Christmas and the New Year...

So it appears School is already out for most of you. For the thirsty, the needy, we shall be here until the last minute, virtually – Christmas Eve. Next week however I will be nursing my wounds and taking most of that week off. Any of our locals, any of our regulars, you all should have my mobile number (it is below if you haven’t) and if you need a pre New Year half-case of Champagne, just call or text and I will nip in and open up the Shop for you.

Our newest of our three House Champagne and now appears our best-selling:

R. & H. Lamotte 1er Cru Champagne at £ 24.50 per Bottle

(£ 54.00 per Magnum)

And the usual fare for Christmas indulgences:

Half-Bottles

Magnums

Double Magnums

Imperials…

Red

White…

Champagne (Rosé, Vintage)

Sauternes…

Vintage Port

Armagnac

Kentucky Bourbon

Pedro Ximénez

Whisky…

Silly season:

            I am 46 years old and still do not see the point of Golf but my money for BBC Sports Personality of the Year is firmly cemented to Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy. If these two don’t both finish in the top three I’ll eat my Rupert the Bear plus fours and flappy tasseled shoes. It is not merely about actual tangible gold plated sporting achievement but that key word, personality. The rest of the field, Andy Murray; Mo something; Alastair Cook; Straussy; Mark Cavendish, come on, not exactly an exciting list is it. So I won’t be shouting that embarrassment “in the hole” (I’ll actually be watching Tottenham versus Chelsea) but I will be expecting and hoping Golf to triumph tomorrow. I don’t say that often.

            Jeremy Clarkson got a right royal roasting for saying that strikers should be taken out and shot, in front of their family. Even Schoolboy, Miliband Minor, got upset. Come on children, don’t any of you misery guts watch Have I got News For You or Q.I. or Mock The Week or Never Mind The Buzzcocks? Don’t you have humour in Islington? Maybe I am just so diabolically middle class – when I get home I flick through the channel hopper and only rest when I get to Top Gear; University Challenge or the aforementioned Comedy smug fest. I suppose I am just hopelessly and incurably, middle class!

            I have always thought (known) Arsenal F.C. is a different breed. Twenty teams in the Premiership and nineteen of those with avid supporters. Bitter disappointment for a losing side in a Manchester Derby etc but beyond that, a basic respect for other Clubs and an acknowledgement of skill and style when displayed by others. Except I find from Arsenal fans. Having lost to the better Manchester City on Sunday (1-0) I then proceeded to get at least fifteen texts from my step brother (an Arsenal fan) each of them berating how robbed they were. I watched the game and then with provocation, again the highlights just to assure I wasn’t biased. I voiced that if it were a boxing match Man City would have won 5-2 on points. They were simply far more incisive in attack. Like Arsene Wenger, he refused to believe and thought the world was against him. Having lost, the Arsenal goalkeeper Szczesny was quoted as saying “I’m only worried about finishing above Tottenham”. I think that says it all. Some people you just can’t help!

Now I know for some Kensington is scaling the heights but I really can’t fathom why we have no less than six mountaineering shops on Kensington High Street, same side and within a hundred yards of each other. Is this where Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Sir Richard Attenborough and Chris Bonnigton all live? Is this really the Mecca for all the anorak clad ramblers? Can’t see five of the six lasting the year.

Christmas can be a pressure time with the family. Spare a thought for a couple we had in yesterday. Not regular customers but they had just flown in from California and were going to their son’s new girlfriend for Christmas Day. So far so good but they found out she is vegetarian and not merely for herself but will be inflicting that upon the whole family. Stuffed squash apparently. They were distraught. Staying in a Mayfair Hotel however I advised them to leave an hour early and nip into Bar Bouloud under The Mandarin Hotel and have their terrific hamburgers as an hors d’oeuvre. So whatever you have to contend with this Sunday afternoon, spare a thought for those on stuffed squash. Whatever that is! Henry here has a solution about the family arguments – invite friends as well as he says that dilutes any and all problems!

