Fellow Wine Lovers,
We will be the first to put our hands up to being rather disappointed not to have this coming Monday off, we were rather getting into the swing of Bank Holidays.
So, what has happened since we last had a chat? The almost mediaeval pomp and circumstance discussed in last week’s missive passed without being disrupted by the drizzle. Despite not being The Lady of The Lake, it turned out that Penny Mordant can carry a sword and, as if by magic, the gold hat fitted the Charles formerly known as Prince rather snuggly. Having discovered that the King has a posse of long bow archers as his personal bodyguard, I was hoping the sword might have to be withdrawn from a stone or that a band of Merry Men might visit from Nottingham, but it was not to be.
The Merry Men from the Met did arrest some people for having some string, unloading a van and wearing a yellow jacket. The fact that these people had been liaising with the Met for weeks co-ordinating a peaceful protest was completely lost on the arresting officers, who seemed unable to contact Head Office by mobile phone, or the two way radio system that has been in use since the 1960’s. Some sixteen hours later, these arrested folk were released without charge and the Met issued a long rambling statement expressing regret. That’s modern policing in action folks.
The local election results came in after we went to press last week but we are pleased to announce that finally something promised by the government actually came to pass. Rishi Sunak promised us the Conservatives would lose 1000 councillors in the local elections and they actually over delivered, losing 1061 seats and also control of 48 councils. UKIP, a party that is always keen to steal the headlines, lost all of their councillors.
Elsewhere, Lettuce Liz has decided to inflame relations with China by taking a trip to Taiwan, just as the region calms down a little after Nancy Pelosi did the same, which resulted in the islands being surrounded by Chinese warships. I find it alarming the amount of trouble that can be caused by the vanity project of somebody who has already caused so much damage.
Over the pond, the parlous lay of the land was demonstrated in several awful fashions. Firstly, the consensus is that, despite being legally branded a sexual predator by a New York jury, it’ll make no difference to Trump’s electoral appeal in the next Presidential election. The other was the fact that the first 127 days of the year had seen 202 mass shootings where four or more people had died. Then Trump appeared on CNN in a ‘Town Hall’ discussion and, despite losing over 60 court cases related to the 2020 Election, still pressed on claiming it was stolen and then proceeded to talk absolute nonsense throughout the rest of the show.
Elsewhere, the Giro d’Italia has been winding its way through Italy, starting in Abruzzo. As always, it is serving up its usual mix of thrills and spills not to mention the stunning scenery. Mark Cavendish came fourth on a very wet Wednesday, sliding across the line on the floor. Remco Evenepoel was incredibly quick in the opening time trial and then was brought down by a stray dog a few days later. We even had a breakaway caught with just 200m to go, heart-breaking perhaps, but that’s the thrills and spills! In Spain, Annemiek Van Vleuten won La Vuelta Femenina by nine seconds from Demi Vollering.
At this point we should probably talk about wine. The En Primeur campaign for Bordeaux 2022 is in flow and the vintage is, we understand, absolutely tip top. We sent our chum Clive off on a tasting trip and he came back with purple teeth and bags of enthusiasm for the vintage. In a surprise to nobody, the prices are around 20% higher than last year’s release prices.
Tasting This Weekend
We thought we’d open…
Follas Novas Albariño 2021 – £14.99
From Val do Salnés, the oldest, coolest and wettest of the five distinct sub-regions of Rías Baixas, yet also the birth place of Albariño sometime before the 12th century. The vines for this wine are between 20 and 40 years old and vinified in a state of the art winery, completed in 2005. Fabulously clean and crisp with citrus and floral notes on the nose, tangy stone fruit on the palate and a lovely mineral laden finish.
And in the red jumper we’d like to introduce a new one that we mentioned a couple of weeks back.
Solevari Reserve Feteasca Neagra 2017, Recas, Romania -£12.99
This is from the same stable as the ever popular Orange wine and, we thought, a bit of a find. As a reminder, the Cramele Recas Estate is owned by Englishman Philip Cox and his Romanian wife Elvira who have put an enormous amount of work into modernising their winery. One of the results is this beauty: spicy black pepper framing black berry fruit character, a hint of cherry, maybe even a bit Pinot Noiry, medium bodied and great value was what we wrote down.