Fellow Wine Lovers,
FIRST A VERY IMPORTANT PIECE OF ADMIN:
Due to the fact we’ve been invited to provide the wine and run the bar at Kings College quiz night tonight, we’ll be closing at 5pm in order to set everything up. Apologies for inconvenience caused.
This week Trumpolina and Kim Wrong ‘Un met up in Vietnam for a couple of Summer Spring Rolls, Bo La Lot (meat in Betel Leaves) and a couple of pints of Hué. Sadly, as is often the case after a few cold ones, no agreement was reached. Instead Wrong’Un will head back to watch another thrilling march by with the Highsteppers. Trumpolina meanwhile, mulls over a failed foreign photo op, claims people are telling lies to congress and misses the GDP growth target. We’ll get a Chinese trade deal soon folks, he’s desperate for it.
In other international news India and Pakistan are handbags drawn at dawn over Kashmir again, with captured pilots, shot down planes and furious moustaches. Do you think Led Zeppelin know about this fuss?
In Brexitania, people you’ve never heard of have resigned, we have three dates for meaningful votes and anything could change at the drop of a hat. Someone has discovered we have the wrong size pallets for exporting. I wondered do people still do woodwork at school?
Jacob Rees -Mogg is enjoying his rock star status in a Tom Jones stylee with a sell-out night at the Palladium. Unlike a Tom Jones gig, it appears the audience held on to their underwear!
Climate disaster or an unexpected nice spell in February? I’m sure we all have a view, or maybe even several, but you can be sure the kids who saw the first ever snow in Hawaii, or those in the Sahara who also witnessed a splash of the white stuff, enjoyed it just as much that kid in Wimbledon Park eating an unseasonably early ice lolly.
We also note that today is St David’s Day (Dydd Gwyl Dewi) and on further discussion discovered that we don’t know how it’s celebrated. According to the interweb people attend special church services, wear daffodils or leeks, or eat Welsh Rarebit for tea. Sounds quite different to St Patrick’s Day! We do know of one young lady who celebrates it every year by getting older – A happy birthday to you!
Wayne’s a bit nervous on the sport front, no rugby this week (which might be a good thing) and we have the North London Derby. Normally we don’t discuss this too much, being opposite sides of the coin so to speak. Tottenham have now lost two on the spin and Arsenal seem to be on a decent spell of form, so he seems to think there is a chance of Arsenal winning something at Wembley after all.
In proper sports the European Cycling season kicks off this weekend with Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad bringing us the first cobbled classic of the season. We’ll be cheering for Ian Stannard I think, but think it’s going to be difficult to beat Greg Van Avermaet. For the women’s race we can’t help wonder if it may just be Chantal Blaak’s time to win. Sunday will give us Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and we can’t help but wonder if Matteo Trentin might grab the top podium place.
On the wine front, a news story we found very interesting was that Constellation brands is to sell or discontinue 40% of its wine and spirits brands. It seems to us that everywhere you look people are developing “brands” when we thought you went about building a business. Constellation has built and bought lots and lots of wineries and spirits brands in the time we’ve been in the wine trade, and this is not the first time they’ve had a cull. We think there might be a note of caution to be learned somewhere in this story.
Tasting This Weekend
The Lillywhites will be represented by Desjacques Sauvignon Blanc (£9.49). A lovely drop from Sauvignon Blanc’s heartland in the Loire Valley. A highly aromatic wine with fresh zesty citrus and gooseberry flavours and mouth-watering acidity. Fruit follows the nose nicely with some added chalky mineral to the finish. Very much made in the image of a Sancerre.
Gunners are represented by a delicious Saumur Champigny in the shape of Les Clos Maurice Vieilles Vignes 2016 (£17.99). I could give you all the guff about the soil in the vineyards, the angle of the slope the vines are planted on etc. but the reason we bought this was the label. Nothing at all to do with the lovely fruit concentration from vines planted in 1921, nothing at all to do with the fact that we loved the fine balance of fruit, freshness and tannins, or the long finish. Certainly not how delicious it would be with a pork chop, definitely the label.