The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Time to play spot the fib….

“If you have heard media hyperbole that a heatwave driven by an African plume will bring intense heat to the UK in the next few days, you are going to be disappointed – this isn’t true” – Neil Armstrong, chief forecaster at the Met Office and erstwhile moonwalker, Wednesday 24^th May 2023.

“Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you’re watching, don’t worry, there isn’t!” – Michael Fish, broadcast meteorologist and lead singer of Marillion, on 15^th October 1987.

“I sought to explore whether bespoke arrangements were possible, given my personal circumstances as a security-protected minister. I recognise how some people have construed this as me seeking to avoid sanction – at no point was that the intention or outcome.” – Suella Braverman, former Home Secretary (resigned), tireless humanitarian, current Home Secretary (certainly not planning on resigning again), May 2023.

“It’s a lot of work, I’ll tell you that much, but I love it, I absolutely love it, and I want you to know I change a lot of nappies” – Boris Johnson, WhatsApp user, September 2021.

I know, difficult huh, perhaps they’re all fibbers?

I reckon though, with a view to it being the Bank Holiday weekend again, we want Neil Armstrong to be the one to be found telling porkies because, frankly, a heatwave weekend is exactly what we are all hoping for.  Currently, the weather for midday Saturday looks like this:

Wimbledon – 19c – real feel 22c – 0% rain

Fleet Services (M3) – 17c – real feel 21c – in-car temperature 21c – 0% rain

Stonehenge (A303) – 18c – real feel 21c – in-car temperature 40c (rising) – 0% rain

Exeter Services (M5) – 18c – real feel 22c – 0% rain – 0% chance of getting a West Cornwall Pasty

Thurlestone (Village Inn) – 17c – real feel 18c – 0% rain – beer temperature 4-5c

I think I know where I would like to be….

Meanwhile, in the world of booze that we lurk in, trade rag Drinks Retailing News has released its annual 100 Most Influential People in Drinks list.  Obviously we didn’t appear on it and it was not a surprise to see Miles Beale, Chief Executive of the Wine & Spirit Trade Association coming in first; nor was it a surprise to see the buyer from Waitrose and one from Tesco in the top 5, alongside Jancis Robinson.  What did make us drop our cucumber and marmite ciabatta was the name that appeared at number 10…

Kylie Minogue, Creative Director Kylie Minogue Wines

Pop sensation turned wine industry powerhouse, Kylie Minogue, launched her wine brand in 2020 with Paul Schaafsma of Benchmark Drinks.  After three years, the brand now has a portfolio of nine wines, including its popular Signature Rose and Prosecco Rose, as well as an alcohol-free sparkling rose.  Minogue has also become a familiar face in the global wine community, showcasing her wines at Prowein in March this year.  Kylie Minogue wines are now available to purchase in 31 countries.

Having rubbed our eyes and pinched ourselves, we re-read the list and it still said the same thing: Ramsay Street tomboy mechanic, Charlene Robinson, is now considered to be one of the most influential people in drinks?  Stone the flamin’ crows, as Alf Stewart up in Summer Bay might say…

Whilst, clearly, the success of the wine is more likely related  to  the efforts of Paul Schaafsma/Benchmark Drinks, what made us smile was that the caption under the photo of the two said Paul (pictured left) and Kylie – I think we could have out who was who without the signpost!

Oz Clarke came 91^st.

Elsewhere, the cycling is just about coming to a finish in Italy, the Premier League  has all but ended and we don’t start our Ashes warm up until next Thursday, so we might as well entertain ourselves with a glass of wine and as it is going to be great weekend (fingers crossed) I think we’ll open some summer drinkers:

Château de L’Aumérade ‘Cuvée Marie-Christine’ 2022 – £17.99 – our perennially popular Côtes de Provence Cru Classé is back on the floorstack and is tasting better than ever. 

For those of you who haven’t come across it the Chateau de L’Aumerade is a 400 year old vineyard in the heart of Provence.  Its red soils are rich in minerals, giving it an edge on the quality stakes amongst its neighbours and this edge was recognised in 1955 when the estate was designated “Cru Classé”.  A lovely pale salmon colour, it is indeed cracking stuff with delicate red berry fruits, slightly floral and an impressively long finish.

We think it is the perfect wine for summer, great with all manner of food, or just with the Sunday papers and a deck chair.  It’s also suitable for vegans and, if you’re really thirsty, we offer 6 bottles for £90!

Talking of perennially popular wines, for the red we’ll open Palacio del Camino Real Crianza 2019 – £11.99.  A classic Rioja blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha and Graciano aged for 12-14 months in a mixture of French and American oak, this wine has a real understated elegance.  Gently spiced red fruits, a touch of leather and a polished soft finish give it some good all-rounder appeal – you’re bound to be cooking over coals this weekend, so how about some new season lamb cutlets with it?

That’s it from us for now, just to remind you we’ll be shut on Monday as it’s the Bank Holiday and we’ll be raising a glass to the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll

“You can’t get hung up on age or beauty because you’re then always chasing after something you’ll never get back” – Tina Turner, Woman & Home Magazine, July 2016.

Wise words.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week we have not been eating cheese sandwiches. Not because we don’t like cheese, but more that we find Ann Widdecombe truly terrifying.  Wouldn’t it be nicer world if she spent her time spoiling her grandchildren rather than tell others they should just starve?

We have no plans to retrain as fruit pickers, lorry drivers or indeed, journalists. Not because there’s anything wrong with those jobs but frankly, we both feel we already have employment. Admittedly, we find working from home to be an insurmountable problem but do take comfort in that 63.9% of the working population are with us.

