I Missed You. Did You Miss Me?

Mornin,

Or is it?

Last night we hosted Tommy Grimshaw from Langham Wines at Dan’s, and then at Ken’s. Needless to say there were a few cans consumed. Also consumed was some life affirming food courtesy of Eric Wan. Eric’s La Lot is currently in residency at Ken’s for the next few weeks. I am not exaggerating when I say that you don’t get fed like this in London too often, so it is 💯% worth hitting up. Subtle side plug done.

I ended my recent trip back to the land of sunshine and VB with a week visiting our producers in South Australia. In between tastings and beach time I even managed 1.5 days of hard labour with the one and only Steve Crawford of Frederick Stevenson. A nicer fellow you couldn’t hope to meet. We all romanticise about making with in the countryside of Europe, but what I have greater and greater appreciation/dreams/hopes and wishes for is the idea of making wine in Australia. There’s something about the combination of working in shorts and thongs/birkos, operating heavy machinery with a beer in hand (sorry mum) and having access to amazing multicultural food offerings a short trip away that has slight appeal.

Great legs, I get it.

What followed was a bit of a reality check, entirely of one’s own making. I’d heard about the Parish Hill Vineyard, and was also told it was pretty steep, but figured it couldn’t be German steep so why not go out and help Steve with the final pick of Sangiovese. It was steep. It was hot. Not the ideal way to break in my fresh Blundstones and hi-vis workwear but needs must. The blister is still there as a semi-permanent reminder of the limitations of man, my Achilles heel if you will. At least I can now say they’ve seen dirt. Beautiful spot tho. It’s where he sources a stunning if chaotic array of Mediterranean varieties and having worked with the wines for a while, and consumed them with gusto I totally understand why. Just now I have a bit more context as to the extreme work that goes into them. All done by one bloke. Heroic. Get around the wines.



When I first started Thirsty Boy/Natty Boy/Now Parched I was desperate for the thirst trap wines of Sylvain Pataille to be amongst the collection. It is with great pride that we now hold (not fact checked) the phattest stack of S Pataille in the Northern Hemisphere, right here on the Riviera. Aligoté was even pouring last week in the bar, that’s how good our procurement is. If you’ve never tried these, then do, they’re sublime. If you have then you’ll know. Across the board they offer immense personality, allied with detail that will make complete sense if you ever find yourself in the Pataille cellar, he’s quite the picture. Do what you need/must right here and as you sip, think of us, we’ll be thinking of you.

Sorry.

Have a great day…

Dan

xoxo