The Weekly Wine

Fellow Wine Lovers,

What a time to be alive! On Monday this week The Daily Telegraph published an article by Tim Stanley with the headline “Climate change is real – and the Right needs to get serious about it”. It went on to suggest that we might just look out of our windows to see the evidence. Well, better late than never eh? Or, as the kids might say, “Telegraph enters the chat”.

Wednesday this week saw the 24^th day this year that the temperature in London exceeded 30˚C. In the 1980’s an entire decade had just 21 days. Musically the 1980’s rolled in just as XTC’s “Making Plans for Nigel” rolled down the charts and ended with Soul II Soul’s “Get a Life” at number six in the charts. Randomly, Andy Stewart’s “Donald Where’s Your Troosers?” was also in the top 10!  

Meanwhile, Nigel has spent a lot of time being angry. He’s angry that people keep asking about £5 million that was given to him with no strings, he’s angry that nobody is falling for his diversionary tactics involving t-shirts in Bristol. He might be angry at the Clacton café owner who told him he had 36 flavours of milkshake, but I suspect this week he’s angry because somebody has spotted that the 2024 donation of $2 million (£1.5 million) that Reform received from Fiona Cottrell in fact arrived in her accounts from her son. It seems now that the Police and HMRC have joined the voices asking questions about Reform’s financing. On the plus side Nigel, you only have two more weeks arguing with a bin.

On the sport front, Gianni Infantino has put forward a proposal to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors. If stories are to be believed, Jared Kushner’s fund is near the top of the list. The potential for corruption here seems so enormous that the idea has succeeded in uniting all of UEFA’s 55 associations in announcing a boycott to the plans. With any luck, it’ll finish off Infantino’s tenure, his key advisor, Carlos Cordeiro, has already quit.

In real sports, I find myself amazed that a 3 week race can end with the favourite winning by over six minutes and still offer up such a thrilling watch.  Chapeau to Tadej Pogačar for Tour de France number five, with very honourable mentions to Mads Pederson, Richard Carapaz, Paul Seixas and Remco Evenepoel.  

Tour de France Femmes starts in Lausanne on Saturday with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Demi Vollering as favourites. Nothing is a given though, and the toughest course yet sees plenty for wine fans, an individual time trial from Gevrey Chambertin to Dijon, a cruise through the rolling hills of Macon and Beaujolais, and a mountain top finish on Mont Ventoux. Keep an eye out for Marlon Reusser on time trial day; she may well set the race alight!

We spoke about the early harvest of grapes at Domaine Lafage in the Roussillon recently and thought we might expand on that a little. Champagne’s governing body has just announced that harvest is likely to start around August 20^th around 10 to 15 days earlier than usual.

Across much of France the rain and flooding we had in January ensured well replenished water tables. This was followed by normal flowering and then no frost anywhere, not even the shadowy corners in Chablis. Since then we have had perfect sunshine and just 3 days of rain since April. Healthy good size crops pretty much everywhere, possibly one of those vintages we’ll talk about for years and not just for the early harvests.

The one thing we do need to think of in this fabulous vintage is smoke damage. You’ll recall in the California fires a couple of years back that more grapes were lost to smoke damage than fire, and I suspect that’ll be true in Bordeaux too. Not good news for the poor folk of Pessac-Leognan, Pomerol and St Émilion who’ve had their windows and doors shut for too many days already!

Tasting this weekend

We’ll swing by Austria for a sample of Funkstille Grüner Veltliner 2025 (£14.99). Niederösterreich is Austria’s largest Qualitätswein wine-growing region and home to the excellent Grüner Veltliner grape.  As with many Austrian producers, quality and sustainability are top of the agenda here – they produce their own fertilizer, hand harvest the grapes whilst their winery is energy neutral, and their biogas plant actually produces more energy than is required.  Oh, and the wine is vegan too, but how does it taste?  Excellent, is the answer; dry with ripe pear and fresh citrus aromas and a palate rich with melon and grapefruit and a refreshingly zippy finish.

