What I drank this weekend: Pinot Noir (of course)

I was once told that the best Pinot Noir comes from either Burgundy in France or Marlborough in New Zealand. This is due to the climate and soil as Pinot Noir tends to like cool climates.

And since then, I've been a bit of a snob about it and tend to only buy my beloved red from those regions. The same with Sauvignon Blanc.

However, recently I have started to stray into trying different regions. Don't get me wrong, I love the light and earthy taste of a Marlborough Pinot Noir, but lately I've been trying some from South East Australia and Oregon.

Oregon is cooler than most Pinot sites in California and so tends to produce a lighter wine more similar to the Burgundy and less fruity and punchy than those from Sonoma. I have particularly enjoyed drinking the Underwood Pinot Noir from Marks and Spencer. At £13 a bottle it isn't cheap, but I think worth every penny. It doesn't have the smoky, mushroomy taste of some Pinots but its fruity and full of ripe cherries and raspberries and of course violets.

Now, when it comes to Australia, I'd generally be inclined to buy a Shiraz or a Cabernet. However, the South Eastern region can be cooler and I've recently become a fan of the Telegraph Station Pinot Noir. Made exclusively for Tesco it is half the price of the Marks and Spencer Pinot Noir at £6 a bottle. And it is delicious. Again, not mushroomy like the Burgundies but bright and fresh and full of raspberry and black cherry. In fact, it has recently been awarded a  International Wine & Spirit Competition Quality Award IWSC Bronze award.

So, if you're coming to visit me over my birthday or Christmas, feel free to bring either of these two reds. They are both great, but I think the Marks and Spencer wine is the winner. So, I'd be especially pleased if you brought this.

Slurrp sensibly and that :) 

Just text for wine!

If you follow me on Twitter or regularly read my blog, you'll know that I am a huge fan of the company Naked Wines.

I first became a member (or an Angel) in 2015 when Eamon FitzGerald came to a conference I was attending and waxed lyrical about buying wine with a social purpose. You can read my original article here.

They have loads of wines on the website, so I always spend ages trying to decide which ones to order. In the past, I've often ended up buying a prepared mixed case because I know I'll get something different to try and it means I don't have to give myself brain ache trying to narrow my selection down to 12 wines.

I have now discovered that Naked Wines has a new service called Text for Wine. It's amazing and does exactly what it says on the tin! 

All you have to do is register for the service online and then you can just send those bods at Naked Wines a text and they will send you wine. So you can do it any time, any place. I won't tell you what I was doing at the time!

And you can be as vague or specific as you like. So, for my first order, I asked for 12 bottles, for the wines to be around £10 a bottle, a mixture of red and white and told them the sorts of wines that I liked. And that was that!

The next day, a box of wines came through my door. The total cost was £105 (including my Angel discount) so actually worked out a bit less than £10 a bottle. And, I was really pleased with the selection. There were a couple of wines in there I'd ordered before such as the Benjamin Darnault Picpoul de Pinet 2014 and the Dominic Hentall Malbec 2014. But there were some new ones to try such as the Christian Patat Primitivo Puglia 2014 (which was really nice) and a delicious bottle of Benjamin Laroche Chablis 2013.

Apparently this is the first service of its type in the UK and currently only available to Angels (monthly subscribers to Naked Wines). But I think it is brilliant and I'll definitely be texting for wine in the future!