The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I’ll start off by congratulating the English Cricket Team for retaining the Ashes.  Well done ladies perhaps you could offer coaching to your male counterparts!

Elsewhere the Six Nations starts this weekend with England away to France (17.00) and Wales hosting Italy in the early game (14.30) on Saturday, and Ireland hosting Scotland on Sunday with a 15.00 kick off.

It seems the army have been sent in to sort out the flooding on the Somerset Levels. I’m not sure that I think it’s wise myself, the news brought thoughts of King Cnut to mind!

Meanwhile, Mo Farah twitted a picture of his training run in sun drenched Iten (Kenya’s running capital!). Alex and I are wrapping up and running locally, none of this warm weather pampering the professionals get!

Finally, the hot wine news this week is that China has overtaken France as the biggest market for red wine with 1.8 billion bottles sold in 2013. Having mulled over those sales figures we think they’re not to be sniffed at!

Wine School

We sold out the February Course and the next course will start 23^rd April 2014. Again we’ll skip a week for half term, full details attached.

Cheese and Wine Tasting

We have been nagged, quite frankly, because we haven’t given you all the cheese and wine dates. So we will kick off the Cheese and Wine sessions on Thursday 20^th March at 8pm sharp here at the shop. All the usual rules apply: limited numbers, cheese by Norbiton, wine by us and comments by you. £20 per person, book your place now on 020 8944 5224 as usual.

Tasting this Weekend?

Oh yes please! I’ve had enough of the dryathlon, I fancy a fun-filled February, and I’m sick of seeing the Riedel glasses sulking at the back of the cupboard. What are you showing us?

This week we’ll tantalise your taste buds with a couple of newbies.

Casa Azul Chardonnay 2013 (£8.49) hails from Chile’s Central Valley, whilst Post Tree Pinotage 2011 (£9.69) rocked up from South Africa’s Riebeek Valley.

That’ll do for this week, have a great weekend folks!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Three weeks ago we were dancing around the living room belting out

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to min’? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days o’ auld lang syne?

…or in fact we were trying to sing this, but in fact were shouting unintelligible faux-Scottish words which only became clear for the chorus bits before disappearing back to mumbled gobbledygook. 

Then Jools’ Hootenanny was put on and more fake Scottish accents were adopted for all The Proclaimers oeuvre – is it significant that we know more of the words to Letter From America than Auld Lang Syne? –  then suddenly it was 3am, it was January 2014, and I felt like I had walked 500 miles (could I walk 500 more? Maybe)

Anyway, this is all a longwinded way of showing that January belongs to Rabbie Burns, the man voted Greatest Ever Scot in 2009.  So we start the month with Auld Lang Syne, we then have a few quiet weeks respite before the big day, January 25^th, Burns Night.  Scots and non-Scots alike, all around the world will be tucking into haggis, neeps and tatties tomorrow evening.  Bagpipes will be squawked, sporrans will be worn; cheeky girls will ask if it’s true what a Scotsman keeps under his kilt; cock-a-leekie, whisky and smoked salmon will be in abundance and then the Haggis will arrive and some poor soul will struggle to their feet and try to recite the following:

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race!  Aboon them a’ ye tak yer place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace

Address to a Haggis – a Robert Burns masterpiece and totally appropriate on what would have been his 255^th birthday.

As you can tell I have indulged in a fair bit of internet research about the great man and have come up with a short checklist of key Burns facts, should the dinner conversation dry up:

• ·         Burns more public statues around the world than any other writer.  Only Queen Victoria and Christopher Columbus have more statues (not including religious figures)

•  ·         Auld Lang Syne is one of the three most popular songs in the English language – Happy Birthday and For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow being the other two

•  ·         He was a philanderer.  In fact he probably designed the blueprint – take a look:

