As I hinted at last week, not so much a sale of huge discounts on wines that you really shouldn’t be buying (as with most offerings) but a more modest 10% or so discount on some of our best-selling and most recommended wines:
Huntsworth’s “January Sale”:
Côtes-du-Rhône Rouge 2007 É.Guigal
£ 9.50 per Bottle (£ 10.50) currently being shipped
£ 19.00 per Magnum (£ 22.00) in stock
Château Brande-Bergère “Cuvée O’Byrne” 2009 Bordeaux
£ 13.95 per Bottle (£ 15.00) in stock
£ 30.00 per magnum (£ 33.00) in stock
Jean Daneel “Signature” Chenin Blanc 2009 Swartland, South Africa
£ 18.50 per Bottle (£ 20.00) in stock
Macon-Vinzelles “Le Clos de Grands-Père” 2007 Bret Brothers
£ 16.00 per Bottle (£ 17.50) in stock
Palladian Cabernet-Sauvignon 2005 Napa Valley, California
£ 25.00 per Bottle (£ 28.00) in stock
Côte-Rôtie “Cuvée Classique” 2004 Northern Rhône
£ 29.00 per Bottle (£ 33.00) due in shortly
Not the classic of Northern Rhône Vintages BUT this absolutely epitomizes the floral elegance and exotic spice that Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage is renowned for.
Burgundy 2010
Unequivocally for those of you who buy Burgundy En Primeur anyway and I strongly think for those long-term Bordeaux En Primeur buyers that were disaffected by the Bordelaise pricing last year, this will be one to consider and to commit. 2010 Burgundy, red in particular is looking at this early juncture to be a wonderful return to classic, traditional, characterful Pinot Noir. Lacking flamboyance but exhibiting all the hallmarks that one would hope for on the Côte d’Or. One Tasting this morning, another later, this will be ongoing over the next fortnight as I taste and re-taste and slowly fine tune my opinions, picks, and purchases. From what I tasted this morning, I will update as soon as I can and I am sure with a fair dollop of enthusiasm!
Silly Season:
Firstly not a slither of Turkey in sight but an awful lot of humble pie. I got the “BBC Sports Personality of the Year” wrong. That nice golfer chappie only came second. I said I would eat my Rupert-the-Bear trousers etc., but that was somewhat crafty as not playing golf, luckily I don’t have such attire. Secondly I have long since lampooned those overpaid Bruxelles bureaucrats for many things but one in my field being that cases of wine are a mere six bottles and not the more traditional and manly twelve bottles that us plucky Brits are more used to humping around. Now facing a second operation on my other hand I have grudgingly conceded that those bureaucrats might have been half right as though I can still carry a case of wine, a half-case is now considerably easier. Not that I want you to order half of what you used to. Henry is still here for the full cases!
What times are these? Merkel could be argued as the greatest politician of the day yet she is and has been surrounded by bouffon buffoons like Tea Cosy and follickly challenged crooner, Silvio B. to name but a caricatured pair. How much worse can it get? With a swift kick, up pops Monsieur Eric Cantona. Vraiment? Ooh-ah Cantona… Are we still in Pantomime season?
Mustafa Ameen may be way more religious than I am but when asked about the possibility of interfering in the judges’ decision over the recent Amir Khan boxing match, his answer to my mind leaves more questions than it answered. He Said “You are questioning if I did something to harm my Muslim brother (Khan?) May almighty Allah protect me from what you and the rest assert.” By even mentioning “Muslim brother” and if the other boxer isn’t or wasn’t, surely by dint alludes to a bias? Secondly, if there is nothing untoward to any of these assertions, you wouldn’t need to bring Allah’s name in to it. Nothing is nothing. Did you murder that man? No I didn’t. Okay. Did you murder that man? Allah will protect me from that accusation. Religious or not that’s the wrong answer. D.O.D.G.Y.
My interest was alerted by the Private Eye (Issue 1,304, Page 6) article on David Blunkett where he was being somewhat furtive about his £ 100,000+ settlement from Rupee Murdoch and News International due to his phone being hacked. My concern is that I am presuming the said mobile phone was registered on the business and thus paid for by us taxpayers? If so, why should Mr. Blunkett benefit financially in a personal capacity and this settlement not revert to his official and paid for capacity?
As Home Secretary the general and major concern was surely security related to his job. Let’s be brutally honest about this, even the tabloids would not be interested in any potential or actual shenanigans from a let’s say “bearded dog handler called Dave”, so any intent or interest would have solely been due to his official role as David Blunkett, Secretary of State. Thus any recompense or remuneration should surely head back to his office or the National coffers and not his own back pocket? If the phone was tax paid on the business there should be some legal obligation to this effect and even if not, surely he must have some humility to accept that a figure of circa five times a nurse’s starting wage (£ 21,176) wage is morally bankrupt to accept? I think actors and footballers etc., come under a different category but anyone in Public Office (and of any political party - left, right, or wrong) who has been thus effected by phone tapping should gift at least part of their settlement to HMR&C and or their official office.
Not that there should be any “side” whatsoever but a difficult subject to broach anywhere outside of a newspaper: Stephen Lawrence and the convictions of Dobson and Norris. I sense many of you ducking below the parapet. Though I can’t begin to think what the last twenty years has been for the Lawrence family I do surmise that it must be a tougher time to serve your sentence now. An arrogant, ignorant, violent 17-18 year old is surely likely to emerge less bruised 15-20 years on than if they begin that same stretch some 20 years later. Perhaps guesswork but I suspect they wished they had been convicted twenty years ago and not now.
Next week - Ready decorated Christmas trees, were you guilty?
Tuggy Meyer
In haste this week so please excuse any speeling mitakes.
