Category — Merchant Offers

The wine trade is reporting a big increase in the demand for rose (pink) wines.And this is not just for light summery wines or in response to a few good weeks of weather and a peak in picnics.
Rose wines have generally been misunderstood - they are not “compromise” wines for those undecided between red and white; neither are they blends of red and white wines!
Rose wines are generally wines made from red wine grapes which are either pressed only lightly or left in contact with the skins for only a brief period, The skins and pips etc are the source of colour and tannins, and hence rose wines are lighter in colour and tannin.
So, grapes as Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Pinot Noir can make excellent rose wines, full of character, flavour and structure. For example a good rose can be a great match for lamb - not reserved for fish or poultry.

Majestic Wine is running a summer promotion on rose wines from as lttle as £3.79 a bottle for the Argentinian Terra Brisa, a blend of Syrah and Malbec - “A deep pink, fruit driven rosé with aromas of fresh strawberries and cherries. The palate reveals plenty of juicy summer berry fruits with a crisp and elegant finish. This is an ideal summer apéritif. “

Waitrose Wine Online is offering the chance to win 2 tickets to see England vs South Africa at Lords Cricket Ground in London.

Waitrose Wine Online offers 2 Cabernet Sauvignons and 2 Chardonnays from South Australia

Courtesy of Wolf Blass we have 2 pairs of tickets to give away to see the First day of the Forth Test match Cricket between England and South Africa on the 7th August 2008 at the Oval, with overnight accommodation if required.

For more info see www.waitrosewine.com/
Closing date for competition 18th July 2008

To celebrate the upcoming Spring Bank Holiday the New Zealand House of Wine is offering an exclusive FREE bottle of Cloudy Bay Sparkling Vintage Pelorus 2002 with every ‘Pre-Mixed’ or ‘Mix Your Own Case’ 12-bottle selection purchased until 26th May 2008! (Offer applies to orders for UK delivery only.)
You can choose from PREMIXED CASES or MIX YOUR OWN 12 bottle selection.
Your free bottle of Cloudy Bay Sparkling Vintage Pelorus 2002 will automatically be included with any qualifying 12-bottle Mixed Case purchase, so no need to do anything except place your order at www.nzhouseofwine.com

The sparking wine from Cloudy Bay is described as “An ideal ripening season, long and cool, producing intensely vibrant flavours. The 2002 Pelorus Vintage has sumptuous aromas that invoke thoughts of a baker’s kitchen… warm brioche and almond flan with lashings of strawberries and cream. The palate is powerful yet elegant with buttery shortbread flavours, a delicate orange tang and the merest hint of white mushroom, leading seamlessly into a very fine finish.”

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.

On numerous visits to various exhibitions at London’s Olympia in West Kensington I would indulge in 2 diversions - firstly the Bristol car showroom (368 Kensington High St) where James Bond- style sports cars were on display looking fine, polished, elegant and very desireabl.

Almost next door was the second treat at Roberson Wine Merchants (348 Kensington High Street W14) which provided a welcome break from the usually frantic atmosphere of the exhibition hall. This was always a delight with an impressive range of wines - yes some very classy and expensive Burgundies and Bordeaux, but always some interesting discoveries from both the New World and Old World - and usualy some keenly priced binends. I never left without a couple of bottles to manhandle on the train home together with the piles of literature you tend to amass at exhibitions.

Fifteen years ago we began the business of building up what we believe to be the finest place to buy wine in London. From the start, we knew the ingredients; a range of Bordeaux and Burgundies unparalled in all of the city, wines imported from undiscovered producers of fantastic quality and people with the knowledge and enthusiasm to champion the cause of good wine.

Today we continue to believe in the same things. As High Streets are slowly being transformed into one faceless chain we believe there is an ever-growing need for the individual and specialist store. Roberson remain passionate advocates of wines from all over the world that offer value, character and substance. As an independent we are under no obligation to buy any particular producer’s wines. We don’t offer big brands of no discernable merit other than a large marketing budget; we simply choose wines that we like, wines that speak of place and individuality.

The shop, although in modern building, nevertheless has a cool and peaceful atmosphere with stone floors and a basement where they hold regular tastings usually about once a fortnight - for example on 1 May 2008 they have a seated tutored tasting of pre-1990 red Burgundies.

Good informative website with online ordering and offers.

Roberson Wine Merchant
348 Kensington High Street
London W14 8NS Tel 020 7371 212 Fax 020 7371 4010
Email: retail@roberson.co.uk
www.roberson.co.uk

(nearest Tube: Kensington Olympia)

The French Wine Festival at Waitrose (online and in its stores) runs from 26 March to 27 April 2008 and will feature a total of 48 wines.

