Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First of all, some admin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We will be open all week this week, no early closes or late starts, just our usual, published working hours. We appreciate this is short notice and a departure from our recent foolhardy strategy of randomly closing early on the busiest evening of the week; however, hopefully we can all adapt to this new framework and enjoy it for many weeks to come without too much upheaval!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nice to be back in long trousers this week and the opportunity to always have an umbrella at hand is much appreciated, thank you. Not much else to celebrate in the world currently, harmony and love don\u2019t seem to be in great abundance, although the world\u2019s most famous day-sleeper has confessed to a love of inflation which, given his ego, doesn\u2019t come as a complete surprise. Over this side of the pond, Tommy Robinson flew to Russia to meet Errol, Elon\u2019s estranged father, in a Moscow hotel \u2013 we wonder at what point Tommy realised he\u2019d made an appointment with the wrong Musk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In wine news we have no news but, as they say, no news is good news, so it\u2019s all good news here, thank you very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, in the world of football, it\u2019s all kicking off. The biggliest, most beautiful World Cup, like you\u2019ve never seen before, started last night with the hosts, Mexico, playing South Africa, who have qualified for the first time since 2002. Red cards were being dished out like parking tickets but I was too busy enjoying some stringhopper fry in Tooting to watch such a fun-fest. South Africa were hosts in 2010 and, for all you trivia lovers out there, the opening match was between them and Mexico, resulting in a 1-1 draw in front of 84,490 spectators. 48 teams, 104 matches, 1 winner on Sunday 19th<\/sup> July \u2013 a long haul but if you don\u2019t like football, plenty of the matches will take place when you are tucked up in bed. Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan are all making their first appearances at a World Cup \u2013 welcome aboard, chaps, you\u2019ve got this in the bag!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, in the world of cricket, it\u2019s also kicking off. Love or hate Ben Stokes, or indeed Gus Atkinson, but it does feel like the ECB might be cutting of its nose to spite its face here. When David \u2018Biggles\u2019 Gower \u2018buzzed the tower\u2019 at the Carrara Oval, Queensland in 1991, he was fined \u00a31,000. However, he wasn\u2019t dropped \u2013 apparently, they had considered sending both of them back home (John Morris being the other ne\u2019er do well) but decided against because the side was doing extremely poorly. Ben Stokes has history, both on and off the pitch, of making big headlines. He likes a beer, as do many sportsmen, and he broke his curfew, guilty. On the other hand, his team had finished their match, won it too, and were the furthest away from their next outing that they could possibly be \u2013 at what point does the ECB step back and let them be, fine them certainly, but dropping them feels a little heavy-handed. Rob Key, who played 15 test matches for England before failing to make the triumphant 2005 Ashes team, said yesterday:<\/p>\n\n\n\n