Dear OOOR,
I hope you don’t mind me using your acronym, but I feel we’ve got so close these last few days. I wanted to thank you for returning Barbara, James and Sarah to the fold, but at what cost? How many of our readers have you run off with this week?
Will you let them know that the transfer window has slammed shut, with Arsenal getting a bargain in David Luiz, Newcastle’s medical team becoming much busier now Andy Carroll has joined and, despite much speculation, Danny Rose will be strutting his stuff on the Tottenham Broadway? Once again, Manchester United led the way as ridiculous amounts of money changed hands for players in the Premiership, whilst teams in the lower divisions are going bust. Do you think it’d make any sense for the lower leagues to get more cash and maybe act as some kind of academy process? Anyway, let them know the Premiership season starts this evening, Liverpool and Norwich first up.
Will you also tell them that the England cricket team have spent the entire week in the nets practicing defensive shots? They were definitely found wanting in the first match of The Ashes.
I suspect they’d be quite interested to hear that despite Conservative members voting for Mr Johnson to be their leader, they seem to have ended up with Mr Cummings instead and we’re sure he’s not even an MP.
India has cancelled the special status of Kashmir and the price of smart winter woollies are expected to rocket. Jokes aside, I’m not sure how ethical blocking all forms of communication are, the cynical part of me might find the government has things they’re trying to hide.
It seems Kermit is in charge of the railways as the UK train companies made complete fools of themselves this week. On Wednesday they announced their decision to pull out of the European wide Interrail scheme. By Thursday they were so happy with the decision that they reversed it. Nice work!
In France, those purveyors of the ‘naturally’ blue wine that we have discussed in the past are now under investigation by the French authorities. It appears that chemists at the University of Toulouse have detected E133 which is the same blue dye used in Blue Curaçao, if found guilty the sentence for putting additives in wine is two years jail and a €375000 fine. You heard it here first!
While I’m chatting with you, did you see that scientists at the University of Glasgow have invented an artificial ‘tongue’ that can detect the differences in whiskies with over 99% of accuracy. A selection of different whiskies and ages were used in the testing and it could distinguish the different ages, the different barrels and the different distilleries. When I read stories like this I do wonder about our future, perhaps I just read too many Sci-Fi books as a kid.
Anyway I should think about wrapping this up now, It’s been nice to chat to you OOOR but I really do need to get on.
I’d just mention that the Wine School that starts in October has four places left, so if you’ve been checking the diary don’t dally for too much longer. Full details are attached.
Tastings
Thursday 18th July at 8pm – WINE & CHEESE TASTING – £20
Thursday 12th September at 8pm – WINE & CHEESE TASTING – £20
Thursday 10th October at 8pm – WINE & CHEESE TASTING – £20
Thursday 17th October at 8pm –
DOMAINE TRELOAR WITH RACHEL TRELOAR – £20
Jonathan and Rachel Treloar own and run this small, highly-regarded vineyard and winery in the Roussillon, France’s most exciting wine region.
Thursday 7th November at 8pm – WINE & CHEESE TASTING – £20
Thursday 28th November at 8pm – WINE & CHEESE TASTING – £20
The greatest hits from all the tastings over 2019, just in time for Christmas!
Tasting This Weekend
Continuing our tour of holiday destinations, this week we’re visiting the Loire valley for the white. Not far from the city of Nantes is Domaine des Herbauges. We’ll taste their Moulin d’Argent Chardonnay 2018 (£11.99) which is from vines around the lake of Grand-Lieu in Muscadet country. Crisp, dry, and completely done in stainless steel, the wine gets a little lees contact for complexity. We like to think of it as a Chablis replacement, just without the price tag.
We’ve heard Sicily is popular this time of year, so we’ll be making an offer you can’t refuse with Lumari Nero d’Avola/Syrah 2018 (£10.49) a deliciously juicy red that’ll be tasty with all sorts of antipasti!
With that I’m off, thanks for listening! u