For Shakespeare, Asparagus and St George

Tenuous Riedel Link
Drinking features in all of Shakespeare's plays and a popular tipple was Sack, a Sherry from Jerez. This was a favourite of Falstaff and in Henry IV (Part II) he praised the benefits of Sack on one’s constitution.

Another favourite was Malmsey, from the Portuguese Island of Madeira. This wine is featured in several plays, including Richard III and Love’s Labour Lost. Malmsey, or Madeira Malvasia, is the sweetest kind of wine made in Madeira, under the Madeira DOC. It is made using the Malvasia grape and is best served in a Cabernet Sauvignon / Bordeaux glass.

Or you could go for a "dram" of whisky. Dram was a term for an apothecaries’ weight, of one-eighth of an ounce. Shakespeare used the word in Romeo and Juliet when Romeo says: ‘Let me have A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear As will disperse itself through all the veins That the life-weary taker may fall dead.’ I'd prefer a Jura myself!

Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the Spanish writer, is widely regarded as the greatest ever writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for "Don Quixote de la Mancha", first published in 1605,a work often cited as both the first modern novel and one of the pinnacles of world literature.

Quite apart from his literary accomplishments, he led an incredible life. He left Spain for Italy in 1569, aged 22, after a warrent was issued for his arrest. In it he was was charged with wounding Antonio de Sigura in a duel.

He joined a Spanish military unit in Italy and took part in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Stationed on the ship La Marquesa, he fought against the Ottoman Empire and sustained serious injuries in the conflict, suffering two chest wounds and the complete maiming of his left hand. Despite this, Cervantes continued to serve as a soldier for several more years.

In 1575, Cervantes and his brother Rodrigo tried to return to Spain, but they were captured during their voyage by a group of Turkish ships and the brothers were taken to Algiers, to be sold as slaves. After almost five years, and four escape attempts, in 1580 Cervantes was set free by the Trinitarians, a religious charity that specialised in ransoming Christian captives, and returned to Madrid.

In the late 1580s, Cervantes began working for the Spanish Armada as a commissary. It was a thankless job, which involved collecting grain supplies from rural communities. When many did not want to provide the required goods, Cervantes was charged with mismanagement and ended up in prison, not for the first time. However, this gave him time to write!

He subsequently worked as an "intelligence agent" (read "spy") in North Africa and the Netherlands.

In 1605, Cervantes published the first part of Don Quixote, a novel that tells the story of an elderly man who becomes so enamored by the old stories of brave knights that he seeks out his own adventures. Don Quixote became the world's first best seller and was eventually translated into more than 60 different languages. Cervantes published the second part of the story in 1615. He died on April 23rd 1616, the same day as William Shakespeare!

German Beer Day
The rich history of German beer has been helped, in no small part, by the creation of the Reinheitsgebot, the “purity law” issued on 23rd April 1516, that decreed how beer had to be brewed and sold in the state of Bavaria.

The regulation demanded purity, with only water, barley and hops being permitted and aimed to both protect consumers from poor quality, overly priced beer and ensure that there was enough wheat and rye for bread-making.

The law gradually spread throughout the rest of Germany and was adhered to nationwide by 1906.

The Reinheitsgebot is the oldest consumer protection regulation still in use.

National Asparagus Day
Traditionally, asparagus is picked from St George’s Day, until June 21st, the longest day of the year.

It is a great source of fibre and is rich in vitamins. It also contains folic acid, perfect for keeping your insides happy and healthy, as well as your skin and hair.

Asparagus comes in three colours: green, purple and white. The white variety is grown in the dark to stop the colour developing and is very popular in Europe, while most asparagus in Britain is green. When buying yours, it’s important to pick stalks with good colour and closed tips.

According to health experts, purple foods have been recognised as having many benefits, such as lowering the risk of some cancers, improving urinary tract health, improving memory function and maintaining healthy aging. This is due to health-promoting phytochemicals, such as anthocyanins and phenolics.

The Greeks and Romans loved asparagus for its flavour, texture and medicinal properties, some 2,000 years ago. Legend has it that Julius Caesar loved his with just a hint of melted butter! Me too, but I also like a glass of Viognier with mine.

Channel Tunnel
The idea of a tunnel under the Channel Tunnel had first been mooted in 1750. Back then, it was but a vision from the future.

But, in 1833, engineers called Aimé Thomé de Gamond and William Low picked up the baton and took the idea of an underwater tunnel further. Low did show that the underlying chalk, around Folkestone, Kent, was excellent stuff to dig through and remarkably watertight. However, xenophobia and Britain’s fear of invasion from Europe meant that Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon III rejected the idea, on 23rd April 1867.

