Fellow Wine\nLovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have to\nconfess, I do love the school holidays, the Easter ones in particular. The sun often shines, the roads are empty and\nyou can get a seat on the tube. Plus we\nhave the four day weekend that encapsulates Easter Sunday. Plus plus, our own bearded asylum seeker,\nAlex, gets dragged kicking and screaming from his priest hole in the cellar and\ntaken to far flung exotic climes (Warwick and Dorset this year, I believe) and\nI have the place to myself. And I get to\nwrite the email, uninterrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, as I get to\nwrite the email without any \u2018helpful\u2019 insertions, I get to write about whatever\nI want. If you\u2019ve read any of my\nprevious pieces then you will be aware that I have a passing affection for\nbikes and cycling; what you won\u2019t know, I suspect, is that my actual true\npassion is for the little dimpled ball. \nYep, I\u2019m a golf nut. There you\ngo, it\u2019s out in the world now, it\u2019s in print, it\u2019s on Facebook and our website\nand my goodness, I feel a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whilst I do\nenjoy going out cycling on a misty Sunday morning swaddled in luminescent lycra\nand feeling like a million lira, the opportunity to stroll around a large\ncountry estate swinging clubs (less than 80 times ideally) dressed in plus\nfours and Pringle knitwear is what I really want to be doing. I\u2019m not the best player I know, but then I\u2019m\nalso not the worst. I\u2019m certainly in the\ntop 10 of people I play with and that is all I need really \u2013 Strava rarely has\nsuch nice things to say to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, there\nis one way that cycling surpasses golf. \nWhen I watch the Tour de France, the Giro or La Vuelta I see narrow\nmountain roads being gobbled up by the superfit masochists, I see swooping\ndescents that make roller coasters feel pedestrian and I know that, should I\nhave the desire, I could jump on my bike and attempt my own heroics on these\nexact roads, any time I wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Golf however\nisn\u2019t quite like that, particularly the golf that\u2019s going on right now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those of you\nless fanatical, the US Masters started yesterday. This is arguably the biggest week in golf\neach year as it heralds the start of \u2018the season\u2019, is the first major, the\nwinner gets a natty green jacket to wear (but not keep) and it always takes\nplace at Augusta National in Georgia. \nYou know Augusta, that truly cosmopolitan and inclusive club without a\nwhiff of racism and sexism, always a club to open its doors willingly to all\ncomers. There is no members\u2019 waiting\nlist because you have to be invited to join, it only has a few hundred members,\nthe majority of whom are men and captains of industry and you\u2019re more likely to\nbe struck by lightning than get a chance to play it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, unlike the\nCol du Tourmalet, Augusta will never open its arms to me \u2013 perhaps I am better\noff on the bike\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere, it\nseems that we are still in Europe, Tottenham and Liverpool are still in Europe,\nJulian Assange has left South America and is now in Europe and Omar al-Bashir\nisn\u2019t in Europe, yet, but he is to be expected at ICC at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what has any\nof this got to do with wine I hear you ask? \nNothing at all, is the honest answer but now I will remedy that. UPCOMING TASTINGS \u2013 DATES FOR YOUR\nDIARIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Cheese and\nWine tasting evenings have been as over-subscribed as ever and as of now we\nhave 2 spaces available <\/strong>on Thursday 20th<\/sup> June <\/strong>and then plenty of spaces<\/strong> on Thursday 18th<\/sup> July \u2013 <\/strong>should\nyou wish to join us then it costs \u00a320\nper person <\/strong>and it all starts at 8pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may have\nnoticed us rattling on about Domaine Treloar over the last few weeks. One of the reasons is that we think the wines\nare ace and should be in everyone\u2019s shopping basket. Another good reason is that Jonathan and\nRachel, the owners, are thoroughly good eggs – so good in fact that they have\nagreed to visit us not once but twice this year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday 27th<\/sup> June at 8pm \u2013\nDomaine Treloar Wine tasting with Jonathan Hesford – \u00a320 per person<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday 17th<\/sup> October at 8pm \u2013\nDomaine Treloar Wine tasting with Rachel Treloar – \u00a320 per person<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I appreciate\nthat the October date feels a little in advance but when they offered to come\nand do this we thought we\u2019d get the dates in the diary as soon as possible so\nthey can book their flights – we expect both tastings to be very popular so do\nbook early to avoid disappointment!<\/p>\n\n\n\n OTHER WINE NEWS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After a brief\nhiatus, I can confirm that we have Chocolate\nBlock back in stock<\/strong> \u2013 and we have it in magnums<\/strong> too, for \u00a350<\/strong>,\nwhich just has to be a better Easter gift than any overpriced oval confection\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n TASTING THIS WEEKEND<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Often when Alex is given the reins he thinks he\u2019s being super smart and tries to link the tasting wines to events of the week \u2018don\u2019t you think it segues rather nicely\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 he might be heard to say, whilst I\u2019m thinking \u2018segue\u2019<\/em>, really, did you really just say that?\u00a0 Anyway, there will be none of that nonsense this week, just fine wines that need to be tasted by you fine folk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Naia Verdejo 2017 – \u00a314.99<\/strong> \u2013 this is a new listing for us since the\nprevious inhabitant of the posh Verdejo throne became just too expensive and\nthe Naia had always been in our sights as the pretender and now it has found\nits seat. Produced in Rueda, the Verdejo\nheartland, the grapes come from 98 acres of vineyards, the majority of which\nare 26 years old (and 5 acres of which are ungrafted 90 year old Verdejo vines)\nall located in La Seca. The wine has\nripe stone fruit aromas with lightly savoury, herbal notes that persist on the\npalate and then leads onto a bright and long finish. Great with shellfish and perhaps with water\nnymph (Greek translation) or dolphin (Hawaiian translation) but I’m not sure\nthat’s allowed any more\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pilot by Alpha Domus 2014 – \u00a313.99\/6\nfor \u00a372<\/strong> \u2013 this is the\nexact opposite of a new listing \u2013 it\u2019s a bin end, once it\u2019s gone, it\u2019s\nscone! From Hawkes Bay in New Zealand\nthis is a stonking Bordeaux blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. On the nose it\u2019s busy with berry fruits,\nplums and spicy herbs. The palate is\nagain filled with plum and blackberry fruit, some clove spice and a silky,\nsavoury finish \u2013 a perfect partner to Sunday\u2019s roast lamb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s it for now \u2013 enjoy your hols whilst I enjoy the tranquillity and the golf!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, I have to confess, I do love the school holidays, the Easter ones in particular. The sun often shines, the roads are empty and you can get a seat on the tube. Plus we have the four day weekend that encapsulates Easter Sunday. Plus plus, our own bearded asylum seeker, Alex, gets […]<\/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-1129","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\/1129","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=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1130,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions\/1130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n