Tuesday 5 January 2021

Dry January

So, anyone up for a dry January given the latest developments? Anybody want to virtue-signal on this one? Excuse me whilst I go and die in a corner. Dry January, I mean, really? We talked about it obviously, it is traditional, but surely this is not the year, even for the very best of health reasons. I am going to put my cards face up on the table on this one: denying myself wine during January 2021 would kill me. Depression, pure and simple. I am not an alcoholic, or at least not yet, but the mere thought of no wine is so acutely awful that I am shuddering even thinking about it. I mean the world is currently so miserable, so awful, so idiotic, with so many bad things in flight - COVID, Brexit, and the US Presidency to name just a few. And the weather is so cold and so wet, and it is so dark outside, that in addition to all of this to then also cut out wine, that one ray of light, that retreat into happiness.... I mean no, just no. It is too much to ask, too much. This winter already looks lengthy, a new lockdown has just been announced, and cutting out wine would add the equivalent of months. No.

Too much is an interesting question of course. I had a quick tot up of my cellar raiding throughout December and have arrived at 23.5 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of Champagne, and 2 bottles of Port. Some of that was Christmas excess of course, but in the cold light of January that does seem quite a lot. It was between two (he said desperately) but I think we all know that if a bottle is opened more is going to get consumed by me than by Mrs L. Now I had almost no beer, just over a pint, and a handful of Gin and Tonics and cocktails, oh and whisky occasionally, but the real liver damage was caused by wine. There was no binge drinking, it was slow and steady. There was almost always something open, perhaps two bottles, a red and a white, and I availed myself nearly every day. A dry January does now look quite sensible but for the mental strain it would place on me. 

As with all things, moderation is the answer. I need to get back to weekends only. We had been doing this for nearly the whole year, but as the days got shorter and the situation bleaker Friday became Thursday, which became Wednesday, and eventually we threw in the towel. As far as I can tell there was a steep increase in consumption starting around mid November. It was a delicious increase - the cellars of Chateau L are deep, well planned and well stocked. As ever white Burgundy was the bottle of choice, but both southern and northern Rhone reds were well represented, as were the dry whites of Alsace. Only a single bottle of Bordeaux was opened, a Christmas Day treat, and two bottles of red Burgundy. The balance was made up from Italy and quite surprisingly a Californian Zinfandel - I am branching out. But I need to rein myself back in... if wine is to become less quotidian then it can be France only, I cannot burn my allowance on experimenting with other regions.


So there it is, a New Year's resolution of sorts. Drink less wine but continue to drink good wine. The latter part should not be too difficult, in fact the presence of a lot of good wine is what makes it hard in the first place. Luckily I can be quite obstinate when it comes to it, and am backing myself not to descend into scenes reminiscent of Withnail & I. Although that may depend on quite how long this new lockdown lasts and how badly this latest phase of Brexit goes. Imagine if there was no cheese?

17 comments:

  1. Imagine if you lose the heating and there's no Deep Heat left in the shops....

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    1. Very good point. 2021 has already been pretty fabulous, it would not surprise me at all if the next "gift" would be something like the boiler.

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  2. #GreyAreaDrinking #NeverTooEarly #GoOnHaveAPint

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  3. You feature some excellent wines; pockets are deeper than mine! No chance of a dry January, been drinking wine since 1981. Started cheap but grew into it. Never drink for the sake of it; wine always chosen to match food. And yes, same problem. Mrs W only drinks a third of the bottle. Plus dessert wines feature but they will last for days. Chin up and glasses up!

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    1. Ditto Graham, almost always with food. I have been buying and drinking wine since my early 20s and back then wine was sensibly priced. I am simply drinking stocks purchased long ago for what now seems like next to nothing - that Telegraphe was something under £20 back then, whereas the most recent release was around £40 and there are plenty of wines that are a lot worse than that! My salary has in no way kept pace with up the inexorable price increases, the secret to success now is finding unfashionable yet delicious wines that people in the Far East have never heard of!

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    2. Some good Portuguese, Spanish out there for everyday drinking!!!!!! Don't buy to keep anymore; too old!
      You, however, still need to look to the future. Imagine having no choice!

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  4. You have described my autumn and Christmas and a similar sense of affront to the idea of a dry January. Autumn's weekend only drinking saw the kg drop off, replenished over Christmas. Back to a three day weekend of wine in this household, plus the occasional scotch midweek. You need Armagnac in your life, by the way.

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    1. So far this month I have managed to have nothing on Monday or Tuesday, and likely tonight also. Tomorrow is Thursday, that's going to be the harder one, but I'm quietly confident.

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  5. A kindred spirit! I prefer French wines, but during the various lockdowns found myself drinking Côtes-du-Rhône Villages just because it's cheap in Tesco's! My NYR is to return to weekend only, but stick to decent clarets or Burgundies. (Your CdP looks very appealing!)

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    1. Côtes-du-Rhône Villages also counts as French last time I checked! And there are some tremendous relative bargains to be had there, places like Gigondas, Rasteau, Vacqueyras and so on - all the good things about Chateauneuf but without the price. Providing the price is right I plan to stock up for the next decade.

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  6. I can never understand dry January - why make a bad month worse? You have a good selection - have you tried the Wine Society by the way? We buy a lot from them and they do some interesting stuff

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    1. That's where most of my wine comes from - many gems lying in wait in Stevenage.

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    2. Oh good - we got a couple of cases from them for Christmas (very nice Italian - sorry - Verdicchio last night) and I wouldn't want a fellow devotee to miss out. We also have some rather nice sloe gin from a friend - picking sloes is a great excuse to get out and enjoy the countryside (I imagine sloes grow on Wanstead common?)

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    3. I only really understand French wine. Occasionally I try and branch out, and then run back to France.

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    4. Well, try the Six Society favourites case - some French, some not... I only really understand the alcohol percentage bit mind.. But as a woman, I'm proud to say that I an manage half a bottle (years of practice!)

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