Fellow Wine Lovers,
If we’re honest, Friday seems to have arrived rather quickly this week, so what has happened since we last spoke?
The Champions League final has finally moved to Porto, I suspect flights are selling fast if you’re in possession of a ticket, take a few days though, it’s a great city worth a visit!
Tesla have announced they are to stop taking Bitcoin as payment for your new motor, citing the high use of fossil fuels in the mining process. A more cynical commentator than I might point out that the energy use hasn’t changed since they announced they had bought a chunk of Bitcoin and would henceforth be accepting it as payment. That was way back in February 2021, I guess a lot has changed.
Israel and the Palestinians are back on the front pages for all the reasons they usually occupy news columns, oh for a return to those rosy days of vaccination success news instead.
In news that’ll surprise nobody, David Cameron, testifying in front of a Commons Select Committee, tells us that he was paid “a generous annual amount, far more than what I earned as prime minister”. Impressively he managed to keep a straight face when his own speech about lobbying was read back to him.
In news that certainly surprised us, following the runaway success of the European Super League a few weeks ago golf has decided that is exactly what they need themselves. A Saudi backed Super Golf League seems to be in the offing. We’ll see how it pans out as players may well get banned from participating in the Ryder Cup for a start. We’re sure it’s not just money or even as Amnesty International said “sportswashing” but for the good of the sport in general. Mr McIlroy is not a fan but Mr Rose may well be, so we’ll have to sit it out and see, a launch date is set for September 2022.
In real sports, the Giro d’Italia is enjoying its first week. The weather has been rather wet so we’re not so sure the riders are having as much fun. Poor old Mikel Landa crashed into a policeman marking a traffic island on Wednesday, whilst the BikeExchange team car crashed into the back of Pieter Serry on the final climb yesterday. We’re not sure if that counts as outside assistance or interference if we’re honest. He was a little angry to say the least, hardly a surprise given that he was knocked off by a motorbike just two months ago! Anyway, if you’re not watching there is everything to play for and, so far, all of this year’s racing has been a bit edge of the seat!
In wine news, Darling Cellars has had an absolute tragedy in the winery with the stand supporting a stainless steel tank collapsing and creating a domino effect knocking other tanks over and damaging the building, causing a 50,000 litre river of red wine to run out of the building. Like the South African wine industry wasn’t facing enough challenges lately.
Whilst we’re on the subject of South African wine, we had a chat with our chum Tom Doran from Doran Vineyards yesterday. He was looking very fresh for a man who’d just spent two days sitting wine exams. Anyway, he brought us the new vintage of Doran Vineyards Arya 2019 (£11.99) which is sporting some very smart new packaging. We have some hanging about in the fridge if you’re in the market for a cracking unoaked blend of Chenin Blanc, Grenache Blanc and Roussanne. We think that its orchard fruit character and orange blossom note will be absolutely spit spot with that Red Prawn Curry on the Friday night takeaway!
Elsewhere, we have a couple of rather fabulous new Mercurey for all you Pinot Noir lovers. Gaëlle at Jérôme Meunier Mercurey Villages 2019 (£22.99) and Domaine Belleville Mercurey Les Perrières 2018 (£27.99) are both really rather splendid and quite possibly the last things we tasted outside of the shop!
I think that’s enough from us for this week.
Stay sane, wear a mac and on Monday you can go indoors or have a cuddle!