Fellow Wine Lovers,
We thought we’d talk about Sir David Attenborough and his involvement in what Knight Frank described as “the largest block of land to come on the market in England in the last 30 years”. The Rothbury Estate, owned by the Percy family for the best part of 700 years, includes 1800 acres of woodland, a pub, red squirrels, a caravan site, 12 farms, skylarks, 23 residential properties and some fine fishing and shooting opportunities. The entire estate is 3,800 hectares, which we understand is about the size of modern Athens, and was put up for sale for £35 million. Our first thought was “Wow that’s cheap, only about half a flat overlooking Hyde Park”.
Anyway, what has this to do with Sir David Attenborough? Well, Sir David made an appeal on behalf of Northumberland Wildlife Trust and The Wildlife Trusts, who have a year to raise £30 million to buy the land with the aim of boosting wildlife and nature friendly farming. In essence, they’ll create a 40-mile (64km) “wild” corridor, from the coast to Kielder and the Scottish border. Sir David’s call to action caused 8,624 donations in the following 24 hours.
Rothbury Estate is the next door neighbour to our chums at Hepple Gin who, since 2020, started on a radical new direction with a plan called ‘managed wilding’. This looks at building the base of the food-chain, from water, soil carbon and fungal mycorrhiza to diverse vegetation and the insect population. Currently, the estate is host to some wonderful charismatic species: curlew, red grouse and lapwing rub shoulders with pedigree Longhorns, Exmoor Ponies and Highland cattle!
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so chapeau to Walter, Lucy and the Hepple Wilders! Chapeau also to Sir David Attenborough, a centurion who has just found a new role as an influencer, so cool for school!
Staying with property chat, we find we have another week and another housing crisis. This time it’s Rachel Reeves who may or may not have been naughty, poorly advised or the victim of a rubbish lettings agent. It seems she didn’t have a licence to let her family home out to rent; in truth, neither of us knew that you needed a licence, that you don’t need a licence with every local authority and why would the lettings agent not mention it when you offer them the property?
In politics, the Dutch have moved to the centre from the right, Trumpolina has been in Asia doing the YMCA dance, holding hands with the new Japanese PM, allowing the Koreans a nuclear sub and swapping soybeans/rare earth minerals with Xi Jinping.
In the Isle of Wight, a spider thought to be lost for 40 years has been found again. The white knuckled wolf spider was found at a remote nature reserve only accessible by boat in an area grazed by a flock of Hebridean sheep. The sheep are helping police with their enquiries over a few other disappearances but are so far tight lipped on both dodos and Glenn Miller.
Tasting This Weekend
Domaine de Vedilhan Viognier 2024 – £12.49. This Languedoc estate, belonging to the Fayet family, is based in the village of Moussan, close to Narbonne. The property has a small brook running around the outskirts which provides natural irrigation to give much needed water. This gives the wines their freshness and appeal, keeping the vines cool in a very hot climate. A flirty Viognier: shimmering hay and peaches with a lush viscous texture give way to a sensual palate of roses, pineapples and mangoes. We think it will be awesome with that pumpkin soup followed by pumpkin risotto that we’ll all have going on after all that carving!
The red is a bit of an old favourite and very much of the season – Le Seigneur du Raveil Vacqueyras 2021/22 – £22.99. Originally formed by 7 passionate winegrowers in 1956, today the Cave de Gigondas has increased to 78 members across 128 hectares in Gigondas whilst also taking in vineyards in Vacqueyras and Beaumes de Venise to bring the total to 260 hectares. We loved this wine from the first mouthful – blackcurrant, black cherry, blackberry all make an appearance leading to some plum character on the finish with a dollop of spice to tidy it up. Classic Rhône quality and poise.
That’s it for us, November tomorrow, winter draws on…