Christmas embargo

"...one prefers to be French than British at the moment on the economic level" - François Baroin, French economy minister
" ... they should start by downgrading Britain which has more deficits, as much debt, more inflation, less growth than us and where credit is slumping" - Christian Noyer, governor, Bank of France

I regret to announce that after last week's unfortunate but obviously co-ordinated outbursts from the Governor of the Bank of France and the French Finance Minister, that the Masterley household will boycott French wines this Christmas, including unfortunately, Champagne for which at present we have no suitable substitute, although suggestions are welcome in the comments. In extremis we may resort to consuming stocks in the cellar and refrain from seasonal purchases.

Whilst we believe that in the long term, there is scope for a strong consumer-producer relationship with selected French vineyards, we believe that in the present political climate it would be wrong to make large-scale purchases of claret and Burgundy, and we shall be continuing our buying in support of Chilean miners, which we believe is a suitable short-term substitute.

In one exceptional move and in the absence of any suitable substitute, an embargo-busting slug of brandy was used in the preparation of a highly recommended canapé dip: fried bacon, flambéed in brandy, with double cream and served with Brussels sprouts on a stick.  The offending item was £5.99 from Tesco. At that price seems to approximate a combination of kerosene and lighter fuel, and we suspect that sales of his particular brand will do little to strengthen the French economy.