Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m off now\u2019<\/em>, said Alex as he strode out the door yesterday morning, brimful of self-importance.<\/p>\n It being just past 11am, I was slightly concerned about his work ethic.\u00a0 \u2018I\u2019m off to the supplier tasting up in town, you know, I told you about it yesterday evening, at St Martin in the Fields.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 Aware that he has a habit of making things up and then blaming my not knowing about them on the fact I\u2019m a few years older than him, I let it ride.\u00a0 The opportunity to have a few hours of peace and quiet in the shop and actually get some serious work done, without puerile, bearded distractions, was too tempting.\u00a0 So, I let him go.<\/p>\n Clearly there was no tasting going on in the church, it was just an excuse for him to pop into Viandas de Salamanca on the Strand for a ham roll and then to catch a matin\u00e9e performance of Matilda.\u00a0 But this was all fine if he was going to be out of the way for those precious few hours.<\/p>\n So what did I get up to in his beardiness\u2019s absence?<\/p>\n First up, coffee, followed by a quick sweep of the shop to clear up any leftovers from Wednesday night\u2019s tasting.\u00a0 Floor stack back in place, Spotify #ThrowbackThursday on the computer, fridges filled.<\/p>\n Then, between writing a few tasting notes for our new wines, rehearsing my oldest and best jokes on Rufus the dog (If I\u2019ve got three eyes, four ears, two mouths and a sprouting beauty spot, how do I look?\u00a0 Ruff, he replied) and re-merchandising the Biltong, I had some lunch.\u00a0 It was already half past two \u2013 the day was flying by and I hadn\u2019t yet looked at the BBC website to read about the Arsenal game!<\/p>\n Loved ones and close friends have often queried what it is we do all day and I do hope this snapshot gives you a good glimpse into our busy retail existence.<\/p>\n To continue, when Alex came back at about 4pm, still replete with importance and silly beard, I decided it was time to grab my coat and grab my hat and head out to the pub and some dinner with some old friends.\u00a0 Another day, another dollar.<\/p>\n However, during his brief sojourn in the shop, micromanager Alex had written me a list of things that I need to mention in this week\u2019s email, along with his patented egg-sucking instruction, so here you go…<\/p>\n SUNDAY<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Sunday is Mother\u2019s Day and needs to be celebrated.\u00a0 To forget is inexcusable and rightly so.\u00a0 A piece of advice, courtesy of Alex, to anyone who is a father.\u00a0 You may well be reading this, confident that you have organised a card and some flowers for your Mum, and thus see yourself as being off the hook.<\/p>\n However, have you thought about the mother of your children?<\/p>\n That\u2019s right.\u00a0 It\u2019s an absolute guarantee that your 12 year old son will not have even registered the date, let alone actively done anything about it and now is the time to step in, rather than at 7.30am on Sunday morning.\u00a0 Croissants and flowers are nice but so, too, is Bollinger.\u00a0 A good friend of mine has always believed that there is no problem that can\u2019t be solved by throwing the appropriate amount of money at it and, on more than one occasion, we have benefited from his resolutions.\u00a0 However, to help you all out, this weekend you won\u2019t have to throw as much money at it as you would normally:<\/p>\n FRIDAY 4TH<\/sup> MARCH \u2013 SATURDAY 5TH<\/sup> MARCH \u2013 BOLLINGER SPECIAL CUV\u00c9E PRICE CUT <\/strong><\/p>\n NORMAL PRICE \u00a345 – OFFER PRICE \u00a333.33 PER BOTTLE, WHILST STOCKS LAST.<\/strong><\/p>\n So don\u2019t forget, Mother\u2019s Day on Sunday, to forget is inexcusable.<\/p>\n THURSDAY 21ST <\/sup>APRIL<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Our ever popular Wine & Cheese<\/strong> evening is on again.\u00a0 We select four cheeses with a little help from our new pals at The London Cheese Board and we line up some wines to taste alongside them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very simple formula but it seems to have plenty of fans!\u00a0 \u00a320 per person \u2013 tasting starts at 8pm.<\/strong><\/p>\n TODAY & TOMORROW<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Occasionally Alex and I are in the same tasting, at the same time, and what tends to result is that we buy some new wines.\u00a0 This time it was Spain, again.\u00a0 We love Spain and are constantly finding new wines that we have to try and cram onto the seemingly shrinking shelves.\u00a0 This week we have listed Emilio Moro Ribera del Duero 2013 – \u00a317.99 <\/strong>which Alex first had in Spain last year and has been hassling to buy ever since; Gran Colegiata Lagrima Toro 2012 – \u00a311.99 <\/strong>which adds a bit of body to the shelf; Lopez de Haro Rioja Crianza 2013 – \u00a310.99 <\/strong>purely because of its darn fine label and Nisia Old Vine Verdejo 2014 – \u00a316.99 <\/strong>from Rueda, where all the good Verdejo comes from.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll open the Lopez de Haro Rioja Crianza 2013 <\/strong>and the Nisia Old Vine Verdejo 2014<\/strong> this weekend so why not pop in to try them out \u2013 you never know, you might even catch us working!\u00a0 (well, perhaps not Alex)<\/p>\n Now Rufus, did I tell you the one about the interrupting cow\u2026.<\/p>\n Wayne & Alex<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, \u2018I\u2019m off now\u2019, said Alex as he strode out the door yesterday morning, brimful of self-importance. It being just past 11am, I was slightly concerned about his work ethic.\u00a0 \u2018I\u2019m off to the supplier tasting up in town, you know, I told you about it yesterday evening, at St Martin in the […]<\/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-701","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\/701","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=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":702,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions\/702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}