40% off wine...

[georgina]

...A lovely Christmas treat for all!!

Enjoy

[Jah Lush]

Nice one Georgia, thanks. This old wino will be purchasing plenty of vino but whether it will last me until after Christmas is extremely doubtful.

[Brendan]

Is there a Threshers on LL?

[*Bob*]

Brendan Wrote:

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> Is there a Threshers on LL?

There is indeed. Inside, you will discover an uninspiring (and never-changing) selection of wines, with each bottle marked-up ?1-?2 (or more) over and above the cost of buying that bottle elsewhere.

The all-year-round '3 for 2' offer they do just about brings the wines back to the price they ought to be. So this 40% will be a small real-terms discount (but still a discount).

[Brendan]

Thanks Bob. I knew there was a wine shop I just didn?t know whether it was a Thresher or not. In my mental picture of LL there are 2 things, the pubs and the stuff in-between the pubs.

[downsouth]

I used this last year and spent a fortune. In retrospect it wasn't that good a deal. Unlike last year you can't buy champagne with the voucher.

If you're going to be buying a lot of wine Tescos and Sainsburys do discounts and Majestic wine is really good too.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Incoming snob alert....

Don't buy oversugared rubbish wine from somewhere that doesn't give a shite about wines

But fewer bottles of intersting good stuff from people who do

If you don't think you know enough about wine then use the saving to learn more

If you don't CARE then why are you still reading this..???

[Brendan]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Don't buy oversugared rubbish wine from somewhere

> that doesn't give a shite about wines

Who are you refering to here, Sainsbos or Threshers or both?

[SeanMacGabhann]

Brendan

I did preface it with "incoming snob alert" so don't have a pop - but basically both. Plus most of the other wines bought at any other supermarkets. Oddbins were a chain that really put the effort in but a few years back they took an alarming dip

I've been drinking wine for 20 odd years now but only in the last 2 have I paid any more than lip service to "quality" - if I liked it I liked it and that was enough for me. But like any convert I get over-zealous

No to sound like a spokesperson, but the G&B wine tasting evenings to an outstanding job of explaining the differences in wines and what you are really paying for by going for the 40% off/3 for 2 deals

And yes I am aware I am coming across as an overly serious gobshite.... but I'm doing one of my occassional 24 hour demi-glace making sessions so my passion about food/drink is more forthright than usual (even if I'm not much good at it)

[Brendan]

Sean I wasn?t having a pop at all! It is something I don?t know much about. I am genuinely interested and appreciate the input as I feel that my, ??? = quality method of selecting wine is seriously lacking.

Last night was a typical example where I felt like a bottle of wine, spent 20mins in the supermarket trying to decide which one to get and then was not very impressed when I drank it.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Let's suss when the next tasting is at G&B and get some other forumites along - anyone up for it?

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

My rule of thumb is under ?5 and have a large dimple underneath. Flat-bottomed ones are invariably awful.

[Brendan]

(tu) Good idea

[SeanMacGabhann]

Ach Brendan - just missed this one:

Friday October 12th -

Invasion of the Africans - ?40.00

This is the week of the South Africa trade tasting in London and so we have put together an evening featuring some of our favourite wines and wine people. In the true spirit of this country, this will be informal and lots of fun, as well as deeply delicious. Menu details to follow shortly but we will show six wines with 4 courses.

some more here

http://www.greenandbluewines.com/services/events.php

and seems Clapham branch heavy but they often have more going on than the website says

[downsouth]

Actually Sean Sainsburys have a terrific range of wine as does Majestic. I too am a big lover of wine and really appreciate some of their finer selections. Yes if you spend a fiver expect to get a fivers worth of wine.

I'd agree with you that Oddbins are good, I'd say they still are in my local on Rosendale Road - these guys are really helpful, knowledgeable and most importantly passionate.

Majestic do a really nice range of fine wines - the Dulwich branch is one of the select outlets that does the really nice stuff.

http://www.majestic.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10151&langId=-1

Sainsburys also has a fine wine section (see link) much of which is thankfully stocked at the revamped DKH brnach

http://www.sainsburyswine.co.uk/Webstore/search_results.asp?ProductCode=&SearchByKeywords=&keyword=&ProductClassGroupCodeList=&ProductClassCode=WFINE&ProductGroupCode=&GreatOffers=&DrinksFinder=&RefinedProductCodeList=&Category=&ResetProductClassGroupList=False&ResetAdHocClassCode=False&SearchResultsPageTitle=Fine+wines&SearchResultsTitle=

[Jah Lush]

I'm up for the next tasting. Perhaps you could post a reminder when it next comes around. Lush by name Lush by nature.

[mockney piers]

Whether we like it or not the supermarkets are far and away the market leaders of wine sales in this country. I think they account for something like 80%.

They do sell a lot of sh!te, but you can usually find some pretty good ones tucked away if you look; especially in the (slightly) more adventurous ones like Waitrose.

Oddbins took an alarming dip because once their overlords Seagrams sold them off to some French company (castel?), the new overlords didn't really care for them except as an a means of getting their Nicolas brand into places with an established discerning wine market. SAd really as I love the oddbins philosophy, but they've struggled for many years, mostly due to mismanagement as wine people are usually pretty bad business people, the reasons are surely self-evident ;)

The exception to the rule, and one of the best things we have on LL has to be Green & Blue. Go in, ask for recommendations, try something different. You don't have to spend a fortune, every bottle is hand selected for quality and/or originality whether 5 quid or 35 quid.

