The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I’ll start with Admin this week: many apologies but we’ll be opening later on Monday 16 & Tuesday 17^th September as we have four supplier tastings, two on each day and we really need attend them – we should be back by 4pm though, in time for the post work rush!

…

This week, I’ve got nothing to report.  The streets have been quiet, often damp and, on occasion, bitterly cold.  Since the big boss went on holiday last week the shop has also been eerily quiet, however it has been exceptionally well swept, tidied, faced up and is looking amazing, should he ask.

On Tuesday, I journeyed up to Camden to taste an awful lot of wine, the majority of which I will not be buying, and caught up with acquaintances from around the country.  The mood was typically ‘shopkeeper’ – pragmatic with a heavy lean towards pessimism with the most oft used phrase being ‘it’s not great but we’ll be fine’. 

Fine.

Jamie from Cornwall related that the combination of a stupidly short summer, holiday home deliveries from supermarkets resulting in less shopping locally and general inflation meant that his season was not great but he’ll be fine.  Colleagues from the Midlands, hardened campaigners all of them, reckoned that European holidays had definitely replaced the staycation and that they were more likely to bump into their customers on a Balearic beach than in their shop.  Whilst it wasn’t necessarily the rosiest of news, at least it wasn’t just Wimbledon Park that filled with tumbleweed…

And then we read the news.  You possibly read the report too – it was on the BBC after all – which told us that, so far in 2024, 38 shops are closing each week.  PWC back this research and have a long history of retail analysis, so we pay attention.  Obviously the shops closing headline is what grabs you but the type of store is worth noting – an average of 18 chemists, 16 pubs and 9 banks each week, all of whom provide a very important service that I think is not necessarily replicated in the arrival of a new Costa or Greggs.

We’ve got two empty sites here on Arthur Road right now, both of whom have closed this year.  Meanwhile, in the village, the LK Bennett site is still empty (5 years now? More?) but otherwise, most sites are filled – mainly bars and restaurants but also a butcher (used to be 3) and 4 wine shops (used to be 1).  Not sure what point I’m trying to make here, suffice to say I’m very happy to be down here rather than up there, with my chemist next door.

And we’ll be fine.

In the wine world, it looks like my colleague might have been using the company credit card even more than usual.  Footage captured by @rudyschmudy shows a group of men (because it will always be men) making sangria using Petrus from the 2006 and 2011 vintages.  Now, 2006 was a good vintage in Bordeaux, whilst 2011 was a bit of a stinker – with the 2006 retailing at over £2000 per bottle and the 2011 north of £1500 – and both costing substantially more in a club in the South of France, I imagine.  The argument was that they had booked a premium table with a minimum spend of 100,000 euros and he was bored of buying Ace of Spades – it’s all on TikTok and it makes for quite enlightening viewing.

Outside the world of wine and indeed the actual world, billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman has become the first non-professional astronaut to walk in space – we’re not sure how much he paid but he could probably have paid for at least 2,000 of my business partner’s premium tables…

“Back home we have a lot of work to do, but from here Earth sure looks like a perfect world” were Jared’s first words and we’ll have to trust him on how it all looks from up there, perhaps it’s billionaire speak for it’s not great for you but I’ll be fine.

Back in wine, a quick warning about France.  The 2024 vintage is predicted to be the smallest since 1957, 18% smaller than 2023 and 11% lower than the 5 year average.  In simple terms, as you can probably guess, it’s to do with the ‘great’ weather we’ve all been having this year.  In a nutshell, using data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (Agreste):

Alsace – mildew and flowering disrupted by cool, wet weather – 13% decline

Aude & Pyrénées-Orientales – drought – 4% lower

Bordeaux – coulure, millerandage, mildew and hailstorms – 10% down

Burgundy & Beaujolais – mildew and hail – 25% lower

Champagne – spring frosts, coulure, hail, mildew and scalding – 16% lower

Charentes – low number of bunches and poor flowering due to wet conditions – 35% down

Jura – severe frost and mildew – production to fall by 71%

Languedoc-Roussillon, mildew, significant summer rainfall – reduced production

Loire Valley – mildew and coulure – 30% lower

Savoie – spring frost, summer mildew – 5% lower

South-East (Rhône etc), millerandage, late frost in the spring – down 12%

South-West France – coulure, millerandage, mildew, frost, hail – reduced production

*Coulure is a condition in grape bunches where many flowers fail to develop into grapes, whilst Millerandage results in a high proportion of seedless, often smaller/different size grapes of different ripeness in a bunch.

