Fellow Wine Lovers,
Another week passes.
The schools are now out, Biden is soon to be out, the sun is in and out and many of you have gone out too – welcome to summer in SW19.
I think, in the past week, we have seen what happens when too much power is concentrated in too few hands. Crowdstrike brought millions of lives to a standstill last Friday after a glitch meant “problematic content data” in a file went undetected. Unsurprisingly, they acknowledged that they could prevent this recurring with better software testing and checks, including more scrutiny from developers. Basically, if they didn’t cut a few corners then this probably wouldn’t happen again.
Now, according to their website, their customers include:
- 298 of the Fortune 500
- 538 of the Fortune 1000
- 8 out of the top 10 financial services firms
- 7 out of the top 10 manufacturers
- 8 out of the top 10 food & beverage companies
- 8 out of the top 10 auto companies
- 43 of the 50 U.S. states
- 6 out of the top 10 healthcare providers
- 8 out of the top 10 technology firms
This feels like a lot of important eggs in the same cybersecurity basket, just one clever hack away from being scrambled.
Still, at least they’ve got it all fixed before the Olympics start. The Opening Ceremony takes place today (Friday) at 7.30pm (French time), which you would imagine would herald the start if a two week extravaganza of sporting excellence. However, in a shift from what would seem logical, the games actually started on Wednesday, a world record was broken in the archery on Thursday (How can you have a new Olympic record when the Olympics hasn’t yet started? Discuss.) and a large chunk of the Men’s Rugby Sevens has already taken place.
Andy Murray has announced that he won’t be playing singles in Paris and frankly we’re not sure why he was planning to anyway. Currently ranked somewhere in the 120’s but, due to being a former grand-slam winner and Olympic gold-medallist, he was given the nod despite the fact that his Wimbledon campaign was a washout and he can barely move about the court – perhaps Nancy Pelosi should have a word….
Further to our regular reports on the English wine scene, it seems that Chapel Down is not going to be sold to Treasury Wine Estates, owners of Penfolds, Blossom Hill and 19 Crimes, amongst others. However, Gusbourne Estate, the fabled sparkling wine producer from Kent, has announced that majority shareholder Lord Ashcroft of Belize is reviewing his options – we wonder, could it be that he wants to get his money out sharpish, now we have a Labour government?
Speaking of sparkling wine makers, LVMH, owner of Dom Pérignon, Krug, Möet and Ruinart to name just a few of their brands, have apparently invested £150 million in the Paris Olympics, so don’t expect champagne to get any cheaper in the near future. Apparently Louis Vuitton has crafted the trunk being used to cart the Olympic torch around and also the trays to carry the medals for the victory ceremonies. On top of that, Chaumet (another LVMH business) has designed all the medals, all of which include a piece of wrought iron nicked from the Eiffel Tower, which we think is quite a fun touch.
So, what shall we drink with all this Olympic action. One of the trade rags ran the headline 10 French wines for the Paris Olympics Games which I hoped might be a cleverly crafted list of pun-heavy wines that might raise a smile in all of us, however it was none of this, just a random selection of cut-and-paste tasting notes with no real theme running through it and arguably some of the laziest journalism I’ve seen in a long time…
So, having gathered zero inspiration from there, we’ve just decided to open a couple of wines this weekend that we both like and haven’t had on tasting for a while, with not an Olympic theme in sight:
Follas Novas Albariño 2022 – £17.99 comes From Val do Salnés, one of the five distinct sub-regions of Rías Baixas and is the oldest, coolest and wettest part, whilst also being 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.
Klinker Brick Winery Brickmason 2018 – £18.99 is a blend of 80% Zinfandel, 10% Syrah and 5% each of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Syrah. All of the vines were planted before 1989, so produce less fruit with greater intensity. Thus we have bright red fruits, a touch of juicy blueberry too, lovely freshness of finish and a little tannic grip that gives it great balance – a barbecue shoo-in, should there be a break in the clouds…
That’s it from us, enjoy your holidays and see you in September….