Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
How\u2019s your week been? Ours hasn\u2019t been bad, we\u2019ve had a couple of meetings, tasted and listed some new wines, been to the pub. Mostly though, we\u2019ve been moving boxes and catching up with Glastonbury on the interweb. We\u2019ve enjoyed Foo Fighters, Chic, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Warpaint and couldn\u2019t help but wonder if Liam Gallagher is growing up in his old age. Anyway, that\u2019s enough of last week, looking onwards and upwards sees a jam packed agenda.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll have seen the Wimbledon branded cars driving around on their practice runs the last two weeks (I\u2019m sure they used smaller cars in the past, maybe saving on hotel rooms?). This can of course mean only one thing: Wimbledon fortnight is upon us! The Co-op will have sold out of all useful lunch items for the next few weeks so Alex and I will be on the microwave stew or Uncle Ben\u2019s rice packs. More strawberries will be consumed in SW19 than the rest of the country, and Murray will likely have a five setter that\u2019ll make us all late for supper. Sadly we\u2019ve had no luck in the ballot this year, so we\u2019ll be joining a queue at some point if we can manage it.<\/p>\n
Greatest race in the world starts this week too. Saturday sees the start in Dusseldorf, a 14km time trial mostly along the Rhine, so nice and flat. It may well see Chris Froome take some early seconds out of the Grand Classification contenders.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m excited about this year\u2019s Tour (isn\u2019t he always?) as it\u2019s a different kind of terrain to the last couple of years. Starting with tomorrow\u2019s time trial, the penultimate stage is a time trial too, and there are quite a few long, relatively flat stages that should give us breakaways to cheer. Whilst all eyes maybe on Froome, Quintana, Porte and Aru for the GC, keep your eyes out for Simon Yates, a very strong contender for the White Jersey this year. You\u2019ll recall his twin brother Adam wore it last year. As always, stay upright and avoid the motorbikes for three weeks to stay in the mix!<\/p>\n
There is of course, to accompany your breakfast, a British & Irish Lions vs All Blacks fixture too. I\u2019m not sure I should comment much after last week\u2019s debacle but I am enjoying Mr Gatland\u2019s continual confounding of the armchair team pickers. Farrell and Sexton have got to be an exciting prospect, surely?<\/p>\n
Anyway, I started off by saying we\u2019d bought some new wine so, moving swiftly on, I\u2019ll tell you about the Volcanico Pais 2015 (\u00a315.99),<\/strong> from Chile, or perhaps Samurai Shiraz 2016 (\u00a310.99), <\/strong>which apparently tastes \u201clike Australian sunshine and Ninjas<\/em>\u201d though I\u2019d suggest black raspberry and eucalyptus is closer to the mark. It may be that Pinot Noir is more your thing, in which case I may mention Domaine Faiveley Mercurey La Framboisi\u00e8re 2015 (\u00a323.99),<\/strong> which really does have a strawberry like character to its fruit, particularly in such a fine vintage as this.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve mentioned three very different wines from three very different grapes and three very different countries. Want to know more about their differentiators?<\/p>\n Sign up to our Wine School <\/strong><\/p>\n Autumn Term runs Wednesday evenings 4th<\/sup> Oct- 15th<\/sup> Nov with half term on 25th<\/sup> Oct. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019ll taste around 60 wines and the six week course costs \u00a3150. <\/strong><\/p>\n Drop us a line or phone 020 8944 5224 to book your place.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are of an impatient nature then do not fret. We will have some wine open to taste this weekend, as usual.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve had a look and none of our German wines are from Dusseldorf so we have instead decided to open a red and a white from the Pyrenees, made by an Englishman who is married to a Kiwi. We think that covers nearly all the bases, so roll up to the podium Domaine Treloar.<\/p>\n Domaine Treloar is a small family run estate based in Trouillas and we think they make possibly the best wines in the Roussillon. You can read more about them here:<\/p>\n