Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
Some dates for your diary, past and future:<\/p>\n
Sunday 31st<\/sup> March<\/b> \u2013 BST begins<\/p>\n Monday 1st<\/sup> April<\/b> \u2013 April Fool\u2019s Day, all japes to be finished by midday (weather, take note)<\/p>\n Wednesday 10th<\/sup> April<\/b> \u2013 English Cricket Season starts (weather, as above)<\/p>\n Saturday 6th<\/sup> April <\/b>\u2013 Grand National, Colbert Station E\/W<\/p>\n Monday 15th<\/sup> April<\/b> \u2013 schools go back, life returns to normal<\/p>\n Thursday 25th<\/sup> April<\/b> \u2013 Wine and Cheese Tasting, 8pm, 4 places left…<\/p>\n Wednesday 1st<\/sup> May<\/b> \u2013 6 Week Wine Course commences, 8pm, spaces still available<\/p>\n Wednesday 4th<\/sup> April 2012<\/b> \u2013 temp in London \u2013 11c – fine<\/p>\n Monday 4th<\/sup> April 2011<\/b> \u2013 temp in London \u2013 12c – fine<\/p>\n Sunday 4th<\/sup> April 2010<\/b> \u2013 temp in London \u20139c – chillier<\/p>\n Yesterday<\/b> \u2013 4c…<\/p>\n I think you all get the theme of this email.\u00a0 It\u2019s been snowing too much recently, it\u2019s been too damn windy and frankly our small oil-fired radiator is having to work too hard.\u00a0 If it wasn\u2019t our own business we would take industrial action against our inhumane working conditions.\u00a0 The Bordeaux we had on tasting last week became a study in tannins as the shop chilled down whilst the Eiswein was standing there in his shorts and flip-flops wandering what all the fuss was about.\u00a0 Oh and I may well have started hallucinating…<\/p>\n In my list of dates above you may have noticed mention of the Wine School<\/b>.\u00a0 What with one thing and another we have failed to promote this as actively and incessantly as we usually do which is probably a relief in some ways but does mean that we have plenty of space left.<\/p>\n The 6 week adventure starts at 8pm on Wednesday 1st<\/sup> May<\/b> and continues on the 8th<\/sup>, 15th<\/sup> and 22nd<\/sup><\/b> of the month.\u00a0 We then take a week off for half term, and re-convene for the last two sessions that will take place on 5th<\/sup> and 12th<\/sup> June<\/b>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a great experience, we limit the group to a maximum of 10, we taste about 60 wines over the duration of the course, we cover whites, reds, fizz, a bit of rose, a bit of sweet wine and some faulty wines.\u00a0 We practice some blind tasting, we introduce you to the Noble Grape Varieties and a few less renowned, we feed you water biscuits and, if you\u2019re lucky, breadsticks.<\/p>\n So for two hours each Wednesday you can escape the world and pretend that life is all about sensory pleasure and delicious wine.\u00a0 All this for \u00a3150, who could ask for more?<\/b><\/p>\n Booking is easy \u2013 phone us (020 8944 5224), email us, pop by and sign up whilst tasting today\u2019s tasting wines \u2013 all these methods work.\u00a0 So join up today for a wine filled May! (sorry)<\/p>\n If you fancy a bit of a warm up prior to joining the course then for just \u00a315<\/b> you can book a slot on our Cheese and Wine evening on Thursday 25th<\/sup> April, 8pm.\u00a0 <\/b>Always popular, always well run, never chaotic \u2013 if you don\u2019t believe me come and see for yourself!<\/p>\n Tasting this weekend<\/span><\/p>\n Wayne has been busy foraging around the Iberian Peninsula, but not in the bit that speaks Spanish but in the other bit that we have been trying to keep to ourselves.\u00a0 Portugal has fantastic and beautifully approachable wines that suffer in the UK market purely because the grapes are hard to pronounce and for many years Mateus Rose was their most famous export.\u00a0 Then Cliff Richard started making wine there, just outside Albufeira, which hardly enhanced its reputation, allegedly.<\/p>\n But now Wayne has been on the case and this weekend we will enjoy some of the fruits of his labours; I know little of these wines, so I\u2019ll hand you over to our expert:<\/p>\n We\u2019ll start off in the white corner with\u2026 Luis Pato Maria Gomes 2012, Bairrada, Portugal 12% – \u00a311.19 <\/b>Luis Pato is one of the wine trade\u2019s treasures, outspoken, experimental and very talented. 2012 marked his 30th<\/sup> vintage at the reins and he shows no signs of slowing down, having just made his first red wine from white grapes (don\u2019t ask!). This wine is a fine example of his work, wonderfully fresh and aromatic in its grapey nose, then with a broad, smooth texture in the mouth with melony flavours and a beautifully pure finish.<\/p>\n Then we head off to the Alentejano region for a spot of red. This area is a hot bed of experimentation and they plant more well-known varieties as well as the unpronounceable ones. Our selection here is Ciconia, Alentejo, Portugal<\/b> 13.5% \u00a39.99<\/b> – which is a kind of stork that settles on the plains here. No stork in the wine though, it\u2019s a blend of Touriga Nacional, Syrah and Aragonez. What does it taste like? Why not come in and try for yourself, we might even use your tasting note!<\/p>\n So that just about rounds it off for this week save for a few final observations.\u00a0 We\u2019ve just been reminded by one of you that Wales beat England in the Six Nations and why hadn\u2019t we mentioned it in our email.\u00a0 Now we have.<\/p>\n Apparently the Brits and Russians drink the most when flying \u2013 fairly sure David Boon might have something to say about that.\u00a0 As would the chap who managed 4 quarter bottles of Champagne on the flight to Amsterdam.\u00a0 As would Mike Tindall.\u00a0 Oh hang about, the last two are English – point taken.<\/p>\n Jobs for the weekend: taste Portuguese wines, sign up for Wine Course, watch the Grand National.<\/p>\n Over and out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, Some dates for your diary, past and future: Sunday 31st March \u2013 BST begins Monday 1st April \u2013 April Fool\u2019s Day, all japes to be finished by midday (weather, take note) Wednesday 10th April \u2013 English Cricket Season starts (weather, as above) Saturday 6th April \u2013 Grand National, Colbert Station E\/W Monday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215","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\/215","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=215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215\/revisions\/217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}