We’ve continued in our viewing of the Giro d’Italia and last week described it as having thrills and spills. That has certainly continued this week and, if I’m honest, it’s starting to feel less like a race and more like an alternate take on Squid Games. The weather has been atrocious, never before have racing cyclists worn their entire wardrobe with a waterproof over the top for so many days in a row. There have been riders falling victim to covid, the usual gastro problems, not to mention so many crashes, one rider even got taken down by a race official! Today’s stage has been re-routed through a tunnel, not because the GPS was playing up, but because the climb up to the Gran San Bernardo pass (at 2469m) is still buried under snow – questions still remain as to whether it will actually happen today, as torrential rain has delayed the start…  Remarkably, given it’s the Giro and there have been so many crashes, Geraint Thomas is still upright and wearing the pink sweater!

Whilst we talk about bike races I’ll mention it is just 43 days to the Tour de France and I do believe we may have lined up something rather special…

Tim Goodman, a customer since we opened, has been buying less from us so far this year as he is in serious training for cycling the 3500 kilometre Tour de France route. He also says that he is unlikely to try any wine during the three weeks cycling from Bilbao to Paris, over all five French mountain ranges (can you name them?). However, he is committed to making up for his abstinence at the celebratory dinner in Paris. He has also reserved a couple of bottles of Puligny Montrachet from us for when he gets back. 

He has committed to providing weekly reports for the newsletter during the Tour, a week ahead of the race, to let us know how he is getting on. He is raising money for Cure Leukaemia, which funds clinical trials to help beat this disease at hospitals around the UK, including UCL and Guy’s & St Thomas’s in south London. The team of 25 is aiming to raise £1 million by doing the ride.

In the meantime, if you would like to sponsor him, the link to his fundraising page is Tim Goodman is fundraising for Cure Leukaemia (justgiving.com).

If you are interested in sponsoring the team bus or an individual stage, or even want to have a go at riding the Tour next year please email Tim at timgoodman64@hotmail.com with Tour de France in the subject line.

In other news, it looks like Rafa is going to retire next year. Still struggling with the hip injury that has plagued him all year, he made the announcement at a press conference as he withdrew from the French Open. Manchester City are looking rather ‘on’ for their hopes of a Treble if the way they destroyed Real Madrid is anything to go by.

On the wine front we’ve just received the stunning new vintage of Domaine Lyrarakis Assyrtiko 2022 (£15.99). Who wouldn’t like a mini trip to Crete? We’ll pop that in the fridge for tasting over the weekend.

In the red corner we’ll pour Atal Sia 2019 (£25.99). This fabulous wine is from the Boutenac Cru in Corbières. A rather splendid blend of predominantly Carignan with Grenache Noir and Mourvèdre from vines older than Wayne, planted in the absolute best part of Corbières.  We loved it, come tell us what you think.

With that we’re off, have a great weekend!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We will be the first to put our hands up to being rather disappointed not to have this coming Monday off, we were rather getting into the swing of Bank Holidays.

So, what has happened since we last had a chat? The almost mediaeval pomp and circumstance discussed in last week’s missive passed without being disrupted by the drizzle. Despite not being The Lady of The Lake, it turned out that Penny Mordant can carry a sword and, as if by magic, the gold hat fitted the Charles formerly known as Prince rather snuggly. Having discovered that the King has a posse of long bow archers as his personal bodyguard, I was hoping the sword might have to be withdrawn from a stone or that a band of Merry Men might visit from Nottingham, but it was not to be.

The Merry Men from the Met did arrest some people for having some string, unloading a van and wearing a yellow jacket. The fact that these people had been liaising with the Met for weeks co-ordinating a peaceful protest was completely lost on the arresting officers, who seemed unable to contact Head Office by mobile phone, or the two way radio system that has been in use since the 1960’s.  Some sixteen hours later, these arrested folk were released without charge and the Met issued a long rambling statement expressing regret. That’s modern policing in action folks.

The local election results came in after we went to press last week but we are pleased to announce that finally something promised by the government actually came to pass. Rishi Sunak promised us the Conservatives would lose 1000 councillors in the local elections and they actually over delivered, losing 1061 seats and also control of 48 councils. UKIP, a party that is always keen to steal the headlines, lost all of their councillors.

Elsewhere, Lettuce Liz has decided to inflame relations with China by taking a trip to Taiwan, just as the region calms down a little after Nancy Pelosi did the same, which  resulted in the islands being surrounded by Chinese warships. I find it alarming the amount of trouble that can be caused by the vanity project of somebody who has already caused so much damage.

Over the pond, the parlous lay of the land was demonstrated in several awful fashions. Firstly, the consensus is that, despite being legally branded a sexual predator by a New York jury, it’ll make no difference to Trump’s electoral appeal in the next Presidential election. The other was the fact that the first 127 days of the year had seen 202 mass shootings where four or more people had died. Then Trump appeared on CNN in a ‘Town Hall’ discussion and, despite losing over 60 court cases related to the 2020 Election, still pressed on claiming it was stolen and then proceeded to talk absolute nonsense throughout the rest of the show.

Elsewhere, the Giro d’Italia has been winding its way through Italy, starting in Abruzzo. As always, it is serving up its usual mix of thrills and spills not to mention the stunning scenery. Mark Cavendish came fourth on a very wet Wednesday, sliding across the line on the floor. Remco Evenepoel was incredibly quick in the opening time trial and then was brought down by a stray dog a few days later. We even had a breakaway caught with just 200m to go, heart-breaking perhaps, but that’s the thrills and spills!  In Spain, Annemiek Van Vleuten won La Vuelta Femenina by nine seconds from Demi Vollering.

