No fewer than half our customers nipped in on Monday because they had been unable to escape as planned to the Caribbean; Holland; Czechoslovakia; Finland; France etc over the last few days. Their plans had changed, empty cupboards and cellars suddenly needed to be filled near rather than far. So simply to assure you that if you are in such need, we will be here until Christmas Eve. If it continues, we will also be here on the 30th and the 31st of December.
Outside of London is tough but in London we can probably do same day deliveries if it is local (W8, W11, W2, W10, W14, SW3, SW5, SW6, SW10) and delivering up until 2.00 p.m. on Christmas Eve and collections until 7.00 p.m.
All the obvious Christmas treats:
Vintage Port (£ 27 to £ 82)
Malt Whisky (£ 33 and up)
Magnums of Red & White (£ 22 to £ 278)
Double Magnums of Red (£ 155 to £ 235)
Champagne – Halves, Bottles, Magnums, Vintage (£ 15 to £ 133)
Sweeties - Sauternes, Bottles and Halves; Tokaji; Eiswein; Beerenauslese (£ 12 to £ 115)
Individual treat Burgundy & Bordeaux:
3 cases of:
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru “Les Rouges” 2002
Domaine Jean Grivot at £ 47.00 per Bottle
Next to Échézeaux this neatly situated vineyard provides the Vosne-Romanée elegance but a more Grand Cru like weight and chewiness than its actual Premier Cru ranking.
If you want a hearty, complex but understated, and beautifully bottle-aged Pinot Noir at easily the best market price this should hit the spot.
Between 1999 & 2005 the 2002 is the only classic vintage in Burgundy. We have some stock in the Shop and more due in tomorrow.
&
6 Cases each of:
Château Gruaud-Larose 2003 & 2004
St-Julien 2ème Grand Cru Classé at £ 33.00 per Bottle
Similar chewy texture to the Vosne-Romanée and both beginning to drink well now.
Pretty amazing prices 9bit less than usual) for this Second Growth Estate. The 2003 is £ 46.00 a Bottle at Berry Brothers.
A bit of 2004 in the Shop but both fully in stock tomorrow.
Antique treat:
Just sold yesterday two, which leaves two remaining, quite rare brass pepper shakers in the form of a miniature Champagne Bottle, inscribed “Moet & Chandon, Epernay”. These are circa 1905 and would be a super stocking filler. (£ 110.00 each.)
Christmas opening:
Thursday 23rd December – Open until 7.30 p.m.
Christmas Eve, Friday 24th December – Open until 7.00 p.m.
(last local deliveries Christmas Eve 2.00 p.m.)
And next week only:
Monday 27th December – By Appointment only (07900 818 400)
Tuesday 28th December - By Appointment only (07900 818 400)
Thursday 30th December – 10.00 a.m. until 7.30 p.m.
New Year’s Eve, Friday 31st December – 10.00 a.m. until 7.00 p.m.
Silly Billy:
Alas Huntsworth is a wee bit too small to enact such generosity or common sense (!) but it struck me that during all this bedding down at Heathrow and elsewhere, why doesn’t a sizeable Company and Household name like Peter Jones, pitch-up with a hundred or two hundred pillows from their bedding department and say courtesy of P.J.’s? It would cost them a couple of thousand pounds but aside of a nice story of actually helping amidst this chaos, the Blitz spirit etc., they would surely reap a mini marketing coup with a couple of mentions on the Beeb and other news channels. I did telephone P.J.’s but who knows if they’ll actually act. For those due to depart, I sincerely hope as many or all of you get away without too much difficulty.
Cable Guy – a deliberate slip or a calmly calculated move by Vince?! Don’t think he underestimated Cameron but he might have underestimated the various hacks lack of much to write about at this time of year.
Apparently Eric Pickles says that slimming down local councils will be good for them. Big question is, who is better placed to advise the other?!
Well, there I was telling people that Oz was a pretty good bet at 8-1 or 9-1 in the Ashes but forgot one thing: to take my own advice and duly place a bet. Dumb and dumber. Flower is not blaming the Perth reversal of fortunes on the arrival of Wags etc as to do so would further undermine. Business is however business. Would you take your girlfriend to a bored (sic) meeting in Frankfurt or a pitch in New York. I am fully confident in Flower however as two days ago he was quoted as saying that England will stick with four bowlers in the absence of a top-flight all-rounder. That surely confirms his belief and mine that Tim Bresnan is strictly a 3rd XI player.
Refreshing briefly to see the Students actually out of bed during the day. Still, looks like the cold weather put them straight back again.
The previous generation grew-up on Monty Python, I grew-up on Not The Nine O’clock News. In amongst some of our best talent was the not quite as talented Pamela Stephenson. Yet I still have fond memories. I was rather concerned to see that (even on the Torygraph’s front page) Pamela was intent on really sexing-up her dance routine in Strictly Dancing. Some things truly are best left to the memory. Speaking of the Torygraph I had a couple of locals in t’other day who were much amused that my views were somewhat right of Attila the Hun. Personally I don’t see that. I think I am smack down the centre and everybody else must be somewhere in the wings.
Is The Times losing it? Looking forward to seeing the true-life film “127 Hours” but The Times’ tag-line “Knuckle munching…” Please, so tabloid! Then their Record of the Week is a Christmas Compilation. Even having to choose 52 Albums in the Year surely there would be no room for one on Christmas songs? Earlier in December in The Times: “More than a third of British infrastructure is now owned by foreigners…the widespread foreign ownership has led to fears that companies are more interested in pulling profits out of Britain than serving the consumer. However, the OFT has concluded that this is not the case.” The Times, 4th December (proprietor: Rupert Murdoch and New York based News Corp offices.) Does Murdoch really need Vince Cable to declare war?
The year has in truth skipped by with alarming speed. I always remember my father saying “son, as you get older, life just speeds up and time simply disappears all too quickly”. “Yes Dad.” But my God, this year has just flown. Where did it go? I don’t even remember the Summer. Maybe I must resign myself to being older than our Prime Minister and the natural order of things simply changes. What will 2011 hold?
Tuggy Meyer
Henry Palmer
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