Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been people watching this week\u2026<\/p>\n
We watched<\/em> as Australian PM Julia Gillard showed the leader of the opposition the perils of choosing the wrong battleground.\u00a0<\/p>\n We watched<\/em> as The Rolling Stones (a band that\u2019s had even more birthdays than Wayne) released their first single in seven years. (Thought it sounded pretty good too!)<\/p>\n We watched<\/em> as the USADA unveiled their case against Lance Armstrong (and it seems pretty damning to us). It\u2019s tough to lose seven titles I\u2019m sure, but you know what, I guess it really wasn\u2019t about the bike.<\/p>\n We watched<\/em> as Steve, the man with the keys at Rocky Head Brewery brought us our first shipment of\u2026<\/p>\n Rocky Head Pale Ale 6.5% – \u00a33.00<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A truly handmade (hand bottled and labelled for that matter!) beer, packed with an enormous amount of New Zealand and North American hops giving it a beautiful floral character. Unfiltered and bottle conditioned, it is a really satisfying brew, exuberant and fully flavoured. We feel pretty honoured with this, being the first people outside the brewery to taste it and now one of the first to sell it.<\/p>\n Oh, and I almost forgot, the brewery is only about a mile from the shop. You couldn\u2019t get much more local than that unless Alex starts with his barley wine in the cellar!<\/p>\n Keep your Spirits Up<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We know the nights are drawing in and the sharper eyed amongst you will have noticed our spirits section has got a little more crowded. We\u2019ve added Maxime Trijol VSOP Grande Champagne Cognac (\u00a345)<\/em><\/strong> which has a character more akin to most houses XO. Indeed it won the Cognac Trophy at the 2003 Wine & Spirits Competition beating all the XO\u2019s in the process. We\u2019re fairly sure it comes down to the large portion of older matured cognacs in the blend (some is 40 years aged) adding a rich, mellow complexity.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve also added Saliz\u00e1 Amaretto (\u00a324.99)<\/em><\/strong> which is distilled from only the finest peach kernels by Bepi Tosolini, probably Italy\u2019s finest distiller. It\u2019s a little drier than some, which we find makes it seriously moreish.<\/p>\n There are other delicious post prandial delights too, so come and have a browse.<\/p>\n Taste This Weekend <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019re still droning on about the Rh\u00f4ne (sorry couldn\u2019t resist it) so will kick off this week with a glass of Domaine les Chen\u00eats Crozes-Hermitage (\u00a317.99)<\/em><\/strong> a family run estate in the northern part of the Rh\u00f4ne who, until 1993, used to sell their grapes to other more famous estates.<\/p>\n The grape here is Syrah and, when we tried it, we were bowled over with its lightly spiced red berry fruits and touch of pepper in the finish. Food matching I\u2019d say it\u2019s a delicious partner to Sunday\u2019s roast pork, but if you\u2019re feeling more adventurous give Mark Hix\u2019s pigeon tagine a go, it is game season after all.<\/p>\n Often we find a fantastic bedfellow to a good red Rh\u00f4ne is a crisp and zingy white from the Loire Valley.\u00a0 We see no reason to upset good bedfellows, so the white on tasting will be the Val de Loire Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (\u00a38.99).<\/em><\/strong> This Sauvignon Blanc is from the vineyards of Valencay, which are about 80 km south-west of Sancerre, and thus share similar soil types.\u00a0 Crisp and dry with elegant, grassy fruit character and a seam of precise minerality, we think of it as one of those must have wines that are always in the fridge.\u00a0 Food match?\u00a0 Goats cheese, goats cheese and perhaps goats cheese!<\/p>\n So come on over and sample some French wine pleasures, it\u2019s what weekends were invented for!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, We\u2019ve been people watching this week\u2026 We watched as Australian PM Julia Gillard showed the leader of the opposition the perils of choosing the wrong battleground.\u00a0 We watched as The Rolling Stones (a band that\u2019s had even more birthdays than Wayne) released their first single in seven years. (Thought it sounded pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","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\/119","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=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}