David Round MW

I appear to have lowered the tone.

Walton Bridges by Turner

The Blue Rigi, Sunrise by Turner

Snow Storm by Turner

The Rising Squall by Turner

The Turner Constable exhibition at Tate Britain is a real treat, including paintings from private collections that haven’t been on display for 170 years. It makes clear Turner’s pivotal importance as a precursor for Impressionism and modern art.

Every year at a music festival a friend gives me a blind tasting of his bag-in-box wine as a bit of a piss-take and a couple of years ago it was this. I was really impressed and happy to pick it as a Côtes du Rhône!

Yes, I agree. But I can’t drink it now because it’s all in the dish (although I did have a small glass first).

My coq will be in it.

La Vieille Ferme from Perrin. Or chicken wine, as it is popularly known.

Cooking coq au vin tonight and this is the vin I chose for my coq. I do think it’s one of the best value wines out there.

Farage will be pretty happy with 29% in a Labour stronghold - and beating them into third place.

It’s a great result and I’m very happy. But some progressive commentators are being overly polyannaish about this. If you extrapolate the Greens taking half of Labour’s votes and Reform increasing their vote share even in Manchester, you’re looking at a higher chance of a Reform government.

They write this kind of divisive stuff every day of the week.

Sadly, the Greens are much more of a threat to Labour, from whom they can take huge numbers of votes, than Reform, from whom they don’t. The billionaires will be happy to see this pattern develop in a general election.

Oh, I see. I misread. No, I can’t see myself ever being a political party activist.

What’s that?

And so to bed. I’m hoping to wake up to the news that the Green Party has won the Gorton and Denton by-election. They have some terrible policies, especially on defence and aspects of healthcare but at least they are up for the fight against Reform’s US-style billionaire white supremacists.

Port. 1970. Taylor’s.

It’s a real treat to drink really mature vintage port. How was it?

I don’t think you will find many in the trade who think the most competent and scrupulous tasters go into wine rating. But critics are collectively valuable (although individually less so) because of the massive choice available and the increase in online sales. So no one pulls back the curtain.

It’s a pretty precarious living now if you rely on subscriptions, I think, which is why so many now supplement their income with consumer events etc.

I don’t think you will find many in the trade who think the most competent and scrupulous tasters go into wine rating. But critics are collectively valuable (although individually less so) because of the massive choice available and the increase in online sales. So no one pulls back the curtain.

This Friday, a decade of patience comes full circle. Ten Times Around the Sun, matured in cask #007 through closure and revival, finally arrives - London’s first 10-year-old single malt and a defining moment for The London Distillery Company.

#TLDCWhisky

Wine News: What I'm Reading the Week of 2/22/26 What to read about wine? This. My weekly curated list of wine news and other tidbits that I think might be of interest to the wine-inclined.

Hello, wine lovers. Looking for something to read? Here's my recommended list of things recently published online that I think are worth your time: www.vinography.com/2... #winethreads

Yes, I agree with that, but I guess they wanted to relate it more closely to ABV and didn't really understand or care about the practical difficulties that meant specifically for wine. And the big wine producers could handle the admin better than small ones so didn't push back much either.

"If you keep putting up duty you will receive less tax because people will drink less!" So close to getting it...

This was forecast by the OBR and will have been fully expected in Westminster. What we are seeing is a government policy doing what it was intended to do: reduce alcohol consumption.

Yes, it’s like watching a car crash that is still three and a half years from impact but the brakes and steering aren’t responding.

This is obviously nonsense however you look at it.

It’s ignorant people who aren’t paying attention (and yes, racists). In the past few months, lots of Tories from the last government have defected to Reform, so it increasingly looks like the tired, failed establishment rather than the bunch of anti-elite upstarts they pretend to be.

Yes, Labour needs to confront Farage head-on and stop trying to win over people they will never win over. The government needs to ban political donations from private people overseas, come off X and make sure it is properly regulated. We're currently sleep-walking into a disaster.

Farage is a major worry. Increased scrutiny and being linked with Trump is beginning to cost him support. Tactical voting to keep out his candidates may also help. But his party still leads the fragmented polls and it's frightening how many people think we should "just give them a chance".

I know that posting this here is largely preaching to converted, but there are quite a few wine writers here on BlueSky who are still being intellectually damaged over there on X without even realising it.

I wouldn’t bother. Judging from her profile she’s probably just a tourist from Twitter who’s been radicalised by the algorithm.