Fellow Wine Lovers,
If it wasn’t bad enough that you’ve spent most of the week puzzling what day it was, those chaps at Park Vintners have only gone and sent their Friday email on a Thursday!
Apologies again, we will be closed all day tomorrow (Friday) as previously mentioned.
Out in the wider world, Donald Trump has been reindicted (is that even a word?) for the January 6th shenanigans. Some parts of the original indictments have been removed to comply with the Supreme Court’s requests, but he’s definitely back on the naughty step.
Fresh from inviting us all to join him in the Downing Street garden, Kier Starmer has been in Berlin for some Currywürst with Olaf Scholz. A new bilateral agreement has put a ‘whole spectrum of relations on an entirely new footing’ we’re told. Did his TGV to Paris get there in the nick of time for an opening ceremony; will his morning meeting with Macron finish in time to catch Team GB play the Aussies in wheelchair rugby?
Whilst we ask questions about Paris, France has just entered the Top 12 chart of countries with long spells without a government. So far, they have racked up 43 days. Obviously, that’s not a figure that’ll trouble the Belgians who have three entries in the Top 12 one of which tops the charts with 592 days! Germany joined in too, managing an impressive 171 days in 2021. You can’t help but wonder if countries function better without the political element can you?
Still on the subject of Paris, the Paralympics opened last night. Look out for Sarah Storey, competing in the cycling road race and time trial at her ninth games. Strong hopes in the velodrome too with Kadeena Cox and Jody Cundy. Hoping to make a big splash in her first Olympics is 13 year old swimmer Iona Winnifrith, bon chance!
Something we saw this week that put a smile on our face was a story about a burglar in Rome. He broke into an apartment, but was arrested after he stopped in the middle of the burglary to read a book about Greek mythology. Apparently the book was “The Gods at Six O’clock” by Giovanni Nucci. It examines The Iliad from the point of view of the gods and highlights the interpretative power of the work with regards to current events. I learnt from this that Hermes is the god of both literature and thieves!
In Galicia, La Vuelta is tackling the up and down bits. Ben O’Connor is still rocking the red jersey, Wout van Aert is climbing like he weighs 10 kilos less, Primoz Roglic is still upright, and Eddie Dunbar wins stage 11 as I type this sentence!
Anyway, I’ve taken up enough of your Thursday, you need to get on with your work, or just call the waiter over for another cold one.
It’s back to school next week so I suspect we’ll need a glass of wine. Saturday we shall pour a taster of V Sauvignon Blanc (£12.99) a classic from Marlborough that is all crisp, fresh and lovely. We’ll chase that up with Beaujolais Villages Cuvee Six (£13.99) a very easy drinker with red fruit and soft tannins that goes with almost anything food wise.
I’ll leave you with news that it has already snowed at Lake Tahoe!
Cheers.