The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

What a week!  No sooner does Sir Kier fall on his sword than we experience the warmest June days since records began, such is the sun’s opinion on the infernal state of British politics.  Wonder what will happen when Donny T or Vladi P throw in the towel – we’ll all probably need to install some air-conditioning to cope with that heatwave!

In truth, Keir seemed visibly relieved to be handing over the keys to Number 10 – he won’t be leaving behind many fond memories there and he won’t have to play polite with the POTUS any more.  Mind you, heir apparent Andy Burnham might have to learn how to play polite himself having announced in 2017: “Donald Trump’s presence in Greater Manchester would go against the values that people here stand for. It is a matter of principle that I don’t meet people who distribute hateful, extremist material.”  A perfectly reasonable opinion and one that I’m sure the POTUS will deal with using his usual diplomacy, given the well-known thickness of his skin.

Wayne is currently very excited by the prospect of the Tour de France starting next week, which is great because the football hasn’t been as exciting as we might have hoped whilst cricket seems to be humiliating itself on the pitch more than off it.  Still, the tennis also starts on Monday, will a Brit make it to week two?  We have about 18 players in the mix I think, with a special chapeau to local hero, Hannah Klugman, who has been given a wildcard entry – very exciting!

Meanwhile, back here on the other side of the park, whilst you have all been weighing up the merits as to whether sitting at your kitchen table with the back door open and noisy fan at your feet beats the aircon on the District Line, followed by aircon in your office followed by a cheeky pint by the river on your way home, we’ve been taking in deliveries.  New wines, established wines and a couple of things that aren’t new but have caught the selectors eye after a few years in the 3^rd XI – all are here and awaiting your attention.

NEW

In March, as I think we may have mentioned, we tasted a whole range of wines blended by Sir Ian Botham.  Now, Beefy has long been known to be a keen oenophile and we have in the past stocked the BMW wines, his first foray into production with his friends Geoff Merrill and Bob Willis.  Back then, Geoff was definitely doing the heavy lifting but as time has gone on Lord Botham has continued to hone his skills – however, given the state of English cricket right now, it could be time for him to go back to his day job!

Australia

Botham Family Wines 76 Series Margaret River Chardonnay 2022 – £15.99

Sir Ian Botham Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2018 – £43.50

Sir Ian Botham Barossa Valley Single Vineyard Shiraz 2019 – £45.00

New Zealand

Botham Family Wines 78 Series Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019 – £29.99

Botham The Peerage Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019 – £43.50

We also have a new Rosé – Oenops Apla 2024 – £20.00 – from Greece.  Made using Xinomavro from Macedonia, Mavroudi from Thrace and Limniona from Thessaly, we have a full-bodied and multi layered wine with notes of wild strawberry and raspberry, wrapped in a savoury finish.

And finally, a cider.  Apparently, teachers know what they’re talking about, both inside the classroom and out.  This particular teacher/customer was definitely out in the wilds of Sussex when he discovered Mainomenos Gil of Caburn – £4.00 which describes itself thus: ‘Medium.  Strong and juicy oak-fermented rural method cider.  Made by native yeasts in East Sussex.  Unfined.  Unfiltered.  Unbound.’  We found it hard to argue with this summary – think scrumpy but without lumps and weird bitterness… it’s delicious!  Give a teacher an apple and he’ll eat for a day, give him a long weekend on a glampsite and he’ll bring you cider….

ESTABLISHED

It’s English Wine Week this week, so we’ve stocked up on the classy sparkler Hattingley Vintage Cuvée 2019 – £33.00 from sunny Hampshire and New Hall Single Estate Bacchus – £20.99 from Crouch Valley in Essex, home to some of the best vineyard plots in the UK.

