Fellow Wine Lovers,
Welcome to another Friday in Wimbledon Park. This week we’ve noticed the sun getting out of bed earlier and hanging around for longer. The Sahara was nice enough to send some greetings sprinkled all over the car and there is a reasonable risk that the keenest of us might light the barbecue this weekend.
We finally found something we could all smile about in Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe finally making it home after many false starts over the last six years. Like many, we suspect her ordeal may have been considerably shorter if Johnson had been on top of his brief as Foreign Secretary.
He was again in full diplomatic mode this week as he visited Saudi Arabia hoping to strike a deal on some cheap oil. Disappointed to find the champagne was less free flowing than when he’s normally at work, he came away empty handed without even a cake ambush. Stories that the Saudis raised worries about the state of democracy in the UK and the loss of the right to protest could be wide of the mark.
Meanwhile, in Rwanda, a bat that has been missing for 40 years was rediscovered in Nyungwe Park. After being scolded for being late for supper, the pair of Hill’s Horseshoe bats were measured and their call recorded to make it easier to identify them in future and then released. We’re glad to see they were shy rather than extinct and hope that the experts are able to keep them that way.
At the bottom of a quarry in Midlothian, Skyrora, an Edinburgh based rocket company, open the UK’s largest rocket engine testing facility. It seems the space race is alive and well in the UK with spaceports now being developed in Wales and Cornwall as well as Scotland. Call me old fashioned but wouldn’t pooling the resources into one site have been a good idea?
This week wouldn’t be complete without a cultural section mentioning that the Rolling Stones will be playing Hyde Park this summer celebrating their 60th Anniversary. They are often a feature of our musical algorithm and tickets are on sale now. Talking of tickets, Sigur Ros are coming to Brixton for a couple of nights in November and the tickets went on sale this morning.
On the sports front, we’ve had a mixed bag at the Cheltenham Festival this week; Alex is a tiny bit up and Wayne about flat, which is weird when it’s over hurdles! Wayne’s had a farthing each way on Protekorat in the Gold Cup and also for Peter Sagan to win Milan-San Remo on Saturday. It’s also Super Saturday for the Six Nations with Wales v Italy at 14.15, Ireland v Scotland at 16.45 and then France v England at 20.00. We’re not sure how we’re going to fit all that in but will certainly be giving it a go and we haven’t even considered the cricket!
On the table this weekend we’ll be visiting our chums down under in Western Australia.
Flametree Wines have consistently maintained a five star rating from James Halliday since 2011 and we’ve long been fans of Cliff Royle’s winemaking (we’ve even had him pop in the shop!) we think he makes really tasty wines. We’ll have their 2020 Estate Chardonnay (£18.99) and the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot (£19.99), so why not come down and sample their tastiness.
Cheers,
Wayne & Alex
PS Monday 21st March we will be closed as we have several tastings to attend – many apologies for any inconvenience, perhaps grab an extra bottle on Saturday between games!