Then we’ll head a bit further south for Calappiano Chianti 2024 (£13.49). With a fascinating history, dating back to Medici Florence in the 1500’s, the Fattoria di Calappiano as we know it today is made up of 200 hectares of vines, planted alongside the olive groves and woodlands.  We are huge fans of this wine; it is velvety smooth, yet light with some smoky earth aromas and plenty of black fruits on the palate.  Perfect on its own, with a Bolognese, or just a pizza!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

So, quite a lot has happened since we last spoke. 

As of Monday, we have a new Prime Minister, and Chancellor, and Foreign Secretary and etc etc etc which will lead to fun-packed summer, no doubt.  It was nice to see that Sir Keir is actually a normal human being like us as he was spotted, pint in hand, at a Kentish Town boozer later on Monday afternoon with the look of a man happily unburdened.  Rachel Reeves was there too, with a glass of white wine and a smile – who doesn’t love an impromptu Monday afternoon pub trip.

As of Sunday, we have new World Cup Winners with Spain eventually overwhelming Argentina.  It wasn’t the most enjoyable game and it brought an end to quite a gruelling 39 days of football – not sure we can cope with a 64 team format if I’m honest.  Thankfully our sporting summer is not over though as the Greatest Show on Earth aka The Commonwealth Games started in Glasgow yesterday with Bowls and Para-Bowls being the opening events, obviously.

As of Thursday, we have a hosepipe ban, so no pressure washing your paddling pools for a few weeks.  You can still have a bath and use your washing machine 35 times a day though, so opportunities for over consumption are still available.

Nothing of note from Tuesday or Wednesday it would seem.

Many headlines have been made of Mr Burnham’s promise to cut business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues announced for April next year.  April next year is quite a distance away for many venues and no doubt some of them might not be around to benefit from the cuts but also, why do restaurants and cafes not get the same breaks?  Seems a bit illogical and inexplicable to us but let’s not let logic get in the way of a good soundbite.

No matter what your opinion on global warming, there’s definitely something unusual going on with the climate in France.  We heard yesterday that one of our producers, Domaine Lafage in Roussillon, have started picking their grapes already.  Historically in Europe picking will start perhaps in late August but commonly September is considered the harvest month.  A combination of generous rainfall early in the year replenished water reserves which was followed by an exceptional weather pattern, with consistently high temperatures throughout spring and summer and extreme heat recorded from May onwards.  Given that weather pattern sounds not unlike what we have experienced here in the UK this year, it may be that the English winemakers also harvest early with high hopes for a top quality vintage.

We also read that in an alternate wine universe, 19 Crimes, the supermarket plonk producer has launched two new products, aimed at the TikTok generation we’re told.  There is a red drink, which is a Shiraz & Cola blend and a white drink which is an unnamed white grape blended with lemon we learn.  Thankfully, we both checked and can confirm that we are not members of the TikTok generation so won’t be needing to try these abominations!

Back in our universe, we’ve been looking at the calendar for the next few months with a view to scheduling some tastings in the shop.  As a consequence, we can confirm that we will be hosting Wine & Cheese tastings on:

• Thursday 10^th September – 7.30pm
• Thursday 15^th October – 7.30pm
• Thursday 12^th November – 7.30pm

All the tastings are £30 per head and, as ever, first come-first served, so don’t tarry!

In the meantime, we’ll be opening wines this weekend for more immediate gratification and, given we’re in the midst of the cricket season, a brace of the Botham wines would seem appropriate.

76 Series Margaret River Chardonnay 2022 – £15.99 – The 76 Series Margaret River Chardonnay represents the year he first scored 1000 runs in one season and played grade cricket for the illustrious Melbourne Cricket club.  Citrus, honeysuckle and stone fruits on the nose, joined on the palate by a touch of creaminess, minerality and a lovely fresh finish.

78 Series Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019 – £ 29.99 – 1978 was Sir Ian’s first overseas tour with England to New Zealand and he scored his maiden test century at Lancaster Park, Christchurch.  Lifted aromas of red cherry, wild raspberry and subtle floral notes with hints of spice and dried herbs lead to a palate with the same red fruit character and some fine, elegant tannins.

