Fellow Wine Lovers,
How nice to see some sunshine this week, eh?
The world still seems to be going full gas on the crazy front. There have been a lot of surprising bits of news this week, example being that Kier Starmer has a voice coach! I didn’t see that one coming; you’ll be telling me next that Boris Johnson has an ethics adviser or Nigel Farage a personal trainer!
Space Hopper number 47’s latest idea is to turn the Gaza strip into ‘the Riviera of the Middle East’. I thought that was Dubai’s position but perhaps he’s thinking more of a Varadero like experience with less Canadians? Canada has, in the meantime, dodged tariffs by promising not to send across the border the things they already don’t send over the border.
The Mexicans have been even trickier, suggesting that it might help stop the cartels if the US helped stopped the flow of arms from the US. Either way, tariffs postponed for now.
Meanwhile, in Pasadena, victims of the recent Eaton fire who lost their homes are being moved out of the Pasadena Convention Centre so that “America’s Got Talent” can begin filming. The show must go on apparently, let’s hope they’re looking for some talented builders.
Apparently, Russian watchers are suggesting that the Russian censorship tsarina, Katya Mizulina, will soon unlock Twitter because: “There’s now far less destructive content and information censorship”. Way to go Musk, that free speech thing is working out pretty well, eh?
Whilst on the subject of Russia, there are quite some fears surrounding the EU’s new EES (Entry/Exit System) system. This is the much delayed system that will require non-EU residents to submit biometric data. Atos, IBM and Italy’s Leonardo won the contract to build the system but, according to the FT, Atos used staff at its Moscow office to source some of the software – Atos Moscow opened in 2016 and operates under an FSB licence!
Talking of large scale data harvesting, it seems Musk’s DOGE group gained control of the US Treasuries payment systems. No sensitive data on all taxpayers to be gained there, I’m sure. Anyway, after a couple of days it was announced they would only have ‘Read only’ access. I’m sure two days with Admin status wasn’t long enough to learn anything useful, eh kids?
Six Nations continues this weekend with Italy hosting Wales for the early game and England hosting France for the later game. Scotland host Ireland for the Sunday game. In a gift to commentators Borthwick has picked a couple of Smiths and in a surprise move France have included Jalibert at fly half. It turned out the surprise was on me, as the spelling is different to that of the French cyclist who retired in 2002.
Meanwhile, in Greece, many residents of Santorini have been evacuated and a state of emergency declared as a series of earthquakes and tremors have been happening below the sea. So far no damage has been reported on the island and around 11,000 of the population have left. Scientists say the tremors are tectonic rather than volcanic.
I think its due time to move onto the public service part of this week’s missive. Next Friday is Valentine’s Day. You can’t say you didn’t know as we have given you exactly a weeks’ notice.
In 2023 we told you that according to BBC Good Food, these were the four most popular Valentine meals, based on what people searched for last year:
- Steak with peppercorn sauce
- Dauphinoise potatoes
- Spaghetti carbonara
- Beef Wellington
This year it would appear that Beef Wellington has been replaced by cupcakes. Horses and courses I guess but I’m not sure a cupcake works for me. An idea we did like the sound of was partnering Dauphinoise potatoes with some smoked haddock fillets for a kind of garlicky pimped fish pie.
With these facts in mind, we’ll open some wine.
White wine we will pull a cork on Christian Bellang’s delicious Bourgogne Sous Velle 2022 (£29.50), a rather splendid wine made from grapes grown below the village of Meursault and which we think will be rather tasty with that pimped dauphinoise fish pie.
Red wise, we’re taking an excursion to Bordeaux. We’ll pull a cork on Chateau Saransot-Dupré 2016, Listrac Médoc (£23). The estate has been owned by the Raymond family since 1756 and was declared the Best Cru Bourgeois Estate in 2017, the first Listrac estate to be awarded the honour. It’s a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Carménère and should be a great partner to the Steak with peppercorn sauce.
In the interest of completeness, it appears that chocolates and flowers are also popular!
Cheers!