UKWinesOnline » Far East

A WineDrop in the West Country

former winemerchant — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:12:31 +0000

WineDrop.co.uk is an independent online wine merchant which offers an extraordinarily wide range of wines, spirits and beers. Their list features wines from all the usual suspects, but also from Greece, Hungary, Romania, Japan, Uruguay and Brazil amongst others.
Brazil is an unusual choice – the Rio Sol Seco Cabernet Sauvignon is “Warm fruit and a little edge. Pleasingly soft palate with modest length of flavour – emminently quaffable but something of a curiosity! It is the only wine in the world produced at 8 degrees South – indeed it used to be said that wine was impossible to produce in the North East of Brazil (São Francisco Valley, Pernambuco Province), as vines grow continuously all year, and each plant completes a growing cycle in only five months – so two vintages in a year are the norm!
(The EU will probably ban this soon – so try a bottle whilst you can!) ”

You are bound to find something different and interesting here, although there is no indication of any tastings to sample any of their offerings before you buy. There are also some West Country ciders and ales on offer.

Our aim is to offer a friendly and prompt wine delivery service for one of the widest range of competitively priced wines on the net, to offer a touch of old fashioned wine merchant service in an on line wine merchant world!
New to Pinot Grigio? or thoroughly bored with it, come to us! Fifty years of professional sniffing-tasting-spit…should have given us just that little bit of extra experience. Getting soft with age, quality comes first for us, value for money follows. Having always been free to do so, we strive to buy as individually as possible. We like the classics of the Old World but we are also responsive to developments in the New – after all in the early 80s we were the first in the UK to import a comprehensive range of Australian wines from Penfold’s – sadly now such a shadow of their former selves.

WineDrop.co.uk, 3 Alphin Centre, Exeter, Devon, EX2 8RG
T: 0139 220 3019 E: orderdrop@winedrop.co.uk

http://www.winedrop.co.uk/contact.asp

Chinese wine on supermarket shelves

former winemerchant — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:37:50 +0000

It’s not a common combination, but when you consider the sheer size and population of China, it was somewhat inevitable that Chinese wine would be added to the ever growing list of imports from the Peoples Republic. Over 18 months ago www.spittoon.biz noted that “Domestic wineries are gearing up to put China’s name on the map of wine culture, helped by experts from home and abroad. So get ready for a chardonnay from Huadong, a cabernet from Changyu or a dragon’s seal from Beijing. Or how about a smooth cabernet sauvignon from Xinjiang?”

Morrisons is claiming to be the first UK supermarket to sell Chinese wine.

The retailer has added two wines from the north west of China to its portfolio: Silk Road Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay both retail for £5.99 and are 100% pure varietal wines.

Grant Eastwood, Morrisons’ licensed trades director, believes China has the potential to make wine that can compete with the world’s best-selling wine-producing countries, such as Australia.

“With their technology and ability, combined with a couple more years’ experience in this industry, they’ll be producing more excellent wines. They remind me of Australia in the early 90s, when they started to put down vines.”

Eastwood added that Chinese wine “could take on the world if only grape-growing conditions were better”.

Trading manager Arabella Woodrow MW described China’s climate – which is very dry with high summer temperatures – as “difficult for grape-growing”, adding: “I’m amazed they can grow grapes at all.”

Along with Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, China’s climate shows promise for Riesling, according to Woodrow. She added that, with quality continually improving, Chinese wine will be able to shake off its novelty image in the UK.

Bordeaux winemaker Fred Nauleau assisted in the making of the Silk Road wines, which are produced from an ethically-run vineyard and winery that is tended by local families with government support. Snow melt from the Tianshan mountains, which border the Taklamakan desert, irrigates the vineyards.