Fellow Wine Lovers,
It feels but five minutes since we spoke last, yet quite a few things seemed to have happened.
We’ll start off in the Lake District, where it has been decided to build a tunnel 12 miles long that’ll stop sewage being discharged into Windermere. Sounds like a decent plan, makes you wonder why they hadn’t thought of it before. Based on a system that was used to clean Lake Annecy, which is now considered to be one of the cleanest lakes in Europe, it will cost an estimated £3.6 billion and United Utilities is asking permission to add it to our bills, obviously.
In northern Finland, Google has illegally felled 250,000 trees to build a datacentre outside Muhos. They have been ordered to stop work after clearing the land without completing an environmental impact assessment. There is now an area 3km by 2km that has no trees or even topsoil left on it. Last month, the country’s Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo, announced Google’s investment was a “top priority” and would “deliver lasting benefits for both parties”. The population of Muhos might not agree and are rather shocked at the brazen illegality of the move.
Elsewhere, following the unveiling last week of their “flying” car, Tesla is reputed to be exploring a merger with SpaceX. The US is recalling staff from the Riyadh embassy and several other Gulf missions under risk of attack from Houthi’s or Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. The price of oil is up. In the UK, the Government gave the go ahead for some North Sea extraction at Jackdaw that has been much discussed and delayed.
At Whipsnade Zoo, both lemurs and macaques have apparently got into the Halloween spirit. They did this not by dressing up as Wednesday Adams though one of the lemurs was keen to do so. No, they enjoyed breakfast treats hidden in pumpkins. The rhinoceros’s though were much less impressed, sticking to their normal breakfast of cabbages. I think we always knew that rhinos were the more serious of this bunch!
The Tour de France 2027 route was unveiled yesterday. It contains no Alpe d’Huez, Ventoux or Galibier but the three British stages look fun. The stage from Welshpool to Cardiff contains eight climbs and is likely to be one of the toughest stages of the race. Apparently already it’s been compared with the one day race Liège–Bastogne- Liège, which last year was won by Tadej Pogačar who was five seconds ahead of Paul Seixas in second place.
Rafael Nadal has gone into the wine business. He has paired up with Bodegas Juan Gil from Jumilla. The wine itself is called ‘El Tenista’ and is made from 50+ year old organic Monastrell vines planted at 750m altitude with an expected UK retail price around £58. Personally, we’re a little disappointed he didn’t choose to give the wines from his native Mallorca a bit of a push but what do we know?
Tasting This Weekend
We’ll kick off in Galicia with Granbazan Etiqueta Ambar Albariño – £25.79 – from Val do Salnés, just a kilometre away from the sea which gives it a salty minerality and a slightly tropical fruit character on the palate.
The we’ll head down to the southwest of Spain and check out the region Rafa’s got involved in. We’ll get our laughing gear around Alceno Sierra de Enmedio Monastrell – £11.99 – this family run winery was a founder of the Jumilla region way back in 1870. These days they specialise in local varieties on old vines like this one. This is a medium to full bodied red with soft tannins surrounded in black fruit flavours, a touch of savoury earthiness keeping some restraint and a nice rich finish plus you can buy 5 bottles for the price of one Tenista!
Finally, we still have spaces available for 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 and it costs is £40 per person… what better way to kick start December than with some festive fizz?
Think that’s all we have to share this week, so we’ll be off – have a lovely weekend!