Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things that one might say if they were under-researched or perhaps deliberately wanted to mislead people to fit an agenda:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I haven\u2019t been able to find any Big Macs in McDonald\u2019s \u2013 <\/em>surely the only place to buy them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I haven\u2019t been able to find any Catholics in Vatican City \u2013 <\/em>surely a 100% catholic population?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI haven’t been able to find any windfarms in China\u201d \u2013 <\/em>surely the world\u2019s biggest producer of wind energy (with USA in second place)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStupid people buy windfarms\u201d<\/em> – to confirm, the USA has 75,000 of these windmills, Sancho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I must apologise, I spent Wednesday afternoon doing paperwork and listening to Davos discourse whilst wondering why I subject myself to such unedifying tasks. Sadly, because the weather was so dreary, I wasn\u2019t overwhelmed by customers and, consequently, was able to spreadsheet uninterrupted and listen to the entirety of the 70-minute POTUS speech, which is an hour I will never get back. In truth, he didn\u2019t cover any new ground, occasionally reinventing the laws of maths (percentages again) and promising that the attraction of Greenland had nothing to do with rare earth mineral deposits as it\u2019s just a \u201cvery expensive, very big piece of ice.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pants on fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, that\u2019s the last of my New Year Resolutions up in flames. The Dry January thing was never going to have any traction and, whilst the gym membership is being paid for, the treadmills haven\u2019t been under too much threat from these feet. Now, I\u2019ve only gone and given Trump some airtime which is something I\u2019ve been trying to avoid and, frankly, I\u2019m both angry and disappointed with myself but at least I\u2019ve avoided talking about the Beckham\u2019s!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In positive news, we tasted 152 wines on Tuesday, which is more taxing on the palate and a lot less fun that it sounds. Just about half the wines tasted were En Primeur 2024 Burgundies which can make life even harder as you basically taste 36 Chardonnay of similar quality followed by an equivalent number of Pinot Noir. I know, tune up the tiny violins but not every wine is a superstar and, as Adam Bruntlett from BBR surmised, \u201cA challenging vintage, but it was possible to make good and very good wines for short- and medium-term drinking\u201d.<\/em> For us, the whites were showing better than the reds but then, that\u2019s often our position with Burgundy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s not just us that can do wine tasting, you can too. We still have spaces on our first Wine & Cheese<\/strong> tastings of 2026:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday 12th<\/sup> February \u2013 7.30pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday 12th<\/sup> March \u2013 7.30pm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The cost is \u00a330 per person<\/strong> and as ever, first come – first served, we have more spaces available in February than in March, just so you know!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Go bring to me a pint o wine, And fill it in a silver tassie;\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither of us are at all Scottish but we do like a bit of Burns Night. Robert, as seen above, and whilst famously a lover of whisky, clearly also had time in his calendar for a hearty draught of wine, which we admire. For those unversed in such things, this Sunday, 25th<\/sup> January, would be Mr Burns\u2019 267th<\/sup> birthday and will be celebrated worldwide with haggis, neeps, tatties and over exuberant cod-Scottish accents addressing the \u2018Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race\u2019! Oblivious as to whether or not you will be indulging on Sunday, we will be tasting wines this weekend that would match the aforementioned dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The white is a wine we have sold ever since we opened but rarely gets put out on tasting (no idea why not!) since Percheron Chenin Blanc-Viognier 2024 – \u00a310.49 <\/strong>always hits the spot! A deliciously rich blend of 80% Chenin Blanc (where some of the vines are over 40 years old) and 20% Viognier, it is vibrant and aromatic with delicious generous fresh apricot, nectarine and hints of passion fruit on the nose and a creamy palate with real fresh fruit flavours, fleshy, just-picked apricots and hints of guava.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We would always prefer a red with our Scottish dinner and the Rh\u00f4ne makes for happy hunting ground. This week\u2019s choice is \u2018La C\u00f4te Sauvage’ Cairanne 2022 – \u00a321.99. <\/strong>Fully ripe Grenache and Syrah grapes are hand-picked from old bush vines within Cairanne, giving us a rich and intense wine drenched in dark red fruits. Morello cherry and a touch of sweet spice on the nose, ripe berry, liquorice, chocolate, summer pudding and a hint of cinnamon spice on the palate, this wine is full flavoured and smooth with supple tannins. Built for Haggis\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s pretty much it from us for this week \u2013 don\u2019t forget we are still in January Sale<\/strong> mode for another week so, if you fancy a six box of your favourites, now is the time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, Things that one might say if they were under-researched or perhaps deliberately wanted to mislead people to fit an agenda: I haven\u2019t been able to find any Big Macs in McDonald\u2019s \u2013 surely the only place to buy them? I haven\u2019t been able to find any Catholics in Vatican City \u2013 surely […]<\/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-2050","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\/2050","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=2050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2051,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions\/2051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}