Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can imagine, we\u2019d already penned most of this week\u2019s missive when the news came in last night. We don\u2019t have any pre-prepared statement for such an event; there are no precedents to go by; we don\u2019t have any protocols in place to mark the passing of a much-loved monarch and as such, are significantly under-prepared – hence we will stick with the potent simplicity of Rest in Peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As mentioned, we\u2019d already written most of the email yesterday and, having re-read it, we think it can still be sent out unchanged, however please don\u2019t read on if today you\u2019re not in the mood for our view of the world\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s what we wrote yesterday afternoon:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The week in a nutshell:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monday \u2013 Liz won the leadership race, although perhaps not by the huge margin we had been led to expect, whilst Rishi skedaddled to the backbenches to plot his return to the mainstage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tuesday \u2013 Boris, ever the narcissist, made up a farewell speech that none of us needed, before he skedaddled to the backbenches to plot his return. Oh, and Liz became PM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wednesday \u2013 first proper day in the job for the second Mrs T. PMQ\u2019s came and went without any long words and the new cabinet was announced \u2013 you thought Boris\u2019s last selections were the Dream Team; Liz has just gone further to the right. Skedaddling to the backbenches and hopefully not plotting a return are Priti, Dominic, Nadine and Grant. Oh, and Suella becomes Home Secretary \u2013 how on earth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thursday \u2013 fresh from receiving congratulations yesterday from Theresa May on becoming the third female PM, today Liz makes her out to be a liar. \u2018There\u2019s no magic money tree\u2019 <\/em>is what Theresa famously said in 2017 but, apparently, there is because, despite all the billions spent during the pandemic, the tree still has more than \u00a3100 billion left to be scrumped to cover her new energy policy. Oh, and fracking is back\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday \u2013 well, one can only assume she will broker peace in Ukraine, sit on inflation, stop the recession and the cost of living crisis by lunchtime, thus giving her enough time to read this email over her egg and cress before settling in for an afternoon watching La Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a with Wayne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, moving north from Westminster and up to the Beavertown \u2018craft\u2019 brewery in Tottenham, we learn that founder, Logan Plant, has sensibly sold his remaining share of the company to Heineken, just before the costs of brewing go stratospheric. In 2018 he sold them 49% of the business for \u00a340 million so we can only guess at what he\u2019s been given this time \u2013 a lot we imagine and not a bad turn around for a business that was only set up in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Park Vintners was founded in 2010 and will happily consider offers in excess of \u00a350 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, until someone makes us an offer, it\u2019s business as usual. Encouraged by the Heineken move, we decided to do some beer buying ourselves but rather than buy a brewery we just bought some cans. Two new lines appeared this week, guests if you like, we\u2019ll see how you enjoy them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Park Brewery Birthday Pale Ale 4.3% – \u00a34.00<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What they say: For our eighth birthday celebration we decided to make the style of beer we love, a hazy, session strength pale, tropical and juicy, packed full of some of our favourite hops – Huell Melon, Citra BBC, Simcoe and Cryo Sabro.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Park Brewery 1637 Pils 4.9% – \u00a33.50<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What they say: A deep golden Bohemian-style Pilsner beer. Munich, Pils and Carahell malts provide a smooth and sweet base for the noble spiciness of the Polish Magnum and Lubelski hops. Lagered for six weeks for a smooth and clean finish. And the name? Well, King Charles I enclosed the park in 1637 with an 8 mile perimeter wall forming his own deer park. This wall has helped to preserve the park until the present day.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n At this point Wayne usually likes to put in a few pithy one liners about sport, particularly \u2018real\u2019 sport AKA cycling. So, I\u2019ve been revising and have to say that with the sad departure of Roglic on Tuesday the race now looks to be done. That is unless something remarkable happens on Saturday according to Alberto Contador, who knows a thing or two about remarkable feats having cycled 20 km with a broken shin in the 2014 Tour de France. In football, I spent all day looking for Arsenal\u2019s Championship League results but couldn\u2019t find them anywhere\u2026. Cricket is wet, as is the Wentworth PGA and the tennis is on Amazon Prime so no one really knows what\u2019s going on there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think, poignantly, that this weekend is definitely a \u2018raise a glass to absent friends\u2019 weekend \u2013 we don\u2019t sell Dubonnet or Krug which were, by all accounts, favoured tipples so let\u2019s focus on the raising of the glass rather than its contents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, we\u2019ll be raising glasses of Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2020 – \u00a317.99 <\/strong>and also Chateau La Tour de By 2014 – \u00a327.99<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Based in the Livermore Valley in California, Wente\u2019s vineyards were founded in 1883 and are still owned and managed by the same family, 4 generations later. They were also one of the first to plant Chardonnay and one taste of this suggests they are doing a fine job. Crisp with fine elegant apple notes and a supporting touch of oak, bang on some grilled lobster! Meanwhile, in Bordeaux the 2014 La Tour de By is a gem. As Wine Enthusiast wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Pag\u00e8s family, which has a group of estates in the M\u00e9doc, has produced a rich, concentrated wine at this ch\u00e2teau. While packed with black currant fruit from the 60% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, it also has a firm layer of tannins that will allow it to age. Drink from 2021.” <\/em>– 92\/100<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sounds good to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll leave you now with a quote attributed to the first Mrs T that for some reason feels appropriate: \u2018Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Farewell to a class act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, As you can imagine, we\u2019d already penned most of this week\u2019s missive when the news came in last night. We don\u2019t have any pre-prepared statement for such an event; there are no precedents to go by; we don\u2019t have any protocols in place to mark the passing of a much-loved monarch and […]<\/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-1595","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\/1595","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=1595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1596,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595\/revisions\/1596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}