And that’s about it from us, keep on keeping on and enjoy the sunshine whilst it lasts, there may be rain on Sunday!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

And suddenly it all judders to a halt, as abruptly as it started:

Wimbledon Men’s Singles Semi Final – Arthur Fery loses to Alexander Zverev 7-6, 6-2, 6-4

Men’s Rugby World U20 Championship Semi Final – England lose to South Africa 53-37

FIFA Men’s World Cup Semi Final – England v Argentina, we know what happened here…

Anyway, we’ve been here before, we’ve got this, we’re Winners in managing persistent sporting disappointment, many times over… looking for a positive, perhaps given this English sporting form, it might be worth a quick each-way on Matt Fitzpatrick in the Open?

Good news elsewhere though, as summer officially kicks off today.  With schools finally breaking up this afternoon, we fully expect an explosion of exhausted teachers and support staff roaming the streets for the next 5 weeks, drinking rosé on a Monday lunchtime and working on their suntans.  Best time of your life, the carefree period between taking A-levels and getting the results, and those clever teachers get to do it every year!

Speaking of taking the summer off, Sir Keir has been doing his farewell tour, to ensure people remember him, before giving up leadership of the Labour Party today and then handing Andy B the Downing Street Chubbs on Monday.  Will he fly to Miami to watch the 3^rd/4^th playoff?  Will Kobbie Mainoo get a run out?  It’s all a mystery…

If you need a bit of cheering up and reminding that things could be worse, here’s what we wrote exactly 6 years ago today:

Last Sunday, for one of the first if not the first time, Mr Johnson was seen in a shop wearing a facemask.  Quite why England’s second most famous Covid victim (yep, Dominic still tops it here) saw fit to suddenly wear a mask seemed a bit odd to us.  Had he read some new research?  Unlikely, given his reputation for reading.  Had he got the virus again?  Surely not because if so, he would have been at home, right.  Had he got a lovebite?  Hard to rule out.  Had enough pressure come to bear that he now had decided the time to wear masks in shops was nigh?  Hmmm….

And by the end of Monday, we knew the answer.  As of next Friday, it will be compulsory to wear masks in all shops – however don’t feel like you have to wait until then, we might as well all start getting used to it because it’s going to be months and months before this decision gets reversed and we really don’t want you to stop coming to see us

At this point, BJ had been PM for just about a year and clung on for just over two more – little did we know everything that was going on behind the scenes including the £10 billion wasted on unusable PPE and thus, on reflection, I think I’m happier now than I was back then!

We have little news form the World of Wine – much like the teachers, the ‘Movers & Shakers’ of the wine trade tend to beetle towards the door once Wimbledon is over and won’t be seen out in and about in their red cords until mid-September, unless you follow their Instagram and catch them supping spritz on a sailboat in Salcombe.

However, we’re here all summer and, in the spirit of good sportsmanship , we’ll be opening a couple of wines from the two countries playing in the World Cup Final (thank God we didn’t have to try and choose wines from England or France!)

Representing Spain, we have Palacio del Camino Real Blanco 2025 – £11.99 which is a cracking blend of Viura, Malvasia and Grenache Blanc grown in the higher vineyards of Rioja Alta.  Pale yellow in the glass, 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 and very more-ish – a bit of a winner!

And from Argentina, what else but Malbec!  Famiglia Bianchi Malbec 2023 – £16.99 hails from Mendoza.  The grapes for come from three different terroirs: Agrelo (Luján de Cuyo), Uco Valley, and from three different vineyards in San Rafael: Finca Doña Elsa, Finca Asti and Finca Constanza.  The result is a typically dark hued wine with spicy, blueberry notes, a touch of savoury edge to the fine tannins and a nicely balanced finish – everything you’d hope for from a world class grape!

Two champion wines – which one will come out on top?

And now it’s time for us to leave you be – a bit cooler this weekend but still plenty warm enough, so enjoy it and revel in the fact that you’re not having to wear a face mask!

Fellow Wine Lovers,

This week, a rather whiney man wearing a decidedly non-establishment bright blue suit threw his toys out of the pram. It would appear that he didn’t enjoy coming under scrutiny for receiving a gift that he should have declared. We thought we would scrutinise a little ourselves to see what all the fuss is about.

In 2010, Katy Perry bought her then-husband Russell Brand a $200,000 ticket to space aboard the Virgin Galactic for his 35th birthday.

