Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
We had a nice conversation with one of our customers yesterday. Now, I\u2019m not pointing this out to imply that all the other conversations we have with customers are not nice, far from it. In fact, now that I\u2019ve got my spade out and need to start digging frantically, I would submit that every conversation we have ever had with any of our customers has been a joy and a life enriching experience that leaves a trail of enlightenment in its wake\u2026.<\/p>\n
So, I\u2019ll start again. One of our customers, who is also in the business of buying and selling things, predominantly craft beers, made an observation yesterday that resonated. One of the absolute pleasures and strengths of running your own small, independent business is having the freedom to do what you want.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t mean the kind of \u2018do what you want\u2019 that involves sloping off to the beach on sunny days and drinking fine wines off the top shelf, I, or rather he, mean(s) the freedom of choice. No one tells me who I have to buy wines from and, in much the same way, no one has to sell their wine to me; no one has a gun to their head.<\/p>\n
The result of this freedom is that we don\u2019t tend to have big brand wines or beers, we don\u2019t sell Veuve, The Ned or Peroni and no one is making us. The freedom we have is to deal with people we like. There are not a lot of rock star wages in the wine trade at any level and as a result one of the main draws, beyond the obvious vinous pleasures, is the people that populate this grape fuelled industry. We love buying wine and beer from Phil and Clive and Jack and Walter and Mary and Frankie and Simon and Mark and, of course, Louisa. They are real people who come in and talk to us about what\u2019s new, about sport, about politics, about each other\u2019s families and, occasionally, about wine. We don\u2019t spend the same fortunes with them as their other bigger clients but they never make us feel like that matters and, significantly, they always give us a fair price and are very transparent about price changes when they do have to happen.<\/p>\n
Recently, some of our other suppliers have not been showing the same generosity of spirit and in fact have raised prices with no warning, have shown a distinct lack of desire to increase their business with us when we have tried, some we haven\u2019t laid eyes upon in over a year and thus we are parting company with their products \u2013 how long until they notice, I wonder?<\/p>\n
When we first opened we decided our strap line would be Wines with Personality, mainly because wine without personality is not a place any of us want to be. This belief in personality is why we still deal with the people we enjoy dealing with and why, hopefully, you all still enjoy dealing with us, or at least Wayne because he\u2019s less grumpy!<\/p>\n
Thank you Adam, for reminding us why we\u2019re doing this thing and now, you\u2019ll all be glad to hear, the rant is over!<\/p>\n
When we haven\u2019t been delisting lines we\u2019ve been busy watching the roads melting. Extraordinary! We\u2019ve all discussed the weather enough already I know and actually, I would be grateful if someone could tell my family and friends in Devon that I already know what beaches, blue sky and ice creams look like without need for constant daily, pictorial reminders. Likewise, you chaps at the BBC do not need to keep showing us pictures of different patches of dried grass around the country \u2013 I have a back garden, I can see for myself. Finally, do I really mind if we break the highest temperature recorded in the British Isles \u2013 I\u2019m not sure I do, I fully suspect it\u2019ll still be toasty and warm even if we don\u2019t!<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, whilst glued to the Tour de France, one of our number has been reminding us of the time he broke his knee when he fell off his bike and then proceeded to cycle home, a mile down the road. To put his heroics into context, Philippe Gilbert threw himself over a wall whilst descending during the Tour this week, scrambled back up onto the road, got back on his bike, cycled a further 60 kilometres to the stage finish and picked the prize for most aggressive rider of the day. He too fractured his knee. Wayne, Philippe, we salute you!<\/p>\n
In Stratford, the ladies have been playing Hockey in the Vitality Women\u2019s World Cup. England have drawn twice, which has an eerie sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, and play Ireland on Sunday, who currently top the group. I have to tell you this because it\u2019s nigh on impossible to find out elsewhere unless you have BT Sport.<\/p>\n
The politicos are all on holiday, which feels like a bit of a mickey take, given the amount of Brexit plates that are currently spinning but slowing down. If we end up in a monumental pickle in March, I imagine we\u2019ll all look back fondly on the 10 week summer break our leaders enjoyed?<\/p>\n
And so, as often happens, we turn to drink. This weekend, as it\u2019s the end of the TdF, we\u2019ll taste two wines of French provenance, one from the Loire and one from Roussillon.<\/p>\n
Domaine Champalou Vouvray Sec 2016 – \u00a317.99<\/strong> Catherine and Didier started the Domaine in 1983 and have gone on to become one of the most acclaimed producers in Vouvray. This cuv\u00e9e comes from 35 year old vines and is lovely and crisp, with apple fruit on the nose. Somewhat rounder and richer on the palate leading to a lovely crisp dry finish. It\u2019s unusual for either of us to start a tasting note with \u2018delicious\u2019 but in this case, both of us did!<\/p>\n Three Peaks Domaine Treloar 2014 – \u00a314.99<\/strong> A very classy blend of Syrah (65%), Mourv\u00e8dre (25%) and Grenache (10%) from Englishman Jonathon Hesford\u2019s Domaine Treloar. A rich and spicy blend that spent 12 months in French barriques and shows lovely crushed forest fruit character, a touch of earthy minerality and maybe even a hint of leather. Not too heavy but with enough crunch to remind you of what top quality southern French wine is all about.<\/p>\n Now that is probably it from us, apart from a few AOB’s.<\/p>\n Wine School sign up is gathering pace (starts Wednesday 10th October) details attached, don\u2019t miss out. Also the Wine & Cheese and Argentine Tastings are filling up too, so yes, don\u2019t miss out.<\/p>\n Finally, as has become our custom, Saturdays in August we will close at 7pm.<\/strong><\/p>\n And with that I\u2019m gone \u2013 enjoy your weekends and keep topped up on liquids with personality!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, We had a nice conversation with one of our customers yesterday. Now, I\u2019m not pointing this out to imply that all the other conversations we have with customers are not nice, far from it. In fact, now that I\u2019ve got my spade out and need to start digging frantically, I would submit […]<\/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-1028","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\/1028","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=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1029,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions\/1029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}