Fellow Wine Lovers,
This week finds us all celebrating the beast that is half term. Unless, of course, you’re in the middle of GCSE’s in which case, stop reading this and get on with your studying, you’re not even supposed to be reading this!
For those of us not involved in exams there is plenty of sport to look at this weekend. It all kicks off during your breakfast on Saturday, as the British & Irish Lions kicks off in style against New Zealand’s Provincial Barbarians at 8.35am our time. Somehow breakfast seems a bit early for rugby to me, but maybe that’s because I’m used to watching it in the pub!
At the Oval we have Sri Lanka and South Africa slogging it out in the ICC Champions Trophy (cricket if you were wondering). The tournament started Thursday (with England beating Bangladesh by 8 wickets) and culminates with the final on Sunday 18th June.
On the golf front, Tiger Woods tough year got even worse when he underestimated the ‘may cause drowsiness’ line on his medication. Personally I’m not entirely sure what was gained by releasing the video of the incident, but at least a website somewhere got more hits…
In the tennis we’re at Roland Garos, where Johanna Konta’s clay gremlins struck again, sending her out in the first round, whilst Andy Murray is through to the third round to face Juan Martin del Potro. Novak Djokovic is hoping the presence of ‘super coach’ Andre Agassi relocates his mojo.
In real sports we’d offer our congratulations to Tom Dumoulin, who became the first Dutchman to win the Giro d’Italia, snatching victory from Nairo Quintana in a time trial on the last day. This weekend sees the Criterium du Dauphiné starting, always viewed as a bit of a warm up for the Tour de France so many of the big players are lining up. Va va Froome.
On the political front it’s all shouty, shouty, strong many, few stable, poorly rehearsed and hiding in the shed. Still, it’ll be over this time next week!
Wine wise, as has become a bit of a tradition whilst Alex is away, a couple of new wines turned up this week. Vigna Marina Coppi Sant’ Andrea Barbera 2015 (£21.99) is a wine we’ve been trying to get on the shelf for a while. They say “all comes to he who waits”, and this is a lovely polished and rounded Barbera with cherry and wild strawberry fruit and a lovely freshness to the finish. As an aside Marina is the daughter of Fausto Coppi, the first man to win both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same year! The estate is run by Marina and her son Francesco.
Staying with an Italian theme, that Lambrusco we teased you all with a while back is here too. Villa Cialdini Lambrusco Graparossa (£15.49) is from an estate south of Modena owned by the Chiarli family since 1860. Since the construction of a state of the art winery in 2002 they have been producing top quality Lambrusco that is way more delicious and moreish than we imagined, and also the perfect partner to some barbecued chicken.
We’ve also listed a local Vodka (is 41 miles local?). Blackdown Sussex Vodka (£28.99) is the first Vodka to be produced in Sussex. Made from 100% British wheat grain, it is copper pot distilled, and then charcoal filtered seven times to create a smooth and refined Vodka, and finished with a hint of Sussex Silver Birch sap to add a delicate sweetness. The Silver Birch sap is tapped once a year in early spring and is sourced within the 40 acres of woodland which surround Blackdown.
eto
We’ve just heard from Tom Cotton at eto. We promised to keep you up to date when the Kickstarter campaign happened for his wine decanter, so here’s what we know…
****Hot off the press eto launch date Tuesday 6th June 2017!!!****
eto HQ is excited to announce eto will be going live on Kickstarter at midday GMT on Tuesday 6th June….*klaxon*
There will be a limited number of etos at ‘Super Early Bird’ heavily discounted prices – they will be snapped up in hours – so don’t delay in choosing your reward! If you miss these specials don’t worry the Kickstarter price is still a bargain.
We have crunched the numbers and set ourselves the minimum goal we need to tool, manufacture and ship eto to the UK for final distribution. The minimum amount we need is £55,000 and our Kickstarter campaign will last 30 days. But as we said those Super Early Bird & Early Bird specials when they’re gone they’re gone, so don’t delay!
NB Kickstarter is an all or nothing crowd funding site, so if we don’t make our goal there will be no etos produced.
If you want to get involved on Tuesday 6th, then sign up before hand to the eto newsletter at: www.etowine.com in order to receive the link to the Kickstarter site on Tuesday 6th.
Those of you familiar with Kickstarter may prefer to search their website on the day. The choice is yours!
Tasting this Weekend
Attitude Sauvignon Blanc 2015 (£13.99) from the Pascal Jolivet estate will be holding court in the white corner, crisp with great concentration of fruit flavours, perfectly balanced with herb notes, a mineral touch and a crisp, vibrant finish. We’d suggest some sea bass with some roast Jersey Royals.
The red corner will be up till the early hours as it hosts Vivir Sin Dormir 2015 (£12.39) 100% Monastrell. 100% Organic. A real favourite of ours, Monastrell, very much the main grape in Jumilla which is inland, west of Alicante. Enormously appealing ripe red and spicy black fruits abound, with just a gentle grip of tannin. Fabulous finish and a typically Spanish red – works with all manner of food choices, we were thinking perhaps something over coals…
Finally, we renewed our electricity contract this week, and are dead chuffed to announce that our lights are on, the wine is chilled and the till powered by 100% renewable electricity.
That’s it from us this week folks!