Fellow Wine Lovers,
Six nations is over, England won, though not prettily and by no means easily. It seems to this correspondent though, that Mr Jones has the makings of a good team there, tidy up some of the errors and we can look forward to the 2019 World Cup in Japan with some excitement. Lions tour next!
Formula I season starts this weekend down in Melbourne, with new owners, new rules and talk of a Ferrari revival. We’ll see how it unfolds, but in off-season testing they have suffered no engine failures, compared to McLaren having seven and just the one for Mercedes: Let the tournament begin.
Yesterday’s Stage 4 of the Volte a Catalunya was shortened by 60km due to snowfall (or as the UCI states, Extreme Weather Protocol!). To be fair, it’s never any fun to cycle in the snow but one can’t help but wonder if Eddy Merckx would have just put a sweater on? For the record, Nacer Bouhanni won the stage for Cofidis.
With the dawning realisation that the day was creeping up on us, we couldn’t help but wonder the origins of Mother’s Day (or Mothering Sunday as my Nan called it!) After we’d both made a quick dash to the post office, we looked it up!
Well, it seems in the 16th century there was a tradition for people to return to the church of their baptism on the 4th Sunday of Lent. Those that did were said to have been a-mothering. As time went on this started to die out and by the early 1920’s the tradition in much of Europe was lapsing.
Undeterred by European fashions, the Americans kept it and it was the influence of American and Canadian soldiers during World War II that triggered a revival. The canniness of UK retailers in the early 1950’s is not to be underestimated either; the chance to sell a card and a box of Milk Tray seemed too good to miss and so the tradition of giving mum a card and a gift stems from there and is celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent.
As to returning to the church of baptism, Wayne reckons the last time he did that was as a teenager for a disco. I didn’t realise they had churches that far back!
So, don’t forget Mother’s Day folks, a box of Milk Tray and a glass of something suitable.
Tasting this weekend…
Meanwhile, in Arthur Road, we’ll be opening some wine, it seems rude not to what with the weekend being here and it threatening to be dry too, if a little breezy (the weather, not sure we have any breezy wine).
White wise we shall sniff, swirl and slurp Crowded House Sauvignon Blanc (£13.99). A new listing, we tasted it for the first time just a few weeks ago. We were at a tasting, chatting to our chum the Viking and saw it on the list. After suggesting all the “Take the Weather With You” and “Four Seasons in One Day” jokes we can categorically state this wine has nothing to do with the band of the same name from the late 80’s. As fresh and zesty as you’d expect, and we thought, really rather good value.
In the red corner, we’ll toddle over to France for a splash of Bordeaux. Another new listing, Rives de Loudenne 2010 (£18.99), is the second wine of Chateau Loudenne. The wine is a cracking drop of Medoc, from a stunner of a vintage and is just slipping into its stride. Rich, of fruit and sunshine, maturing with a gently rounded tannin structure and a great finish. Lovely with Sunday lunch, methinks.
That’s about it from us for this week, don’t forget when you go to bed on Saturday it’s already an hour later than you think!
Let’s be careful out there,
Alex & Wayne