RETURNING

One of our spirits suppliers, based in Scotland, decided a few years back that dealing with us folk south of the border was a bit too difficult and, frankly, they had enough going on up there to keep them busy.  Fair enough, we said, disappointed to lose their offerings but aware that the amount of business we put their way wasn’t enough to keep them warm at night.  However, just now, they’ve had a change of heart and are delighted to take our money once again, in exchange for:

Benromach 10 Year Old Speyside Single Malt – £50.00

Linkwood 15 Year Old Speyside Single Malt – £90.00

Blanton’s Original Single Barrel Bourbon – £80.00

Tasting this weekend

As mentioned, it’s English Wine Week, so we’ll pop open the Hattingley and the New Hall and, since we don’t have any English red, we’ll surprise you with something from far’n parts…

Fellow Wine Lovers,

It must be nearly time for Wimbledon Tennis to start; all those holes in road that have had white paint frames sprayed around them since November, seem to be miraculously filling themselves in. Randomly though, we haven’t seen any out of towners driving big purple and green SUV’s yet – maybe they’re going to use cargo bikes this year?

Apparently, Iran and the USA are going to give peace a chance. The three page memorandum is intended to keep them talking about preventing a nuclear device and keeping the Straits of Hormuz open. Benjamin Netanyahu seems rather keen to keep the half of Lebanon they’ve invaded and hasn’t said a lot yet. We suspect the next sixty days will be spent clearing mines from the narrow channel and couldn’t help but wonder if they are still those big ball shaped objects with spikes of detonation sticking out of them. Perhaps they are a bit cleverer these days.

Closer to home the by-election for Makerfield is sorted and we’ll now be having endless discussions about a leadership election that’ll make no difference to the state of the world. Still, those talking heads that spend hours filling 24 News will be salivating at the prospect. Then we can take a few months and start the process all over again. Westminster is absolutely full of people who wanted to be there to serve us, but mostly seem self-serving. Anyway, well played on the by-election victory…

On the sports front, the World Cup is now in game two territory, England and Scotland both started as well as they could, Spain had a bit of a ‘mare and I suspect Belgium were a smidge disappointed too. The US Open is in full flow, Rory had made a good start when I was writing this yesterday. The Second Test appears to playing out as a proper test game, it must be embarrassing for Lords that the Oval has the best groundsmen! In proper sports, Wout Van Aert is out of the Tour de France with an annoyingly persistent elbow injury whilst Josh Tarling has just had surgery having broken his collarbone at the Dauphine, so looks doubtful too, which is a real shame given the opening day team time trial. Anyway, there are still a couple of weeks until Le Grand Depart in Barcelona.

It’s Father’s Day on Sunday, I’m sure you’ve all been really organised and already bought him a vintage replica football shirt to watch the final in. But, if you haven’t been that organised, we heard on good authority that he would love to drink a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino as the Italian footballers skipped the tournament again.

Tasting This Weekend

Cramele Recas Solara Orange Wine – £14.99 – you know, the one with label where an orange is pretending to be the sun, ring any bells?  If not, here’s the lowdown: it’s from Romania and is owned by Englishman Philip Cox and his wife Elvira.  A blend of 69% Riesling, 22% Sauvignon Blanc and 9% of other varietals, this is a natural, minimal intervention wine made by leaving the grape skins and seeds in contact with the pressed juice which then ferments naturally without the addition of yeasts, sulphur or any other additions, creating a deep orange-hued finish.  The nose exhibits quince, Poire William and a hint of vanilla, leading to a complex and structured palate with elegant and discreet stone fruit flavours, backed up with a complexity and long, balanced finish and a delightfully fresh finish.

Juliénas-Chaintré Fleurie ‘Cuvée Sept’ 2023 – £17.99.  Fleurie is probably the best known Cru Beaujolais and is sometimes referred to as “The Queen of Beaujolais”, so well regarded are its smooth, supple reds.  The light food friendly wines seem to be gaining a new following amongst some of smarter sommeliers in town, one taste of this and you’ll understand why.  Silky and fresh, with dark berry fruit character and soft tannins and delicious lightly chilled.

Midsummer tomorrow, Alex has finally got his shorts on, just in time, and it promises to be a good weekend – it’s Friday, it’s 27 degrees out there, why are you still in the office?

Fellow Wine Lovers,

First of all, some admin. 

We will be open all week this week, no early closes or late starts, just our usual, published working hours.  We appreciate this is short notice and a departure from our recent foolhardy strategy of randomly closing early on the busiest evening of the week; however, hopefully we can all adapt to this new framework and enjoy it for many weeks to come without too much upheaval!

