Heaven knows, I love England. I lived there for eight years, I have friends there, I feel at home there. And yet, these days Blighty saddens me. Or rather, the British drive me mad!.
Yes, one can honestly say that the country is in bad shape, as soon as one leaves the soccer stadiums out of the equasion, economically, it is reeling dangerously: the crisis will no doubt be worse there than elsewhere, it could be said because the bubble had been much more overinflated there than elsewhere else. As for the wine counter? Things, rather depressingly, are worse still!!... England, that country of gentility and refinement, is now wallowing in a most distressing mediocrity. Somebody hand me a ‘proper’ drink!
From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, it was indeed the Brits who, on the wharves of the Gironde, developed Bordeaux wine. Of course, Brits have always called it Claret, that light red wine you thought so highly of. In fact, you still call all red Bordeaux wines by that name. Barton… Palmer… English names are everywhere in the Médoc. Your knowledge of great and fine wines has never faltered. The finest wine cellars in Europe are still to be found in London.
And now you have fallen under the most distressing of all spells, the most insipid of the beverages sold here and there under the name of…. “wine”. I was in London last week. Walking into a friendly bistro or quality restaurant, where one used to expect to tumble upon fine French, Italian, Spanish, Argentine and Chilian wines…. Only to take a look at the menu to find nothing but, and I joke not, Australian wines!
Frankly, I would rather wash my steak pie down with watery beer than to attempt to take on the Australians’ ! Seriously. You who, beyond all our ancestral quarrels and scuffles, were always at our side as allies, I’m referring to when it came to defending quality wines of course, I was stunned and dismayed to see you now singing along to a ‘£4.99 – Australian wine’ tune! People will say that I am exaggerating. That there are good wines in Australia. All right, all right, but not many of them - Clarendon Hills is an exception. But that’s not the one you will find in London. Do you know why?
The reason for which Australian wines are so popular on your side of the Channel is that they are palmed off at low prices. Dare I say it; they are cheap. And beware: when one drinks cheap wines, one becomes cheap oneself. No one ever savoured quality wines for the price of a pint before now. Times are hard? You want good wines at affordable prices? Come on, I dare you once more to regain your curiosity, your inventiveness! Look for the places where quality wines are made, there are superb ones to be had at reasonable prices. But do not abandon the battlefield and walk up-side-down with those Aussies who know no better, Come back to the old world - and ride out the credit crunch in good company -
Or go back to beer! At least that beverage possesses healthy diuretic virtues. The invitation comes from a sincere friend of your great nation...
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Posted by: xLMEGAN | February 01, 2010 at 11:17 PM