At this point we should probably talk about wine. The En Primeur campaign for Bordeaux 2022 is in flow and the vintage is, we understand, absolutely tip top. We sent our chum Clive off on a tasting trip and he came back with purple teeth and bags of enthusiasm for the vintage. In a surprise to nobody, the prices are around 20% higher than last year’s release prices.

Tasting This Weekend

We thought we’d open…

Follas Novas Albariño 2021 – £14.99

From Val do Salnés, the oldest, coolest and wettest of the five distinct sub-regions of Rías Baixas, yet also the birth place of Albariño sometime before the 12th century.  The vines for this wine are between 20 and 40 years old and vinified in a state of the art winery, completed in 2005.  Fabulously clean and crisp with citrus and floral notes on the nose, tangy stone fruit on the palate and a lovely mineral laden finish.

And in the red jumper we’d like to introduce a new one that we mentioned a couple of weeks back.

Solevari Reserve Feteasca Neagra 2017, Recas, Romania -£12.99

This is from the same stable as the ever popular Orange wine and, we thought, a bit of a find. As a reminder, the Cramele Recas Estate is owned by Englishman Philip Cox and his Romanian wife Elvira who have put an enormous amount of work into modernising their winery. One of the results is this beauty:  spicy black pepper framing black berry fruit character, a hint of cherry, maybe even a bit Pinot Noiry, medium bodied and great value was what we wrote down.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I’m not going to lie, Wayne has been a tad over excited this week.

Yes, we’ve known the programme since it was unveiled in October last year and have had plenty of time to work out the best vantage points to watch all the action; we have kept a keen eye on who will be there and who, significantly will not; we have also regularly checked the weather forecasts and googled what different participants might be wearing, so are feeling pretty well prepared; however, even with all that, as the big day approaches the tension is palpable when he blurts out something for which I hadn’t prepared:

‘So, who do you think is going to be crowned?’

‘Errm, are you extracting the Michael, I think we’ve both spent all our lives knowing the answer to that question…’

‘No, no, no – who do you think is going to be crowned when they cross the line in Rome on May 28^th?’

Evidently, you can take the boy out of Essex but you can’t take him off the bike, as his agitation would seem to be stemming from the start of the Giro D’Italia this Saturday.  He’s paid his GCN subs and will be glued to the action from 10am on Saturday morning, don’t expect any bunting.

Meanwhile, for those of you less inclined to Lycra, you may be aware that this Saturday will be King Charles’ coronation – we will be open from 12-7pm as usual and are expecting 70% chance of drizzle all day with temperatures in the low teens, what could be more British?

So, anyway, for a lot of us, this is our first Coronation but, having become experts in Jubilees over the last few years, I imagine we have the requisite skillsets to cope with the novelty.  Ditto regarding the extra Bank Holiday, which we also have had a lot of recent experience in dealing with.  Street parties have been encouraged as ‘Neighbours and communities across the United Kingdom are invited to share food and fun together at Coronation Big Lunches on Sunday 7th May 2023, in a nationwide act of celebration and friendship. From a cup of tea with a neighbour to a street party, a Coronation Big Lunch brings the celebrations to your neighbourhood and is a great way to get to know your community a little better.’ www.royal.uk

So what should we be eating?  Looking back over previous events of this stature, courtesy of Professor Wikipedia, we discover a goldmine of trivia that needs to be shared.

The Victoria Sponge is named after the good Queen, who, whilst she didn’t invent it, was reportedly a very keen partaker of afternoon tea and this style of cake was her favourite.  Alfred the Great also had some cake based anecdotes but they are best ignored as cooking guides.

By all accounts, in 1902, King Edward VII organised (?) a ‘Coronation Dinner for the Poor of London’ where 500,000 dinners were served in multiple locations across town – apparently the King contributed £30,000 towards this.

According to the Bank of England Inflation Calculator £30,000 in 1902 is worth £2,974,268.89 today.

There is no obvious food association for George V; his son Edward VIII abdicated before we got to learn his tastes and very quickly a rather reluctant George VI was crowned in 1937.  We don’t learn much about the food side of proceedings but did find out that the event cost £454,000, just shy of £25 million today and I suppose you could argue they got two coronations out of that.

Next up, our Queen, the lady we all grew up with and who played a blinder, not only in her service to the nation but also in her dish – Coronation Chicken.  Still hugely popular in sandwiches today, I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like it!

Charles has enlisted Nadiya Hussain, Ken Hom and Gregg Wallace to rattle off some tasty sounding main course but the choice of a quiche as the ‘signature’ dish has surprised a lot of us. 

To start with, it’s French, which has been a Republic since 1792.  If The Proclaimers get removed from the official playlist for Republican views how does this slide through?  Secondly, the ingredients:  If you want to unite the nation as one, offer them fish and chips or a cup of tea, not broad beans in an egg custard – might as well make marmite on toast the official breakfast too!  In fairness, I like broad beans and marmite but they are divisive tastes that only elicit binary responses – perhaps it’s a clever metaphor and, if it is, I must praise Charles for his cognizance!

QEII gave us Chicken in mayo, KCIII gives us Egg in pastry – I think we can now answer which came first.

