Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right, it\u2019s day 9, time to get this party started. It\u2019s the second Friday of the year, the second weekend coming up and January is cantering away, thank goodness. For those of you who are about to fall off the wagon this weekend, we salute your endeavours and admire your persistence thus far but, let\u2019s face it, it\u2019s cold outside, it\u2019s grey and the world needs to be made to look a little rosier right now (although perhaps not with Ros\u00e9, as stocks are quite low!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our year started with an avalanche of new pricelists blocking our doorway as we tried to access the shop on Monday morning. Thanks to the Chancellors benevolence, all alcoholic drinks will go up by 3.66% on February 1st<\/sup> and, given that duty rates are calculated in 0.5% ABV increments, this means that an 11.5% Vinho Verde will now cost us 10 pence more to buy whilst a 14.5% Aussie Shiraz is 12 pence more. Sure, we\u2019re talking pennies but this is before VAT has been added, so 10p becomes 12p and 12p becomes 15p and then, at some point the retailer needs to put a bit of margin on too, so yes, prices will creep up, again. Shall we get this party started whilst we can still afford to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s not all gloom and doom because, as hinted last week, the Park Vintners January Sale is now in full flight. We\u2019re offering the same discount that we have done for the last 14 years \u2013 buy 6 bottles, pay for 5. This is restricted to beer, wine and Champagne (with a few top shelf exceptions) and is fully mixable \u2013 you can buy 5 beers and a bottle of Bollinger and you\u2019ll get the full 16.666666% off your purchase.<\/strong> See, we can get the party started, at least for now. This offer will cease at 5pm on the 31st<\/sup>, so you\u2019ve got a couple of weeks and, let\u2019s face it, even if you are doing Dry January, wouldn\u2019t it be nicer to buy wine that is 16% less rather than 4% more, ready for February?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst we\u2019ve obviously been as busy as ever in this first week of the New Year, we did manage to grab a couple of minutes to look at the calendar and put some dates in for the first Wine & Cheese<\/strong> tastings of 2026:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cost is \u00a330 per person<\/strong> and as ever, first come – first served, don\u2019t dally and risk disappointment!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Westminster, insincere Keir has been talking beer, or more accurately he has admitted that many hospitality businesses would struggle with the changes in business rates. Happily, he and his pit-crew are very used to executing U-turns in tight situations so expect one very soon. Elsewhere, the last thing we never knew we needed is now finally available at eltonjohnzero.com. Elton John Zero Blanc de Blancs is, according to the Rocket Man himself: \u201c\u2026 born from a simple yet exquisite idea \u2013 to create a world where every moment of celebration can be shared by all. Our 0% alcohol Blanc de Blancs captures the elegance, effervescence, and joy of a traditional Blanc de Blancs, without compromise\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s also available at Sainsbury\u2019s and Amazon and is made by Benchmark Drinks, who are responsible for all of Kylie\u2019s \u2018creations\u2019, so I think we can all see what is going on here. However, really the biggest disappointment must be the completely missed god-given opportunity to call it \u2018I\u2019m Still Standing\u2019!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sport has not been generous to some of us thus far this year: Harlequins, Spurs and England cricket all need to be watched from behind the sofa and the fact that Arsenal didn\u2019t\u2019 collapse over Christmas doesn\u2019t make things any easier, so we\u2019ll move on and return to wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To tickle your tastebuds this weekend, we\u2019ll be opening the following brace of beauties:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Highgate Chardonnay 2022 – \u00a314.99<\/strong> hails from Hunter Valley in sunny New South Wales and has been an absolute hit since we listed it in October, here\u2019s your chance to find out why. Aromas of ripe stone fruits, citrus blossom and a touch of flinty minerality lead into a palate that\u2019s bright yet textured. There\u2019s a subtle influence of oak, adding gentle spice and creamy weight, but it remains beautifully restrained, allowing the peach, nectarine and lemon curd flavours to shine. A lift of acidity in the finish keeps it fresh, vivacious and hugely appealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n San Marzano ‘Il Pumo’ Primitivo 2023 – \u00a314.49 <\/strong>is from deep in the south of Italy. Sometimes we think it\u2019s important to just choose a wine because it makes for great drinking regardless of what food you have. This is one of those – an aromatic wine with plenty of rich dark plum\/prune fruit aromas, and some garrigue herbs. All this is present on the palate too which is soft yet pretty full-bodied with nicely integrated tannins make it perfect for fireside drinking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think that\u2019s probably enough from us for now, come and taste some wine, buy some wine and let\u2019s get this year started!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, Right, it\u2019s day 9, time to get this party started. It\u2019s the second Friday of the year, the second weekend coming up and January is cantering away, thank goodness. For those of you who are about to fall off the wagon this weekend, we salute your endeavours and admire your persistence thus […]<\/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-2045","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\/2045","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=2045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2046,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions\/2046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n