In 2011, Tyler Perry gifted both Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King a lavish $250,000 Bentley car for Christmas.

Also in 2011, Boris Johnson bought Prince William and Kate Middleton a tandem to celebrate their wedding day.

In 2013, Robert Pattinson helped his then-girlfriend Kristen Stewart ring in her 23rd birthday by giving her a $43,000 a limited-edition white-gold Tibaldi Bentley Crewe pen.

In 2014, Angelina Jolie presented her then-husband Brad Pitt with an $18,500 olive tree as a wedding present. They planted the tree at their French estate, Chateau Miraval.

In 2016, Kanye West gave Kim Kardashian a 20-carat emerald-cut diamond ring, valued at $4 million. This ring was tragically stolen during her infamous gunpoint robbery in Paris in 2016.

In 2024, Nigel Farage received a gift of £5 million from ‘crypto-billionaire’ Christopher Harborne (aka Chakrit Sakunkrit). This gift has been flagged to the Parliamentary Standards watchdog. It is also being looked at by the National Crime Agency in relation to potential money laundering, having been flagged by bankers in a Suspicious Activity Report.

In 2026, Stephen Deleonardis (aka Stevewilldoit) gave every single player and member of staff on Mexico team a Rolex watch valued at between $30,000 and $90,000. They all had to return them because they broke the FIFA Code of Ethics.

As we can see, many of these gifts are between spouses, whilst another was returned immediately following a break of the rules. Finally, the hero of our story has been subject of endless speculation, argument and whinging whilst still the subject of several investigations and doesn’t look like it’s going to be returned.

In other news, it would appear there may be a chance Count Binface will be elected in Clacton after he pledged to bring back Ceefax. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, still Kier Starmer, has suggested there may be a Bank Holiday if the England team win the World Cup. A bit of work to be done before then methinks.

World Cup Quarter Final rounds started last night, with France silencing Morocco, and will continue over the weekend. We’re coming to the pointy end of Wimbledon Tennis whilst in the Rugby Nations Championship it’ll be Scotland’s turn to face South Africa whilst England will be facing Fiji. Other nations are of course available.

Tonight, we have the next edition of the Diamond League Athletics coming at you from Monaco, with Alex Yee competing here for the first time in years. He’s competing in the 5000m but we mostly know him as a triathlete.

That brings me nicely on to proper sports. The Tour de France said goodbye to the Pyrenees yesterday with an incredible performance on the Col de Tourmalet from Tadej Pogačar, who rode into yellow and now has a lead of over 2 minutes ahead of Jonas Vingegaard. Today, we’ll be sprinting into Bordeaux and I think Jasper Philipson may want to reproduce his 2023 performance where he beat Mark Cavendish. This time the Cavendish role could be played by Olav Kooij.

In wine news, Californian members of Congress wrote to the new Premier of Quebec imploring her to reopen trade with US wineries. The claim that American wineries “have no connection” to “underlying trade disputes” follows a California Wine Institute report confirming 2025 as “the most catastrophic single-year trade disruption in the history of US wine exports”. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that Canada’s liquor boards, their largest customer, removed American wine entirely from shelves. He’s big and orange and can’t stop making America great again!

Tasting This Weekend

Given the weather, we thought we’d go with something zingy and fresh, like Southern Dawn Sauvignon Blanc 2025 (£13.99). This is an excellent Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc with all the trademark passionfruit, citrus, nettles, cut grass and hints of capsicum that you would hope for. These aromas light the path to a soft, well rounded palate with a luscious mouth feel and pronounced fruit characters whilst the finish is limey and assertive and more-ish!

We’ll head down to Southern Italy for the red, where they’re used to this weather, and try Cantine Pirovano Beatrice Nero di Troia 2024 (£13.49). Beginning in 1850 with an Osteria serving Southern Italian wines, the Pirovano family business has developed into an Italy-wide producer and bottler of wines. This deep purple coloured red is made using 100% Nero Di Troia grapes from their sun-drenched vineyards. The nose is full of summer berries, blackberry, black currant and even a hint of strawberry jam. On the palate the wine is sumptuously smooth, juicy with ripe berry fruit and very well balanced.