So, perhaps we might need to find our vinous fun elsewhere for a bit – how about we start with Germany and New Zealand on the tasting table this weekend:

Deep Roots Riesling Trocken 2023 – £14.99 – A group of young vine growers in Rheinhessen all got together with the idea of sharing their marketing costs but in the end decided to make just the one wine to showcase their talents.  Almost a mini co-operative, if you will.  Winemaking duties are spearheaded by the talented Stefan Winter, and this is a cracker – citrus and orchard fruit notes on the nose, minerals join them on the palate

Petit Clos Pinot Noir 2021 – £21.99 – Nestled under the southern foothills of Marlborough’s Wairau Valley, Clos Henri is the wine estate, organically run by the famous Sancerre wine growing family of Henri Bourgeois.  Petit Clos is made from the younger vines on the estate, giving aromas of red fruit dominated by cherry and plum notes.  Juicy red berries flood the palate supported by very fine and supple tannins while retaining freshness all the way to the long finish.

We’ll let you get on with your day now – if you’re taking Friday off to celebrate your birthday or an anniversary have a lovely day and try also to find time to celebrate that two years ago today we were at the end of the first week of Liz Truss as PM.

Raise a glass to the past!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I’m back, you’re all back, the schools are back and Wayne is now about to sneak out the back on his hols, now that we’ve vacated the loungers

Did you have a good trip?  Certainly we did. 

Spain was hot, which is how we like it and expect it to be; Madrid was half empty, which is how we like it and certainly didn’t expect whilst the train from there to Malaga took just over two hours, which is how we would like our UK trains to be but have low expectations.  Devon was warm enough to need suncream, which is always a treat; the news that Jona Lewi had moored his £250 million super yacht in Dartmouth Harbour turned out to be an entertainingly misheard fallacy of misdirection as did the ridiculous proposition from across the Tamar that you should put jam on your scone first…

But now we’re back and the traditional September Indian Summer seems to have disappeared behind the thunder clouds.  I’m back wearing trousers and socks about a month earlier than usual, which feels weird and a tad disappointing particularly since I’m told Autumn doesn’t start until 22^nd September.

We’ve still got rosé in the fridge though, just in case.

It’s been a busy first week back though, balancing the viewing of the Tour of Britain with the Vuelta a España has been Wayne’s job, whilst I have been mainly staring into the computer screen’s dark eyes, looking at the EasyJet website crunching the numbers.  With the Paralympics also serving as a welcome distraction, it was heartening to see Tonbridge teenage swimming sensation Iona Winnifrith get silver in the Women’s 100m Breastroke SB7 yesterday whilst still only 13 years old – one of many great performances that have put GB second in the medal table.

Away from Arthur Road, generally sifting through the broadsheets we have little to comment upon – do we really think Liam’s voice can last for 17 concerts?  At the same time, do we think the truce between the heavily-browed brothers will last beyond Cardiff?  Or even get there?  Definitely maybe has to be the call.  The masterplan is that, at the moment, the boys are estimated to be in line for something like £400 million from the gigs and that’s before Netflix/Prime/Apple/Disney et al get into a bidding war for a fly-on-the-wall documentary.  Imagine if they then took the tour all around the world!

Previously, we have mentioned a certain English winery in this missive:

Fellow Wine Lovers 28/06/2024: What we might know is whether Chapel Down is for sale or not, as it seeks to raise even more funds for expansion.  Via Seedrs they raised almost £4 million in 2014, just short of £2 million in 2015 to build a brewery, raised £18.5 million by issuing new shares in 2017 and almost £7 million in 2021, once again through Seedrs.  In the meantime they opened Gin Works at Kings Cross, a bar and restaurant that opened in 2019 and closed in February 2020, before COVID could take the blame. 

What I don’t know is how much longer they can keep doing this.

Fellow Wine Lovers 26/07/2024: Further to our regular reports on the English wine scene, it seems that Chapel Down is not going to be sold to Treasury Wine Estates

thedrinksbusiness.com 05/09/2024: ‘Chapel Down blames off-trade ‘challenges’ for profit drop as CEO exits – according to its half-year results, the AIM-listed producer has seen its pre-tax profits reduce from £2.4m to just £40,000 in the six months to the end of June.  Its results saw EBITA fall by 58% to £1.3m from £3.2m in 2023 and net sales fall by 12%, mainly driven by a 36% drop in the off-trade, which it said was due to a lack of re-stocking and a difficult comparison base due to King Charles III coronation the previous year.’

Hmmm, still not convinced by their business model or future survival…

In other news, CEO Andrew Carter joined Chapel Down three years ago has now decided his future is better spent running famous Yorkshire brewer, Timothy Taylor.

Talking of beer, we also hear that footballer and pundit Chris Kamara has launched his own beer to raise money for Prostate Cancer and is unsurprisingly named Kammy’s Un-beer-lievable Lager.

No, we won’t be stocking it.

Things we do stock though include  Domaine Champalou Vouvray Sec 2022 – £24.99 – this Loire domaine was started by Catherine and Didier in 1983 and has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed producers in Vouvray.  This cuvée comes from 35 year old vines and is lovely and crisp, with apple fruit on the nose.  Somewhat rounder and richer on the palate leading to a lovely crisp dry finish.

