Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
As it was Thanksgiving yesterday we thought we should say thank you, thank you, thank you for the events of the past week.<\/p>\n
Thank you for eventually resigning, Robert, although we\u2019re not sure what you\u2019ve done with Grace.\u00a0 Thank you Philip, for freezing duty on beer, wine, cider and spirits.\u00a0 Thank you also for continuing to freeze fuel duty.\u00a0 Thank you Tottenham for making Arsenal fans happy, yet again.\u00a0 Thank you, James Vince and Mark Stoneman, for at least getting us through Day 1 at the Gabba. \u00a0Thank you, Eddie, for putting Dylan on the bench tomorrow.\u00a0 And thank you the British Medical Journal for publishing two reviews on subjects close to our hearts, relating to coffee and alcohol.<\/p>\n
First up, coffee.\u00a0 3 or 4 cups a day might be healthy and might reduce the risk of liver disease, some cancers, the risk of dying from a stroke and certain heart complaints.\u00a0 Equally, too much coffee during pregnancy can be harmful \u2013 but then too much of anything during pregnancy can be harmful, so I suspect that\u2019s not entirely breaking news.\u00a0 Unfortunately, our excitement over this news was somewhat dampened when we discovered that all of the studies had been \u2018observational\u2019 and they couldn\u2019t prove one way or another whether coffee had been the significant cause.<\/p>\n
So, in nutshell, someone received a nice grant to watch people drink coffee and then make varying statements about the health benefits of caffeine without actually being able to, or even needing to prove any of them.\u00a0 I definitely want that gig \u2013 but in the meantime, I need a drink.<\/p>\n
Do emotions related to alcohol consumption differ by alcohol type? \u00a0An international cross-sectional survey of emotions associated with alcohol consumption and influence on drink choice in different settings<\/em> \u2013 yep, this is the title of a research document published on BMJ Open online on 20 November.<\/p>\n In a rare fit of studious intent, I read the document online yesterday and, whilst it\u2019s no JK Rowling, it did make for quite an interesting read perhaps because I managed to understand most of the words, although I\u2019m not sure they\u2019ve re-invented the wheel.\u00a0 This was an international survey looking at individuals aged between 18\u201334 years old who had drunk some beer, spirits, red and white wine in the previous 12 months and where one of these was their drink of choice at home and out socially.\u00a0 The study had almost 30,000 respondents from 21 countries, so quite an interesting cross section of cultures, I imagined with potential to throw up some surprises.<\/p>\n One part of the study was related to positive and negative emotions people believed they would experience with different drinks.\u00a0 The positive emotions were: energised, confident, relaxed, and sexy; whilst the negatives were: tired, aggressive, ill, restless, and tearful.<\/p>\n Spirits were considered most likely to make people confident and energised but also most likely to make people ill and least likely to make you relaxed (is that definitely the spirits or perhaps the addition of Red Bull, Coca Cola or other sugary mixers \u2013 oh, hang about, it\u2019s not my survey!)<\/p>\n Red wine, beer and then white wine were considered most likely to make you relaxed but this also resulted in them being least likely to energise and the most likely to make you tired \u2013 are they all possibly synonyms?\u00a0 Astonishingly (!), beer was the least likely to make you sexy and, whilst spirits were most likely to make you aggressive, it was only 30% of respondents who thought so.<\/p>\n So, what have we now learnt?\u00a0 Spirits can make you cocky, beer is no aphrodisiac and too much wine can make you a bit snoozy \u2013 shut the front door!!<\/p>\n Thank you, BMJ.<\/p>\n One more thanks before I start talking about wine \u2013 thank you Douglas and all The Cresidents.\u00a0 Tomorrow evening, at 4.15pm, Christ the King is lighting up its Christmas Tree and there\u2019ll be carol singing, mulled wine and mulled Ribena, whilst the lights will be turned on by a local celebrity\u2026\u00a0 Not to give the game away but we are led to believe that the local celebrity works here at Park Vintners but you\u2019ll have to come along tomorrow to find out!<\/p>\n So, that\u2019s enough giving of thanks for now, back to business.\u00a0 A number of you have been asking if we are doing the Wine School<\/strong> in the New Year as you think it might make for a nice Christmas gift.\u00a0 Well the answer is yes, on both counts \u2013 it would make a lovely gift and we will be putting the course on again \u2013 most likely to start late January but we just need to straighten out a couple of dates.<\/p>\n Another week, another deluge of wine arrives in time for December.<\/p>\n From Spain, Rioja in fact, we have the return of Lopez de Haro Crianza 2014 – \u00a310.99 per bottle <\/strong>or \u00a322 per magnum <\/strong>and Lopez de Haro Reserva 2012 – \u00a313.49<\/strong> both wines as delicious as ever and the Crianza in magnum just had to be bought.<\/p>\n From France we have some new wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Loire.<\/p>\n Bordeaux brings us Ch\u00e2teau Sorbey 2010, Haut-Medoc – \u00a313.99, <\/strong>our new luncheon claret\u2026<\/p>\n Burgundy provides us with two treats: Domaine Alexandre Chablis Vieilles Vignes 2015 – \u00a319.99,<\/strong> an excellent, elegant Chablis with a nice richness from the old vines and a good, lean minerality.\u00a0 Further south, we have Sylvain Dussort Bourgogne ‘Cuv\u00e9e des Ormes’ 2014 – \u00a318.99.\u00a0 <\/strong>This is the estate\u2019s flagship wine (impressive, considering he also makes Meursault), with the grapes hand-harvested from vines between 35 to over 60, years.\u00a0 The wine is aged for 12 months in barrels on the lees is then racked off once and assembled in a single vat before bottling. \u00a0This takes place at between 16 and 18 months, depending on the vintage. \u00a0Delicate, rich and elegant, with good length, we reckon in a blind tasting it would easily be mistaken for a Meursault.\u00a0 Awesome value for money we thought.<\/p>\n And finally, the Loire offers us Domaine Lebrun Pouilly Fum\u00e9 2016 – \u00a317.49.<\/strong>\u00a0 About a million years ago, when we sported Oddbins polo shirts, we used to sell lots of this wine.\u00a0 The bottle has lost its distinctive orange label somewhere in the intervening years but the wine has lost none of its quality or verve.\u00a0 Gooseberry, grass, minerals, lemons and limes all crop up somewhere between the start and the nice long finish.<\/p>\n I think, as it\u2019s Friday, that we\u2019ll open a bottle of the Pouilly Fum\u00e9 and a bottle of the Rioja Crianza mentioned above this evening \u2013might as well strike whilst the iron is hot!\u00a0 We also have the Taylors 325th<\/sup> Anniversary Reserve Tawny – \u00a329.79<\/strong>, should you fancy fortifying yourselves with something a little stronger!<\/p>\n Right, I\u2019m off to have a Caff\u00e8 Corretto alla Sambuca to boost my confidence and my immune system\u2026.<\/p>\n Ay-thang-yaw!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, As it was Thanksgiving yesterday we thought we should say thank you, thank you, thank you for the events of the past week. Thank you for eventually resigning, Robert, although we\u2019re not sure what you\u2019ve done with Grace.\u00a0 Thank you Philip, for freezing duty on beer, wine, cider and spirits.\u00a0 Thank you […]<\/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-936","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\/936","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=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}