Fellow Wine Lovers,
Firstly, our apologies. As we mentioned last week we will close at 4pm today.
Here we are at the beginning of June and we’re getting into the swing of summer. We’ve had some rather fabulous thunder and lightning, a good dowsing of rain just in time to keep the grass green and top up the water butts. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the heat to return now thanks very much; I’ve been caught in the rain enough for a week or two.
We have test cricket at Lord’s. England being the generous hosts as always were put into bat first and quickly raced to 34 for 4. Worse news than that, the statistics guys mentioned that of the first fourteen overs only six balls were projected to hit the wicket and still cost us two wickets. Despite much help from the weather and light gods we didn’t manage to last beyond the first day, all out for 140. Over to the bowlers, who absolutely delivered with New Zealand at 82 for 8 at the close. Saturday tickets starting to look cheap I imagine!
Just under a week to go before the FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday with Mexico hosting South Africa. It then continues almost forever with the interesting, knock out part of it clashing with the Tour de France so this correspondent may miss some of the games.
We’ve talked on and off over the last few months about the challenges facing the hospitality industry. We’ve all seen the talk of closures and the pubs and restaurants closing under the strain. We suspect it’s the combination of all the rises at once that is causing many of the problems and now Tom Kerridge and several other chefs have launched a petition to cut VAT for the sector to 10%. This would bring it in line with much of Europe and give the industry a bit of breathing space. As people who enjoy a pint in the pub and like to go for the odd restaurant dinner, we think it is a noble cause.
If you would like to sign the petition here is the link: VAT’s the problem .
News reaches us from Georgia that the government is planning to auction Josef Stalin’s wine collection of around 40,000 bottles of rare Georgian and French wines, some of them cherry picked from the Imperial Romanov collection after the revolution. The collection, housed in a cellar in the capital Tbilisi, was opened to the public for the first time this week. According to Reuters, some of the wines date back to the early 19th century. One wine collector from the US described seeing the wines as being “like Indiana Jones opening up a cave: it could be nothing, it could be something.” Interesting as historical items, but I’m not sure I’m opening a hundred year old Saperavi with my plov!
Tasting This Weekend
We’ll start off the white in the white corner with a delicious Spanish white – Arousana Follas Novas Albariño 2025, Rias Baixas, Spain – £18.99 – from Val do Salnés considered the birthplace of Albariño and made using fruit from 30 year old vines. White peach and orange blossom on the nose and a crisp, dry palate showing stone fruit and mineral characteristics. I’d seek out some seafood at the farmers market to go with this.
Then we’ll jump in our red sports car through the mountains and along the south coast of France before heading up the Rhône valley for a taste of Côtes du Rhône Villages ‘Les Coteaux’ 2023, Rhône, France – £14.99. Common practice in the Côtes du Rhône is to bottle the best cuvées as a single named Village wine and the rest as basic Rhône Villages. The philosophy here, on the other hand, is to start with the intention of making the very best Côtes du Rhône Villages possible. They source wine from the vineyards of named villages and enrich them with a small proportion of barrel-aged wine from Sablet, Séguret and Cairanne. The results are fabulous, as you can taste here, with well-balanced brambly fruit and soft tannin that is bang on the money.
Rumours involving using the Large Hadron Collider to help find Farage’s moral compass appear to be wide of the mark.
With that we’re off!