Fellow Wine Lovers,
Much like most of the US civil servants fired by Elon Musk’s teenagers, I have been rehired. Alex has found that two weeks doing all the work on his own was more than enough and has now rehired me. Fortunately, with these actions we have not crashed either the stock market or the economy and had no near misses on the runway.
In the meantime, the worst American President since the last President Trump is still swinging the wrecking ball through the US economy, International relations and world peace. All this from a man who really wants to be given a Nobel Peace Prize!
The latest idea is signing an Executive Order to close the Department of Education. The future of the USA clearly doesn’t need educated children!
We’ve also had Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, suggesting to viewers of Fox News: “I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla. It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. It’ll never be this cheap again.” I have to say, in my view, it is not the Commerce Secretary’s job to pump individual stocks. I thought there might have even been laws against it, but what do I know?
Following the success of the tariffs introduced so far, the good news is that there are more on the way!
One of the more absurd things we read this week was a little disheartening. Thousands of acres of protected Amazon rain forest have been felled to build a four lane highway to the city of Belém in Brazil for the COP30 Summit in November. COP30 is, of course, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change. You couldn’t make it up!
But that’s enough of all that.
The sun is shining, the temperature has risen and spring starts tomorrow. Tree pollen is a bit high though, so don’t forget your allergy medications!
Also, The World Happiness Report 2024 finds that “benevolence bump” of kindness that the world experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic has remained, with generous acts more than 10% above pre-pandemic levels. Acts such as volunteering and donating were more frequent in all generations and most regions, with Finland topping the chart for the eighth successive year. Perhaps saunas are a happiness superpower?
You knew if you persisted we’d get there: welcome to the wine section!
You’ve been very patient with our nipping out to tastings here and there the last month or so and the fruits of those tastings are starting to appear on the shelves. Have a look out for a new Nerello Mascalese from Sicily, a bargain from the Douro in Portugal, a Bobal/Tempranillo blend from Spain and Pinot Noirs from both France and New Zealand’s Nelson plus the return of one of Greece’s rarest reds.
Tasting This Weekend
We’ll swing by Austria for a sample of Funkstille Grüner Veltliner 2023 (£14.49). Niederösterreich is Austria’s largest Qualitätswein wine-growing region and home to the excellent Grüner Veltliner grape. As with many Austrian producers, quality and sustainability are top of the agenda here – they produce their own fertilizer, hand harvest the grapes whilst their winery is energy neutral, and their biogas plant actually produces more energy than is required. Oh, and the wine is vegan too, but how does it taste? Excellent, is the answer; dry with ripe pear and fresh citrus aromas and a palate rich with melon and grapefruit and a refreshingly zippy finish.
For the red, we’ll be in Spain for one of the newbies. Rippa Dorii Crianza 2021 (£17.99) is a wonderful Tinta Del País (or Tempranillo if you prefer) grown at 900m altitude in Ribera Del Duero. Lovely bramble fruit character with a touch of vanilla character on the nose follow through nicely on the palate with some lovely ripe tannin keeping everything together rather nicely.
Lastly, we’ll be late on Tuesday as we have another of those tastings to attend. We’ll be back by 4PM.