Tonight we saw ‘our’ wine being poured for The Queen and her house-guests at dinner in Windsor. Not the wine from the grapes we grow on a hill in the Royal Farm here because they’ve not actually been harvested yet (fingers crossed for sun from now to October). No, this was our very own Château La Clarière Laithwaite 2009 – made by our Henry – that had been chosen for this dinner.

I hope Her Majesty really liked it. She seemed very happy. It might be a bit on the young side, I worried … for someone with as good and ancient a cellar as the Royal Family undoubtedly has.

A vintage delivery at the palace in the original Bordeaux Direct van

Madame Cassin would have burst with pride. “Ca Alors!” “Pouf!” For La Clarière comes from vineyards in the village of Ste Colombe that were in her family for centuries. And Madame – my teacher in all things traditionally French – always described herself as a ‘Royaliste’ (she wanted the French king back. Neither she nor Monsieur had any time for modern leaders; though actually, he was staunchly ‘Bonapartiste’ … such arguments they had!)

Thanks to kind customers; saintly old Canon Bentley and his sweet wife, I once got them seats in St George’s Chapel for the Garter Ceremony. Gosh, they loved that!  But today, yep, certainly both would have burst.

When they sold their vineyards to Barbara and I, they challenged us to make wine good enough to show the world what Castillon could do. We work at it.

B and I were out in Bordeaux last weekend checking things over now the long, long winter is over. Ste Colombe was soon a-buzz with news of the impending Royal Degustation of a Colombien wine! “Ha! Another one in the eye for those cocky, damned St Emilionais next door”.

The Battle of Castillion

In our Castillon region we see we are definitely on the way up and righting those ancient wrongs.  “Voyez … we always said our wine was better!! Vive Sa Majesté”.

It is never forgotten around here that it was the Castillonais who begged for the English King’s army to come and throw out the unpleasant “maudit” troops of the ‘foreign’ French (worse – Parisian) king.

Castillon always wanted to keep their English king. They did for 300 years. Good for the wine trade, you see. But the battle in 1453 went the wrong way of course and in punishment the town’s castle was totally destroyed. (One bit of wall remains; now the back wall of our Chai au Quai).

The spectacular summer re-enactment

That battle is re-fought in Castillon-la-Bataille most summer weekends by a cast of hundreds, in front of audiences of thousands. Spectacular. Always the same result though.

But, tonight, at Windsor …… Ah Madame, Monsieur and all Castillon, this delicious little result is for you. Vive Castillon!

80, Fifth Avenue, Penthouse: the setting for our first ‘Spring Festival’; three Customer Tastings in New York. 600 turned up. Enthusiastic? The word doesn’t do justice to the atmosphere in that great room. 40 of our US office slaved to make the whole thing run like clockwork. Libby and Thomas very much in charge.  Good start; will certainly grow. We can now do 6000 a go in London (in a couple of weeks; Old Billingsgate – grab the few remaining tickets).

Took a crowd of great winemakers from around Europe to present and pour alongside their US colleagues from the West Coast and Long Island. It all got very animated. As it always does. I think some particularly liked having their glasses filled by our smiling Principessa Natalia Strozzi. They work very hard these days, do Princesses. As do her neighbours Paolo and Anna Rita Masi.

Wines of the Show

There were also Diane and Hervé from Argentina, Laura from Puglia, Jean-Marc Pardon from Beaujolais (his first trip to the Big Apple), Javier, Paloma and Ruth from Rioja, Marianna from Portugal, Laurent and Hervé from the Midi plus others.  The sun shone all afternoon on that stunning skyline then the city lit up for the evening. Quite distracting for some of us.  My three boys came and poured too… Is this what it’s like having a backing group? I shall enjoy more of this till the boys give me the elbow.

Did the tourist bit at w/e. It was certainly the best time to enjoy Central Park and most of New York was doing just that. The new leaves, the blossoms and that brilliant sky.

Boy Band (minus Henry)

Brooklyn Winery was the best evening in town; all reclaimed wood, adapted junk, big tables and such; even an Oompah Band for the wedding going on in the tank room.

Reminiscent of those Heurege grower’s cellar/wine bars that encircle Vienna. The Winery ships in juice from the top end of Long Island (a hundred wineries up there) and the West Coast. Makes, matures and bottles – or pours straight from the tank. Jean-Marc S very jealous; he’s been wanting to do this in London for years.