We also stock Moulin des Chēnes 2021 – £19.99 – this is from Lirac, west of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and is a blend of 40% Cinsault, 40% Syrah, 11% Mourvèdre and 9% Grenache – quite a low proportion of Grenache for the southern Rhône we thought.  We always like the wines from here though, dark crimson in the glass with summer fruit and herb aromas on the nose that then continue onto the lovely juicy palate rounded out with velvety tannins.  Get your hands on this before Wayne does…

Both these wines will be on tasting this weekend, so come and have a crack at them yourselves!

One final note before I go – we’ll be opening later on Tuesday 10^th September as one of main suppliers is holding their Autumn tasting up in Camden and we really need to be there – should be back by 4pm though, in time for the post work rush!

Right, that’s me done, I’m off to find my lunch which I hope will not involve a tin of Heinz Spaghetti Carbonara – we’ll see what the Coop can do!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

If it wasn’t bad enough that you’ve spent most of the week puzzling what day it was, those chaps at Park Vintners have only gone and sent their Friday email on a Thursday!

Apologies again, we will be closed all day tomorrow (Friday) as previously mentioned.

Out in the wider world, Donald Trump has been reindicted (is that even a word?) for the January 6^th shenanigans. Some parts of the original indictments have been removed to comply with the Supreme Court’s requests, but he’s definitely back on the naughty step. 

Fresh from inviting us all to join him in the Downing Street garden, Kier Starmer has been in Berlin for some Currywürst with Olaf Scholz. A new bilateral agreement has put a ‘whole spectrum of relations on an entirely new footing’ we’re told.  Did his TGV to Paris get there in the nick of time for an opening ceremony; will his morning meeting with Macron finish in time to catch Team GB play the Aussies in wheelchair rugby?

Whilst we ask questions about Paris, France has just entered the Top 12 chart of countries with long spells without a government. So far, they have racked up 43 days. Obviously, that’s not a figure that’ll trouble the Belgians who have three entries in the Top 12 one of which tops the charts with 592 days! Germany joined in too, managing an impressive 171 days in 2021. You can’t help but wonder if countries function better without the political element can you?

Still on the subject of Paris, the Paralympics opened last night. Look out for Sarah Storey, competing in the cycling road race and time trial at her ninth games. Strong hopes in the velodrome too with Kadeena Cox and Jody Cundy. Hoping to make a big splash in her first Olympics is 13 year old swimmer Iona Winnifrith, bon chance!

Something we saw this week that put a smile on our face was a story about a burglar in Rome. He broke into an apartment, but was arrested after he stopped in the middle of the burglary to read a book about Greek mythology. Apparently the book was “The Gods at Six O’clock” by Giovanni Nucci. It examines The Iliad from the point of view of the gods and highlights the interpretative power of the work with regards to current events. I learnt from this that Hermes is the god of both literature and thieves!

In Galicia, La Vuelta is tackling the up and down bits. Ben O’Connor is still rocking the red jersey, Wout van Aert is climbing like he weighs 10 kilos less, Primoz Roglic is still upright, and Eddie Dunbar wins stage 11 as I type this sentence!

Anyway, I’ve taken up enough of your Thursday, you need to get on with your work, or just call the waiter over for another cold one.

It’s back to school next week so I suspect we’ll need a glass of wine. Saturday we shall pour a taster of V Sauvignon Blanc (£12.99) a classic from Marlborough that is all crisp, fresh and lovely. We’ll chase that up with Beaujolais Villages Cuvee Six (£13.99) a very easy drinker with red fruit and soft tannins that goes with almost anything food wise.

I’ll leave you with news that it has already snowed at Lake Tahoe!

Cheers.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

First up, a quick admin reminder:

The shop will be closed all day next Friday, 30th August, due to a close bereavement.  We hope you understand and apologise for any inconvenience caused.  We will be open again at midday on Saturday.

Now, you may have noticed time and again that Wayne has rather strict parameters as to what constitutes ‘proper sport’.  Simply put, if it’s got a bike involved it’s a proper sport to be taken seriously, anything else is just a pastime or a hobby.  Cycling is profound, it can be used as a metaphor for many of life’s struggles, it’s not for the faint hearted and it’s not light hearted.

Mock cycling at your peril.

On August 14^th 2021, the Vuelta a España, Spain’s most serious and profound bicycle race, kicked off (probably the wrong term but pedalled off sounded worse) inside Burgos Cathedral, which was unusual for a Saturday.  However, having visited this cathedral with my daughter a few years earlier, I can report that it is certainly big enough to house a peloton and that it’s nowhere near as exciting as the ice cream shop around the corner, according to my girl.

Anyway, a serious building for a serious sport.

Fast forward to Thursday 22^nd August 2024, also known as yesterday.  Stage 6 of this iteration of the Vuelta started in the famous Andalucian town of Jerez de la Frontera.  An opportunity perhaps for Roglic and the boys to pedal through the solera at Bodegas Alvaro Domecq or take a spin around the bullring before getting on with the serious stuff, but no, this was not to be.  The peloton, as well as the lead vehicle for Vuelta Race, paraded through the Carrefour Jerez Sur.  Yes, you read that right, the stage started in a supermarket – sometimes the jokes just write themselves.

