Sales cut as Bordeaux goes into red

It was always going to happen where the aristocrats of the old world have not bothered to evolve, while the up and coming new world refined, evolved and sorted out there wine making processes to make wines of equal stature.

Other old world wine countries such as Italy and Spain (even Germany) have worked on their processes and are producing wines not only well produced wine but creating other more interesting wines from areas previously unexploited (southern Italy being a good example).

The thing is for the new world wines to take the next step they have to move their vines from easy growing areas which produce, whithout question, very drinkable and classy wines and maybe find areas which have interesting soil conditions and climates which can produce individual wines with depth. This property of chosing the right location to make a inidividual wine is called terroir, which is a summed-up as the possession by a wine of a sense of place, or ‘somewhereness’. That is, a wine from a particular patch of ground expresses characteristics related to the physical environment in which the grapes are grown. In France where the definition of terroir grew, they have created many wines which have subtle tastes and depths to them, unfortunatley they are beginning to learn this is not enough, the consumer market wants evolution. Wouldn't it be brilliant if you could look at a french wine and see instantly on the back of the bottle what you were getting, in the Bordeaux alone there is 57 appellations (sort of standards).

With wine makers in Australia now looking for areas in Oz to find their own terroir (Radio 4 - Food Programme), the old world brigade have to buck up there ideas. The only thing I see which is good for the old world wines is that they have new world soils and vice-versa as the soils in Oz are very old and lack minerality where the younger European soils are jam packed with stuff.

Whatever I have just said there my favourite wines are still old school, white is Chablis and Red is Rioja or Chianti.

Good articles on terroir
www.wineanorak.com/mechanisms_terroir1.htm
www.drvino.net/terroir.pdf

Wine websites
www.wineanorak.com
www.drvino.net

MATCH REPORT by Andy Clyde - Athletico Cowley - Rolling on...

ACFC 4(3) vs (1)1 AFC Woolhead
Goals: Tom, Ali x2,Maz

League Table

Another excellent performance all round. We got forward well and were sharp in front of goal. 3 nil up after about 10 minutes and it was always going to be a stroll from there. After that, we were solid and they rarely threatened to get back into the match. Graeme made a few good saves but we always looked dangerous on the break and their missed chances numbered no more than ours. For most of the match we defended well as a team. There were a few shaky moments but it just shows our character that we came through them unscathed and finished strongly. Certainly one of the best performances of the season as everyone got involved and played well. And this against a team that were above us in the league before this match. We're now in our highest league position of the season and we have the second best goals scored.

COME ON THE COWLEY!!!!!!

France 0-1 Greece

Wasn't going to mention the football because I would start talking about our game and that crap referee (Urs Meier). He was completely rubbish I sent him the message below to his website (please feel free to abuse him on it as he is dreadful and should be told it regularly

I hope you are ashamed of yourself for one of the worst performances ever by a referee.

I am not talking about the disallowed goal as although I and most other people saw it as a goal I have seen them disallowed.

It was during open play every time England received the ball you gave the Portuguese a free kick. You effectively eliminated any chance England had to pass the ball.

I hope you watch a repeat of the game and witness what the rest of the world witnessed and hopefully then you will do the decent and honourable thing of resigning as referee.

So anyway at least France and the Germans are no longer in it either, I did have to laugh when the Greeks beat them, Was everyone in England a Greek fan on Friday night. Go on you mighty Greeks!!!

By the way, interesting statistic as of today Aston Villa players are responsible for a third of all penalties missed in Euro 2004 so far. Nice

Slim Devices : Squeezebox

This is so sweet. If you got wirelss network you can hook this up to your stereo in your lounge and it streams your music from your PC through your amp.

I LOVE GADGETS

Countdown to private space trip

This is truly exciting what should happen today at 13:30 is that somebody other than Russia, America or China and specifically a none government body will launch someone in to space. This is the start of true space travel and Burt Rutan owner of Scaled Composites and general aviation dirt lord (he designed Voyager the plane that flew the globe without stopping for fuel) should be given so much credit as he is about to change the way that we see space and space travel.

He is one of a number of teams who are after the X-Prize which is $10m dollars for anyone who can launch a spacecraft twice in two weeks 100km up, they must also have three people on board. The project has cost them an estimated $20m

Just check out SpaceShipOne and White Knight the plane it will launch from, they are so cool. General inof on the project can be found here

Always been a big fan of Chianti but have been told about Barolo which has been called the "king of wine" and the "wine of kings". . It is a DOCG wine, made entirely from the Nebbiolo grape and apparently once you have experienced a good example of this wine, you will begin to understand its nobility.

Good Producers of Barolo are:
Anselma
Azelia
Bartolo Mascarello
Crissante Alessandria
Giacomo Conterno
Gianfranco Alessandria
Luciano Sandrone
Marchesi di Barolo
Paolo Scavino
Pio Cesare

UKIP makes big gains in Euro poll

So I have been away for aweek and all sorts of madness happens (not going to talk about that bloody game). The UK Independance Party got into Europe. Brilliant thats going to help. Robert Kilroy Silk (the racist dude) said that he was going to wreck the 'European Parliment'. Cheers Rob thats productive and progressive. Thats the problem in this country the only people who vote have strong views (including me on the side of being fluffy and group hugs) and what we need are middle england to water down the vote (because there are more thuggers than tree huggers).

We better listen to the UKIP. if we don't very soon we all be dressing in lederhosen and calling ourselves Pierre. What will be next we will stop eating british beef, drinking pints and we may even stop being a nation of xenophobes (for you UKIP and BNP dudes that means you).

MATCH REPORT by Andy Clyde - Athletico Cowley - Proud to be ACFC

ACFC 0(0)-(0)0 Hellenic FC

League Table

It was scorching hot. We were playing a team that had won every game so far. But the Cowley came out fighting. It was essential we started well, put them under pressure and keep the tempo up. And we did. The match was pretty even. Any saves Graeme had to make were generally straight at him. We defended well as a team, the midfield and defence working well together to restrict them. We moved forward well and created some good chances. On the whole, I feel we just shaded the game and could have a nicked a winner but then I'm not exactly the most partial observer - they probably feel the same way.

At the end of the day (hey look, a proper football manager's cliche!), we were very solid and became the first team to take points off them. We've got a good base to work from now. The squad has come together nicely and we all know our roles. What we must do from now is to become that bit sharper up front - the final ball and our shooting just needs honing - so that we can come away from games like the last two with all three points. There will be times where we don't quite play as we can and that might be the difference between a draw and a win. If we do this, we will surely start to motor up the table.

COME ON THE COWLEY!!!!!!

MATCH REPORT by Andy Clyde - Athletico Cowley - Go Rumbling On

ACFC 1(0)-(1)1 Dead Red FC
Goals: Maz

League Table

Well, it was hot. And with a squad of 7 against their 9, we were up against it from the start. All credit to us then, that we fought them all the way and got a point. It took guts to keep running for 30 mins with just one sub. OK, we got loose towards the end but given the circumstances that's understandable. Our passing didn't quite click at times but we pressed them and fully deserved a draw. On another day this result could have gone either way and the re-match will certainly be interesting.

That point takes us to 5th (our highest place of the season) above Macmillan on goals scored. We're right in the bunch in mid-table so the season promises to be interesting. Next week is Hellenics who have won every game this season. What price a Cowley victory?

COME ON THE COWLEY!!!!!!

TODAY ME AND AILSA GOT MARRIED

Read what happened