Fellow Wine Lovers,
Where shall we start this week? Alex is back, busying himself with the spreadsheet that Wayne shouldn’t touch.
Unfortunately, Wayne did touch.
No lasting damage but some things could have been achieved quicker! Alex’s Spanish holiday was clearly hotter than here, as he is currently sat in a sweater!
Further afield than this building, Trumpolina and Elon Muck have had a rather rambling chat/interview/ love in for a couple of hours on Twitter. Given the huge success that Elon has had with Twitter, we’re a bit surprised any politician would want him anywhere near their campaign but, hey ho, I guess being one of the wealthiest men on the planet opens doors. I can’t imagine why Elon Muck would switch sides to back a candidate that wants to introduce 100% tariffs on imported Electric Vehicles but will continue to investigate…
In other news, it turns out that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge has been rerouted from the far north of Scotland, rather than South Wales as originally thought. It makes the feat of moving the six tonne lump of rock all the more impressive given the distance. How did they do it, and more importantly, why? We suspect caber tossing…
In an ironic twist to the saga, it seems the PhD student who did most of this research at the Curtin University in Western Australia, was born in Pembrokeshire, where previously the stone was thought to come!
That’s the Olympics over for another four years. We have the Paralympics arriving towards the end of the month on the 28th. This week we will have to settle for the start of the Premiership football season.
Except for those of us that like the proper sports. We have the Women riding the Tour de France Femmes and the men riding the Tour of Poland and, on Saturday in Portugal, La Vuelta a España starts. Three stages in Portugal are followed by the rest of the week around the mountains of Andalucía. Then, for the last two weeks, we head to the mountains of northern Spain.
I think early in the season we mentioned the amount of climbing in the Giro d’Italia that turned out to be 42,900 metres. The Tour de France had to go one better (don’t they always?) so managed to find enough mountains to give the riders 52,000 metres to play with. Route designers for La Vuelta said “Hold my Estrella!” The good folk having the luck to be cycling around Portugal and Spain for three weeks will find themselves climbing 61,522 metres! That is so close to seven times up Mount Everest it’s not even funny. Anyway, we think it’s time Sepp Kuss has his day in the sun, so let’s see what happens.
Important Diary Note
The shop will be unavoidably closed all day on Friday 30th August due to a close bereavement. We hope you understand and apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Weekend Wines
Given the return of Alex from Spain and the beginning of La Vuelta, we shall have to taste something Spanish. We’ll get the juices flowing with Palacio del Camino Real Blanco 2022 – £11.99. A cracking blend of Viura, Malvasia and Grenache Blanc grown in the higher vineyards of Rioja Alta. With lovely fresh aromas of stone fruit and citrus, framed with a touch of vanilla from a couple of months lazing around in the barrel, we reckon white Rioja, in the modern style, is one of the world’s most under-rated wines.
Grappling with red jersey will be Time Waits for No One 2022 (£15.99). This organic Monastrell hails from Jumilla which is a little inland from Murcia. Rich, rounded and with lush dark blackberry fruit character I think we’ll be partnering it with some lamb chops on the barbecue!
Let’s get this weekend started, shall we?