1785     Father for the first time, to Elizabeth, born to maidservant Elizabeth Paton

1786    Enters into ‘a form of wedlock’ with Jean Armour

1786    Father to twins Robert and Jean Burns, born to Jean Armour

1787     Father to a child, born to Edinburgh servant girl May Cameron

1788    Father to twin daughters, born to Jean

1788    Father to Robert, born to Edinburgh serving maid Jenny Clow

1789    Father to Francis Wallace Burns, born to Jean

1791     Father to Elizabeth (‘Betty’), born to barmaid Anna Park

1791     Father to William Nicol Burns, born to Jean

1792     Father to Elizabeth Riddell Burns, born to Jean

1794    Father to James Glencairn Burns, born to Jean

1796    Father to Maxwell Burns, born to Jean on the day of the poet’s funeral

• ·         He was bound to win Greatest Ever Scot since most of the voters were related to him… ok, I made this up but it might seem plausible after the third dram…

So there you go, a potted guide to Mr Burns – hopefully more diverting than discussion of Justin Bieber’s drink-driving antics, Man United’s scrappy defeat to Sunderland or the Dutch research that claims central heating makes you fat.

Haggis Wine

There’s a plethora of choices out there to match the beast.  MacSweens recommend a lighter Italian red but I think this year I’m going to opt for Doural Tinto 2011 – £9.99 from the Douro in Portugal, purely because I think the rustic ripe fruit character will be a fantastic foil for the light spice of the meat – if you want to try it for yourself I’m going to have it open for tasting this weekend alongside a bottle of white, yet to be selected.

A few years ago I had a go at making haggis myself – it was very tasty but it made the kitchen smell offal!!

I’m here all week…

Alex & Wayne

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I don’t know about you, but it seems like only yesterday I wrote to you all. I find time normally passes at a more sedate pace at this time of year, but this week has been fairly action packed.

We each spent a day at a seminar on South America that concentrated on Cabernet Sauvignon and its immediate family and provided us with the opportunity to taste some delicious and exciting wines (and a couple that weren’t!) from some new regions of Chile and Argentina with some European equivalents. Italian Carménère anybody? The panel consisted five top winemakers, a leading viticulturist and was chaired by award winning journalist and local boy Tim Atkin MW. We find that hearing it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, is always exciting, especially when it’s at the cutting edge like that.

We’ve done a fair few deliveries to members of the Park Vintners Wine Club this week too. This is where we deliver monthly a box of 6 or 12 bottles to your door. There is a six bottles for £50 or six bottles for £100 option, so if you like the sound of it drop us a line and we’ll sign you up. Details attached…

Wine School

Term starts 5^th Feb, classes held at 8pm here in the shop (where we’re surrounded by wine!) and over six weeks you’ll taste about 60 different wines with no exam at the end. Does that sound like fun? We thought so and have attached details for that too.

Sale

I would like to announce at this point that, as ever, everything is for SALE in our shop.

To sweeten it a little though, we continue to offer our January deal where all wine is ‘6 for 5’.  This is not a ‘cheapest item free of charge’ offer either – it is a straight 16.66% discount, for those interested in the maths. 

Wine Tasting This Weekend

Very much a “we will if you will” scenario through January, last week you all lacked application frankly, and Alex was left tasting on his own, so this week I expect a bit more effort please!

Have a great weekend!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

January has arrived in all its glory dragging with it a rash set of resolutions, a few people partaking in the dryathlon (not me guv!), another statement of support for Sam Allardyce, a transfer window and, of course, the start of our marathon training proper. It seems we are not alone, everywhere we run there are others and that certainly wasn’t the case two weeks ago!

So where do we start with the New Year? I think I’d like to start with looking for some new wines. We’ll be putting our palates through their paces over the next few weeks in the search for some freshness and excitement to keep your tastebuds tantalised and our shelves full of personality. We’ll both be brushing up on our knowledge as and when we get an opportunity too.

Wine School

This is what we get up to on a Wednesday evening.  We’ll be starting on the 5^th February at 8pm here in the store. We’ll pull some chairs round the table, open around 60 different wines over the course of 6 weeks taste and discuss them with you, show you maps, answer questions even discuss the merits of oak, bubbles and blending. Overall its lots of fun, we try to keep Wayne’s jokes to a minimum and we promise no exams. The cost to you is £150 and that covers everything.

