The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

A good number of years ago when even Wayne was young, Elvis Costello wrote a song called ‘Shipbuilding’. The first line of the song was “Is it worth it” which was pretty much how we felt after listening to the Chancellor’s budget. We’ve had weeks and weeks of economic uncertainty whilst the government floated one tax rise after another to see which upset the Daily Mail the most. Rachel Reeves even called a press conference to tell us she couldn’t tell us anything and all would be revealed in the budget.

Now, call me old fashioned but that is not managing anything, it is polling. Given the length of time till an election, and the size of the government’s majority, we feel we should be getting governed not polled. Whilst I’m ranting, why is it that the duty on fuel never changes, the duty on cigarettes went up at midnight, but milkshakes stay cheap until 2028? That seems especially odd given the six month shelf life of the Yazoo I just drank!

Meanwhile, a number of old class mates of Nigel Farage have disputed his suggestion that racist comments he made at school were just banter. He has said he doesn’t remember them because it was 50 years ago. But surely, if that is the case, how can he be so certain he didn’t make those comments? He now thinks that the furore is because people don’t like his politics; I wonder if it may be there is a furore because his politics are racist. Should we start to talk about Nathan Gill and Russian money, I wonder?

Whilst we’re on the subject of Russian assets, the latest attempt at negotiating a peace for Ukraine seems to cede the entire Donbas region to Putin. An area which, by all accounts, seems unlikely to be captured by the Russian forces. Lead negotiator is Steve Witkoff whose qualifications for the job involve being a real estate mogul and golf buddy of Big Orange. Why anyone thinks Putin is in the strongest position of negotiation is beyond us but then we’d also stay away from open hotel windows in Moscow.

Whilst discussing Americans, we read about Pei Chung who has been arrested in Brooklyn. It seems she has been banned from several restaurants since October as she has a habit of arriving at smart restaurants, dressed to the nines in designer clothes, before ordering meals and leaving without paying. She has apparently become known as the “the-dine-and-dash diva” and police say they have arrested her numerous times for refusing to pay bills. Sounds to us like she is just a common thief!

The second Ashes test starts next Thursday but obviously by the time you read next week’s letter it could be all over! England are doing some extra training just in case.

Which brings us on to wine. The duty will go up by RPI, again. Duty on wine has risen by 40% since 2023, more than any other booze. Between April and September 2025 the Treasury received £300 million less in duty than the previous year. Seems like the Treasury may have already bumped into the law of diminishing returns.

Tasting This Weekend

In the white trousers we’ll open Enira White 2024 (£22.49) – Count Stephan von Neipperg, owner of several famous Bordeaux properties including Châteaux Canon La Gaffelière and La Mondotte, deliberately sought out Bulgaria’s Bessa Valley, where the wonderful clay-limestone soils displayed the potential to make great wines. This Rhone style white blend has plenty of citrus character, apricot and quince fruit and a lovely richness from 6 months on its lees. Awesome with some fish pie!

Trying not to spill itself over those white trousers we’ll have Herència Altés Cupatge Negre 2023 (£19.99). This is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Grenache and Syrah from close to Montsant, which is inland from Tarragona.  Medium bodied and fresh with concentrated plum and cherry fruit, a touch of spice, fine tannins, a touch of minerality too.  We think this is a very versatile all-rounder on the food front. 

Which is pretty much us. If you fancy reacquainting yourself with the powerful lyrics of ‘Shipbuilding’, give Robert Wyatt’s version a spin.

Have a great weekend.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Snow?  On a Wednesday?  Whatever next?  Whilst the good folk of Hepple, who are quite used to such weather, were clipping into their bindings to shred the backcountry and the young folk in Exeter were bathing in winter sunshine, our correspondents in SW19 were not loving being out and about in it, yearning to be inside.  As ever in London life, snowflakes only lead to disappointment since the ground was so wet there was never a chance of settling and, by 11am, no-one would believe us when we related our daring adventures over a cup of vin chaud and a crêpe.

Anyway, enough of the Blizzard of 19/11 and all that.  According to cousin Paul in Subiaco, the weather in Perth is currently in the mid-twenties, shorts are being worn and the fine weather looks set to continue.  Lovely conditions to play cricket in, we suggest, which is handy because today one of the world’s greatest sporting rivalries opened a new chapter.  Yep, the Ashes have finally started, by the time they finish it’ll be 2027, very exciting.  The First Test hasn’t been played away from the Gabba for more than 40 years, we still don’t know why they have chosen to do so this time but let’s hope it is not the only innovation in this series.  The most obvious other novelty would be England winning every match down under, shall we suggest this?  By all accounts we have the fastest bowling attack for over 50-odd years, which one of them do you think will get injured first, perhaps we should ask Glen McGrath what the odds are?

Closer to home, as we get closer to the end of November, we get closer to Thanksgiving.  Ok, so we’re definitely not American but, given the ‘piggy’ running their country perhaps it is sensible to give thanks for this.  Equally, perhaps the Americans can give thanks for not being stuck this side of the pond, where our own dear leader has hit a record low net favourability rating of -54 (YouGov), one point worse than the rating Boris J had on the day he resigned!  Still, it’s the budget next week, so we suspect his ratings might not improve in a hurry – we don’t imagine there will be much in the Reeves Red Briefcase to give thanks for.

