Tasted: 2, April 2011

Sight
Lemony, greeny hues

Smell
Fruit forward immediately springing out at you. Elderflower dominant, slight peachy notes and a hint of citrus to the background. Maybe even a touch of pineapple at the back more so than citrus.

Taste
The fruit follows from nose to mouth but here it is slightly more subdued, with a waxiness mixing with the citrus notes suggesting lime peel and other citrus skinned fruits. This tends to coat the tongue with the acidity running through leading to a long smooth finish with the fruitiness lasting long on the palate.

8/10

Tasted: 2, April 2011

Sight
Cherry red, plum skin

Smell
The nose is not particularly open but there are hints of cherry and plum and suggestions of spice and oak – but these are subtle. Cherry cough medicine.

Taste
Cherry fruit in the mouth with tannin and acidity in equal measure. The fruit is not that expressive but I suspect this will develop with air. The tannin provides grip and structure in the mouth, but are not particularly dominant. The wine is dry with good acidity and the smooth oak provides a subtle vanilla finish which is medium in length.

7/10

Tasted: 1, April 2011

Sight
Light raspberry red, with ever so slight bricky hues developing.

Smell
Leather notes sitting alongside spicy, jammy red fruits. Perhaps some savouriness towards the background denoting age.

Taste
Fruit forward with tannin and acidity racing just behind. The tannin holds the mouth whilst the acidity runs through providing a mid-long finish of soft red fruits with elegance created through oakiness which provides a roundness to the fairly grippy tannins.

Drinking very nicely on it’s own. Very good with food, especially meat.

Sight
Classic deep dark black cherry with red hues to rim.

Smell
Mineral elements sitting alongside savoury and fruity spice on the nose. There are red and black fruits apparent but there is a hint of stone and pebbles sitting alongside it. The nose is not particularly expressive but suggests warmth and spicy fruit. Savoury notes in the foreground. After aeration the fruit notes are much more rounded, with a lot of the mineral-notes easing. The ‘warmth’ of the wine is much more apparent after some oxidisation.

Taste
Fruit forward – red and back fruits. Hints of liquorice and dark jammy black currant. Spice and warmth in the mouth with good acidity and subtle, gripping tannins. Mid finish with dry acidity racing through the wine with the tannins providing a subtle roundness and elegance to the structure. Very fruit forward, with some of the spicy notes being slightly lost in the finish. Good example of a Languedoc wine.

7/10

Tasted: 6, March 2011; Decanted for an hour before tasting

Sight
Deep dark, black cherry red. Black fruits evident.

Smell
Black fruits – blackberry, black currant. Some jammy notes towards the back-end. Spice present, but it is largely fruit forward with an open nose which has benefited through an hour in the decanter. Slight oaky notes showing, but subtle on the nose.

Taste
Fruit forward with tannins following quickly behind and providing grip and moderate length. The wine is dry to the palate but there is vanilla oak providing some softer, mellow notes on the finish. Black fruits with spice. Hints of cassis and tannin providing structure and some length. Well balanced acidity providing a balanced structure.

7/10

Saving you money…

The number of online wine retailers has grown in the last ten years, and with growing trends in online-shopping it’s not that much of a surprise. Buying online provides a number of benefits. First, you don’t have to lug home a case of wine (avoiding the catastrophe’s of smashing these all over the floor!). Second, all the wine merchants listed on this site will deliver it straight to your door, at a time that is convenient to you. Third, there are a number of internet-only wine deals that means you can make greater savings with a click of a mouse than you can buy driving to a particular store.

We’ve collected the best wine offers all over the web with the intention of saving you money! In today’s tough economic times there is an even greater reason to make sure you’re getting value for money. Most wine retailers have offers on everything from the cheapest bottles of every day, table drinking wine, up to world famous Chateau wines from Bordeaux. This means there is even more reason to take advantage of these exclusive wine deals and start saving on the wines you enjoy today!

How to get started? We’ve tried to make this as simple as possible so that you can save money and enjoy your wine as quickly as possible. The first stop should be to the top wine deals section of the sight where we’ve chosen our top 5 deals from across the internet that we think you should take advantage of. If you’re already familiar with some of the online retailers then we’ve broken these down into our favourites which you can access through the navigation bar to the right.

Our love of wine…

Simply put, and probably much like you, we love wine! We don’t hold Master of Wine qualifications and we can’t tell you what really is the best claret, because at the end of the day wine is subjective. And that’s the beauty of it. Whilst one might believe that a Rioja Gran Reserva is the finest wine to ever find it’s way to our shores, another might think muddy water tastes better! With that in mind, we present our tasting notes in order to assist, maybe guide, and definitely encourage you with your wine purchasing. We won’t push our opinions on you (though we will express them!), and we won’t bore you with terminology that would be better found in a classroom. But we do hope that you find some value in them and hopefully contribute through the discussion and debate that often grows amongst wine fans. We welcome all comments and view points, after all, this is what wine, at it’s core, facilitates! Check out our tasting notes to the right to see what we’ve been drinking and maybe join us for a glass or two…