Fellow Wine Lovers,
Where do we start this week? Gil Scott Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised came to mind on more than one occasion!
We’ve had outbreaks of violence as rent a mob and followers of Runaway Robinson decided the best way to improve their lot in life was to steal a steak bake or set fire to a library and several police vehicles. Who’d have thought that Nigel, Suella, Liz, Robert, Jacob, Boris and Rishi using all that divisive rhetoric would bring us to this? Somehow, I doubt they’ll get the knock on the door.
On a more positive note it seems the vast majority of us don’t think stealing knock off Crocs or burning cars is a great idea. I do wonder how punching a policeman carries a smaller sentence than disrupting traffic on the M25. But hey ho, sometimes it seems the law is an ass.
Also on the subject of unrest, Carles Puigdemont popped up in Barcelona yesterday and now appears to be playing hide and seek with the Spanish police. You’ll recall he had been living in exile in Belgium after organising an independence referendum in Catalonia that turned out to be illegal and brought all sorts of protest on to the streets in 2017.
Also this week, we had a global stock market crash that lasted just about an entire day before everyone bought the dip and calmed down again. Some people had a great new entry point, some poor suckers sold at the bottom and most of us didn’t know much about it. More scintillating financial news in the near future…
The Olympics are still happening, the sailing is still having problems with the wind and World Records have been dropping like flies in the velodrome. We’ve had two divers score a Nil Points because their dives weren’t quite up to snuff and the men’s 1500m final was absolutely incredible viewing.
Olympian of the week for me was 51 year old Andy Macdonald who became the oldest ever skateboarder at the Olympics. No medals, he finished 18 out of 22 having decided it might be nice if he qualified for the Olympics as a 50th birthday present to himself. He was no mug on the board, having been a gold medallist in vert skateboarding at the X games on 23 occasions. Chapeau for chasing dreams!
In wine news this week, grape farmers around Lake Balaton in Hungary are already harvesting grapes for their white wines. Following the hottest July since records began in 1901 the grapes are ready a month earlier than usual. Meanwhile in Australia, Treasury Wine Estates, owner of a large number of well-known brands has put some of the cheaper end up for sale. Wolf Blass, Lindemans, Blossom Hill and Yellowglen all have the agent’s board at the end of the drive. If that penny jar is full and you’ve always fancied owning a household name now is the time.
And on that note we shall taste this weekend
Accomplice Chardonnay 2023 (£10.79) Hailing from South East Australia, this is a cracking crisp and gently creamy chardonnay that goes with almost anything. We have a number of customers who use this as their house white, such is its versatility. Cracking value, come and see if it might fit the Wednesday slot in your house!
Geoff Merrill Bush Vine Shiraz, Grenache, Mourvèdre 2016 (£21.99) hails from McLaren Vale, and you’ll have heard us wax lyrical about Geoff’s wines in the past. We really like that he always releases them with a little bit of age and roundness on them. Top stuff!
Cheers,