Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this point of the week it is customary for us to discuss some of the week\u2019s more noteworthy snippets of news, in what we hope is a light hearted and occasionally amusing style. This week I find myself a little scuppered as I have paid virtually no attention to current affairs whatsoever. I understand Jeff Bezos has taken over Venice for his wedding, upsetting most of the locals who object to the idea that you can \u2018buy\u2019 Venice for a few days. There have been inflatable Bezos effigies floating in canals alongside talk of inflatable alligators too. Alex and I didn\u2019t get an invite, or the catering contract. We don\u2019t know Jeff Bezos any better than half of the guest list selection of folk from Red Carpet Fillers LLC but surely we could\u2019ve helped with the wine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m also assuming that, as we get to write again this week, WW3 has thus far been avoided. Why can\u2019t these confused old men just play backgammon, cards or dominoes in the sunshine? Warhammer for real is just not cool, what benefit is there to the people of Iran, Israel or the US?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One thing did catch my eye, in Warwickshire the Reform leader of the council, Rob Howard, has stood down after just 41 days in the job saying his health doesn\u2019t allow him to continue in the role \u201cto the standard I would wish\u201d. This presents an amazing opportunity for his deputy, 18 year old George Finch. Now, as much as I welcome all great opportunities for young folk, I do question whether any 18 year old has the necessary skills to deliver the best value for money from the councils \u00a3500m revenue budget. Quite a steep learning curve I\u2019d suggest, let\u2019s hope he passed his GCSE Maths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well Wayne, you might ask, what have you been up to that had you so disconnected from the 24 hour news cycle? Well, since we last spoke I spent a day standing in a field near Milton Keynes watching old folks sing the songs of my youth, some rather better than others. I finally got to see Kraftwerk after the best part of 50 years of trying. They might be robots, I\u2019m not sure, but they certainly had a bass that rattled your lungs against your ribs. Then I dashed off to Bordeaux, as you do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tasting and drinking mostly red wine in 33\u02daC is a bit of a challenge but rest assured I did my best to rise to it. I got to meet up with a selection of colleagues from independent merchants around the country to exchange ideas alongside tales of woe, derring-do and hilarity. We planted trees to help with one estate\u2019s diversity and visited a brand new (or at least very nearly finished) winery, on one of the largest estates in Bordeaux, that will remain empty until the pea sized berries that we saw have ripened and been harvested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We got to visit Yves at Saransot Dupr\u00e9 whose two wire haired dachshunds made sure we stayed on the straight and narrow; Cyril from Chateau Haut Barrail was there too and Yves told him off for not pouring large enough samples! We also met Jean-Christophe from Ch\u00e2teau Les Tourelles, who has some very gnarly looking 100 year old Semillon vines for his sweet wines and supplies us with some remarkable value wines from down in Cadillac. I certainly never expected to be sat discussing wines from Mallorca sat in a cellar in south-east Bordeaux!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This brings me to what we\u2019ll have on tasting this weekend. Glastonbury is on the telly and we seem to be in line for some nice weather, so why not try Chateau Les Tourelles 2023 (\u00a311.99)<\/strong> in the white corner. As mentioned above, it\u2019s from Cadillac in south east Bordeaux and its crisp freshness is just the ticket for this weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the red corner, we\u2019ll again go for a summer swigger that suits the weather. Hanewald-Schwerdt Sp\u00e4tburgunder 2020 – \u00a319.99. <\/strong>Pinot Noir from Germany doesn\u2019t appear on everyone\u2019s radar very often but it should! Bright strawberry and cherry notes lead the way with some delicious savoury character and good minerality. Intense and medium bodied this is designed to be drunk easily (hooray) and can be enjoyed on its own (hooray again) and if you were of a mind it would chill down rather nicely (can I get a third hooray?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s that from us except to wish Mel Brooks a happy 99th<\/sup> birthday for tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to be the king\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, At this point of the week it is customary for us to discuss some of the week\u2019s more noteworthy snippets of news, in what we hope is a light hearted and occasionally amusing style. This week I find myself a little scuppered as I have paid virtually no attention to current affairs […]<\/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-1976","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\/1976","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=1976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1977,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions\/1977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}