Fellow Wine Lovers,
Well, by this time next week, we’ll know won’t we?
We’ll know if Coldplay have closed Glastonbury with Clocks, The Scientist or Yellow, all of which they have performed at least 5 times before at the festival.
We’ll know whether Slovakia will be facing Switzerland or Italy in the Euro 24 quarter finals.
We’ll know that Sir Mark Cavendish is the greatest Tour de France stage winner, having won majestically the Mâcon-Dijon stage on Thursday.
We’ll know what Andy Murray plans to do next, injury having forced his retirement in Round 1 of Wimbledon, if his 24/7 rehab manages to get him there.
We’ll also know whether it is cheaper to buy strawberries at the All England or to hire a helicopter down to Stonepitts Farm in Kent and PYO.
What we might know is whether Chapel Down is for sale or not, as it seeks to raise even more funds for expansion. Via Seedrs they raised almost £4 million in 2014, just short of £2 million in 2015 to build a brewery, raised £18.5 million by issuing new shares in 2017 and almost £7 million in 2021, once again through Seedrs. In the meantime they opened Gin Works at Kings Cross, a bar and restaurant that opened in 2019 and closed in February 2020, before COVID could take the blame.
What I don’t know is how much longer they can keep doing this.
We’ll know that the Men’s T20 World Cup has no winner this year once the final falls foul of wild wet weather and the organisers, consistent with their policy throughout the competition, deem it impossible to postpone the game until the following day and proclaim a draw.
What we won’t know is who, between Farage and Sunak, won the race to Heathrow and the battle for seat 1a on the flight to the US.
We also won’t know who is going to form the coalition with Ed Davey whilst “Are you two really the best we’ve got to be the next prime minister of our great country?” is still ringing in our ears….
But enough of all this for now. I appreciate I might be a bit late to the party but there was a bit of disappointing news regarding Gerry’s, the legendary spirits shop on Old Compton Street. It used to be that, if Gerry’s didn’t have it, it most likely didn’t exist, such was their portfolio. However this all might change – they have been bought by Booker, which in turn is owned by Tesco and I think we all understand that their differing business models might not be very compatible.
In ‘better’ news, move over Kylie because Meghan Markle, TAFKADOS, is launching a rosé! Apparently a keen pink drinker, she is also not averse to a Frosé, the delicious blend of strawberries, rosé wine and, of course, icing sugar, so we expect something sweet, and having sold out of our new Provence rosé, Chateau Paquette, last weekend, we figure that Meghan’s style may not be to your tastes!
This week we’re off the pink and back onto the white/red tasting combo.
The white is a new listing, Domaine Fournillon Bourgogne Chardonnay 2022 – £16.50. It is likely that many of you will have come across this domaine before since we have been selling their Chablis and their Epineuil Pinot Noir for a number of years now and certainly the Chablis is our best-selling Burgundy. Anyway, a few months back, Alex got the opportunity to try their entry level wines and this one really stood out. From the 23 hectare family-run domaine situated in the small village of Bernouil, close to Chablis, this is lovely and crisp and clean, with gentle orchard fruit and hints of citrus. Not as intense as the Chablis but a really nice introduction into the world of Fournillon.
As it looks like it’s going to be barbecue weather again this weekend, we thought we’d crack open something from Argentina. Sottano Selección Blend 2020 – £19.99 is a blend of Malbec, Syrah and Cabernet Franc; dark in the glass as you’d expect and with lovely aromatic berry aromas with a hint of violets and wood smoke. The palate is rich and layered with cassis and berry fruit notes, coffee and wood spice with a touch of black pepper to end on. It works very well with rib-eye, should you need some inspo!
That’s probably it from us but we’ll leave you with a message from Katy Moon@Oog that Wayne found on Twitter yesterday, which made us smile:
Reasons to love Belgium #12546: They’re playing Last Christmas by Wham! on the radio on the 27th June.
Bless ‘em!