http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog Our at-a-glance wine taste guide. Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:46:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en From Macon I drove down to Chateau Neuf Du Pape to meet with the winemaker and work on the blend for the 2008 vintage. I have read many times about the “ Mistral “ – a wind which blows from North to South down the Rhone Valley towards the Mediterranean ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=70 This week I travelled to Burgundy to finalise prices for the 2008 vintage and more importantly agree the year’s blends of our Macon Village. This wine was new in the range last year and pleasingly sold very well. There is no doubt that 2009 will be a difficult year for most ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=69 My recent journey to Champagne brought the usual bout of sympathy from my colleagues who were appalled at my plight in having to visit this region. It was a flying visit to taste our wines and gauge the sentiment of producers. Over the last decade Champagne has been in growth and ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=68 Christmas comes but once a year – unless of course you are a retail buyer. Then Christmas wash up begins in January, ideas form in February, are crystallised in March and bought in April. Packaging design starts in May, finishes in June and approved in July. Production starts in August, ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=67 I am always interested in widening my experience of all things vinous so when asked if I would like to do a barrel tasting whilst in Bordeaux, I jumped at the chance. Barrel tasting involves sampling the one year old wine taken directly from the barrels they are aging in ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=66 Bordeaux is one of my favourite places to visit, especially in the autumn during harvest. You generally leave a cold and damp England and arrive in sunny and warm France. This week Bordeaux provided its usual welcome with a pleasant 23˚C and lightly dappled blue sky. Due to the poor summer ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=65 A large part of my working life is devoted to PR and advertising, and in a world that is increasingly media hungry this is an area that devours more and more of my time. As the percentage of time dedicated to it increases I need to find ways to make the ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=64 It is sometimes hard to convince my colleagues that trips to vineyards are not just an excuse for a couple of fun days out of the office, especially when their nearest equivalent is a visit to a fish processing factory in Grimsby! So you can imagine the looks I received ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=63 I don’t know who first coined the phrase, ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’, but they were probably a cynic – someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. The thought came to me as I was looking at our own rosé wines. Five years ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=62 As regular readers will know I am not one to witter on about all the awards that Aldi’s wines have won. Suffice it to say check out the website for our haul in 2008 to date. I must say however, that any work I have done has been blown out ... http://uk.aldi.com/wineblog/?p=61