Newsletter, September 2025

Our Next Free Wine Tasting

Rise & Vine News, September 2025

(So I wrote this before Ange jumped. Or was she pushed?)

Trump’s dead then? No he’s not. It’s just a makeup-smudge-cankle-fed internet rumour. So never fear, Rise & Vine have at least another two and a half years’ of free newsletter material to mine. (We’re already drafting January 2029’s “Gilead Putsch” edition. That’ll be a giggle!)

Closer to home, transfer news: If you’re wondering where Shaun has been for the last couple of weeks, he’s been training on his own in anticipation of a high-level transfer to Herts Slurpers FC*. Fees as high as £10 had been floated on the internet, but obvs you shouldn’t believe everything that you read there. Anyway, it turns out he’s just not replaceable. Meanwhile, options to get Luca out on loan also came to nothing, although the reasoning was not the same. Apparently no-one can afford his wages! Thank goodness we’re still rich in half-drunk bottles and broken dog biscuits.

* Actually, he’s been on holiday with his family. He’s back at work this week for a well-earned rest.

Yes, the transfer window has closed and like a temporary tattoo artist with a fear of doorways, we’re all staying put. Mandi retains her midfield creative role which should set the alarms ringing for the opposition? Or maybe just us, when she’s just popped back in for a half-forgotten, half-eaten vegan paté sarnie having already set said alarm? And we continue to feature our two international stars dropping in from the wings: Jakub Eightiesrockski, and Luca Beardibaldi, “The Salsa Dribbler” (although at a push we can achieve the same with a blend of mayonnaise, ketchup and a wet wipe).

And so, as our current poster says, it’s ‘Back to it!’ for us all.

“And”… I hear you mutter… “what have Rise & Vine got planned for us this Autumn?”

Shaun and I will be planning our Autumn diaries this week and will tell you more when we know more, but how’s this for a start…

Open Season September 2025

Saturday 13 September, 2-6pm

Let’s get the ball rolling with one of our bi-monthly slurpathons – a couple of dozen wines open for you to come and try. Some new, some new to you, some old favourites worthy of another showing.

It’s the usual format for an Open Season Tasting – we pop the corks, line up all the bottles and stand one side of the table. You get your tasting trousers on, get on down to R&V, stand on the other side of the table, and while we guide you, slurp your way down the line, in the process discovering some new and lovely wines, plus some old faves that may have slipped your mind.

That’s it. No tickets needed. Just turn up.

(And we’re offering 10% off all of the wines on tasting, plus our usual local e-bike delivery service. Free for orders over £100. A fiver for smaller orders. And deliveries further afield can also be arranged anywhere across the UK mainland.)

Music at Rise & Vine

Lately, as much as we’ve enjoyed them in the past, we’d put a temporary halt to music nights at Rise & Vine for the simple reason that they weren’t making us any money and we were losing business. While holding events in the shop on a Friday evening, despite ‘Shop still open’ signs and our own vigilance/encouragement, we would see many customers turn away from the shop often hearing them say “it’s a private party”. Add to that, the fact that tougher economic times have seen wine purchases on music nights quite severely reduced and we were only just covering the band’s fee.

So here’s a new idea: we are offering Rise & Vine as a venue for wannabe and established musicians to either jam or perform on Wednesday evenings. Let’s start with one Wednesday a month and see what demand is like? We won’t be paying the musicians. They can earn money through ticket sales if they wish or by passing a hat around. All that we ask is that they cover the cost of us staying open and we make a bit of money selling drinks.

If you know a musician or two to whom this might be an attractive proposition, please put them in touch with us.

(We could also do spoken word nights for budding writers or performers, if that were of interest, as well as hosting club nights – book clubs, that sort of thing – if anybody’s interested.)

Food at Rise & Vine

As with musical collaborations, we’re putting feelers out to try and identify if there’s anybody out there who might be interested in developing a food offer at Rise & Vine? We’re offering the space and the accompanying wine list to anybody interested in starting a business within our business, taking over and developing our bar snacks menu and developing options such as weekend lunches, occasional supper clubs and anything else that seemed like a good idea. Again, if you know anybody who might be interested, please encourage them to get in touch.

That’s all for now. We’ll be back in touch soon with some more dates for your diary.

In the interim, take your tasting trousers out of the Corby trouser press and we hope to see you suitably suited and booted next Saturday.

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