Fellow Wine Lovers,
As another week rolls past we note the differences. Alex very kindly sent us some rain up from Seville, it appears to have been a bit dusty but we appreciate the thought. It bought a welcome relief to the England cricket team’s steady fall of wickets and gave the concourse at Victoria a timely rinse. Sadly, for the England cricket team Lords is basking in the sunshine as I write this.
The battle to be Boris still has no conclusion, no smoke from the chimney and little in the way of new ideas since we wrote last. Tax Cut Truss has just the spaceman outfit to go before she completes an entire series of Mr Benn. She thinks we’re all lazy shirkers of course, whilst the current ‘Prime Minister’ returns from his second holiday in three weeks obviously too busy to even help his kids down the plane steps.
In the meantime, Rishi Sunak demonstrated he has finally mastered the modern world by successfully using a contactless card to pay in McDonalds. He’s convinced he’s still the man for the job despite Tax Cut Truss leading by 32 points. There are rural hustings today hosted by the National Farmers Union, Tax Cut Truss won’t be appearing despite her love of ‘Pork Markets’ and dislike of Solar Panel fields. Perhaps she’s realised that not protecting animal welfare standards in her trade deals is not such a smart move. Kiwi farmers still can’t believe their luck apparently.
Tory Peer Stuart Rose, a man who has experience of actually running a business, was rather critical this week: “We are sitting here now into the second, third, fourth month into this crisis and we’re still waiting to see what action will be taken … I would like to see us looking after those who need it most. We’ve got to have some action. The captain of the ship is on shore leave, right, nobody’s in charge at the moment.” You could say he was stating the obvious but perhaps that’s because we absolutely agree with his “you can’t grow your way out of inflation.”
Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin is in a bit of hot water after video footage emerged of her dancing at a party. We wondered if the party was to celebrate German magazine Bild naming her “coolest prime minister in the world”. Her critics claim her exuberant dancing is inappropriate. Talk that Boris, upon reading the story, handed his beer to an aid is as usual, far from the truth.
As the economic climate becomes more difficult, scams, grifts and hoaxes become more prolific and elaborate. In Spain a wine producer has been charged with selling lower quality wine as higher quality Priorat wine in a £22million fraud involving fake Denomination of Origin labels.
A popular one for us is an unusual phone order of something relatively well known, and the caller is usually in a bit of a hurry. “I’m working away; can I pay over the phone and send my driver in?” We of course suggest the driver brings cash or you take our BACS details and pay directly. Like you, we also get plenty of undelivered parcel links that we need to click. Like you, we don’t click!
Proper sports are entering the arena again with La Vuelta a España kicking off (rolling out?) today, with a Team Time Trial in Utrecht. The city has famous links with Spain having hosted one of the first international peace negotiations when the Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714.
Back to sport though, all of the teams look strong; Movistar, Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech are all fighting relegation from World Tour status so they all need to go all out to gain extra points. We have a long list of contenders that should keep us all glued to our screens including Richard Carapaz, Hugh Carthy, Primoz Roglic and of course Alejandro Valverde in his last race. Roglic is the favourite, but for me Carapaz or possibly Jai Hindley could be in the red jumper come the finish in Madrid. Should be a belter!
Whilst we wait for that driver with the cash shall we taste some wine?
White we will investigate Barton Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2020 (£13.49). We’ve been dealing with sisters Annie and Suzie for quite a few years and have several of the wines from their estate in Walker Bay. This is a medium-bodied Sauvignon Blanc and not so shouty and in your face as some the New Zealand examples.
On the red front it’d be rude not to slip something Spanish into your glass so we’ll go with Península Vinicultores Vino de Montaña 2018 (£13.69). It’s made from old vine Garnacha, Rufete and Piñuela grapes grown high in the Sierra de Gata in Extremadura. A lovely medium-bodied field blend that we rather enjoyed discovering earlier this year.
With that I think we’re done, but I’ll leave you with a question. If your dancing isn’t exuberant, is it dancing at all?