Confessions of a Wino

Have you checked out the Wine Life Today website?

I found it recently and thought it was a great idea.  If you have ever heard of Digg, you are probably a bit techie.  Nonetheless, I’ll press on.  Digg is a news aggregation and bookmarking website that allows users to vote for (Digg) the best stories and these get promoted onto the front page so they get a better chance of being read by busy folk.  But Digg is really aimed at geeks so if you look for softer categories like wine and food for example, you will not find them.  So someone had the great idea of a Digg for wine and decided to call it Wine Life Today, only instead of Digging, you Toast the news item.

Now there are two other differences between Digg and Wine Life Today.

1.  Digg is well used and Wine Life Today is not – the most toasted post I could find only had 10 supporters.  The top Digg article had 41,619 – hmmmm.

2.  Digg has a good algorithm and WLT is totally rubbish.  It looks like any post of any age will make it onto the front page with only 4 Toasts.  Today there is a post three days old with 5 toasts that is above a three day old post with ten toasts.

(more…)

Dr Thaksin sent me a text message (at his expense) with a personal invite to meet him in Albert Square after the Man City game against Valencia.

Man City invites a European team over at the start of every season for the “Thomas Cook” trophy.  Some would say that this is the only chance we get to watch any European football and I have sympathy with that view.  Valencia were the opponents on this occasion.

City lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, a welcome change to the dire 4-5-1 inspired home performances of last season that resulted in only 10 goals all season.  However, even as pre-season friendlies go, this turned out to be amongst the most non-eventful.

(more…)

It’s taken me ages to get round to posting much about the lads’ trip at the end of June 07.  You remember I left you while we were eating lunch on the first day.  Well a man of my stature (weight that is) needs to eat at least twice a day so the evening found us at Vila do Grove, just behind the Hotel Andalusia Plaza.

(more…)

I was invited to Live Earth.  What a dilemma.  All tickets cost £55.  I went free.  Should I make a charitable donation to some worthy cause?  Which cause exactly?  I mean this was not a charity event, it was about awareness, man.  Quite a hippy concept really, but played out in the hard commercial word of the new millennium.  Some of the messages from the various entertainers who participated were more genuine than others but I have to admit to laughing.  It’s not very rock and roll having some pop idol jumping on stage and telling us all not to leave our TVs on standby, before launching into some familiar guitar riff.

There were also doubts about the CO2 created by the event itself.  I travelled public transport all the way, only to see the Black Eyed Peas being helicoptered in to Wembley for Al Gore’s denouement.

All in all though, a fantastic day out.  It’s not often you get to see such a high class line up.  Here’s the pictures:

Firstly my (somewhat feeble) attempt at a panoramic view of Wembley.

(more…)

I was asked by one of the sponsors of “new” Wembley “do you want to come and see Muse?”  My total dumbfounded silence made them re-phrase the question – “I’ve got a box at Wembley to see some band you’ve never heard of, do you want to come?”  “YES PLEEEEEEEASE!”

OK so I am too old to have heard of Muse – you can laugh but at least I remember Led Zeppelin – I still have most of their albums (on vinyl of course) and I saw Spinal Tap at Live Earth – rock on!

I thought you might be interested in the pics.

Muse?  Imagine the bastard son of Radiohead and Suede and (if you are a Gen Xer like me) you will see what I mean.

(more…)

I did once manage to get some sort of degree from Leeds University Business School which is not exactly the Ivy League.  Still it stood me in good stead for being comprehensible – occasionally.  Sadly this was not true when I visited The Ivy with the wife.

Being in the West End we opened with a quick glass at the Cork & Bottle on Cranbourn Street and swiftly moved on to the surprisingly quiet location next to the St Martin’s Theatre where The Mousetrap has been playing since 1436:

(more…)

A lads’ weekend in Puerto Banus (or Port Banus as I call it) and we needed some lunch.  We stayed at the H10 Andalucia Plaza (best breakfast in the whole of Spain).  Still, it was our first day and we hadn’t had any breakfast so we ambled in the direction of the port, and we decided to sample a nice “friendly” looking bar:  Café Los Amigos.

(more…)

Is Channel M the future?  As I sat in my living room in Leeds I pondered the segmentation going on in the digital TV market.  I have a foot either side of the Pennines so frequently flick to Channel M to find out what is going on in Manchester.  I could equally be living in Spain and watching the aptly named Living in Spain channel, or enjoying a glass of plonk whilst watching Wine TV.  However, as a Man City fan there is fat chance you will find me subscribing to MUTV (no hyperlink – I don’t want to promote that channel).

So it seems that whatever your interest, you can find a TV channel to suit.  So why not specialised wine dealers, I thought.  My next business plan may be to open a wine shop that specialises in unfashionable Bordeaux wines.

La Réserve du Grand Plantier 1990 is a Côtes de Bourg wine that I have never heard of, so this is not a good start to my business idea.

(more…)

Me and my Chairman finished a meeting in the City and decided to go for a quick beer………which turned into erm, two bottles of wine.

The reason being that we stumbled upon Clause on Lovat Lane off Eastcheap EC3.

This bar must think it is Christmas every day.  Between 5pm and 7pm they have a happy happy happy hour where all wines (except house) are half price!  So we “invested” in an Errazuriz Sauvignon Blanc, Chile 2005 at £17.50 (or rather £8.75).  It would have been rude not to have ordered some nibbles to go with it, so we didn’t.

Then after a second bottle we ordered the bill and, including service, it was less than 20 quid – what in London?  In the City?  At a posh bar?  “Yaw ‘avin a larf” my chirpy cab driver said to me on the way back to Kings Cross.

Oh the wine?  Er yes, it was full of rich fruits and –  oh who cares – it was very very very drinkable and at that price I suggest you get down to Clause the very next time that the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the, well er, 17 to be precise . . . . .

Clause.  1 Lovat Lane, off Eastcheap, London EC3R 8DT.  +44 (0) 207 283 6191.  info@clause-bar.co.uk.  www.clause-bar.co.uk.

My visit to the Eden Project in St Austell, Cornwall was so inspirational I had to find a wine link so I could write about it in my Confessions.

Fortunately there were lots of reasons including this fabulous set of sculptures by Tim Shaw.

(more…)