As discussed, a serious building for a serious sport!

And whilst this is all going on, The Junior Tour of Wales has had to re-route due to the draconian 20mph speed limits enforced across the country – apparently the bikes are fine to exceed this limit but the support cars are not!  Hmmmm…

You probably realise by now that it’s been a bit of a quiet news week and Phil Space has been enlisted to help write this epistle. 

One of our regional contributors (York office) pointed out something we all missed last week – one of his great pals, Nadim Zahawi, had forwarded him a poll from YouGov HQ revealing that “One in four Britons think they could qualify for the 2028 Olympics if they started training today”.

I know, that’s a lot of us.  If we consider that the UK population over 16 years old stands at just over 42 million then, according to the poll, over 11 million of us are going to make it to Los Angeles in 2028 – that’s roughly the population of Belgium!  So, if we got 70 medals this time and only sent 327 athletes, we should come back from California with over 2,000 necklaces in 2028 – cannot wait!

This breakdown made us smile though:

• 39% of 18-24 year olds
• 34% of 25-49 year olds
• 23% of 50-64 year olds
• 15% of 65+ year olds

There are some very ambitious pensioners out there who, I imagine, will focus rather more on the golf than the rugby sevens!

Speaking of percentages, having done our own research, it would seem that 80% of the residents of Wimbledon are currently not resident in SW19 and we imagine will remain wherever they are until next weekend, having taken advantage of the late summer bank holiday weekend that we are just starting.

For the lucky 20% of you who are still in situ, here’s what we are going to open this weekend.  It would seem that the weather is going to be a bit iffy tomorrow (Saturday) but the prospects for sunshine without showers are looking good for Sunday and Monday, so let’s focus on sunny drinking…

This weekend, we’ll mostly be drinking Pinot Noir.

Barton Pinot Noir Rosé 2022 – £12.99 this is another cracking wine from our chums at Barton, down in Walker Bay, South Africa.  Pale salmon coloured in your glass with lovely aromas of red berries lead on to a palate that is crisp and dry with raspberry fruit and a creaminess to the finish.  Excellent balance of freshness and fruit and dangerously easy to quaff – we think this is a real winner and if it was from Sancerre, it would be twice the price!

Paringa Estate Peninsula Pinot Noir 2022 – £32.00.  Can one have a ‘go to’ Pinot Noir?  If you can, then this would be the one for us, hailing form the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia.  Slightly unfairly referred to as their entry level wine, this has more sophistication and character in its little finger than a number of New World Pinot’s demanding higher prices.  Lovely ripe fruit on the attack with some gentle spice coming through towards the finish and a fabulously long and silky finish – being Aussie, it doesn’t mind a bit of barbecue, so light those coals!

That’s it from us for this week, remember not to go to work on Monday and to not visit us on Friday, we’re off now to find out how we can become a start line for the Tour Of Britain!

Serious stuff.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Where shall we start this week? Alex is back, busying himself with the spreadsheet that Wayne shouldn’t touch.

Unfortunately, Wayne did touch.

No lasting damage but some things could have been achieved quicker! Alex’s Spanish holiday was clearly hotter than here, as he is currently sat in a sweater!

Further afield than this building, Trumpolina and Elon Muck have had a rather rambling chat/interview/ love in for a couple of hours on Twitter. Given the huge success that Elon has had with Twitter, we’re a bit surprised any politician would want him anywhere near their campaign but, hey ho, I guess being one of the wealthiest men on the planet opens doors. I can’t imagine why Elon Muck would switch sides to back a candidate that wants to introduce 100% tariffs on imported Electric Vehicles but will continue to investigate…

In other news, it turns out that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge has been rerouted from the far north of Scotland, rather than South Wales as originally thought. It makes the feat of moving the six tonne lump of rock all the more impressive given the distance. How did they do it, and more importantly, why? We suspect caber tossing…

In an ironic twist to the saga, it seems the PhD student who did most of this research at the Curtin University in Western Australia, was born in Pembrokeshire, where previously the stone was thought to come!

That’s the Olympics over for another four years. We have the Paralympics arriving towards the end of the month on the 28^th. This week we will have to settle for the start of the Premiership football season.

Except for those of us that like the proper sports. We have the Women riding the Tour de France Femmes and the men riding the Tour of Poland and, on Saturday in Portugal, La Vuelta a España starts. Three stages in Portugal are followed by the rest of the week around the mountains of Andalucía. Then, for the last two weeks, we head to the mountains of northern Spain.

I think early in the season we mentioned the amount of climbing in the Giro d’Italia that turned out to be 42,900 metres. The Tour de France had to go one better (don’t they always?) so managed to find enough mountains to give the riders 52,000 metres to play with. Route designers for La Vuelta said “Hold my Estrella!” The good folk having the luck to be cycling around Portugal and Spain for three weeks will find themselves climbing 61,522 metres! That is so close to seven times up Mount Everest it’s not even funny. Anyway, we think it’s time Sepp Kuss has his day in the sun, so let’s see what happens.

