A couple of weeks since our last "This week I 'ave been mostly drinking" post, a combination of a busy time online, and the season for the dreaded stock-taking meant that last week was all but forgotten about. Well all it means is that this week I have even more to rabbit on about. February and March generally mean 2 things in the wine world.

Firstly it is trade tasting season with nothing less than a dozen or so events to try to attend over about a 1 month period (oh the stress!). Shop manager Kieran has been doing a lot of the honours this year, make sure you follow his tweets @exelkieran, but don't worry next week he will be posting a blog to cover the entire goings on.

Secondly, the end of February always means panic as every merchant starts to panic about the impending doom of the chancellor’s budget and subsequent alcohol duty increases. It is expected that we will have yet another 10-12 pence going to the chancellor, which will make it now in excess of £2 for duty plus 20% VAT. Still fancy that bottle of £4 plonk?!?!?

If that was not enough then 2013-2014 will doubtless see some dramatic price increases. As the harvests throughout Europe were devastated by the wettest season on records, availability and therefore costs have grown substantially all of which will creep through to the final consumer.

Russell Wallace - General Manager - This week I 'ave been mostly drinking cheap wine and fine beer! Yup I am not one for spending a fortune on my tipples every week and last week I just fancied revisiting some old favourites. If you select carefully from family produced wines or high quality co-operatives then you can find some worthwhile wines on a relative budget. My pick of the bunch was a delightful little Tempranillo from Casa Solar on special at the moment for £4.52 (reduced from £6.95). It is a gorgeous medium bodied wine from Castilla straight forward and easy slurping on the sofa, there is a big brother that features 6 months of oak aging too but for the occasion it had to be simple. The new year clearance offers will be ending next week though so stock up now while you can. On the beer front, I am in general more of a larger or a lighter IPA and Blonde beer fan but I wanted to branch out just a little and try something new. On the advice of the good captain Kieran I gave the Sulwath Knockendoch a bash. Officially an Ale, to my mind it was more of an IPA/Blonde (please bear in mind that my beer brain is really very simple) it still had that added hoppiness but nice and cold it was still fresh as a daisy and full of flavour. Went really quite well with a nice beef stew & dumplings (home-made and sadly not a horse DNA in sight, shame as I quite like the old loin of cheval). Perhaps it was something to do with sipping from the bottle, they always say that you taste first with your eyes then your nose then your tongue and with the dark ale still confined to the bottle perhaps that covered up my ale prejudices!

 

Kieran German - Shop Manager - To a friend's for dinner this weekend. Steve is an ultra-marathon runner and among his achievements is the Médoc marathon of 2007. So that helped to narrow down which wine to take round. Though Poujeaux is my favourite, I thought I'd go for another would-be cru-bourgeois exceptionnel and selected Chateau Potensac 2007. Owned by the Délon family, these are the guys who bring us Leoville les cases. Expectations, we can say, were reasonably high.

Not disappointed. Measured red fruit flavours in tandem with very fine, structured tannin which delivered perfectly the pencil-shaving/graphitey flavour I so adore in Médoc wines. This was a pleasure to drink now; but, with such ageing potential at such a value price, I reckon I'll probably get me a case and put it down.

This Week I 'ave Been Mostly Drinking

Instalment number 2 of our new weekly feature introducing some of the office favourite wines and discoveries. By complete chance this week we seem to be leaning towards the wines of Trapezio, and what a lean too - a tiny vineyard, Trapezium in shape with just 10 hectares of hand tended vines in Mendoza.  In wine circle terms "boutique", "family run" and so on can be bandied around a little too often and too readily.  However, for Trapezio all the clichés are true - in each bottle you get about as much love passion and care towards the land and the grapes as you do good old wine.

Russell Wallace – General Manager – Well this week was a week of rediscovery for me, renewing my love for and the reason why we started importing a couple of wines from some time ago.  First up this week I ‘ave been mostly drinking the outstanding Tapezio BOBO a wonderful 2008 vintage. This is a wine that really defines and represents not only terroir but also seasonal variety.  Last year the wine won a Gold medal at the International Wine Challenge 2012 in London.  The 2008 is a blend of 70% Malbec and 30% Cabernet Franc, a complete reverse of the 2007 vintage.  BOBO stands for Bohemian and Bourgeois - a reference to the differences in the two grape varieties, for me though it is for Bootiful Bobby-dazzler but then that may say more about me than the wine! 
As the weekend was something of a celebration we also popped open a nice pink fizz (no, it is not just for girls in the summer!) the Mas de Daumas GassacRose Frizant to be precise.  A small production Cabernet/Petit Manseng stunner I first fell in love with owing to its memory inducing Cremola Foam-like qualities (for those of you not remembering Cremola Foam it was a great fizzy quite sweet soft drink powder).  I do not know why that is my enduring memory of this wine as it is really not too sweet, but it is packed with fruity flavours that make it great before or after dinner.