I mentioned the Official Coronation Celebration Playlist that is available to enjoy alongside your French tart on Sunday.  Of course Coldplay and Ed Sheeran are on there, Queen too and Harry Styles but no Robbie Williams which comes as a surprise, but not necessarily a disappointment.  Noticeably no Prince either, another sign of Charles’s clever curation perhaps?  It was a bit disappointing to see that Coventry’s second finest band, King, failed to make the shortlist, their song Love and Pride would have been a banger!

So, I think that’s possibly all you really need to know about the Coronation to get the conversation started on Sunday.  As mentioned, we’ll be here as usual on Saturday but closed on Monday.  Should you be in need of a break from the television and a bit of a leg stretch then pop down and see what we’ve got on tasting this weekend: Chatelain Desjacques Chardonnay (£10.99) from the Loire Valley and Juliénas Chaintré Fleurie (£15.99) from Beaujolais – both absolutely bang on matches for your egg flan on Sunday and both unashamedly French.

Vive La France – Long live the Quiche!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It’s been a bit of a week and it feels like only five minutes since I last typed that if I’m honest. We also know that a number of you have had birthdays and anniversaries during the course of this week, so felicitations one and all!

You’ll have seen Cruella Braverman has been doing the rounds again this week and on that front we’d like to bring you a bit of a scoop: we only got to help out on a bit of speech writing!

Obviously, we’re in full agreement with all parties on the right to free speech and were chuffed to have this opportunity.

[This speech has been edited by HM Government to remove political content.]

Thank you, Rory for that introduction. You know better than most, from your own experience on the beat, the realities that our brave police officers face when going up against MP’s and other criminals, and the damage that crime can do to people and communities.

And that’s why it’s wonderful to be here welcoming the launch of The Public Safety Foundation, an organisation committed to making the UK the safest place to live, work, vanish taxpayer funds and raise a family. Alongside Rwanda obviously.

This really is the perfect forum for setting out my ethos for common sense policing.

Everything that our police officers do should be about doing what I say, wearing Hi-Viz, fighting crime, catching criminals, and keeping the public safe.

My mantra at the Home Office is simple: common sense policing.

Common sense policing means more common sense.

It means better police culture and not wasting time investigating our elected officials.

It means giving the public confidence that Parliament is unequivocally on their side, not pandering to politically correct or, indeed, incorrect preoccupations.

It means measuring the police on outputs such as public response times, Hi-Viz deployed, crimes solved, and criminals captured.

It means police officers freed up to spend their time on proper police work like jogging alongside the PM’s motorcade.

It means police prioritising the highest harm crimes and those that matter most to the public. We are particularly concerned with that noisy man on Parliament Square and those nasty teenagers who keep glueing themselves to things. The public is mistaken in their belief that all the missing fast track covid money should be investigated.

And above all else, common sense policing means officers maintaining a relentless focus on wearing Hi-Viz, fighting crime, catching criminals, and most of all, common sense.

It is central to common sense policing that the public wants to see more Bobbies on the beat and so do I. Particularly if that beat is provided by Justin Bieber.

Everyone who has been part of the government’s Police Uplift Programme should be immensely proud of what we’ve told you we’ve achieved in the last few years.

We’ve delivered an additional 20,951 officers into policing over the past three years, coincidentally replacing the 20,000 officers that we cut 2010-2017. I’ll also point out that we’ve increased the police numbers to a new record of almost the same despite a rise in the population of 5% over the same period.

I have widened the pool from which we can recruit, by enabling non-degree holders to be part of policing. It’s not about how many exams you sit or essays you can write – important skills though those are, believe me when I say I was never top of the class in any of those.  It’s about common sense, problem-solving, strength- of character and how your physique looks in Hi-Viz. You will, of course, still be required to be dishing out the third degree!

Lastly, I repeatedly get asked about the common sense policing of Michelle Mone and the large amount of money that may or may not be missing. Let me be clear, there is nothing to discuss as Michelle has a big boat and it’s only small boats that are illegal. Actually, I wonder if I can skip the crowning thing and join her for some cocktails.

Anyway, thanks for listening, and remember, 20,000 officers is not just a statistic in a press release!

In the interests of balance the real speech is available here…

Suella Braverman: Full speech on ethos of ‘Common sense policing’ | West Bridgford Wire

Elsewhere, Labour’s Jess Phillips appears to be in trouble with the Standards Commissioner over some untimely declarations, Kier Starmer has distanced himself from looking at Proportional Representation, the SNP continue to gently implode and Arsenal fans are starting to wobble.

It’s been quite a while since we ordered wine from our New Zealand supplier; the journey has been a long and arduous one that included the moving from a warehousing facility that was small and crowded to an enormous one where nobody can find anything. However, that’s all in the past and we are chuffed to announce now that our bestselling Marlborough white has finally arrived. Yes folks, Southern Dawn Sauvignon Blanc 2022 (£12.99) is back in da house. We’ll open a bottle to let you all re-discovers its charms.

We’ve spoken to a number of you planning holidays in Greece this summer. As part of our remit to public and community service and definitely not because we fancy kleftiko on Sunday, we will be opening Monemvasios Red 2013/14(£23.99). It’s from the southern part of the Peloponnese, in the southern part of Greece, made from 90% Agiorgitiko and 10% Mavroudi but I imagine you knew this already.  It’s absolutely delicious, the fact that the wine has a nice bit of age means we have some lovely mature dark fruit and silky polished tannins – all in all a wine that gives scores high on both tasty and satisfaction scales.   

