Matt's Blog

08 August 2007

Whats New?

I seem to have become pretty useless at keeping this page updated although in my defence July didn’t bring much to talk about other than rain and enough people have been talking about that.  So I’m going to talk about what’s new on the shelves at Vinology over the last few months.

Firstly, we’ve now added a couple of ciders to the shelf to sit with our ever growing range of real ales and as with our beer range, the ciders are of course from a local producer, namely Allen Hogan, branded under the name Hogans, check them out here. Two ciders, one dry, one medium, both of faultless quality and very reasonably priced.

In the world of Whisky I would make this blog excessively large if I were to name them all the newbies, since we now have well in excess of 130 Whiskies and are adding more and more every week.  I’m happy to be able to promise that if it’s a Whisky we haven’t got that’s available out there… we’ll get it.

New Whiskies on the shelf include the oh-so exclusive Barrogill, commissioned by Prince Charlie, a vatted malt of 6 Highland Whiskies (no… it’s not a blend!). From the independently bottled Old Malt Cask range we have added way too many new expressions to mention here, but those that inspired us the most are the beautifully sweet and rich peat machine that is the Sherry Cask Laphroaig 18 year old (RRP £74.99), the spicy, toffee and orange peel driven Mortlach 12 year old (RRP £46.99) and the fresh clean and herbal Macallan 16 year old (RRP £64.99).  We also now carry 12 different Whiskies in the Old Malt Cask 20cl Advance Sample range, as we realise these fine Whiskies are not cheap and since Douglas Laing do not put any premium on for the smaller sizes, this is a great way to try some of these fantastic Whiskies without spending a fortune.

Our Bourbon range has been enhanced by 5 exceptional Whiskies from Old Rip Van Winkle… The turbo-charged Cask strength (53.5%) Old Rip Van Winkle 10 year old (RRP £36.99), the light and fruity Special Reserve 12 year old (RRP £43.99), the anarchic yet adorable Straight Rye 13 year old (RRP £38.99), the intensely complex Family Reserve 15 year old (RRP £50.99) and the multiple-award winning sensation that is the Family Reserve 20 year old (RRP £95).

Balblair has had a facelift and come up with three new great whiskies… The salty malty Vintage 1997 (RRP £29.99), the nutty but smooth Vintage 1989 (RRP £42.99) and the magnificent honey and toffee delight of the Vintage 1979 (RRP £99.99)

Moving onto matters more wine related, we’ve added a great range of 3 wines from Taltarni (Victoria, Australia) … the T series, namely a fresh passion fruit led Semillon-Sauvignon, a rich cassis and spice concoction that is the Shiraz Cabernet and finally the strawberry and raspberry fruit led rose, the perfect Summer wine, although I admit to witnessing very little Summer at all so far.  All three wines retail at the bargain price of £6.99.  Also hailing from Australia is the Willunga 100 Shiraz Viognier, an aromatically spicy £8.49 gem and in the slightly more premium end of Aussie offerings in the S.C Pannell Nebbiolo, a true masterpiece, every bit as good as its Italian relations found in the form of top end Barolo (RRP £25.99).

Enhancements on our Italian investments include a stunning Lange Favorita (the local name for the Vermentino grape), namely Deltetto.  This flavoursome tropical fruit delight retails at £9.89, a price it is well worth.  Two wines we were desperately looking for good examples of, were a Vernaccia and a Verdicchio and I’m pleased to say we now have both and even more pleased to say both retail at a remarkably good £6.89.  Two great wines in the Gran Sasso range now on the shelf are the soft and juicy red Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (RRP £5.99) and the crisp, fresh, mineral gem that is our Pecorino (yes, I know, it’s also a cheese, RRP £7.99).

Getting closer to home over in France we’ve taken on board a great range of wines from Paul Jaboulet… A lesser-seen but always appreciated white Cotes-du-Rhone (RRP £7.99), an always great value red Cotes-du-Ventoux (RRP £7.29), an exceptional St. Joseph (RRP £13.59) and finally, a truly stunning Hermitage (RRP £29.99).  Other French newbies consist of a second big and broody Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Domaine des Peres de L’Eglise (RRP £18.99), a new Pouilly Fume from Jonathan Pabiot… Daddy Didier has given his son 2 hectares to have a play with and this 2006 bottling is his very first vintage and he’s done an amazing job! (RRP £9.99).  Also now in is our Les Coteaux Tufiers Demi-Sec Vouvray (RRP £6.99).

My final mentions require a trip to Spain, to cool climate Somontano where we find Bodegas Laus; we’ve added three of their stunners:  their seductively gorgeous Tempranillo Crianza (RRP £9.49), their plum and cherry and damson enticement that is the Flor de Merlot Rosado (RRP £8.59) and perhaps most interestingly, their honey and lychee spiked Gewurztraminer – not a grape variety normally associated with Spain (RRP £10.89).

Of course, these are only a fraction of our ever increasing range, download our product lists to read about the full range.

And I think that’s enough to witter about for now, I’ll try to write something else before too long this time.  And as tempting as it is on this final paragraph, I’m going to leave the busker bashing to Mark, since we’ve had some truly terrible examples this last week.

Cheers,
Matt.