Fellow Wine\nLovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex has been\nholding forth this week, to anyone that will listen, about the joys of being\nold – and he should know. The prospect\nof varifocals, varicose and various niggling ailments all sound too exciting to\nhave to wait for and that\u2019s before he came to his punchline – the older you are\nthe more memories you have, providing you can remember where you put them of\ncourse\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, with\nmemories in mind and a Friday email to write, I thought I would take a trip\ndown memory lane and see what we had written in the mid-June emails of years\ngone by. My main purpose for this was to\nsee on how many occasions we had mentioned the weather being rubbish for the\ntime of year because, with our rose tinted peepers on, we oft forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So without\nfurther ado, the opening lines of our emails for the last 8 years: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
17th<\/sup> June 2011<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It had to rain really, it was Ladies day\nat Ascot. Standing on Wimbledon Common\non Thursday morning, gazing at an extremely bespattered, but nonetheless happy\ndog, a bizarre thought crossed my mind \u2013 I don\u2019t have enough wet\nweather\/monsoon clothing. In June. The week before the tennis starts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hurray, it\nwas just as awful in 2011 as now \u2013 vindicated!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15th<\/sup> June 2012<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Queens tennis in the afternoon, Euro\nfootball in the evening, US Open Golf following on from that \u2013 it\u2019s already a\nbusy weekend in Park Vintners World (new theme park coming soon), before we\u2019ve\neven thought about selling any wine!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n No mention of\nrain, plenty of sport though, funny that\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14th<\/sup> June 2013<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Undoubtedly the most important news\nacross the desk this week was that Mighty Boosh are to reform and play Festival\nSupreme at Santa Monica pier. Any chance of a London gig guys?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A shameless\npitch by Wayne for some free tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 13th<\/sup> June 2014<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So here\u2019s our problem, we don\u2019t have\nenough tellies. The Test match starts at\n11am, during which time Wayne wants to watch the Criterium-du-Dauphine cycling,\nthen Queens wakes up for the tennis, now without Mr Murray. At 2pm the US Open golf starts its day and\nthen later on we have World Cup football. \nOh, and did I mention the Men\u2019s Hockey semi-finals? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sport and\ntellies \u2013 no obvious connection to wine here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12th<\/sup> June 2015<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, I sent him off into the big city\nyesterday, with a bag full of corporate gifts, an oyster card and his mobile\nphone, which we had cross checked as being on and unusually, not critical for\nbattery. It was a lovely day, as you all\nknow, so he had his shorts on and I really didn\u2019t expect him back in a hurry.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Slightly\nsurreal email this one, relating to a supposed striptease in St Pauls by one of\nour staff members\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17th<\/sup> June 2016<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This week has been fun hasn\u2019t it? Write\nthe a-board put it out in the sunshine, watch the rain wash it off and repeat.\nSeven or eight times a day.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hooray, it\u2019s\nraining again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 16th<\/sup> June 2017<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So here\u2019s a question \u2013 what\u2019s in a name?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So here\u2019s the\nanswer, you really don\u2019t want to know\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15th<\/sup> June 2018<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been a funny old week, starting off\nin acrimony over the G6 \u00bd at the weekend. The take home being that Trumpolina\nseems to think that Europeans don\u2019t buy enough bullets, and that Justin Trudeau\nis economical with the truth. The picture tweeted by Mutti Merkel seemed to sum\nit up, though our in house art expert insists that comparing the picture to\nrenaissance art is a bit wide of the mark.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n No weather or\nwine or sport in the opening lines \u2013 what were we thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now here\nwe are, the 14th<\/sup> June 2019 \u2013 Wayne has been wearing shorts,\nvaliantly and varicose free, for the last two weeks but yesterday even he snuck\nback into his Levi\u2019s \u2013 those jokes about summer starting and finishing in\nFebruary seem a little too prescient now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t blow your nose!