Amongst the dark satanic mills of Halifax, West Yorkshire, there are indeed some green and pleasant pastures, and nestling in the hills we found Shibden Mill Inn. We once stopped for a quick Sunday lunch on a walking expedition and vowed to go back. On 1 March, Fred had just picked up a brand new Mini Cooper, so a drive out to somewhere remote seemed appropriate.
There are occasional tiny slivers, splinters of darkness in my life, that give me a sharp reminder of what I am giving up for my work. It’s not that I resent it, entirely my own choice after all. When I started the company in 2001, I went in with my eyes open. I realised it would mean sacrifices.
This afternoon I took my 10 year old god-daughter to see Man City. The look of delight on her face when City beat Spurs 2-1 was matched only by my relief at the end of an awful run of games that had put us on a snake track slithering down the league table.
Kellie came over from Dublin for the weekend with her sisters, Rebecca and Chloe – all gorgeous girls, well behaved, entertaining, polite, model children. Kellie is obviously my favourite and she is the footie fan, tomboy, fitness fanatic, make-up-rejecting bundle of energy.
And now they have all gone and I am alone in the flat. It’s strange how lonely you can feel when sudden mayhem is suddenly replaced by a sudden quantum of solace.
So to cheer me up, apart from consoling myself that City are back on the ladder of success, I have dragged out my notes from a bottle of Shampoo I sampled last weekend.
In deepest Evian-les-Bains I found one of the best wine shops ever. La Cave à Paul had such a wide range of Armagnacs going back to the year dot. But they had none from 1964 (year of my birth), so I settled for second best 1966 (last time England won the World Cup).
And when I got home I discovered that I had also (sort of) unknowingly bought some duty free Armagnac by Sempé (we flew from Geneva, Switzerland). It was time for a taste test. But hang on! There is more complication because I had also invested in Riedel glasses. The Cognac glass is a small tulip (on the left of the photo below), whereas a traditional Cognac or Armagnac glass is a bowl (shown on the right). An interesting experiment was to ensue….Â
Yes or No? True or False? Right or Wrong? One or Zero? There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those who don’t.
A new concept has been launched in Manchester close to my flat. It’s a Stealth Bar. Stealth in the sense that nobody knew it was coming and nobody noticed when it arrived. Do the owners know more about base 2 numbers than marketing?
Tomorrow I have to place 44 candles on a birthday cake, light them and blow them out. What will I wish for? While I deliberate, my body decays albeit slowly, and I am enjoying a glass of fizz before heading out for dinner.
Scottish shortbread, grapefruit notes and possibly a little lime. I find this a little too acidic to be truly memorable.
I have to admit that I know very little about champagne. I enjoy drinking it but I need to learn more about what makes one better than another. So whilst I did not get on greatly with Waitrose Vintage, this should not put you off trying it for yourself.
Have to dash – off to eat and yes, I am taking my notebook.
As for my birthday wish? It won’t be for another bottle Waitrose Vintage Champagne.
I thought Manchester City were supposed to be rich. Has “Frank” Shinawatra hit on hard times? The January transfer window was supposed to be a time for acquisition…. for us to brandish our financial muscle like a well-endowed porn star unleashing his not inconsiderable appendage to impressive gasps.
Top of our list was a striker or two….or maybe not. Georgios Samaras has just gone to Celtic on loan and Rolando Bianchi found more lush grazing pastures on a small square of Roman green belt known as the Stadio Olimpio, albeit that Sr. Bianchi’s debut for Lazio lasted just 5 minutes before he saw not green, but red, and was promptly sent for an early bath.
I was idling through my Google Analytics stats wondering who on Earth (other planets are available) reads this website and how they stumble across it?
Clearly many use Google, and compose some search string or other that chances upon a random thing I have written. It amused me to see that the most commonly used search string (2.1% of total visitors) to find Confessions of a Wino in the last month was “Freixenet pronunciation”. It proved that Google was quite clever to read my text to at least some degree semantically. Perhaps more important, though, was the marketing lesson….or maybe not.
Does it help to have a brand that 90% of people cannot pronounce? Does that make people go to the trouble of finding out? Or does it just inhibit them from asking for your product, if for example, like many sparkling wines, it is behind the counter?
For the record, my mate Paul, who can speak Spanish having spent 7 years there, says it is pronounced Fresher-Nett. And if you don’t want to ask for it, cases of 6 are available from your local Costco. Fill your trolley…
I’m sure you’ve read in the press that wine prices are set to rocket in 2008.  I wondered if this was just another ruse by the wine trade to panic people into parting with their hard-earned cash, or a genuine concern. I don’t like wasting money, or looking like a mug, so I thought I better investigate.
It is 15th January 2008 and I am at the end of my New Year detox. I am not sure whether it is time to celebrate or commiserate. Maybe I am a tad masochistic but I enjoyed it more than ever this year.
Nonetheless, this afternoon at a board meeting I had a large black coffee, and I would have eaten some chocolate biscuits had they been on offer. For lunch I had a fat filled chicken mayonnaise sandwich. Tonight, I felt I ought to complete a hat trick of poisons.  I felt obliged to sack my temporary tee-totalism.
I was ill over Xmas so didn’t drink much anyway. However, on NY eve I got totally mullered on champagne and that is the last alcoholic drink that passed my lips. So, to celebrate the end to my New Year dry period, I thought I might start again where I left off, and open some bubbly.
I was casually browsing around the wine blogs I usually read (see “Other good sites” on my home page) and found time to follow a few links to new sites I have not seen before. Why not mosey around yourself and see if you like:
Winos and Foodies – Barbara is the Aussie wino and foodie returning after a stint in the land of kiwis. Lively and fun.
Chez Pim – possibly the best travelled and restauranted lady in the blogoshpere. Name a posh resto – she has eaten there.
Wino Sapien – Edward the doctor from Oz who you might expect to focus on wines from down under but in fact reviews wines from all over the world with an elegant writing style.
Pour More – a new blog from Carol, formerly writing at Celebrate Wine. Only a couple of posts so far but already looking interesting.
The Wine Wanker – see through the risqué title (risqué in the UK at least) and you will find Jules, an intelligent and informed wine lover from Wellington, New Zealand.
The Chicken Out Campaign – I used to think Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was a stuck up tosser but his River Cottage TV series got me hooked, and I love his views on animal husbandry and how this relates to the food on our plate. His latest campaign to promote free range chicken in place of the cheap supermarket (2 birds for £5 anyone?) chickens is really important. Cruelly kept in dark sheds at a density of 17 pale and weak birds per square metre, for 39 days without ever seeing daylight, suffering massive discomfort at best, the luckiest birds get lame or diseased, and slaughtered early. This practice has to stop and I urge you to sign up for the campaign. The cost argument does not stack up for me – I would rather eat no chicken, than the cadavers of soulless inmates held to unjustified life imprisonment by supermarket accountants.
Seattle Wine Blog – OK I haven’t really read much of this one. It may be great, but I really included it in memory of the Seahawks glorious victory over the Redskins last weekend and to wish Seattle best wishes for their first post-season win on the road since 1983. Green Bay – watch out. I predict that Seattle will win the NFC Championship but despite my huge optimism, I can’t see them beating the Patriots in the Superbowl.
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