Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week we\u2019ll open with our first sports shocker of the year. A racing pigeon that went missing from a race in Oregon on 29th<\/sup> October has been found alive and well in Melbourne. The bird was discovered on Boxing Day looking a bit peckish after taking the long way home to the tune of 13000km. Experts think the bird has been practicing cargo boat doping, but like the cyclists who caught trains in the early days of the Tour de France, there is no evidence of that! Let\u2019s hope he gets quarantined rather than culled, you know what Aussie import rules are like!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst we\u2019re on the subject of travelling, it seems the BBC and the Evening Standard have been trying really hard all week to make a story out of the Prime Minister being 7 miles away from home on his bike. Think what you like about Boris, but why spend so much time on such a non-story when there is so much that could be held up for scrutiny, are we being na\u00efve in hoping for better? As anyone who has ridden a bike can tell you, seven miles is no distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still on the subject of journeys, we were sent an article this week from one of our long-time readers Matt. Like many of us he has been leafing his way through a series of Travel magazines and articles with a wishful (hopeful?) eye. He shared one of the more entertaining stories which tells of twelve bottles of Bordeaux sent up to the International Space Station. Not to cheer up the astronauts Vesta Beef you understand, but just for a spot of weightlessness whilst ageing. With them went around three hundred Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon vine snippets that also spent a year of weightlessness orbiting the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Space Cargo Unlimited claim understanding how grapes respond to weightlessness, scientists could help develop technology to grow more resilient plants on Earth. Now I\u2019m no gardener, let alone horticultural expert, but how will that happen? They were in protective packaging, a rocket and a space station, how is that different to greenhouse? \u2018Vines in Space\u2019 rather than \u2018Pigs In Space\u2019 but possibly still Muppetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All my cynicism aside, it\u2019d be quite interesting to taste the difference of a space aged bottle to a Chateau cellar aged bottle so we\u2019ll look out for notes when they are tasted by a selection of sommeliers in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n