Waitrose will be featuring 13 specially sourced small parcel wines from a wide range of less well-known appellations like Quincy, Bergerac, Provence and Lirac and the wonderfully unusual Pierre Boniface Domaine des Rocailles Apremont de Savoie 2007 and La Bastide Blanche Bandol 2005 Provence.

Some highlights:

Champagne Taittinger Rose NV, save £7, £38.99 - £31.99 (A delightfully fresh and youthful pink champagne with mouth-wateringly delicate flavours of crushed wild raspberries and red cherries, perfect forearly summer as an aperitif or with strawberries. )

Vouvray AC Champteloup Vieux Vauvert 2006/07 Vouvray, 20% off, £5.99 - £4.79 (A fine, medium Chenin from the tuffeau terroir properties around the towns of Vouvray and Rochecorbon, famous for the production of these deliciously soft-textured, waxy wines.)

Bergerac AC Domaine des Eyssards Bergerac Rouge 2005 25% off, £5.99 - £4.49 (Another brilliant wine from Pascal Cuisset of Domaine des Eyssards in Bergerac. A traditional Merlot / Cabernet Franc blend yet with a soft,almost modern generosity in the mid-palate.)

Mercurey AC Blanc 2006, Philippe Hardi, 20% off, £13.99- £10.99 (A Burgundy Chardonnay using a combination of modern cool-ferment vinification followed by malolactic in barrel where the wine stays for a year, with regular lees stirring, to achieve theunmistakeable classic Burgundy signature with some modern fruit expression.)

Quincy AC (Loire) Domaine de la Pierre qui Danse 2006 Quincy, 20% off, £8.99 - £7.19. (Simple delicate, grassy style from this Domaine with its pretty name, the land of the dancing stones.)

Apremont de Savoie AC Pierre Boniface Domaine des Rocailles 2007, 20% off, £7.49 - £5.99 (a refreshing citrus acidity and a light grapefruit flavour.)

Lirac AC Domaine du Joncier 2005 Rhône, save 1/3, £8.99 - £5.99 (The Domaine is run by the charming Marine Roussell, who featured last year in Oz and James’ Great Wine Adventure. The wine is dense and beefy, with a good deal of brooding rich fruit and great concentration.)

Bandol AC La Bastide Blanche 2005 Provence, 25% off, £11.99 - £8.99 (Hugely impressive example of this most remarkable of appellations using the traditional Mourvedre grape as the backbone to the wine. …it encompasses the spice and complexities of Grenache, Cinsault and Carignan as well as the black, damson fruit of Mourvedre andSyrah.)

Minervois AC Château Maris Organic Syrah 2006, 25% off, £7.99 - £5.99 (An extremely lively Syrah from the irrepressible Bertie Eden at his Biodynamic estate in the Minervois. This is full of bright and peppery raspberry fruit, with a twist of liquorice and is a highly drinkable style.)

Waitrose Wine Direct

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!

Essex specialists in the wines of the South of France Joseph Barnes has an attractive website and great range of wines from southern France - a definition which stretches from Collioure AC on the Mediterranean/Spanish border round to Bandol in the east beyond Marseille; and includes a good selection from the south west including Madiran, Cahors, Bergerac, Fronton and Gaillac.

… we seek out some of the finest wines from southern France - all from small, independent estates that the ‘big boys’ pass by.
We have visited the vineyards, know the vignerons and, in many cases, have seen the wines being made.
This hands-on approach means that you can buy your wines from us with confidence.
It has also made us ‘Independent Specialist Merchant of the Year’ at the World Wine Awards.

In addition to a great selection of wines, they also offer some interesting recipe ideas and on Friday 4th April 2008 there is a wine and cheese matching tasting at the the Kings Arms Public House (10 Market Hill, Saffron Walden) with some distinctive French cheeses not readily available locally.

Joseph Barnes Wines
13 Market Row, Saffron Walden, Essex CB10 1HB
Telephone +44 (0)1799 528019
www.josephbarneswines.com

About 18 months ago it was presented as an unforeseen problem when online vouchers for 40% off at Threshers wine merchants spread like wildfire around the internet. All you had to do was to print out the voucher and head to your local branch. But Threshers has repeated the excercise twice since, so perhaps it was all a clever marketing campaign.

However, 40% off has to be an attractive offer on all still and sparkling wines and champagnes at participating branches of Threshers, Wine Rack and Bottoms Up! from 13th - 24th March 2008.