January Sales

We can’t offer you the cheapest running shoes in Wimbledon, a half price pewter tankard or an app for your iPlod that’ll drain Somerset.

What we are offering is a cheeky six bottles for the price of five on all wines whilst stocks last. For the number crunchers amongst you that’s a healthy 16.66% off your favourite tasty morsels, so don’t be shy drop in and walk away with a boxful!

Finally…

This weekend sees the 60^th Anniversary of TV weather broadcasts. We have no idea if they are more accurate these days but we’ve certainly moved on from the hand drawn maps.

Have a great weekend and wave if you see either of us out running!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Our final missive of the year finds us standing in the shop writing an email to say:

·         Thank you all for reading each week, we’ve been amazed by your application

·         Thanks to those of you have dedicated yourselves to improving our grammer, we do note your comments and continually try to improve

·         We’ll have a January Sale that starts on Saturday 4^th January and runs till we sell out or 31^st January arrives whichever happens first. 6 bottles for the price of 5 on all wine!

·         If you are becoming a dryathlete for January why not sign up for Wine School which starts on 2^nd February and is a fine way to get back in the saddle.

Thanks so much for all your support throughout 2013 and we’d like to wish you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2014.

“And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp ! and surely I’ll be mine !

And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.”

Wayne & Alex

Fellow Wine Lovers

Christmas Crackers

In early 1830, Tom Smith started work as a young boy in a bakers and ornamental confectioners shop in London. He sold sweets such as fondants, pralines and gum pastilles. He worked hard and took particular interest in the wedding cake ornaments and decorations. He experimented and created new, more exciting and less crude designs in his spare time. Before long he was successful enough to start his own business in Goswell Road, Clerkenwell, East London.

Tom Smith was adventurous and forward thinking, often traveling abroad to search for new ideas. It was on a trip to Paris in 1840 that he first discovered the ‘bon bon’ – a sugared almond wrapped in a twist of tissue paper. It was a simple idea which, over the next 7 years, would eventually evolve into the Cracker.

He decided to bring the ‘bon bon’ to London and during Christmas that year, they sold extremely well. In January however, the demand virtually ceased and once again he was reliant on sales of cakes, table decorations and ornaments. Anxious to develop the ‘bon bon’ idea further and to stimulate sales, Tom Smith decided to place a small love motto in the tissue paper. He encouraged his regular customers to take supplies, of which many did, and within a short while, orders were sufficiently high and sales profitable enough for him to increase his staff.

By now, Tom knew he had a unique and potentially very commercial idea. He decided to take a risk and concentrate on developing it further, while still running the wedding cake ornament and confectionery business which was by now, very well established. At this time, the majority of ‘bon bons’ were still sold at Christmas and Tom began to think up ways to capitalize on this short but very profitable season. He needed to make his ‘bon bons’ even more appealing. It was the crackle of a log as he threw it on his fire that gave him the flash of inspiration which eventually led to the crackers we know today.

(Wayne saw this in a Christmas Cracker we suspect was supplied by tomsmithcrackers.co.uk)

Tasting This Weekend

We’ll start you with something suitably festive, Champagne Moutard Brut Grand Cuvee  NV (£26.99). We’ll follow swiftly with Paringa Estate Peninsula Chardonnay (£28.99) which we think is one of the finest drops you’ll find on Mornington Peninsula. Our world tour cruises into Central Otago with a taste of Surveyor Thomson Explorer Pinot Noir (£23.99). Then we’ll be passing to the left with Krohn Colheita 1995 (£26.99), a tawny port, bottle this year having been aged in barrels since 1995.

Mince pies this week are Waitrose Shortcrust. The homemade ones are still in the lead…

We are open on Sunday this week 11-3 pm if you run out of Saturday before you run out of things to do.

Local delivery is still available until we close on Monday.