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not one but\ntwo sportsmen have been caught out doing just this over the last few days. The Chris Froome incident is well reported\nand we wish him well of course \u2013 I have to say though, 35mph is a\ntwo-hands-on-the-handlebar speed for me. \nMeanwhile, in the cagey world of UFC, fighter Donald Cerrone suffered a\nbroken nose during a bout in Chicago. In\norder to try and clear some of the airways between rounds he blew his nose and\nthis clearing caused his right eye to swell shut immediately. Not a photo for the faint-hearted, I\u2019d\nsuggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n High street royalty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the\nbiggest wine retailers released their full year figures yesterday, without much\nto cheer about. Having shown some fairly\nepic losses over the last 12 months they aimed to reassure investors by\nsuspending final dividends (?) and talking \u2018positively\u2019 about selling 200 of\ntheir branches \u2013 they seem to have 210 in total according to their\nwebsite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, suspend the\ndivs and sell all the shops \u2013 not sure why you think there\u2019s a problem?! Still, at least they are in \u2018advanced talks\u2019\nwith multiple bidders over this sale. However,\nif it doesn\u2019t complete they will continue trading through December before\nstarting afresh in 2020. To our minds,\nthese \u2018advanced talks\u2019 don\u2019t sound quite as \u2018advanced\u2019 as advanced often means!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Raspberry & Rhubarb<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Foxdenton,\nour fruit gin suppliers, kindly dropped off some reinforcements this week, just\nin time for the sunshine. The 35cl\nbottles are perfect picnic partners and should fly out the door once we\u2019re all\nback in shorts and polo shirts\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foxdenton Raspberry Gin – \u00a314.99<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Foxdenton Rhubarb Gin – \u00a314.99<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wine School<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, we held\nour seasonal Rose tasting last night \u2013 as you can imagine we had the heaters on\nfull and battened down the hatches to ensure a tropical feel and a thoroughly\njolly time was had by all. What\u2019s this\ngot to do with Wine School you ask? \nWell, everybody who was on the tasting last night had signed up quite\nearly on for the limited spaces available \u2013 we have, in more recent days and\nweeks, had to disappoint quite a few of \nyou who had been meaning to sign up but had forgotten to actually do the\nsigning up bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which is how\nthis links with Wine School. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Very soon a\nreasonable portion of you will be, quite reasonably, disappearing off to\nsunnier climes for the summer and will be in and out of Wimbledon for most of\nJuly and August, oblivious to the fact that the Park Vintners Autumn Wine School<\/strong> is surreptitiously filling up. Fast forward to September and the risk is\nthat the Wine Course you meant, but forgot, to sign up for before you went away\nis now subscribed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6 Week Wine School \u2013 Wednesday 2nd<\/sup>\nOctober \u2013 Wednesday 13th<\/sup> November (half term 23rd<\/sup>\nOctober) – \u00a3150 per person \u2013 Full details attached, unless we forget!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wine & Cheese<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t\nfancy six weeks of school but would actually prefer one evening of wine with a\nside order of cheese, then the good news is that we still have 6 spaces left on\nthe next event:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday 18th<\/sup> July \u2013 8pm \u2013\nWine & Cheese Tasting – \u00a320 per person<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wine this weekend<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s Father\u2019s\nDay this weekend and as our representative father, Alex has chosen these two to\ntaste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sonberk Riesling V.O.C. 2015 – \u00a323.99<\/strong> \u2013 as a wise man once said, \u2018what son\ndoesn\u2019t think his father is a berk?\u2019, and so this wine was created. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously\nthat has no truth about it at all and in fact Sonberk is the name of a\nmid-sized winery in Popice, Czech Republic. \nLocated in Moravia, the largest Czech winegrowing region, the winery is\nconsidered by many to be one of the best in the country, producing elegant and\nnoble wines. Established in 2003 but\nwith a history dating to the 13th century, the Sonberk vineyard is 45 hectares\nwith an extraordinary view of the P\u00e1lava Hill. \nThis Riesling has a beautifully fruity nose with hints of blossom and\nhoney. The palate has notes of dried\napricots, honey and spice with a fine minerality and finish and gives its\nGerman counterparts something to think about! \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n As he is\nplanning to barbecue on Sunday, no matter what happens, the Flametree Embers Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 –\n\u00a315.99<\/strong> is his selection for the red. \nHailing from the marvellous Margaret River region, this is a cracking\ndrop with aromas of violets, ripe black fruits and just a hint of chocolate and\ncoffee. Lovely and juicy in the mouth\nwith lovely forward fruit this would be a real pleasure with that steak he is\nangling for, if anyone out there is listening?<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s all\nfor this week \u2013 let\u2019s all treat the sun like a large golden Tinkerbell and show\nthat we believe, not by clapping but by sporting shorts and t-shirts and\nsuncream to encourage it to shine \u2013 who\u2019s with me? Oh, alright, back as you were\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, Alex has been holding forth this week, to anyone that will listen, about the joys of being old – and he should know. The prospect of varifocals, varicose and various niggling ailments all sound too exciting to have to wait for and that\u2019s before he came to his punchline – the older […]<\/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-1159","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\/1159","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=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions\/1160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}