Brooklyn is lovely; still affordable for inventive start-ups like this and their young customers. Cool! So cool. Parties all night. I particularly like the old tin garage with its nightly BBQ.  Huge portions, of course. Always huge here. Night ended up at a brewery. I think.

Our US office is one hour north in South Norwalk (SoNo) Connecticut. Little town that seems built mostly of converted warehouses. And Laithwaite’s Wine USA is in one – an old Lock factory. All rough brick and exposed pipes; everyone loves it. We Brits are quite jealous. Hear all about their latest ideas. Fantastic team there. Presided over by our Ade who started out with us under the old Railway Arch long, long ago. And I still call him Young Ade.

Try their latest wines. Henry, Jean-Marc and I do our wine tasting Act. Then back home. It was lovely, USA, we will be back!

We saw further evidence of massive investment in new terraced vineyards for wine (not port) in the high Douro valley as it nears the Spanish border. A steep, north-facing slope there is shared by two of Portugal’s most respected winemakers: Jose Maria Soares Franco (responsible for ‘Barca Velha’ – Portugal’s own ‘Vega Sicilia’ – for over 20 years) and João Portugal Ramos. They call it The Duorum Project.

Next door, Jean-Michel Cazes – possibly the most able Bordeaux Château owner of his generation – has his new estate. If Monsieur Cazes is interested enough to sink a lot of money in this area, it is certainly a place to watch.

The wines we tried at the Duorum Project reinforced our belief. Duorum is based in a newly built drystone eyrie above the very steep vine terraces and cliffs where eagles do, in fact, make their home. We will be launching our first exclusive project with them, named ‘Altitude by Duorum’, in our June catalogue so look out for it!

Then we made our way by the old winding roads to Pinhão, the beating heart of the Douro wine region. Here the terracing goes highest and with two tributary valleys joining there’s the effect of a grand canyon of vineyards. Even at this time when the vines are just bare stumps it is impressive.

The weather is grey and drizzly as we make our way up past the most famous Quinta of all; Quinta do Noval. Then up the valley to tea beside a warm fire – with a warm welcome from  Cristina Van Zeller in her lovely little Casa de Vilarinho de S. Romão, where she does bed and breakfast. Judging by the Guest Book accolades she is very popular with the British. Anne always stays here. Very reasonable and the homemade biscuits, cakes, jams … to die for.

We are joined by my dear wife, Simon, and Andrew; half the Laithwaite’s Board are gathered. The others will join us in Oporto tonight. I have always felt it important that from time to time I give those who look after things financial and managerial for the Company a little glimpse of the glories of wine. I’d bring everyone here if I could. And every customer. There’s no-one who would not be amazed by a region like the Douro.

In the evening we are joined by our favourite ‘Portugueses’ Carlos and Fernando – they do an act like they’re Portugal’s Morecambe and Wise but they are peerless wine men. Around Christina’s large table there’s also the imposing presence of Fernando’s cousin Cristiano Van Zeller who used to run Quinta do Noval for the family until, sadly, like several of the world’s most glamorous wine estates it was sold to Axa Insurance. Noval is, I’m glad to say,  a very rare example of  Corporate takeover in this area which remains strongly ‘family’. I have nothing against insurance Companies personally, as long as they pay up, but I will always be convinced that in matters wine, families do it better. But then I would say that, wouldn’t I?

In this part of Portugal the vineyard owners and the Port Shippers seem to be all related to one another. There are many British port families who have been here for generations and are still excessively British, if you know what I mean.  And there is a similar contingent of Portuguese, all speaking perfect English, and as I say, all related.
It is a good evening with a simple hot pot sort of dish called ‘Cozido Portuguesa’. Our wine producer friends took turns to pour and explain their wines. Eg. Cristiano’s ‘VZ’ white and red and Jorge’s Quinta do Passadouro Reserva ’07 which we bought a parcel of last year. It’s tasting great now! All very fascinating.

Climb into a big bed with brass knobs on and sleep like a baby. It is so silent up here at the top of the valley. Just dogs shouting ‘goodnight’ to each other across the valley. Great Breakfast. Madeira cake with Quince jam. I really do recommend this place.