Fellow Wine Lovers,

Welcome to Independence Day Eve.  It’s now 91,309 days since 56 men sat down and altered the course of history.  Famously, when they finally put pen to paper in August 1876, John Hancock was the first signatory.  A bit like when you’re the first person to sign a leaving card, he wrote in large flamboyant letters thus leaving less space for those who followed, particularly the last signer, Charles Carroll, who seemingly had far better things to do than founding a new nation and only got around to scribbling his autograph in November!  For those of you who like a bit of dinner party trivia, two of the signatories, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom became President, both died on the 50^th Anniversary of Independence, July 4^th 1826.

Is it coming home?  More likely il rentre pour de bon but for now we can all dream a little longer.  There are already calls for Harry Kane to become Sir Harry, which frankly is ridiculous, whilst rumours that there is a fortress in Mexico City named Azteca, nestling a mere 2200 metres above sea level are found to be terrifyingly true.  We’ve all read the 2 losses in 88 games statistics but these were often against teams that they should be beating, anywhere.  What is more concerning is their goal difference – in the last 25 matches there, Mexico have scored 43 goals and conceded just 6.  Add to this that they have only once conceded more than 1 goal in a match here since May 2014 and consider they average 1.72 goals per match, we would need to score twice to beat them, which doesn’t seem likely.  What does seem likely is penalties.

Our football loving, soon-to-be-no-longer PM has relaxed the licensing laws for the Monday morning match, which is a nice idea in many respects…

• Alright, it’s almost midnight, I’m off to the pub
• You what?  It’s almost midnight and you’re off to the pub?
• Yep, going to watch the football
• It’s Monday tomorrow, aren’t you going to work?
• Of course I’m working from home but I should be back by, well, 3am-ish, unless we have extra time and penalties, in which case it’ll likely be after 4… although the pub will be open until 5 so let’s make that 6…
• Stinking of beer
• No, I’ll be sensible
• Why don’t you watch it here
• No, that’s too sensible and I don’t want to disturb you
• Of course, I’ll easily sleep right through you coming home in the daylight with all that disappointment and a dirty doner…

On the positive side, there’ll be lots of seats on the tube come the Monday morning rush-hour!

Away from football, Wayne is very excited for the return of the Lycra Lads who saddle up in Barcelona for a few days mucking about in Catalonia before heading into France for the bulk of the event.  Tadej Pogacar is 1-4 to win, Jonas Vingegard is at 3-1 whilst an each way on Tom Pidcock at 125-1 seems a bit more fun.  Wimbledon, cycling, football all on the telly – thankfully the Test Matches are over for now so we should swing our focus to the Women’s T20 World Cup on Sunday.  Oh, and the Nations Championship Rugby does start on Saturday, to less fanfare than we expected…

In the world of wine and associated drinks, Rosé is flying out of the fridges, plenty of you are enjoying the new Greek one we introduced last week but apart from that, nothing else is really newsworthy.

I think we mentioned before but I’ll risk repeating myself.  For reasons of which we are unsure, our sales of wines from the USA have taken a significant nosedive in the last year or so.  There are of course theories as to why this has happened and to be honest with you, this seems to be an industry-wide issue, judging from some of the offers we have been receiving from suppliers recently.

However, it’s not every year that July 4^th falls on a Saturday, so it would be churlish to ignore this opportunity – plus, let’s face it, I don’t think any downturn in sales is due to the winemakers themselves or the quality of the wines, perhaps more to do with the world at large.

De Loach Russian River Chardonnay (£33.49) hails from the cool climate of Russian River and is an absolute cracker of a Californian white wine.  Tropical and citrus character on the nose with some baked apple, a lovely touch of vanilla cream spice and a lingering finish.

Valley View Winery Domaine Rogue Quartz Vein Pinot Noir (£33.00) is from one of the pioneer wineries in Oregon, having been panted in 1972.  The cool mountain vineyards of Applegate Valley give us an excellent Pinot Noir with dark raspberry fruit with a hint of loose-leaf tea on the nose, followed by darker fruits on the medium bodied palate leading into a long silky finish.

And now it’s time for us to go but remember, Mexico have lost twice at home, so it’s about time they added a third!