Wine news & the inside story

Confused by wine jargon & looking for Wine News? We reveal secrets behind wine and grape varieties, announce competitions, news & technology.

Summertown Wine Cafe & Superb Lazy Monkey

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The Summertown Wine Café offers excellent value for money. Just because they source their produce from small independent vineyards does not mean that they charge boutique prices. The wines are very affordable but also unique in a high street with bland carbon copy wine offerings.

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Snooth’s iPhone wine app helps you explore new wines

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Snooth.com has added a new dimension to their arsenal of wine tools by offering an iPhone wine app. It’s a great way to discover and explore new wines while you are out and about, and the pro version even has image recognition.

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Wine facts – from Alcohol to Waitrose via Phylloxera

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Inspector Grape demystifies wine facts & terms people throw around when enjoying wine. alcohol: The reason we love wine more than grape juice. aroma: The forward fruit smells of a wine balance: Harmony and proportion between the acid, alcohol and fruit of a wine – a key quality factor. barrique: Commonly used wooden barrel (capacity of 225 litres) originally [...]

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Tesco Wine Finder app & Wine Conversation

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I ran into an interesting guy this morning at the coffee shop on my way to the office. His name is Robert McIntosh He works in the UK wine trade as a “Brand Ambassador” representing wineries from Rioja – specifically Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco, Criadores de Rioja and Bodegas Carlos Serres.
Subsequent to the Dec 2009 launch of the Tesco Wine Finder iPhone App, Robert created a video to show just how easy it is to identify Tesco stocked wine by taking a picture of the label on your iPhone with the App. It then searches the Tesco database to return matches that you can buy from Tesco. Take a look at Robert’s video below:

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What a fabulous evening!

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Guest blog by Tilly Walters >>David – thank you for my first lesson in wine. Tasting and talking about summer white wines was so much fun (feeling it this morning). I hope this is the start of many lessons to come. My husband and I are looking forward to polishing them all off this weekend!!

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CCQ

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Guest blog by Neil Anthony Vaughan from 3FIG>>Hi all we have a amazing supper club coming up with a 5 course meal paired with french champagne from cuvees classiques ,follow us on face book under 3 fig for details

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3 fig

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Guest blog by Neil Anthony Vaughan from 3FIG>> I would like to thank tom mills from donier wine estate for the wines last week and also john maython for attending if anyone listened to his show on friday fig street got a great review ,he loved it ,Big thanks to david wibberly from bordouxroom

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Pop Up Culture

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Pop up restaurants have been done to death!! We need a new word for pop up but then came along the No.68 project! Its set in trendy Dalston in an old theatre, from the outside it doesn’t look like much but once inside its “shabby cheek galore”. You sit amongst stuffed animals, half dressed mannequins, [...]

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Virgin America and Gary Vaynerchuk team up for sky high food and wine matching

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Guest blog by Jean Crous from CtheChange.com >> So I thought airplane food was mostly to be avoided & airplane wine was mostly to be embraced by the gallon – queue the heart burn. But now Virgin America has teamed up with internet wine tasting genius & marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk to unveil a new [...]

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Wine and cheese baskets – a Fairview feast

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Guest blog by Jean Crous from CtheChange.com >>I have to admit that when it comes to cheese pairings I am completely clueless. Usually when people gather for summer picnics with their wine and cheese baskets I’m the one who arrives clutching a clump of cheddar. You see I don’t really do dairy, let alone cheese [...]

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Food & Wine video competition

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Guest blog by Katie DiBenedetto>> Hey guys! I just joined this group because I have really gotten into matching wine and food dishes lately. (I’ll have to try the duck and Pinot Noir!) I also just found out about this contest that Santa Margherita is doing, though, where you have to make a video of [...]

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Congrats to Damian!

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I just wanted to personally congratulate fellow member Damian on winning the mixed case of wine! There were more than 110 entries so the competition was fierce!! Damian I sincerely hope you will enjoy the wines that I hand picked myself and I have attached little labels explaining more about the wines and what to [...]

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Sommeliers — Win a free trip to South Africa

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Guest blog by Peter F May from The Pinotage Club >> 2010 is the footie world cup in South Africa and Wines of South Africa is offering sommeliers the chance of winning a wine trip to South Africa. All you have to do is play footie See http://www.wosasommeliercup.co.za

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Origin Wine Tours

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Guest blog by Marie from Origin Wine Tours >> Origin Wine Tours has a fresh, original and innovative style that caters for all categories of tours. We offer travel packages that include flights, accommodation, car hire, transfers (limos, helicopters or taxi’s) and tours to some of the most interesting destinations in the world. For the [...]

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Historic Pinotage Vineyard to be TRASHED !!

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Guest blog by Peter F May from The Pinotage Club>> The very first varietal Pinotage was grown and made by P K Morkel. That vineyard he planted in 1953 is still there, the old bushvines are still producing grapes for Bellevue’s wines. Anyone would think that such a historic vineyard would be officially recognised by [...]

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Supper Club, Newlands Cape Town!

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Guest blog by Anita Streicher from Fairview Wine Estate >> Dear all! Just wanted to congratulate Neil Anthony Vaughan from 3FIG on his launch dinner for their Supper Club last week! The food and wines were fantastic! What a great chef you are! The St Patricks Day offering was a treat!! I am so gonna invite friends [...]

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Great white wine tasted at Chez Janou, Paris

Guest blog by Jaco >> Great wine at Chez Janou, Paris Cotes de Rhone, Chapoutier, Belleruche A great and very popular Bistro style eatery – book in advance or arrive early! www.chezjanou.com 2 Rue Roger Verlomme 75003 Paris, France 01 42 72 28 41 Beware the Chocolate Mouse – it arrives by the Ladle full!

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