Fellow Wine\nLovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Happy New Year\nto those of you who are just joining us \u2013 how\u2019s it been for you so far? How\u2019s the marathon training going? How many different Seedlip cocktails can you\nhave in one evening without feeling bored? \nHow on earth did you manage to abstain from rich, robust red wine when\nthe last few days have brutally demanded a warming glass or two by the\nfire? Are you going to stay vegan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, chapeau\nto all of you that did the Dry January thing \u2013 a momentous achievement and one\nthat needs celebrating – but I imagine that, with 31 days of planning, such celebration\nis already underway; if you haven\u2019t planned anything, I\u2019m sure we can help!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should be a\ngood weekend for lots of kids as all they unexpectedly receive Playstations,\nMoncler jackets, brand new iphones, ponies, gold coated pain-au-chocolat and\nthe James Charles palette \u2013 things that were just unrealistic dreams up to now. Why? I hear you say. Well, whilst these things were never going to\nhappen in normal climates, news has now reached us that, in spite of Donny T\u2019s twitter\nrequests that global warming come back fast, the polar vortex has caused\nterrible mayhem in the Midwest with Michigan particularly hard hit and thus the\nneighbourhood of Hell, 200 miles east of Chicago, has frozen over \u2013 and we all\nknow what happens then!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, further\nresearch reveals that there is also a village called Hell in Norway, 300 miles\nnorth of Oslo and currently surviving on 5 hours daylight which we imagine\nspends much of its winter months frozen. \nSo, Hell regularly freezes over and another popular idiom bites the\ndust. We\u2019ll have to hope that this is\nthe only idiom losing validity since the possibility of flying pigs is not what\nany of us want!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere the\nhigh street is starting to produce some post-christmas casualties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oddbins is up\nagainst it once again and this time I\u2019m really not sure who can or will bail\nthem out. It\u2019s a massive shame, especially\nfor all those, like us, who wore Oddbins t-shirts for a number of years and who\nhave that nutty little company to thank for putting us through our wine exams\nand teaching us the joys (?)of retail. \nWe still have friends there, friends who have worked their way from the\nshop floor to head office and who now face an uncertain future. And the reason for the collapse? Well, for some reason Brexit was mentioned,\nprobably because it always is. Regular\ncurrency fluctuations – yep, I can see those being a problem. Cheap wine in the supermarkets, particularly\nthe European based ones \u2013 I can see this also being an issue. Online \u2013 again this is, we are told, the\nbrave new world and it certainly has a huge impact on us paying for bricks and\nmortar. Which leads us onto rents which absolutely\nhave to be the biggest factor. An\naverage 17.8% rent rise at its 100 sites has proved to be insurmountable which\nisn\u2019t really a surprise. I still don\u2019t\nget it, I would rather have my property occupied in perpetuity at a slightly\nlower rate but with a guaranteed income than the feast and famine style that a\nlot of landlords and letting agents follow. \nWe\u2019ve got a rent review later this year \u2013 we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s\nFebruary now and there should be plenty of reasons to be cheerful. We\u2019ve got through the longest, darkest month\nand will quickly scoot through this short month \n– before we know it we\u2019ll be wearing daffodils and praising St\nDavid. Also, February brings us the\nstart of the Guinness 6 Nations which actually starts this evening with France\nv Wales. Worryingly, I was due to go to\nthe pub to watch this with one of my Welsh friends but he has now decided\nagainst it as he doesn\u2019t feel it\u2019s going to be a good night for the Wales gang\n\u2013 we\u2019ll see. Scotland host Italy and\nIreland host England tomorrow \u2013 I fear there could be telephone number scores\nin both games and as such we\u2019ll be watching through our fingers. We\u2019ll then finish off the weekend with a bit\nof gridiron as the New England Patriots take on the LA Rams, the east coast\nbeing tipped as the possible winners here in a tight contest \u2013 I\u2019ll certainly\nstart watching it, the question being will I remember to go to bed or wake up\non the sofa at 4am?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those of you\nnot interested in the rugby, how about we distract you with a glass of wine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a departure\nfrom the norm we will have 3 bottles open this weekend \u2013 a red, a white and\nanother red. We\u2019ll be opening the second\nred because we can keep it fresh for an extended period of time \u2013 yep, that\u2019s\nright, our eto decanters arrived at the end of last week!! You may remember we did a bit of trialling of\nthe eto with Tom, the designer, two years ago. \nNow, after much back and forth to China over the intervening months, the\nfinished article is finally finished and the decanters are being shipped out \u2013\nand to celebrate we\u2019re going to christen ours with a bottle of\u2026. Cambria Benchbreak Pinot Noir 2013 –\n\u00a327.49. <\/strong>It\u2019sfrom Santa Maria\nValley in California and is medium-bodied, silky smooth and just the ticket for\nthat crispy duck you had planned for Chinese New year next week, or maybe that\nroast pork on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a more\neveryday note we\u2019ll also be opening two wines from South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Doran Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2015 –\n\u00a312.99 <\/strong>\u2013 since we listed\nthis in November we have sold out of our stocks twice and that\u2019s without ever\nputting it on tasting! A barrel\nfermented Chenin from Swartland, with a crisp, fresh palate of ripe orchard\nfruits and a lovely long finish – this is an extremely elegant white at a great\nprice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barton Rouge 2015 – \u00a39.99<\/strong> \u2013 we\u2019ve been selling the 2013 vintage\nfor the last couple of years and, a bit like the Chenin above, we never have it\non tasting because it just sells so well anyway. However, this is the new vintage so let\u2019s see\nif we can get it some more fans. A blend\nof Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvedre and Shiraz it has a delicious\nrichness of fruit, good tannin structure and a bit of spice on the finish that\nmake it the perfect foil to a hearty stew, a hunk of steak or a midweek spag\nbol!<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s it from\nus, no excuses any more as January is now well and truly behind us, come and\ntaste some wine and remind yourself what you\u2019ve been missing!\n\n\n\n\n\nu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, Happy New Year to those of you who are just joining us \u2013 how\u2019s it been for you so far? How\u2019s the marathon training going? How many different Seedlip cocktails can you have in one evening without feeling bored? How on earth did you manage to abstain from rich, robust red wine […]<\/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-1102","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\/1102","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=1102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1103,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions\/1103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}