Category — Beaujolais

I always applaud those wine merchants (large and small) who are adventurous and try to offer something rather different. Nick Dobson continues to do this well, with a new selection of wines from Austria in addition to his other explorations into Switzerland, Germany (Mosel) and southern Burgundy.

Amongst the new arrivals is some Austrian Sekt (sparking wine) from Stift Klosterneuburg, a 900 year old Augustinian Monastery near Vienna:-

Cuvée comprising 60 percent Welschriesling and 40 percent Grüner Veltliner. Its fragrant fruit aroma is invigorating and refreshing. (£10.95)

More Sekt from Weingut Steininger in the Kamptal:

These are of particular interest as they are not only superlative quality, but made from a wide range of different grape varieties, not often seen in sparkling form - such as a Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé Sekt and a Sauvignon Blanc Sekt.

So if you are really looking for something a little different, and seldom seen on a supermarket shelf, then it could be worth a look:
Nick Dobson Wines Tel: +44 (0) 118 9771545 Mobile: +44 (0) 7799 661694
FAX:- +44 (0) 870 4602358 e-mail:- nick.dobson@nickdobsonwines.co.uk

A refreshingly different approach is evident as soon as you enter Cadman Fine Wines website. Its crisp design and great graphics tempt you with some good special offers, yet also provides easy navigation of the site to find what you want.

The tagline “Quality is merely a starting point…” is more than merely words - they do seem to have a real commitment to sourcing their wines:-

Cadman Fine Wines stands for quality, exclusivity and selection

We bring you the world’s finest wines from the world’s finest producers: classic labels from famous names and regions that sit at the pinnacle of their craft; rare gems that have never been seen in the UK, plus exciting, cutting-edge wines from newly emerging stars of the fine wine world.

Our wines are intelligently and skillfully sourced by an international team of experts based in Italy, France, Spain and the UK. Through desk research, field trips and tastings, our experts seek and source hand-crafted wines from producers and winemakers who reaclly care about the contents of the bottle. To achieve a Cadman Fine Wines listing, a wine must score at least 88 points on our quality rating system or from the world’s most authoritative wine critics.

The wine list is extensive covering a wide range from New and Old World, some classic fine Bordeaux and Burgundies together with an eclectic mix of lesser-known wines such as Spanish Jumilla DO, French Cour-Cheverny AC and Otago wines from South Island, New Zealand.

Yet for each and every wine there are thoughtful tasting notes and good background information - very impressive. What’s more each delivery comes with “full tasting notes and background information for each wine, including grape varieties, when to drink the wine and reviews from our own experts and the world’s leading critics where applicable. This leaves you free to argue/ discuss the merits of wines with your friends and family. Their inclusion also makes each order an ideal gift.”

Cadman Fine Wines
Freepost NAT21632, Northampton NN3 6BR
Tel: 0845 121 4011
sales@cadmanfinewines.co.uk

Region Wine is a new Chester-based online merchant with a retail shop in the heart of historic Chester. The website is attractive and offers a wide range from around the world, including Greece, Oregon USA and Hungary in addition to the usual New and Old World sources. In addition to offering selections by region, grape variety and price there is also the opportunity to choose from a selection by “experience” - i.e. Aromatic white, exotic white, fruity white, quaffable red, red with herby notes, red with spicy notes, red, big and dark, refreshing rose, refreshing white, smooth red etc

Our company started out as a quality online wine merchant in 2006 by Ian Wildboar, fulfilling a twenty year ambition to turn his love of food and drink into a business. His aim is to help maintain diversity in wine choice throughout the UK at excellent prices and value for money.

Online French specialists Leon Stolarski Fine Wines offer new classics from Languedoc, Roussillon, Southern Rhone and Beaujolais (and South West France, Loire, Alsace…..) and have a special offer available:

For one week only, we are offering 15% off a large selection of wines from our main list. This is no ordinary sale and these are not bin-ends, but represent genuine reductions on 60-odd of the very best wines from our core list. But hurry - this offer ends on 31 March 2008!

You can download their sale price list HERE - but hurry as the sale only lasts until 31 arch 2008!

Cooden Cellars is an independent wine merchant established by Colin Barnes and Ian Jarman in 1997. In May 2001 we opened our retail shop in the Grand Hotel Buildings, Compton Street, Eastbourne. They were awarded Independent Merchant of the Year 2007 as well as Regional Wine Merchant of the Year in the IWC Awards for the last three years, in 2003 and 2004 as runner-up and in 2005 outright.

For those not lucky enough to live within the bounds of Eastbourne they maintain a very functional and informative website. Registered users can login and leave their own tasting notes. The only thing that is lacking are images of the wine bottles (perhaps they should engage this budding photographer?)

The range is excellent across the board - lots of interesting wines from Argentina and Australia, New Zealand and Portugal are particularly interesting with several wines we are yet to discover. Regular offers, a regularly updated blog section and a decent range of spirits plus a regular payment wine club complete the picture. Perhaps the perfect wine merchant?