Important Diary Note

The shop will be unavoidably closed all day on Friday 30^th August due to a close bereavement. We hope you understand and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Weekend Wines

Given the return of Alex from Spain and the beginning of La Vuelta, we shall have to taste something Spanish. We’ll get the juices flowing with Palacio del Camino Real Blanco 2022 – £11.99. A cracking blend of Viura, Malvasia and Grenache Blanc grown in the higher vineyards of Rioja Alta.  With lovely fresh aromas of stone fruit and citrus, framed with a touch of vanilla from a couple of months lazing around in the barrel, we reckon white Rioja, in the modern style, is one of the world’s most under-rated wines. 

Grappling with red jersey will be Time Waits for No One 2022 (£15.99). This organic Monastrell hails from Jumilla which is a little inland from Murcia. Rich, rounded and with lush dark blackberry fruit character I think we’ll be partnering it with some lamb chops on the barbecue!

Let’s get this weekend started, shall we?

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Where do we start this week? Gil Scott Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised came to mind on more than one occasion!

We’ve had outbreaks of violence as rent a mob and followers of Runaway Robinson decided the best way to improve their lot in life was to steal a steak bake or set fire to a library and several police vehicles. Who’d have thought that Nigel, Suella, Liz, Robert, Jacob, Boris and Rishi using all that divisive rhetoric would bring us to this? Somehow, I doubt they’ll get the knock on the door.

On a more positive note it seems the vast majority of us don’t think stealing knock off Crocs or burning cars is a great idea. I do wonder how punching a policeman carries a smaller sentence than disrupting traffic on the M25. But hey ho, sometimes it seems the law is an ass.

Also on the subject of unrest, Carles Puigdemont popped up in Barcelona yesterday and now appears to be playing hide and seek with the Spanish police. You’ll recall he had been living in exile in Belgium after organising an independence referendum in Catalonia that turned out to be illegal and brought all sorts of protest on to the streets in 2017.

Also this week, we had a global stock market crash that lasted just about an entire day before everyone bought the dip and calmed down again. Some people had a great new entry point, some poor suckers sold at the bottom and most of us didn’t know much about it. More scintillating financial news in the near future…

The Olympics are still happening, the sailing is still having problems with the wind and World Records have been dropping like flies in the velodrome. We’ve had two divers score a Nil Points because their dives weren’t quite up to snuff and the men’s 1500m final was absolutely incredible viewing.

Olympian of the week for me was 51 year old Andy Macdonald who became the oldest ever skateboarder at the Olympics. No medals, he finished 18 out of 22 having decided it might be nice if he qualified for the Olympics as a 50^th birthday present to himself. He was no mug on the board, having been a gold medallist in vert skateboarding at the X games on 23 occasions. Chapeau for chasing dreams!

In wine news this week, grape farmers around Lake Balaton in Hungary are already harvesting grapes for their white wines. Following the hottest July since records began in 1901 the grapes are ready a month earlier than usual. Meanwhile in Australia, Treasury Wine Estates, owner of a large number of well-known brands has put some of the cheaper end up for sale. Wolf Blass, Lindemans, Blossom Hill and Yellowglen all have the agent’s board at the end of the drive. If that penny jar is full and you’ve always fancied owning a household name now is the time.

And on that note we shall taste this weekend

Accomplice Chardonnay 2023 (£10.79) Hailing from South East Australia, this is a cracking crisp and gently creamy chardonnay that goes with almost anything. We have a number of customers who use this as their house white, such is its versatility. Cracking value, come and see if it might fit the Wednesday slot in your house!

Geoff Merrill Bush Vine Shiraz, Grenache, Mourvèdre 2016 (£21.99) hails from McLaren Vale, and you’ll have heard us wax lyrical about Geoff’s wines in the past. We really like that he always releases them with a little bit of age and roundness on them. Top stuff! 

Cheers,

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We often like to think of this newsletter as a little view of the world gazing from the shop window. Well, I can tell you that today the view is of mostly empty parking spaces and the occasional passer-by in shorts, invariably carrying a choc-ice. SW19 has been enjoying a few days of summer this week, with real sunshine and a proper thunderstorm to end the day. I’m not sure I’ve ever been wetter!

The Olympics are on, I know some of you are there watching, a couple volunteering, maybe even some competing.  I’ve been watching some on the TV, not the tennis, golf or swimming for me, I’ve been concentrating on some of the more esoteric sports, so many of them you only get to see every four years on TV.

As I write this I can hear Canoe Slalom burbling away in the background, it looks a bit of a crazy sport to me, more Indiana Jones than Matthew Pinsent. The sailing had just been cancelled for now due to lack of wind. I’m looking forward to a bit of fencing later.