Then off down the most vertiginous track ever, down the valley to Jorge’s little Passadouro estate. The sun is blazing today as we tour the vineyards and taste on the terrace above the laden orange trees. Jorge makes great wine. Just a bit expensive. But we’ll see what Anne’s powers of persuasion can do. They’ve all done advanced negotiation courses our buyers; they get blood out of stones as a matter of course.

But clearly the Producers here all love Anne – and she Adores them – but when the topic of price comes up you see them visibly flinch.

Then, there is yet more scary driving down then up little tracks to Cristiano’s ‘new’ estate’ which he runs with a little band of beauties; wife, daughter and other lovelies. Some steep walking up to another terrace with spectacular views and no less spectacular wines to try.

Then it’s down to Oporto to our hotel in Villanova de Gaia set amidst all the great Port Lodges with that spectacular view across the river to the old town.

I’ve not been to the port region for far too long. Forgotten that here are the most spectacular vineyards of all. Even in March before the vines grow their leaves and all is brown rock they still amaze.

In the last five years the valley has seriously moved into making wine as well as port. Maybe 1/3 of production is now Douro wine. I sold Douro red wine in the 80′s but it was then hard to find … and, if I’m honest, not all that good. But clearly, given these incredibly steep vineyards (think of, say, the Langdale Valley with every inch of slightly less-than-vertical slope, neatly terraced and planted with vines right to the top) there was always great potential.

Today there are stunning wines and there’s masses of interest, not so much in port as in the wines – both red and white.  Clever investors like Jean Michel Cazes of Ch. Lynch Bages are pouring money into new vineyards; old vineyards are being ‘converted’; and skilled port winemakers are learning a whole new set of skills.

They’re loving it. Why wouldn’t they? They have both the pleasure of grand old traditions AND a whole new category to create.

Fly to Oporto and now it’s just two hours up the motorway to the upper Douro Valley, Douro Superior, near the Spanish border (where the river is then called the Duero). It used to be seven hours up the old valley roads. Or three by train as we used to swank it when Taylor’s would have a private carriage hitched on the back, loaded with hampers and wine for groups of our customers.

Today, by the way, there are cruise ships on the river, including that great barge The Queen used during her jubilee river pageant. It’s here, now. I’m looking at it. But the train is looking threatened, sadly. One of the most spectacular train rides anywhere might just get the chop.

The new road avoids the winding valley and heads across a sort of moorland dotted with what looks rather like works by Henry Moore. Between these huge, eerie, voluptuous feminine shapes, where there is a bit of something like soil, are vineyards. Mostly white, for this is a cooler region at about 500 metres. A nice estate here called Quinta do Porrais makes a stony dry white which is having a lot of success with the more adventurous customers at the moment. Stony minerality is a characteristic of this region’s wine, and that style is gaining ground over the juicy-fruit styles of southern Portugual.

Minerality!!! +++. Some wines we tried – but did not quite have the courage to buy – tasted half wine, half rock. Maybe should’ve bought one. Some customers love strong character wines that give you a bit of a slap! Maybe next year.

We then find our way down into the valley of the great river and Quinta do Vale Meão, where the first ‘great’ Douro red, ‘Barca Velha’ was born … though it is no longer made there.  It is just SO remote. The farm was built – as were many famous Quintas – by the remarkable Dona Antonia Ferreira in the nineteenth century. She overcame the disadvantage of a dissolute and spendthrift husband to amass the greatest collection of vineyards and create the biggest wine company in the valley. In those male-dominated days she must’ve been quite something.

We arrive as darkness falls, for a quick cellar tour and long tasting with the lady’s Great, Great, Great Grandson; ‘Xito’ – short for Francisco. He still speaks of her a lot, in awe. The fault line on which the estate sits causes the river to do a huge meander which encloses the estate almost like an island. It also blesses the place with a wide variety of soils; granite, schist, cobblestones and Lord knows what more. Thus every patch of vines here produces a different style. Add in the big variety of grapes types – eg. the Tourigas; Nacional, Roriz, Francesa or Franca, Barrocca and many more including some new and very promising Syrah – things get very complex. Wonderful. (Syrah might help tame some of the toughness out of the Touriga wines, but I hope the won’t overdo it and internationalise these unique wines)

With our tireless buyer Anne we worked through everything. Hopefully we’ll end up with something spectacular. But the deal’s not yet done. Dinner by the fire (chilly night), sound sleep in a bedroom full of family pictures, and wake to brilliant sun.

