Fellow Wine Lovers,
As a gift to you, we’ve let the sun out, so I don’t want to hear any more moaning as it’s here all weekend and now is the time to start polishing your Rosé glasses…
We all voted for our favoured candidates last week and still ended up back where we started, with Sadiq keeping his Parker Knoll Statesman Como Leather Recliner at the head of the table with 11 of his party colleagues around him. Reform gained a seat, the Conservatives lost a seat, Binface beat Britain First, the ULEZ vote proved to be less important than most candidates had hoped it might be and Siân Berry giving her seat to Zoë Garbett seems to have got a lot of people dangerously hot under the collar about nothing, frankly, since it was a London Wide Assembly seat where people had voted for a party not an individual…
Meanwhile, just short of 60% of voters were washing their hair, had a flat tyre, were double booked or just couldn’t be bothered to exercise their right.
But we move on. Sleeper cells seemed to have been activated in Westminster when we watched with incredulity as Natalie Elphicke sashayed across the floor to Labour – it’s always the ones you least expect. However, when she stated in 2023: “Don’t trust Labour on immigration they really want open borders” little did we know that she would be making her own brave journey!
Who’s next? Liz Truss? J R-M? Rishi? Journalists everywhere are licking their lips….
Moving away from Westminster, we stumble into the world of classical music, not somewhere we know much about but we have heard of some of the big noises, including Beethoven. It would seem that a couple of clever clogs from Harvard have been studying the big dog and, courtesy of The Drinks Business, we discover that, in the journal of Clinical Chemistry, the authors argued that “suggested primary sources of lead exposure include plumbed wine, dietary factors, and medical treatments”.
Plumbed wine? Yep, it’s a new one for me too.
Apparently, the plumbing of wine involves adding Lead to the liquid and certainly dates back to the Ancient Romans. The rationale was that the Lead sweetened the drink, made the tannins less aggressive, helped to preserve it and made it look clearer in the glass – all of which can be seen as positives, why would we stop doing this?
Well, Alex, perhaps because it’s a devastating neurotoxin that can lead to irreversible brain damage, damage to your kidneys, your liver, your nervous system, seizures, unconsciousness and death.
And in Beethoven’s case, it ‘lead’ to his hearing loss…
Tough week to be a Spurs fan, a Quins fan or a Northampton fan – nuff said.
So, assuming that you took my advice at the top to polish your Rosé glasses, they should now be ready to fill – here’s what we can offer you:
- Cuvée Jean Paul (France) – £9.99
- Borsao Selección (Spain) – £10.99
- Barton Pinot Noir (South Africa) – £12.99
- Domaine Foncalieu Piquepoul (France) – £14.99
- Château de L’Aumerade Provence Cru Classé (France) – £19.99
- Domaine Lafran-Veyrolles Bandol (France) – £23.99
As it’s the weekend we will be opening some wines this evening and since I’ve just mentioned them, this week the white corner will be filled with a Rosé.
Les Vignobles Foncalieu Piquepoul Rosé 2022 – £14.99 is from the Coteaux d’Ensérune which is in Languedoc, northeast of Beziers, towards Montpellier. Piquepoul Noir is a relatively rare grape, and mostly fond in blends, notably the allowed blend for Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The palest of pinks in colour, with a delicate nose of cherry blossom, strawberries and peaches whilst the palate is wonderfully fresh with summer berry flavours and notes of crushed raspberry and rose petals. These fruity notes are balanced perfectly with a lively, citrus acidity leaving the palate refreshed.
In the red corner, it would seem daft to ignore a newly listed wine that is called ‘Friday’.
Viernes de Godelia Mencía 2021 – £18.49 – This wine comes from Bierzo in northwest Spain, an area where Mencía is top cat. As the winery suggests, a really good way to discover Mencía is through this young and easy to drink red wine. Made using fruit from their youngest vines and from different vineyards with different aspects this is a cracker with lovely crunchy fruit character, a light and fresh palate with no intrusive lumps of oak so popular in other parts of Spain. Very summery, very Friday night!
And, of course, if you fancy something a bit different, we’ve also got the Doppelgänger open to taste…
So that’s it, pens down please, the suns out, today is POETS day and it’ll be raining next week so Carpe diem folks!