Fellow Wine Lovers,
It’s a funny old world, Wayne.
Just back from Spain, I can say this with confidence. One Prime Minister has been dumped and replaced with a new one with a whopping 24% of the seats in congress; I don’t want to get into politics, particularly those of another country, nor do I really want to get into maths, but 24 seats in every 100 just doesn’t seem enough. Meanwhile in Andalucía, we saw new golf courses being built and plenty of cranes swinging around new luxury villas whilst half built apartment blocks from 10 years back stood alongside, growing weeds and graffiti – it’s a funny old world.
Back home, we have Thames water fined £120 million over leaks – OFWAT found they “did not pay enough attention” to solving leakage issues and “underestimated the significance of its underperformance”. Anyone who watched Arthur Road gently collapse a couple of weeks back as a result of leaving a burst water main unattended for ten days can only think two things: Hurrah!, someone is actually standing up to them and Boo!, our bills and water rates will go up, yet again…
“You need a level playing field … between an online digital world and a traditional retail store base model like the one we have” – thus spake Tesco chief Dave Lewis yesterday, referring to spiralling business rates that has seen, amongst others, Wimbledon Village turn into a bland wasteland of ever opening and closing shops. This on the same day that House of Fraser announced it is to close 31 shops citing, amongst other things, the incessant rise of online shopping. It’s a ‘not very funny’ old world in high street retail, Wayne.
So then we turn to an article written in Drinks Business, a trade rag where too often the articles are just rehashed press releases and puff pieces with sporadic journalism, we read yesterday that, yet again, we’re all drinking less. They cited a Mintel report that has come out some time since January (we can’t say exactly when, as we didn’t have the £1,000+ needed for the report) stating that 10% of us spent more on alcoholic drinks for drinking at home, 26% of us spent less, 17% were non-applicable (why do a booze based survey with non-drinkers we wondered) but 47% of us spent the same. It’s a big figure that 26% of people spending less but we are reassured by the bigger 47% figure!
If we’re honest, much of the trade have seen a slight downturn in customer flow over the last month or two – and with it customer spend, a few more weekday nights at home on the San Pellegrino rather than the San Miguel and before you know it we have panic stations.
And then, in the eleventh hour, another piece of research arrives, to save the booze-trade bacon.
A study by researchers at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, investigating the “U-shaped” relationship between alcohol and absenteeism in the UK, France and Finland, found sickness rates, and thus work absences, were higher in people who drank heavily or not at all. Whilst it was fully acknowledging of the fact that often abstainers are perhaps less likely to drink as a result of their condition or medications that prevented it, the survey did cover 47,000 people across Europe split into 5 groups related to how much they drank in a week. Without getting too deep into the data, those of us among us who had a wee drinkie here and there were more likely to turn up to work day in, day out; however, those amongst us who used to work in the city, but now run a wine shop, have often cited the fact that if you’re going to suffer a hangover, you might as well go to work and be paid to have it!
Extrapolating data in a totally non-scientific manner to suit my argument is a skill mastered at school and continued well into adult life – thus it seems obvious to me that too much San Pellegrino is doing us no good whatsoever and a nice, daily glass of wine will be what makes British Industry great again over the next few years with a fit, keen, seven days-a-week workforce that will be the envy of the world once more.
To start us on this road back to greatness, we’ll open two wines from New Zealand this weekend to get those synapses firing and perseverance muscles motivated…
Wairau River Pinot Gris 2016 – £15.49
Wairau River wines take their name from the river that runs through the heart of the Marlborough wine region – Wairau is Maori for ‘many waters’. Succulent ripe pear on the nose, with melon, apple and apricot flavours, nice mouth weight and an exotic lingering finish, perfect for drinking anytime.
Southern Dawn Pinot Noir 2013 – £14.49
Again from Marlborough, this is a wine we have had on the shelf pretty much since we opened. I could give you all the guff about the soil in the vineyards, the angle of the slope the vines are planted on, and the winemakers collection of 19th century corkscrews, but none of that is really relevant. We sell this wine because we think it tastes brilliant: light with red cherry fruit character and a fresh finish. I’ve no idea if he has a corkscrew collection but am certain he doesn’t use it for this!
Wayne had a meeting with John, the owner of the Southern Dawn winery last week and managed to persuade him to fund some stock for us, so this weekend, the Southern Dawn Pinot Noir will be reduced by £2 per bottle to £12.49.
Buy a couple I would, to last the working week ahead!
That’s it from us; we’re off down the pub, purely to boost our productivity tomorrow!