I’ve seen the lunatics on the BMX course, great to watch but very scary when you think how many times they must have fallen in order to perfect those forward and back flips, let alone the no hand spins. I’ve also seen some surfing, volleyball and beach volleyball and three person basketball. Whilst we’ve been chatting the sailing restarted and then stopped again. The wind, it would appear, is a cruel mistress.

Still on the subject of the Olympics, I think we should have the person responsible for the Triathlon as the new head of Ofwat don’t you? I was so impressed that after several days of being unclean and unfit for swimming we had an overnight turnaround in quality, despite a shower that had many of the women triathletes sliding out on corners during the cycling leg.

Away from the Olympics the world seems to be carrying on. Trumpolina seems to be running scared of a debate with Kamala Harris, Kemi Badenoch apparently asked for her holiday flight to be paid with taxpayers’ money and Nigel Farage has, according to a former head of the Met’s counter terrorism unit, helped to incite violence.

The country’s financial position might not be as good as the last government led us to believe and still no money back from Michelle Mone. Meanwhile, a man from Portsmouth has been jailed for 8 months for shoplifting 798 Cadbury Creme Eggs in a crime spree that took in 19 shops across Dorset, West Sussex and Hampshire. Imagine his dentist bills!

Back to the Olympics we get on to the proper sports this weekend. The men’s road race is on Saturday, women’s road race on Sunday and then the track cycling comes at us thick and fast on Monday. There’s still some golf on to get the naps in! Chapeau to Andy Murray who retired from professional tennis yesterday after he and Dan Evans lost in the quarter finals of the doubles. He did make me smile with h is tweet of “Never even liked tennis anyway.”

There’s been a lot of talk about the photograph of the surfer, it’s amazing and worth seeking out but the one that caught my attention was Turkey’s 10m air pistol contestant Yususf Dikec. All around him, contestants had special glasses, eye patches and ear defenders whilst he looked like he’d stopped in on the way home from work. Ordinary glasses, hand in pocket all the way to claiming the silver medal. Cool as cucumber!

Wine This Weekend

We’ve got a small parcel of AIX Rosé (£18.49 or 3 for £48) which is a delicious example of the pinks of Provence. Crisp and dry with hints of raspberry and herbs. We’ll open a bottle of that to kick off with, and then will fly the spinnaker and head over to Argentina for a sample of Bodegas Staphyle Iris Malbec (£11.99) a cracking example from Lujan de Cuyo high in the Andes. Tip top with something cooked over coals if that’s the plan once the Olympics have finished for the day.

Salud¡¡

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Another week passes.

The schools are now out, Biden is soon to be out, the sun is in and out and many of you have gone out too – welcome to summer in SW19.

I think, in the past week, we have seen what happens when too much power is concentrated in too few hands.  Crowdstrike brought millions of lives to a standstill last Friday after a glitch meant “problematic content data” in a file went undetected.  Unsurprisingly, they acknowledged that they could prevent this recurring with better software testing and checks, including more scrutiny from developers.  Basically, if they didn’t cut a few corners then this probably wouldn’t happen again.

Now, according to their website, their customers include:

• 298 of the Fortune 500
• 538 of the Fortune 1000
• 8 out of the top 10 financial services firms
• 7 out of the top 10 manufacturers
• 8 out of the top 10 food & beverage companies
• 8 out of the top 10 auto companies
• 43 of the 50 U.S. states
• 6 out of the top 10 healthcare providers
• 8 out of the top 10 technology firms

This feels like a lot of important eggs in the same cybersecurity basket, just one clever hack away from being scrambled.

Still, at least they’ve got it all fixed before the Olympics start.  The Opening Ceremony takes place today (Friday) at 7.30pm (French time), which you would imagine would herald the start if a two week extravaganza of sporting excellence.  However, in a shift from what would seem logical, the games actually started on Wednesday, a world record was broken in the archery on Thursday (How can you have a new Olympic record when the Olympics hasn’t yet started?  Discuss.) and a large chunk of the Men’s Rugby Sevens has already taken place.

Andy Murray has announced that he won’t be playing singles in Paris and frankly we’re not sure why he was planning to anyway.  Currently ranked somewhere in the 120’s but, due to being a former grand-slam winner and Olympic gold-medallist, he was given the nod despite the fact that his Wimbledon campaign was a washout and he can barely move about the court – perhaps Nancy Pelosi should have a word….

Further to our regular reports on the English wine scene, it seems that Chapel Down is not going to be sold to Treasury Wine Estates, owners of Penfolds, Blossom Hill and 19 Crimes, amongst others.  However, Gusbourne Estate, the fabled sparkling wine producer from Kent, has announced that majority shareholder Lord Ashcroft of Belize is reviewing his options – we wonder, could it be that he wants to get his money out sharpish, now we have a Labour government?