With that we’re outta here – have a great long weekend and remember as it’s a Bank Holiday we will be closed on Monday, so we’ll see you Tuesday at noon!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

When Rishi Sunak made his first address as Britain’s Prime Minister, he vowed to lead a government of “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.” He now joins Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Henry Smith MP, Scott Benton MP, David Mundell MP, Christopher Pincher MP and Steve Brine MP on the investigations list of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. *

The Oxford Dictionary suggests integrity (noun) – the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles

*In an update to this, Dominic Raab has resigned today. If you read his resignation letter, it’s a real “sorry, not sorry” example and I’m not convinced he feels any contrition or even much acceptance of the findings of the enquiry.

With no comment from us, the latest blog post on Ofwat’s website starts… “Trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.”  This old proverb was quoted recently in a discussion about trust in the water sector in England and Wales.

It’s the London Marathon on Sunday. Since its inception in 1981, it has become an event that has inspired so many people to take up running, give up running, take up charity or volunteer work or become fancy dress experts. Alex has run it twice, Wayne joined in for one of them in 2014 though we didn’t manage to meet till the end, but definitely felt we’d earned a beer and pizza that evening. We know many of you have run it and that several of you will be running it this year. A friend of Wayne’s is running her 10^th , and final, London Marathon this year for Haven’s Hospices, so if you’ve some spare cash down the back of the sofa you can donate here… Havens Hospices – JustGiving.  Or perhaps the Lifeboats, because you never know when you might need saving and you’ll have the added bonus that it so upsets Suella and Nigel RNLI – Royal National Lifeboat Institution – JustGiving . Best wishes and good luck to all runners, the hard work is behind you and the cheers, smiles and jelly babies will power you round like a magic carpet. But don’t use a magic carpet obviously, that’d be like getting in a car on an ultramarathon!

As we move into Record Store Day, we have exciting news on the music front: Everything But The Girl have a new album out today. ‘Fuse’ is their first album since 1999’s ‘Temperamental’ and has gained a 5 star Album of the Week review from The Guardian. Wayne ordered a copy on hearing the first track and reckons it’s definitely worth a listen on this weekend’s new tunes rotation.

Truth be told we’re probably pretty poor at our jobs, you’ve all signed up to hear about wine and in return we give you poor takes on sport, tin-pot political views and mostly rubbish horseracing tips. That all changes today as we’ve got some new wines coming in or just arrived.

Funkstille Grüner Veltliner 2022, Niederösterreich, Austria (£13.99) is a cracking new member in our Austrian corner and is a classy, crisp dry white with pear fruit, citrus and melon notes and a great dry finish.

Chateau de l’Aumerade Marie Christine 2022, Côtes de Provence Cru Classé (£17.99 or 6 for £90). Everybody’s favourite rose arrived yesterday, crisp, dry and as elegant as always.

Solevari Reserve Feteasca Neagra 2017, Recas, Romania (£12.99) from the same stable as the ever popular Orange wine, this was a bit of a find. We tasted it a couple of weeks back and were rather taken with it. Spicy black pepper framing black berry fruit character, a hint of cherry, maybe even a bit Pinot Noiry, medium bodied and great value was what we wrote down.

Las Tres Filas Mencia 2020, Bierzo, Spain (£15.99). We’ve been looking for one of these since our last one went missing in action, unable to survive the combined problems of Brexit and Covid.  As you’d expect from this north western part of Spain, silky in the mouth, medium bodied with dark fruits and just the ticket with some lamb chops, grilled tuna or some aged hard sheep cheese!

Another one that snuck onto the shelves a few weeks ago and that we’ll be opening this weekend. Dom Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, Valle del Maipo, Chile (£31) is an absolute stunner from the smart folks at Tabalí. Apart from being a smashing resignation gift for all your friends called Dominic, it is from one of Chile’s finest sites for Cabernet Sauvignon. Lovely cassis fruit, soft tannins with cedar and star anise notes providing a framework to that cassis character is what we reckon, have a taste yourself and tell us what you think.

On the white front, we’ll give that Funkstille Grüner Veltliner mentioned above a go shall we?

That’ll be us for another week, do come and taste the new wines and have a fabulous weekend!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Another short week this one, with more on the horizon – we could really get quite used to these long weekends!

For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to pop in yet this week, I’ll fill you in on what you’ve missed – frankly nothing.  I’m not sure if it’s the fact that everyone is taking advantage of a nice Easter break somewhere less wet than here or that you are all keenly avoiding Alex for fear of him regaling you in torturously tedious detail about how much money he won on his Phil Mickelson Masters tip.  Either way, the bell above the door hasn’t tinkled as much as it usually would…

So, we’ve spent quite a lot of time reading what’s been going on in the world.  Okay, in fairness we spend a lot of time every week catching up on the news, as evidenced in our amateur assessments every Friday lunchtime.  On the whole, we found it quite hard to find much to report on – less coverage of the junior doctor’s strike than we thought we would find, lots of coverage of Joe Biden in Ireland and lots about that controversial Labour Party poster of Rishi Sunak.

So, realising that perhaps we should actual get on and do some work, we looked to the world of wine for our entertainment which sadly didn’t involve opening a bottle of Meursault but did involve us buying a couple of new lines.