Dianne Barrie – Company Administrator – This week I ‘ave been mostly drinking Tyrrell’s Old Winery Shiraz – A big, bold wine that really packs a punch in terms of flavour. This is a wine bursting with ripe dark fruit and warming spices, finished off with just a slight hint of vanilla. A great wine to accompany a sirloin or T-bone steak; a hearty beef or lamb stew; a rich chocolate pudding; or a cheese board, and it is definitely well worth the £10 price tag – an absolute bargain!

Mark Powrie – Orders Team – This week I ‘ave been mostly drinking Aigner Weinzielberg Gruner Veltliner.  I thought that I would try something new, I have not had Austrian wine before. The first sip was very unusual to me……. This wine needed a little time to acclimatise, but once this happened I enjoyed it very much. The crisp, clean taste was complemented by the spicy peppery taste that was hinted at the back of the throat. This wine was enjoyed before, during and after the Chicken Fajitas that we had.

Kieran German – Shop Manager - This week I ‘ave mostly been drinking not much during the week, to be honest. So it was with unreserved glee that I treated myself to Trapezio ++ Chardonnay on Saturday evening; and man, there’s a wine worth waiting for! First up, it has a shimmery peachy hue and a fresh nose full of apricots and peach. On the palate it is medium-bodied, crisp and fresh. The oak influence is very subtle, hardly discernible at first, but did open up in the glass, as did an aromatic floral character and sweet hints of red fruits. Best of all was the acidity, which made this a fine accompaniment to the creamy sauce with which I served my salmon.
A wine well worthy of recommendation and if you’re not going to drink often, drink well.

Please Mr Google, can I have some Adwords?

Google Adwords – join the independent wine merchant revolution and fight for our rights!

Yes that’s right, we’ve decided to take a stand and initiate our very own revolution in support of the independent wine merchant!

Some time back (okay, well over a year ago if we’re being totally honest!) we were contemplating the procurement some of Google’s premier advertising space, commonly known as adwords.  For those of you not in the loop, the top search results on Google are sponsored so every time you click on to it Google receives anywhere from a few pence to a few pounds from the advertiser. Sounds simple enough eh?!

Exel Wines wanted to get this facility going for a website promotion, so we set up our account, got some credit on it and designed the ad.  A couple of days later we were baffled to hear that our ad had not been authorised because we had violated Google’s terms! 

Namely:

1.       We do not carry out age verification when you land on our website – in short, we do not ask if you are over 18 every single time you land on the site. Instead, we go for the commonly accepted practice of doing this when you create an account and go to the checkout with your wine – this way we do not need to collect cookies and all sorts of other techy stuff. We like it this way, it’s simple and straightforward, and it avoids people playing that favourite game of telling those age verification thingy’s that they are 253 years old!

2.       We sell “Hard Liquor” – sorry, their words not ours.  This part we can comprehend, everyone needs policies and, well, why should they promote a fine Single Malt!

We didn’t even think to check that this was enforced upon others at the time, but subsequently we happened upon an advert for a supermarket promoting their whisky collection and this reminded us of Google’s “Hard Liquor” policy.  We got back in touch with Google who confirmed that their policies had not changed and that we must take our protest to their feedback centre, after which they would review the ad’s and act accordingly.

So we did this – for every single ad we could readily find. Most, but not all, were ads by big budget multiples which begs the question as to why they could do what we couldn’t? 

Several months down the road now and nothing seems to have changed – Google’s policies are still the same yet we still see the same ads from those selling “Hard Liquor” who do not ask you to confirm you were born on the first of January in 1873 either!

