I had a case of wine delivered today. One that I paid for! Yes, occasionally we wine writers buy wine. Well, at least I do. Apart from anything else, a diet of samples (even good ones) isn’t healthy. How can you connect with readers who buy wine if you, as a writer, are never in their shoes? When you spend your own money on a bottle you have a different relationship with it.
I spend quite a bit of money on wine in restaurants (these days, I’m more often dining out than in it seems), but I also buy wine from retailers. And I reckon it’s useful for readers to see what the writers they follow buy. This time it was some Spanish whites, and they are pictured above. There were 3 bottles each of the Feifinanes Albariño, which I really like, and the classic Tondonia Reserva Branco 2004. Then a couple of bottles of the Rosal (another lovely Albariño). And the last bottle of Eulogio Pomares’ amazing Carralcoba wine. Finally, two singletons from Jerez: the Equipo Navazos and the Niepoort Navazos. There’s some good drinking here, and the wines were also very reasonably priced.
Vinissimus Jamie? So no UK taxes paid on any of these, admittedly smart, wines? These guys are the bane of UK wine retailers as they apparently never pay duty on wine shipped here despite being legally obliged to do so. A few years ago I had a Spanish speaking friend call them and ask about their policy and they basically said ‘sometimes you have to pay tax sometimes you don’t’.
To really rub salt in I have, during my day job, recommended and offered free samples of wine to customers who then pulled out their phones, went online in front of me to order the wine from this website because ‘it’s cheaper online’.
Talk to your wine merchants, we can often be haggled down and will deliver as suits more often than not.
Thanks for explaining this, Colin. So they just post the wine and it’s a lottery whether customs pick it up or not? I didn’t realise, and thank you for pointing that out. I will use a UK merchant next time. They come quite high up on google searches.
“Wine merchants: we can often benhaggled down” – what an interesting comment. I’ve never asked for a discount or haggled at a wine merchant, one assumes they price wines correctly for their price modelandnare trying to eek a meagre living..Maybe I’m being naive? Or blinkered? That’s my next Matthew Clark order haggled for, and now I’m off to the local wine merchant for a good haggling! #Followthegourd.
Or maybe Colin didn’t really mean that?
Customers who enjoy free samples and then order online (in front of you!) are simply rude. It’s the same principle as those who browse independent bookshops and then order on Amazon to save a pound or two. All the benefit goes to nameless, faceless corporations, and all the costs are incurred by the merchants who actually care.