Fellow Wine Lovers,
How was your summer? I’m sure I remember them being longer and usually later in the year but, in fairness, I also remember when my Dad was taller than me and Donald Trump was a bit part actor in children’s movies.
The sun was out, the rosé was flowing and the mercury hit 17 degrees a number of times last week. Yesterday, we had hail and the temperature struggled to stay above zero overnight, time to put the cover back on the barbecue and retrieve that tartiflette recipe.
In the meantime, in the great big wide world, the POTUS has finally over-reached. I have been trying to avoid talk of the carrot coloured caricature but when he comes into my house, the wine house, and starts throwing his weight around, well, it can’t be ignored:
The European Union, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States, has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky. If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES. This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.
Ok, Donald, that’s a step too far. First of all, whilst I wasn’t at the meeting over 30 years ago, I would be willing to bet the house on the fact that at no point did Helmut Kohl turn to François Mitterand and say ‘thank god we’ve finally got a mechanism to take full advantage of the US, it’ll take years for some genius to uncover our dastardly plot!’
Secondly, you are already expecting your fellow country folk to tighten their belts in the name of MAGA, for the greater good, and to put up with expensive maple syrup from the north and fresh vegetables from the south. However, when you threaten the Friday Fizz market you’re angering a whole different type of voter. The Champagne drinkers are not the ones living hand to mouth, the ones who’ve had support taken away and who will, through no fault of their own, suffer the most at the hands of tariffs. The Champagne drinkers are the middle classes, the people who previously were prepared to suck up higher grocery bills without it affecting their lives to greatly but when a $30 bottle of house Champagne gets closer to $100 and a Bollinger Special Cuvée totters towards $200 then you’ll have poked the bear, you numpty.
In better news, if France decides to cut exports of Champagne to the US, there’ll be more for us here, as the second biggest export market, so perhaps our prices might get keener. Donald, you’re a genius!
Speaking of genius, it looks like Peter Crouch got saddled with a 1,000 pint Guinness bill. We like to misspend our adulthood as much as we misspent our youth and thus have been glued to Cheltenham all week. Before the racing began yesterday, we watched Peter Crouch being interviewed by Oli Bell and, having embarrassed himself with an unwitting innuendo, he then got punked by Paddy Power on live TV. Apparently, they had already had a pint bet over the winner of the Stayer’s Hurdle – if an Irish horse won Peter was buying, if a British horse won then Paddy was paying. However, Paddy upped the ante by suggesting that the loser bought 1,000 pints for all the punters in the Guinness Village. Rachael Blackmore won, we won money on her and Peter bought the pints!
In other news from Cheltenham, punters have been moaning about the high costs of drinks… accusations of profiteering being flung around. I’m a bit bemused about what they expected – Lidl prices? – but as someone once said, there are cheaper places to drink but you might not like them!
Talking of prices, in the spare moments between races we have been to more tastings this week and frankly, having looked at some of the new lists, we really don’t want further tariffs to appear anywhere. We were tasting some top end kit, granted, but with Ornellaia and Cristal both nudging £300 per bottle for the newest vintages we yearned for the days when our Dads were taller than us and you really couldn’t buy wine for over £100. I know all about inflation but that’s not the only thing responsible for these high prices…. now imagine them with 200% added!
Anyway, enough of that, let’s focus on the weekend. Last round of the rugby, England hopes being overstretched in the press and we have to think that France, at home, with such a points difference, should edge it. Although we thought Ireland would fare better last week and clearly we still have to go to the cauldron in Cardiff. Either way, we’ll be supping some wine whilst we watch, wines with no connection to the rugby, just good, mid-month quaffers:
Novas Gran Reserva Riesling 2023 – £13.99 – A cracking drop of grog this one. Chile’s Bío-Bío valley is home to some increasingly fine aromatic varieties, as demonstrated here. Lifted aromas of lime juice, grapefruit, with perhaps a touch of honeysuckle. Medium-bodied with a seam of minerality in the middle palate giving us a nice backbone to hang the freshness on, fab apéritif but also great with varied cuisines.
We were astonished to learn that we haven’t opened Barton Rouge 2019 – £10.99 since October 2023, which is weird as it is a firm favourite of ours. A juicy blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot, gives us a rich and fruit driven wine with dark brambly fruits and a touch of spice, yet without too much tannin to get in the way of the fun. Another food all-rounder too….
That’s all from us for now, time to get back to the racing…