{"id":156,"date":"2012-11-30T15:12:21","date_gmt":"2012-11-30T14:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=156"},"modified":"2012-11-30T15:12:21","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T14:12:21","slug":"wines-from-spain-gran-reserva-rioja-2001-arthur-road-christmas-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=156","title":{"rendered":"Wines from Spain, Gran Reserva Rioja 2001, Arthur Road Christmas Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all thanks to you.\u00a0 You never asked us to open here on Arthur Road, you never lobbied for extra wine shops, Merton Council received no petitions.\u00a0 Nonetheless, we opened up here without so much as a by your leave, filled our shelves with fun you don\u2019t find in Tesco, in Wine Rack, or the pub \u2013 put white wines and Champagne in the fridges, stuck some of our favourites in the window, put blackboards outside telling you what was going on and generally made a nuisance of ourselves.<\/p>\n

And in spite of all this, you all came to visit us.<\/p>\n

We opened wine on Saturdays, put on monthly Wine and Cheese tastings, got winemakers in to show you their wares, filled up 6 week wine courses, did private tastings at people\u2019s houses\/schools\/churches, provided wine for weddings\/christenings\/knees up(s?)…<\/p>\n

And still you came to see us.<\/p>\n

We bugged you to \u2018Vote for Us\u2019 in Time and Leisure \u2013 you did, bless you \u2013 and we won Best Wine Retailer 2012.\u00a0 Two Septembers on the trot, we inundated you with info and wine tastings from Chile \u2013 twice we came Runners-Up in the Wines of Chile Independent Wine Merchant Awards.<\/p>\n

And you know what, all this has happened in less than 2 years.<\/p>\n

So as they say, time flies.\u00a0 Monday 3rd<\/sup> December sees us celebrate our second birthday, the onset of our third Christmas on Arthur Road, and the official start of silly season.<\/p>\n

However since our big day falls at the start of the week, when we will obviously be drinking fizzy water and green tea, eating our five a day and going for a long healthy run, we\u2019ve decided to pop celebratory corks this Friday night and Saturday.\u00a0 Wayne also celebrates another birthday on Saturday (how many does one man need?), so frankly it will be taxis home come 8pm on Saturday night…<\/p>\n

We had thought long and hard about how we could celebrate \u2013 too cold for a street party, speed dating would be too weird, some helpful customers mentioned a supermarket sweep style affair (thank you, but no), others a drink the shop dry event (must explain the difference between on- and off- licences), but then Spain rang us up and solved all of our problems: how about a Spanish tasting with some nibbles kindly provided by Brindisa? \u00a1hola!, we said to ourselves…<\/p>\n

All we need is for every single one of you to come and see us over the weekend so that we can thank you individually for your support over the last two years and hopefully, via the medium of food and wine, we can bamboozle you into supporting us for the next 200 years!<\/p>\n

As an enticement here\u2019s what we\u2019ll be opening:<\/p>\n