Ferghettina Franciacorta Brut NV – £25.00

For a long time we have resisted the temptations offered by Franciacorta, on the grounds that we often found the wines to be too expensive when they arrive in the UK and consequently not terribly competitive when put up against the wines of Champagne.  For those of you that don’t fancy looking at Google, let me save you the trouble.  Franciacorta is a sparkling wine produced in northern Italy, from the province of the Brescia, Lombardy.  Widely considered to be Italy’s finest sparkling wine due to the fact that it has more complexity and finesse than Prosecco or Moscato d’Asti, it is produced in the traditional method using Chardonnay, Pinot Nero (and occasionally a spot of Pinot Bianco), and is undoubtedly a homage to the fine sparkling wines of northern France.

Ferghettina is a family run winery, founded in 1991 (sparkling wine production in the region only started in the 1960’s) and their Brut NV is a blend of 85% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Nero.  It is aged for 30 months on it lees and has a palate laden with some citrus zing, some ripe golden apples, some floral blossom and some hazelnut too.  As you can perhaps tell, we are fans….

Staying with Italy, we see the return of Le Volte dell’Ornellaia 2020 – £30.00.  Whilst not officially a new line for us, the grapes in this wine were yet to have been born when we last sold this, in those halcyon pre-Covid days, it deserves to be mentioned.  As the winery themselves say: Instantly enjoyable, versatile and playful, Le Volte dell’Ornellaia is all about conviviality. This bright red wine opens the door to the world of Ornellaia and simply shares the passion for quality that is experienced every day on our estate and with every sip.

So far as a tasting note is concerned, it’s hard to argue with Jane Anson’s appraisal:

“Grabs you from the first moment your nose hovers over the glass. Smudged charcoal runs into raspberry, underbrush and mandarin orange peel that speaks of Tuscan sun. Excellent quality, good persistency in the glass as it stretches out through the palate. Everything feels in balance, and this provides another indicator that 2020 is a great vintage in this corner of Italy – Le Volte is (almost) 100% Merlot but has freshness and nuance.”  93 points

Domaine Richard Saint Joseph Cuvée Prémices 2020 – £23.99.  It had come to our attention that we were looking a little bit short in the Northern Rhône department so we acted immediately.  This is from a family estate in the small village of Chavanay located at the heart of the Pilat, the top of the Rhône valley. 100% Syrah, this is a super fruity Saint-Joseph with light notes of red fruits and pepper, really approachable right now and a great all-rounder.

We also have a couple more wines in the pipeline but sadly they haven’t arrived in time so more fun to be had next week!

Looking ahead to the weekend, Alex now tells me that there are two things I should be aware of.  Firstly, it’s International Malbec Day on Monday, which strictly speaking isn’t the weekend but does give me a guide as to what to open today.  Secondly, he tells me that Escaria Ten, Cape Gentleman, A Wave of the Sea, Recite a Prayer and Born By The Sea are all at 100-1 in the Grand National tomorrow at 5.15pm.  I’m not sure if he thinks he’s some sort of renascent John McCririck but frankly, I still wouldn’t touch his tips with a bargepole – I reckon Back On The Lash at 50-1 sounds far more his level!

With International Malbec Day having been mentioned, I think perhaps we should crack open a bottle of Bodegas Staphyle Iris Malbec 2021 – £9.99 for tasting later.  This is from Lujan de Cuyo, which is pretty high altitude wise and home to most of the smart names in quality from Mendoza.  The winery was originally built in 1930 but was fully updated in 2002 by boutique winery Bodegas Staphyle.  The wine is brilliant, youthful and bright with light tannins, cherry and berry fruit characteristics and a lovely easy going finish.

For a white, a cheeky little Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa has been tugging at my sleeve.  Barton Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2020 – £13.49.  We like the wines from Barton and it seems you do to.  The cool maritime climate of Walker Bay is ideal for Sauvignon and this one is all about green pepper, gooseberries, and grapefruit, underlined with a crisp minerality and a medium- bodied citrus finish – ideal!

That’s it from us for this week, and remember it’s another short weekend this one, with more on the horizon – we can’t really get quite used to these long weeks!

Alex & Wayne

Park Vintners

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Fellow Wine Lovers,

Our week, in numbers:

506/222=2.279279279.

Having recently completed a major refurbishment programme, Bibby Stockholm can accommodate up to 222 guests in high quality en suite bedrooms alongside a range of modern facilities over three decks (www.bibbymarine.com/bibby-stockholm -Stockholm-Factsheet.pdf)

So is capacity 506 or 222?  There seems to be some serious discrepancy, are we trying to get 506 men into 222 beds?  Pretty sure that there aren’t too many UK prison cells with more than 2.279279 people inside?

14, to become 15?

So, is Scott Benton the next Owen Paterson?  Maybe, maybe not, but as we write he has had the Conservative party whip suspended and I would suggest to all of his colleagues to be really careful who they have meetings with, and make promises to, outside the Palace of Westminster.  If Scott does end up becoming un-whipped, it will take the number of Independents currently sitting in the Commons to 15 – the fasting growing party and the fourth biggest group there, with one more member than the Liberal Democrats!

Minus 2.

Everyone’s favourite orange, President Trump, finally made it to court this week to give his reaction to the 34 charges he faces.  As you would imagine, he brought some supporters and family members, so Melania’s decision to stay in Florida and wash her hair went by completely unnoticed.  Oh, and Ivanka had better things to do too….

£200 million.

That’s how much interim manager Frank Lampard spent last time he was at Chelsea (aren’t all Chelsea mangers interim?).  Anyway, they sacked him, of course, and he subsequently ended up at Everton where he was praised for successfully steering the Toffeemen away from relegation.  The question we are asking ourselves is, whilst  we know Chelsea are top of the bottom half of the table, 12 points clear of the drop, surely they aren’t already putting their focus on league survival, are they?!

