fun at a politician for some mild mishap, why we’ve even made fun of foreign politicians in the past. This week though is a tough one. So much has happened in the week since we last spoke that we just don’t know where to start!

We have a new Prime Minister, whose superpower seems to be impersonating previous Prime Ministers. It’s not Sam Allardyce.

The 145^th Open at Royal Troon has been won by Henrik Stenson with the lowest 72 hole score ever recorded in the history of the Open!

Boris Johnson is Foreign Secretary!

There has been a failed coup in Turkey. It wasn’t Sam Allardyce.

England lost the 1^st Test to Pakistan by 75 runs.

There have been 18 stages of this year’s Tour de France. Eight (yes 8!) have been won by a British rider (none of them Sam Allardyce), three by Peter Sagan, and none by a Frenchman.

Melania Trump autocued her way to becoming a laughing stock, after channelling more of Michelle Obama’s spirit than the press corps thought decent without being called plagiarism.

Michelle Obama appeared in James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, rapping with Missy Elliot and singing Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” in a move that has surely struck fear into whoever is the next first lady (Melania or Bill?).

The Republican convention has been a bit feisty with booing, walkouts, scuffles and calling Hilary Clinton a witch. It seemed like a 12 year olds birthday party with too much sugar and no adults present!

The Labour Party is having a leadership contest because none of the MPs like their leader, who appears most likely to win. It’s not Sam Allardyce.

England has a new football manager. It is Sam Allardyce.

I guess by now you can see our problem, a news packed week that seems quite ridiculous enough without our input.

Glass of wine anybody?

This week we thought we’d swing down to Italy for a bit of sampling. We’ll start off in the white corner with the sunshine laden Sicilian beauty that is Cantine Cellaro’s Luma Grillo (£11.59). When we tasted it we found candied citrus fruits, some minerals, and a lively crisp dryness of finish. What do you think?

Red wise we’ll be a bit further north up near the lakes listening to opera drifting in on the breeze from Verona. Our glass will be filled with Monte del Fra’s Bardolino (£11.49) a deliciously fresh and summery red that Alex is threatening to gently chill.

Back to School…

New Term starts Wednesday 28^th September. £150 for the six weeks – full details attached. Don’t miss out, book it now before you head off, so that you’ve got something in the diary when the holiday blues kick in

That’ll be us for the week, we’re hoping for more of this sunshine stuff now that we’ve found out it’s so lovely!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I know, I know, in spite of our successful weather predictions for last weekend we have decided to stay in the wine game for the foreseeable – we have the reassurance that we can do successful forecasting if needed but frankly the wine business is far more fun.  Just yesterday in fact, Alex spent 3 hours clearing up after the upstairs flat flooded and proceeded to pour water into the shop via the light fittings – you don’t get that sort of fun at the Met office!

But today it’s business as usual in many respects, with a bit of proper excitement this evening which I’ll get to later.

When we first opened the shop in 2010, we only sold wine and champagne and a bit of port.  Well, actually when we first opened the shop we only sold wine because everyone was a bit suspicious of the beardy man and the one with the earring, but eventually we managed to persuade you all to hit the bubbles and fortifieds.  As time went on we added a few beers into the range and 3 spirits – a whisky, a gin and a brandy.  Caution was very much our watchword.

Fast forward to 2016 and where previously we struggled to fill a shelf with spirits, we now have over 30.  Our increase in range, as is often the case, is led by you.  In the past, cocktails you made at home would basically involve a clear spirit and a quinine based mixer.  And a slice.  Things have moved on and you have become more adventurous and, as a consequence, more demanding.  Five years ago we wouldn’t have known where to lay our hands on Orange Bitters but now we sell them.

And we also sell other fun things.  We have two Italian delights from Antica Distilleria Quaglia – a Vermouth Rosso and a Bitter.  The Vermouth is deliciously tasty with a lovely herbaceousness – leagues ahead of the branded stuff we all tried as teenagers.  The Bitter is also a little bit awesome – nestling midway between the sweeter style of Aperol and the bitterness of Campari, we find it extremely moreish which makes it a blessing that it comes in a litre bottle.  Oh, and the Orange Bitters I mentioned earlier – made by a company called By The Dutch, these are aromatic and intense and come in a groovy little 5cl bottle with a pipette to help add a dash of science to your cocktailing.

