Here are some photos of the Duchess of Cornwall at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home last week. Camilla is the new royal patron for the animal-shelter charity, which means that she gets to hang out with other patrons like… David Gandy! I would love it David Gandy and Camilla started hanging out regularly. Why not? Anyway, I’m writing this story for two reasons. One, I’m not sure Camilla had ever held a cat before this visit, because that poor black kitty is like “why is this leather-glove clad lady choking me????” Two, I wanted you to know that Camilla was a wine-drinking child.

It’s no secret that the Duchess of Cornwall is a wine connoisseur, but as it turns out, the royal’s love for vino goes back to her early days. Though Camilla was born in London, the president of the UK’s Vineyard Association recently admitted that when it comes to drinking, she was raised like the French.

“People always ask me how I became involved in it all, well first of all I love wine, but secondly, my father was in the wine business, so I was brought up as a child drinking wine and water rather like the French,” the 69-year-old said on January 25 at a reception celebrating the association’s 50th anniversary. She further revealed, “My grandfather also wrote about wine as did my great-grandfather, so I think it’s very much in my blood and it’s so exciting to see British wine taking off.”

While at the event held at Clarence House, Prince William’s stepmother discussed how global warming is positively affecting British wine. She said, “We don’t exactly have the climate, or we didn’t then, but I expect with global warming it’s going to get better and better, we’re going to get better and better wine.”

The royal also offered her two-cents on the organization’s proposed named of British Fizz for the country’s sparkling wine. “I just feel champagne is such a good name and we don’t want to let the French beat us with a better name, so I think everybody ought to get back to having another little think about it,” Prince Charles’s wife said. The Duchess added, “I do quite often think I’ve got a really good name, and then I wake up in the morning and I’ve forgotten it.”

[From Hello Magazine]

I doubt Charles is going to be too happy about Camilla’s “well global warming is bringing us good English wine!” talk. That being said, she’s not wrong – global warming has dramatically changed the climate around Europe and around the world, and it’s affecting wine production too. As for Camilla being raised to drink wine from childhood… this explains so much! No, I jest. I suspect she means that she was raised in the continental-European way, which is to not stigmatize alcohol consumption and instead treat it like any other beverage.

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.