Cheese (Gromit?) Wine (glasses) and Mr Shetty
Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director
You maybe thinking me a bit fixated on Steven Bartlett these days, with some justification, and indeed I’m going to start with another of his guests again this week. So if you’re bored with me rambling on about stuff that’s nothing to do with cookware, do please move onto the next email in your inbox, or, if you’re feeling tolerant, but not that tolerant, skip these first few paragraphs and get down to the meat below.
On Monday afternoon this week, I found myself travelling down to Winchester, listening to Steven's latest guest. And I will say that having seen a photo in 'The Week', of him in a rather outlandish suit, I took an instant and involuntary dislike to the fellow who was billed as “A guru to the stars”, oh yuk… and I dismissed him from my mind.
It took therefore, a certain effort of will, having discovered that Steven was interviewing him, to make myself hit the play button. But since reading Arthur Brook’s book “Love Your Enemies”, I’ve been deliberately exposing myself to “stuff” that I think I’m not going to agree with, in a bid to understand people with whom I suspect I’m going not to agree! The logic being, one can’t intelligently disagree with someone, until you’ve understood their argument. So in this case, to my surprise, there’s nothing for me to disagree with, quite the opposite in fact.
The person in question is Jay Shetty, a really interesting bloke and an ex-monk, who has some very down to earth views on relationships. The interview was 2 hours long, so I’m not going to suggest that you listen to it all, I’m just going to pick one bit, out of many, that spoke to me. If you do want to listen to the whole podcast though, it’s here, but if you're short on time and interest, then the bit I’m referring to is at about 57 mins in, and is here.
At this point in the interview, Steven has asked him “If your partner got to a state where you no longer found them attractive at all, because they weren’t taking care of themselves, what would you do?”. Jay answers with an example of how he and his wife approach their problems together. He says that he wants to understand what is going on for her, so he asks three questions:
- Is this relationship going in the direction you want it to go in?
- If it is going in the right direction, what is going well?
- If it isn’t going in the right direction, what do you need, and what are you willing to do?
And actually he then asks, “Do you mind if I share mine (view of how its going)?”
It struck me forcibly how open ended and without judgement his questions were. And I could imagine the impact these “loving” questions would have on any person being asked them, can’t you? Quite a profound difference to the way most of us will approach such a difficult conversation.
Cheese
Ok to product. The theme is Cheese and Wine.
Global Cheese knives
Global do two rather nice cheese knives. One that they call a Cheese Knife 10.5cm, which has cut outs in the blade to reduce drag (in hard cheese and to stop it crushing soft cheeses like camembert) and retails on offer at the moment for £65.00.
And the other is like a miniature Chopper, which they refer to as Cheese & Herb Chopper 8cm. Jeanne has one of these at home and loves it. £69.00
This weekend I’m doing 30% off each one, so they will come down to £45.50 and £48.30 respectively. That's a lot of Global knife for your money.
T&G Acacia Cheese Boards
And to go with them I’ve chosen two cheese boards from T&G, so responsibly sourced Acacia Wood (quite similar to Teak).
There’s a Round 30cm Board with a handle £25.99 down to £19.99.
And a Paddle Board 39cm long 12cm wide. £14.99 down to £11.99 .
And last but not least, something to drink your red or white wine out of.
Riedel Offer
There are two 6 Packs on offer
Riedel Vinum 6 Pack Cabernet Sauvignon/ Bordeaux Glasses
Riedel Vinum 6 Pack Sauvignon Blanc glasses.
The story behind it goes like this. Last year I went a bit mad and ordered rather large quantities of these glasses from my chums at Riedel…seemed like a good idea at the time…. Several pallets of these turned up the other day, which, in actual fact, was only half the order and gummed the place up. So, I thought I’d better try and move some on, to keep Andi, Sarah, Ellie and Denise (the warehouse team) happy, before the other half arrive in a few weeks' time!
Incidentally, in case you’re wondering why I’ve included a white wine glass in this offer, if you’ve not tried it already, I’d recommend you try a white wine with cheese. Stilton, and Roquefort for example are both wonderful with Sauvignon Blanc and with Riesling, both of which will taste really good out of the Vinum SB glass.
Red wine is perhaps a more obvious choice with cheese and here the Cabernet Sauvignon glass is the closest thing that Riedel come to having a general purpose red wine glass. But if you're a Pinot Noir only person, then skip this offer, Pinot gets completely lost in such a big bowl. Otherwise if you’re a Merlot, Shiraz, Syrah, Malbec, Cab Sauv etc etc drinker, you won’t go far wrong with this, our bestselling Riedel glass.
When sold in pairs, both these glasses retail for £55 a pair. The official Riedel offer is a box of 6 glasses (3 pairs) for £130 (saving you £35).
We are currently price matching at £99.90! and for this weekend, I’m reducing that even further to £89.90. Use code VINUM23 if shopping online, and tell us who you are if coming into the shops.
Ok, that’s it for this week.
Apropos of nothing at all, other than it made me laugh, when I read it, I’ll leave you with a last observation from Mark Twain.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
I trust you have a pleasant and peaceful weekend
Kind regards
Andrew
Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director
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