Posted by Andrew Chapman on November 25th 2007 8:22am. Leave a comment
Check out
Radio Oxford (95.2FM) between 11am and 12 noon - I'll be popping into the
studios of BBC
Radio Oxford for another fun-filled hour of food and wine on
Louisa
Hannan's Sunday morning programme.
So, tune into see what works, and what doesn't, with
an array of local Oxfordshire Cheeses brought in by Juliet, and a bootful of
wine currently trying to stay warm in the back of my car!
We are currently out of stock of Cloudy Bay wines. We are working at
getting more in very soon - hopefully in time for Christmas.
Of all
the Cloudy Bay wines the Sauvignon Blanc is the most sought after - at least if
our sales and enquiries are anything to go by. So, while we are waiting on the
arrival of more Cloudy Bay we can recommend some excellent, award-winning New
Zealand Sauvignon's from our list, all of which make great alternatives to
Cloudy Bay.
To make things more fun, take a look at the video below of
me tasting some of them. Find a full list of our suggested
Cloudy
Bay Sauvignon Blanc alternatives here, including a mixed taster case to
try.
Our wine of the week usually goes up first thing on Monday morning, but this week Christmas arrived in the form of a flurry of orders with ASAP all over them, meaning a case of all hands to the pumps. Net result, this weeks WoW is a tad late! To make up for our tardiness in getting our latest WoW up onto the site we have a cracking deal on this modern classic from Tuscany.
Normally our Wine of the Week recommendations have a £1 per bottle discount. However, for this week only the Chianti Riserva, Cantine Leonardo da Vinci 2004 is available with a £1.50 per bottle discount - now even more of a reason to go 'Wow!' Was £11.49 now £9.99.
I wanted to pick something Italian for this week's WoW as we've been doing a lot of Italian-inspired cooking at home (and, naturally, Italian-inspired drinking!) in the last couple of weeks - look out for some food and wine pairings on the blog soon. The Chianti Riserva '04 from Cantine Leonardo was one of our favourites, drunk over supper with friends a couple of weekends ago. It's a lovely food-friendly wine with a rich, supple, full-bodied style, a nice twist of dry tannins to give the wine 'grip' and a lick of acidity (without being harsh like some Chiantis you will find) that makes it a perfect foil to cut through the richness of hearty Autumn fare.
So get out those Italian cookery books, nip out and buy some fresh pasta and save yourself a few £'s on the wine to go with it.
In fact, we're rather excited at Surf4Wine's hollowed out Volcano HQ. We've just put the finishing touches to our calendar for 2008*. Find out more at our 2008 Calendar web page.
We hired the formidable talents of Andrew Barrow (who writes a great wine blog at www.spittoon.biz) to photograph different wines from our Portfolio for every month of the year.
Producing our new Calendar got us thinking....just when is it acceptable to start using the 'C' word? My local supermarket started stocking (if you'll pardon the pun) Christmas gifts in early September. Any parent of small children certainly knows that's far, far too early to start their offspring thinking about what to pester Santa for!
But as we marked the Surf4Wine calendar with the familiar milestones of the year we started thinking about when the Christmas season officially starts. Well, we've decided it's in your hands... It's whenever you start thinking about what to write in those festive cards. Whether it's your turn to invite your maiden aunt for Christmas day - again. Whether the kids will be fobbed off with something that won't involve remortgaging the house....
Here at Surf4Wine we reckon we've got Christmas wrapped... Fancy something to stock up the wine rack? We've got hundreds of wines - take your pick! (And Mr Chapman never says no to negotiating a deal on a few cases. Give him a call on 01235 821539.)
We also specialise in Christmas wine gifts - whether it's the single bottle to your boss, a case to your favourite neighbours or a few hundred bottles with your firm's own personalised labels on 'em. We can help with it all! Roll on 25th December - drop by Surf4Wine today and let us take the strain!
* Fancy one of our stunning new 2008 Calendars? Simply place an order once the calendar has been delivered to us (we'll Blog here to say it has arrived - expected in next two weeks), and the first 100 orders after that date will get one - completely FREE!