FRIDAY 16 - MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2007 - The Annual Salon des Vignerons Independents (indpendent winemakers) holds its annual show in the Grand Palais in Lille. Over 400 winemakers from every corner of France will be offering tastings of their wines with the opportunity to buy at vineyard gate prices. Makes a great weekend in the exciting city of Lille with its medieval centre for shopping, dining and drinking!
See www.frenchduck.co.uk
London - Lille by Eurostar in 100 minutes

H and H Bancroft have updated their website.

A nice clean feel, stylishly laid out. A good search facility and basic wine information that leads on to fuller details. Purchases have to be by the unmixed case though. Registered users get a wish list facility which may be useful for some, or just wishful thinking for others.

“Our wine portfolio at H&H Bancroft changes each year but the ethos behind it remains constant. From the classic regions of France to the furthest stretches of the New World our Buying Director, David Round MW has succeeded in bringing in the well-established names and also the hottest new wineries to ensure that our customers can explore the world of wine with the greatest of ease. If re-assurance were needed that we are working closely with the best growers in the world, we need only look at the awards and critical acclaim that roll in every month as their latest vintages are reviewed.”

The range is strong on France, Italy and Spain. Argentina puts in a good range too but South Africa, New Zealand, Portugal and Chile are rather poorly represented.

Sympathies to the guys at Le Bon Vin; this Sheffield based web and premises wine merchant has suffered badly during the recent floods. The warehouse and shop suffered an estimated £250,000 of damage.

Web-sales though have been unaffected.

We have just launched our all new website with new features and even more wines than before. Please take the time to have a look at www.lebonvin.co.uk We have some excellent prices for branded champagne as always and a massive selection of wines that are top quality. As our main business is to the trade we pass on big saving to retail customers who want to buy the wines without the restaurant mark-up. We specialise in French wines but we also have decent offerings from around the world.

They have created a great little website. Fully search-able they have plenty of special offers, pre-mixed cases and a wine range that encompasses the world. Champagne is a big feature with 40 wines listed but Australia, France, Spain and Italy are all well covered.

There is a reliance on stocking the full range from a single estate (New Zealand for example) and a tendency to the lower end of the price scale but you are sure to find plenty of interest. A few spirits - around 110 different products - pop up in the search results to complete the offering.

Le Bon Vin
340 Brightside Lane
Sheffield
S9 2SB

The store just opposite the railway station has a wine bar above. This is Five Reasons Wine, a mighty fine looking shop offering 400 or so wines. All are listed on the website but sadly there is no online ordering.

Owner/manager Irene writes

Our approach is to operate a one in one out policy at our optimum number of 400 wines This means that we aim to ensure that our range is continuously improving over time rather than expanding willy nilly, and our customers aren’t met by a bewildering wall of wine, creating the illusion of choice, but actually risking alienating all except the most dogged wine enthusiasts.

This discipline ensures we can keep in touch with how our wines are tasting, and give knowledgeable advice - following a high quality service rather than largely product-driven/cult-wine-chasing model of an independent wine merchant.

Tastings are at the heart of what we do. We’d like to think we are getting a pretty good local reputation for our fortnightly tasting events.

This rolling wine range has resulted in some choice pickings from New Zealand, Alsace (Zind Humbrecht, Clos Wintzenheim, Gewurztraminer for example), Australia (Coriole Shiraz amongst many choice bottles), the Americas, Spain, Italy and across the regions of France. On the bubbly front the Billecart Salmon and Jacquesson bottles would be my recommendations.

Prices are generally in the £10plus range with many in the super-fine league of £30+ a bottle. Delivery is free locally in Tunbridge Wells while overnight delivery elsewhere in the UK is £10.80.

FIVE REASONS WINE
7 Vale Road
Tunbridge Wells
TN1 1BS

Based in Matlock in Derbyshire, The French Wine People are importers of wines from across the regions of France.

What sets The French Wine People apart from the dozens of other smaller French specialists, apart from a nicely designed website?

Some of the more eclectic wines include a Savagnin from the Jura, a good range of aged Armagnac’s and Cognacs and I notice, of all things, a Cave amongst the sparkling/Champagne listings. The dessert wine section has a few non-French infiltrators - the Brown Brothers range from Australia and stickies from Germany and California.

Nice to see a pink Sancerre and unusual blends from Cabardes too.

Prices range from £4.50 right up to £100 plus for the top Clarets but generally sit below the £15 mark. The range is not huge but does appear to be very selective and personally chosen.

Postage is ‘at cost’ working out at £9.95 per parcel fro most of the UK but is free within 20 miles of Matlock.

The French Wine People
Hopton Courtyard
7 Snitterton Road
Matlock
Derbyshire DE4 3LZ

The Nicolas chain, is a French company owned by Casel, the same parent company of Oddbins. They have only recently broken out from their London heartland and now list 51 stores in the UK.

Several branches of Oddbins have or are in the process of being converted to the Nicolas brand (Henley-on-Thames, Beaconsfield for example); a shame in my opinion as the range is vastly smaller and, apart from a smattering of New World wines, is nearly exclusively France focused.

