Best Cellars Wine Blog

Montevista Reserve Carmenere 2010

Montevista Reserve Carmenere 2010, Chilean Red WineCarmenere was once a Bordelaise grape variety although I am not aware of it’s being grown anywhere in France in commercial quantities any longer. It surfaced in Chile a while back and since then, Chile has made Carmenere it’s very own and has a proud history of production stretching back many years. Originally sold as Merlot, it was correctly identified in the early ’90s and since then there has been no looking back. It is the workhorse of the Chilean wine industry and having a slightly rustic style it is slightly less “jammy” than a Merlot.

Best Cellars has secured a parcel of Montevista Reserve Carmenere 2010 from the Central Valley which is offering very good value at £ 6.25 a bottle (reduced from £ 7.00). The wine has enough bottle age to make it interesting but is still sufficiently fresh to be instantly attractive.

If you would like to order a bottle of this delicious, punchy wine that has bags of flavour, view our selected Montevista Reserve Carmenere 2010 wine.

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Celebrate St George’s Day with some English wines

The English national day doesn’t seem to be celebrated with the same gusto as the Irish, Welsh and Scottish national days. In fact EVERYBODY seems to celebrate St. Patricks Day  no matter their nationality!

We are not the only nation to celebrate St George, other countries that celebrate the 23rd April include Canada, Lebanon and Hungary. Eastern orthodox countries tend to celebrate St George on the 6th May and include Georgia, Bulgaria and Serbia amongst others.

All these countries celebrate with gusto and often the day is a public holiday. The Catalans even bake a special cake! Here is the recipe if you want to try it out!

In England St Georges day used to be as important as Christmas and was a public holiday. This year St George’s Day the 23rd April is on a Monday and although it is not a public/national holiday, we think its worth celebrating with some of the growing crop of English wines that are on the market.

In the South West we are blessed with some fine vineyards producing some nice wines.

We stock wines from the Sharpham Estate in Devon including:

sharpham estate selection
Sharpham Estate Selection

 This fine dry style exhibits the best qualities of English wine. 100% Madeleine Angevine. An elegant wine characterised by its pale lemon colour and long refreshing finish. The taste of fresh citrus fruits gives a youthful fresh sensation with good balance and length.

This wine makes for ideal early drinking. A great aperitif wine and an ideal accompaniment to fish and seafood.

sharpham dart valley reserve
Sharpham Dart Valley Reserve

Lovely fruit aromas with supple delicate flavours and a just off-dry style, result in a wine ideal for drinking alone or with food. This wine makes for ideal early drinking.

We also stock a selection of fruit wines and meads from Lyme Bay click here to view.

We hope you will enjoy the selections and indeed enjoy St George’s Day. Its a shame its not a public holiday like St Patricks Day is in Ireland & N Ireland. Maybe there should be a petition :-)

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Easter 2012 Newsletter

Great News for our customers – You are now able to utilise our couriers unique one hour delivery window notification service. If you supply a mobile number you will get a text on the day your delivery is due giving you an estimated time of delivery with an hourly window.

We will also send email notifications to advise you of your one hour timeslot. You will also have the option to change the delivery date if it’s not convenient.

So why not take advantage to get some wine for Easter or send a wine gift to friends and family.

new special offers

Order by 14:30 Wednesday 4th April to guarantee delivery of your Easter Wine gifts to enable your friends and family to celebrate the season.

It is also a big week for golfers this week with the first major tournament of the year at the Augusta National Masters. Will Tiger be celebrating a big comeback or will the young rising star McIlroy overcome last year’s nightmare to put on the famous Green Jacket. Either way champagne will be flowing! Why not take the opportunity to celebrate yourselves and pop open a bottle of the sparkling stuff. We have a fine selection of champagne to suit all tastes and budgets!

champagne gremillet

Some of our fine champagnes

Speaking of budgets, whilst the chancellor did not announce any new rises in duty in the recent budget, he forgot to mention the previously announced Duty Accelerator. This tax increase raises the cost of alcohol by the rate of inflation plus 2% across the board and includes wines and beers.

The prices advertised on our website are pre-budget and the new prices will be filtering through after Easter as new stock arrives. So place your orders quickly!

CAMRA are obviously worried how this will affect our traditional pubs and have started an e-petition against the duty rise. We encourage you to sign up. It is really easy to do. Start by clicking here for the petition.