For more info see www.threshergroup.co.uk

Berry Bros and Rudd may be one of the oldest and most traditional of wine merchants, but underneath the potentially stuffy image there lurks a lot of innovation. They did not get where they are today by standing still and relying on past glories.
On 17 March 2008 they launch their new website at www.bbr.com:-

We’re completely overhauling our multi-award winning website and making it better than ever….

We’re introducing all kinds of new features including an Interactive Advanced Search, Top Sellers, Popular Searches, Wish Lists as well as extensive guides to Bordeaux, Burgundy and Wine Investment.

So whilst they predictably stock an impressive range of classic and expensive clarets and burgundies, their list of over 3000 wines extends to all parts of the world with prices ranging from £4.95 to over £1,000.

In addition to their main store at 3 St. James’s Street, London SW1A 1EG there are also stores in Basingstoke, Dublin and Hong Kong!

The New Zealand House of Wine is offering a FREE bottle of highly sought-after Cloudy Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2007 with every ‘Pre-Mixed’ or ‘Mix Your Own Case’ 12-bottle selection purchased until 29 February 2008 (for UK delivery only).

Please click here to view our PREMIXED CASES (see Special Offers box) or to MIX YOUR OWN CASE.

Your free bottle of Cloudy Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2007 will automatically be dispatched with any qualifying 12-bottle Mixed Case purchase so no need to do anything except place your order.

Hello Andrew,

I do hope everything is good with you?

Thank you for your positive comments on the wines you’ve tried from us thus far, it are much appreciated.

I just thought I’d let you know about a special offer we have running at the moment which ends on 29 February 2008.

We have put together a case of mixed wines, 6 red, 6 white, and have knocked 25% off! I hope perhaps your readers may be interested in this.

Please click the link for further information:

http://www.coodencellars.co.uk/news/view.asp?itemid=77

Larger picture here:

http://www.coodencellars.co.uk/producers/detail.asp?producer=Special%20Offer%20Case

If you have any queries regarding this or anything else then please feel free to ask. Thanks.

info@coodencellars.co.uk

Here we go for this years Thresher 40% Off Voucher.

Download The PDF for printing.

DrinkOn is running a little prize draw sponsored by Moet & Chandon? They have two Moet Weekend Kits to give away which contain a Moet Travel Bag, a Moet Laptop Computer Bag, a very elegant Moet Umbrella and a bottle of the world’s best selling champagne, Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial. All items are very stylishly presented in black, with the famous Moet & Chandon logo.

For your chance to win one of these very stylish little ensembles, just visit the website!

No reason to suspect that this email, just received, is not for real…

Advance warning - there is going to be a 50% off voucher in this Sundays Telegraph (25th November) for 50% off threshers Radcliffe’s range!!!

Its not a marketing ploy in the style of the silly 40% but it is a massive deal ,that you, and I’m sure your readers might want to take advantage.. was going to post in comments on one of your pages but thought better to mail…

Follows list of all the Radcliffe’s range (Ive just had to type up list for my customers so thought may as well email it… )

Epos Name RRP 50% Off
114618 Cotes Du Rhone £5.99 £3.00
114608 Beaujolais £5.99 £3.00
114611 Chateau Neuf Du Pape £14.99 £7.50
114533 Fitou £5.99 £3.00
114595 St Emilion £11.99 £6.00
118637 Red Bordeaux £5.99 £3.00
114534 Corbieres £5.99 £3.00
114586 Barolo £16.99 £8.50
122386 Piccini Chianti £6.49 £3.25
114487 Chianti £7.49 £3.75
118762 Rioja Crianza £6.99 £3.50
118760 Rioja Reserva £9.99 £5.00
114610 Chablis £10.99 £5.50
114359 Saint Veran £8.99 £4.50
118646 Sancerre £12.99 £6.50
114596 Pouilly Fume £12.99 £6.50
114552 Gewurtztraminer £9.99 £5.00
114613 Haut Pitou sauvignon £6.99 £3.50
114614 Macon Villages £7.49 £3.75
114605 Muscadet £5.99 £3.00
118648 Bdx Sauvignon £5.99 £3.00
120893 Pinot Grigio £5.99 £3.00
114603 Frascati £5.99 £3.00
115488 Soave £5.99 £3.00
121524 Pinot Grigio Blush £5.99 £3.00

with haut pitio @ 3.50 a bottle, and Chablis @ 5.50 a bottle I’m stocking up like mad…
thought i would let you know.. knowing how you like a bargain…

Dave