With the second of May’s two bank holidays upon us I see no harm in sharing a few thoughts on the ideal wines to make your long weekend that little bit tastier. Actually scrap that – you’ll have an absolute blast with these picks…
Our MD Jay Wright Named Man of the Year
Jay Wright (Middle), celebrates his man of the year award with VW Wine Buyers Andy Baker (Left) and Dave Roberts (Right)
Jay Wright, our very own Managing Director , has been named as “Man of the Year” at the Drinks Business Awards 2013. The announcement was quickly followed with celebratory drinks and high fives all around (as well as some spilled drinks as a result).
The award was announced at the Drinks Business Awards ceremony held at the London International Wine Fair yesterday lunchtime. At 43, Jay is reported to be one of the youngest ever recipients of this award.
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Matthew Jukes Talks About The Red Rattler Hilltops Shiraz
Wine aficionado Matthew Jukes takes us through the finer points of the Red Rattler Hilltops Shiraz. This delicious Australian Shiraz is available on our website for £9.99 a bottle!
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Virgin HQ Friday Wines
After a long week here at Virgin Wines HQ, we like to finish it all off with a little treat. This is where “Friday Wines” come in, or as they are commonly known around the office “Frines”. Our Wine Buyer Dave Roberts opens up a few cheeky bottles for us all to try, and then pops around an email so we know what we’re drinking. Tasting measures only, although what constitutes a tasting measure varies depending on how thirsty you are.
This week it’s all about White Wine and we had a chance to see the same grape type perform differently when cultivated in different climates.
We’re going to look at Gewurztraminer If you can’t look away and spell it, you can’t drink it. Well that’s the rule here at VW HQ but we’ll let you off on that one.
None of the following are from what’s widely recognised as the real home of this fragrant grape, Alsace, but it will show you how much there is to enjoy within a single grape variety.
First up…
Vina Leyda Gewurztraminer Reserva 2010
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Wine Reviews
Since we last updated you back in March, several writers have picked out our wines and featured them in their publications. Here’s what they had to say.
David Williams writing for The Observer featured our Tabali Late Harvest Muscat 2010 as a perfect wine for Mother’s Day. About the wine, David said, “Tabali’s position in the uncannily cool (it’s very dry and sunny) Limari Valley helps give this seriously good value, unctuously sweet wine its extraordinarily lift and floral, muscat perfume.
In the York Press, Mike Tipping wrote about our Belmonte Gewurztraminer 2009 in his column “Three wines from New Zealand” saying that “This is rich and full but not as overpowering as some examples of the grape from Alsace that I’ve tried. It is almost off-dry, which helps it pair with spicy food, and brimming with flavours of ginger, lychee, tropical fruit and rose petal perfume”.
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Wines We Drink – Gavin Seymour
Name: Gavin Seymour
Job title: Personal Wine Advisor
Favourite grape type: Shiraz
Favourite bottle of bubbly for celebrating: Dom Perignon 2003
Best wine and food combo: Lamb and Malbec
Wine producing country you would most like to visit: USA – I think they are producing some fantastic wines at the moment.
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Something For The Weekend: Cobber’s Dream Snack
Whipped up by Whitney the Sheila (Online Marketing)
Our third recipe in our new series features something a little bit special from our resident Australian. A party dish designed to share with friends and family. A small snack that will have you licking your lips. Every now and again we’ll pop together a delicious recipe, give you all the information you need to recreate the masterpiece and we’ll even recommend a lovely wine to enjoy alongside your meal. If you decide to try your hand at this recipe, why not take a picture and send it along to us, either on our Facebook page or our Twitter page.
Toasting April with a Tasting!
The month of April saw the Virgin Wines team pack their bags and bottles and head south in search of sun. We visited two gems of the south in Bristol and Southampton, giving our customers the chance to sample some of the finest wines in our collection and also to meet some of the winemakers and wine producers who make sure the well never runs dry here at Virgin Wines.
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Wines for the Bank Holiday Weekend
So we have a bank holiday weekend upon us and the good news is that it’s set to be a nice one –possibly up to around 20C on Sunday and Monday. With that in mind, it’s time to think about what wines would go down well for a sunny weekend – one where hopefully we’ll all be able to get outside rather than cosy-ing up indoors, which has been more typical of late!
Here are my top tips for making the most of the bank holiday weekend.
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Virtual Winemakers Raise a Toast with Their Wine
After 9 months of intently following the winemaking process and careful voting, around 50 Virgin Wines Virtual Winemakers turned out for a night of celebration on Friday at Iberica Restaurant, Marylebone, in London. They came together to raise a toast to their efforts in creating a new wine, as a community, via the power of the internet.
Launched back in August, “Virgin Wines Virtual Winery – The Rioja Experience” aimed to bring together a group of wine lovers in the creation of a new wine – one that didn’t yet exist – and actively play a part in the decisions that shaped its future through a series of votes. More than 700 Virtual Winemakers took part in the project.
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Something for the weekend: A simple Thai green curry!
Whipped up by David W (Social Media, On-line Marketing Guy)
We kicked off our new food series with a delightful light Italian supper. Now we continue with another simple dish, but with a little more kick and a little more heart to it. Every now and again we’ll pop together a delicious recipe, give you all the information you need to recreate the masterpiece and we’ll even recommend a lovely wine to enjoy alongside your meal. If you decide to try your hand at this recipe, why not take a picture and send it along to us, either on our Facebook page or our Twitter page.
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10 Best Answers To Our Twitter Competition!
First of all we just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who entered our competition on Twitter over the past 24 hours. We had over 100 entries and some amazing responses to our St George’s day tweet “I Love England Because…”.
We have announced our winner who will receive one bottle of the amazing Ridgeview Cuvee Merret Bloomsbury Brut 2010. However we had so many great responses, we simply had to share some of the best. So here they are in no particular order.
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Matthew Jukes talks about the De Martino Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
Widely respected wine guru Matthew Jukes gives us his take on the De Martino Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Malbec World Day 2013
With it being Malbec World Day, it would be pretty sloppy of us not to get something up on the blog. So, here’s a juicy, little ditty focusing on the dude of the day – Malbec.
I want to focus on ground-breaking Argentinean Malbec. Although there’s no mistaking this grape’s roots are firmly planted in France where it has a strong history, it is beginning to demand international attention with Argentina at the helm. I’m also going to hone in on a producer I visited in January and look more closely at what they’re now doing to take Malbec to the next level.
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