Xito takes us in a mud-caked Land Rover past laden orange trees, ancient olive trees and almonds up into the steep, wild part of the farm. The track is barely visible among the white broom, clouds of buttercups, iris and many other wildflowers I can’t recognise. There’s lavender and cork oaks, pistachio trees and ample evidence of wild boar. There are foxes … just loving the red-legged partridge. And ‘illegal sheep’ … not supposed to be here in this Garden of Eden.

From the summit by one of Dona Antonia’s many chapels we look over a wild landscape of misty hills and winding rivers, almost unchanged since Wellington and his Portuguese allies fought through here long ago.

Harvesting

28 hour trip. Sun at Southampton to sleet at Bordeaux.  But first touches of green here and our two plum trees a mass of purple.

To Le Chai. Mark talks me through a tasting of current work- in- barrel.

The Garage White which we used to make in … our garage, of course, is back and tastes as good as ever. No … better! JMS clearly remembers the recipe. It’s a wine made with grapes from three southern French vineyards and has, as Mark says, had more love, care and delicious new oak lavished upon it.

There’s a lovely oaked chardonnay destined for America not UK, sadly. The great new vintage La Voute gorgeously rich and out-Burgundying Burgundy. And a cracking new Midi multi-varietal roussanne, marsanne, grenache and such from Quatre Pilas.

JMS – harvest 2012

Reds, there’s the Red Garage; not as wild a brute as I remember it. Quite polished and handsome in fact. But still the same blend of Syrahs from the same vineyards as before.

The boys are bursting with ideas and excitement. I want to bottle it all. I’ll try!

Jean-Marc and Mark at the tasting table in Le Chai

Mark also let me try his new wine; really his nothing to do with Laithwaite’s. I told him to make just what he wanted. It’s called The Hurricane and is as he says the purest expression of Maury mountain Grenache he could manage. All hand done in a tiny cellar with his mate Jean-Charles and family. Bottled last week. Have bought every bottle. It’s Laithwaite’s now! Call your Laithwaite’s Advisor fast!

Then a quick chat with Lydia, the local artist working on a Castillon region poster for us. It’s to show the incredible number of 12th-, 13th- and 14th-Century Châteaux in our little district. From the time this was all ruled by English Kings and Queens and rather prone to warfare. The poster is to go with a beautiful map we’ve just had done that shows the vineyards of the key wine estates here. Never done before. Also shows how the better part of St Emilion and Castillon share the same limestone plateau and that there is no sane reason for the political line that divides them. Battle on, Castillon.

Chat with Libby and Mark, about to be torn apart; he off to India and then New Zealand for the vintage (forecast to be spectacularly good after a blazing summer there). She to New York to arrange our first New York Vintage Festival on 5th Avenue! Bit of a change from St Genes!

Anne Marie at Le Comptoir de St Genes

In the evening was the main event. The restaurant at Le Comptoir de St Genes has re-opened after its hols and Anne Marie wanted An Event. She’d seen my iPad doodles that Libby got blown up on big canvases so wanted to do a ‘vernissage‘ and have them on her walls for a few months.

I said you’re kidding but no, she said please. Could never resist girls saying please so the show was on. Along with eight tables showing all our wines from La Clarière, Verniotte, Presbytère Colombe, Le Chai and – big success – Barbara’s English Wyfold fizz.

Anne Marie sold me four pictures! So now I have a safety net if the wine business goes wrong!

Home happy to bed. Until the crown fell out … eating French bread! So now I really look like a crazy old painter. And I’m going round some rather smart Châteaux tomorrow. Unable to smile! Problem.

Barbara, Cherry and the Wyfold harvest team

Wife bouncing around the house yelling. She just won. But no, not her win on Twirling Magnet (A.P. McCoy) at Newbury today. (Day at the races – Xmas present). Much, much better than that!

In its – and her – first ever wine competition, her wine, ‘Wyfold‘ won! Wyfold: the South Oxfordshire vineyard she and Cherry cultivate; the wine beautifully made, of course, by the incomparable Mike Roberts.

An aerial view of Wyfold Vineyard

Not just a medal. The actual winner. I don’t know if there’s a real trophy. Should be.

