Fellow Wine Lovers,
As many of you might be aware, it’s the Reading Festival this weekend so I’m sure many of the A-level grades received last week will be toasted once again. However, this time with Strongbow Dark Fruit and the tunes of Hozier and Chappell Roan on Friday, Lambrini Girls and Limp Bizkit on Saturday. With Amyl and the Sniffers, Travis Scott and The Dare bringing the tunes on Sunday, will the Strongbow still be cold?
The line-up in 1975 was a little different. On Friday we had up and coming rock bands Judas Priest and UFO alongside a more established Hawkwind and a show stealing Dr Feelgood. Saturday brought us Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, Supertramp, Yes and a new Irish band, Thin Lizzy. Sunday’s showstopper was apparently Wishbone Ash with other performers on the day including Caravan, Climax Blues Band and Joan Armatrading. Fabulously, Strongbow was the most popular cider! It seems whilst the bands may change, the festivals, drinks, memories and fun live on regardless!
Elsewhere, The Rocky Horror Picture Show had its 50th Birthday last week. I bet Frank’N’Furter’s hips aren’t what they were; fifty years of jumps to the left will take their toll!
Things could have been going better for the government, with the high court ruling that the hotel in Epping housing asylum seekers may have breached planning rules in relation to its licence. The Met Police’s plan to use facial recognition technology at the Notting Hill carnival is unlawful because it is incompatible with European laws according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
La Vuelta starts on Saturday, in Turin! Stage one winds its way from Turin to Novara, Stage two manages to ride the flat parts of Piemonte with Barolo in the bidons and an uphill finish. We finally get to Spain for stage five and a Team Time Trial around Figueres which is where Salvador Dalí lived. I hope there’s somebody in the crowd dressed as a giraffe or a telephone! Jonas Vingegaard is favourite to win the red jersey and I think I’ll put Juan Ayuso and Jay Vine alongside him for the podium.
Rugby World Cup action starts on this evening with Red Roses hosting USA at the Stadium of Light and with more than 40 000 tickets sold it should be quite the night.
In Sweden, engineers have moved a 113 year old church. Kiruna is a city 90km north of the Arctic circle and has had iron ore mining for over a century. This mining activity has left the old part of city at risk of fissures hence the decision to move the 35m tall church, once voted the most beautiful pre 1950 building.
Whilst we’re in the Arctic, scientists have been surprised to discover that the melting of sea ice in the Arctic has slowed dramatically in the last 20 years, with no statistically noteworthy decline since 2005. That sounds like good news to me.
What’s in the glass?
Given the Rugby World Cup we thought we might use that as a theme, and as luck would have it New Zealand’s Women will be playing Spain’s Women so we even have a Vuelta tie in too!
Representing the Black Ferns we have Southern Dawn Sauvignon Blanc 2024 (£13.99) from Marlborough. This has all the trademark passionfruit, citrus, nettles, cut grass and hints of capsicum that you would hope for. These aromas light the path to a soft, well rounded palate with a luscious mouth feel and pronounced fruit characters whilst the finish is limey and assertive and more-ish!
To represent Las Leonas we’ve gone with Borgia Borsao Garnacha 2023 (£9.49). This hails from the foothills of the Moncoyo massif near Zaragoza. 100% Garnacha giving us plum and berry fruit with fine tannins and just the weight that might suit some slow cooked pork shoulder.
As usual we’ll be closed on Bank Holiday Monday, see you Tuesday!
Cheers!