Fellow Wine Lovers,
The world hasn’t changed a lot since last week. Still too much war, Putin is still ruling Russia, running the US and trying to take over Ukraine. This week some Russian drones even hit ships in NATO waters. I’m sure somebody very clever said something about fighting wars on many fronts. The Houthis are feeling rather emboldened whilst the Saudi’s are busy finding ways to get another few barrels of oil out of the country. Also, it turned out that Reform might have a racism problem, who knew? All in all a mess, but at least the weather is nice for the time of year, eh?
Anthropic has been in the news a lot lately, they’ve been subpoenaed by the Federal Trades Commission over safety issues, they’ve asked us not to be nasty to their AI in case we hurt its feelings and yesterday they announced last quarter revenues were up 50%. Anybody would have thought they were trying to rush out an IPO before the entire house of cards gets a wobble on! Apparently they have a vacancy for a secretary at their London office, we thought they were the people getting an AI to do that?
Meanwhile, Israeli advertising/spyware company Discover-Tech has developed “Adfection”, which allows them to introduce spyware to a device without any action from the device owner. The spyware arrives along with a targeted ad. Apparently it has been used against journalists and staff at Al-Jazeera, members of NATO, members of the European Commision, as well as staff at Nvidia and UK chipmaker, ARM.
FIFA had a meeting of the executive board that started with an apology from Infantino for lack of consultation on a World Cup sell off plan but failed to answer any of the many questions afterwards. It seems the European FA think he is not fit for the job and are trying to persuade Arsène Wenger to stand against him in next year’s election. Assuming he doesn’t get chosen to play James Bond, obviously.
In booze news, we finally received an email from the Antinori brand manager asking us to keep an eye out for stolen stock as mentioned last week. The chairman of Campari Group is facing charges of complicity in relation to tax evasion of €1.29 billion and new research from Heriot-Watt University has found that by increasing the strength in fermentation of the wash that they start with, distilleries could reduce their emissions by around 16%. I suspect that’d bring the gas bill down a bit too!
And now to something more local and definitely more exciting…
This year we will host our Champagne & Sparkling wine tasting on Thursday 3rd December. Hosted here at the shop, we’ll start at 7.30pm and expect to finish around 10pm. The cost is £40 and we are limited, as always, to 12 places. So don’t be shy, drop us a line if you’d like to come. We shall be toasting the shop’s sixteenth birthday on the night too so there’ll be toasts galore!
Whilst we’re on the subject, we also now have 3 spaces on our Wine & Cheese Tasting taking place on Thursday 12th November – this will also start at 7.30pm and is £30 per head.
Tasting This Weekend
First, we’ll open a bottle of Ciù Ciù Merlettaie Pecorino 2025 – £18.99. This wine is not made of cheese; Pecorino is a grape variety originally from the Abruzzo that has slipped under too many people’s radar, we think. A pleasing floral nose, with clean and refined aromas of banana, broom, apple, hazelnut and plum followed by a hint of vanilla. The mouth follows the nose, a slightly round attack however balanced, agreeable crispness, good body and intense flavours. Similar weight to wines from southern Burgundy but more interesting than any at this price!
Then we’ll follow it up with a bottle of Urban Park Appassimento 2021 – £15.99 from our chums at Montresor, who have 100 hectares of vineyards in the Veneto and Garda hillsides. We’re quite excited about this traditional blend of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes harvested from hillside vineyards north of Verona and then dried for around 30 days before being made into wine. A mini Amarone, if you will, and a stunning match for slow cooked meats, strong cheese, or just sat in the armchair whilst the dust settles on a busy day.