Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
Black armbands, flags at half mast, doff your hat. Cancer took two of our finest this week, David Bowie and Alan Rickman, and whilst we are far from being accomplished enough wordsmiths to add to the many eulogies written, or about to be written, suffice to say Park Vintners has been a pretty sombre place of late.\u00a0 But we have listened to an awful lot of good music…<\/p>\n
Elsewhere the FIFA farce rolls on. Jerome Valcke gets sacked for the second<\/em> time \u2013 surely if you sack someone once for having lied constantly during negotiations you don\u2019t then rehire them 8 months later do you?\u00a0 Unless you\u2019re FIFA and you\u2019re corrupt.\u00a0 Harold Mayne-Nicholls is banned for seeking favours for family members from various football federations.\u00a0 His recent significant role was to assess the bid countries for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup.\u00a0 His assessments flagged both Qatar and Russia as being unsuitable as venues.\u00a0 Clearly no corruption went on there then!\u00a0 It\u2019s a mess, it\u2019s a car crash, it\u2019s totally addictive viewing!<\/p>\n And then we come to the one bit of news that this week has really got the booze trade hopping up and down and believing itself to be more important than it actually is\u2013 the change in healthy drinking guidelines. \u2018Why weren\u2019t we consulted?\u2019 they cried.\u00a0 \u201820 years after the original guidelines were issued, and following a two year wait, we are surprised that the guidelines are expected to take effect immediately\u2019 Miles Beale, chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Association, was quoted as saying.\u00a0 Well Miles, there\u2019s no point in revising guidelines and then sitting on them for six months now is there?\u00a0 Plus, why would you be consulted?\u00a0 You have a vested interest and you\u2019re not a doctor.<\/p>\n Anyway, suffice to say the storm is very much in a teacup, it\u2019s still less dangerous than driving a car or riding a bike and they are still just guidelines.<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s guidelines: 35 units a week.<\/p>\n If you want to learn more about sensible consumption of alcohol<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Look no further, we have plenty of opportunities coming up.<\/p>\n In just over 10 days time, our much publicised Wine School starts a new term<\/strong>.\u00a0 A six-week course covering the spectrum of all things vinous and all for just \u00a3150 per person.<\/strong> Even if you don\u2019t listen to a word we say, the opportunity to taste around 60 wines<\/strong> over the duration of the course makes that glass of wine in the Pig & Whistle look a bit pricey.\u00a0 Full details attached and we really will try to remember to attach them this week!<\/p>\n We have also put some dates in the diary for one-off tastings over the coming months, see below and if you fancy coming just let us know, places are limited:<\/p>\n Thursday 11th February WINE AND CHEESE \u00a320 per person<\/strong><\/p>\n We select four cheeses, some wines and then proceed to discuss the merits of our choices! Same routine every time but different cheeses and wines we promise.<\/em><\/p>\n Thursday 25th February I CAN\u2019T BELIEVE IT\u2019S NOT CLARET \u00a325 per person <\/strong><\/p>\n Compare and contrast wines from Bordeaux with its imitators from around the world!<\/em><\/p>\n Thursday 10th March WINE AND CHEESE \u00a320 per person <\/strong><\/p>\n Thursday 14th April PINOT AROUND THE WORLD AND I CAN\u2019T FIND MY FAVOURITE <\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a325 per person<\/strong><\/p>\n Pinot Noir \u2013 is Burgundy best, or do we prefer what they\u2019re doing in California, New Zealand and the rest \u2013 help us make up our minds<\/em><\/p>\n Thursday 21st April WINE AND CHEESE \u00a320 per person<\/strong><\/p>\n Thursday 26th May WINE AND CHEESE \u00a320 per person<\/strong><\/p>\n And finally…<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n To celebrate the upcoming nuptials of Mr Rupert Murdoch and Miss Jerry Hall it would seem appropriate to taste some wines of significance this weekend: from Australia we will open the aptly named Accomplice Semillon Sauvignon 2014 – \u00a38.99<\/strong> a crisp, fresh and grassy number with a hint of tropical fruit \u2013 absolutely spot on.\u00a0 For the red, for reasons we can\u2019t quite fathom, the Californian Burlesque Zinfandel 2013 – \u00a39.39 <\/strong>sprung into view \u2013 perhaps it was the rich spiciness that appealed!<\/p>\n Wines will be open this evening and tomorrow \u2013 there are many reasons to raise a glass this week, so don\u2019t be shy…<\/p>\n Why don’t I like you?<\/em><\/p>\n Because you think I’m an asshole, and I’m not really, I’m just British and, well, you’re not.<\/em><\/p>\n Alan Rickman \u2013 Bottle Shock (2008)<\/p>\n I’m always amazed that people take what I say seriously. I don’t even take what I am seriously.<\/em><\/p>\n David Bowie<\/p>\n Black armbands, flags at half mast, doff your hat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, Black armbands, flags at half mast, doff your hat. Cancer took two of our finest this week, David Bowie and Alan Rickman, and whilst we are far from being accomplished enough wordsmiths to add to the many eulogies written, or about to be written, suffice to say Park Vintners has been a […]<\/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-683","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\/683","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=683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":684,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683\/revisions\/684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}