400-1.

Having been unable to place our usual bet on Fickie Rowler as he was outside the Top 50 (don’t worry Wayne, one day he’ll win and we’ll get all our money back), we scanned down the various odds for the Augusta Masters and far, far down we found Phil Mickelson at 400-1.  Now, we know he’s a numpty and in pretty patchy form but frankly, an each-way on the man who has won the Green Jacket three times seemed a pound well spent.  Theegala at 80-1 and Spieth at 16-1 also caught our attention for e/w punts however, if you want to win some serious money, I’d avoid them at all costs because we are lousy tipsters!

Zero.

That’s exactly the amount of information our cycling fanatic gave me, before he beetled off to the south coast to eat fish and chips and drink Rosado, about the Paris –Roubaix, whatever that is.  A quick google tells me that it’s 257km, hilly and takes place on Sunday…. sounds like a lot of hard work, think I’ll stick to hitting little white balls into hidden sand-traps and lateral water for my fun, thanks!

12-5.

As you have now no doubt realised, we are open today (Friday) and tomorrow from 12 noon until 5pm.  Easter Sunday and Easter Monday we will be mostly consuming chocolate and intermittently snoozing to ensure we return to work bright and breezy on Tuesday.

2.

The number of wines open to taste today and tomorrow.  For those of you who haven’t beetled off to the south coast to eat fish and chips and drink Rosado, you’re in for a bit of a treat.

Domaine Alexandre Chablis Vieilles Vignes 2020 – £21.99.  This 13 hectare property is in the small village of La Chapelle-Vaupelteigne just north of Chablis.  It’s a real family affair here, Guy and Olivier being the 3rd Generation at this estate and this cuvée is from the oldest vines, around 60 years old, which were planted by their grandfather.  It is an excellent, elegant Chablis with a nice richness from the old vines and a good, lean minerality with great balance between the fruit and acidity into the long finish.

And, because it’s Easter, we clearly need to open The Chocolate Block 2021:

Half Bottle – £15.99

Bottle – £25.00 (6 for £135)

Magnum – £55

Jeroboam – £130

“It takes a lot of talent – and good grapes -to make one million bottles of something this impressive. Using fruit from Goldmine, Porseleinberg and a block in Malmesbury, it’s a seamless cuvée of Syrah with 26% Grenache, Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon and Viognier. Polished, scented and glossy, with blueberry and blood orange flavours, fresh acidity, good structure and nuanced oak. 2023-30”  93/100 Tim Atkin MW, South Africa Report 2022

15, 16, 16, 14.

That’s it from us for this week – not going to tempt fate by promising a sun-drenched weekend however the daily temperature highs for today through to Monday are 15, 16, 16 and 14 Celsius – double figures every day!!!!

Happy Easter!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week we found ourselves admiring the French. Not, this time, for the quality of their wines, but for their energy and commitment to the cause. A mere 234 years after their Revolution, large parts of the population are out on the streets protesting, setting fire to the Town Hall doors, and fighting with the police. It’s been amazing to witness the lengths they’ll go just to keep a king out!

Germany though, more welcoming or just a bit slow off the mark? Berlin hosted the first state visit from King Charles this week with photos aplenty in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Quite symbolic really, it’s the first time the Brandenburg Gate has been used to welcome a head of state.  

We went to a wine tasting this week. We call it work, and have a system to slim down the 300+ wines that are there. Clearly many of them we have some kind of representation or similar chum already on the shelf so we don’t need to taste them all. Like always we waded through the list and marked on the sheet what we wanted to taste and set off to start with the whites. As we sipped, swirled, sniffed and spat (it’s not pretty!)we looked along the tables to see if there was anything visually appealing that we may not have checked on the list. Well there was, a Spanish red with a very fetching label so we popped a drop in the glass gave it a sniff, swirl, had a swig and then reached for the spittoon. It was really tannic, might be a pleasure in 10 years or so but won’t be appearing here anytime soon. Pretty label though!

In other news, British politics has not improved at all since we last spoke. We’ve had a queue of MP’s lining up to take jobs from a fictitious Korean company, including our very own one! Interests have not been declared properly by Mr Sunak, although the policy seems to be to answer the wrong question repeatedly rather than just correct the record. Locally, the potholes on Strathearn Road are growing at such a pace that we look forward to the imminent opening of Strathearn Lido!

Across the pond the mass shooting epidemic continues, proving once again that America still has too many guns and way too many idiots that think the solution is more guns. The town of Raymond in Minnesota has been evacuated after a train carrying both ethanol and corn syrup was derailed. Given the accelerants on board it will come as no surprise that the area suffered from a rather large fire. Trumpolina has become the first former President to be indicted (or indicated as he typed it!) on criminal charges. Apparently the privilege of being a former President means he won’t be pushed to the ground with a knee on his neck whilst they cuff him!

Sportswise, the football is back after the international break, but the real excitement is for the Ronde van Vlaanderen on Sunday. In the men’s race, Mathieu Van der Poel seems to be the bookies favourite but the odds don’t offer us much room for error, or indeed cobblestones! We’ve had a chat with our chum Dave and particularly like the idea of a Ganna/Pidcock combination.

In the women’s race Annemiek van Vleuten is going to want revenge after being beaten by Lotte Kopecky in the last hundred metres last year. I just wonder if all the favourites are marking each other out it might Pfeiffer Georgi and Megan Jastrab just sneak off into the distance? They seem to be having rather a lot of fun!