So our plea is this, if you are as irked as we are by this whole unfair treatment then please join our revolution and fight for the rights of the independent wine merchant! When you come across any adwords for wine and spirit companies that do not adhere to Google’s own policies please:

1.       Log onto Google’s feedback centre at https://support.google.com/adwords/contact/feedback?hl=en&origin=cluster&rd=2

2.       Enter the adword link (it explains how to do this when you click the link saying “Your feedback is related to - Content of the ad creative)

3.       Write a quick message something like this

a.       Selling hard liquor is exempt from being allowed to use ad words and you must have age verification on your landing page.  Imagine my annoyance when I saw this, one of several violations.  Your policy must apply the same rules to all?

Perhaps if everyone speaks up then Google might act. 

Alternatively, simply ignore Google adverts and instead visit us at www.exelwines.co.uk and register your disgust through the purchase of some of our great wines and even some “Hard Liquor” parading itself as fine Single Malt Whisky and Cognac!

This week I 'ave been mostly drinking

Introducing the new weekly feature, “this week I ‘ave been mostly drinking…”, where we will give you an insight into the office, our discoveries and most importantly what we have been really enjoying from our own cellars.  Everyone here is positively encouraged to try something new and unusual at any opportunity, we like to think of it as salary recycling!

We hope you enjoy reading.

Russell – General Manager - Late January can essentially go one of 2 ways, dying a death as the festive spirit is all but drained, or for a wine company an ideal quiet time to make some new discoveries in the world of wines, beers, spirits and any other goodies we can get our hands on. 

This week I ‘ave been mostly drinking... well actually I haven’t much this week, saving myself for a heavy birthday weekend coming up when I have a few select beers from our shop on ice and ready for discovery.  The one thing that I have tried for the first time, and I have been hoping to get around to it for a long time, is Gin! Not just any old Gin, I am quite the aficionado of the good old G&T, EdinburghGin, and in particular the Raspberry infused Edinburgh Gin.  I knew I would love this from the off not only does it come in a value packed 50cl bottle but also a cuter than humanly possible 20cl bottle.  More than that though; I fancied a reminiscing experience back to my mother’s homemade Sloe Gin that helped wash down last year’s Christmas turkey.  This one is slightly less intoxicating, more of an everyday affair, but with the endless capacities from mixing it with a nice Prosecco (I favour La Farra’s lightly sparkling Collio personally) to a more traditional tonic (perhaps we can call this one an ET?) or as a straight up nightcap.  Magnificent indeed.

 Susan – Logistics Manager- This week I ‘ave been mostly drinking... most nights actually, which is not a regular affair on school nights ..... but I just needed that extra little boost this week.. and it’s a good excuse to up the “good blood” levels by drinking red wine ...and on the subject of excuses....it’s been extremely cold (we are based in Scotland if you didn’t know) and I needed something to warm my blood, as they say!

So, my favourite of the week has been Grant Burge GB51 Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2011.  A lovely jammy, deep fruit and fairly full bodied red from the beautiful warm climate of Oz – just the ticket for the cold weather this week.  I could feel my temperature soaring!!

Dianne – Company Administrator - This week I ‘ave been mostly drinking… Moulin de Gassac Premier Selection White. It has to be said that I’m not normally a white wine drinker, but this is such an easy-going drinkable wine... ahem, maybe a bit too drinkable! It’s fresh and crisp on the palate, but with a lovely creamy finish...and it’s so versatile when it comes to food-matching – perfect with roast chicken dinners, pasta, risotto and even delicate fish dishes. This week it’s been my all-round winner!

Kieran – Shop Manager - This week I ‘ave been mostly drinking… whisky, which was a nice antidote to Scotland’s defeat (yet again) to England in the Six Nations. The routine disappointment of being a Scottish rugby fan fortunately does not extend to our national drink, where the Scots are genuinely world-class. Such a moniker could surely be applied to the exceptional Glendronach 21 years old which I tasted with a close friend at the weekend. This single Speyside malt has as much refinement and depth of flavour as any whisky I have tasted in recent years. Particularly evident is the rich sherry influence which comes from the high-quality casks used for maturation: Sweet spice, hints of treacle and Christmas cake mingle with bright barley notes and even soft oak. This is certainly an august whisky, with the style and class that come with great traditions. Glendronach distillery ought to be lauded for its policy of using superior barrels for aging its whisky and will surely reap awards and rewards for this in the future. It is worth every penny (and more) of its £75 price-tag. I can think of other distilleries which charge twice as much for an inferior product.