You may also want to visit our new look Facebook page and give it a “Like” while you are there. 

We would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your custom and to wish all our customers a Happy Easter.

Jonathan & Emma Richards

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Some suggestions for spring salad wines

The spring has sprung and we are now past the equinox which means that there will be morer daylight hours! Yippee.

This should mean that we will get warmer days and with that come a change in what we eat. Salad season is here again. Arguably we can eat salad all year round but its not quite the same in the middle of  winter when its cold and dark!

The questions then begs is what should I drink wtih my salad? Generally this means white wines as the tannins in red can upset the delicate flavours in the salad.

Here are a few suggestions and salad recipes for you to try out this spring!

Vouvray Les Coteaux Tufiers Chenin Blanc

vouvray chenin blanc

This Vouvray Les Coteaux Tufiers Chenin Blanc has a concentrated luscious fruit, balanced by a delightful acidity. It is a fantastic wine to have with grilled fish, poultry and summer salads.

Alternatively you could try one of our South African wines such as our False Bay Chenin Blanc.

false bay chenin blanc

 A nice Riesling such as our Mud House Waipara Riesling also goes well with salads especially seafood based salads as will a Sauvignon Blanc such as the La Strada, Fromm, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

 

Salad Recipes:

Summer Couscous Salad

Prawn & ginger noodle salad

Warm mackerel and beetroot salad

Enjoy the wines and the salads and if you have any special spring salad recipes let us know about them so we can try them out!

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Mother’s Day champage gift baskets

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Mother’s Day gift ideas.

The time has come to recognise, thank and celebrate the person who brought you into this world – your Mum.

The celebration goes back to Roman times where they had a special festival to celebrate Cybele the mother goddess.

For those still lucky enough to have a mum it is a great opportunity to treat her like a Goddess and to do something special. Take her out to lunch, bring her a bunch of flowers get the kids to draw her a lovely picture.

You could bake her a Simnel Cake which is traditionally associated with Mothering Sunday. Here is a recipe for Simnel Cake you could try.

The day also traditionally allows for a break in lenten vows to allow for the celebration, so this is the perfect opportunity to do something extra special and send her a special gift of champagne or wine.

If you won’t be able to be with your mum then don’t worry. We can deliver securely and safely direct to her door in time for to celebrate on Sunday 18th March.

We have a wild selection of quality champagnes and wines that come in special gift boxes or baskets and you can choose your own personal message to go on the gift card.

champagne gift basket

Don’t forget to order in time and enjoy your day with your mum !

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Host your own Oscars Party.

This Sunday is the grand extravaganza that are the 84th Annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards. More commonly known as the Oscars!

Whilst the stars will be walking down the famous red carpet many of us will be glued to the TV sets to see the lastest fashion successes or indeed the infamous fashion failures!

The champagne will be flowing freely at the awards and at the many parties!

If you are not one of the lucky people who gets an invite to the Vanity Fair or Elton John’s after show parties then why not host your own “Oscars Party”.

The academy has even kindly provided you with some hints and tips as part of their “Oscar Party Kit“.

Champagne is of course one of the key ingredients for a party and here at Best Cellars we have a wide selection of champagnes for you to choose from to bring some fizz to your party. You can either drink it straight or mix it into some cocktails.

This recipe for La vie en Rose would work well with our Premier Cru Pink Champagne from Comte Audoin de Dampierre.

We also have a range of sparkling wines that will also help bring some bubbles to your party atmosphere.

Once you have the fizz sorted all you need are some nibbles. The Oscars party kit gives you some ideas but if you don’t fancy Deviled Eggs with Caviar then there is alway the cimema staples of Popcorn or nachos with chees to fall back on!.

Have a great party on Sunday and enjoy responsibly!

(In the UK the Oscars can only be viewed on Sky Movies HD from 11:30pm Sunday 26th February 2012)

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Valentine’s Day Wine Gifts

Surprise your loved one to a special champagne gift on Valentine’s Day.

Treat them to the perfect romantic day and pop open a bottle of bubbly from our range of champagne gift boxes.

Valentines Day Champagne Gifts

The perfect accompaniment to the roses and chocolate!

But ladies don’t forget men like to be treated too on Valentines day! If bubbly is not their favourite tipple then they might like a wee dram! Our own “Munro Malt” – our own label single malt whiskey – will sure to warm him up!

