A themed puzzle which I found easy to start but extremely tough to finish.
There were some odd word associations and my lack of knowledge of wine didn’t help (I always consider it my patriotic duty to drink mostly beer since it’s nearly all brewed in the UK, as opposed to wine, which is nearly all produced abroad). 2 and 8 were new to me but I managed to work them out from the subsidiary parts of the clue (although the robe in 2 was tricky to think of). 17 was my personal favourite.
| Across | ||
| 9 | IDAHO | State lawyer embraced by international hooker (5) |
| DA in I(nternational) ho(=whore in rap-type dialect) | ||
| 10 | ARISTOTLE | Upper class person starts to take lessons with European philosopher (9) |
| Aristo + t[ake] l[essons] + E(uropean) | ||
| 11 | EMBRACE | Welcome investment of money into on-line support (7) |
| M(oney) in e (prefix for all things online) + brace | ||
| 12 | CHATEAU | Chief accountant conceals aversion to superior producer of 1D (7) |
| C(hief) + A(ccountant) around hate + U | ||
| 13 | MACAW | 1D that’s a shame for working bird (5) |
| Macon with aw(=that’s a shame) instead of on(=working) | ||
| 15 | BEE | Second helpings taken from brewer for worker (3) |
| I think this is another letters removed clue – second helpings indicating removal of even letters from BrEwEr | ||
| 16 | SOMME | Server of 1D, not someone who waits in ambush in battle site (5) |
| Somme[lier] | ||
| 17 | GAS | What’s found in good half of bubbly 1D (3) |
| &lit – g(ood) + as[ti] | ||
| 19 | INCITER | One who stirs up report of out-in-the-open resistance (7) |
| Hom of “in sight” + r(esistance) | ||
| 20 | RED | Friends oddly absent for 1D (3) |
| Odd letters removed from fRiEnDs | ||
| 22 | BASTE | Apply loose stitching to clobber (5) |
| DD. The only meaning I knew for baste was the culinary one but apparently it has two other meanings – to beat with a stick and to stitch loosely. | ||
| 23 | EAR | Spike‘s back without leader (3) |
| [R]ear – spike as in ear of wheat, I assume | ||
| 24 | HAMMY | Overly dramatic description of Hock? (5) |
| Hock ham is a joint of meat from a pig. | ||
| 26 | CHABLIS | Tea, black, with a bit of lemon is 1D (7) |
| Cha + b(lack) + l[emon] + is | ||
| 28 | CABARET | Film of sailor hiding pupil in 1D (7) |
| Took me ages to parse this, mainly because I was convinced it was something to do with cabernet. But it’s actually claret with ab replacing l. | ||
| 31 | PINOT NOIR | Italy’s leader into porn whipped 1D (5,4) |
| (I[taly] into porn)* | ||
| 32 | RIOJA | A little woman (Irish) comes back with 1D (5) |
| (A + Jo + Ir)< | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | WINE | Gain point in table? (4) |
| Win + E, table wine being a type thereof. | ||
| 2 | MALBEC | Kairos keeping robe and cape for 1D (6) |
| Me around alb (clerical vestment) + c(ape) | ||
| 3 | SOFA | Provided football officials for Chesterfield? (4) |
| So(=provided) + FA(=football officials) | ||
| 4 | LANE | Part of the motorway network beginning to erode (4) |
| LAN (local area network) + e[rode] | ||
| 5 | WINCHESTER | American producer of 1D briefly stores case for public school (10) |
| Winer, which I assume must be an American term for a vintner, around chest. | ||
| 6 | ETNA | Vietnamese arresting smoker? (4) |
| Hidden in viETNAmese | ||
| 7 | STREAMER | Headline: “QUEEN BOARDS BOAT” (8) |
| R in steamer | ||
| 8 | BEAUNE | Handsome man associated with Teesside 1D (6) |
| Beau + NE (North East, where Teeside is located if you don’t count Scotland) | ||
| 13 | MUG | Face attack (3) |
| DD | ||
| 14 | WHITE | 1D‘s ball (5) |
| I assume it’s a DD but can’t work out why ball is white. | ||
| 15 | BUCKET SHOP | Drives bumpily to dance agency (6,4) |
| Buckets(=drives bumpily) + hop. A bucket shop is a sort of cut-price travel agency. | ||
| 16 | SYRAH | Zachary Smith holds up 1D (5) |
| Hidden, rev in ZacHARY Smith | ||
| 18 | SUSTAINS | South American drunken saint gets sanctions (8) |
| S(outh) US(=American) + saint*, but I’m struggling a little to see sustain and sanction as synonyms. | ||
| 21 | DRY | Milk producer lacks excellent type of 1D (3) |
| D[ai]ry | ||
| 22 | BICEPS | Arms workers? (6) |
| I think this is a CD, biceps being muscles which work the arms. | ||
| 25 | MERLOT | Encountered holding hands with old 1D (6) |
| Met around RL + o(ld) | ||
| 27 | LATE | Former Liberal worried (4) |
| L(iberal) + ate | ||
| 28 | CORK | I’m surprised king is one preventing escape of 1D (4) |
| Cor + k(ing) | ||
| 29 | BARK | Rough sound coming from boat we hear (4) |
| Hom of boat and possibly ruff in the def | ||
| 30 | THAW | Become less chilly with actor (4) |
| Thaw – ref to the late John Thaw, famous for the Inspector Morse and the Sweeney. | ||
*anagram
A very upmarket version of a Hoskins booze-up I must say.And très tough for a Monday.