Speaking of sparkling wine makers, LVMH, owner of Dom Pérignon, Krug, Möet and Ruinart to name just a few of their brands, have apparently invested £150 million in the Paris Olympics, so don’t expect champagne to get any cheaper in the near future.  Apparently Louis Vuitton has crafted the trunk being used to cart the Olympic torch around and also the trays to carry the medals for the victory ceremonies.  On top of that, Chaumet (another LVMH business) has designed all the medals, all of which include a piece of wrought iron nicked from the Eiffel Tower, which we think is quite a fun touch.

So, what shall we drink with all this Olympic action.  One of the trade rags ran the headline 10 French wines for the Paris Olympics Games which I hoped might be a cleverly crafted list of pun-heavy wines that might raise a smile in all of us, however it was none of this, just a random selection of cut-and-paste tasting notes with no real theme running through it and arguably some of the laziest journalism I’ve seen in a long time…

So, having gathered zero inspiration from there, we’ve just decided to open a couple of wines this weekend that we both like and haven’t had on tasting for a while, with not an Olympic theme in sight:

Follas Novas Albariño 2022 – £17.99 comes From Val do Salnés, one of the five distinct sub-regions of Rías Baixas and is the oldest, coolest and wettest part, whilst also being the birth place of Albariño sometime before the 12th century.  The vines for this wine are between 20 and 40 years old and vinified in a state of the art winery completed in 2005.  Fabulously clean and crisp with citrus and floral notes on the nose, tangy stone fruit on the palate and a lovely mineral laden finish.

Klinker Brick Winery Brickmason 2018 – £18.99 is a blend of 80% Zinfandel, 10% Syrah and 5% each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Syrah.  All of the vines were planted before 1989, so produce less fruit with greater intensity.  Thus we have bright red fruits, a touch of juicy blueberry too, lovely freshness of finish and a little tannic grip that gives it great balance – a barbecue shoo-in, should there be a break in the clouds…

That’s it from us, enjoy your holidays and see you in September….

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We had the King’s Speech this week. Judging by its measured tone and relatively sensible content, we may have our work cut out mocking this lot, for the first couple of months anyway!

I do have questions though. What’s happened to Rishi Sunak? His measured and statesman-like speech could have been made by a completely different person. Is he a replicant?

Lettuce Liz made a complaint. She didn’t like her budget being attributed to her, claiming that was a political statement. Given how keen she is to keep her name in the spotlight, I was surprised she asked for it to be removed from the document but removed it has been. In the meantime, she described the King’s Speech as containing “Stalinist” house building targets. She is currently attending the Republican Convention in Milwaukee.

Also at the Republican Convention is Boris Johnson. He made an opening day speech to a room full of empty chairs. Nigel Farage is there too, the voters of Clacton clearly have very wide ranging demands of their MP.

Elsewhere at the convention, Trumpolina announced a man with initials for a name as his running mate.  JD Vance used to claim he was a ‘never Trump’ man. The junior senator from Ohio has also gained the endorsement of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Despite this, as well as backing Trump, JD yesterday quoted Nixon: “Professors are the enemy…” As if this wasn’t mad enough, I saw pictures of the audience at the convention all cosplaying by wearing ear patches. It really would be quite funny if it wasn’t quite so serious.

Talking of serious, the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio Two yesterday morning had a lady who makes political predictions based on how asparagus falls. No really. Her prediction is that the next President of the US will be a woman. She said it keeps coming up that way and she has dropped the asparagus a number of times with the same result.

Meanwhile, sports fans will no doubt have spotted England batting first at Trent Bridge and that we’re into the second day of the British Open at Troon. Whilst I write this, there seem to be quite a few scores with a plus in front of them. For this non-golfer, it seems a bit strange. Alex, however, mentioned something about wind and umbrellas. In real sports, the Tour de France is drawing to a close in the Alps. Today we’ll be heading to the highest rideable road in Europe at 2800m, before finishing on Sunday with tough Individual Time Trial between Monaco and Nice. It really has been quite the ride!

Meanwhile in wine news, Pernod Ricard has sold its Australian, New Zealand and Spanish wine portfolio to Australia’s Accolade Wines but kept the French, Argentinian and Chinese wines in their portfolio. So that’s Jacob’s Creek back with the Aussies, just where it belongs!

Tasting This Weekend

We’ve heard it might be warm and sunny so we’re putting Domaine Lafran-Veyrolles Bandol Rosé 2023 (£23.99) in the fridge for the chilled corner. One of the top estates in Bandol, this 10 hectare estate is cooking on gas. Excellent drop and we’d urge you to come and taste.

The red corner will be populated by Fleurie Cuvée Sept 2022 (£15.99) which will be really rather wonderful with pork shoulder you’ve just decided to barbecue. A juicy red, with lovely cherry fruits and just a touch of fine tannins to keep it honest.

Enjoy the sunshine – it’s here for a good time, not a long time!

