{"id":1064,"date":"2018-10-19T12:01:09","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T11:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2018-10-19T12:01:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T11:01:09","slug":"half-term-tissues-and-mad-cows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1064","title":{"rendered":"Half Term, Tissues and Mad Cows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fellow Wine Lovers,
\nBoof \u2013 and here it is, half term already and the countdown to Christmas commences! 66 days, since you ask and we\u2019ve already sold our first six box of Bollinger for the festivities! If you deduct lengthy half term holidays from this figure then by the time we get them back into uniform there will only be about 50 days \u2013 it\u2019s practically here, have you ordered the turkey?
\nI know we\u2019ve talked about this before but as we\u2019re in the midst of another month of charity-influenced abstention so the media is having its usual field day promoting alcohol free gins and the like. We actually hear of one made in Ireland, by a 16 year old as part of her D of E project, that is called Driver\u2019s Gin. What a great name, we thought, smart, simple and catchy. What we also thought was how can a 16 year old create such a drink? Surely, to make it authentic, one needs to taste it and know exactly what\u2019s missing and how to replicate it which relies on many years of immersion in Gin and Tonic and Martini\u2019s which we\u2019re hopeful she hasn\u2019t had – we expect she had help\u2026
\nEqually, as discussed last week, in a world where we are told the 16-25 year olds are drinking less or nothing at all, why do we need alcohol free gin? To our mind the market for Seedlip and co is to Gin drinkers who on this occasion can\u2019t drink gin but if they could, by golly they would. If you\u2019re not a gin drinker in the first place, you\u2019re certainly not an alcohol free gin drinker \u2013 perhaps the market is potentially more fragile than we are led to believe?
\nIt\u2019s not often I get caught reading the Economist but the combined influencers of becoming a bit bored with Rolling Stone of late and my father trying to make me read grown up articles led me there. In the absence of sports pages or jumbo crosswords, I was starting to panic a little until I found an article titled \u2018Pinot or pot? Cannabis v wine in California\u2019<\/em> – my sort of story.
\nAnd it\u2019s a great read, if you get the chance, particularly if we also take into context what has happened in Canada this week. Some Californian winemakers are bemoaning the fact that their previously cheap grape pickers have now decided to go and work for the cannabis farms that pay better and guarantee work all year round \u2013 the joy of democracy, freedom to work where you wish! Slightly more scary is the idea that sommeliers are offering \u2018wine and weed\u2019 pairing classes – I was always led to believe by my more wayward pals that mixing booze and bong was a recipe for disaster!
\nAnyway, well regarded drinks writer and generally well informed pundit Andrew Jefford, sums it up well, we reckon: \u201cCannabis drinks may become the leading medium for recreational consumption.\u201d<\/em>
\nNow, that\u2019s the sort of alcohol free drink we\u2019d be more interested in trying\u2026
\nAway from the Economist, we have been rueing the day that we decided that the \u00a33,000 entrance fee was too much to justify joining Wimbledon Park Golf Club. However, any members who are reading this, if you need help with any windfall spending we can think of 850 ways to put it to good use!
\nBrexit. Yeah, we know, move on.
\nNo place for Cipriani in the England squad, yet Ashton and Hartley still get a place on the bus? I can already hear Eddie Butler, Mike Aylwin, Stephen Jones and wee Stuey Barnes sharpening their knives.
\nMansize tissues are no more as Kleenex bows to public pressure to remove the sexism from nasal hygiene \u2013 I always thought they were called mansize because men had bigger noses? Certainly, I remember them being an aspirational product as a young boy but apparently I was wrong in oh, so many ways.
\nMad Cow disease is back, violent crime and murder is at a new high, the clocks go back in just over a week, Alex is playing golf whilst I\u2019m stuck at work and, as discussed, there are less days than we thought until Christmas \u2013 time for a drink I think\u2026.
\nWe\u2019re going to have a Second-Go-Saturday since this week we finally received the Albari\u00f1o that we were meant to have on tasting last weekend \u2013 I\u2019m sure you remember but, just to refresh your memories, it\u2019s called Eido da Salgosa (\u00a314.99)<\/strong> and is a wine Alex tasted a little while back and amongst other notes wrote \u2018it should be on our shelves\u2019. Well, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and delivery shenanigans it now is – come and taste it whilst you can!!
\nFor the red, I\u2019m going to stay Iberian and unleash another of our new listings \u2013 Quinta do Espinho Colheita 2014 – \u00a314.99<\/strong>. A classic Douro blend with lovely brambly fruits, a touch of liquorice, a hint of oak and a really decent, long finish. Definitely a wine for this time of year\u2026
\nSo come in and taste the wines, we\u2019re both here on Saturday so service has the potential to be 1.5 times better, the music roughly the same and jokes noticeably worse!
\nAnd with that, I\u2019m gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fellow Wine Lovers, Boof \u2013 and here it is, half term already and the countdown to Christmas commences! 66 days, since you ask and we\u2019ve already sold our first six box of Bollinger for the festivities! If you deduct lengthy half term holidays from this figure then by the time we get them back into […]<\/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-1064","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\/1064","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=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1065,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions\/1065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}