Mr rap speak is not what it could be but it had to be IDAHO. And thought the MACON/MACAW was rather ingenious.
Thanks kairos and Neal H.
Also not a wine drinker, so 2 and 8 also unknown to me. Finished with MACAW and CABARET taking some thought. Put me down as another who only knew the culinary meaning of BASTE. I assume the ‘ball’ in 14d is in reference to snooker/billiards/pool but this seems a bit weak. I felt ‘sustain’, as in court proceedings say, was close to ‘sanction’. I cannot think of when ‘so’ can mean ‘provided’, as in 3d – ‘so long as’ works but not convinced by ‘so’ on its own. Maybe somebody can provide an example useage.
Much as Neal H i rattled off the first two thirds then things started to grind more slowly.
Not even sure about the definition in 1D, it had to be, and rapidly became obvious but for a gateway clue a bit of a stretch for my taste.
The US vintner in 5D I took to be WINERY briefly.
I can’t see the ball = white thing either, will re-visit to see if any light shed.
Still I enjoyed it all in the end with thanks to S & B.
Not a superfast solve for me. Well, I got slower towards the end, so perhaps a case of too much 1d.
I didn’t know MACON, the non-culinary definitions of BASTE, or BEAUNE. It took me ages to twig the snooker ball meaning of WHITE, and I’m not familiar with BUCKET SHOP.
So I was pleased to eventually drain the bottle unaided before reading the label to be educated on the subtle flavours I’d missed.
Lots of favourites: I liked the three-letterers, plus HAMMY, CHABLIS, CABARET and CORK.
Cheers Kairos and Neal.
I really enjoyed this with a theme which definitely appeals to me. As mentioned by earlier commenters I was unsure about “provided” in 3d and “ball” in 14d but both do appear in Chambers.
Many thanks to Kairos and Neal, and also to Kitty for her recommendation to have a go at this one.
Thanks Kairos and NealH
Right up my street (though I do drink English beer too!) I didn’t have a problem with WHITE as a snooker ball.
The “sounds like” isn’t needed for BARK, as this was a commonly-used spelling for “barque” once (though “old” might have been needed).
Kitty @4 re BEAUNE and MACON-sadly burgundy has become out of reach for most of us but it is still possible to grab a Macon Villages (pref by Louis Latour) at a pronounceable price although its only the entry level.
Thems were the days-and I guess Chablis is comparatively the best value burgundy now. (sobs into beer glass)
We got through this pretty quickly once we got the gateway clue at 1dn from 17ac. We wondered about ‘sanction’ = ‘sustain’, but Chambers has ‘support’ as one meaning of ‘sanction’, so that’s near enough. We liked the substitutions in MACAW and CABARET. We didn’t know ‘ho’ for hooker but thought it might have been an abbreviation we hadn’t come across in rugby terminology since 9ac had to be IDAHO. The clue for HAMMY was ingenious mentioning ‘Hock’ since the theme was wine, but a little bit obvious.
An enjoyable solve. Thanks, Kairos and NealH.
Luverly stuff – and the crossword wasn’t bad either!
I did need Neal’s help with the full parsing of 28a although the answer was obvious and, like others, I was a bit worried about ‘so’ in 3d and the tenuous link to snooker in 14d.
Favourite has to be 2d – whether or not it was the best clue!
Thanks to Kairos and to Neal for the blog.
Great fun! 2D was made somewhat tricky by the lack of Kairos name shown on my version – oh and I didn’t know alb either! Otherwise no probs
Once I was sure of 1d I made a lot of headway, but came to grief at BASTE, not knowing either of the required definitions. I was also stuffed for 14d by having put EXCITER at 19a. Revealing BASTE and the first letter of 19a finally got me to the end. Enjoyable puzzle with all the wines heard of, if not imbibed. Liked the AW for ON substitution. Thanks Kairos and Neal.
Thanks, Neal. My solving experience pretty much the same as yours. The gateway clue I only got through solving some of the examples, and I’m still not convinced about it. Most of the wines I knew, so they all went in eventually. Another one who didn’t know the two definitions of BASTE (although BASTINADO for foot-whipping has come up enough in other crosswords that I should have been able to do better with that).
Good puzzle, although a little outside the ‘normal’ Monday fare. Don’t think there’s anything Bacchanalian to celebrate today, is there?
Just got round to sampling this today, and most of it went down smoothly.
I struggled with some of the replacements (hiding?) and didn’t think snooker.
A lovely grid
Many thanks Kairos and NealH