{"id":1978,"date":"2025-07-04T12:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T11:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1978"},"modified":"2025-07-04T12:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T11:41:14","slug":"wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1978","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Double celebration day today \u2013 the Founding Fathers declared independence 249 years ago whilst, a mere 248 years later, Keir and the Gang won the general election, neither event coming as much of a surprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So yes, a double celebration and a chance for us all to reflect on how well things are going on either side of the pond.  Here, we can celebrate the announcement of a 10 year plan for the NHS which sounds a lot like a return to the cottage hospitals of old; meanwhile, those lucky enough to live in the Land of the Free can celebrate the big bad wolf\u2019s big beautiful bill.  This is the plan that, over 10 years, will add $3 trillion to the national deficit and cut $1 trillion from Medicaid \u2013 definitely need to be brave to call this place home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celebrating other achievements, Post Malone is 30 today, big beautiful Bill Withers would have been 87 and Greece\u2019s victory over Portugal in the Euros is now old enough to buy a beer in America \u2013 all good dinner party conversation starters for Saturday evening, I think you\u2019ll find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, enough chat about them, let\u2019s get back to talking about us.  We had to use google this week to find an accurate definition for Gen Z, aka Zoomers.  We both had a wishy-washy idea of what it meant but then discovered that we had differing wishy-washy ideas, hence the library visit.  To remind you, Gen Z is the generation born between 1997 and 2012, so aged anywhere between 12 and 28, the youth of today, if you will.  Anyway, we had been led to believe that Gen Z was \u2018abandoning alcohol\u2019<\/em> and that this would have a serious knock on effect for the future of the drinks industry.  However, this week, up stepped the IWSR and Bevtrac consumer research.  Apparently, they tell us, \u2018Gen Z is confounding conventional wisdom by reviving participation rates and consumption occasions.\u2019<\/em>  I read the whole article so you didn\u2019t have to and learnt that, in 15 key markets surveyed, 73% said they\u2019d had a drink in the last 6 months, up from 66% in 2023.  Plus, they\u2019re drinking a broader variety of drinks, loving their spirits and going out a lot more than other generations, which is frankly as it should be and long may it continue; we just need more of them to get into wine and our future will be secure!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not much else to report in the wine world though, so again, we move on.  Normally at this time of the year, Wayne is driving the narrative in these emails \u2013 ranting about the increased traffic resulting from the annual tennis competition taking place in the park and then typing excitedly about the start of the Tour de France.  He\u2019s got the day off today, so it\u2019s down to me to man the moans but happily he left me his notes.  In 2023 he fumed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greetings from the biggest and busiest carpark in south-west London.  If you can\u2019t find a taxi near you it\u2019s because they are all sitting on Arthur Road, shouting at each other and trying to squeeze through spaces made for a VW Polo and not for a Land Rover Defender, so, if you don\u2019t mind, you\u2019ll have to reverse\u2026 Welcome to Wimbledon fortnight, come and smell the fumes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst in 2018 he wrote, with bullet points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n