In hospitality news this week, we read (yet again?) that research, undertaken by UKHospitality, the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII), the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) and Hospitality Ulster, found that 73% of businesses have less than six months of cash reserves to fall back on whilst 29% have no cash reserves at all.  The industry is teetering on the crumbliest of cliffs but not everyone is too concerned about customer flow, it would seem. 

The Independent has been getting a bit excitable about ‘news’ that a bar in Altrincham, known locally as Alibi, refuses entry to lone drinkers after 9pm to stop them ‘mithering’ other groups of drinkers.  A number of questions spring to mind here: if we were drinking alone, at 9pm, we’re not sure a cocktail bar specialising in karaoke themed events would be our first port of call; equally, if a group of friends go into the bar and then one of the group peels off and starts talking to another group, do they then become a ‘solo’ drinker and thus a pest in need of removal?  The owner says he’s prioritising people’s welfare and safety, saying “once or twice a month, and often at midnight stumbling around looking for someone to go” which we think means that every couple of weeks someone gets drunk and tries to start a fight.  So, if, as he states, the single-drinker ban has been in place since they opened in 2022, might it be reasonable to assume that it’s not the lone drinkers starting these fights because how would they be there in the first place?  Perhaps he should change the policy wording to something closer to what he really means, like ‘No Weirdos At Any Time, Ever!’ which would probably send The Independent into meltdown….

Another weekend laden with sporting opportunity beckons and, given the temperatures, TNT and the settee seem very tempting.  As mentioned, there will be cricket on in the mornings and then, on Saturday we have Wales beating New Zealand at 3.10pm; Ireland beating South Africa at 5.40pm; France losing heavily at home to Australia or Italy losing narrowly at home to Chile, both at 8.10pm.  Sunday brings us Scotland tying with Tonga at 1.40pm and England clashing with Argentina at 4.10pm, which itself clashes with Arsenal v Tottenham at 4.30pm.  Looks like the morning just might be cricket free on Sunday to squeeze in the dog walking…

Back to now, back to Thanksgiving, back to wine.  As is our wont, we’ll be opening a couple of American wines this weekend to complement the feasting next Thursday.

Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2023 – £20.99 – based in the Livermore Valley, Califormia, Wente’s vineyards were founded in 1883 and are still owned and managed by the same family, four generations later.  They were also one of the first to plant Chardonnay and, in fact, the Wente clone is the most well-known Chardonnay clone in California because they were one of just two commercially viable Chardonnay vineyards to survive Prohibition!  Crisp with fine elegant apple notes with a supporting touch of oak and bang on with all your festive treats!

Vina Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 – £26.99.  Located in the Paso Robles region of California, they are particularly renowned for their Cabernet Sauvignon.  This wine is mainly Cabernet Sauvignon with a smidge of Petit Verdot, and was aged for 20 months in a combination of French and American oak.  Rich, opulent and balanced, powerful aromas of dark fruits, cocoa, violet, coffee, and toasted oak dominate whilst the palate is dense, deep and full-bodied with balanced and ripe tannins.  A bit of age only adds to the pleasure!

That’s it from us for this week, last week of November incoming, Budget on Wednesday – think we might need a drink sooner than we think!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

I’ve been writing this email for about an hour now and have got just this far. My ever supportive colleague observed: “Ooh, that’s going well!” – I’m fairly sure nobody around the cabinet table has uttered those words this week, whether in truth or jest.

A Prime Minister, with a working majority of 169, this week found their advisors briefing the press about a non-existent coup for leadership of the Labour Party. It would be really rather funny if it wasn’t for the fact that these people are supposed to be running the country. We really do need a grown up to come along and sit them all down to explain that ‘Traitors’ is just a television show for entertainment, even if it is on the BBC. On the plus side, the PM is going to get to the bottom of it and sack whoever did the briefing. On the downside, Downing Street staff has said nobody did it – A real dog ate my homework moment.

In the US, the drip drip drip of the Epstein files continues. I would have thought that the release of over twenty thousand emails would be the perfect place to get an AI application involved. Bizarrely, there seems little appetite for even a qualified speed reader!

Elsewhere, COP30 has been happening in Brazil, a place where acres of the Amazon get burnt every day, to the tune of 2.7 million acres this year alone.

We’ve covered events at some of the COP meetings in the past but it seems to us that they don’t work. We are now up to number 30 but the rhetoric has barely changed over the last 10 of them. People fly in from all over the world and talk for weeks about the heating of the planet yet here we are, still on target for a catastrophic 2.6˚C rise. That said, it did amuse me that the Californian delegation referred to Trump as an invasive species.

As an interesting counterbalance, I read that Pakistan is paying Qatar to not deliver Liquid National Gas because, even with the penalty, their solar and battery spending is much better value and saving them a fortune.