By The Dutch Orange Bitters – £8.99

Berto Vermouth Rosso – £14.99

Berto Bitter – £21.49

Little Bird Gin

‘Small batch.  Cocktail strength Gin.  South London.  Seductive pink-grapefruit, fresh juniper, zesty citrus, dazzling ginger.’

That’s how Little Bird describe themselves on Twitter.  However, if you want to learn more about this fantastic Gin from Peckham, pop in this evening, as we are honoured to have Laura, the driving force behind the gin, in the shop.  She’ll be chatting and pouring and who-knows-what-else from sometime after 5.30 and she really is a lot of fun – what better way to start a weekend than with a gin with a ginmaker and a Negroni aficionado!

Saturday Tasting

As we’re all about Gin on Friday we’ll save opening any wines until Saturday.  When we do open them they will be two South African wines that we have sold since we opened but very rarely taste.

Percheron Chenin-Viognier and Percheron Cinsault (£8.19) have both consistently out-performed their price point over the years and both have a very loyal fanbase – this is your chance to join the club!

Wine School

Places are filling, get it booked before the summer engulfs you!  £150 for the six weeks, term starts Wednesday 28^th September – full details attached

That’s all from us for now – just make sure you remember to pop in and see Laura this evening and drink some Gin – definitely an opportunity not to be missed!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We’ve long believed that, should the world become teetotal and there be a need for us to find other employ, the realm of weather forecasting wouldn’t be a bad place to start.  We spend more time than you might imagine, even as Englishmen, discussing the current weather, the future weather and telling witty tales of weather we have enjoyed a great deal in the past.  We are, as you can tell, very, very Rock ‘n’ Roll.  In our defence, the weather does have a direct impact on our business – a rainy Monday in May yields few customers but stick a bit of sunshine in the sky at around 6pm and suddenly the gym seems less enticing than a glass of Rosé in the garden.

So, with this in mind we looked at our two most regular influencers – the BBC and Accuweather – to see what might be going on this weekend.  As we all now know, weather forecasts are much like inspections led by Hans Blix – they’re interesting studies but only of relevance if they say what we want them to say.  So we gave the weekend weather the Blair treatment:

Friday 8th July

Accuweather – 22°/14°C – Partly sunny, a few showers

BBC – Rather cloudy with showery rain, perhaps heavy at times, especially across northern parts in the morning. Becoming drier in the afternoon with some brighter spells possible later.

Park Vintners – Bright and Sunny

Saturday 9th July

Accuweather – 23°/17° – Variable clouds; breezy, humid.

BBC – Cloudy and muggy but most likely dry on Saturday, and turning breezier.

Park Vintners – Nice and warm with a refreshing breeze

Sunday 10th July

Accuweather – 22° /15° – Partly sunny with a shower

BBC – Rain overnight and muggy conditions should clear during Sunday, becoming fresher with sunshine and scattered showers into Monday.

Park Vintners – Sunny sunshine Sunday

As you can see, it’s going to be an absolutely glorious weekend, with sunshine in abundance – a weekend that Alex and I will nostalgically discuss for years to come!

Sunny weekend = sunny wines!

In order to fully appreciate the glorious weather we thought we should get some wines open.  ON a complete whim last week, Alex decided to buy some Edelzwicker.  I know, sounds uncomfortable.  Anyway, he has been rattling on about this style of wine for more years than I can bear to recall, ever since he had a bottle in his father-in-laws back garden.  It was, apparently, a beautiful summers day and this quaffing blend from the Alsace (Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, Riesling) went down a treat over lunch.  I told you we had weather related anecdotes.  Anyway, long story short, he saw some for sale, fell foul of a salesman’s pitch and a pretty label and before I could stop the cheque, he had 4 dozen bottles sitting in the shop.

Pretty label or not, it is delicious and I already think we might need to order more – Edelzwicker Vin d’Alsace £9.99.