Easter is nearly upon us but it’s not too late to stock up on some Chocolate Block 2021 (£25 or £135 for six). It’ll be a very suitable partner to some lamb!

Easter Opening Hours

Thursday 6^th April – Noon – 7PM

Good Friday 7^th April – Noon – 5PM

Saturday 8^th April – Noon – 5PM

Sunday 9^th April – CLOSED

Monday 10^th April – CLOSED

Tuesday 11^th April – As you were!

Tasting this weekend

We’ll populate the white corner with a glass of Dog Point Section 94 2019(£27.99) – a Sauvignon Blanc sourced from a single organic vineyard parcel planted in 1992. Natural fermentation and ageing in old French oak barrels for around eighteen months make it a real treat.

Sitting to attention in the red chair will be Familia Cecchin Carignan 2018 (£13.99) – also organic, the Cecchin family have been winemakers since 1959. They are very hands off in their approach, use minimal sulphur and produce really very quaffable wines. This is one of Wayne’s favourites!

With that, we’re off!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It’s been a bit of a week so we hope you’re sitting comfortably as there’s a bit to get through.

Monday brought us news that Switzerland’s largest bank had swallowed up the second largest bank without any need for chats with competition authorities or a vote in parliament, controversially wiping out a layer of bond holders ahead of shareholders…  Something had gone very wrong and Credit Suisse was no longer able to “build lasting value by serving our clients with care and entrepreneurial spirit” without the help of Union Bank of Switzerland. It was also the start of spring with the Spring Equinox happening at 9.24pm.

Tuesday came and went without Donald Trump’s expected arrest. Alex is convinced there’s some smoke and mirrors going on there – the fact that Trump received $1.5 million in donations after announcing his imminent arrest may be it. Bluff and bluster, bluff and bluster.

Wednesday though, was the big deal. We had the Commons vote on the Windsor Protocol. This, of course, is not an edict on the way to knot your tie but rather the new protocol to allow Northern Ireland to function properly for goods and services with both the UK and the EU. Despite much bluster from the usual suspects the bill passed comfortably, certainly a win for Rishi Sunak. In entirely unrelated news, Rishi Sunak chose to publish his long spoken about tax returns. With attention focused elsewhere, there was little to comment other than why did it take so long!

Then we were up in front of the Privileges Committee (or Kangaroo Court if you listen to Rees-Mogg for your news) chaired by Harriet Harman, impeccably turned out in a dark suit and wearing Jay-Z’s gold necklace. Boris appeared, flanked by legal counsel we’re all paying for, with his usual impeccably coiffed straw mat and fresh from the jumble sale grey suit. No necklace for him, just an oath on the St James Bible. He was very keen to highlight that being Prime Minister during a pandemic really was a Hard Knock Life and that everyone in No.10 was working really rather hard. The reason all the photos showed bottles of alcohol was “essential” for staff morale and the running of Government.

Clearly he didn’t like being questioned, becoming quite testy at times, continually interrupting…Excuse Me Miss, he kept trying. Blustering, huffing and insisting, when questioned, that he’d been assured that no rules were being broken when in fact two of the people he claimed told him this had given opposing evidence in their submissions to the committee. I think he may be in a spot of trouble with HR for naming one of them who was assured anonymity!

It seemed to us that Harriet Harman got straight to the nub of the argument with her comment: “If I was going 100 mph and I saw the speedometer saying 100 miles an hour, it would be a bit odd, wouldn’t it, if I said somebody assured me that I was not”. Clearly remembering her own shortcomings as she was fined for doing 99mph on the M4 in 2003!

Anyhow, we could go on with this but Boris has had his say and the committee has gone off to decide whether he’s a fit person to ever Run This Town again. We think we rather agree with the Secret Barrister: “There’s a reason that criminal defence lawyers will tell you that the defence case is usually at its strongest before the defendant gives evidence.”

On the sports front, we’ve moved into International duties in the football with Qualifying for the European Championship across this weekend. England and Northern Ireland both came away with wins last night. Congratulations also due to Harry Kane for becoming England’s top scorer ever!

In real sports, La Volta a Catalunya is rolling around the hills of Catalonia with Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel duking it out for the spoils, ahead of Sunday’s finish in Barcelona.

In wine news, a collaboration of 89 scientists from 17 countries have used genomics to establish that grapevines were probably the first fruit domesticated by humans and it seems to have happened in two separate places simultaneously! Eleven thousand years ago in fact, in both the Levant (Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan) and the South Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan). Imagine that farmers, just 650 miles apart, started the ball rolling on what put Park Vintners on the map in Arthur Road.

With that firmly in mind, we shall visit Georgia and open Vachnadziani Winery Krakhuna 2019 (£13.49) – a dry white wine, made from Krakhuna grapes grown in the river Kvirila valley, West Georgia. It is citrusy and somewhere between a Furmint and a north eastern Spanish white – very versatile.

Once we’re done there, we’ll pull on our red trousers and head over to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon and have a taste of Massaya Terrasses de Baalbeck 2018, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon (£29.99) – a wine Alex first tasted in 2008, so not the swiftest turn around we’ll accept.  The famous Rhône producer, Vieux Télégraphe, has a big interest in this winery and the 40% Grenache Noir, 30% Syrah, 30% Mourvèdre blend is a bit of a giveaway.  Rhôney, but not Rhôney, is not the most helpful tasting note but I think you’ll understand once you try it. 

So that’s probably us for another week, will Boris out last Conte? Let’s wait and see…