Wine, food, cooking and accessories

Christmas Day this year was spent with a magnum of Champagne Taittinger (soft and creamy) for the preamble to dinner. Served with the full Christmas dinner was Highfield Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand (fruity and zesty) and Ross Hill Mick’s Lot Shiraz from Australia (full-bodied with tangy blackcurrant fruits) This is about the 3rd year [...]

Forget the prejudice and try the wine for yourself! Our Beaujolais Nouveau is by Gilles Ducroux from his Regnie Cru AC vineyards to provide added weight and first rate fruit to counter the typical acidity associated with Beaujolais Nouveau. Dig out your beret, don a silly moustache, invite some friends round and together enjoy the [...]

Seasonal update from Casa Lapostolle winery in Chile: “Spring has arrived in its full splendor in the vineyards of Casa Lapostolle. We already have temperatures of 25°C (77°F) during the day that go down to 5°C (41°F) at night. This is an ideal situation for the good growth of the vines. As a result of [...]

Our personalised wine labels have always been a popular choice on the website (and instore) making them ideal for birthday gifts, wedding presents, to mark anniversaries and even corporate gifts and staff incentives. A few months back we received an order from Emma with her own design attached to the order. Not only was the [...]

A message from Benoit, owner and wine maker at Champagne Marguet: “The 2006 grapes are now almost all a still wine, finishing fermentation in barrels and tanks. Its smells very good in the cellars, and I am happy with the quality of my grapes this year. The picking last for about two weeks and we [...]

We are proud to announce the listing of the wines from the Glyndwr Vineyard from the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Home-grown wines in the UK are a rarity and Welsh wines are even further and few between. The established vineyard is now producing some excellent wines with real depth of flavour and character. The Glyndwr [...]

Recently we received the opportunity to participate in an exclusive ‘invitation only’ wine competition, the ‘Tri Nations Wine Challenge’. The concept being that the judges select seven of the top wines from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in each varietal class and the wines go head to head in a Tri Nations taste off. [...]

Recent upheavals in house moving has seen chaotic scenes with items piled high and low in every room including the kitchen. After a days heavy lifting of furniture, stacking and unpacking it was decided fish & chips from the high street was the order of the day. Unfortunately the only bottle of alcohol to hand [...]

An Article by Andrew Coghlan BA MHCIMA (managing director and buyer Barrels and Bottles) Australian wines have long been thought of as full of flavour if a little one dimensional. Barrels and Bottles, wine merchants and suppliers to the premium restaurant sector in the UK Southern Ireland and the Channel Islands examines the sweeping change [...]

Blimey how hot is it? The new offices are the height of luxury compared to the old Oak Street set-up but under the steel roof with windows that open a few inches (to stop the neer-do-wells getting through) it is like the black hole of Calcutta at the moment! Throughout this brief heat-wave have rediscovered [...]