In other news, John Elkan, president of Ferrari has been rather blunt stating that his F1 drivers “should focus on driving and talk less.” It is that kind of no nonsense commentary that we think should be advising government ministers! Admittedly, the team has not had its best season but has our government?

In Olympic news, it has been announced that the Women’s 100m final will be on Day 1 of the games in Los Angeles 2028. That’s going to be hard work on the runners, three rounds all on the same day, but definitely a way to start the games with a bang!

On the Rugby front, England host the All Blacks at Twickenham on Saturday at the weird old time of 15.10. Even more surprising is that it looks like Marcus Smith is on the bench and they’ve drafted in Emma Raducanu! There is a wide selection of Internationals on Saturday, all at slightly odd times. If you plan your day well it could be back to back rugby from 12.40 till almost midnight if you watch one of the 8.10 pm clashes on catch up!

Which brings me to wine…

Parading themselves in front of you this weekend will be Theopetra Estate Terre Grec Assyrtiko 2024 (£15.99). This is a new one that hails from mainland Greece, just south of Mount Olympus. We found it to be a crisp and dry white with a touch of tropical to the finish.

On the red front we’ll zip over to Sicily and pour a glass of Giato Centopassi 2024 (£18.99). This is a winning blend of Nero d’Avola and Perricone with a medium to full body, black fruit character, a touch of clove spice and a decent finish.  As an aside, Centopassi is the winemaking entity of Libera Terra cooperatives that cultivate land confiscated from the mafia in Sicily.

And that, as they say, is that – have a bon weekend!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

We did warn you November was coming and, now it’s here with horrific single figure temperatures and icy gales, you mustn’t complain.  Alright, we may be exaggerating a tad, since the daytime temperature this week has rarely gone below 15 degrees – just in time for COP30 next week where the great and the good will gather to discuss the ‘state’ of the climate.  Coincidentally, when I say the great and the good, this will not include the current POTUS since he has gone on very public record stating that climate change is a ‘con job’.  Do I suggest that the POTUS isn’t great or good?  Of course not, how could I…

Speaking of the great and the good, let’s talk David Lammy, who’s not been having a good week.  Leaky Wandsworth prison released two prisoners by accident, which is not a good look for the Justice Secretary whilst a French court found a taxi driver, accused of stealing money and luggage from Mr Lammy, not guilty.  Ignoring the fact that we were most likely picking up the tab for his 600km taxi journey to Flaine, for his ski holiday, what is more significant is that the taxi driver, since May, has been placed under judicial supervision with a driving ban and a 2,000 euro (£1,690) bail, which effectively took away his livelihood… given the not guilty verdict, who now picks up the tab for his loss of earnings and defamation?  Sadly, I think we might be able to guess the answer to that and his name’s not Dave.

Now we’ve opened the Great & Good Pandoras Box, the G&Gs come flooding out.  Next up, Rachel R. who is considering charging EV drivers a ‘per mile’ tax.  All the encouragement and incentive to adopt electric vehicles naturally leading to an opportunity to profit from people’s environmental choices was always going to be too hard to resist.  Having said that, rumours are circulating that the 5p Fuel Duty Freeze could be coming to an end; apparently, some retailers aren’t passing the savings onto their customers, who’d have thunk it!  This move alone would add a few billion to the treasury coffers each year, which might be helpful…

Other G&Gs worth mentioning in passing: Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the DWP and Joey Barton spring to mind but I’m sure you can add more.

Moving on, it’s another rugby weekend this weekend – Twickenham tickets in L4 are still available on Saturday for England v Fiji if you’ve got about £130; equivalent tickets, in the same block, for the New Zealand game next week are north of £500, which will you choose?  Meanwhile, in cricket, the Indian Women romped to World Cup victory on Sunday, whilst the Australian Ashes selectors have already started playing mind games by choosing a Masters squad for the First Test in Perth.

Back here, we’re keenly selling wine and trying not to upset anyone.  Definitely succeeding with the first, desperately hoping the second is as successful.  Hopefully, if we open some wine this weekend, that might keep us in your good books?

For the white, we thought a brief trip to Spain with the Valenciso Rioja 2023 – £25.99. This is a blend of 70% Viura and 30% Garnacha Blanca, sourced from 80 year old vines and then fermented with wild yeasts before lazing around for 9 months in Caucasian oak barrels.  Complex aromas combining pretty, floral characters with preserved lemon, truffle and smoky notes.  The palate is broad and well integrated with nuts and stone fruit characters.  Fresh candied peel, minerality and crisp citrus acidity on the finish.

For red, the Right Bank grabs our attention with Château Lucas 2016 – £24.99.  Hailing from lovely Lussac Saint-Émilion, our first taste was during a summer heatwave (not this year!) and, even then, its class stood out.  50% each of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, it has raspberry and black cherry fruits, a nice silky texture whilst still having a bit of oomph about it.

That’s it from us for this week – bonfire night tomorrow in Wimbledon Park, so traffic will be bananas from about 5pm, fyi.  Apparently, Edenbridge are burning Keir Starmer this year (Starmer The Farmer Harmer) whilst Lewes already lit him up on Wednesday.

What a strange world we do live in!