Half Term, Tissues and Mad Cows

Fellow Wine Lovers,
Boof – and here it is, half term already and the countdown to Christmas commences! 66 days, since you ask and we’ve already sold our first six box of Bollinger for the festivities! If you deduct lengthy half term holidays from this figure then by the time we get them back into uniform there will only be about 50 days – it’s practically here, have you ordered the turkey?
I know we’ve talked about this before but as we’re in the midst of another month of charity-influenced abstention so the media is having its usual field day promoting alcohol free gins and the like. We actually hear of one made in Ireland, by a 16 year old as part of her D of E project, that is called Driver’s Gin. What a great name, we thought, smart, simple and catchy. What we also thought was how can a 16 year old create such a drink? Surely, to make it authentic, one needs to taste it and know exactly what’s missing and how to replicate it which relies on many years of immersion in Gin and Tonic and Martini’s which we’re hopeful she hasn’t had – we expect she had help…
Equally, as discussed last week, in a world where we are told the 16-25 year olds are drinking less or nothing at all, why do we need alcohol free gin? To our mind the market for Seedlip and co is to Gin drinkers who on this occasion can’t drink gin but if they could, by golly they would. If you’re not a gin drinker in the first place, you’re certainly not an alcohol free gin drinker – perhaps the market is potentially more fragile than we are led to believe?
It’s not often I get caught reading the Economist but the combined influencers of becoming a bit bored with Rolling Stone of late and my father trying to make me read grown up articles led me there. In the absence of sports pages or jumbo crosswords, I was starting to panic a little until I found an article titled ‘Pinot or pot? Cannabis v wine in California’ – my sort of story.
And it’s a great read, if you get the chance, particularly if we also take into context what has happened in Canada this week. Some Californian winemakers are bemoaning the fact that their previously cheap grape pickers have now decided to go and work for the cannabis farms that pay better and guarantee work all year round – the joy of democracy, freedom to work where you wish! Slightly more scary is the idea that sommeliers are offering ‘wine and weed’ pairing classes – I was always led to believe by my more wayward pals that mixing booze and bong was a recipe for disaster!
Anyway, well regarded drinks writer and generally well informed pundit Andrew Jefford, sums it up well, we reckon: “Cannabis drinks may become the leading medium for recreational consumption.”
Now, that’s the sort of alcohol free drink we’d be more interested in trying…
Away from the Economist, we have been rueing the day that we decided that the £3,000 entrance fee was too much to justify joining Wimbledon Park Golf Club. However, any members who are reading this, if you need help with any windfall spending we can think of 850 ways to put it to good use!
Brexit. Yeah, we know, move on.
No place for Cipriani in the England squad, yet Ashton and Hartley still get a place on the bus? I can already hear Eddie Butler, Mike Aylwin, Stephen Jones and wee Stuey Barnes sharpening their knives.
Mansize tissues are no more as Kleenex bows to public pressure to remove the sexism from nasal hygiene – I always thought they were called mansize because men had bigger noses? Certainly, I remember them being an aspirational product as a young boy but apparently I was wrong in oh, so many ways.
Mad Cow disease is back, violent crime and murder is at a new high, the clocks go back in just over a week, Alex is playing golf whilst I’m stuck at work and, as discussed, there are less days than we thought until Christmas – time for a drink I think….
We’re going to have a Second-Go-Saturday since this week we finally received the Albariño that we were meant to have on tasting last weekend – I’m sure you remember but, just to refresh your memories, it’s called Eido da Salgosa (£14.99) and is a wine Alex tasted a little while back and amongst other notes wrote ‘it should be on our shelves’. Well, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and delivery shenanigans it now is – come and taste it whilst you can!!
For the red, I’m going to stay Iberian and unleash another of our new listings – Quinta do Espinho Colheita 2014 – £14.99. A classic Douro blend with lovely brambly fruits, a touch of liquorice, a hint of oak and a really decent, long finish. Definitely a wine for this time of year…
So come in and taste the wines, we’re both here on Saturday so service has the potential to be 1.5 times better, the music roughly the same and jokes noticeably worse!
And with that, I’m gone.

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