Fellow Wine Lovers,
Happy halfway-through-November day! A mere 46 days until 2025 with Christmas en-route but who’s counting….
Well, actually, we are and that’s what we are paid for. Before then we have Beaujolais Nouveau Day, Thanksgiving, Wayne’s birthday, the shop’s birthday and Alex’s birthday – all of which deserve mention but are mere celebratory morsels on the way to the big festive banquet.
So now you know, six Saturdays between us and Santa.
Back to the here and now and we’re really hoping that at some point all of our favourite podcasts will stop harking on about the US election and start debating the real reasons for Gary Lineker leaving the BBC which I’m sure, much like the 9 player withdrawals from the England squad, has nothing to do with money.
But, I must confess, that I too cannot fully take my eyes off what is going on across the pond. Yesterday we received an email from The Guardian, I think it was a round-robin missive rather than a personal note, telling us that they will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X/Twitter. They went on: “we think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our content elsewhere. This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform. The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”
Elon Musk is now in charge at the DOGE, the body tasked with firing staff and cutting costs across Federal departments.
Elon Musk is also in charge of the company SpaceX, which has billions of dollars in U.S. government contracts through launch services, NASA crew transport, Starlink internet service, and the Starshield government business.
I can see no sign of any possible conflict of interest here and certainly it seems to be nothing to do with money.
Elsewhere, not a lot of news for us. The article in The Drinks Business called Top 15 Pinot Grigios of 2024 failed to capture our imagination; Drinks Retailing News tried to distract us with news of the launches of Kylie Minogue 0% Alcohol Sparkling Blanc alongside Nozeco Still Merlot and Nozeco Still Rosé but still we find ourselves able to resist their charms, whilst Harpers offered us the headline Hospitality confidence plummets amid rising costs and falling footfall which informed us that:
- 41% of industry leaders are optimistic about their business prospects for the next 12 months (down from 49% in August)
- Confidence levels now match October 2022 lows, when inflation was at a 40-year high.
- 20% are optimistic about the industry’s overall future over the next year (down from 36% in August)
- 46% expressed a bleak outlook for the coming year (up from 21% in August)
Go and have a pint whilst you take this all on board/whilst you still can.
Having said that we would suggest that you don’t go and have a pint on Saturday afternoon from around 5pm onwards (this advice is for England fans) as current rugby form predicts tears for us and laughter for the Springboks.
Instead, why not pop in and see us for a bit of wine and a chat? We’ll have a couple of bottles open to whet the whistle, one new one and one old favourite:
Domaine Langlois Clos Saint-Florent Saumur 2021 – £28.99 – now, we first tasted this at about midday on Wednesday 28th February and were told that this vintage was due to land in the UK the next week. We tried to order it on 26th March and then on 4th September but it actually only landed on Tuesday this week! Admittedly, it has come from the far Loire Valley about 500 miles away so it makes sense that it took so long… anyway, when we tasted it 8 months ago we revelled in the rich Chenin Blanc fruit, showing more orchard fruit character rather than tangy citrus and a really nice weight on the palate. All the grapes come from the Clos Saint-Florent, which is a top Saumur plot with vines that are at least 35 years old. Having enjoyed previous vintages, we know this to be a wine that is delicious now but will also be equally as fabulous in 5 years’ time, if not longer!
Juliénas-Chaintré Fleurie ‘Cuvée Sept’ 2022 – £16.99. Fleurie is probably the best known Cru Beaujolais and is sometimes referred to as “The Queen of Beaujolais”, so well regarded are its smooth, supple reds. The light food friendly wines seem to be gaining a new following amongst some of smarter sommeliers in town, one taste of this and you’ll understand why. Silky and fresh, with dark berry fruit character and soft tannins and delicious lightly chilled – forget the Nouveau next week, this is what you really want in your glass!
Finally, owing to an important delivery out of town, we will be closing at 5.30pm on Monday 18th November. We realise that Monday is not our busiest night but just wanted to forewarn you all!
That’s it from us, have a lovely weekend and stay warm!