A Day Well Spent with Leyla Kazim

In the past few days I’ve had 417 people unsubscribe from this newsletter as a result of the posts I’ve been publishing about the wine being on sale. Which feels like quite a lot. I mean, it is a lot. And more will unsubscribe after reading this. But, reframe. Hundreds of bottles of our Sercial Pét-Nat 2025 are going out to 10 countries. The average order value has been €111.

So, Monday should have been the celebration. A year of work. 1,200 bottles. The first ever wine with my name on it. And you guys really showed up. Comments, DMs, traffic. The interest in our wine had us feeling overjoyed. Then, within hours of the link going live, the messages changed. Hundreds of you had clicked through to buy. So many of you made it all the way to the basket. Then, 80 orders abandoned at checkout. We had launched with the wrong shipping prices.

It is my great honour, along with Cas’Amaro, to present to you our special wine: Sercial Pét Nat 2025 It’s on sale now. Five days only, 17 to 21 August. Or until the 1,200 bottles run out, whichever comes first. Delivered to your door, worldwide. Saúde! Leyla P.S. Buy a case of 6, 9 or 12 and you’ll also receive two 4-day passes to Alma do Vinho in September tucked into your delivery — the festival where all of this began. P.P.S. There is no second batch.

Earlier this week I told you the bottles finally have their labels, after five months of Portuguese paperwork purgatory. That post was about how this wine came to be. This one is about what happens when a bottle of it is on your table. This is the moment we tasted the finished wine for the first time. One of the winemakers Gilberto, myself and Rui. We are missing Ricardo — the other winemaker — because he was on holiday. As a food critic, this is basically my professional opinion on the wine.

saving up for my own forklift Some of you were following the story last autumn, when I first told you about a wine I was making with my neighbour Rui in my new hometown near Lisbon in rural Portugal. Then things went quiet. You know what happened? Paperwork happened. Then more paperwork. Then lots of waiting. Then some more paperwork.

And how this keeps you working until you're 65 You’re not taught how to build wealth from your money because financially independent people don’t stay in bullshit jobs until they’re 65 — and this is highly inconvenient for society. You’ve got one or two savings accounts with a pot of money. You look at it every month and you see it goes up a bit. Maybe you even move your money around to chase good interest rates. It makes you feel good that there’s stuff in there and that you keep adding to it.

Intrepid Travel approached me with a commission: to write about my past travel experiences as part of the launch of their new Women's Expeditions in Peru, Bhutan and Cambodia. I said yes immediately because comfort zones — and what’s on the other side of them — is a topic I think about a lot. Plus, my relationship with Intrepid goes back years and I’ve been on many trips with them, including to the Peruvian Amazon. They’re awesome. I hope you enjoy this essay.

On Wednesday 25th March, JP Watson, founder of independent publishers The Pound Project, interviewed myself and Natalie Lue about our powerful titles from 2025: Pathways and Let Go. We discussed the origins of our books, how a pitch and idea became a reality, our writing process and where our ideas are taking us next. And in case you missed either of our limited edition books when they were on sale, JP is kindly re-opening the chance to purchase copies again — which is a real treat.

I first published a version of this essay in November 2023 and I’ve decided to update it and add to it. Because my argument has become more relevant today than I expected it to. In the time since, the world has got more insane and the noise around it has got louder and more determined to pull you into its spiral. The case for exiting The Machine is stronger now than when I first made it.

Eight years ago I read a book with a title that promised to change my life. It wasn’t about where to find happiness or how to pursue a more fulfilling existence. It was a book about tidying up. And it did change my life. It transformed both my internal and external landscapes to such an extent that I don’t recognise the person I was before I read it. But to understand why a book about decluttering hit me so hard, you need to understand where I come from.