Free Wine Tasting Tomorrow

That’s correct… F R E E !

It’s a fortnight since The Queen died and ten days since I caught Covid. I know, that’s sooooo 2021, right? And I caught a proper dose, too, leaving me lying in bed for several days with a fever. I was so delirious that every time I thought I had woken it turned out that I was in a surreal waking dream where hundreds of thousands of people had formed some sort of somber super-conga across London while members of the royal family helicopterred all around the country to test the quality of its pens. I was obviously raving. Finally, 142 naval ratings* pulled me stoically from my delirium and back into the real world.

* Naval ratings: +6 for an ‘outty ‘, +7 for an ‘inny’, -10 for fluff of any kind, -50 for biscuit crumbs, +50 for a whole biscuit (Jaffa Cakes don’t count unless they’re measured in imperial)

The period of national mourning passed well. We all agreed that “Her Maj” was a bleedin’ marvel. We all agreed to wait and see about “His Maj”. And we all agreed about Liz…

Funny eh? Just like buses made of wine boxes, we’d been hoping for a new leader and then suddenly two came along at once.

And it’s not all doom and gloom. Today Kwasi has gone kwite kwazy and set out to rescue the economy by putting an extra wedge into the pockets of every poor and underprivileged banker, management consultant, fund manager, corporate lawyer and other similarly impoverished wretch. Assuming that our little corner of North Weezy is in the ‘above-national-average-income’ bracket (and we’ve delivered up and down these leafy streets so we know you know), we guess some of you will be just itching to splurge like kwazy. So we’d just like to remind you that a Patel Phillippe Aquanaut might be a huge boost to the Swiss economy, but you are supposed to keep it local, know what I mean ??

So let’s lighten the mood a little and get back to temporarily distracting ourselves from all the world’s other miseries by the age-old technique of drinking wine!

Free wine tasting – tomorrow

Remember that tomorrow (Saturday 24 September) we have our Open Season Autumn 2022 drop-in free wine tasting. Like it says on the tin, all you have to do is drop in…

Open Season, Autumn 2022

Saturday 17 September, 2-6pm

FREE!

Tomorrow it’s our latest , drop-in, wine tasting introducing our established customers to some new wines and introducing new customers to the whole Rise & Vine ‘thang’. One of our suppliers is joining us to show us their wares and we’re getting a few others open too. There should be over 20 bottles open.

You’ll be able to try a couple of organic/natural sparklers; some interesting alternatives to sky-rocketing Burgundies; an interesting group of South Africans; and some Autumn ready reds.

All you have to do is turn up ready to sniff, slurp and swallow. (Spitting is an option that is taken remarkably infrequently.)

And if free wine-tasting isn’t enough, all the of the wines open that afternoon will be subject to a 10% discount too. OMG this is a gift horse if ever there was one. You know where not to look!

So get your tasting-trousers on and come along!

More tastings

Our next Wednesday night tasting is also in the diary, as are two more (and the Winter Open Season) to take us up to the end of the year. All Wednesday night tastings can be booked in the shop or on-line.

Autumn Reds

Wednesday 12 October 2022, 7pm

Tickets £25 from the shop or this website

Half-a-dozen red wines chosen to warm your cockles after a bracing walk on the Scrubs or to wash down a hearty stew or soup. To show them to their full potential, the wines will be served with suitably autumnal snacks.

We’ll prepare extensive tasting notes for you to take away and will guide you through each wine sniff-by-sniff and slurp-by-slurp.

We start at 7pm and the evening runs until about 9pm. Purchases of the wines showcased on the night will be subject to a 10% discount too!

Sparklers

Wednesday 9 November 2022, 7pm

Tickets £25 from the shop or this website

It’s time to dust off one of our annual wordplays. November is the best time for sparklers, isn’t it? And we’re proud of ours (sparkling wines, that is). Let’s get together and crack some of them open (none of the vintage stuff, we’re afraid) to get in the mood to see us through from Bonfire Night and into the festive season.

We’ll prepare extensive tasting notes for you to take away and will guide you through each wine sniff-by-sniff and slurp-by-slurp. And there will be a selection of canapés to get you in the party mood.

We start at 7pm and the evening runs until about 9pm. Purchases of the wines showcased on the night will be subject to a 10% discount too!

A Case of Yule – Festive Selection

Wednesday 7 December 2022, 7pm

Tickets £30 from the shop or this website

And if one wordplay was not enough, come and try ‘A case of Yule’ (apologies to Joni Mitchell). Every year we put together a series of special wine cases selected to see you through the festivities: From fizz to get the party going; to Champagne for raising glasses in toasts; to a good dry white ideal for oysters or smoked salmon; a light but tasty red just ready for ‘the bird’; to bigger red for the inevitable cheese; and finally something sticky to go with something sticky (or more cheese, if that’s your style).

So we’ll put together a grazing menu of festively themed food to accompany each wine and let’s get the festivities sorted.

We’ll prepare extensive tasting notes for you to take away and will guide you through each wine sniff-by-sniff and slurp-by-slurp.

We start at 7pm and the evening runs until about 9pm. Purchases of the wines showcased on the night will be subject to a 10% discount too! And if you wish, our Christmas cases – delivered in impressive, hand-decorated presentation cases – will be ready for order for delivery before ‘the day’ to any address in the UK.

Open Season, Winter 2022

Saturday 17 December 2022, 2-6pm

Our final Open Season drop-in tasting of the year is pencilled into the diary for December 17. We’ll tell more, nearer the time, but this will be an ideal opportunity to get your festive cellar sorted. Save the date!

That’s a temptingly tasty tasting calendar, isn’t it. Do come if you can. We look forward to seeing you.

See you soon. (Tomorrow?)