Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Voting, missing out on selection to the Lions squad for the South Africa series and godawful weather \u2013 I think that covers the week for all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having spent the week looking at various manifestos, particularly those regarding the role of London Mayor, I have to contend that by far the most enjoyable and, dare I say it, likely to be acted on was that of Count Binface. I\u2019m not sure how Richard Hewison from Rejoin EU could promise his voters that we would reverse Brexit bearing in mind his remit only covers London but I am sure that Count Binface would be more likely to succeed in point 19 of his manifesto: The hand dryer in the gents\u2019 toilet at the Crown & Treaty, Uxbridge, to be moved to a more sensible position.<\/em> In fairness to Richard though, Binface also had at point 10: London to join the EU.<\/em> Perhaps there might have been sense in them working together to increase their voting share, under the lead promise of: Hammersmith Bridge to be repaired, and renamed Wayne<\/em> \u2013 I know of one vote that was guaranteed and they could have doubled these numbers if they\u2019d promised to rename all the parks: how does Hyde Park Vintners, NCP Vintners or Park Vintners & Ride sound?<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they didn\u2019t, and hopefully lessons have been learned for next time because I\u2019m sure the Count will be back even if Richard perhaps isn\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now the weather \u2013 what goes on there? It\u2019s still pigging freezing unless you\u2019re in the sun and as a consequence we have had an astonishing number of customers expressing nostalgia for this time last year \u2013 I repeat, what goes on there? Anyway, we checked our archives and this is what we wrote on 8th<\/sup> May 2020:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know about you but I\u2019ve found it a bit fresh at points this week yet have been enjoying the sunshine nonetheless. We were chatting about how different the mood might have been if it had been raining for these past six weeks, we won\u2019t dwell on it though as we\u2019ve a lovely long weekend ahead of us. Today is the May Day Bank Holiday Monday, despite my calendar saying it\u2019s Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n So, put those rose tinted spectacles away all of you, life wasn\u2019t any better this time last year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was also this weekend last year that we all sat down and watched Boris\u2019 now famous address to the nation, telling us that lockdown wouldn\u2019t be ending, pubs would not be opening and what, as Matt Lucas brilliantly parodied, we should do:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo we are saying don\u2019t go to work, go to work, don\u2019t take public transport go to work, don\u2019t go to work. If you can work from home, go to work. Don\u2019t go to work. Go outside. Don\u2019t go outside. And then we will or won\u2019t, something or other.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the world of Gin, finally there is some sense being talked in relation to what does and doesn\u2019t qualify as \u2018craft\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Harpers magazine recently held a panel discussion, entitled: ‘Think Gin: Modishness versus Marketing’.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A small batch gin producer expressed their frustration saying: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe term ‘craft’ has been hijacked by several of the larger distilleries; unfortunately there is no legal definition of a craft brand\u2026 To cite an example, we were contacted several weeks ago by an individual looking for a supplier reference, who was starting a new gin brand. We welcome new faces in the market, but the individual stated that they had simply hired a company to make the gin for them \u2013 about 1,000 bottles per day.\u00a0 I tried to explain that this does not qualify as craft gin.\u00a0 Their response was: ‘Yes, but it sells well, doesn’t it’.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (James Lawrence, harpers.co.uk, 05 May, 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, we applaud these sentiments, which is why we looked Walter at Hepple and Braden at Doghouse squarely in the eye and demanded to look under the bonnet before we listed them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a post-script to this, the small batch gin producer\u2019s website banner page states that they are \u2018THE WORLD\u2019S BEST CONTEMPORARY LONDON DRY GIN\u2019. It\u2019s funny but there seems to be no legal definition of best\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, that\u2019s enough from us this week \u2013 it might be rose weather but then it might not. So buy ros\u00e9 and sit in the garden. Or don\u2019t buy ros\u00e9 and sit inside. Sit inside whilst getting rosy on the outside. Or buy white and red and ros\u00e9 but drink beer. Take an umbrella, take a parasol but Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’99 – wear sunscreen!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, Voting, missing out on selection to the Lions squad for the South Africa series and godawful weather \u2013 I think that covers the week for all of us. Having spent the week looking at various manifestos, particularly those regarding the role of London Mayor, I have to contend that by far the […]<\/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-1412","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\/1412","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=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions\/1414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}