Sean, why don't we just get a bunch down for a few bottles on a tuesday when it's take away price in shop; sort of an interum forum meet, it'd be cheaper than a tasting, just without the insights from Kate.

*edited as I think the brand is nicolas, not nicole, I think I'm still besotted with the clio advert girl*

[*Bob*]

Virgin Wines do a 'Discovery Case' and a 'First Class Discovery case'.. a good way to keep the vino rack filled without too much thought. You always get different wines so it's a good way to learn what you like - and money back if you don't like any of them.

When friends turn-up, it saves a trip to the local offy to buy the usual ropey old plonk for six quid.

[SeanMacGabhann]

downsouth - even if that were true (and it has been a while since I have checked again) not the following article:

---------------------------------

The British not only buy by far the majority of their wine, almost two-thirds, from supermarkets, and the great majority of that from just four - Tesco, Sainsbury?s, Morrisons/Safeway and Asda (owned by Wal-Mart) - they have also, unlike their counterparts elsewhere, been led to expect their supermarket wines to be interesting and varied. So anyone making decisions about exactly which bottles go on a supermarket shelf has a multi-million pound budget and a queue of would-be suppliers who would succumb to virtually any indignity the buyer cared to name in exchange for a listing, which is why on the face of it the current exodus of wine buyers from UK supermarkets to join the much more crowded and powerless ranks of suppliers is surprising.

As Nick Tatham MW, one of the first to make such a move, from Sainsbury?s in 1990 to set up his own wholesaling company with another ex-Sainsbury?s colleague, puts it, ?As a buyer you?re courted, you?re everyone?s best friend. But as soon as a buyer leaves a supermarket and joins us on the other side, people go up to them and say ?I can be rude to you now and tell you what I really think about you??.

So why in the last few months have very senior buyers quit Tesco, Sainsbury?s and Asda to go and work for suppliers who, until recently, were licking their boots? The answer is a depressing one for British wine enthusiasts. Those who work in the supermarket wine departments need less and less wine expertise. Since about 60 per cent of all the wine sold in multiple retailers is sold when offered on promotion at a ?special? discount, more and more of the buyers? work is made up of entirely routine agreements (?negotiations? would misleadingly imply parity between the parties) with the handful of major suppliers that can afford this roster of discounts. The proportion of bottles on the major retailers shelves that do not come from one of the big companies (which continue to get bigger) has shrunk markedly in the last five years so that active buying, in the sense of selecting a wine on the basis of how it tastes, plays a distinctly minor part in the life of today?s supermarket wine buyers. Some supermarket wines have also joined the legion of commodities bought, without any sampling, via online auctions.

?There?s been a real change in wine retailing in the last few years,? according to Laura Jewell, another Master of Wine who has just left Sainsbury?s for one of her old suppliers. ?There?s lots more emphasis now on profits, margins and volumes, and a certain homogenisation of the product rather than selling all the nice little things. For the grocers the wine department has become a department like any other. We?re no longer in the wine trade proper.?

------------------

Me again. And even if they have pulled up their socks considerably then it still leaves me wondering why I go to a supermarket instead of a spec-ia-list. Convenience....??

I know I'm always banging on about supermarkets. And I used to love the "weekly shop". But doesn't anyone else feel like a Stepford resident when walking the huge aisles?

We love ED for the very reason that despite nearly being run out of town, independents have at last prospered again. To let them fade away because we are all at the supermarket is too depressing to contemplate

People in other parts of the country say they have no choice. Which is true. While we have an alternative we should use it IMO

[SeanMacGabhann]

Piers- Tuesday Cheap As Chips night?? What am I going to do- say no??? ;-)

But I would ALSO argue that it is Kate's insight which is needed more often

[downsouth]

Sean - not sure where that article comes from but it doesn't negate what I've written. Yes the vast majority are like a herd of cows who will graze the ?3.99 and buy one get one free shelves. But for the minority who like wine not sugar or suplhites there is still space on the shelf. I don't have huge hang ups about supermarkets so don't mind spending my sheckles in them. likewise I shop at Oddbins or go out to the Rosendale for a smorgasboard of wine tasting. I don't have a preference where I get the wine so long as it is good. The entire high street can get along with one another just fine.

[mockney piers]

Totally agree, but she's a busy lady you know, and tuesdays come about so rarely!!

[SeanMacGabhann]

oops downsouth - my fault. I meant to post the link as well

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/winenews051022

It's just opinion of course.

But supermarkets deal with a small range of decent wine because they have competition from the small guys. Not because of you. Once the little guys are gone (and it's not just the chains that want them gone - the landlords don't love 'em either) then they no longer have to deal with the small interesting, non sugar-coated vineyards.

You might not mind where your pound goes but these guys do....

[SeanMacGabhann]

And to think Kate used to hang around these parts...

And if by Tuesdays you mean "days with which I get to spend hard earned money on alcohol" I think you will ind they come around all too often

(BTW - I Am posting too much even by my standards today - but I'm listening to the radio at home and I can't stop listening!)

[scor46]

I?m definitely up for the next wine tasting at G&B. I do enjoy a vino. However I will say that G&B has a very diverse, eclectic range of wines and I haven?t decided if this is a good or bad thing. I do enjoy tasting new and unusual wines but I struggle sometimes with the complexity and also the price of each bottle.

As a general rule of thumb, the more you pay for a bottle of wine the better it generally is. I realise this is a very simplistic comment but the wine makers all round the world are aware that they survive only on repeat business. No point selling wine at an extortionate price if it isn?t any good because the buyer just won?t come back again.

But then there are the French?.. The French wine makers are a different kettle of fish all together.