For those that really appreciate wine it can sometimes be hard making sure you choose the right variety and style of wine to suit the right occasion. This said, wine doesn't always have to follow the old fashioned rule of white for fish and chicken and red for red meat and game. However, with so many wines on the market now, knowing what your palette would like let alone what would suit your meal can be like searching a needle in a haystack or is that a grape?
Don't despair, here's my selection of the best websites to help you choose wisely and to suit your pocket!
www.thewinegang.com – this is my top choice for a really useful, information packed website full of the latest wines and varieties. The wine gang was literally set up by a gang of wine writers and experts with enough knowledge to fill a few vineyards. Comprising of the seriously well-tasted Olly Smith of BBC's Saturday Kitchen and Live Magazine; Tom Cannavan the creator of wine-pages.com; Anthony Rose of the Independent Newspaper; Tim Atkin MW of the Observer and Joanna Simon of Classic FM Magazine, www.thewinegang.com offers a fascinating insight into the interiors of some of the world's most important tasting rooms. Of course, the full benefit of the website is only available to members but is a mere snip at £19.99 for a year's subscription. I'd say it's well worth the spend considering you get so much advice and some excellent information such as bunch of five – wine worth getting that month and even those best to avoid! There are wine reports and these are based on the wines sold by each of the top wine sellers such as Laithwaites, Wine Rack and Corney & Barrow as well as the supermarket. Each wine is scored on a Gold, Silver or Bronze rating and points awarded out of 100. There's also a search facility in case you're looking for something specific and need some guidance.
For this month only, all those subscribing in August, and to celebrate their first full year of gang life www.thewinegang.com – have unveiled a very special competition offering one lucky subscriber the chance to win an exclusive Rioja wine tasting holiday prize as their guest. Sounds like a perfect reason to subscribe or you can even buy one for a friend.
www.wineanorak.com - this is a comprehensive wine guide by the Sunday Express Wine columnist, Jamie Goode. He has quite a few credentials behind him including TV appearances and winner of the Glenfidditch 2007 Wine writer of the year award. I like this website as it has a lot of information particularly for those that are new to wine and also gives lots of tips on where to buy and at what budget. It also has some good info on food and wine and an article I found particularly interesting was about Indian food and wine. Definitely worth a look and bookmarking on your web browser.
www.sundaytimeswineclub.co.uk - this has become one of the most renowned wine clubs around. As well as selling wine, which is it's main business, the club offers lots of tips and information on choosing and buying the right wine. I found the website extremely clear and easy to navigate as well as being very crisp and fresh, a bit like a good Sauvingnon blanc! You can search by wine variety such as a Rioja or Chablis or by type such as Rose, White or Sherry. They also do gourmet evenings which sounded most appealing although I couldn't find out whether it costs to be a member or whether membership is free but I imagine as with other wine clubs, it is based on how much wine you order each month and what discounts you will receive.
www.bbr.com - Berry Bros & Rudd are well known in the wine trade for selling some good quality, well picked wines and their websites is full of excellent tips and info for anyone wanting to know more about and buy wine. They also have a wine club which is based on receiving a set number of cases of wine per month or two for which you receive a discount and if you join now you get your first case half price, so for £60 instead of the usual £120. When you calculate the wines you are getting per bottle, it actually works out quite cheap.
www.vinopolis.co.uk - If you're really interested in wine and want hands-on experience then you can't get better than the pros of the wine tasting school brigade, Vinopolis. Based in the city, near London Bridge and next to Borough market, Vinopolis really know a thing or two about wine. They offer wine tours and courses including the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) qualifications by their resident wine expert, Tom Forrest. They even do Mixology courses for the budding Barman or woman in you! Check out the website as there is so much on there I felt a little intoxicated at the end of it all!
And of course, as any responsible wine lover would advise you,
PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY.
