Fellow Wine Lovers,
‘Just going to sit down for a minute and write the email’ I said to Wayne last Friday. Or was it yesterday. Or five minutes ago. Not sure about everybody else but this constant bombardment of bank holidays is playing havoc with my sense of time and I’m fairly sure that whilst physically I am here on 9th May, mentally I am still somewhere in late April. Not that I’m complaining too much but it does feel like a blink of an eye since I last sat here writing the email.
Bank Holiday was spent celebrating birthdays, swimming through pools of wine, occasionally eating and playing beach cricket, English style, in our winter coats and shorts (although the wind did provide some interesting reverse swing potential). Returning to London I discovered that Wayne had been so busy on Friday and Saturday that he had raided his bonus and gone on a sunny cycling holiday for a week!
So, on Tuesday I stood alone in the middle of a shop that resembled some sort of post-apocalyptic supermarket sweep and said to myself ‘If he’s going to cycle up and down mountains for a week then I’m going to build some mountains of my own!’
Fighting talk that resulted in me receiving just over a tonne of wine yesterday, leading to a fabulously character building work out and repeated revision of the correct procedure for picking up boxes – straight legs and a bent back, right?
Now I’ve done my bit, it’s really over to you to start drinking the stuff. If you’re wondering why the weather is going to be so awful this weekend it’s entirely down to the fact that I have good stocks of my three Rose wines with a fourth to arrive on Monday. Fear not though, I have plenty of reds to keep out the chills and about 90 different whites relaxing in the fridge ready for those sunny spells we are often told to expect. Oh, and there’s my dedicated sparkling wine fridge for those of you who believe that Friday is Fizz day.
As you can tell I haven’t seen much news this week – Sunderland surprisingly survive, Fulham frustratingly fall and the Premiership title stays up North. Katie Price is getting a divorce (number 3) whilst expecting her 27th child – I do wonder why she can’t find Mr Right….
We have Stuart Hall and Rolf Harris in court again sullying many childhood memories.
And a warning to all those thinking about leaving the big smoke and seeking bucolic bliss elsewhere – according to UK census data, the top ten local authorities with highest proportion of over-65s are the following:
- Christchurch, Dorset
- West Somerset
- North Norfolk
- Rother, East Sussex
- East Dorset
- East Devon
- Tendring, Essex
- Arun, West Sussex
- East Lindsey, Lincolnshire
- New Forest
The future’s bleak, the future’s grey.
Anyway, enough rambling. I’ll be out doing a delivery between 2pm and 4pm today (Friday) and after all that exertion I’ll probably need a glass of wine. For white I’ll be trying Mezzogiorno Fiano 2012, Puglia, Italy – £8.69 a really tasty drop, indigenous to the south and frankly a bit of a well-kept secret. On the red side I’m opening CentoPassi Rosso 2012, Sicily, Italy – £12.99. My tasting notes say it’s organic with spiced black fruits, hints of cloves and decently full bodied. Apparently the wine is part of a project involved in rebuilding communities and honouring Mafia victims using land seized from Mafiosi. Nice story, nice wine.
So come and see me tonight or tomorrow and help me diminish this wine mountain I have built before his lordship tries to cycle up it!
Oh and I just received a text from the man stating he was just about to have some Paella for lunch, did I have any wine recommendations! Not sure what to say really…
Wayne & Alex