Buying an iPhone is a bit like getting married to Pamela Anderson and then finding out she’s done a porno. Almost everything is exquisite, near perfect, round, supple and enticing. But you quickly start finding out that a few assumptions you made were wrong, and everyone knew but you.
Under pressure from my peers at work to get a push email device, I quickly rejected the Samsung Omnia and, less readily, the Nokia N96, so that left me with a technological fruit cocktail to contend with: Apple or Blackberry.
I’ve been a Nokia man since I switched from an ancient Ericsson in the early 1990s. I was an early adopter of mobile phones on account of working in a disaster planning role. Oh how we laughed in those early days as we ate in a curry house in Bingley enduring super slow service. I had an idea. I pulled out my brick shaped device, telephoned the restaurant and ordered the bill to much guffawing from other customers. Doesn’t sound so stupid nowadays but phones then were primitive, and I was the only person in the resto, possibly in the whole village, that had such a bulge in my pants.
Pungent nose, zingy flavour but slightly flat aftertaste – like a Szechuan hot and sour soup. Not as fruity as some NZ Sauvignons but this Martinborough wine is appealing nonetheless. Slightly different style with a bit of steel and hints of Chablis in that sense. Palliser Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2007 used to be available from the Wine Society for £9.50 but a quick search of their website reveals rien. Perhaps it’s out of stock.
Good evening credit crunchers, how are your bank shares doing? Yes I know, mine too. With the sole exception of HSBC. With a much higher than average capital ratio, HSBC shares have risen 4% this year, whilst other banks (e.g RBS, HBOS) have tanked to one fifth of their recent value, and my old mate, Mr Bradford is owned by the British Government whilst erstwhile Mr Bingley has emigrated to Santander in Spain. Luckily I sold B & B at about £2 while the credit crunch was a mere cream cracker. They traded at 20 pence on the day they were nationalised. I would have sold all my shares, but which bank could you trust your cash with?
It is not just banks, all capital expenditure has been frozen at a corporate and personal level. How many people do you know buying a new car at the moment? A new phone? A new TV? Heating oil? Food? Chateau Latour? Nope. The world is frozen with fear and we are riding an apocalyptic stallion of self fulfilling prophecy into a deep depression.
And if you want to dig yourself out of a depression, you will need cheap alcohol as your spade. You could do worse than trying to cheer yourself up with this New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, at £8.95 from the Wine Society, a mere fraction of the price of the Cloudy Bay you used to drink in better times.
Auntsfield Long Cow 2007 is pale, grassy and full of cats’ piss. (For the keen grammatinarianisticians amongst you, the pungency is such that I think there was more than one cat). The acidity, though, is good and there is plenty of white fruit.
For the few remaining bulls amongst you, if your bank shares are still heading south, (and you can no longer sell them short), why not take a long position on this cow?
They say that Pinot Noir has barnyard aromas, but this one was more like green manure, just starting to rot away nicely before being ploughed back into the soil to nourish and re-energise.
……..miaow, miaow, miaow, miaow, miaow!
Craggy Range Te Muna Road Sauvignon Blanc 2007 is the very metaphor for cats’ piss on a gooseberry bush. Except these Martinborough cats mistook a pineapple tree for the green and prickly one.
Available from the Wine Society at £12.50. It’s a good slurp but I think there are better value SBs available from New Zealand, and indeed, the Wine Society. Check out John Hancock’s Trinity Hill at only £8.50, for example.
Regular readers know that I sampled the Auction service at Virgin Wines with mixed results. I discovered recently that they have started auctioning Cloudy Bay 2007. Fabulous idea! Everyone knows the price of Cloudy Bay. Although Harvey Nichols sells it every year for about £16-18, other retailers struggle to keep it below £20. The Sunday Times Wine Club sells it at a rip-off £26.95! Virgin Wines? You can start bidding at £1 for 6 bottles!
So I raced to the site and discovered with disappointment that, with 18 hours still to go, the bidding was already at £131 for a half case (£21.83 per bottle). It only took me 1 minute on Google to find it at £18.99 at lebonvin.co.uk. I am not saying that £131 for 6 is bad value, though. It just pays to keep an eye on availability elsewhere if you value your coins. Well worth visiting Virgin and placing a bid of £50 or so, just in case! I am going to keep going back for a look.
Anyway, the cricket saison est arrivé, and tomorrow I managed to get a ticket (sold out) for England vs New Zealand at Old Trafford (Manchester). I know what you are thinking, how on earth is he going to tie all this nonsense back into a post about a wine from Touraine? Listen carefully, I am about to begin…..
At work, we’ve just recruited a new Director of Professional Services. Bringing new personnel into a business is always risky. Appointing someone to a key management position is even riskier. Will they fit in to the culture? Do they really have the skills? Do they have the bottle? In short, will they deliver the goods?
In this case, I am more confident than usual because I have known Neil for many years, and have worked with him before. I think he is ideally suited to the role and fully expect him to fit in and start adding value immediately. That’s the thing about good people – they add value immediately. So once you find them, you need to focus on keeping them on your side. Losing a key person to a competitor or, perhaps worse* to leave the industry, is a big threat to any business.
When I last tried Wither Hills (the 2006), I didn’t give it enough attention, although I liked the wine very much. So tonight I am trying the 2007 and hope to make up for that by giving it due consideration. But the first thing I noticed was a minor omission on the label. It no longer says “Brent Marris, winemaker”.
All too recently I have learnt just how varied Pinot Noir can be. If Burgundy is the spiritual church of Pinot, then New Zealand is surely the moonie cult. But there are wines from Eastern Europe, USA, South America, in fact just about every wine region feels it has to have a go at this sometimes rewarding but often fickle bedfellow. It seems that everyone loves a challenge and nobody can resist trying to pull the Brigitte Bardot of grapes.
Some of the Chilean Pinot Noirs I have tried recently are extraordinarily good, but not typical of the wines from Bourgogne. Most commentators agree that New Zealand Pinot Noirs are hitting the stratosphere in quality terms. I have found many of these to be interesting too, although perhaps a little nearer, in religious terms, to the Pinot cathédrale of the Côte D’Or.
This bottle of Stonewall, Forrest Estate 2005 came to me from Marlborough via a mixed case from the Sunday Times Wine Club “Pure Pinots” at £69.99 the case. The first thing that struck me was a boring label by NZ standards. However, the taste was far from boring. Strawberry, macaroon, stewed blackberry and grapefruit, is a fantastic mix and this wine added a touch of vanilla ice cream too (or did I serve it too cold?). It took time to open up though. This is worth opening half an hour before drinking, if you can keep your sweaty mitts off it for that long. I couldn’t.
I’m making a move for Pinot Noir, the Brigitte Bardot of grapes. Beguiling, attractive, seductive, fruity, yet inconsistent and possibly a little bonkers.
Stumble It!