Opening Hours

Monday 23^rd Dec 11am-8pm

Tuesday 24^th Dec 10am-5pm

25-27^th Dec CLOSED

Saturday 28^th Dec 11am-6pm

Sunday 29^th Dec 11am-3pm

Monday 30^th Dec 11am-8pm

Tuesday 31^st Dec 11am-6pm

Too Late?

Of course you’re not too late. There is still time to book onto the Park Vintners Wine School. Term starts Wednesday 5^th Feb at 8pm. £150 will book your place.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

A scene that might strike a chord with a few of you…

You wake up in the half light of the morning, the bed is warm, the room is cold and there is damp in the air.  Whilst defrosting your contact lenses, you open the curtains and gaze out onto a blanket of fog – no mountains to be seen.  As the aromas of coffee creep up the stairs you descend into the kitchen and are greeted loudly by loud people who are far too awake for this time of the morning, but you crack on, drink your coffee, make some packed lunches, eat a banana and go to get dressed.  Warm.

As you step out of the front door at half eight, cold mist catching in your throat, you know one thing – it’s going to be a good day, the fogs will clear as the sun burns them off, the mountains will re-appear and the skiing will be glorious…

But you’re not in the Alps, you’re in Wimbledon Park and the only thing the fog is hiding is the cars on the other side of the street.  Get the kids dressed and fed, wrap the packed lunches and then out of the door at half eight – as the mist catches your throat, you know one thing – you’re going running in this, who’s stupid idea was it to do the marathon, the weather has to be better than this in April….

Loving the marathon training, loving the damp mornings, loving the lycra, loving it all – and to make matters worse it is apparently frowned upon to carry a hipflask of sloe gin when doing training runs!

Post-run warm down

Having had the virtues of winter running extolled so positively I expect you all to don your Saucony’s tomorrow, hit the pavements and cover some serious terrain.  Afterwards, once you’ve showered, spread a feeling of smug over all those who haven’t exercised yet, eaten a fry up and read the paper you will be in need of a final post-run warm down – the walk to the wine shop seems just the ticket.

When you get here we can offer you a refresher of Champagne Beaumet 2004 (£35.99) followed up by a taste of Domaine Patrick Miolane Puligny Montrachet 2011 (£31.99).

As we are concentrating on France this week we thought we would open the Joseph Faiveley Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire 2010 (£11.99) and follow this up with, from Listrac-Medoc, Chateau Fourcas Dupré 2001 (£26.49).

Oh go on, as it’s Christmas and you’ve all been for a run, how about we open a sweetie too: that’ll be the ‘No-name’ Sauternes 2010 (£25.00) – delicious, unctuous, mouth-wateringly more-ish and definitely not made by the most famous sweet wine producers in the world…

Keep the spirits up

We mustn’t let Wayne finish off this bottle of King’s Ginger by himself, not after last time, so do please come in and try the spirits we have open.  Don’t think of it as depriving him, think of it as helping him with his training.

So swing on by this weekend, mince pies will be available, the current favourite by a long chalk were the ones made by one of our Aussie customers last week, but this week we are likely to be trying out Waitrose, or perhaps Sainsbury’s, or perhaps both – in which case we definitely need to go for that run then!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

According to absolutely everybody with a vested interest, we now have only 18 shopping days until Christmas – no vested interests here, just thought you’d like to know!

By an astonishing coincidence during this period we will be open six days a week, Monday through Saturday until 8pm.  To keep us out of the pub we will also be open on the two Sunday’s surrounding Christmas between 12 – 3 for some gentle shopping and chat, should you so desire.