Pretty as the white is, I feel we might need to have a red with a bit of backbone to go with all these barbecues we’ll be lighting over the next few days.  Bodegas Farina Gran Colegiata Tinto Roble 2012 – £11.99 – from Toro to the west of Ribera del Duero in Spain, this has lovely berry fruit, some nicely evident tannins and a gentle touch of oak.

Wine School

We have finished our tastings for the summer now, and will be taking it easy over the summer, checking our notes and rehearsing for the new term in September.  Our 6 week Wine School jumps back to life on Wednesday 28^th September at 8pm.

Over the course you will learn about and taste around 6o wines.  You’ll fall in love with Chardonnay once more, discover life beyond Malbec and be able to spot a corked wine from 5 paces.  You’ll do a lot more than this obviously and all for only £150.

Sign up today, before you go away.

Other news

I think you all know the news.  Tennis is on still.  Football has us in a quandary about who to support.  We are still waiting to find out who will be leading our country in the autumn.  Trump is getting closer to the White House as Hillary loses a lot of trust.  We’re still talking about Brexit…

As Andy Murray said, ‘it’s not that bad is it?!’ – enjoy the weekend, enjoy the tennis and in memory of Caroline Aherne, enjoy the weather because it’s going to be SCORCHIO!

Wayne & Alex

PS Park Vintners takes no responsibility for the weather this weekend but is happy to take the credit if it does turn out nice!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

As a fleet of freshly minted Wimbledon cars flows slowly past our window, we find ourselves wondering about heatmaps (it’s far too cold to think about flow charts!). So, is the current heatmap for the population of SW19, measured in Land Rover Discovery vehicles, higher or lower than in Solihull?

Does SW19 currently have the majority of Jaguar F-Pace vehicles already licensed for use on our roads, or is there a cheeky concentration of them in Norfolk?

Yes, you’ve guessed it folks, Wimbledon 2016 is in full flow, Brits have been knocked out, unknowns have become suddenly very known, and Alex and I have been watching loads of brand spanking new Sports Utility Vehicles with blacked out windows privacy glass (Optional Extra £385 on the Jag!) and drivers who appear new to the area. We’re never sure who they carry, but they appear each year in the latest model with Wimbledon Championship markings.

We wonder what they do with them afterwards, low mileage, very carefully driven for 2 weeks (we’ve been watching after all!), and only ever carried a sports bag or umpires clipboard in the boot. We thought it might make a nice delivery vehicle, not that the Volvo isn’t up to the job, but, well, it’s just not quite so shiny! We’ll see, maybe we can do a wine/Jag swap deal of some nature.

Four wheels?

Yes, I know I just mentioned it above, but did you know we do delivery? We can lend you glasses as well if you’d like us to bring the Prosecco round for that party you’re planning. We sell Ice too, if the sun ever shows up.

Two Wheels

The world’s greatest race (the Tour de France for those of you at the back) starts on Saturday, with stage 1 from Mont-St-Michel to Utah Beach 188km of basically flat cycling that suits the sprinters at the finish. Fingers firmly crossed for Mark Cavendish to end in yellow, but difficult to rule out André Greipel or Marcel Kittel.

Stages 3 and 4 on Monday and Tuesday see us in wine country as the Tour wends its way through the vineyards of the Loire. I’d say it is worth watching for the scenery alone, add in the thrills, spills of top athletes doing their day job and we have TV gold!
I think our delicious Domaine des Roches Neuves Saumur Champigny 2015 (£15.99) is a suitably local tipple to watch the highlights with.

Wheels falling off

Following on from the England football teams sparkling performance in the Euros, we would just note that French Olympic swimmer Yannick Agnel has vowed to swim around Iceland if they win. Now, I’m no expert, but swimming around Iceland seems a long way for a man who specialises in 200m freestyle!

Elsewhere, the Westminster shenanigans seem to be making Yes, Minister look more like a documentary than was ever intended.

Evening Classes… wheel teach you (!)

Yes, as we mentioned last week, Wine School is back.

Term time is 28th September – 9th November (Half term break 26th October). Taste 60 wines over 6 Wednesday evenings. £150 per person and space is limited. Get smart for the winter!

Anyway enough waffle from me, what are we tasting then Alex?

