Christmas in September?

A large proportion of wines tasted to date have been sourced from the Wine Society, an institution I cannot recommend highly enough.  I am especially fond of my membership as it was a leaving gift, together with a rather nice deposit in my account, from my last company.  Their service, choice, and knowledge is second to none and their mixed-cases are a great route to new wines.

As I have previously mentioned, I am (still) ploughing through their Christmas Ideas Mixed Dozen which arrived at Townend Towers just in time for the festivities to begin and me finishing work.  It is only now, however, that I realise that I should have ordered the case in June giving me sufficient time to taste ALL the bottles by September to ensure my Christmas wines are selected in good time.  To be fair to the Wine Society the clue is in the name of the case...

Picking Christmas wines in September?  Well I suppose it coincides with the switch-on of the Christmas lights.

These places are few and far between

I can spend hours browsing around a wine shop (just ask the current Mrs T.) and its amazing just what you can find if you're prepared to get down on your hands and knees and root around at the back of the shelves.

I would like to use this blog as a reason/excuse to spend more time tracking down quality independent vintners and getting their stores better known in the wider world. I have, therefore, started work on this google map of wine merchants in the north of England - something the Brits around here may find interesting. I can't vouch for any of the yellow spots, but I've made it to the greens and very good they are too.

Please feel free to either add to the map or send me your recommendations and I'll stick them on. The only rule is that they must have a retail store open to the public without appointment. International contributions more than welcome!

Toot toot.

Chris