Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
Winter went; Spring sprang; now Summer is here to stay.<\/p>\n
With this in mind, and freshly back from shaking his solstice in Wiltshire, Wayne finally instituted shirt sleeve order yesterday, which this year allows us to wear knee length shorts with long, sturdy socks, brogues and a loose cravat rather than a tie. Waistcoats are optional, no mention of singlets as yet.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s not all he decreed. Before I was allowed to enter the shop yesterday I had to show my ID, had to confirm I didn\u2019t have any criminal records and that I lived in Wimbledon. As I have lived in Wimbledon for more than 5 years, I am considered \u2018settled\u2019 so am now entitled to continue working in the shop and pay my taxes and my National Insurance \u2013 whoop, whoop!<\/p>\n
Having thus gained entry to the shop, I then got to down to the serious business of standing behind the counter, trying to look busy. Years back this used to be a skill that took to time to learn \u2013 Wayne still can be found on occasion with his hand in his chin, gazing pensively into the middle distance \u2013 a look he developed when working in Oddbins Fine Wine, to discourage timewasters. However, nowadays we can hunch over the computer and give the impression that we are crunching numbers in a particularly complex spreadsheet whilst in fact we are checking to see if England have beaten the Aussies again.<\/p>\n
It was whilst engaged in this that I discovered that another \u2018craft\u2019 brewer had gone over to the dark side. Beavertown, the cult brewery founded by Logan Plant, son of little known rocker, Robert Plant, has announced that it has sold a \u2018minority\u2019 stake in the business to Heineken for \u00a340 million. Interestingly, when Heineken took a similar \u2018minority\u2019 stake in Brixton Brewery in November last year, the spokesman for the Dutch monolith, when asked about further acquisitions, was quoted: \u2018at the moment, we have no further plans. We have found the perfect London brewer to partner with\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
I wonder how Brixton feel about today\u2019s developments \u2013 when they signed I expect they hoped for monogamy but now seem to be playing second fiddle in a Heineken harem?<\/p>\n
Just so we\u2019re all on the same page, here are some ideals that are considered important for craft brewers in the USA:
\na) Craft brewers are small brewers.
\nb) The hallmark of craft beer and craft brewers is innovation. Craft brewers interpret historic styles with unique twists and develop new styles that have no precedent.
\nc) Craft beer is generally made with traditional ingredients like malted barley; interesting and sometimes non-traditional ingredients are often added for distinctiveness.
\nd) Craft brewers tend to be very involved in their communities through philanthropy, product donations, volunteerism and sponsorship of events.
\ne) Craft brewers have distinctive, individualistic approaches to connecting with their customers.
\nf) Craft brewers maintain integrity by what they brew and their general independence, free from a substantial interest by a non-craft brewer.<\/p>\n
Many of these ideals are fully and brilliantly embraced by both Beavertown and Brixton, although perhaps not a) and f)!<\/p>\n
However, at the end of the day, I really can\u2019t fault them for taking the deal \u2013 if Tesco were to offer us \u00a340 million for a minority share, I\u2019m not sure we\u2019d take too long to sign.<\/p>\n
In the world outside of beer and wine, the World Cup has been doing what it always seems to do, which is not a lot, a lot of the time\u2026 Cricket has been marvellous of late but I won\u2019t dwell on this because it\u2019s bound to be woeful again very soon; and, thus far, we haven\u2019t had a winner at Ascot but that\u2019s probably due to Wayne forgetting it\u2019s on this week and me being in Spain!<\/p>\n
So, as discussed earlier, winter went, spring sprang and summer is here to stay. To celebrate such a seasonal milestone we shall taste some summery wines this weekend, both from Spain as that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been supping all week!<\/p>\n
Blanco will be Bioca Godello 2017 – \u00a314.69, which is a cracking wine from Valdeorras in north-west Spain. As one of Spain\u2019s rarer indigenous varieties, Godello may not be a well know grape variety so you\u2019ll have to trust me when I say it is very appealing, even rather more-ish, with hints of orange and lemon on the nose following onto a vibrant, crisp and focused palate with hints of minerals in the background. Absolutely crying out for some fish or calamares.<\/p>\n
Vino Tinto will be a Rioja – Torres Altos Ib\u00e9ricos Parcelas De Graciano 2014 – \u00a315.99, and is 100% Graciano. We\u2019ve enjoyed the odd drop of Graciano in the past, it has been noted; some may even say I bang on about it a bit much. However, having tasted this one again recently, I can completely understand why it was such a shoo-in. Elegant, dark cherry fruits, a real velvety palate with a touch of spice and a persistence of finish – we\u2019d suggest some pork fillet with it, cooked in the traditional solomillo adobado style.<\/p>\n
So, that\u2019s about it from us this week. As a teaser, we will be getting dates together this week for tastings and also for Wine School up to Christmas and will put them in next week\u2019s email \u2013 so have your diaries ready!!<\/p>\n
\u00a1Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa’ dentro!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fellow Wine Lovers, Winter went; Spring sprang; now Summer is here to stay. With this in mind, and freshly back from shaking his solstice in Wiltshire, Wayne finally instituted shirt sleeve order yesterday, which this year allows us to wear knee length shorts with long, sturdy socks, brogues and a loose cravat rather than a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1015,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014\/revisions\/1015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}