We all lead such busy lives, dashing about, ferrying the kids back and forth, cooking, cleaning, washing, paying the bills - the stuff of everyday life. So it's good on this one day of the year to stop, to pause and remember. To think of those who gave their life so we could be here to rush and dash about - to be here to drink good wine, and share it with friends.
This was the only war, as far as I'm aware, fought in the name of United Nations (as opposed to the many peace keeping duties where 'Blue Berets' have served since). It was an heroic struggle by the South, supported later by soldiers of the United Nations, who were completely overwhelmed when the Communist North invaded in the early hours of 20th June 1950. Only a stalemate has ever been reached after much fighting and loss of life - no peace has ever been signed and the two halves of Korea and her allies are still technically at war.
Earlier this year I visited Korea with my family. It was a truly memorable visit, and it was impossible to imagine how those brave soldiers of the Royal Glosters, and other regiments of the British Army there that day, held out for so long against such overwhelming odds. Just standing at the bottom of Gloster and Castle Hills it is impossible to imagine fighting in such inhospitable terrain, with ammunition running low and no chance of rescue.
So today, as we all pause for thought on this special day of the year, I shall be thinking back to my trip to Korea in April, and remembering the uncle I never knew but whose name I carry. 'We will remember them'.
*The Gloucestershire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Nicknamed "The Glorious Glosters", the regiment carried more battle honours on their colours than any other British Army line regiment.
The regiment amalgamated with the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment in 1994 to form the 1st Battalion, The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment.
In March 2005, it was announced that this regiment would merge with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment to form the 1st Battalion, The Rifles.
Posted by Andrew Barrow in Notes From The Tasting Hut - November 7th 2007 1:01pm. Leave a comment A new listing - de Morgenzon Chenin Blanc 2005. An utterly fabulous South African Chenin Blanc that we have been plotting to bring on board for over a year, and finally been able to!
The John Platter Guide describes winemaker Teddy Hall as 'South Africa's sultan of Chenin'. The guide gives this particular vintage a top ranking 5 stars.
Our tasting notes read - Spice, honey and apricot make for a highly delicious and complex nose. An excellent concentrated and mineral led palate with layered complexity of a mixture of fruits. Some residual sugar is offset by a crisp acidity to create perfect balance and a long finish.
"The dedication to a quality first approach resulted in Teddy Hall winning the Wine Magazine Chenin Blanc Challenge four times in the last five years (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005) and he won the 2001 Diners Club Winemaker of the year award. The Cape Winemakers Guild invited him to join their ranks in 2002 and at the 2003 Rendez-vous du Chenin he was the most successful Chenin producer with four wines out of the top 49 international wines selected."
Tempted? It is available to order now and if you are quick you can take advantage of our Wine of the Week special offer of a £1 a bottle discount.
Posted by Andrew Barrow in News and Comments - November 6th 2007 1:12pm. Leave a comment While Mr Parker doesn't quite have the influence on this side of the pond as he does in his home country (his proclamations of Bordeaux clarets aside) his reviews certainly give an independent review of wines from, what is after-all, one of the most respected palates in the world.
Penny's Hill Fortified Vintage Shiraz 2005 (91 points) "Purple/black in colour, it has aromas of coffee, mocha, fig and blackberry liqueur that leap from the glass. At 18% alcohol the wine is full-bodied, sweet and rich. How it will age is anyone's guess but it can be enjoyed over the next 10-15 years with cashews, walnuts and a Cuban stogie." £27.50
Mitolo Jester Cabernet Sauvignon (92 points) "Includes 20% dried grapes in the style of Amarone. Purple-coloured, it has a fragrant bouquet of black fruits, tar and violets. This leads to a smooth-textured, layered, dense wine with enough structure to evolve for 4-6 years. It has a long, pure finish and can be enjoyed over the next 15-20 years. It is a superb value." £9.99
Mount Horrocks 'Cordon Cut' Riesling 2006 (90 points) "Is sweet but has no botrytis. Gold-coloured. It has a lovely floral and tropical fruit perfume, mango and kiwi flavours and vibrant acidity. Drink it with fruit tarts and cheese cake." £14.75
Everyday I take phone calls form people trying to sell us something - building insurance, telephone systems, health plans, company vans, even the occasional palate of wine. Just now I took a call from Easyjet - a woman trying to sell advertising on their website. Now I am quite used to my initial 'no we are not interested thank you' being ignored. Usually the - 'no we are a small company with no budget at the moment for advertising; we prefer to invest in quality products' ends the conversation.
