Fellow Wine Lovers,
An action packed week on this side of the fence, how about you? We’ve moved a lot of wine around making room for some new stock. Alex has been particularly active in the cellar, Wayne ducking out by putting a smart shirt on!
As the mid-term elections in the US get ever nearer, we have a man in the field telling us how it is. It would appear vegetables are hard to come by should you find yourself travelling through Georgia and Mississippi, though churches are plentiful. Whilst many don’t like Trump the man, they all seem to support what he is doing and they feel he is perhaps one of them, if only from a religious view. Rather strangely perhaps, the local Walmart didn’t have so much in the way of Halloween costumes. When our correspondent mentioned it, he was told that you have to be a bit careful in that neck of the woods as many see celebrating Halloween as Devil Worship.
Closer to home the annual pumpkin sacrifice happened this week, everywhere you turned a big orange globe leered back at you. Not like in the summer from on high, warming you up and tanning the skin. No this was much colder and more sinister, lurking at knee height with flickering eyes, flashing like a nightlight in a draught. We thought we saw a ghost, but it turned out to be Wayne’s dropped handkerchief. Then the lollipops were raided by a skeleton. Rather foolishly we thought they’d just rattle his ribs and fall on the floor, fortunately it turned out he was just in fancy dress. Otherwise, Halloween (or Devil Worship if that’s your view) passed us by relatively unheeded and with that, it was over. We’re left with just the usual phone zombies till next year.
Yesterday was World Vegan Day. To me it seemed strange to position it so soon after a Pumpkin slaughter but what do I know. It seems it was widely celebrated, though perhaps not in Mississippi or Georgia. Gourmet Burger Kitchen, closing 17 sites to stay afloat, celebrated by giving away Vegan Burgers for free. Jamie’s Italian, having closed nearly half of its sites to stay afloat, offered 50% off Vegan dishes. I think I can see a flaw in a business model.
Elsewhere, Waitrose celebrated by losing its Food Magazine editor after some ill-chosen comments about vegans, it would appear that joke isn’t funny anymore. Meanwhile, vegans blasted Parkrun for announcing a partnership with Happy Eggs.
Wayne and Alex discovered there really is a magazine called Plant Based News and wondered if it was still acceptable to listen to The Smith’s Meat is Murder album.
There’s rugby at Twickers on Saturday, the first test against South Africa. Brown’s out, Farrell’s in, and Eddie Jones is the Aussie in the stand with an iPad and ear piece.
In proper sports, Geraint Thomas got lost in Carmarthenshire on a training ride, the 2019 Giro d’Italia route looks like Tom Dumoulin might fancy it and the Tour de France route is really, really hilly, not one for the sprinters.
I think we’re still allowed to mention that Guy Fawkes is celebrated or commemorated on Monday. Fireworks in Wimbledon Park, but buy your tickets online beforehand, no chance on the gate. I’m not sure we’ll get through 36 barrels of gunpowder but it’s normally a good display.
Tasting This Weekend
We shall have a small ‘bonfire’ related celebration of our own and open some fiery fine wines this evening and tomorrow. The white corner will host Flametree Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon 2017 – £16.99, a cracking drop made by our chum Cliff Royle – it even won a gold medal at the Royal Sydney Wine show this year.
Smouldering away in the red corner will be Flametree Cabernet Sauvignon/ Merlot 2015 – £19.99. Flametree have firmly established themselves as one of the best addresses in Margaret River and we think that’s down to Cliff’s excellent winemaking. This is another tasty morsel from Cliff, medium-bodied, juicy in the mouth with a real drinkability that we found irresistible.
That’s all from us for now – rather serendipitously one of you will be in Washington next week and has offered to report back on the US midterms – never have we been so interested in American politics but it is currently the biggest horror show in town!
Bottoms up!