This is the annual tasting of English Sparkling Wines organised by Stephen Skelton; the man who wrote the book on English wine. 85 wines … all there by invitation … just the best … with a few well-known Champagnes thrown in for comparison. (The top Champagne came 10th but they won’t tell them that). And a top team of judges. Called ‘The Judgement of Parsons Green’, it’s the English Sparkling Wine Oscars.

I thought they were in with a good chance. I mean, it is such an elegant wine.

And at the races today she placed a horse in the winners’ enclosure every race … so clearly her luck was running.

Then she gets this email on the way home, the horses are all forgotten and we’re nearly off the road.

It’s good to have got this win, I can tell you. Because it’s been a long, cold endurance event to get it. Jan and Feb they’ve been out there almost every day, meticulously pruning in vile weather, reflecting, as they worked, upon last year’s non-harvest … wondering if that will happen again and if it’s all been worth it. Well, today it is.

“A win for us little ‘uns” … will they now stop asking “Wyfold who?”?

Wine producers are sensitive to little slights. They need constant re-assurance. They have to win medals. They need knowledgeable people to tell them they are doing it right.

Great start, my love, and – no excuse now – I will be out there with you tomorrow. I’m very good at burning the cuttings, aren’t I? I’ll get sausages from Carl Woods and we’ll have another celebration; champion local bangers with champion local wine.

P.S. Close second to Wyfold came our ‘Theale‘ sparkler. Another Thames Valley wine. I can’t say its ‘my’ wine; it is Laithwaite’s … the Company’s wine – all my lot have their own labelled vine in the tiny Theale vineyard behind New Aquitaine House. But Theale is an old stager. Winning awards for years … from the Mike Roberts stable of course. But I won’t be mentioning that tonight. Nor that our South Ridge (Roberts again, and, I suspect, the cheapest wine in the tasting) came a very respectable 22nd.

Old Monsieur Cassin who taught me all about wine, eventually asked Barbara and I to take over La Clarière – his Bordeaux vineyard in Castillon – and prove to the world that it was actually a very special place.

That was over 30 years ago and we knew nothing about making wine. But I’d been buying wine for ten years so I knew people who did. With their help we began the long learning curve.

It’s a family thing; our son Henry, born the year – 1980 – we took on the vineyard has been the Château La Clarière Laithwaite winemaker in recent years. Olivier Delage, our farmer, is the son of Guy who tended our vines before him, and Bernadette who has always cooked for the harvest team. Hélène Dupin has always run the place and welcomed visiting customers, especially the many ‘Confreres’ who like to take their case of La Clarière  every year.

Today we heard we’d just won our seventh Gold medal in the great ‘Concours de Paris’. One of only two in our district. This takes our total medal tally in all competitions to SEVENTY FIVE! Interestingly, since we began in 1984 we have won at least one medal EVERY VINTAGE … except 1991, when our crop was decimated by both frost and hail.

But the big Paris competition is where we now dominate in a way I don’t think any other château has ever come close to emulating: 2006 Silver; 2007 Gold; 2008 Gold; 2009 Silver; 2010 Gold; 2011 Gold.

As a happy Henry says; ‘we OWN the Paris’!

I feel sure Monsieur Cassin would be satisfied that we’ve proved his point; La Clarière truly is a special vineyard.

The 2011 will not be bottled till next month, but we have the last few bottles of 2010 and 2008 if anyone would like to find out what Gold tastes like.

We will not expand La Clarière, as so many successful Châteaux. It is a small vineyard and will stay small.

However there are new excitements. Henry with his wife Kaye now has a similar-sized vineyard almost next door; Château Verniotte.  He has his own cellars and likes to be a little more daring in his winemaking there. He doesn’t enter the Paris competitions, just the London. Doing very well.

My boy, Will the Brewer, made me proud this week. Just wish my Dad, Flight Lieutenant Eric Laithwaite 40 Squadron Bomber Command, could’ve seen it. Will and his lovely lot at Loose Cannon Brewery, Abingdon, named their latest beer – a real winner – after a very remarkable man. The story made The Oxford Mail.

We enjoyed our last weekend at Saling Hall just before Christmas. Hugh and Judy’s great Elizabethan house in Great Saling, Essex, was then about to be sold. It is now. No more country-house weekends for us in the most beautiful bit of Essex.

HJ had taken me down to his rather depleted cellar and Barbara and I had done our bit to reduce the number of bottles that will soon be up for auction. We’d had a last wander around the field that over the years, Hugh had transformed into a great arboretum. Memorable meals in front of the great fireplace. End of an era.