Tasting This Weekend – oiling the wheels…

Well, with a mild threat of sunshine in the evenings I thought we’d start in the white corner with Accomplice Chardonnay (£8.49) a crisp, fresh, and modern Australian with bright fruit and lively finish that’s perfect to kick the evening off with, and we’ll follow that up with Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir (£15.99), again from Oz and a bit of a bobby dazzler with those bangers I’ve got lined up for the barbecue later on!

Come on July, bring us sunshine!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So, I was lying in bed early on Thursday morning, listening to the thunder, listening to the dog scratching away beneath me in a vain attempt at escape, listening to someone snoring, listening to an incessant car alarm, listening to my daughter counting the seconds between lightning and crashing and I found myself pondering, is this rain a good thing?

Being English, we’re used to weather, particularly the damper end of the spectrum.  We can do rain with the best of them and in some perverse way we revel in it.  It’s our weather, we like it as it is and we like the status quo – if we joined a more sunny European climate, well, we wouldn’t be British any more would we.

Equally, if we acknowledge that these storms will continue, are we happy for more and more storms to cross the channel and add more atmospheric pressure to an already overcrowded storm market.

However, there are also plenty of positives to this wet weather.  These storms have originated on the European mainland and have crossed the channel to help us survive.  The rain feeds the earth; the rain clears the atmosphere of its fervent humidity; the rain washes the streets that often we don’t have the inclination to clean.  We have been part of this weather system for a good while now, why change?

But can we feed the earth too much?  If it rains too much don’t we risk becoming too cold?  When does washing the streets become flash flooding and thus damaging to the infrastructure?  How can we control this weather?  Would it be better to stick a big umbrella over the British Isles or would the investment be better used stopping the weather at borders far from our own?

Fitfully, and unresolved, I fell asleep at around three.

In the morning, I took my daughter to school and she put another spanner in the cognitive works.  She likes the stormy weather during the day when she can see it clearly, can understand its positive attributes really quite enjoy it, but at night, uncertainty creeps in, she feels nervous and wants the thunder to go away, now.

Pondering if all this could be seen to be a metaphor for something, I strolled towards the polling station and marked an, albeit uncertain, X in a box…

Sun over the yardarm

We now know what the ‘weather’ is going to be like for the next however many years and thank god that’s all behind us.  If you voted for sun but got rain, even if you voted for sun and got sun, we all need to move on now and focus on what’s really important – wine from Europe.

This weekend sees us wrapping up our two week long Sherry Festival.  We’ve been pouring loads of lovely libations and will continue to do so.  Open for savouring are:

Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla Classic Dry Manzanilla

Equipo Navazos Fino En Rama

J.C. Gutiérrez Colosía Amontillado Seco

Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla Antique Amontillado

Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla Classic Oloroso

Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla Antique Palo Cortado           

And, now we have it back in stock, from Chipiona,

Bodegas César Florido Moscatel Dorado

Come in, taste them all and marvel at the quality and value erupting from the south of Spain!

Wine School

Guess who’s back, back again, Wine School’s back, tell a friend!

We’ve got dates in the diary, we’ve got spittoons polished, we’ve even got some new jokes…

The course takes place on Wednesdays at 8pm on 28^th September and goes through until 9^th November – it’s a six week course and the keen calendar watchers amongst you may have already realised that this is a seven week period.  You are correct – Wednesday 26^th October is a week off, half term if you will.

Anyway, over the 6 weeks you’ll learn about white wine, red wine, a bit of rosé, faulty wines, a bit of wine and food matching, a jot of sweet wine and of course, sparklers.

If this sounds up your strasse and your boisson du thé then drop us a line and let us know.  It costs £150 per person and payment of this will ensure you definitely have a place at the table.  Go on; learn about wine, you know you want to!

 Wet Weather Warning

Accepting that it’s already weather worthy of Noah and his crew, we thought we would remind you that the Wimbledon Park Primary School Fair is this Sunday from 12pm until 3pm – Alex will be there with a stall, some gin, some wine and perhaps something else, we’ll see.

If that wasn’t enough to keep it raining, the start of the tennis on Monday will ensure umbrella sales rocket whilst parasols plummet.  Remember, it was here that you heard it first.

