Fellow Wine Lovers,<\/p>\n
Is that another week over with?\u00a0 Thank goodness for that\u2026. I think I need a drink!<\/p>\n
Some weeks are easier than others and, consequentially, some of these Friday missives are easier to write than others.\u00a0 This week is a harder week, the news hasn\u2019t really been playing with a straight bat and there is little humour to be derived from much of what we read each day.<\/p>\n
Locally, the events in Parsons Green dominate the news and South West London has been rudely awakened to the reality that whilst we live in what seems to be a lovely, leafy, utopian suburbia, we are also still part of the greater London metropolis and can be subjected to the same terrors.\u00a0 Thank goodness it wasn\u2019t worse.<\/p>\n
Internationally, the Donald got more time in the spotlight as he promised to destroy North Korea and put the squeeze on Iran \u2013 I\u2019m not sure if he is planning on doing this unilaterally or with a UN jacket on.\u00a0 Either way, he emphasised that it\u2019s all in the name of making the world a safer and more peaceful place, which makes one re-examine that bit a little earlier in his speech when he stated \u2018it has just been announced that we will be spending almost $700 billion on our military and defence. Our military will soon be the strongest it has ever been\u2019.\u00a0 <\/em>How safe does that make me feel?\u00a0 Not sure, especially since Kim now sees his nuclear endeavours as the only sensible avenue when faced with a \u2018deranged\u2019 POTUS.\u00a0 I hate it when the pot and the kettle argue\u2026.<\/p>\n The one joy was hearing the Melania, without any hints of irony, highlighting the dangers of cyberbullying and the important role we all have in curtailing it in a speech at a luncheon on Wednesday.\u00a0 I can only assume she doesn\u2019t follow her husband on twitter.<\/p>\n And then Theresa got up to have her say in New York on Wednesday but unfortunately she failed to attract the packed house that Donny T drew, as more than half the delegates had absented themselves from the room and some of the remainers, as it were, were busy talking amongst themselves.\u00a0 Perhaps a good trial run for her speech in Florence today, gets her warmed up to the idea of not being listened to!<\/p>\n In sport, at a time when we should absolutely be celebrating the continued footballing ascendance of the England Lionesses, after their 6-0 drubbing of Russia on Tuesday, we are in fact staring gobsmacked at the ineptitude of the FA.\u00a0 This football team has been getting better and better and has been a beacon of hope in a fairly poor English sport landscape.<\/p>\n But it was not to be unsullied.\u00a0 Mark Sampson, their manager, has been sacked, almost 4 years after his appointment, for reasons that should have stopped him being hired in the first place.\u00a0 But then he was investigated by the FA’s safeguarding unit and cleared in terms of his suitability to continue in football, in early 2015.\u00a0 And Martin Glenn, FA chief exec, \u00a0says that now, \u2018 (on) reading that report, I felt that what I saw was incompatible with the standards that we’d expect for someone to work at the FA.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 But later in the interview he states \u2018Mark Sampson is absolutely clear to work as a coach in football.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n What?<\/p>\n Either he\u2019s a rotten apple and should be removed from the game completely or a good egg who has a clean bill of health?\u00a0 Is he a bully, a racist or a risk to his players\u2019 safety?\u00a0 We really cannot tell from all the confusingly muddled messages emanating from the people who are meant to be in charge but one thing is for sure, it stinks.<\/p>\n When I started writing this today, I was hoping to come up with a selection of observations that might all snugly fit under the working title: 7 Reasons Why We Call It Fizz Friday.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure if I have succeeded but let\u2019s all raise glasses this evening to life, to Parsons Green, to Mexico, to the North Korean workers, to Marc Bolan and Jimi Hendrix (died this week in 1978 and 1970, respectively) and, to lighten the mood, to Prince Charles, who confessed this week in 1983, that he talks to his plants!<\/p>\n To help with this I have decided to eschew white wine this week on our tasting and jump straight in with some fizz.<\/p>\n For years we sold Morton Brut NV from New Zealand and you all loved it.\u00a0 It then went through a re-brand and now calls itself Leveret IQ Premium Brut NV<\/strong>.\u00a0 A champagne in all but name really, being a blend of the usual suspects, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay it\u2019s crisp and dry with a fine mousse, it\u2019s exactly the sort of bubbly for Friday Night fizz after a hard week.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u00a314.99<\/strong> and is a bottled celebration of human intelligence!<\/p>\n Theresa is in Tuscany so I thought it a wonderful excuse to open something very Tuscan \u2013 Sesti Monteleccio 2104 – \u00a319.99<\/strong>.\u00a0 In 1975, when Giuseppe Sesti came to Argiano, Brunello was distinguished but also dying out.\u00a0 Only 25 producers remained in the area and many assumed Brunello would become a historical footnote. \u00a0He set about restoring the ancient vineyards of Argiano. \u00a0Monteleccio is Giuseppe\u2019s baby Brunello, distinctively Sangiovese Grosso, the only grape of Brunello, with its classic aromas of dried cherries, cedar, truffles and tobacco.\u00a0 The palate is concentrated but also soft and open with notes of mocha and chocolate lingering long into the finish.\u00a0 As a footnote, Giuseppe did not initially choose a career in wine. \u00a0Instead, his Venetian upbringing inspired him to study music, art, and astronomy, the last of which became his profession which makes him the perfect person to keep an eye on the actions of Rocket Man and the Dotard!<\/p>\n That\u2019s it from us for now \u2013 in all the hiatus I never got a chance to view the rugby last weekend \u2013 anyone got any idea how the All Blacks got on against the Springboks!!<\/p>\n I\u2019ll love you and leave you now\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fellow Wine Lovers, Is that another week over with?\u00a0 Thank goodness for that\u2026. I think I need a drink! Some weeks are easier than others and, consequentially, some of these Friday missives are easier to write than others.\u00a0 This week is a harder week, the news hasn\u2019t really been playing with a straight bat and […]<\/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-913","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\/913","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=913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions\/914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}