Fellow Wine Lovers,
Say hello, wave goodbye.
A warm welcome to February, the year’s shortest month, filled with Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, half term and the Six Nations.
Whilst we greatly appreciate that the shortest month comes directly after the very, very longest month there is an argument that perhaps, post Brexit (!), we should consider reallocating days/month to make January about 14 days long and then add the surfeit of days into July and August. This would work for everyone – all the cold days in January could be exchanged 1:1 for sunny days in the height of summer; the summer holidays would now be longer; the New Year resolutions would now only have to last for a fortnight and obviously February would be closer to Christmas.
Such a reallocation of days could also serve as a fillip to the economy, with the slow month of January exchanged for months of greater productivity later in the year; there would be more seasonal work available for longer, so we would approach universal employment, once again a financial bonus for the country. With the extended summer we would now compete head-on with Mediterranean destinations for sunshine breaks and, following the Thomas Cook lead, could charge £20 for a sunbed booking – great for business and £3.33 for the Treasury coffers, every time. If we can encourage 3 billion visitors to sit on a beach chair for just 3 days each then, by 2021, we could shore up the 30 billion NHS deficit using sunbeds alone; a billion visitors a year – how many kiss-me-quick hats and fish suppers would that involve, it’s a gift that keeps on giving and we haven’t even considered the 0.83 pence the HMRC gets from each plastic bag we have to purchase at the supermarket!
So we’re voting for 14 days in January – who’s with me? Potential naysayers, likely to be anyone born between 15th and 31st, will get their birthday re-located to the summer, further away from Christmas and in the nice weather, something they’ve always yearned for!
I have the feeling that some of us, certainly where resolutions are involved, are already working on a fortnight long first month. Supposedly, 3.1 million of us gave up booze on January 1st, which is 6 times more of us than have Hive Connected Heating (according to the British Gas adverts) which perhaps is a sign that we are substantially more likely to give up drinking than get suckered into remote controlled central heating, but I digress…
3.1 million took the pledge last month, a statistic gleaned from YouGov (a fount of many fun statistics) which is more than 5% of the UK adult population. There are no statistics available for how many were still dry on Wednesday, and I suspect there never will be, but we can report, unofficially, a noticeable uplift in sales from 20th January onwards, and a definite acceleration the first few days of this week! Congratulations to all of you that did the full month and a warm welcome back, what can we offer you?
Wine & Cheese Tastings
Well aware of your penchant for combining fermented grapes with curdled milk we published dates for our upcoming tastings over the next few months – response has been great, so here’s an update:
Thursday 8th February (next week!) at 8pm – only 4 spaces left
Thursday 15th March at 8pm – sorry, sold out!
Thursday 19th April at 8pm – good availability
Thursday 17th May at 8pm – good availability
Thursday 21st June at 8pm – good availability
Thursday 19th July at 8pm – good availability
So, check your diaries, we have someone booked for every evening now so we expect them all to sell out… As usual, to book, pop in or else call us on 020 8944 5224.
£20 per person.
Tasting this Weekend
We were out tasting this week and it seems that the Spanish islands are going to be the next big thing this year, the heat over wines from Etna cooling a little – and having listed the wines from the Mallorcan winery, Las Bodegas Maciá Batle, for many years now, we were quite excited to try some other wines.
Let’s just say, we are very pleased with our current listings and found the alternative wines we tasted truly delicious but very ambitiously priced – think Burgundy but wearing a sombrero…
So, we thought we’d open Maciá Batle Blanc de Blancs 2016 – £18.49 and show you why we like it – a blend of Prensal Blanc and Chardonnay; the Prensal Blanc is a local variety with a lightly herbal fruited character set off by the appley bite of the Chardonnay – delicious.
We also rediscovered the fact that Bordeaux from 2010 is also delicious. We’ll open the Château des Demoiselles Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux – £15.99, just to remind you too!
Late News
Alex is always late, no doubt about it. He hasn’t yet offered to resign though, but if he did I think I would let him stay, being half the business and all that.
Anyway, to reference YouGov for one last time, their question was thus:
The International Development Minister Lord Bates resigned and walked out of the House of Lords after being late to answer a ministerial question. (His resignation was not accepted). How often are you late?
Astonishingly, 47% of us said rarely and 19% never – that’s 2/3 of the population that reckons they’re timekeeping is almost perfect. Only 7% confessed to being usually or often late, the same percentage as those who ‘didn’t know’!
Think of your friends, read those stats and never believe another poll!
Wales v Scotland; France v Ireland; Italy v England – I genuinely have no clue how the rugby will shape up this weekend but I feel it could be amazing!
Wave goodbye, Alex…