Mumsnet Wine Club Homework - How to "taste" wine

[CountessDracula]

OK wine lovers, prior to our first tasting I think it would be useful if you all had a look at this page . It gives you some idea about how to taste wine, which we will be putting into practise soon.

Is around £6 per bottle ok for the first tasting?

Okay by me.

This is exactly thing that dh is working on developing, because he's fed up with people being put off wine by the nonesense that he hears some people in the wine business talk. (Which he uses himself, but only around other" Wine Buffs". ) .... not that you re talking nonsense CountessDracula. Like you he just loves wine (.. and I'm pretty partial to it too!)

I'm wary of pointing people to his web site because a) somehow it seems a breech of etiquette, promoting something that might be (indirectly) of commercial benefit to me and b) (and probably more importantly) the web site still hans't been developed properly - he's produced a "holding" web site pretty much as a hobby, but once the builders and kitchen fitters are out the way (we're currently living in chaos), he is going to be working with a web designer/software company to pull together something more professional and to develop a wineschool "community".

He's been teaching people how to enjoy wine for many years. The education side of it is the thing he is passionate about - as well as teaching people how to enjoy wine (you'd be surprised how many people don't..........and by the way there are some Merlots that AREN'T easy drinking - believe me we've had a few........) he's working on building a business through supplying wine to club members and being seen as a reliable and dependable source of FUN - and he's actually looking to canvas people as to just what sort of services such a Club/Community would want to see provided to ensure that people got what they wanted and kept coming back.

I'm sure he'd love to have the opportunity to help develop a Mumsnet club as part of the community.

Without wanting to prejudice what CountessDracula is already doing, his website is thewineschool - but it doesn't really (yet) say that much.

We've both been a bit distracted over the past year - following my miscarriage plus we still have issues we need to work through (and I'm not getting any younger), and finally getting the kitchen done (at least that's a positive and not a negative!) hence the lack of progress on the web site - but maybe this will give him the kick up the backside he needs! (Whoops - maybe I shouldn't say that, as I'm going to be pointing this thread in his direction! )

I'll be watching (and participating!) in this thread with interest myself - and I'll try and persuade dh to add some contributions of his own!

PS And by the way, I think £6 per bottle is about right too.

CD - OK with me.

JanZ - just the type of site I have been looking for!

Is it 6 pound a week? I really couldnt afford six pound a night and also if it was every night I would have to drink the whole bottle as dh works away atm!

JanZ that is great! As I said, although I enjoy wine and have picked up a lot over the years I am in no way qualified to run a wine club, so your dh's input would be so welcome (as would anyone else's). Maybe he/you could email me at [email protected] and I could bounce some ideas off him?

CD - I believe that dh has e-mailed you with some suggestions. It was very late last night, so I haven't had a chance to see what he's done.

Let him know what you think, and then we could post the links onto this thread, if you think they would be helpful.

Thanks Jan, won't get a chance this am to do anything about it but will check it all out this pm!

Can we do a range of prices, eg. £6 one week and £3.50 the next? Then it gives everyone the choice of participating on affordable levels, plus we experience a good range - it's been pleasantly surprising to find a good wine at the cheaper end of the scale!

Are we going to select the wines from different suppliers each week, eg. Oddbins one week (which isnt' near me) and Sainsbury's the next (which is near me) etc. so people can join in depending on which supplier we've chosen?

This sounds great fun! I'm solely a white wine drinker at the mo so I'm looking forward to sampling some good reds!

Can I be in it? Now I'm reassured I don't have to write stuff like "ah...I'm getting a hint of tarmac here, sherbet lemons and...oh a little mildewed bath-mat aftertaste". Once heard Jilly Goolden liken a wine to "rolling under a damp rhododendron bush" - mmmmmmm...

Karen99 has a point I know of no oddbins here!

We have:

Victoria Wine
Bargain Booze
Then the usual places like M&S, Sainsburys, Asda, Tesco, the corner shop etc!

Bet I am making myself look right common

No Oddbins here either. Have Tesco, Sainsburys, and Bargain Booze

Oh yes, and M&S.

marthamoo do you live in macclesfield? sorry I know this is an odd question but everytime I see you name I think macclesfield! I was in Leek the other day and there is a huge sign on the island saying macclesfield>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and I thought marthamoo!!

if this is making no sense I must have bloody dreamt you were from the M place!!

and yes I have had a drink ladies

Obv will make every effort to get wine that is widely available. We are not going for fine wines here, just trying different grape varieties and countries so that we can be a little more educated in our wine drinking!

ahh, that sounds fine. It's amazing how different the same grape can be in different countries. I was thinking along the lines that we all had to get the same bottle, but if its just grape and country then I can join in every week!

Well, I think we do have to have the same bottle really. Will have to think about that one. I suppose we could have 3 possible bottles and some could try one and some another then compare them. Tricky one.

Sorry this is taking a while to sort out, it's not as straightforward as I initially thought, quite a bit of thinking/research to do prior to the first tasting.

Hmmm, it is a difficult one. I know alot of the ranges are listed on each supermarket website. Maybe we could pick one eg. Montana East Coast Chardonnay (New Zealand) [one of my favourites!!!], do a search on the common stores (we could list the stores we're going to choose from ie, sains,tescos,etc,oddbins,VicWine,BBooze) and make sure it appears at 75% of the places? After thinking about it it is quite surprising how many of the non-"especially for tescos (or whatever)" type wines appear in most places.

BTW, what info am I supposed to send to the other email address? If you need any help with anything pls let me know.

My dh is going to do a posting pointing you in the direction of some web pages that he has put together to help us in our wine tasting. I can vouch for him !

I think he is going to suggest, to start with, a Jacob's Creek Cabernet Shiraz/Cabernet as something that is widely available - but he may be putting on some alternative suggestions later this week.

Be gentle to him - it's the first time he has posted (I think!!!! ), so I don't even know what his alias will be.

Blast! Need to change my nickname now!

Bearing in mind the postings regarding the problem of "same wine everyone" I thought that rather than hang around waiting, people could start with a wine which I believe is fairly widely available - being Jacob's Creek Shiraz/Cabernet - while trying to work out/agree the best way to overcome the "availability" issue.(working on that). So I've put together a couple of pages specifically for this purpose, be gentle - I'm not a web designer - but you can try them, it makes a start - First Bash . You should note that the links back to Mumsnet only bring you back to main site.

More suggestions to follow later in the week.

.... so, is anyone interested in doing a (semi) on-line tasting this weekend? What about the Jacobs Creek Shiraz/Cabernet, just to get us started? Or would people prefer to have a choice of wines?

Im quite happy to do that Jan

I'll make sure to get some of the Jacob's Creek when I do my weekly shop tomorrow then!