(‘Hit them early with the sales pitch’ the instructor said, ‘then soften it with a self-deprecating anecdote…’)

So we are now three years old.  Tuesday was the momentous day, celebrated, somewhat bizarrely in my household, by a feast of Haggis, neeps and tatties.  Talisker 10 year old as the gravy – top notch.  However, I digress.  It became apparent quite soon after we sent last week’s email that our my train of thought can drift perpendicular to the norm and sometimes clarification is needed, so here is my official statement:

Last Friday, 29^th November I commented on some items that had appeared in the news at a particular time and related them to the opening of our shop on the cold Friday that was 3^rd December 2010.  All the news articles were from that day – if I knew the Thunderball numbers before the draw has been done I would be in a very different place right now!  I know we weren’t playing Ashes cricket last week and that Gavin Henson isn’t currently on Strictly….

As a result I apologise to everyone that was misled – I am a bad, bad man.   A touch disappointing though that the news has changed so little in 3 years that it all the headlines still seems plausible…

(‘Now focus them back onto the here and now…’ interjected the instructor as the whole email started to ramble off track)

THIS WEEKEND

December is brilliant.  We get to open bottles that for the rest of the year we gaze longingly at and all with the purpose of finding ‘that’ wine for Christmas day.  As with most of what we do here, we don’t have a definitive, one word solution – just a whole bucket full of great ideas for what to drink on December 25^th. 

One of my customers this week said it was almost treasonable not to drink a couple of bottles of Champagne whilst decorating the tree, another swore that his wait on Amazon was only made bearable by the presence of a bottle of claret, a third always stocks up on fancy spirits at this time of year since, for him, Christmas is all about cocktails.  We sent them all off into the night laden down with treats galore and now it’s your turn.

This weekend we’ll be tasting a little bit of Italy as we like Italy, just a little.

The white will be the ever popular Roberto Sarotto Gavi di Gavi Bric Sassi Della Maddalena 2012 – £12.99.  The Sarotto family has been making wine on this estate since the 1800’s but have only bottled their own wines since Roberto Sarotto graduated from winemaking school. The 50 year-old Cortese vines, grown at altitude in the Maddalena vineyard, deliver a crisp wine displaying ripe, rich white peach flavours, a stony minerality and a long fresh finish.  Delicious.

The red will be a new listing that we’ve had our eye on for a few months now: Antonio Vallana Gattinara 1998 – £33.99.  Excellent Nebbiolo from Piedmont does exist outside the words Barolo and Barbaresco and this one, with a decent number of years on the clock, has your name written all over it…

SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

Following on from a successful week out and about at a number of different schools I find myself surrounded by open bottles of spirits – just don’t ask.  Anyway here’s a quick list of what spirits we have right now, and what you can taste…

Bepi Tosolini Cividina Tipica Grappa £27.99       

Colazingari Sambuca Fina £22.99    

Saliza Amaretto Veneziano £25.99    

Limoncello £21.99            

Mamont Vodka £35.99 COME AND TASTE!

Zuidam Dutch Courage Dry Gin £33.99 COME AND TASTE!

Dodd’s Gin £37.50           

Cremorne Gentleman Badger’s Sloe Gin £24.49    

Doorly’s XO Barbados Rum £32.49  

Ardbeg Uigeadail £60.00         

Clynelish 1997 Coopers Choice Bottling £55.00    

Finlaggan Old Reserve Islay £29.99 COME AND TASTE!

Nikka from the Barrel £37.69  

Maxime Trijol VSOP Cognac Grande Champagne £48.00        

Chateau du Breuil VSOP Calvados £34.99  

Clos Martin Folle Blanche VSOP £34.59      

Romate Solera Reserva £21.49            

The King’s Ginger £22.99 COME AND TASTE!

Kingston Black Apple Aperitif £9.99 COME AND TASTE!

Angostura Aromatic Bitters £8.99    

Creme de Cassis Briottet 15% £13.99

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Here was the news:

·         Euromillions numbers: 8 19 28 32 46 – Star Balls 4 7 – no winners, €15,000,000 rollover…
·         Temperatures fall to -11C in parts of Somerset
·         Second Test in Adelaide, day 1:  Australia 245 (85.5 overs); England 1/0 (1 over).  England trail by 244 runs with 10 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
·         Bankia was formed as a result of the union of seven Spanish financial institutions, with major presence in their areas of influence
·         Megamind, Secretariat, Monsters – all released in UK cinemas (did we see these?)
·         Better Than Today by Kylie released (I know, me neither)

·         Some selected Mail online headlines:

Not bad for a 22-year-old: F1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter Petra to buy £66m house

Jobless couple with six children demand bigger house (but say, ‘We’re not scroungers, honest!’)

