Mad Dogs, Midday Sun - and wine

Now we learn that drinking wine or eating grapes can help to prevent sunburn. According to researchers at Barcelona University, certain flavenoid compounds found in grapes are capable of stopping the death of cells and scarring of skin tissue caused by spending too long in the midday sun. How extraordinarily convenient. Remember you heard it here first - that large glass of red consumed with lunch earlier is purely and simply preventative before stretching out for a tan.Soon there should surely be a UV protection rating on the bottle next to the alcoholic strength..

Civil Disruption

Amid the extraordinarily sad news of the recent riots in areas of London particularly, it grieves us to have to advise that this may adversely affect some of our deliveries - most particularly to areas of London where there have been diversions and road closures. One or two deliveries have been delayed and although they have all now reached their intended destination if rioting continues it may be that some further delays result to currently outstanding orders. At the time of writing London and adjacent portions of the home counties are the only areas affected. There is a useful summary on the ParcelForce website here - though on a slightly more optimistic note, in these areas the majority of our deliveries are undertaken by UK Mail/Business Post which, because of their depot locations, seem rather less affected.

The Nuclear Option

Some Californians have set up a website 'beers not bombs' (link here) to change the world - they say - 'one beer at a time'. Still heavy on word play they want to move 'from War to Peace' and so are selling bottle openers recycled from disarmed nuclear weapon systems. So if, when you open a beer with your new opener you feel a warm glow - well - keep your distance and don't call us...

Special Relationships

As those of you who keep up with such things will already know Poland has taken over the Presidency of the EU. They have decided to celebrate the historic friendship between Hungary and Poland (of which in our ignorance we confess we were unaware) by serving wines only from Hungary at the EU functions hosted during their Presidency. We wonder if this could set a precedent? Perhaps it should even be a condition of the presidency. It might be that only German wines could be served when the French hold the Presidential seat or only French wine when the Brits are in charge. Maybe only Greek wines when the Portuguese are on duty and only Portuguese when the Greeks hold sway. The fun could be enormous...

Sit Down, Relax and Take Notice

Resveratrol, a compound found in most red wines is, according to the The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, likely to assist those with a sedentary lifestyle back to health. This is after one group of mice were given a daily dose and were found to have improved muscle mass and bone structure when compared with a control group. Trouble is that a glass of even the most resveratrol packed wine contains only one milligram of the stuff whereas a health supplement, for example, may contain as much as 500 milligrams. Farbeit for us to cast aspersions but after the first five hundred glasses the sedentary lifestyle might be rather difficult to quit, but you probably could keep taking the tablets...

Happy Birthday Pinot Grigio..Happy birthday to you!

Keep it quiet, but Pinot Grigio has become middle aged.... It is now 50! First produced in the style we now know by the Santa Margherita winery in 1961, when, as their usual style lacked market success, they decided they would create a very lean and fresh wine by picking grapes early and having next to no skin contact during the fermentation. This also meant that the wine was straightforwardly fresh - even perhaps 'citrussy'- and also clear and limpid without the slightly coppery hue that it was wont to take on when fermented with the skins (as can sometimes be noticeable in Alsace Pinot Gris, for example). So they invented the lean and mean, undemanding drinking style that has been so very widely copied. Whereas the fuller style they changed from, which is predominant now only in Alsace, remains much less appreciated. Indeed so successful have the first fifty years been for the style that we bet there are many that do not even know that Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are exactly the same grape type!
June 11

A very good trip

Word reaches us from our supermarket spies that one of their customers received £10,500 this month - for slipping on a grape. But the Ambulance chasing lawyers seemed to do even better, pocketing £18.500. Only goes to show how dangerous these grapes are - much better to keep them safe by fermenting them.