Nice to be back in long trousers this week and the opportunity to always have an umbrella at hand is much appreciated, thank you.  Not much else to celebrate in the world currently, harmony and love don’t seem to be in great abundance, although the world’s most famous day-sleeper has confessed to a love of inflation which, given his ego, doesn’t come as a complete surprise.  Over this side of the pond, Tommy Robinson flew to Russia to meet Errol, Elon’s estranged father, in a Moscow hotel – we wonder at what point Tommy realised he’d made an appointment with the wrong Musk?

In wine news we have no news but, as they say, no news is good news, so it’s all good news here, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, in the world of football, it’s all kicking off.  The biggliest, most beautiful World Cup, like you’ve never seen before, started last night with the hosts, Mexico, playing South Africa, who have qualified for the first time since 2002.  Red cards were being dished out like parking tickets but I was too busy enjoying some stringhopper fry in Tooting to watch such a fun-fest.  South Africa were hosts in 2010 and, for all you trivia lovers out there, the opening match was between them and Mexico, resulting in a 1-1 draw in front of 84,490 spectators.  48 teams, 104 matches, 1 winner on Sunday 19^th July – a long haul but if you don’t like football, plenty of the matches will take place when you are tucked up in bed.  Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan are all making their first appearances at a World Cup – welcome aboard, chaps, you’ve got this in the bag!

Meanwhile, in the world of cricket, it’s also kicking off.  Love or hate Ben Stokes, or indeed Gus Atkinson, but it does feel like the ECB might be cutting of its nose to spite its face here.  When David ‘Biggles’ Gower ‘buzzed the tower’ at the Carrara Oval, Queensland in 1991, he was fined £1,000.  However, he wasn’t dropped – apparently, they had considered sending both of them back home (John Morris being the other ne’er do well) but decided against because the side was doing extremely poorly.  Ben Stokes has history, both on and off the pitch, of making big headlines.  He likes a beer, as do many sportsmen, and he broke his curfew, guilty.  On the other hand, his team had finished their match, won it too, and were the furthest away from their next outing that they could possibly be – at what point does the ECB step back and let them be, fine them certainly, but dropping them feels a little heavy-handed.   Rob Key, who played 15 test matches for England before failing to make the triumphant 2005 Ashes team, said yesterday:

“Even when they win a game of cricket, is it now a time when there’s just no alcohol at any time and at any stage? I need to think through these things because I don’t want to make a rash decision that hinders the team and creates a situation where they don’t feel they can do anything. But the players now have to show the public they can be trusted. At this point it’s hard to say they can.” www.bbc.co.uk

Booze and cricket perhaps don’t mix?  Tell that to the fans, or indeed Lord’s, who happily list on their ‘Our Partners’ page the following:

• Asahi UK (offering Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%, Asahi Super Dry 0.0%, Meantime Craft Beer, Fuller’s new Pride Lager and Fuller’s London Pride)
• Hendrick’s Gin
• Majestic Wines
• Veuve Clicquot
• Westons – Stowford Press

Hmmm.

Meanwhile, in the world of rugby, no-one is getting disciplined, dropped or fined.

You’ve all been promising me that the weather is going to cheer up for the weekend and whilst it was hard to believe you earlier in the week, I have complete trust in your weather apps, so summery wines will be on the tasting counter this weekend.  We’ve gone German, not because Wayne thinks they’re going to win the World Cup (Scotland at 250/1 is his tip) but because one of them arrived in the shop for the first time on Thursday and the other one is a summer cracker.

Both wines come from Weingut Hanewald-Schwerdt based in Pfalz, in western Germany and is a partnership between two cousins, Thomas Hanewald and Stephan Schwerdt, who have taken over the running of their family winery founded by their grandfather in 1955.  Their vineyards are located between Weisenheim am Berg in the North to Ruppertsberg in the South and their focus is on dry wines, primarily made from Riesling and Pinot Noir that express their vintage and vineyard.

