Barrels & Bottles Wine Blog

Garech Byrne is like no other in the wine industry. In a good way. No bow tie (not even a tie), no PowerPoint presentations and no statistics to prove the average wine drinker in the UK will consume 3000 bottles of his wines per week.

Even their website is unconventional www.stormhoek.com. A wine blog set up to create a wine influenced by consumers. No statistics on harvest percentages, acidity values. Just the simple approach of fans writing about their experiences of Stormhoek.

Amazingly, this is not all style and no substance. The Stormhoek Siren wines (featuring a Sauvignon Blanc and Pinotage) are stunning examples of their type. Their quality comes in part from the influences of Alain Mouiex (joint owner of the fabulously expensive Petrus) and flying winemaker Florent Dumeau using their own grapes.

Single varietals bottled in tall, chic clear bottles with simple, elegant labels all help towards the Stormhoek Siren philosophy "wine as an object of beauty". A raft of industry awards (IWSC Pinotage Trophy, Decanter Silver Medal amongst others) proves this unconventional approach to wine is working.

The back labels on the bottles feature a "Freshness Indicator". A fantastically simple idea that work. A simple time line showing when the wine will start to drink and when it will start to become tired. Taking the guesswork out of when to drink your wines.

Labels: pinotage, sauvignon, south africa, wine

Following the very heavy rain in June and July we have seen a huge uptake on our wine cellar monitoring equipment, particularly our digital stations. It has become very obvious a lot of people with underground storage are keen to ensure conditions remain stable and within acceptable tolerances.

Increases in moisture can lead to increased humidity which can directly affect your precious wine cellar. Quite often if it "feels" too damp the damage has probably already started. By keeping a close check on both temperature and humidity you have a better chance of preventing your collection from spoiling.

One of our most popular choices is our Wireless Temperature and Humidity Recorder.

As well as allowing for remote monitoring (no need to risk a journey into the cellar) it also logs 3000 sets of data which can be viewed on a PC for detailed analysis. Being wireless also proves to be more effective - if you can read the readings from the comfort of upstairs you are more likely to keep a closer track in what is happening.

Labels: accessories

Figures to mid-June 2007 just released by A C Nielsen show that retail sales of Chilean wine in the United Kingdom have overtaken those of Spanish wine, moving Chile up into 6th place.

Michael Cox, Wines of Chile's UK Director, commented: 'Chile is now making steady and sustained progress across the board in both volume and value. This is testimony to the hard work being done by the wineries, and the growing awareness of Chile's naturally diverse styles of quality wines.'

Current positions are:

1st : Australia
2nd : France
3rd : USA
4th : Italy
5th : South Africa

Chile now has 6.9% of UK off-trade sales, and is moving up to challenge South Africa for 5th place.

Article by Charles Metcalfe. Full details

Labels: chile, wine