For this call the word pushy doesn't cover it. My second 'no we don't have a budget' gets talked over, a raise in the voice to nearly a shrill squawk, and the implied hatred was really quite extreme. At least I had the decency to be quiet when the other person was talking rather than the attempt to shout out the script. The details I forget but 5 million ABC1 page views for £5000 or something.
The third "no we don't... " reply resulted in a a rude rant with the 'marvellous offer' being withdrawn and the phone was slammed down.
She's obviously not making her targets!
As I cool down and resist the temptation to waste even more time in lodging a complaint against her, an image from one of the newly created Christmas packs - this is The Case For An American Christmas a mix of beer and wine (£80).
Deep breath... relax... and dream of the luscious texture of that Saintsbury Chardonnay...
Posted by Andrew Barrow in Food and Wine - November 1st 2007 1:15pm. Leave a comment Pumpkins are like, so yesterday; and, if you pop down your local Waitrose*, they are bound to be dirt cheap.
Now is the time to indulge in grown-up seasonal fare (who actually eats the chiselled out flesh from the face making exploits?) with a cheap glut of squash. American wine magazine The Spectator has published an interesting sounding Pumpkin Risotto with Curried Pumpkin Seeds and Goat Cheese Croutons recipe. Perhaps slightly over-the-top on the pumpkin front but still...
I'm not really up on pumpkin varieties but they recommend using a small pumpkin, like Sugar Treat or New England Pie but I guess any old English pumpkin would work just as well.
For a wine match the suggestion is for a Greco di Tufo - which makes perfect sense really. The dish is basically a risotto so an Italian wine should be the first choice. Add vegetables and goats cheese and a crisp, white is a must.
Our Greco di Tufo is from Vesevo, a small, quality producer, just inland from Naples. Greco is a local white variety that, in the right hands (here those hands belong to famed wine maker Mario Ercolino) it can produce scented, white-stone-fruit flavoured wines with great structure.
Andrew Chapman Fine Wines Ltd - Registered office: 264 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 7DY Registered in England. Company no. 5496317. VAT no. GB873 7934 72. You must be aged 18 or over to order.
+44 (0)7720 587073
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Check out
Radio Oxford (95.2FM) between 11am and 12 noon - I'll be popping into the
studios of 
Check out my latest video: wines to drink this Christmas.
... and all the wine
you could ever want for Christmas are at Surf4Wine!
Here at Surf4Wine we reckon we've got Christmas wrapped... Fancy something to stock up the wine rack? We've got hundreds of wines - take your pick! (And Mr Chapman never says no to negotiating a deal on a few cases. Give him a call on 01235 821539.)
We all lead such busy lives, dashing about, ferrying the kids back and forth, cooking, cleaning, washing, paying the bills - the stuff of everyday life. So it's good on this one day of the year to stop, to pause and remember. To think of those who gave their life so we could be here to rush and dash about - to be here to drink good wine, and share it with friends.
A new listing - de Morgenzon Chenin Blanc 2005. An utterly fabulous South African Chenin Blanc that we have been plotting to bring on board for over a year, and finally been able to!
While Mr Parker doesn't quite have the influence on this side of the pond as he does in his home country (his proclamations of Bordeaux clarets aside) his reviews certainly give an independent review of wines from, what is after-all, one of the most respected palates in the world. 
A little rant if you don't mind.
Pumpkins are like, so yesterday; and, if you pop down your local Waitrose*, they are bound to be dirt cheap.
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