Fellow Wine Lovers,
How’s it going, getting to the bottom of the sun tan lotion yet? It’s been a funny old week here in Wimbledon Park, the weather’s been a bit weird and I’ve had to use the lights on my bike on the way home. Still, there’s not so much traffic. Alex, like Idris, has been ignoring my texts on the rumours he’s to be the next James Bond.
Jamie Oliver has been accused of cultural appropriation for a rice dish that most commentators seem to agree is pretty rubbish. Jamie doesn’t care of course; he’s just had cartloads of free publicity. Outrage marketing could be the new thing, and it’s coming to a social media near you!
Over the pond it appears the heat has been turned up on Trumpolina, and he appears to get more red faced and shriller with every tweet. Cohen has coughed to everything, and Manafort has been found guilty on 8 counts of fraud. The money that was paid to the ladies nobody knew about, from a bank account with no origins, and under nobody’s orders, now appears to have been authorised by Trumpolina from his own bank account, most definitely not campaign funds mind you, and he definitely didn’t sleep with that woman. (Oh sorry, wrong President).
It now looks like Manafort may be heading for a pardon just so that the FBI can’t get to him, Trumpolina is trying to call Congress’s bluff with threats of market collapse should he be impeached, and in the meantime has announced more tariffs on Chinese products to help make America great again.
Now you can call me cynical if you like, but this entire thing is starting to seem like a gangster movie. Sooner or later someone will swim with the fishes, or wake up next to a racehorses head. Alternatively, the peaches won’t be ready till just after the midterm elections when Trumpolina has no further purpose and can be impeached at will.
In sporty news, I’d hoped the England cricket team might have fared a bit better than that, how about you? Golf has gone a bit bonkers, Phil Mickelson (career earnings $88m) is playing Tiger Woods (career earnings $112m) for a winner takes all $9m pot at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. If you’d like to play at the course yourself, its $500 a round plus a night’s stay at the MGM in Vegas! Don’t expect to get a weekend slot. MGM didn’t they used to make the films with the lion at the beginning?
La Vuelta a España starts on Saturday with an 8km Individual Time Trial in Malaga and finishes 21 days and 3254 km later in Madrid where the winner will collect €150 000.
Best booze news we saw this week was that of a care home in Fife opening an on-site pub called the Hip Joint. Otherwise the Champagne harvest for 2018 started on Tuesday amid high expectations and Germany has started its earliest harvest on record.
Tasting This Weekend
Starting La Vuelta in the south of Spain just cries out for sherry, so in the white/amber corner we’ll have Classic Oloroso by Fernando & Castilla (£15.99) full of orange peel citrus and walnutty deliciousness, whilst the reds will be represented by Lopez de Haro Reserva (£13.99) which would be the perfect partner for that butterflied leg of lamb on the barbecue.
¡Salud!