"Most party invitations will come with the acronym BYOB hidden somewhere. Regardless of your choice of wine, with these novelty bottle covers are sure to make an impression!" The impression that you are a pillock.
Upon seeing this, I realised that there are people in the world with a desperation to make money. I've accepted the fact I'm likely to be skint for the rest of my life, and I'm content with that. Don't get me wrong, if I happened upon pots of cash, I certainly wouldn't say no, but I can be happy and poor for the rest of my life.
But someone, somewhere, had an idea for a T-Shirt for a bottle, and not only thought it was a good idea, but actually went out, got it made and started selling it. Costing £1.99 (down from £2.99), at drinkstuff.com if you feel the need to keep your wine toasty when you are on your way to a party.
Crap of the Week - Bottle T-Shirt
Chateau Mini - the portable wine cellar
Drinking and driving don't mix. We all know this. But if you frequent 'Bring your own bottle' restaurants, and are wanting fine wine rather than a cheaper bottle from your local wine shop, you should take a look to the Italian company, Aznom.
They have taken a Mini Clubman (basically a Mini estate) and put in a shock proof wine cellar! Located under the boot floor, there is space for six bottles of wine, each encased in their own leather cocoon. If you want a 'Chateau Mini', you have to be quick. 
Only 12 will be made. Only one problem. If your carrying around your 1945 Mouton and Krug Clos D'Ambonnay in the back of your Mini, you are screwed if someone ploughs into the back of you.
Aznom also make other 'luxury products', that it would appear nobody would ever need, including a bag designed specifically to carry a bottle of Bollinger. A wine chiller that is a work of art (what is wrong with your fridge?), and carbon fibre ice buckets.
Wine Web Watch - The Weakest Link
I'm not that keen on Olly Smith, I really hate The Weakest Link, but the two together have produced this quite funny moment where the wine critic cannot stop himself from taking Anne Robinson up on her offer to feel her breasts, despite trying to!
Boris Bans Booze
Why do I get a feeling that Boris Johnson might appear on this blog a bit in the future? Britain's most interesting politician announced that as of June 1st, it will be illegal to carry an open drinks container on any form of public transport. He said “I firmly believe that if we drive out so called minor crime then we will be able to get a firm grip on more serious crime. That's why from June 1st the drinking of alcohol will be banned from the tube, tram, bus, and Docklands Light Railway."
Makes sense really. There will be no grotty, drunk old men leaning on your new suit when you are going to work, no cider-ed up fourteen year olds swearing and shouting at each other on the tube. Thing is, how are they going to police it? Suppose a tracksuit wearing 'yoof' boards a bus with an open bottle of vodka in his bag and then proceeds to consume his supermarket own label booze. Is the bus driver going to apprehend them? Unlikely as most drivers are now behind assault proof perspex shielding. Are they going to have a button in the cab which makes a swat team board the bus at the next stop? Budget constraints would probably stop that happening, and we should never promote vigilantism, so how do we stop them?
My proposal to London Transport would be to see is the return of the Routemaster bus, with it's rear platform for getting on and off. Instead of a conductor, London transport could hire club doormen to man the bus, uttering "you ain't getting on mate" to everyone carrying a six pack of Tennents. Should such a drunk manage to get past the bouncer, then he can then quite easily throw them off the bus, regardless of whether the bus is stationary or not, as the good old London Bus doesn't have a door!
Wine Web Watch: What the hell is going on?
We know that Sean Connery betrayed his homeland and advertised Japanese whisky, and this shows Duran Duran doing the same thing. The question we really have to ask though is what the hell is going on here?
2005 Soave La Rocca Pieropan
I've drunk... sorry, tasted this wine from various vintages recently. Going from the 1993 through to the most recent 2006 whilst in Italy, I thought I should look back at it in the cold light of day at my flat. Instead of being sat around a table in a wonderful Italian building, with a group of fellow wine enthusiasts, I was sat at home, washing drying in my living room, with a chicken salad watching the ten o'clock news....
The 2005 Soave Pieropan La Rocca from Pieropan is brilliant. Period. Buttercups, a little sherbert lemon and a smidgen of butter from the nose. This oaked wine then has a nice, minerally stoney palate with a bit of whisky to it and a little lychee, but without the sweetness. A hint of ginger comes through on the finish. It is a brilliant wine. 8.5/10
Distillery to reopen
Annandale Distillery, formerly owned by Johnnie Walker and closed by them in 1919, will start producing whisky again in 2010. Professor David Thomson, who has bought the distillery, has been given a £150,000 grant by the Scottish Government and £350,000 towards the restoration of the buildings.
Apparently the distillery, built in 1830, produced a peaty whisky, and Thomson aims to make a whisky that echoes it's past. The distillery, near Gretna, will create eighteen jobs and cost it's new owner a lot of money. Hope it works for him, it isn't going to be easy. He'd spend less money just setting fire to his wallet!
