Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
As this email is arriving on Thursday that can only mean that the season of eggs and rabbits is now upon us.\u00a0 Four days off work, with the biggest Christian festival in the middle of it all.\u00a0 No commute until Tuesday at the earliest (or Wednesday if you work here, but more about that later) and intervals of sunshine and clouds, with perhaps a shower in the area in the afternoon, predicted for most points of the weekend.<\/p>\n
However, if like us, you like to edit out the boring bits of life, the previous sentence will have read \u2018intervals of sunshine predicted for most of the weekend\u2019, <\/em>which means that when we\u2019re not puzzling the relationship between chocolate eggs, bunnies and the resurrection of JC, we shall be found in the garden, barbecuing and bottle opening.<\/p>\n Chocolate eggs?\u00a0 Google it.<\/p>\n There\u2019s loads of stories out there relating to the egg: that it represents the tomb the Christ burst from; that during Lent eggs weren\u2019t allowed to be consumed which resulted in a glut of eggs come Easter; that Mary Magdalene had eggs in her basket that turned red on Christ\u2019s return… but chocolate eggs?\u00a0 That\u2019s a Quaker thing apparently.\u00a0 Notably. some Bristolian Quaker\u2019s named Fry, who not only developed the first chocolate bar, Turkish Delight and Peppermint Cream but also were the first people to produce Chocolate Easter Eggs back in 1873.\u00a0 Dinner party trivia fact #1.<\/p>\n Easter bunnies?\u00a0 Google this too.<\/p>\n Lots of differing stories here too.\u00a0 Rabbits symbolise spring and prolific fertility?\u00a0 A German tradition, brought to America in the 18th<\/sup> century, involving an egg laying hare?\u00a0 Disney?\u00a0 Apparently in Switzerland they don\u2019t have an Easter bunny, they have a cuckoo.\u00a0 But then Lindt, the Swiss chocolate makers, are famous for their golden Easter bunny.\u00a0 I\u2019m confused.\u00a0 This could be used as dinner party fact #2 but be wary….<\/p>\n If chocolate wildlife is not really your bag and your pleasures are more commonly derived from the contents of your glass then don\u2019t fret, we will now start talking about liquid refreshments for the weekend.<\/p>\n A couple of weeks back we visited a darkened room in Soho for a tasting, which nowadays doesn\u2019t evoke nearly as much innuendo or hasty explanation to the missus as it might have done 20 years ago.\u00a0 Anyway, once we\u2019d established what used to be in different streets in Soho, and how Berwick Street used to have a great veg and fruit market and how the Greek barber that dad used to visit now seemed to be a coffee shop and ooh I remember when that was a really good little dive bar…. anyway, once we\u2019d done all that, we entered the darkened tasting room.\u00a0 Darkened tasting rooms are as much use as chocolate teapots, since tasting is ideally a fully sensory experience, primarily through nose and mouth but it can be helpful to see what colour the liquid is that you are tasting, as you can imagine.\u00a0 But we cracked on, blind tasting in many respects and finished quite quickly, unless we missed something in the penumbra.\u00a0 In fact we nearly did.\u00a0 As we were leaving we noticed one bottle noticeably closer to a candle, with a bright yellow label that was dazzling in the half light.\u00a0 That looks cool, we thought, wonder what it is?\u00a0 Let\u2019s try it.<\/p>\n So we did and we were smitten.\u00a0 Bonal Gentiane-Quina – \u00a314.99 <\/strong>was the name and neither of us had had it before.\u00a0 Made close to the French Alps, this is a fortified wine which they have infused with gentian and cinchona and a few other interesting herbs.\u00a0 It\u2019s been around since 1865 so clearly we are late into the game but now we are definitely playing.\u00a0 It feels like a posh red vermouth given a bit of a boost \u2013 classically amaro with prunes, sultanas, citrus and the instantly recognisable quinine kick of the cinchona.