Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so we start the long, slow walk to September. Even if you don\u2019t have school-age children, you could probably have guessed when the summer holidays started, as it neatly coincided with the need to carry an umbrella and put a sweater on! Plus the streets are empty, parking is easy and we usually have a couple of dozen lime bikes parked outside the shop, waiting to be blown over or reversed in to\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re also a bit disappointed. In a world where we desperately need to conserve our trees and green spaces, it looks increasingly likely we\u2019ll be getting less as we look set to have 39 new tennis courts foisted onto the old golf course beside Home Park Road. This comes hot on the heels of Tottenham Hotspur being given the green light to develop green belt land in Whitewebbs Park in Enfield (11 pitches and a clubhouse); ironically this site was also previously a golf course. Mind you, West Ham have already developed on some green belt land in Romford, so it isn\u2019t without precedent and no golf courses were involved. Trees or sport, you can choose. Oh, hang about, no you can\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moving from planning but staying with sport, we find ourselves a bit more cheerful. The England Women play Spain in the Euro finals on Sunday, a repeat of the World Cup final from 2 years ago and, providing we don\u2019t go to penalties, I think we might just do it. The cricket never fails to entertain this summer, the Lions tour to Australia is also looking positive whilst the cyclists are just a couple of days away from Paris but it does feel a bit like the procession has already started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, we can\u2019t just watch sport and trawl planning applications; we do also need to do some selling and some planning. We\u2019ve not quite finalised our Christmas range yet but we have been looking at the months ahead with greater attention. With this in mind, following the success of our Wine & Cheese evening<\/strong> in June, we\u2019ve pencilled in some dates for the Autumn. So, if you missed out on the fun, go and check your diary now to see if any (or all) of the following dates work for you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have a maximum of 12 people per tasting and a seat at the table costs \u00a330, <\/strong>first come, first served. You can reserve your place by giving us a call on 020 8944 5224 or just pop in and see us on Arthur Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Striking whilst the iron is hot, we might as well add that our annual Champagne & Sparkling Wine Tasting <\/strong>which will take place on<\/p>\n\n\n\n A seat for this costs \u00a335<\/strong>, same rules as above!<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if you want to taste some interesting wines before the end of summer, we\u2019ll have a few bottles open this weekend that should tantalise your tasting buds. As you are no doubt unaware, Friday 1st<\/sup> August is \u2018Celebrate Albari\u00f1o Day\u2019<\/strong>. The R\u00edas Baixas region specialises in Albari\u00f1o, and is thus considered to be its true heartland, nestled up in the far north-western corner of Spain beside the wind-swept Atlantic coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are 5 sub-regions within R\u00edas Baixas with the most northern being Ribeira do Ulla. Fully landlocked but dissected by the Ulla River, this is the newest sub-zone, registered in 2000 and is composed mostly of alluvial soil. Located inland, just southeast of Santiago de Compostela, and east of Padr\u00f3n, the town famous for its fried green peppers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, we have Val do Saln\u00e9s boasting the most coastline and is consequently the coolest and dampest of the regions. It is known as the birthplace of the Albari\u00f1o grape and is the original and oldest sub-zone with the most area under vine and the highest concentration of wineries. The soil is granitic and rocky with alluvial top-soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soutomaior sits on the coast in the centre of the region and is the smallest zone, registered in 1996. Soils are light and sandy over granite bedrock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Condado do Tea is named after the river Tea, a tributary of the Mi\u00f1o River. Located inland in a fairly mountainous area, this is the second largest zone, with granite-slate and sedimentary soils. Being inland, it is a warmer, drier area, with some very high temperatures possible in the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, we have O Rosal, lying along the Mi\u00f1o River where it joins the Atlantic Ocean. It forms the border with Portugal and has granite bedrock with alluvial topsoil, with terraced vineyards along the sides of the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have 3 Albari\u00f1os in stock and we\u2019ll be opening all of them this weekend because why wait until next Friday?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arousana Follas Novas – \u00a317.99<\/strong> \u2013 from Val do Saln\u00e9s, made using fruit from 30 year old vines. White peach and orange blossom on the nose and a crisp, dry palate showing stone fruit and mineral characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Granbazan Etiqueta Ambar – \u00a325.79<\/strong> \u2013 also from Val do Saln\u00e9s, just a kilometre away from the sea which gives it a salty minerality and a slightly tropical fruit character on the palate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n San Salvador de Soutomaior Noelia Bebelia – \u00a326.99<\/strong> \u2013 as you can possibly guess, this hails from Soutomaior and the producers, Simon and Noelia have 7 acres perched on mountainous riverbanks and aim to make very terroir focused wines. Richer, with concentrated fruit character whilst not forgetting the signature crisp minerality and a lovely long finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, to keep Mike happy, we\u2019ll also open a red. We\u2019ll stay with Spain and head directly east from Pontevedra for about 600km until we reach Haro, Rioja. Palacio del Camino Real Reserva – \u00a315.99 <\/strong>is a traditional style Reserva Rioja with plenty of black fruit flavours and spicy, rich oak notes as you would expect. The palate is medium-bodied with a real fruit driven flavour. Plums, red and black fruit and soft vanilla notes shine here and lead onto a long, structured finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So pop by, buy a ticket for a tasting, taste some Spanish stunners and raise a glass to Ozzy and Hulk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Say your prayers, take your vitamins and you will never go wrong!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, And so we start the long, slow walk to September. Even if you don\u2019t have school-age children, you could probably have guessed when the summer holidays started, as it neatly coincided with the need to carry an umbrella and put a sweater on! Plus the streets are empty, parking is easy 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-1986","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\/1986","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=1986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1987,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986\/revisions\/1987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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