Coca Cola Disaster
On April 23rd 1985 the Coca-Cola Company took, arguably, the biggest risk in consumer goods history, announcing that it was changing the formula for the world's most popular soft drink, and spawning consumer angst the likes of which no business has ever seen.

Although Coca-Cola was the world’s best-selling soft drink, rival Pepsi-Cola continued to gain market share in the 1970's and early 1980's, thanks in part to its aggressive “Pepsi Challenge” campaign in which consumers, taking blind taste tests, were surprised to learn they preferred the flavor of Pepsi. To the shock of Coca-Cola, internal taste tests yielded the same results. Company executives grew convinced that its soda’s taste - not its rival’s advertisements targeting the “Pepsi Generation” - was the reason for its declining market share.

"New Coke" was born and rather than divide its market share between two sodas, Coca-Cola discontinued its 99-year classic recipe and locked Formula 7x away in an Atlanta bank vault with the intention that it never again see the light of day.

Whilst the company President and CEO toasted each other with cans of New Coke, the news was already beginning to fall flat. On the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Coca-Cola dropped, while those of its rival rose. Pepsi gave all its employees the day off and declared victory in full-page newspaper advertisements that boasted, ‘‘After 87 years of going at it eyeball to eyeball, the other guy just blinked.’’

New Coke left a bitter taste in the mouths of the company’s loyal customers. Within weeks of the announcement, the company was fielding 5,000 angry phone calls a day. By June, that number grew to 8,000 calls a day, a volume that forced the company to hire extra operators.

Seventy nine days later, on July 11th, the return of the original formula was announced. “Our boss is the consumer,” Coca-Cola president Donald Keough said. “We want them to know we’re really sorry.” The news was so momentous that television networks broke into normal programming with special reports.

“The simple fact is that all the time and money and skill poured into consumer research on the new Coca-Cola could not measure or reveal the deep and abiding emotional attachment to original Coca-Cola felt by so many people,” Keough admitted. The blunder was so colossal that some thought it must have been an intentional marketing gimmick. “Some cynics say that we planned the whole thing,” Keough said. “The truth is we’re not that dumb and we’re not that smart."

SMASH!!
The slightest mishap can cause someone to cry over their beer, or shed tears over spilled milk, but on April 23rd 1989, at the Four Seasons restaurant in Manhattan, nobody could have blamed William Sokolin if he had sobbed over a broken bottle of wine.

Not just any bottle, even by Four Seasons standards, where a bottle of Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, St. Julien 2008 now goes for $2,700. The bottle Mr. Sokolin famously broke that night was a 1787 Château Margaux that was said to have been found in a Paris cellar in 1985 and to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson. (It was inscribed with the initials Th.J., although doubts were later cast on its authenticity.)

Sokolin was a former professional baseball player. He claimed he had “great hands,” but that didn’t stop him from clumsily dropping, and smashing, the bottle. Sokolin said it was worth $500,000, but the insurance company paid him slightly less than half of that.

The restaurant manager claims to have tasted a few drops of the spilled wine with his finger. His response was “Yuck.”

Sir Gordon Greenidge (and a bit of self indulgence)
On 23rd April 1991, a brutal innings from Gordon Greenidge, in Barbados, took care of Australia's hopes of becoming the world's best cicket side.

When he strode to the wicket in the second innings of the fourth Test, Greenidge had made only one fifty in his previous 24 innings, and 20 wickets had fallen for only 283 runs in the match. Greenidge got almost as many on his own, in a display that rolled back the years (this was the penultimate Test Match of his career).

His violent 226 was his fourth Test double-hundred, and with West Indies rampaging to 536 for 9 declared, Australia were well beaten by 343 runs. Two down with one to play, their hopes of usurping West Indies were shattered.

Sir Gordon (as he is now) and his partner, Desmond Haynes, formed what was by a distance the most enduring and prolific opening partnership in world cricket, with 16 century stands, four of them in excess of 200.

As a cricket obsessed 10 year old, I watched him score 134 at Old Trafford in 1976 (the next highest score in the innings was 10!) and I can recall trying to imitate his brooding, destructive style (as well as his strange, limping run) at my local cricket pitch for the next few weeks and months. Unsuccessfully, obviously!

So, happy April 23rd to you. I'm off to write a sonnet and then get Sancho Panza to bowl a few full tosses for me to off-drive into the neighbours garden.