Website: http://www.piggybankwine.com/
The concept? Six wines in three pairs, made by talented consultant winemakers, at at £7.99 price point, with 50 pence from the sale of each bottle being given to charity. You scan the QR code on the back label and you are taken to the piggybank website, where you can vote on where your 50 p donation goes.
The charity angle is nice. The packaging is nice. What are the wines like? Are you taking a hit on quality to fund the charitable donation?
No. The wines are really good. I would buy five of the six at their £7.99 price point, and these five over-deliver. Here are my notes:
Piggy Bank Sauvignon Blanc 2011 Elqui Valley, Chile
Made by Giorgio Flessati of Vina Mayu. Assertive green pepper and herb nose is fresh and aromatic with some tropical fruit richness as well as the overt greenness. The palate is rounded, intense and fruity with greenness as well as passionfruit and grapefruit. Very attractive full flavoured wine. 88/100 (£7.99 Waitrose)
Piggy Bank Verdejo 2011 Vino de la Tierre de Castillo y Leon, Spain
Made by Norrel Robertson. Highly aromatic, fresh and lemony with floral notes as well as pithy citrus fruit. Rounded and quite stylish, this is a lovely crisp white. 86/100 (£7.99 Waitrose)
Piggy Bank Grenache Syrah Rosé 2011 Pays d’Oc, France
Made by Thierry Boudinaud. Pink/orange colour. Sweet berry fruits nose with some strawberry and cream character. Soft, rounded with some creamy, buttery notes. Textured and easy to drink. 84/100 (£7.99 Waitrose)
Piggy Bank Tempranillo 2011 Extremadura Vino de la Tierra, Spain
Made by Norrel Robertson. Deep colour. Lovely fresh, vibrant, aromatic black cherry and blackcurrant nose. Really pure. The palate is fruit-driven, pure and direct with lovely black fruits and hints of meat and spice. Some grippy tannins on the finish. A lovely wine. 89/100 (£7.99 Waitrose and possibly soon Tesco Wine Direct)
Piggy Bank Grenache 2011 Pays d’Oc, France
Made by Thierry Boudinaud. Sweet, pure berry fruits nose. Supple, smooth, textured palate is sleek and pure with ripe blackberry and plum fruit. Lovely purity here. Swet, smooth and fresh with an appealing peppery edge. Proper wine. 88/100 (£7.99 Waitrose)
Piggy Bank Syrah 2010 Elqui Valley, Chile
Made by Giorgio Flessati. Striking exotic, floral, meaty, spicy, slightly minty nose, with pure black fruits. The palate is pure, sweet, dark and meaty with vivid black fruits and lovely peppery spiciness, as well as hints of cloves and cured meat. Striking and quite delicious. 89/100 (£7.99 Waitrose)
Here is a short film of me tasting the wines:
Like the concept, not just the charity angle, but the same packaging for interesting wines from wildly different regions all at the same price. Would be interesting to know which wine was most and least profitable.
Seems like a good range of wines. The reds sound superb!
I’ve just tried over a couple of days the Grenache and Tempranillo (my small Waitrose had one 6 pack of each wine mind you so how available they are I wonder). I enjoyed both wines and think they are v good value for money. The Grenache was quite fruity and had some sweetness whereas the Tempranillo took a little while to open up before showing it’s fruit. Thanks for pointing them out. I;d definitely but them again.
Saw your blog on Friday, headed to Waitrose at Canary Wharf and had a look.
At present they seem to only have the Syrah Rose and Granache – so I grabbed a Granache and had it with some BBQ’d meat on Sat. Really tasty stuff and like you say, good for the ££.
John Lewis on Oxford St has all 6… after having watched your video this afternoon I’m going to get the other 4 you recommended (I’m not huge on Rose!) :).
Cheers!