Fellow Wine\nLovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To borrow from\nMrs Merton:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what first attracted you to ninth in\nline to the throne, Princess Beatrice? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Or perhaps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what first attracted you to the\nItalian property tycoon, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And then the\nanswer arrives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We share so many similar interests and\nvalues, and we know that this will stand us in great stead for the years ahead,\nfull of love and happiness \u2013 <\/em>like\nskiing and holidays on yachts and working not very hard or too often\u2026 let\u2019s see\nwho ends up paying for the wedding shall we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In truth though,\nI shouldn\u2019t be belittling this romance because it\u2019s actually one of the few\npieces of happy news this week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Politics, on both\nsides of the pond, is in absolute mayhem and as a consequence has a somewhat\nsurreal aspect to it \u2013 can this all really be happening or are we just living\ninside someone\u2019s lunatic dreamscape? \nWatching the mudslinging in parliament on Wednesday, frustration and\nvexation were in abundance. What was\nalso in abundance was mobile phone usage \u2013 whoever was sat behind the Attorney\nGeneral when he was in full barrister-flood on Wednesday spent most of her time\non her phone. Now, I don\u2019t know that she\nwasn\u2019t scrolling through important government documents nor that the colleague\nnext to her was watching House of Cards on her tablet but I do know when\ndiscretion is called for \u2013 a well-placed sheaf of papers blocking the phone\nfrom the television cameras would perhaps have been the guidance. Moreover, it was distracting \u2013 never did we\nsee her face, no matter how attentively we viewed, so we still don\u2019t know who\nit was!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas Cook\nfinally curled up its toes this week, to much gnashing and wailing and reports\nof skulduggery in hotels in foreign resorts. \nWhat we have learnt from this is that whilst we pay up front for the\naccommodation the travel company doesn\u2019t actually pay the hotel until well\nafter you have stayed there so, effectively, when you are actually in the\nresort, you are living on credit which is fine, unless your tour operator goes\nbust. By all accounts there are towns in\nSpain that dealt almost exclusively with TC and will now face an uphill\nstruggle to survive. The real injustice\nhere is that the writing has been on the wall for Thomas Cook for so long now\nbut still they were allowed to make promises that they stood so little chance\nof being able to fulfil – which then leads to the question, as always, where\nhas all the money gone???<\/p>\n\n\n\n It has been\nconfirmed that Wayne did not travel on a package holiday so will not be\nspending an extra week in Greece, awaiting repatriation \u2013 we expect to see you\non Monday, spick and span.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So with such\nheadlines, apart from the royal engagement, where are we looking for our\nhappiness this week? Well, I suppose if\nyou\u2019re an Arsenal fan you can wallow in Tottenham\u2019s spectacularly poor start to\nthe season in all competitions. If\nyou\u2019re not a cricket fan then you can relish the fact that the cricket season\nhas finally finished and if you\u2019re a rain fan you will have been very happy with\nthe way the week has shaped up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But now we can\nlook forward because it\u2019s the weekend and, for some of us, it\u2019s payday,\nhooray! Not wanting to spend your money\nfor you but, you know, it is Friday and thus it should really be fizz tonight\nand with that in mind, I might mention that we\u2019ve listed a couple of new\nEnglish sparklers from Hawkins Bros. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These have been\nbrought in to replace the Herbert Hall primarily, who was just becoming too\nexpensive for what he was putting in the bottle, which is ironic really\nconsidering the most common bugbear people have with English sparkling wine is\nthe cost \u2013 but hey, let\u2019s not listen to the punters, let\u2019s just whack another\ntenner on a bottle and hope Brexit makes us the only choice? Nice one Herbie, on your bike now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway,\nback to the brothers Hawkins, who are English wine producers based just south\nof Guildford, growing and making wine on the south-facing chalk of the Hogs\nBack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brut Reserve 2014 – \u00a330<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dosage:\n6g\/l – Alcohol: 12%<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gold\nmedal winner at the IEWA 2019 and Bronze at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\nclassic cuv\u00e9e from 2014, made and grown on the Hogs Back in Surrey. This is a blend of 56% Chardonnay, 22% Pinot\nNoir and 22% Pinot Meunier and has spent over three years ageing on its lees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Baked\napple on the nose, a soft mousse gives way to a palate of wonderful depth and\ncomplexity with a long