Two to Tango-ed? Strictly’s fake tanned Gavin Henson and Katya Virshilas do after-hours quickstep to ITV movie party

Sixteen… or six? Justin Bieber draws on his face, plays with toys and throws a tantrum at restaurant

But whilst the world was going crazy in a flurry of Bieber-induced, non-lottery winning, freezing cold, divide-between-rich-and-poor emphasising, bad-movie-release mayhem, two brave souls were just about to turn the lights on in SW19…

… and they’ve being turning them back on most days for the past 3 years!  Yes indeed, next Tuesday, 3^rd December will be our third birthday.  If it was a wedding anniversary it would be our ‘leather’ one, but it’s not, so we won’t, much to everyone’s relief.

So yep, we’re still here – mind you so is Wine Rack – but we wouldn’t be if you hadn’t all kept on walking through our door, coming to our tastings, getting us to help out with your school events/weddings/balls/gallery openings and generally keeping us out of the house and usefully occupied six days a week.  So thank you, you know who you are!

However it’s not just the shop that is celebrating, Wayne also has a big birthday this year.  Not that sort of big birthday, it’s more to do with the fact that he’s had an awful lot of them already, the numbers are getting bigger and bigger and our insurance premium has rocketed to cover the potential fire damage from all the candles on his cake!

So a double celebration this weekend.  Let’s make it a triple – we’re seeing the start of Advent on Sunday and as a consequence the Christmas lights are being turned on at Christ the King at 4pm on Saturday – as if you needed another excuse to visit Arthur Road.

Drinking

Because by now we all need one.  To celebrate all these birthdays we will have Morton Blanc de Blanc 2002 Methode Traditionelle (£19.99) on pour, and once your tastebuds have been suitably tantalised we can then offer you a taste of Jean-Baptiste Ponsot Rully 1er Cru Montpalais 2011 (£22.49) one of our favourite white burgundies and Vieux Chateau Gaubert 2005, Graves, Bordeaux (£23.49) a cracking claret from a cracking vintage, and soon to be available in magnums in time for Christmas.

As it’s his birthday, Wayne will be manning the spirits stand, where we have the Dutch Courage Gin (£33.99), the Mamont Vodka (£35.99) and the Finlaggan Whisky (£29.99) all open for tasting and spirited debate.  Whilst you’re chatting ask him about the King’s Ginger, our new Cremorne Gentleman Badger’s Wild Blackthorn Sloe Gin and all the other exciting spirits we have on the shelves.

Should you feel the need for some non-liquid refreshment at this point, if you just look to your left, towards the sparkling wine and beside the Meerlust Rubicon stack you might just glimpse our newest arrival: Biltong!!!  Available in 150g bags, for £5.50 a bag, this is the genuine article, made by genuine South Africans – and it’s made just down the road!  Flavours are Peri-Peri or Original, with the latter being extremely popular with the wines at our Bordeaux tasting last week.

Free Mince Pies should also be available throughout as we continue our very scientific research into the best ones for Christmas Day, come and help!

We’ll leave it there for now – no need to talk about cricket, football match fixing or Tottenham’s return to mediocrity, this is a time for celebration not a time for recrimination!

Looking forward to sharing a glass of bubbles with you all over the weekend and, as Wayne is fond of saying:

Bottoms up!!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week we find ourselves talking in American accents, wondering why a bay is named after pigs (do they like to swim, surf, sunbathe or fish?). We find ourselves ruminating on a time before even Wayne was born – back in those days the world was mostly in black and white, Presidents drove around in convertible cars and nobody had yet thought of dub-step.

