I’ve sacked Mybloglog. What is the point when Facebook (you see, no need to provide a hyperlink) is taking over every social interaction on the web. I like to think that LinkedIn looks after business interaction, but Facebook’s success in the social space has undoubtedly been due to its open platform.
Have you ever been haunted? The name Teyssier has been my stalker recently. It has bought out the best of Virgin Wines and contemporaneously the reason why they often ever so slightly under-achieve. Well, nobody can please everybody every day!
I was planning to tell you about another stonking January wine offer.
You might recall my review of Landelia 2005 Malbec last March where I was a Virgin’s thong away from apologising for visible trouser stains. I love the smooth chocolate and cherry flavours that slip from a glass of Malbec like a soulful line to the ladies from Theophilus T Wildebeest.
But Lenny Henry’s parody of Barry White probably lasts all night, or at any rate, longer than the Virgin Wines New Year sale.
I picked up six bottles of Landelia Malbec for £40.74, or £6.79 per bottle only a couple of weeks ago.
If you want some now, you have missed the boat. The price is back to its original £8.49. But even at this level, you would be naiive not to tuck a couple of bottles away, if only as an ingested alternative to Stud Delay.
Smoky, moody, deep, mysterious, bitter, fruity. All adjectives that, I have been instructed to inform you in no uncertain terms, do not associate themselves readily with my wife. At least not for 25 days of every month.
Just as well she didn’t visit the Virgin Wines website and pay £5.65 of her hard earned cash for this Adobe Cabernet.
If you like Malbec (and I do) you might like to explore a bit further than the varietal’s adopted homeland of Argentina.
For example, at the time of writing, Virgin Wines has this South African on offer at £5.99 (normally £9.99). If you subscribe to Virgin’s Wine Bank, you effectively get an extra 25% discount. This is stonking value for money.
Rich and hedonistic with black cherry, leather and spice. Slightly rough around the edges like your lovable mate, the diamond geezer, this Wellington beaut tastes much more expensive than £4.50.
More from my latest virtual world tour – Riesling. A grape I know little about, but grown up winos tell me is one of the most important in the wine world. So I better start cramming.
And when I say cramming, I probably mean squeezing every last drop into my capacious gastrointestinal wine canal.
This wine is not like the German Rieslings I have tasted recently. Quite dry and a touch of sherbet in the taste with possibly some peach and grapefruit. Zingy and refreshing. Hints of a NZ Sauvignon Blanc?
Whisper it in case the purists hear. I find Aussie Rieslings rather good, and generally better priced than the statuesque Germans that have so far been cleansed by my kidneys.
I got this one from Virgin Wines at £7.07.
I have given mixed reviews of Virgin Wines in the past. In truth, the quality has varied from the sublime to the downright ugly, but you can’t argue with the prices. That means value has to be taken into account. For example, if you sign up for their Wine Bank promotion you merely need to commit a credit crunch dodging £20 per month to your wine account and every three months, Virgin adds another £20 implying a 25% discount on the prices on the site.
So, having tried some bottles at the cheapest end of the spectrum, I thought I would order a few at about a tenner. But I forgot that this Miudiño Albariño advertised at £9.49 only cost me £7.12 because of Wine Bank.
There’s something uniquely British about November 5th. Celebrating a failed attempt to blow up one’s house of parliament is a tad eccentric. Doing so by trying to burn down our own houses and gardens is plain odd, but admittedly good fun.
Our house looks over a valley, so there is never any need to buy fireworks. I merely park a deck chair on my balcony, sport a warm coat and enjoy them at my neighbours’ expense.
You are probably expecting me to construct a treasonable plot that this Châteauneuf-du-Pape smelt of gunpowder.
Even I am not that cheesy. There was an explosion on the tongue though. Red apples, liquorice, milk chocolate and vanilla. Luscious, opulent, smooth, delicious. Probably the best wine I have tasted from Virgin although, at £18.49, certainly not their cheapest.
Apparently, living on the side of a valley puts one in a time warp amongst other things, since today we celebrate the one month anniversary of November 5th – sorry this one was a bit late.
I just found out what Rowan Gormley (formerly of Virgin Wines) is up to these days. He is getting naked – well in a wine sort of way. It’s a new concept in wine retailing, although knowing Rowan, he would hate to see it described so stuffily and, after all, everybody hates “new concepts”.
This new concept could be yet another Wine 2.0 also ran – it is claimed to be a bit like LastFM where you can recommend and follow other people’s recommendations, except unlike LastFM I think you might be expected to actually buy some wine. On the other hand maybe there is something new here – let’s wait and see.
Anyway, there is definitely one good side to it. They are looking for 100 wine tasters to receive three bottles FREE OF CHARGE, simply in return for bringing your opinion back prior to launch.
As you might expect, being a thirsty (and gobby) git, I have signed up, so if you want one of the remaining 99 places head over to www.nakedwines.com
It has taken me a bit longer than I expected to start my exploration and learning of the noble Riesling grape. You may remember my world tour of Pinot Noirs resulted in me comparing the grape to Brigitte Bardot: beguiling, sexy, temperamental, bonkers.
I have not yet drawn a metaphor for Riesling so I better get my tasting boots on and march over to Analogy Square to see whose flagpole is at full mast. This bottle came from Virgin Wines at the noble price of £9.99.
Stumble It!