Fellow Wine Lovers,
Another week, another weather report, another update on our sartorial selections.
Our very own Angus Young continues to don his tailored shorts whilst Captain Birdseye still seems ready to embark on a 3 day fishing trip in particularly squally weather. This is probably because the eternal schoolboy believes the BBC when it tells him ‘temperatures forecast to hit 29c by Friday’ whilst the salty seadog’s 2 day old copy of the Daily Mirror highlights ‘Exactly where thunderstorms will hit UK as rainfall warning issued by Met Office’. One of them will be correct, possibly both.
And that’s the end of the news for this week because, frankly, there’s not a single headline that makes for happy reading – why are people so rotten to each other, all the time, everywhere?
So instead, we went down an internet wormhole earlier this week, as is our wont, and ended up discovering what the words cupboard, embarrassment and bamboo all have in common. Any ideas? No? Well it was our wormhole, so we’ll tell you later.
This weekend sees the annual festival of awful greeting cards as we celebrate Father’s Day. And I mean truly awful cards. My father, a man of a certain age let’s say given my own receding hairline, doesn’t want a card with a racing car on the front and some rubbish about how he great he is at driving and how great he is at being a Dad – I’m not 10 years old Hallmark, there are grown-up’s with Dad’s too! How about a card that has a bottle of wine and two glasses on the front and a message inside that says something like ‘Fancy sharing a bottle sometime soon?’
So what’s the difference between your Dad telling your friends an embarrassing story from your younger, needier days and a collection of Pandas? Nothing apparently, they’re both an embarrassment! Yes, indeed, the wormhole told us that the collective terms for pandas can be a cupboard, a bamboo or an embarrassment! Why an embarrassment? AI informs us:
‘the exact origin is unclear, it is widely believed to have emerged online or in informal discussions rather than having a historical, scientific, or linguistic root. The term plays on the perception of them as being clumsy, lazy, and sometimes embarrassing in their behaviour, especially due to their fondness for bamboo and their somewhat limited activity.’
Father’s Day – Sunday 15th June and also, Happy Birthday to Nigel Walker, 62, the insanely quick former Welsh Rugby Player with the ability to drop the pass on both wings!
In real sport, where they have no need to catch a ball, I’m told it’s the start of the Tour de Suisse this weekend which doesn’t sound terribly flat to me.
No interesting wine news this week – it still tastes great and we have plenty for all of you, just say the word. To help with your decision making process, the wines open this weekend will be from Spain and Austria, no rationale behind this decision, just fancied opening them.
Palacio del Camino Real Blanco 2023 – £11.99 – we love a drop of white Rioja and this is a cracking blend of Viura, Malvasia and Grenache Blanc grown in the higher vineyards of Rioja Alta. Pale yellow in the glass, with lovely fresh aromas of stone fruit and citrus, framed with a touch of vanilla from a couple of months lazing around in the barrel. Exceptionally food friendly but equally has enough character to be well chilled should Wayne’s weather forecast be correct!
The red is a new listing for us. We’ve had their Grüner Veltliner on the shelf for a few years and now have added Funkstille Zweigelt 2023 – £15.49. These guys are the good guys. All work in the vineyard is carried out sustainably, using their own fertilisers made from grape skins, manure and straw from their fields, to improve the soil structure and vitality of their vines. Grapes are harvested in the early morning and taken to their energy neutral winery, where they are pressed with the must, then transferred into stainless steel tanks for fermentation. However, forget all that, our notes for this describe cherries on the nose, a lovely fresh palate that is joyfully juicy and very, very drinkable! Apparently, Funkstille translates as ‘radio silence’ so find a quiet spot in the garden, turn off the devices and enjoy it, perhaps even lightly chilled!
Unless it’s raining….
That’s it for this week. As a quick heads up, we’ll be opening a bit later on Tuesday 17th June as we have to go to a quick tasting in Islington which only starts at noon but we should be back in the trenches by 3pm, if you can hang on….
Remember, it’s always better to be known as an embarrassment than a cupboard!