50 years ago today John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Numerous conspiracy theories abound and even as recently as this year 59% of American’s think there is more to it than meets the eye. Writers Aldous Huxley and CS Lewis share JFK’s day of demise but seem to have had less column inches devoted to them. Additionally, the second Beatles album, “With the Beatles”, came out in the UK.

We’ve been rooting out our best Pumpkin Pie recipes and feeling thankful. Thankful, because we’re not turkeys, thankful that we’re not taking a flight in the US, but mostly thankful that we remembered our sweater. Thursday is Thanksgiving and Americans everywhere will be full of turkey, using the remote to turn the game up and the kids down, and desperately trying to duck out of doing the dishes!

Tasting This Weekend – We will open a pair of Cambria’s, from California, in honour of the above events (well, maybe not the Beatles album).

Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2007 (£22.99) – “Bright yellow. Complex aromas of musky pear skin, lees, iodine and oak spice. Deep but lively, offering moderately sweet orchard fruit flavors and a strong lashing of brown spices. A zesty mineral quality lingers on the long, spicy finish.” 89 points, Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar

Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009 (£24.99) – “Another lovely Julia’s Pinot from Cambria, at a fair price. With its light tannins and transparency, it’s definitely Pinot Noir, and the acidity testifies to a cool climate. You might even pick out the Santa Maria Valley from the crushed Indian spices. Subtle but intriguing cherry, cola and plum flavors round out the picture. Drink now-2015.” 92 points, Wine Enthusiast

Wine School – Once the palaver of Christmas, New Year’s Eve and January are out of the way we find ourselves in February, ready to face the year ahead.  What better way to kick it all off than by learning a bit more about what’s in your wine glass in the convivial surroundings of your local wine shop? 

Ok so a sun-drenched vineyard would be better, but we can’t offer that yet.  In the meantime our ever popular 6 week course starts on Wednesday 5^th February at 8pm and concludes on Wednesday 19^th March.  Those of you with keen observation skills will have already realised that this period is in fact 7 weeks – we are taking a week off for half term (19^th February) whilst Alex goes and hones his beach volleyball skills in Dubai…

Wine School Wednesday 5^th February – Wednesday 19^th March £150 per person.  We await your call, more details attached.

Slice of History – Way back in the summer when the sun was shining and we were still in short trousers, we received an email containing Christmas gift ideas. We immediately poo-pooed the idea and got an ice-cream. Randomly we then went back to said email and replied to it, promptly forgetting all about it until yesterday.

We are now the proud owners of wooden boxed mini verticals of Meerlust Rubicon. For a mere £90 you can have one too!

Boy, are they lovely! Handcrafted wood boxes (dovetail joints, sliding lid, the whole caboodle!) containing a bottle each of:

Meerlust Rubicon 2004 “Concentrated and grippy, with dark, roasted plum, black licorice, charcoal, mesquite and bittersweet cocoa notes. Traditional in vein, with an iron- and earth-filled finish that should soften nicely with cellaring. (90 points)” Wine Spectator – James Molesworth – September 30, 2008

Meerlust Rubicon 2006 “Ripe and dense, but sleek and focused, with a lovely core of mulled black currant, warm fig paste and tobacco, laced with mouthwatering dark olive and iron notes that help the finish stretch out nicely. Has solid grip in reserve, too. (90 Points) ”  Wine Spectator – James Molesworth – November 15, 2010

Meerlust Rubicon 2007 “One of the best vintages of Rubicon to date, and for the price it’s a fantastic value that’s great for building up your cellar. Right now, the wine is still young and tight, with firm, gripping tannins that need some time to mellow. Fortunately, there’s a great concentrated black-fruit core and enough acidity alongside the tannins to support long-term aging. Spicy and earthy, with accents of black tea, cedar and crushed violets. 92 Points” Wine Enthusiast – Lauren Buzzeo – May 2012

That’s enough from us for this week, if you’re going out in an open top car, wear a vest!

Wayne & Alex

PS Cricket, what cricket?