Fellow Wine Lovers,
An action packed week here in Wimbledon Park. We kicked off the early part of the week with Monday. We’re traditionalists, none of that start the week with a Sunday for us.
We received reports from one of our international correspondents that Athens was experiencing perfect laundry weather of 37˚C and windy.
We’ve heard from chums in the Lake District, apparently still a place where you can test the efficacy of your waterproofs, but not every day. Reports from Bergerac drift in gently smouldering because, we’re told, the only way to cope is to stay in the pool drinking ice cold Monbazillac, whilst the shade swelters in 40˚C.
Last week we were congratulating A-level students, this week it’s the turn of GCSE students. Well done everyone, it’s just the start of a long journey with many turns in the path and thousands of changes of mind ahead.
We also saw the ‘Dave’ list of winning jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe. Lorna Rose Treen was declared the winner with her “Zookeeper” one liner. Surprised not to be included with her “working daily with constituents” one liner, Nadine Dorries has threatened to resign.
We have also learned that since Petty Patel and Cruella Braverman announced their illegal Rwanda policy in April last year the UK has granted 14 Rwandan’s asylum. It seems Rwanda is not a safe country for everyone and there are at least some in the Home Office that can see that.
Tonight Matthew, I’ll be Kirsty MacColl with “Rwanda 14 England 0”.
Locally, amongst the hordes of roadworks, we’ve had a group of gentlemen from Conway come and fix the width restriction just up the road from us. So do breathe in, cross your fingers or use whatever other tricks you have for squeezing through. I’m sure it’ll only be a few weeks before one of the local skip lorries manages to force it wider, though they do look a bit more serious than before.
In India we had outbursts of national pride as their Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft rolled its rover on to the moon from their safe landing at the moon’s south pole. Disappointingly, the craft’s mission is not to find Clangers or Soup Dragons, but to identify the composition of the lunar surface through x-ray spectrometry.
In Russia, Putin continues to use gravity to silence his opponents. It would appear that a plane carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Mercenaries, just fell out of the sky. To me it seems a bit of a failure in Warlord 101 for both him and his deputy to be on the same plane, but what would I know. I’m not sure how his death will bring any stability or certainty on the way to the upcoming “elections” but it will certainly have been noted.
Sports wise, F1 starts returns from its break this weekend with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. Let’s hope the forecast rain enables somebody other than Red Bull to win a race, twelve wins from twelve races hardly screams competitive season does it?
In more exciting sports La Vuelta España starts on Saturday with a Team Time Trial in Barcelona. Over the course of three weeks it visits just about all of Spain, and certainly most of the mountains. The race book profile for Stage 20 looks like a drawing of a saw blade! I’ve had an each way sixpence on Geraint Thomas for the win and Jay Vine for the King of the Mountains jersey. Depending who you speak to, or which bookie you consult, either Primoz Roglic or Remco Evenepoel are favourite.
You may recall a week or two ago we spoke of a Crooked House pub that had changed hands, had a fire and then seemed to fall foul of a bulldozer the very next day. Police have arrested two men on suspicion of arson. Amazing how often that seems to happen, there was one on Southend seafront that spontaneously combusted three times before luxury flats sprung up. As far as I know the new build is not Phoenix House!
Tasting this weekend we’ll visit Spain. As La Vuelta starts in Barcelona we’ll start with a white from Costers de l Segre, just a bit further inland. Mas Blanch I Jove Troballa 2022 (£19.49) – a great wine, 100% organic Garnacha Blanca with wild fermentation, aged for four months in concrete eggs. A rich and fruity wine with a lovely mouthfeel that we think would be splendid with a rare tuna steak. The wine is suitable for vegans too, so perhaps a lightly spiced vegetable and coconut curry.
For the red we figured we’d head inland from Alicante to Jumilla. We’ll be sampling a drop Sierra De Enmedio Monastrell 2021 (£9.99). It’s from a family winery founded in 1870 and has all the richness of dark fruit you’d expect from this grape variety. I might try and barbecue something to go with this, but feel free to conjure up some duck, or even a selection of tapas with yours.
As usual on Bank Holiday Weekends we will close at 6pm on Saturday and open again as usual on Tuesday. Have a great weekend