Fellow Wine\nLovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so it goes\non. One minute we\u2019re leaving next week,\nthe next minute we\u2019re leaving at the end of June, then five minutes later the\nEU says we need to be out by 22nd<\/sup> May or 12th<\/sup> April\n– crikey, so much choice. Surprisingly, France seem to be very keen for\nus to sling our hook asap, whilst Theresa has \u2018personal regret\u2019 about asking\nfor a delay, perhaps alienating any of her last supporters in the commons, and\nJeremy has had some \u2018very constructive\u2019 talks in Brussels. Oh whoopee, well done you, MP\u2019s one and\nall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, we\u2019ve all\nrented rooms in the past and thus had the whole kerfuffle of moving out and\nmoving on. So, experience tells us that\nby now, with a week to go (previously agreed with our landlord) we should be nipping\ndown to the local offie to buy a bottle of something cheap whilst picking up\nsome empty wine boxes to put our\ncrockery in over the weekend; we should have booked a van, booked the day off\nand organised cleaners to do a deep clean so that we can leave the premises as\nwe found it and thus leave on good terms, ideally with a few quid in our pocket\nfrom our deposit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As demonstrated\nover and again, leaving Europe was never going to be as easy as moving house\nbut we really have seen the process escalated to levels that will be the\nsubject of politics A level essays for year to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s pretend\nthough that we were going to leave Europe next Friday. Irrespective of how Wayne and I voted, this\nhas been a day that we have been quite looking forward to from a commercial point\nof view. It\u2019s our year end next weekend\nand we were hoping for one last fillip to our turnover before the close. It seemed like a win-win for us \u2013 eager\nBrexiteers raiding our shelves for bottles and bottle of English bubbly whilst\ndisappointed Remainers buy Champagne to drown their sorrows whilst they still\ncan\u2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Herbert Hall Brut (Kent) – \u00a332.99<\/strong> and Hambledon\nClassic Cuv\u00e9e Ros\u00e9 (Hampshire) – \u00a340<\/strong> for the leavers and Louis Roederer Cristal 2009 (France) \u00a3175<\/strong>\nfor the stayers \u2013 might as well go out on a high!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Otherwise, life\nseems to go on here in Wimbledon Park. \nWe completed our first wine school of 2019 on Wednesday night, 6 weeks\nof tasting torture that rounded off with a bubbles boot camp \u2013 11 more palates\nare released onto the world, brimming with knowledge and expertise and an\nintimate working knowledge of all of Wayne\u2019s jokes \u2013 if this all sounds too\ngood to be true and the sort of thing you\u2019d like to get involved in then we\u2019ll\nkeep you posted with dates of our next course, which will start late September,\nI imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then I read\nthe booze press and my heart sank. \nInitially, the idea of Graham Norton launching a pink gin, to go\nalongside his wine range, seemed a target worthy of a few well targeted darts\nbut then I read about more crimes\nagainst wine being committed by the scientists at Blossom Hill and Echo\nFalls. For those of you oblivious to\nsuch things, Blossom Hill and Echo Falls are volume producers of very low\nquality wines in the USA but available globally. It seems that, of late, sales of vinous\nbeauties like Zinfandel Blush and Sun Kissed Red have been experiencing a bit\nof a slump. So what does any\nself-respecting wine producer do to counteract such a dip \u2013 of course, they\nmake a wine that isn\u2019t actually a wine at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blossom Hill Gin\nFizz. Yep, you read it correctly. So far as bandwagon jumping goes this gets a\ngold star, previously only awarded to Sparkling Pink Pinot Grigio a few years\nback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, very excitingly\nit comes in two flavours – Lemon & Rosemary, and Rhubarb \u2013 and we are told\nwe need to be pouring it over ice and serve it with a garnish. But surely ice and garnish is just gilding\nthe lily, we say? Surely the production\nmethod of blending white wine with \u2018botanical-infused water\u2019 and gin is\nenough? Apparently not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not wine,\nit\u2019s not gin, it\u2019s flavoured with lemon, rosemary and rhubarb and is fizzy \u2013\nit\u2019s the bride of Frankenwine, it\u2019s in the sparkling wine aisle of your local\nsupermarket and it makes me want to weep. \nEcho Falls did a similar launch about a month ago with a Ros\u00e9 Wine &\nGin Fusion which is about \u00a34 cheaper than the Blossom – fill yer boots!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some\nwise words from their Global Marketing Manager, Bo Jakubenko: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know that gin is booming and that\npeople are looking for refreshment and convenience from their drinks\npurchases. With Blossom Hill\u2019s Gin Fizz\nwe have developed a product that responds to this need. By focusing on what the consumer wants and\nmaking wine more accessible via a fun, approachable brand like Blossom Hill, we\nare helping to ensure future category growth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Translation: <\/p>\n\n\n\n We asked our customers and they\nresoundingly confirmed that whilst they buy our wine they would far prefer it\nif it tasted like gin and had bubbles and herbs in it \u2013 anything, frankly, to\nmake the wine taste better than it currently does!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tasting this weekend<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been so\ninsanely busy that I haven\u2019t been able to get down to Morrison\u2019s to get any\nBlossom Hill, so we\u2019ll just have to stick to gin in one glass and wine in\nanother. As ever, we have Eclectic, Sacred, Bloody Bens, Hepple,\nSacred Juniper and Sacred Pink Grapefruit open to taste on the Gin trolley<\/strong>\nalong with other spirits and whiskies too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wine wise, I\u2019m\nplanning on opening a couple of Chileans that we listed a few weeks back. The world, it seems, has fallen out of love a\nlittle with Chile but we have always been big fans and hopefully you might see\nwhy when you taste these wines\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Naciente Chardonnay 2018, Casablanca\nValley, Chile – \u00a311.99 – <\/strong>This\nis an unoaked white, pale yellow in your glass, aromas of very intense fruit with an emphasis\non citrusy notes, and mineral touches. The palate is fresh with the natural acidity making the wine very vivacious and\nfruity; it has a medium body and a lovely long finish. Fish and chip Friday anyone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Metic Carmen\u00e8re\n2018, Colchagua Valley, Chile – \u00a310.99 \u2013 <\/strong>A limited production wine from 30\nyear old vines, the intensely blueberry fruit nose leads on to a bright fruited\npalate with a lovely intensity and length. It\u2019s made by a couple of Chilean guys as a side-line\nto their main business which is consulting for other wineries around\nChile. Their very laidback approach to\nwinemaking intervention is unusual at this price and we\u2019re certainly not\ncomplaining about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So pop in and try the wines and, if you ask me nicely, I might open a\nbottle of San Pellegrino and we can mix it with the Chardonnay and some\nEclectic! Actually no, no I won\u2019t, that\nwould be disgusting\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, And so it goes on. One minute we\u2019re leaving next week, the next minute we\u2019re leaving at the end of June, then five minutes later the EU says we need to be out by 22nd May or 12th April – crikey, so much choice. Surprisingly, France seem to be very keen for […]<\/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-1121","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\/1121","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=1121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1122,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions\/1122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}