Fellow Wine Lovers,
How’s your week been? We’ve found ourselves bathed in sunshine, shifting rosé out of the door and then home just in time for a sundowner before supper. Funny how a spell of sunshine brightens the mood, eh? Did you cop a glimpse of yesterday morning’s partial eclipse, we missed it as a rather prompt delivery showed up at the inappropriate moment.
Mostly good news on the Covid front this week. The head of the NHS told us the link between deaths and infections was now broken, the ONS said 80.3% of the population have antibodies and over a million people signed up for their vaccinations as we move down through the age groups. In Bolton, the region suffering the most from the Delta variant, cases now appear to be falling.
The G7 has landed in Cornwall, though certainly this correspondent finds it difficult to balance the idea of nations getting together to further a greener agenda and tackle a climate crisis, when each of them arrives in a jet plane capable of carrying 300 people, it’s not as if a train has been able to take the strain since 1860. At least it will finally put Cornwall on the tourist map to help sell that surfeit of hotel rooms and campsite places they have every year. We’re sure our Cornish chums will be over the moon that the rule of six has been superseded by the rule of 6500 security forces! Let’s hope we get some real action and some solutions, I guess the vaccination promises are a step in the right direction.
Scientists have found that infecting mosquitoes with Wolbachia bacteria has very positive effect in stopping dengue fever. The bacteria don’t harm the mosquito, but it lives in the same part of the mosquito as dengue fever would and therefore prevents the dengue replicating. The study found a 77% reduction in cases and an 86% reduction in the need for hospital care. The study is being rolled out in a larger area now following its success.
On the football front, Alex has not heard a dicky bird from Daniel Levy yet so we’ll move swiftly onto the Euro 2020, which starts this evening in Rome, with Turkey facing Italy. I have to admit I was a little to surprise to see England above Belgium in the bookies list for outright winner but what do I know?
Nobody usually takes much notice of my football comments, so the fact that I think Belgium might win is neither here nor there.
Edelzwicker might sound like a village you passed through once long ago, or some kind of tool no longer used in a woollen mill that is in fact now a wine bar, but it isn’t.
Edelzwicker “is commonly used to designate any blending of white AOC Alsace grape varieties, without any indication of percentage.” What that description fails to tell you is that it’s a dry white, delicious with delicate green fruit flavours, plenty of fleshy texture and a light, refreshing and savoury finish. If there is a more summery white around it has not slapped us around the chops yet (you know when you’ve been Macron-ed).
You may have guessed but if not, we have just taken our parcel of Cave de Turckheim Edelzwicker (£10.99) so don’t be shy if you’d like some…
Last week we listed a couple of new whiskies – new to us certainly but also fairly new to the UK market.
Canmore Single Malt (£33) – whilst it has no age statement it’s a lovely introduction to single malts with wood and spiced apple notes on the nose, and a fruitier buttered cinnamon note on the palate. Easy drinking and rather more-ish.
Canmore 12 year Old (£42) – is a richer and more rounded style, as you’d expect from the aging for all that time in ex-bourbon barrels. Unusually for a highland it’s not peaty but does have an appealing softness with toffee apple notes and a touch of almost coffee/milk chocolate to finish.
Come in and have a chat with us about them, grab an Edelzwicker and a handful of Paulaner perhaps, England open their campaign on Sunday at 14.00 facing Croatia.
Enjoy the sunshine, I’m off to celebrate a chums birthday about 18 months too late!
Cheers!