Nearly home... MH Tour Blog Stage 18 Preview

With the peaks of the Pyrenees behind them, the jerseys for their year's Le Tour have all but been decided. That means it's time for someone to snatch some glory with a stage win prior to Paris. And with just a few climbs, the way is open for any sprinter still with the puff after the last climb to go for it.

Profile c/o letour.fr

Wiggins has the Maillot Jaune sewn up and onto himself, Sagan the green one, and Voeckler that nice spotty one you get for climbing mountains. Expect them to play fairly safe tonight, and it's time for someone else to have a crack at the stage win tonight.


OUR PICK: We've been tipping it for weeks now, it's time for GO GO GOSSY to pick up a stage win in a flat-out charge to the finish.

DRINK MATCH: We're just east of Bordeaux and the Dordogne here at the finish tonight, so it's time for a nice glass of claret... See if you can find a Cotes de Bergerac for a close-by tipple.

AUSSIE MATCH: Right, into Bordeaux-style material from down under, lets think some icons:
I'd go Yarra Valley for the Mount Mary Quintet myself, but for the other side of country, you'd be hard pressed to beat the Cullen Diana Madeline. Could you drink better on a cold winter night??

Wine Fiction: The Irrestible Inheritance of Wilberforce

Righto, time for another dip into the world of wine fiction. This time, beginning with a bottle of 1982 Petrus, we're entering the enviable life of Wilberforce.

Wilberforce might just have it all. A great job, gorgeous wife and, enticingly, a cellar of maybe 10,000 bottles of the world's greatest wines.

Without giving too much away though, perhaps this Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style romp through the finest Bordeaux and Burgundies around might not be all Pomerol and skittles. It's a challenging read, and not always a fun one, but one that drags you in.

I found that Paul Torday has crafted an intriguing mystery here as the reader has to keep delving to find how such a brilliant legacy of wines could leave Wilberforce with a touch of cork taint.

One for the Bordeaux-philes.

I rate it 3 and a half glasses of '82 Petrus...