They bought this house for the price of a London semi back in the Sixties when Hugh’s first book became an instant best seller. They raised their family there, but now it’s a bit big for two and remote from the grandchildren.

This past weekend we were reminded of that visit as we ate another memorable fireside meal; soup and sandwiches CAN be memorable. Once again, Hugh’s fire was huge. But this time it was in his ‘other’ dwelling: a two room ‘bothy’ near Barmouth, North Wales.

No, Hugh is not downsizing quite this much. They are moving back to London. But this ruined bothy came with a small forest which the Johnsons ‘adopted’ about 30 years ago on the beautiful Barmouth estuary. Several times every year they do the long drive from Essex to tend their trees.  Hugh has three great passions: Wine, Gardening and Trees. Has written sumptuous books on all. He has this incredible energy. Hard to keep up with.

The bothy has no water or electricity and even the fourth wall is quite recent. An old table and camping chairs. But there is that huge fireplace. Logs are of course not a problem. The day was sunny, the fire bright too, and the cauliflower soup and ham sandwiches did in fact make a truly memorable meal.

But I suppose it was HJ’s genius choice of accompanying wine that clinched it: Sercial Madiera! You have to be the world’s greatest wine author to feel you can serve a Sercial throughout a meal. Open-air eating in February is too big a challenge for normal table wine. After a morning in the forest something seriously substantial is good. I had thought I was the only person who much prefers the driest of Madieras – Sercial – to the sweetest – Malmsey – which is usually the popular choice.

And I do now understand how come we Brits drank so much more of this type of wine a hundred or so years ago. It is a form of central heating. Strong and sweet but with a stinging bite. Perfect for draughty stone houses after a day in the forest.  Just glad I wasn’t driving home.

We had a great weekend in Snowdonia where I hadn’t been for 50 years. Back then I climbed all 14 peaks in a day! This time, fat old man, I just looked at them, glass in hand and wondered how on earth…

Lindsay our top vine stripper in the Chardonnay

Yesterday the rising sun lit up the stained glass of a big, church-like room beside Windsor Great Park, as fifteen of us – including Barbara – made plans for huge new initiatives and goals for our Company. All big stuff! But by the time the same day’s light faded, Barbara was in her vineyard with Lindsay, racing to complete their three hours’ pruning goal whilst the light lasted.

I should have been helping strip the cuttings – I do, sometimes – but I had to write words about Red Heads. So I got to stay in the warm, scribbling.

But that’s our working life, now. Between the big power management stuff … and the secateurs in the vineyard stuff. The rest of the family – our sons – all have the same sort of work split.

It’s good, I think, to keep the wellies on, both literally and metaphorically. That’s ‘staying grounded’ isn’t it?

Knackering, though.

So we are well into 2013 already. Challenging times! On the one hand, how to cope with the sudden return – after years of surplus – to wine shortages and price rises almost everywhere. The answer, we think, lies in much more searching in those remoter regions which we love, where the thundering herd does not go.

Also in 2013, how to cope with the Government? You may have seen our MD, Glenn’s comments to the Daily Telegraph, Monday. Few maybe believed his calculation on how just how much our Company pays each year in various taxes, duties and levies. One hundred million pounds! Huh??? Just little us? It’s not credible is it? It’s insane. And we are not BP or Unilever … but just classified as a medium-sized business. Good Wine is being quietly milked to death in Britain.

Our answers to the ‘puritans-and-greed-problem’ are our moves abroad to where Governments are less greedy. No tax at all in Hong Kong. America is going well for us. And Australia. Germany has come on a lot. It isn’t easy anywhere, but we have no option but to try. The Government could easily drain us to death any day now. Mind you, as we always say, we’d always have the consolation of a warehouse full of wine!

At the other end of the scale, in our vineyards, it’s too early to tell what the year will be like. But Barbara cannot help but remember she did all this work last year: countless hours of pruning , tying, lifting, weeding, trimming, treating, thinning and picking … and got precisely nothing for it … thanks to the cold and rain.

Barbara in her element

But there’s nowhere she’d rather be than outside, fresh air, occasional sun, rain, snippity-snip and the Red Kites whistling above.

And there’s no business we’d rather be in. So stop moaning, Laithwaite, and get on with it.