{"id":147,"date":"2012-11-17T18:37:10","date_gmt":"2012-11-17T17:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=147"},"modified":"2012-11-17T18:37:21","modified_gmt":"2012-11-17T17:37:21","slug":"champagne-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=147","title":{"rendered":"Champagne Tasting!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n

No messing this week, straight down to business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been very kind to you thus far and not mentioned the C word, but as the temperatures rapidly descend and the nights get darker and the days shorter there is no escaping it, Christmas is<\/span> on its way.\u00a0 Less than 40 days if my abacus is correct and the big day still falls on the 25th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

However, between then and now plenty of fun is to be had, lots of late nights, mistletoe, Bluewater, Furbies, pre-Christmas Christmas lunches, family reunions and Champagne tastings.<\/p>\n

Champagne tastings?<\/p>\n

You see sometimes December needs a bit of a kick-start, and our kick this year is to hold a Champagne and Sparkling Wine Tasting <\/strong>evening, here in the shop, on Thursday 6th<\/sup> December at 8pm.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Suffice to say it promises to be an awful lot of fun, we\u2019ll give you an outline of how sparkling wines are made and how different countries produce different styles.\u00a0 We\u2019ll try Cava, Prosecco, Cremant, a couple from the New World, an English one and of course Champagne.<\/strong>\u00a0 We\u2019ll chuck a bit of smoked salmon on some plates, perhaps even take the crusts of some brown bread and polish up a dozen or so flutes all in the name of kick-starting the festivities. \u00a0Usual rules apply, we\u2019ll take a maximum of a ten people, it will cost \u00a325 per person<\/strong>, we take most modern forms of payment and this payment reserves your chair.\u00a0 Call me, email me, come and see me – just make sure you don\u2019t miss out!<\/p>\n

(020 8944 5224 ; shop@parkvintners.co.uk<\/a> )<\/p>\n

Our Christmas Cheese and Wine event sold out pretty much as soon as we confirmed it, but if enough people are still interested we could very easily be persuaded to repeat it, so do let us know if you\u2019d be keen to see what goes well with Stilton, Cheddar et al and we\u2019ll find a date.<\/p>\n

Italy has moved<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not as exciting as it sounds really, all we\u2019ve done is move Italy to the shelves at the front of the shop so it gets a chance to look out of the window for a change rather than just staring at the Champagne fridge.\u00a0 However one of the reasons for the move was because it was getting too big (that was my second choice header \u2013 Italy getting too big! Pasta and Pizza prime suspects…) and the reason for this is that we keep on buying wine.\u00a0 New Amarone, new Barolo, new Carema, new-ish Nero d\u2019Avola, returning Nero di Troia, to name just a few.\u00a0 We\u2019ve also got an astonishingly more-ish Sambuca and a habit forming Amaretto, but we keep those closer to the counter for comfort.<\/p>\n

Tasting this weekend<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We will be, will you?\u00a0 We\u2019ve gone with Australia and Argentina this weekend, mainly because as we get closer to Christmas we will probably shift our focus more towards old world classics.\u00a0 The red is Bodega La Flor Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, Mendoza, Argentina – \u00a311.99<\/strong>, a delicious Cab. with loads of blackcurrant fruit and easy tannins.\u00a0 Good mouth weight and length, superb with lamb, venison and other game dishes. \u00a0Brilliant after my coffee on Saturday morning, and no doubt magnificent by 7pm that evening.\u00a0 Should you fancy white, Broken Shackle Classic White 2011, South Eastern Australia – \u00a37.99<\/strong>, is as you would expect from a country that names things as it sees them (Southern Ocean, Great Sandy Desert) \u2013 it\u2019s called Broken Shackle and it\u2019s a classic white, what more is there to know!!<\/p>\n

So, that\u2019s pretty much it from us.\u00a0 One more good reason to look forward to Christmas though is the one-off Superstars Olympic special that the BBC are promising \u2013 Brian Jacks used to be the king, but I believe one of the Brownlee brothers might have all the answers this time around.<\/p>\n

Oh, and that Ibrahimovic goal, just goes to re-emphasise the fine line that exists between success and failure!<\/p>\n

Anyway, must go now, the phone\u2019s ringing – someone for the Champagne night no doubt!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fellow Wine Lovers, No messing this week, straight down to business.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been very kind to you thus far and not mentioned the C word, but as the temperatures rapidly descend and the nights get darker and the days shorter there is no escaping it, Christmas is on its way.\u00a0 Less than 40 days if […]<\/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-147","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\/147","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=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}