Fellow Wine Lovers,
So, I was lying in bed early on Thursday morning, listening to the thunder, listening to the dog scratching away beneath me in a vain attempt at escape, listening to someone snoring, listening to an incessant car alarm, listening to my daughter counting the seconds between lightning and crashing and I found myself pondering, is this rain a good thing?
Being English, we’re used to weather, particularly the damper end of the spectrum. We can do rain with the best of them and in some perverse way we revel in it. It’s our weather, we like it as it is and we like the status quo – if we joined a more sunny European climate, well, we wouldn’t be British any more would we.
Equally, if we acknowledge that these storms will continue, are we happy for more and more storms to cross the channel and add more atmospheric pressure to an already overcrowded storm market.
However, there are also plenty of positives to this wet weather. These storms have originated on the European mainland and have crossed the channel to help us survive. The rain feeds the earth; the rain clears the atmosphere of its fervent humidity; the rain washes the streets that often we don’t have the inclination to clean. We have been part of this weather system for a good while now, why change?
But can we feed the earth too much? If it rains too much don’t we risk becoming too cold? When does washing the streets become flash flooding and thus damaging to the infrastructure? How can we control this weather? Would it be better to stick a big umbrella over the British Isles or would the investment be better used stopping the weather at borders far from our own?
Fitfully, and unresolved, I fell asleep at around three.
In the morning, I took my daughter to school and she put another spanner in the cognitive works. She likes the stormy weather during the day when she can see it clearly, can understand its positive attributes really quite enjoy it, but at night, uncertainty creeps in, she feels nervous and wants the thunder to go away, now.
Pondering if all this could be seen to be a metaphor for something, I strolled towards the polling station and marked an, albeit uncertain, X in a box…
Sun over the yardarm
We now know what the ‘weather’ is going to be like for the next however many years and thank god that’s all behind us. If you voted for sun but got rain, even if you voted for sun and got sun, we all need to move on now and focus on what’s really important – wine from Europe.
This weekend sees us wrapping up our two week long Sherry Festival. We’ve been pouring loads of lovely libations and will continue to do so. Open for savouring are:
Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla Classic Dry Manzanilla
Equipo Navazos Fino En Rama
J.C. Gutiérrez Colosía Amontillado Seco
Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla Antique Amontillado
Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla Classic Oloroso
Bodegas Rey Fernando de Castilla Antique Palo Cortado
And, now we have it back in stock, from Chipiona,
Bodegas César Florido Moscatel Dorado
Come in, taste them all and marvel at the quality and value erupting from the south of Spain!
Wine School
Guess who’s back, back again, Wine School’s back, tell a friend!
We’ve got dates in the diary, we’ve got spittoons polished, we’ve even got some new jokes…
The course takes place on Wednesdays at 8pm on 28th September and goes through until 9th November – it’s a six week course and the keen calendar watchers amongst you may have already realised that this is a seven week period. You are correct – Wednesday 26th October is a week off, half term if you will.
Anyway, over the 6 weeks you’ll learn about white wine, red wine, a bit of rosé, faulty wines, a bit of wine and food matching, a jot of sweet wine and of course, sparklers.
If this sounds up your strasse and your boisson du thé then drop us a line and let us know. It costs £150 per person and payment of this will ensure you definitely have a place at the table. Go on; learn about wine, you know you want to!
Wet Weather Warning
Accepting that it’s already weather worthy of Noah and his crew, we thought we would remind you that the Wimbledon Park Primary School Fair is this Sunday from 12pm until 3pm – Alex will be there with a stall, some gin, some wine and perhaps something else, we’ll see.
If that wasn’t enough to keep it raining, the start of the tennis on Monday will ensure umbrella sales rocket whilst parasols plummet. Remember, it was here that you heard it first.
And now it is time for us to let you get back to work. Have a lovely afternoon, see you this evening for a glass of something cold!