In France a house in a village with a boulangerie is worth more. In the UK good schools raise property prices but what about a Waitrose?
If you don’t live in the UK let me tell you that Waitrose is an upmarket go-to supermarket that stocks everything and it’s usually high quality. This year alone I have bought fresh chestnut mushrooms, dried porcini, fresh parsley, mint and coriander and tamarind paste. I would have bought bay leaves if my neighbour didn’t have a tree.
When Oddbins opened in Barons Court at the end of last year I bought a bottle of twelve year-old Amontillado made by Gonzalez Byass; it is both delicious and a bargain (£13.75). Subsequently Jancis Robinson wrote much the same in The Weekend FT. It has a sibling that weighs in at thirty years, but is a bit dear at £23 for only half a bottle. I use sibling because they are related. The twelve year-old is used to to refresh the solera of the thirty year-old. Incidentally, because of the way the solera system works when you sip the latter you will be tasting something from when the solera was started in 1835 by the Duke of Medinaceli, who bought 16 sherry butts that forms the base of the current day solera. The Viña AB Amontillado is pretty widely available in the UK if you search for it online.
