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Majestics Profits Up

November 17, 2006 By Leave a Comment

The high street and online wine retailer Majestic Wine has recently announced a 17% increase in the first half the year.

I read with interest that the average spend per transaction at Majestic has continued to rise – up to £121 compared to £115 the year before. The average price of a bottle of still wine in now £5.66 against £5.54 a year earlier.

Online sales grew too with an increase in orders placed via the Majestic’s website up 43%. Online wine sales now represent 6.4% of Majestic’s UK retail sales.

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The Difference Between Champagne and Cava

October 31, 2006 By Leave a Comment

The Difference Between Champagne and Cava?

Champagne and Cava are sparkling white wines, traditionally consumed during a celebration

Most Champagne (from France) is a blend of wines from many different village vineyards in the region. The trick the vintner has to perform is to blend these different wines from different years to create a consistent taste. Champagne Houses masterfully blend the mix of wines to produce their same, distinctive taste each year. The blended wines is poured into bottles with a pinch of yeast and sugar. The yeast reacts with the sugar to give a little more alcohol and carbon dioxide (the fizziness). The gas builds inside the sealed bottle to a great pressure, waiting to be released when the cork is pulled.

Cava (from Spain) is made in the same way as Champagne but from different grape varieties including: Parallada, Macabeo and Monstrell. Because its grapes are grown in a cooler climate, Champagne is more acidic than Cava, which can be found to be rather more fruity. Cava is the Greek word for wine cellar and the Catalan word for cellar.

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Banrock Station

October 23, 2006 By Leave a Comment

Just come across an ad in the Sunday paper (I’m a little behind with my reading!) for the Australian wine producer Banrock Station.

Apparently, Banrock Station contribute to conservation projects all over the world. Here in the UK they have a partnership with the Eden Project in Cornwall. The funding is used to develop an eco-friendly garden that showcases “practical gardening ideas that can be easily re-created in your own home to help protect and sustain the environment” – apparently.

A number of these wine merchants stock Banrock Station wines.

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Bottled Wine – Cork or Screwcap?

October 2, 2006 By 1 Comment

Wine drinkers all discuss one issue probably more than any other – the choice between cork and screwcap. Whilst traditionalists love cork, a method that has served the wine industry for hundreds of years, the modernists (for want of a better phrase) prefer screwcaps for their convenience and the supposed benefit of there being no taint.

Well, at this years International Wine Challenge, tasters discovered that while cork taint is on the decline, screwcap taint is actually a bigger problem than has previously been perceived. A blind tasting of more than 9000 wines showed that 4.4% of the corked wine had been tainted and 2.2% of the screwcapped wine had been damaged. Apparently, damaged screwcapped wine has a build-up of sulphides which gives wine an eggy or oniony taste.

My own preference? Well actually I’m undecided. Cork does have that feel but screwcapped is far easier to open and are far more convenient. I’ll just have to keep drinking both until I make my mind up.

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Tesco Wine Festival

September 12, 2006 By Leave a Comment

This week, Tesco are running another of their popular wine festivals and are offering wine and champagne at up to 50% off. There’s a wide range of lines on offer and half case (6 bottles) deals are available too.

For more information about the online store, product range, delivery charges and more visit our Tesco Wine page.

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WineJunction: A New, Online Wine Offers Site

September 8, 2006 By Leave a Comment

We’re a little eager with the announcement, but what the heck !

This is our new site, winejunction.co.uk and it has gone live today. It isn’t actually quite finished yet but we wanted to get it out in to the wild so-to-speak so that it can start to fend for itself.

So what does the site promote? Well, winejunction has been published with the aim of bringing together under one roof the main UK online wine merchants. We can offer the consumer web exclusive offers and discounts and we allow for easy comparison of the current online wine deals. There is an overview of each of the wine merchants, such as Majestics, coupled with an unobtrusive banner enabling the shopper to click through to the desired wine store.

The site and this blog will be updated with the latest news from the merchants and we’ll attempt to bring your attention to interesting wine related topics and news too.

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