This is the first of an occasional series of wine reviews. The main reason for this is that, whilst I am content to drink beer in social circumstances, I firmly believe that the big players in the world of beer are churning out a cheap'n'nasty product.
When I am at home I am much more likely to drink wine. The problem is that when I buy a bottle of wine which I enjoy I invariably forget what it is. This blog will serve the purpose of a living wine reference to jog my booze riddled memory when i find myself staring vacantly at the shelves of my local wine emporium.
In a chilling side note, my wife and I were recently in the maternity ward of a local hospital where I was very impressed by the PCA's efforts at combatting hospital acquired infections with the installation of alcogel hand rub. It turns out that in many hospitals alcoholics add the alchogel to glasses of orange juice! Addiction, it seems is the true mother of invention.
Anyway, tonight tipple is a sparkling French white wine called Charmelieu from the Burgundy region and made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes. This wine was matured for two years before finding itself on the shelves of my local Marks and Spencer. The blurb talks of citrus and a hint of cream, and while it doesn't pack the cutting edge of my favourite champagnes it does have a really clean and zingy taste which makes it extremely quaffable. To be honest a wine of this quality makes it very difficult to justify spending another £20 on a bottle of Champagne. The value for money aspect of this wine makes it an easy 4 out of 5

The calm before the storm.

I have returned from my tour two weeks before the end in order to be at my wife's side for the birth of our third child. Bit of birth advice for first time fathers: being at your partner's side is the best place to be as you avoid amneotic splash-back.

street scene

We are now working in Rotterdam in the sunken empire of Holland.
I described Holland as the last bastion of Euro-liberalism, but my early sojourns into the city have revealed the terrible consequences of this laissez-faire attitude to everyone's needs. There is an insane amount of of dog poo on the streets. Its almost as though someone is being paid to put it everywhere.
Are the people of this country too polite to point out that, although it may be slightly onerous for the owner of a dog to clean up after it, for the rest of us it is an affront to all that is acceptable in civilised society? Judging by the number of poos with footprints in them it seems that there a lot of people who are being caught out by this street-level filth menace. Yikes