{"id":662,"date":"2015-11-13T18:34:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T17:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=662"},"modified":"2015-11-13T18:34:50","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T17:34:50","slug":"finally-proof-that-polar-bears-dont-like-twiglets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=662","title":{"rendered":"Finally, proof that polar bears don’t like Twiglets…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

So it seems Stuart Lancaster has bombed out, athletics is on a fast track to rehab and the cricket is, well, only cricket. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re hoping that Sebastian Coe is feeling discomfort for blaming the media when the story first broke some months ago. We\u2019re definitely in Daley Thomson\u2019s camp with the \u201cStand up and show some leadership\u201d quote, but sadly expect it\u2019ll all just fall on the desk of yet more lawyers! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the International Athletics Federations key objectives is <\/span>\u201cTo spread the universal message of the <\/span>purest <\/span><\/b>of humankind\u2019s sports, regardless of race, religion, colour or country of origin.\u201d <\/span><\/i>So let\u2019s deal with the cheats, sort out independent testing, and get everyone on a passport system! RANT OVER\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In wine news this week, the BBC team filming \u2018The Hunt\u2019 up in the Arctic Circle has had problems with their wine stash. A polar bear broke into the cabin and rifled through their food supplies, only to be scared away by the crew banging on the walls. Down, but not out however, the bear returned whilst the crew were away filming and drank deeply of their box of red wine. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Upon their return they found the polar bear asleep with red wine around its mouth, and had to set off flares to scare it away.\u00a0 All the wine had been drunk and all the food eaten except, tellingly, the Marmite.\u00a0 It\u2019s the unexpected things we learn that are often the most exciting!!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Early Close Monday<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

We will have to close at 6pm on Monday as we have been invited to the Time Out Awards Dinner, so fingers crossed!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Where\u2019s Alex? <\/span><\/span><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s world tour kicks off this Saturday\u2026full dates below<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Saturday 14<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> November –\u00a0 St Matthew\u2019s Church Winter Fair<\/span><\/span><\/i> – <\/span><\/span><\/b>Durham Road SW20 0DE 11.30am – 2pm.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wednesday 18<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> November – The Wimbledon Rugby Club Christmas Bazaar<\/span><\/span><\/i>. – <\/span><\/span><\/b>Barham Road SW20 0ET 6.30pm – 10pm. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sunday 6<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> December – Wimbledon Park Primary School Christmas Fair<\/span><\/span><\/i> – <\/span><\/span><\/b>Havana Road, pouring the mulled wine \u2013 one for you, one for him, one for you, one for him\u2026 and repeat!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wine School<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/b> \u2013 <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Wednesday 27<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> January at 8pm, for six weeks, skipping the 10<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> February as it\u2019s half term and all good schools need a half term. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A number of you asked about gift vouchers for this as a present, so pop in and see us or give us a call on 020 8944 5224. Full details attached.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Tasting This Weekend<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

Always keen to make new discoveries, we made two this week.\u00a0 Firstly we discovered that Italy makes wine, and quite well to boot.\u00a0 Ok, we knew that but what we hadn\u2019t realised is that we haven\u2019t opened some of them for a while.\u00a0 For example, <\/span>Sarotto Tenuta Manenti Gavi di Gavi 2014 (\u00a312.99)<\/span><\/b> hasn\u2019t been opened for weekend tasting since 6<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> December 2013 which means many of you have been missing out on the ripe, rich white peach flavours, stony minerality and long fresh finish emanating from the 50 year-old Cortese vines, grown at altitude in the Maddalena vineyard by Roberto Sarotto.\u00a0 This will be resolved today.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

More worryingly, <\/span>Monte del Fr\u00e1 Tenuta Lena di Mezzo Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso 2012<\/span><\/b> has never been opened.\u00a0 Never. This is properly rubbish on our part, so we\u2019ll get one open immediately.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t know about the wine, the skins of the grapes that have been pressed to make Amarone (and Recioto sometimes) are added to this Valpol towards the end of winter, which allows the fermentation to continue for longer (the yeast now has more food) resulting in a stronger, more complex wine.\u00a0 To add to this complexity the wine is then aged in 30-hectolitre French oak casks for at least 18 months before bottling.\u00a0 The result is a mouthful of cherries, plums and liquorice, pepper and cinnamon and even hints of the forest floor.\u00a0 The palate is dry, fruity and very well-balanced.\u00a0 You won\u2019t like it\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I suspect Alex will return with some open bottles on Saturday afternoon too, so if you time your visit well, it could be a very nice start to the evening!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fellow Wine Lovers, So it seems Stuart Lancaster has bombed out, athletics is on a fast track to rehab and the cricket is, well, only cricket. We\u2019re hoping that Sebastian Coe is feeling discomfort for blaming the media when the story first broke some months ago. We\u2019re definitely in Daley Thomson\u2019s camp with the \u201cStand […]<\/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-662","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\/662","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=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions\/663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}