If you will be apart from your loved one on Valentines Day you can order your gift on-line for delivery to avoid having a Valentine’s disaster!

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Best Cellars Wines Christmas Newsletter 2011

Christmas shopping nightmare solved!

Have you left doing your Christmas shopping until the last minute? Do you dread the thought of fighting through the hustle and bustle on the high street, sitting in traffic jams, struggling to carry heavy packages etc? We have the answer to your problems! Our website is packed full of Christmas bottles to suit all tastes and all budgets and there is still time to have them delivered before Christmas direct to your friends, relatives or customers.

 

Prosecco Sparkling WineOur Christmas Wine Case this year is better than ever, we have included a quality bottle of Prosecco Italian sparkling wine, a decent bottle of Port and ten bottles of red and white wines from around the world. Offered at a cracking discount of over £20, the price for the Christmas Wine Case is £76.50. Full details of the wines in the case can be found on our website on our Christmas Cases page.  We have included an option to buy a six bottle Christmas Special Offer Half Case with Port, Prosecco, two reds and two whites at a bargain price of £45.75.

 

Special Offer Case of Six Reds and Six Whites: For those of you who would prefer to buy a case of twelve bottles without the Port and Sparkling wine, we have made a version of the Christmas Case with six bottles of red and six bottles of white, which is offered at a discounted price of £69.95. There is an exciting mix of wines from Australia, France, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Italy and Spain. A fantastic ‘around the globe’ assortment!

 

Two Bottle Rigid Presenation Wine Gift BoxWine Gift Boxes of all Shapes and Sizes: We have a massive range of wines in gift boxes, for example, a pair of Chilean and Australian wines in a two bottle Gift Box for £14.40. We have many different types of Gift Boxes to choose from, which include glossy gift cartons, wooden wine boxes, wine gift baskets and also our new smart range of presentation gift boxes. The rigid presentation gift boxes are proving to be a great hit! They are red and silver, nice and festive, with a textured drop over lid. Last but not least are our ever popular Champagne Gift Boxes from Comte Audion de Dampierre, these exquisite, branded boxes are red with gold lettering and make an ideal corporate gift.

 

Festive Tipples: For an extra warming Christmas Gift, how about our Mulled Wine and Christmas Mead Gift Set? These delicious wines are made in our own county of Devon and have won numerous awards for their quality.

 

We deliver on a next working day basis and try to stick to this where ever possible. At very busy times, deliveries can sometimes take an extra day so we trust that you will understand if a one day service occasionally becomes two. Our couriers are delivering right up until the 23rd December but we highly recommend that you order as soon as possible to avoid any last minute hiccups! Last year the courier companies, along with most of the general public, were hampered by the bad weather and we are hoping very much that we don’t get a repeat performance this year.  A white Christmas is lovely and romantic but it doesn’t half cause a lot of problems as I am sure you are all aware.

 

Multiple Delivery Addresses in one transaction. Don’t forget, our website is set up to cope with multiple delivery options, so you can fill your shopping basket with presents for everyone and pay for it in one go. Each person on your list can have a personalised gift message included with their wine.

 

Best Cellars stock a full range of Malt Whisky including our very own ‘The Munro’ from Speyside. If you would like information about buying any of spirits or liqueurs, please let us know. Although they do not appear on our website, we are more than happy to dispatch these aswell.

 

We would like to thank all our customers for their business over the past year and wish you are very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Jonathan & Emma Richards

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Christmas Wine Gifts

Christmas gifts for businesses or friends.

Spread some festive cheer by sending a case of wine as a thank thank you to clients or to friends and family. Order now to have your gift securely delivered in time for the festive period.

If you order these wine cases online you will have your wine delivered next day. An ideal corporate wine gift, perfect wine gift for sharing with family and friends.

Christmas Gift BoxOur Christmas wine gift boxes

Our hand selected wine gift boxes contain something for everyone:

  • 5 assorted quality Whites
  • 5 assorted quality Reds
  • A quality Prosecco sparkling wine
  • A bottle of Port

These wine cases include something for everyone, some crisp dry whites such as Pinot Grigio and
Sauvignon Blanc, fruity Chenin Blanc, full bodied red wines such as Shiraz, soft Chilean Carmenere, Oakey Rioja and to complete the package, a delicious, quality Prosecco and a fine bottle of Port from Krohn

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