Increasing Wine Prices

We try to bring you good news in these Newsletters; however the following is an extract from an article by Joanna Simon in “The Times” earlier this year:
“Brace yourselves, because this is not going to sound good news: you will be paying more for your wine this year, irrespective of duty increases. The trouble started in Australia, when drought wiped out the cheap-wine glut and left a huge shortfall – especially at the bottom end – but now producers everywhere are sounding the same warning notes. Champagne prices will go up because the cost of grapes has risen. In Italy, which is second only to France in terms of wine output, the 2007 harvest was abnormally small. France had a petite crop and parts of Spain were way below normal . . . and so it goes on.”

None of this has been helped by the recent weakness of the £ against the Euro, the Australian and New Zealand currencies in particular, down more than 10% against these alone. Add to that the forthcoming UK Budget and the outlook for prices is only one-way. Time, perhaps, to console yourself with a glass of wine!

Wine Tasting Friday 4th April

Our next tasting evening is now less than four weeks away so perhaps time to reserve your tickets. The evening will feature wines from the New World, including some high quality new wines from Chile. Tickets are £10 each and this will be deducted from the cost of any of the tasted wines purchased on the night with a minimum order value of £50.

Tickets are now available from the shop.

Wine of the Month

Our wine of the month for March is the multi-award winning Saint Clair Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. We have stocked this wine for several years now and are not alone in considering the 2007 vintage to be the very best from New Zealand. At £11.45 it is not expensive for a top quality Marlborough.

Bob Campbell, one of New Zealand's top wine writers, has given this wine the ultimate accolade. In a recent article he wrote: "Saint Clair now makes New Zealand's, and perhaps the world's, best sauvignon blanc".

Praise indeed for a wine that sells at about half the price of Cloudy Bay. He is not alone. In a recently broadcast edition of Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4, Michael Ball requested as his luxury "the entire output of the Saint Clair and Cloudy Bay vineyards"!

Saint Clair has won more top awards for its sauvignon blanc in recent years than any of the 300 or 400 other local producers. That tally now includes a staggering 37 in the last six years alone. The 2007 vintage is truly stunning. Buy now while stocks last!!