citrusy finish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ros\u00e9 Reserve NV – \u00a329<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dosage:\n4.5g\/l – Alcohol: 12%<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bronze\nMedal International Wine Challenge 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Made\nin the Traditional Method from 95% Pinot Noir, 5% Pinot Meunier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A\nsupremely elegant ros\u00e9 with a subtle flavour of summer berries, a delicate pink\nhue, notes of strawberry, and fresh brioche from 30 months pre-release ageing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sound\nexciting, don\u2019t they? I took a bottle of\nthe pink home last weekend on the false\/fools assumption that, as my wife has\nalways been a bit suspicious of wine that\u2019s not either white or red, much of\nthe bottle would be mine. However, in a\ntext book horse switcheroo mid-river, of which only she is capable, my beloved\ndeclared that it wasn\u2019t that she didn\u2019t like pink it was just that she hadn\u2019t\nhad a good one yet. As she poured the\nlast drops into her tankard, I could only surmise that this was a \u2018good\u2019 one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further\nto my missive from a week back, we still have places on some of our upcoming\ntastings, just a few less. If you fancy an\nevening in the company of cheese and wine, or perhaps a winemaker\u2019s wife, all\nfor a mere \u00a320 per person, here are the dates once more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wine & Cheese Tasting<\/strong> – 10th<\/sup> October \u2013 5 spaces left<\/p>\n\n\n\n Domaine Treloar Tasting<\/strong> \u2013 17th<\/sup> October \u2013 2 spaces left<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wine & Cheese Tasting<\/strong> \u2013 7th<\/sup> November \u2013 6 spaces left<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wine & Cheese Tasting<\/strong> \u2013 28th<\/sup> November \u2013 5 spaces left<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tasting this weekend<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nmentioned, it\u2019s the last weekend of September and frankly we should be looking\nforward to hearty reds not delicate Ros\u00e9s and shorts should returned to use for\nsporting purposes only, just so you know! \nLast weekend we opened the World Cup Rugby with a head to head between\nMeerlust Red from South Africa and Alpha Domus \u2018The Pilot\u2019 from New\nZealand. Intriguingly the Meerlust was a\nclear favourite on the Friday evening and, for the first twenty minutes of the\ngame on Saturday we thought our wine predictor might be onto something. By the end of play on Saturday though we had sold four times as many of the\nPilot than the Meerlust \u2013 after a slow start it came back very strong,\nappropriate given the scoreline!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nweekend there are no obvious vinous clashes \u2013 I mean Uruguay v Georgia would be\nan interesting tasting and Ireland v Japan could lead to a whisk(e)y fuelled late night but no, I\u2019m not going\nthere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nweek it\u2019s purely about what I fancy tasting whilst the guv\u2019nor is still\nsunbaking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n From\nthe part of Italy that is almost Slovenia, we have Vigneti Le Monde Friulano 2017 – \u00a315.99<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Established\nin 1970 and recognised as a \u201ccru\u201d within Friuli, it is only under the current\nowners that the estate has really taken off. This wine is made from 100% Friulano, with\naromas of fresh flowers, citrus, lemon and green apple. The palate is crisp and dry with again notes\nof apple, peach and pear with a subtle floral note. Good weight, perfectly\nbalanced by a fresh clean finish \u2013 a delicious wine that often falls below the\nradar of many Italian white fans!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And\nfrom the Minervois in France, we\u2019ve got open Chateau de Paraza \u2018Cuv\u00e9e Sp\u00e9ciale\u2019 2016 – \u00a313.99<\/strong> which is a Syrah,\nGrenache Noir and Mourv\u00e8dre blend that give us a deep red garnet coloured wine\nwith cherry and raspberry compote notes, red liquorice string in the background\nand a lovely juicy acidity. A great\nall-rounder of a wine with red flowers and mineral notes entwining themselves\nwith the fruit into a great finish – if\nyou enjoy the Rh\u00f4ne, you\u2019ll enjoy this!<\/p>\n\n\n\n So pop by and have a taste, tell us some happy tales from your week and we\u2019ll all be the better for it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, To borrow from Mrs Merton: So what first attracted you to ninth in line to the throne, Princess Beatrice? Or perhaps: So what first attracted you to the Italian property tycoon, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi? And then the answer arrives: We share so many similar interests and values, and we know that this […]<\/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-1198","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\/1198","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=1198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1199,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions\/1199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}