Fellow Wine Lovers, 

The cars on Arthur Road go toot-toot-toot, toot-toot-toot, toot-toot-toot; the cars on Arthur Road go toot-toot-toot, all day long… 

Whilst Wimbledon tennis continues to wage war with the weather, the good motorists of Arthur Road continue to get their fits & giggles by creating gridlock and then berating each other for being unable to reverse/drive forward/use their mirrors/read the road signs/know the width of their vehicles.  In fairness, it’s not local traffic, it’s Wimbledon Tennis Land Rovers vs Mitcham Plumbers and, suffice to say, it has made more exciting viewing than some of the televised sports we’ve seen of late! 

Although, wait a minute, what’s this?  We thought that, post-election, our lighter political entertainment this week would be limited to watching PM Starmer wandering around with a football in his hand reminding everyone that he’s a lifelong support of the other North London club, whilst hoping to tap into the Euro Final excitement and show he’s properly down with the kids.   

However, the Conservatives had other plans.  Never shy of a headline, prize-fighters Kemi and Suella have really hit the big time this week, with verbal fisticuffs, talk of taking responsibility for the election failure, a suggestion that one of them was having a nervous breakdown and generally tasteless trolling in the full media glare.  Jerry Springer could have had a field day whilst, in the background, someone gently recited The Scorpion and The Frog. 

My, my, how we’ll miss them! 

Not to be out done across the pond, the 81 year old leader of the free world and the man with the nuclear button has proved his suitability for the job.  To prove George Clooney, Stephen King and Michael Moore right, but not meaning to, he not only got President Zelensky confused with the Putin but also referred to Kamala Harris as Vice-President Trump. 

The convicted felon will win again if this goes on much longer…. 

Back to here for now, we seem to have become good at sport again!  I mean, we’re still not really 2^nd week candidates in the, tennis and, since Cav’s epic win the cycling hasn’t really been troubled by anyone carrying a Union Jack but you know, in the cricket and the football, we’re doing alright! 

It all feels a bit 1996/1997 – are we about to witness Cool Britannia 2.0?  Watch this space… 

In the world of booze, we discover that during the Euros we have spent more time and money in the pub than usual and that bears are still rushing off into the forest, Kleenex in paw.  By all accounts, if the sun shines, people drink more rosé and in the depths of winter a hearty red is often desirable.  Do we think some of these researchers are getting money for old rope?  Or are the biggest charlatans those characters at the Met Office who can incessantly mis-forecast our weather but will always get paid… sometimes I think there are easier ways to earn a living than selling wine (but not many!). 

And then we hear, from Wine GB, that there are now 1,030 vineyards in the UK (mainly England and Wales, I think).  

So, in 2004, Seyval Blanc was the most grown grape variety (a hybrid variety suited to cooler climates), followed by Reichensteiner (a crossing of Müller-Thurgau and Madeline Angevine – which isn’t necessarily a good thing), Müller-Thurgau (of Liebfraumilch fame) and Bacchus (light, elderflowery, delicate and actually not bad). 

Nowadays, it’s a very different story – Bacchus has 8% of the total vineyard space, Seyval Blanc 3% and Reichensteiner just 2% – now the big players are Chardonnay with 32%, Pinot Noir with 27% and Pinot Meunier with 9%, the famous grapes of Champagne.  They say don’t put all your eggs in one basket but why would anyone listen to that – 76% of wine produced in the UK from 2023 will be sparkling – that’s an awful lot of competition…. 

Speaking of competition, we’ve got a game on this Sunday and so for tasting this weekend we’ll put England vs Spain on the counter.   

Since Kane & Co have been playing champagne football all tournament, we thought we’d open Rathfinny Classic Cuvée Brut 2019 – £33.00.  Hailing from East Sussex, about 4 miles from Seaford, in Alfriston, east of Newhaven, this estate was established in 2010 by husband and wife team, Mark and Sarah Driver.   

The first 50 acres of vines were planted in 2012 and they eventually expect to have 350 acres under vines, predominantly Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier (of course) as well as a small amount of Pinot Gris.  Consequently, the blend is 50% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier and they say it spends 36 months in bottle before release – in fact the stock we have now was disgorged in January this year, which puts it closer to 48 months on the lees, which can only make it more delicious! 

For the red, we’ll be visiting the most famous Spanish region, Rioja.   

Bodegas Roda Sela 2021 – £24.99 – class, elegance and a source of constant pleasure – this could be the Spanish team in a glass… made with fruit from bush vines of between 15 and 30 years old where yields are kept low to encourage a concentration of intense aromas and depth of flavour complexity on the palate.  The blend is 87% Tempranillo, 7% Graciano and 6% Garnacha and spends 12 months aging in 100% semi-new French oak. A nose bursting with aromas of cherries, redcurrants and blackberries lead onto an elegant palate with lively, fresh red cherry flavours.  A suitable drink with which to drown ones sorrows… 

And that’s a wrap.  We hear the that The Burnley Express has left the station for one last time and we salute him, even if he did celebrate retirement with a can of Guinness Draught 0.0%… 

Cheers!