The website, has an English language version, (I dread to think what they mean by “Caution ! We do not go up the goods in the floors !” though) with prices listed in Euros.

All the French regions are covered - Champagne, Rhone, Alsace, Bordeaux etc - with good ranges across the board, although nothing from Pic St Loup is listed. Several pages of fine wines and Armagnac’s are available if you are feeling flush, while at the other end of the scale there are many special offers.

Each wine has basic details attached - a brief suggested food match, grape composition and perfunctory tasting notes (simply full bodied and the like). One indication of a wines popularity are the user votes. A pop-up box allows a grading of 1-5 grapes. I do wonder how many people can be bothered to go back and vote on a wine once consumed mind.

Many of the cheaper wines are listed with a six bottles minimum purchase, more expensive products are not restricted. Delivery to the UK costs 1 to 6 bottles : 19 EUROS TTC which I assume means multiples of 6 bottles attract the charge. No mention of free delivery with large orders.

The on-line wine list appears broader and more in-depth than the UK based stores. While not familiar with the wines listed the new store opening near me will be an excellent opportunity for exploration. Keep an eye on Spittoon for specific wine tasting notes.

A beautifully designed website - just a touch of animation/flash to keep things interesting. Did I see somewhere that there are 800 wines on their list? All the boxes are ticked with good representation from Chile, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Australia etc etc. Impossible to pull out just a few recommendations, especially when you take into account the 45 strong range of spirits, various special offers, mixed cases and 40 odd ports!

Prices begin at £5.99. You can down load the price list in a PDF file for printing and off-line perusing. There is also a very entertaining PDF magazine that combines staff recommendations, producer profiles and loads more. All very professionally produced.

Next working day delivery is fixed at a rate of £8.50 per delivery address for all quantities from 1 bottle upwards for those who cant make it to the store. Oh, and don’t neglect the series of wine tastings over the coming months.

Overall a great looking company and worth investigating.

The Secret Cellar
43-45 Church Road,
Tunbridge Wells,
Kent TN1 1JT.
ENGLAND.

Discovered via a recommendation on fellow UK wine blog Grapefan.

What marks out The Winery is the individual wines listed. Each is personally sourced and imported with almost all being exclusive to the company. The wine list is packed with ‘unknowns’ - Mittnacht-Klack from Alsace, Tarlant Champagne, Wild Hog from California and Cheveau from Burgundy.

Strengths are in France - each region well represented by wines worthy of exploration, plus Spain, California and Italy. There is a superb list of dessert wines, mostly from Germany. New Zealand and South America are absent and Australia is poorly represented by just one producer though.

Unlike many London independents the wines are more than affordable with most coming in at under £20 a bottle. Delivery, if you can’t make it to either of the stores, costs £10 per case of 12, or free with 3 or more cases. Sadly no online ordering.

(pull)The Winery At Liberty 2nd Floor Liberty
Regent Street
London(/pull)

From the moment the site pops up in your browser you can feel the class and quality of WineDirect. The site is the on-line arm of Hailsham Cellars, an UK Wine Merchant based in Hailsham, East Sussex.

We’re passionate about wine and believe that knowing more about where the wines come from, the grape varieties and wine styles, can enhance your wine drinking experience and embolden you to experiment with the wide selection of wine styles and grape varieties on our list. That’s why we’ve added a lot of information about wine on the site in the Wine & Food and Wine Companion sections and why we are selling great wine books in our Books section.

The wine range is wide reaching - they list 35 wines from often overlooked Argentina, 100 wines from ever-popular Australia and 69 from New Zealand. But it is not just the New World at WineDirect - Spain with a list of 54 wines, Italy (187) and the regions of France (258) hold many interesting wines.

Prices are generally in the £7-£14 range although more expensive wines are of course listed. Minimum purchase is 6 bottles.

Pre-mixed cases, with prices ranging from £65 and upwards, and various regular wine club offerings complete the picture.

One thing I noticed is the embracing of customer feed-back they ask that their customers send in wine reviews and recipes for great dishes to accompany wine for publication on the site. Very Web 2.0!

In genteel Buckinghamshire, at Bourne End to be precise, there is a “local” off licence which has a pretty ghastly website (see above), but get beyond the colour scheme (or through the shop door) and you’ll discover a truly superb wine list at Bertrand & Nicholas with all sorts of French gems - fine Bordeaux and Burgundy for sure - but also an eclectic selection from South West France, Alsace, Jura and Savoie. Loire, Languedoc…… My selection would include Menetou-Salon AC from Henri Pellé (Loire); Cahors AC Clos Triguedina, Madiran AC Domaine Berthoumieu, Irouleguy AC, Domaine Abotia(South West); Bandol from Chateau du Pibarnon (Provence).
You can order by phone, mail or email - download their list from the website.

BERTRAND & NICHOLAS
14 FURLONG ROAD, BOURNE END, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE SL8 5DG - see map
TEL :01628525202