A Home To Call My Own Pt 2

So, we've been in the shop for nearly two weeks now, and we've been working round the clock to get us open as quickly as possible. The inside and outside of the shop has all been painted, the shelving has been built, although one of the units still needs to fixed into place. The Sofa and other furniture has been collected and is in the shop, The joys of painting our own sign has been done, it looks great but don't want to do that again, when it needs re-doing, I think I'll get a professional in to that one.

From This

To this

Speaking of stock, suppliers have been contacted and accounts setup, orders are being placed, with stock hopefully arriving this Friday, so I'm going to be having a busy weekend filling the shelves and labelling them all up, ready to open from next week!

Inside is nearly finished

We may have had a little too much fun ocasionally

Just wanted to say a massive thank you to everybody over the last two weeks days who helped me clean, sand, clean, paint, clean, build furniture and clean some more, without your help I would not be anywhere ready to open!

A Home To Call My Own!

After much procrastination I've finally done it, and by 'it', I mean open my own shop (well nearly) and finally put my money where my mouth is.

I've spent the last five years working for a great independent merchant based down Surrey, where I've learnt a huge amount and been introduced to so many great wines and now I'm hoping to bring to the residents of SW12.

At the moment in between decorating, contacting suppliers, choosing wines and hundreds of other jobs that will crop up over the coming weeks, I'll attempt to update the blog with my progress over the coming weeks.

Don't forget, if your passing 85 Nightingale Lane, stick your head in and say hello!

A Blast from the Past - 2003 Hardy's Crest Cabernet Sauvignon

The other night we had some friends round for dinner to celebrate their recent engagement, and I'd been conducting a little experiment and this presented me with the perfect opportunity to see how it had turned out, as I knew everyone around the table would appreciate it, if it had worked that is.

When I first got into wine I was working for Sainsbury's as an off licence manager, they paid for me to complete WSET qualifications which was very much appreciated.  The one thing that really got me was how wine would age, and what to look for in young wines that will allow them to age and develop.

 

You'll have to excuse all the dust on the bottle.

I continued to think about this for some time and enjoying drinking lots of new world wine, when I came across the 2003 Hardy's Crest Cabernet Sauvignon from south eastern Australia, nothing special or fancy about it, half price at £4.99. When I tried it, it had loads of really bright, dark jammy fruit, so much tannin you almost had to chew your way through it. It also had still maintained a good level of acidity to it, and it made me think that these had all the signs of a wine that could and should age well.

So I decided to buy a 6 pack and see what happened, I have to admit I never really looked after them,  they were kept in the wine rack which was usually in the living room, not in a temperature controlled fridge, they moved around all the time, stood up then laid down then stood up again, so not the best of care taken. I preceded to try one every two years, and they just got better and better, so much so that after 6 years when I should have had 3 left left I only had 1, which I was determined to keep till it was at least 10 years old. I actually managed to save it till it was 13 years old, I was a little worried that I may have left it too long, but there was nothing I could do about it now.

On opening the cork was in very good condition, and you could smell any fault with the wine at all. Once poured into the glass it had an orange/brick colour to it, it really had lost it's bright, deep inky purple colour. On the nose it was baked dark fruit, leather, spice and a very slight hint of oxidation, these all came through on the palate integrating together beautifully and combining with the soft an velvety tannins. It was a pretty amazing glass of wine, if I was honest I think I opened it possibly a year or two too late, but it was still stunning and just goes to show that you can find wines that will age without having to spend a fortune!

A True English Gem - Stopham Estate Pinot Gris

I think I'm pretty certain on this, when I say that this is the first English wine to make it on here, which has to say something about it! Based down in Pulborough, East Sussex on the south downs, Stopham Estate is the brainchild Simon Woodhead, who swapped is previous career designing parts for McLaren F1 cars to studying winemaking at Plumpton and then planting his own vineyard in 2007.

They grow several different varieties, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc with a little Bacchus and Auxerrois, to blend with in producing their still whites. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for their sparkling and some Dornfelder which they use to produce their rose. They have also invested heavily in the vineyard using laser tracking to ensure all the vines are spaced equally, to installing all the latest fermentation equipment into the winery and bottling all under inert gases to help preserve the freshness of their wines.

In the glass it had this lovely bright lemon colour to it, with pronounced aromas of sweet stone fruit, peaches and nectarines, with hints of elderflower coming through from the background. On the palate, there is a tiny hint of sweetness, with the delicious flavours of stone fruit, elderflower and citrus, it has a lovely soft acidity that developed a little tartness on the finish, which kind of awakens your palate and makes your mouth water. Combine this with the fruit and floral characters and you end up with an extremely enjoyable glass of wine, even better when it comes from one of our own vineyards!

A Hoppy Brew - Andwell Brewery

I've been drinking a lot of beer recently, not sure how good a thing that is, I'm not very good on beer for some reason, but I came across these guys, Andwells Brewery through work. We'd got their full range in, which include several different style of ales and seasonal ones, but one that really caught mine and a few of the other guys eye's, apart from the very inspired packaging, was the Dry Hopped Pilsner.

Now dry hopping is when the brewer, after the fermentation process and the beer is maturing throws in a handful of dry hops, at Andwells they use the Japanese hop, Sorachi Ace, in doing this they get none of the bitterness from the hops just extra pungent aromas of citrus to the Pilsner;

Andwell Dry Hopped Pilsner

It has an amber/golden colour to it, as well as being slightly cloudy, it has extremely pungent aromas of citrus from the dry hopping process. You then get the lovely bitterness of the Pilsner come through and combine to create an extremely drinkable and delicious beer.

Picture courtesy of Andwell Brewery
 

Again through work, they sent me a sample of the normal Pilsner;

Andwell Pilsner

This is a cracking little Pilsner style lager, brewed using English barley with the noble Czech Saaz hop for that classic Pilsner style, with some German Tettnang added to give it a slightly spicy aroma. It was lovely and crisp, with a touch of richness to it, combined with a perfect bitter character to boot, very drinkable cracking little beer.

I have to say I pretty much enjoyed all the beers in there range, but the star for me was definitely the dry hopped Pilsner.