Category — On The Blogs

In Spain:-

This spring Time Out has teamed up with the Spanish-based Institut del Cava to offer one lucky wine enthusiast and a friend the chance to win a luxury, tailor-made, bacchanalian adventure to the beautiful Cava region of Spain.

The trip, on which winners will discover the ‘Route of Cava’, includes seven nights in five-star accommodation, chauffeur-driven visits to Cava bodegas, exclusive tasting sessions and delicious dinners in some of the regions top restaurants.

The perfect drink for warm summer evenings, Cava also makes the perfect accompaniment to any meal. ‘Cava’ is actually the Spanish term for the wine cellars and has been adopted as a generic name for high-quality, sparkling wines from Spain. Cava wines may be white or rosé, but never red!

In addition, four runners up will win an exclusive sampling case containg six bottles of assorted Cavas.(closing date 30 May 2008) To order an exclusive Cava sampling case, containing six quality bottles, call 01483 274 666 or email info@aawines.co.uk

In London:
Meanwhile until 15 June 2008 the Insititut del Cava is also offering a BOGOF (buy one get one free) glass of Cava at a rather impressive list of London gastropubs Should this gastropub twofer leave you longing for more, online Spanish wine peddlers, AA Wines, will sell six bottle Cava sampling cases during the same period - see http://londonist.com for more details of the participating grubpubs!

Oddbins has 20% off all sparking wines including CAVA until 8th June 2008, so for example Codorníu Cuvée Raventós Cava Brut NV is now £6.79 reduced from £8.49

Andrew on www.spittoon.biz has the arduous duty of tasting and writing up individual wines, often as part of a wine and food pairing, Amongst the recent offerings:-

Chateau Laures Blanc - Entre Deux Mers AC, Bordeaux, France from Bordeaux Undiscovered
Howard Park Scotsdale Cabernet Sauvignon, Western Australia from Bibendum
Château Les Tonnelles, 2004, Fronsac AC, France from Bordeaux Undiscovered
Nederburg Chardonnay Viognier - South Africa from Waitrose
Rudesheimer Berg Rottland Riesling Spatlese, 2002, Rheingau, Germany from Waitrose

They are looking for a repeat of the huge success of the last viral promotion - Threshers have made available online another 40% off voucher.

Last December’s promotion generated £15 million of extra business for Threshers in the crucial run-up to Christmas. Maybe they can repeat the success in this pre-Easter season. The voucher lasts for a week and can be downloaded from Spittoon.biz.

Not directly wine related but over on SpittoonExtra/The Foodie List you will find details of a competition to win a Hotel Chocolate Hamper worth £50. The competition is open to all, not just UK residents.

Actually I did manage to sneak in one wine related question…

Aldi is not high on my list of wine shops - in fact I have no idea where the nearest Aldi store is to me. I can’t recall ever seeing a wine from their range appear on a ‘recommended’ list either. The fact they only have 45 wines listed might go some why to explain their lack of exposure.

Interestingly though the wine buyer has set up a blog detailing his selections and reasoning behind which wines are selected. Just two posts so far mind one being a general introduction the other, details the lists structure. Kudos to the wine buyer for setting up a blog but why no name? Shame he has to hide behind anonymity.

Another reason for the lack of exposure perhaps is the price of Aldi’s wine offerings. Most are around the £2.79 - £3.99 price point with just one bottle, a Chablis, reaching the dizzy heights of £7.99.

[Discovered via WinePost]

Writing over at ‘Good Wine Under $20′, Dr Debs, has posted an interesting piece on visiting the wine aisles of Waitrose. Comparisons with supermarkets in America abound - particularly interesting is her take on the proliferation of scewcaps -

The other thing I was struck by was the preponderance of screwcaps–they were on practically everything, including wines from Burgundy

The wide geographical spread also impressed, something we here in the UK are so accustomed to we take it for granted. Waitrose of course offers on of the best ranges of the supermarkets but I urge Dr. Debs to venture further across London to discover the multitude of independents and the fine ranges they stock - I think she will be more impressed with the quality of wines, the breadth of range and the level of service we here in the UK have available.

For two weeks he will be appearing at various Tesco stores [map] where the Pinotage Rose has an exclusive listing signing Stormhoek lithographs - larger versions of the newly designed cartoon labels. The tour takes in the following locations -

February 2nd: Inverness, Corstorphine [Edinburgh].
3rd: Newcastle, Durham, Tadcaster.
4th: Blackpool, Bidston Moss [Merseyside], Horwich, Warrington.
5th: Stockport [Manchester], Altrichham [Manchester], Redditch [Worcestershire], Cardiff [Wales].
6th: Yeovil [Somerset], Bournemouth.
7th: Purley, Gatwick, Chichester.
8th: Sandhurst, Bursledon, Cirencester.
9th: Reading, Newbury, Abingdon.
10th: Barr Hill, Royston, Watford.
11th: Aylesbury, Ipswitch.
12th: Cheshunt [Herts.], Colchester.
13th: Pitsea [Essex], Twickenham.
14th: Brooklands [Surrey], New Malden [Surrey]

The January issue of Delicious magazine has a full page advert for Love That Wine.

Sadly the url isn’t working, displaying at the time of writing, a page not found error. The advert supplies a few hints -

Find Choosing Wine A Bit Confusing? Frustrated by trawling the supermarket shelves and never quite finding the right wine?

Log onto www.lovethatwine.co.uk and let the opinions of other wine shoppers inspire you on the right wine for the right occasion. Each wine is matched to the most suitable foods and occasions, and you’ll even get a good idea of what they taste like before you go out and buy them! Whether it’s a romantic meal in for two or a fun packed party night in with friends, www.lovethatwine.co.uk is your invaluable on-line wine friend.

It would appear to be a variation on the bottletalk concept, which does at least load, only directed at the supermarket wine aisles.

There are 18 different categories that a blog can be nominated for by anyone. So get your thinking caps on and look for best Food Photography blog, the best New Food Blog, the best drink blog and many more. Nominations need to be in by 15th December (midnight EST). Then the judges - not sure who they are exactly - select the top 5 in each category. Then it is back to the people to vote!

The winners will be announced January 5.

Not sure, as editor/writer, if I am able to vote but if I could just nudge you in the direction of Spittoon for that drink category….

The Secret Sommelier has been touted as the UK’s most popular wine blog… I beg to differ… but a tie up with Sainsbury’s - the site is heavily linked with Sainsbury’s - has the site offering a weekend for 2 wine tasting in Bordeaux. ‘Lesser’ prizes in the competition are mixed tasting cases of Bordeaux and sets of Crystal Bordeaux wine tasting glasses.

The wine tasting will be at the Ecole du Vin in Bordeaux while the wines come from Sainbury’s. One of the sixty gift boxes up for grabs contain two crystal Bordeaux wine glasses made by Schott Zwiesel.

To win you have to enter as many friends email addresses as possible, one of the worst types of online competitions imaginable. It’s a way of gethering email addresses pure and simple - are your friends likely to remain so if you are responsible for more email crap ending up in their inbox?

Wine Sediments, the collaboratory wine-focused site in the WellFed Network, is having a Great Grape Day on the 20th. It is going to be an on-going monthly event with posts through the day covering one specific grape variety - the inaugural Great Grape Day will be covering Cabernet Sauvignon.