Looking at what we have published over the past week, it occurred to me that we are totally mad. I totted up how many new words we offered in total and it came to about 40,000. That’s almost as many as in Graham Swift’s highly acclaimed new novel Here We Are.
It’s just as well so many of us have a bit of time on our hands in these locked-down times. But I’m sure few visitors to JancisRobinson.com have time to read every word (even if, for editorial reasons, both Julia and I have to make time to read every word). We will try to be less prolix, but the reason we published so many words this week was that there was so much of interest to say.
At the beginning of the week we reprised a subject of consuming interest to the world’s fine-wine trade at the moment: the timing of the 2019 Bordeaux en primeur campaign. We reviewed various options on Monday, and the next day Anthony Hanson MW, who has been buying bordeaux for 50 years, came up with a concrete plan for a complete re-think of Bordeaux primeurs. His is such a good idea that we republished his article free yesterday, and added a heartfelt plea to delay the 2019 campaign by a leading importer and lover of bordeaux in Australia.
Our longest article was Julia’s collection of Portuguese tasting notesfrom Britain’s pioneer specialist Portuguese wine importer Raymond Reynolds, whose fascinating story she told separately.
Almost as long is today’s Italian tasting article, in which both Walter and Tim bring their expertise and palates to bear on the Italian portfolio of independent London wine merchant Lea & Sandeman, including some stunning wines. We see it as our duty to support independent retailers and small wine producers for reasons outlined on Monday by Nicole Sierra-Rolet in her plea for us all to seek out those whose businesses will suffer most as a result of this pandemic. Her concerns were mirrored in Sam Cole-Johnson’s wide-ranging survey of the effects of the lockdown on many different sectors of the world’s wine industry.
Sam is well known to visitors to JancisRobinson.com for her excellent diaries about her work in cellars in Oregon and South Australia. Katia Nussbaum has also been much appreciated by many for her coronadiary from Montalcino last month. On Thursday she brought us up to date with some more reporting and musing on the meaning of it all.
Julia and I supplied a long, detailed Austrian tasting article apiece this week, me mainly Wachau, Julia mainly Steiermark, and today she serves up a fine Etna red from a tiny producer as her wine of the week.
On Saturday Nick sang the praises of the unsung heroes of the restaurant business, kitchen porters, while I got tangled up in Romanian and Moldovan history and politics (see our Members' forum). Richard also kept on updating his guide to online wine coverage in these heavily restricted times.
Please look after yourself.
