\u2018About two grand\u2019<\/u><\/em><\/p>\nThis is how much the Posh and the Becks allegedly spent on wine on a recent date night.<\/p>\n
Not a lot really \u2013 with a combined worth of about \u00a3500 million, that is really the equivalent of me taking my beloved out for a couple of halves of Amstel and a sausage roll.\u00a0 They consumed, according to the sources, a bottle of Chateau Margaux 1995 (nice choice, Victoria), a bottle of Chateau Cheval Blanc 2012 (a trifle young, David) and a bottle of Chateau Lafleur 2006 (now that\u2019s more like it, a bit of age and development).<\/p>\n
Now, various commentators have tied themselves up in knots about the size of the bill et cetera but what we have to admire is a midweek date night that involves three bottles of wine, red wine no less, and not a glass of Prosecco in sight.<\/p>\n
Beckhams – consider yourselves high fived!<\/p>\n
\u2018About a hundred and fifty quid\u2019<\/u><\/em><\/p>\nYesterday was a tough day, one of those days that you\u2019re all very lucky to be able to avoid.\u00a0 But don\u2019t show us too much pity because in fact we brought it all upon ourselves when we invited Jo\u00e3o from Sogevinus to pop in and see us.\u00a0 Jo\u00e3o has the unenviable task of trying to sell Wayne port and he does this by pouring samples into glasses and then waving them under our noses before we taste and spit them out.\u00a0 Or at least I spit them out, I couldn\u2019t possibly comment on Wayne\u2019s activities\u2026<\/p>\n
The ports all came from Kopke<\/strong>, a smaller house but as we well know, smaller does not diminish quality of course; they were established in 1638, is the eldest Porto wine export firm and is considered one of the leaders \u00a0in the \u201cPorto Colheita\u201d category.<\/p>\nSo, what did we taste?<\/p>\n
Kopke 10 year old White (half) – \u00a323<\/strong><\/p>\nCaramel, peach, soft and not as sweet as I expected at front, caramel again sweetens into the length and persistent peach stone fruit.<\/p>\n
Kopke 10 year old Tawny – \u00a322<\/strong><\/p>\nMore red fruit character, touch of cinnamon and nut, soft sweeter attack, milky coffee and red fruits, touch of warmth in finish, very classic winter warmer.<\/p>\n
Kopke 30 year old White (half) – \u00a352 <\/strong><\/p>\nReal dried apricot attack, lovely balance, coffee, nut brittle, layered and really long finish<\/p>\n
Kopke 1987 Colheita – \u00a375<\/strong><\/p>\nTextured, soft and sweet but not aggressively so, cream fudge without the sugar, reddish fruit, touch of spice but overall impression is of elegance.<\/p>\n
Kopke 20 year old Tawny – \u00a342<\/strong><\/p>\nRed cherry and chocolate on nose, interesting celery note too, spice more mocha notes on palate lovely intensity without sticky out warmth. Nice and long. Touch of cloves on palate too<\/p>\n
Kopke 1967 – \u00a3150<\/strong><\/p>\nFurniture polish, redcurrant, clotted cream, star anise, sweet but drier than I expected attack, red fruits, creamy toffee, butterscotch but a certain amount of power to it. Decent length.<\/p>\n
We haven\u2019t bought any of these yet (but have offered them to the Beckhams) but our favourites were definitely the Colheita\u2019s \u2013 Wayne enjoying the elegance of the 1987 whilst Alex appreciated the power of the 1967 \u2013 and frankly a bottle that is 50 years old for \u00a3150 is very hard to beat in our view!<\/p>\n
The rest of the day passed in a blur of VAT returns and hunger pangs \u2013 who knew that tasting port in the morning gives you the munchies \u2013 and now we reach the weekend and for many of our younger readers (!), half term.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s only a week off (or two weeks if you pay the right people) and if your lives are anything similar to mine, a glass of wine or two is the only way to get through.\u00a0 With this in mind, this evening we will be opening a couple of bottles for tasting:<\/p>\n
The white corner will be inhabited by Hubert Lamy Bourgogne \u2018Les Chataigners\u2019 2012 (\u00a326.99). <\/strong>The estate is based in St. Aubin (probably the best of them if we\u2019re honest) and this Cuv\u00e9e comes vineyards above the village on limestone soils. A real bobby dazzler of a wine, and if there is such a thing as value in Burgundy, this is surely it.<\/p>\nRed wise we\u2019ll be tucking into Chateau Tanesse 2010 (\u00a313.99)<\/strong> a cracking drop of claret from Cadillac, C\u00f4tes de Bordeaux. From a great vintage, this is a winning blend of 49% Merlot 38% Cabernet Sauvignon and a splash each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Time for a roast on Sunday?<\/p>\nWe promise to stop doing this soon, but will just sign off with the news that today is the 8th<\/sup> Edition of #globalchampagneday.<\/p>\nPerhaps we can help?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fellow wine Lovers, How was last night?\u00a0 Did you have a Gin and Tonic?\u00a0 Shame, you should have done \u2013 following on from last week\u2019s collection of national and international \u2018days\u2019, yesterday was International Gin & Tonic Day.\u00a0 As proof, here is a link: www.facebook.com\/InternationalGinAndTonicDay\/ – I think the two things that surprised us most […]<\/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-924","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\/924","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=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":925,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions\/925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}