            The bitter weather of the last few days does make one think of how especially tough it is to be Homeless at this time of year. I duly walked up to the man with his stack of Big Issues in Lower Sloane Street, £ 1.50 in hand to palm it his way but then saw it is now £ 3.00. My God, how long since I have bought the Big Issue? Suitably embarrassed. www.sfts.org.uk

“Britain is as isolated as someone who refused to join the Titanic just before it sailed.” – Terry Smith

Hearty Rhône Red...Raspail-Ay...

I hadn’t intended to pitch a new wine to you before Christmas but A) this was good and B) with winter storms finally lashing parts of the U.K., I thought perhaps a pertinent time to suggest this hearty, meaty Rhône Red. We used to stock the 2004 Vintage which was eminently popular. The 2005 should have been as good or better but for my schilling, it wasn’t and so Raspail-Ay duly dropped from our radar for the last couple of years. The 2008 which we tried last week is back where we would like it to be:

Gigondas 2008 Domaine Raspail-Ay at £ 22.00 by the Bottle

Initially, candied violets, not unlike a Côte-Rôtie but with thick mouth-filling texture, chewy, flavoursome. Lovely grainy texture.

With time and in the glass brambly, strawberry fruits in evidence and those drier Rhône flavours with spice and herbs shining through.

(In stock and £ 21.00 by the Case)

15^th to the 24^th of December –

OPEN each and every day…

If it helps, we will be OPEN this coming SUNDAY.

I’ll be open and QPR v Man Utd / Villa v Liverpool / Man City v Arsenal will be on. Just don’t tell the wife!

Silly season.

I won’t say I am avid reader of the Torygraph but after Private Eye it is perhaps the number one read for me. Or at least what I will admit to in public. Last week however they had a sequence of three photographs that appeared to show Petit Sarkozy has snubbed a handshake from David Cameroon. The reality is that Cameroon patted Sarkozy on the back as he was passing and snub it was not. At least not then. Are the Telegraph trying to take over the mantel from the News of the World.

It’s been a week and a half for geeks. Did anyone see Louis Walsh in some extraordinary burgundy and black outfit during the X-factor Final? Quite extraordinary. It is only excusable if you are of the David Bowie and Elvis Presley entertainment bent but for anyone else it is just hideously embarrassing. A fancy dress party maybe but on television, Walsh, what were you thinking of man?! On the subject of geeks, I couldn’t help squirm at what an over-excited little schoolboy Andrew Marr was on Sunday when he had Mick Hucknall on to warble something. By all means get excited (but don’t show it) if it’s The Beatles or Mozart or U2 or Led Zeppelin or even Cold Play but Mick Hucknall, get a grip man.

As we are fast approaching Christmas and though it still doesn’t feel like that to me I have done some of the usual seasonal offerings. Like my son’s School Carol Service; had my shins hacked in the Fathers’ v Son’s Football Match (strategic 3-1 loss); and even put my son’s Hornby train set in the shop window as a vague gesture towards a Christmas window. So I also took him to St-Luke’s in Sydney Street but alas the Carols were not the ones I knew. Don’t like it when religion tries to be trendy. Apart from a prayer book and an offering box us mere mortals can’t find too much else useful in a church these days, such as a modern convenience like heating or a loo! However St-Luke’s was a positive revelation – they have a fully fledged Café! Not just limp sandwiches but everything from a prawn cocktail and forwards for the next thirty years. So if you find yourself lolling along the King’s Road and feeling nostalgic, St-Luke’s is worth the pilgrimage.

Fashion is not exactly my bling but what on earth is going on at Dolce & Gabbana? As I slid by t’other day in my large red coloured taxi (bemused of Belgravia) I couldn’t believe how goppingly gaudy the Shop was. Real Pantomime stuff. Trouble is, I doubt they’ll grow out of it come January.  

In keeping with fashion, of sorts, “Tuggy M”