Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We started the week with the King\u2019s Speech, which Rishi Sunak described as \u201ctaking long-term decisions for a brighter future.\u201d I don\u2019t know if you saw it, but the enthusiasm with which the King detailed the measures rather suggested to this watcher that His Majesty remains on the fence in that regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is not much new in it, a lot of words and a few North Sea oil and gas licences that\u2019ll make no difference to the economy at all. Though quite how they\u2019ll be \u201chelping the country to transition to net zero by 2050 I\u2019m not sure. Perhaps that\u2019s why the King sounded rather bored, that and the fact that a third of the proposals are left over from the last parliament maybe. Still, on the plus side, there was nothing about a ban on tents, and there is talk of a Football Regulator, let\u2019s just hope that they don\u2019t involve the folks who run VAR! Probably the cigarette ban isn\u2019t a bad idea either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve also been tuning in to the Covid enquiry, it\u2019s been heavy going at points but we\u2019ve stuck with it. We felt slightly obliged, given how much time we spent mocking some of the actions or decisions that were taken at points and having listened for a number of days we would say that it was even more mad and chaotic than any of us imagined. You can imagine our shock at the news that \u201cCovid rules were broken virtually every day in No.10\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the culture front, Mad Nads\u2019 book is now out. We haven\u2019t read it, but understand from informed folk that it contains all the thrills and spills you\u2019d expect from a fiction writer at the heart of government. A Tory cabal called the \u2018Movement\u2019 that really runs everything, a butchered rabbit and claims that Rishi Sunak is a \u2018Manchurian candidate\u2019 installed by Dominic Cummings. We\u2019re not sure who has the white cat sat on their lap, but think it might need the cynical setting on your Kindle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WeWork filed for bankruptcy protection this week as it turned out that it didn\u2019t actually work. Valued at $47 billion dollars in January 2019, the company was worth just $50 million when it filed for protection this week. All those chasing any company involved in AI might just want to do a \u2018Fairy Dust\u2019 check before investing the entire pension fund eh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the wine front, the figures are in and it turns out that 2023 is the smallest grape harvest since 1961. It looks likely that we\u2019ll experience an overall fall of around 7% and as it\u2019s been Italy and Spain taking the climate hit, France has moved back up to top volume producer for this year. It looks like a good vintage in both quality and volume aspects for the English wine producers and in California, the wet winter and cool summer has done wonders for the producers of Napa and Sonoma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The OECD released a study into binge drinking this week. The reported headlines were quite a thing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daily Express: \u201cGlobal study names world\u2019s booziest countries \u2013 and Britain is NOT number one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Daily Star: \u201cWorld\u2019s biggest boozers revealed \u2013 and UK only comes third.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Daily Mail: \u201cWhy ARE British women the world\u2019s biggest binge drinkers?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can draw your own conclusions from that, but we would also mention a joint study from researchers at Universities of Washington and California. They found that a glass of wine can help you sleep but only if you\u2019ve already had a coffee. Now I don\u2019t know about you, but I have always had a cup of coffee before I\u2019ve had a glass of wine. Coffee with breakfast, wine later on, even on Christmas Day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tasting this Weekend<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We thought we\u2019d head to Italy this week, there\u2019s a bit of a treat on the white front, Poggio Al Tesoro Solosole Vermentino 2022, Toscana (\u00a327.99)<\/strong> this delicious white from Bolgheri is crisp and elegant with yellow plum fruit. But don\u2019t take my word for it, come and taste for yourself. It\u2019ll be a top treat with that fish you pick up at the Farmer\u2019s Market on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the red corner, we\u2019ll be bringing out one of our new purchases. Urban Park Appassimento 2019, Veneto (\u00a314.99) <\/strong>is from our chums at Montresor and is made from grapes dried for around 30 days before being made into wine. A mini Amarone, if you will. We\u2019re quite excited about it, so come and tell us what you think. We\u2019ve got a mushroom stroganoff against this one, how about you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, We started the week with the King\u2019s Speech, which Rishi Sunak described as \u201ctaking long-term decisions for a brighter future.\u201d I don\u2019t know if you saw it, but the enthusiasm with which the King detailed the measures rather suggested to this watcher that His Majesty remains on the fence in that regard. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1759,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions\/1759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}