And now it is time for us to let you get back to work.  Have a lovely afternoon, see you this evening for a glass of something cold!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week has been fun hasn’t it? Write the a-board put it out in the sunshine, watch the rain wash it off and repeat. Seven or eight times a day.

In the end we left it blank and indoors on Wednesday and changed the window display instead. You may notice as you pop in that it has bottles of sherry, tennis bats and balls. I can already see that question mark forming above your head.

Sherry! Baby! (In your best Austin Powers voice)

The reason for all the sherry is that this week sees our annual celebration of all things sherry. We’ve joined up with the lovely folk from Sherry Wines UK and will have a fabulous selection of Sherries open to taste this weekend. (More below).

Some of you will have heard us wax lyrical about what fabulously complex wines you get from the region north of Cadiz, but we are just the latest in a long line of celebrants.

Famous bowls player and occasional sea captain Sir Francis Drake is known to the Spanish as a pirate, after sailing into Cadiz and making off with 3000 butts of the nectar.  Following this, sherry became so popular that James I had to instruct his cellar master to bring no more than 12 gallons to his table a day!

Shakespeare was a big fan, and Alexander Fleming was of the view “Penicillin can fix the sick, but only Sherry can revive the dead.” These days we find such claims a little less likely.

The Sherry region itself is a land of gently rolling hills where the grapes laze around in the sunshine shooting the breeze, chatting about football, whilst they ripen. Once ripe and harvested, the grapes are pressed, and only the first press (mosto de yema) is considered to be sufficient quality for making sherry. One hundred kilos of grapes will produce around seventy litres of liquid.

After fermentation the wines are classified, the lighter wines are fortified to 15° and go on to become Fino or Manzanilla styles after ageing under flor.

Flor? – Flor is the name given to a thick layer of yeast that forms naturally on the surface of the delicate styles.  This yeast imparts the distinctive flavour to Fino. The Flor needs fresh wine in order to survive and this fresh wine is added by the use of a solera system that also gradually blends the wines of different vintages together. The flor, being a thick layer on the surface, also protects these styles from oxidation, which is why the lighter wines are chosen for this style.

The fuller, more robust wines from the fermentation process are fortified  to 17.5° and placed into sherry butts to undergo aerobic aging (no leotards, it is the real name of the oxidative process!) This style will produce Oloroso, and no flor will form because of the higher alcohol (16° is its limit).

The only way to learn more without eye ache is to come and see us and put your tasting tackle through it’s paces…

Weekend Tasting – Sherrytastic

Fernando de Castilla Manzanilla (£7.99 37.5cl) a Fino in essence, but ageing by the coast at Sanlucar de Barrameda gives it the salty tang of a Manzanilla. Not to be confused with chamomile tea.

Equipo Navazos Fino En Rama (£10.99 37.5cl) an unfiltered Fino of impressive complexity. “Serious stuff – much more serious than most wines at this price.” – Jancis Robinson, jancisrobinson.com

Gutierrez Colosia Amontillado Seco (£21.99 75cl) this undergoes both forms of ageing process, as a fino for 3 years and then at least 5 years in the oxidative process. Wayne likes this one, really enjoying the nutty character.

Fernando de Castilla Oloroso (£14.99 75cl) no flor involved here, just oxidation over the course of 12 years. More viscous in the mouth, yet still dry it presents spicy, rich dark fruit notes and a long pleasantly warming finish.

Fernando de Castilla Antique Amontillado (£30.99 50cl) ageing in a barrel for 20 years, having started life under flor before additional alcohol added to kill the flor allowing oxidative ageing. Nutty, caramel notes in the nose but the palate is bone dry and deliciously complex. Jamón Jamón!

Fernando de Castilla Antique Palo Cortado (£34.99 50cl) a real treat. This rarity starts life as a Fino until the flor goes wrong. Luckily for us when the flor went wrong here it didn’t turn into sherry vinegar but into this rare beast that has hung out in a barrel for 30 years just becoming awesome.

That seems to be a bit to be going on with so come in, have a taste and tell us what style you’ll be sipping through Wimbledon!