Riesling Trocken ‘Auf der Pochel’ 2024 – £16.49 – is crisp and dry with a fresh citrusy nose complemented by yellow fruit aromas.  It has a sweet fruit mouthfeel with gentle yeasty notes and a lively acidity, very much what you would hope from a classic Riesling. 

Spätburgunder 2021, Pfalz, Germany – £19.99 – Pinot Noir from Germany doesn’t appear on everyone’s radar very often!  Bright strawberry and cherry notes lead the way with some delicious savoury character and good minerality.  Intense and medium bodied this is designed to be drunk easily (hooray) and can be enjoyed on its own (hooray again) and doesn’t mind chilling in the fridge (hip, hip hooray).

That’s it from us, we’re here, doors open, ready for a wonderful warm weekend – let’s hope the apps are right because I’m not feeling too confident right now!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Firstly, our apologies. As we mentioned last week we will close at 4pm today.

Here we are at the beginning of June and we’re getting into the swing of summer. We’ve had some rather fabulous thunder and lightning, a good dowsing of rain just in time to keep the grass green and top up the water butts. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the heat to return now thanks very much; I’ve been caught in the rain enough for a week or two.

We have test cricket at Lord’s. England being the generous hosts as always were put into bat first and quickly raced to 34 for 4. Worse news than that, the statistics guys mentioned that of the first fourteen overs only six balls were projected to hit the wicket and still cost us two wickets. Despite much help from the weather and light gods we didn’t manage to last beyond the first day, all out for 140. Over to the bowlers, who absolutely delivered with New Zealand at 82 for 8 at the close. Saturday tickets starting to look cheap I imagine!

Just under a week to go before the FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday with Mexico hosting South Africa. It then continues almost forever with the interesting, knock out part of it clashing with the Tour de France so this correspondent may miss some of the games.

We’ve talked on and off over the last few months about the challenges facing the hospitality industry. We’ve all seen the talk of closures and the pubs and restaurants closing under the strain. We suspect it’s the combination of all the rises at once that is causing many of the problems and now Tom Kerridge and several other chefs have launched a petition to cut VAT for the sector to 10%. This would bring it in line with much of Europe and give the industry a bit of breathing space.  As people who enjoy a pint in the pub and like to go for the odd restaurant dinner, we think it is a noble cause.

If you would like to sign the petition here is the link: VAT’s the problem .

News reaches us from Georgia that the government is planning to auction Josef Stalin’s wine collection of around 40,000 bottles of rare Georgian and French wines, some of them cherry picked from the Imperial Romanov collection after the revolution. The collection, housed in a cellar in the capital Tbilisi, was opened to the public for the first time this week. According to Reuters, some of the wines date back to the early 19th century. One wine collector from the US described seeing the wines as being “like Indiana Jones opening up a cave: it could be nothing, it could be something.” Interesting as historical items, but I’m not sure I’m opening a hundred year old Saperavi with my plov!

Tasting This Weekend

We’ll start off the white in the white corner with a delicious Spanish white – Arousana Follas Novas Albariño 2025, Rias Baixas, Spain – £18.99 – from Val do Salnés considered the birthplace of Albariño and made using fruit from 30 year old vines.  White peach and orange blossom on the nose and a crisp, dry palate showing stone fruit and mineral characteristics. I’d seek out some seafood at the farmers market to go with this.

Then we’ll jump in our red sports car through the mountains and along the south coast of France before heading up the Rhône valley for a taste of Côtes du Rhône Villages ‘Les Coteaux’ 2023, Rhône, France – £14.99. Common practice in the Côtes du Rhône is to bottle the best cuvées as a single named Village wine and the rest as basic Rhône Villages.  The philosophy here, on the other hand, is to start with the intention of making the very best Côtes du Rhône Villages possible.  They source wine from the vineyards of named villages and enrich them with a small proportion of barrel-aged wine from Sablet, Séguret and Cairanne.  The results are fabulous, as you can taste here, with well-balanced brambly fruit and soft tannin that is bang on the money.

Rumours involving using the Large Hadron Collider to help find Farage’s moral compass appear to be wide of the mark.

With that we’re off!