\u00a0 The maestro at Hepple Gin tasted some with us recently and insisted on making it into a long drink with tonic water \u2013 and it absolutely sung!\u00a0 Think along the lines of Pimm\u2019s but not so sweet \u2013 this will be our go to aperitif all summer long!!<\/p>\n If however you don\u2019t fancy spirits, we\u2019ll be opening wine this evening and all the way through to Saturday.\u00a0 For the white we thought we\u2019d celebrate the return of the Boeckel Pinot Blanc 2015 – \u00a313.79.<\/strong>\u00a0 Alex has always rattled on about Pinot Blanc but often I have found it difficult to share his enthusiasm.\u00a0 However these chaps have nailed it.\u00a0 Gently floral on the nose as you\u2019d expect and the palate is crisp with citrus and orchard fruit notes, a central vein of minerality and a lively, crisp finish.\u00a0 Perfect with your Good Friday fish supper!<\/p>\n In the red chair we welcome a new South African to the fold: Bonfire Hill Extreme Vineyards 2014 – \u00a311.59.\u00a0 <\/strong>For those of you who have always pondered what would happen if Shiraz, Malbec, Pinot Noir, Barbera and Cinsault all ended up in the same bottle, well here\u2019s your answer.\u00a0 Lovely red summer fruits with a touch of herby hillside toasting in the sunshine.\u00a0 Rich, balanced plums and pepper character and frankly just really nice to drink…<\/p>\n That\u2019s almost it from us this weekend apart from a couple of bits of admin.<\/p>\n Upcoming Tastings<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Friday 21st<\/sup> April \u2013 FREE TASTING \u2013 LAZOS, MENDOZA<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019ve got Juan Manuel, our new Argentine importer in for a bit of pouring \u2013 he\u2019ll be opening 3 wines from the Lazos range which really hit the mark \u2013 as always on a Friday, the wines will be open from about 5.30pm onwards so pop in on your way home<\/p>\n Friday 9th<\/sup> June \u2013 FREE TASTING – LITTLE BIRD GIN<\/strong><\/p>\n Lovely Laura from Little Bird will be in the shop, pouring her Gin and talking a lot, both of which are well worth paying attention to!\u00a0 Again, 5.30pm onwards…<\/p>\n Thursday 22nd<\/sup> \u00a0<\/sup>June \u2013 WINE & CHEESE TASTING – \u00a320 each<\/strong><\/p>\n Cheese and wine, wine and cheese, sounds great whichever way you put it!\u00a0 4 cheeses, more wines, taste, comment and repeat \u2013 simple and more interesting than going to the gym on a Thursday…<\/p>\n Thursday 20th<\/sup> July \u2013 WINE & CHEESE TASTING – \u00a320 each<\/strong><\/p>\n As above \u2013 this will be the last one until September, you have been warned!<\/p>\n Opening Hours<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n As mentioned earlier, it\u2019s a funny old weekend this one and we have the funny old working hours to support this:<\/p>\n Thursday 13th<\/sup> April \u2013 NORMAL HOURS \u2013 11am \u2013 8pm<\/strong><\/p>\n Friday 14th<\/sup> April \u2013 ODD HOURS \u2013 11am \u2013 4pm<\/strong><\/p>\n Saturday 15th<\/sup> April – ODD HOURS \u2013 10am \u2013 3pm<\/strong><\/p>\n Sunday 16th<\/sup> April \u2013 Tuesday 18th<\/sup> April \u2013 NO HOURS \u2013 CLOSED<\/strong><\/p>\n Wednesday 19th<\/sup> April – NORMAL HOURS \u2013 11am \u2013 8pm<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s it from us for now, have a fabulous weekend wherever you may roam!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, As this email is arriving on Thursday that can only mean that the season of eggs and rabbits is now upon us.\u00a0 Four days off work, with the biggest Christian festival in the middle of it all.\u00a0 No commute until Tuesday at the earliest (or Wednesday if you work here, but more […]<\/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-849","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\/849","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=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}