Last night I sat myself down if front of the TV with a lovelly little Bordeaux wine and a generous piece of smelly old blue cheese. It was promising to be one of those really relaxing evenings, there was a cheesy film on where America was on the brink of total disaster but then just at the last minute some guy with a big cheesy grin and anoying hairstyle would save the day and get the girl and everyone would live happily ever after. You know the type of film I'm on about - You don't have to think about it, just sit there and watch it.

The real highlight of the evening for me was going to be this lovelly little Boredeux I had recently aquired to try ahead of placing it on the shelves in the shop.

So I settled into my chair with bottle of wine in one hand, cork screw in the other and the smelly cheese sat quietly doing it's thing on the table just in front of me. I opened the bottle in my usual carerful manner, savouring each process, the careful cutting of the foil around the bottle top, the placing of the corkscrew exactly in the centre of the cork before twisting and then slowly levering the cork out to release the aromas trapped inside the bottle for the last 5 years.

It was at that point I experienced my first dissapointment of the night. There was no big aroma to fill the room. I had to literally place the cork against my nose to get any hint of what the juice inside the bottle was going to taste like. Oh dear I thought, that's not a very promising start is it?

I poured myself a glass and inspected the wine from within. The colour looked greart. A nice rich dark colour but still very little smell.

My first mouthful was my second dissapointment of the evening. The wine just grabbed the inside of my mouth and pulled it in all directions and when swallowed I could trace every millimetre of it voyage to my stomach. Oh, Bloody Hell! I was so looking forward to drinking this wine tonight.

It felt like the wine needed a couple more years in the bottle to settle down.

I decided to give it another try. Sometimes wines just need a litlle time to calm down after their initial excitement of being released, especially if they have been hauled up in a bottle for a few years. This proved to be a good decision. Returning to the wine after about 20 minutes was like coming back to a completely different wine altogther.

Despite it still lacking any great aroma the wine itself had settled down to give a pleasant, smooth and quite full taste but with a hastily retreating finish. Being the sort of person not to give up on anything too soon, I soldiered on and eventually finished the whole bottle and a good deal of the blue cheese too, whilst the good people of America were dutifully saved and lived to see another day.

OK, I feel a conclusion coming here.

Before opening the wine I had, in my mind, already decided how it was going to taste and smell. My expectations had already been set. The initial dissapointment was not the wines doing, rather my own doing. I had placed this wine on a much higher pedestal than I should have. I guess the lesson here, if there is one, is that we should allow the wine to gradually reveal itself to us and we should maintain acompletely open mind as it does so. No two wines are ever the same and we should never draw conclusions on what it will be like without first trying it with an open mind - cheesy heroic films and smelly cheese optional!!!!

There was in fact nothing wrong with this wine whatsoever. It was a perfectly enjoyable wine in every respect and I will most certainly be adding to my list of wines for sale in the shop and on line.

The wine in question is "Chateau Laverne-Dulonge Bordeaux Superiore 2006 and will be on sale in the shop at £9.95 from now on.

Next time you open a bottle of wine, do so without any expectations at all and you will surely not be dissapointed.

 

 

Isn't if funny how life has a way of twisting and turning, taking you on highs and lows, never running in the same direction for too long? I think everyone of us wish for life to be like a never ending road leading towards the horizon where the sun is gently setting behind the hills. A life where we can see whats coming up way in advance so we can prepare ourselves. I also think that secretly we all enjoy the randomness of life too. Not knowing what lies waiting for us around the next corner or over the next hill gives us all a good reason to get up and out of bed in the morning.

"What are you on about?" I hear you say.

Well, today I walked over the top of one of lifes hills and came face to face with a very enlightening experience. Without going into too much detail I met with three people today who inspired me by sharing their ideas on how I should take my business forward, how I should market myself and how my business is currently perceived by the public and what changes I should make to improve peoples perception of my business. The thing that was most inspriring was that these people whom I had only met briefly once before really cared and their ideas and comments really were made in the best interest of my business.

OK, so now I hear you saying "That's nice but what is the point you are trying to make here Boyd?"

Actually I'm not trying to make a point. All I am doing is telling you what happened to me today and how I felt, afterall isn't that what a blogg is supposed to be?

If there were to be a point to my ramblings I guess it would be that wine is like life, every wine is different, never two the same. Opening a bottle of wine for the first time is like turning a corner or running over a hill to see whats on the other side. Sometimes the turning is bad and other times, just like today for me the other side of the hill has a fantastic view. You should therefore never be afraid to turn a corner and try a new wine, you might actually enjoy it.

 

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Red Field Wines have joined forces with Gruppo Italiano Vini (GIV) at this years Dartmouth Regatta to present to you the Dartmouth Regatta Wine Experiences case of Italian wines. GIV will be holding a wine tasting throughout the Dartmouth Regatta where you will be able to go along and try all 12 of the wines that make up this exciting case. You can then order your case of wines from our web site at a discounted price and have it delivered direct to your door anywhwere in the UK. For more information about the Dartmouth Regatta visit www.dartmouthregatta.co.uk For more information about each of the wines on tasting at this years Dartmouth Regatta, go to our home page and click on the link titled Dartmouth Regatta Wine Experiences.

It's been a while since I up-dated my Blog page so I thought I would roll all my recent goings-on into one blogg.

The advent of the recent good weather has seen a significant up-turn in sales of both retail and wholesale for Red Field Wines and we have been, quite frankly, run off our feet, which in this current climate is something to be very pleased about. Despite the continued barrage of news of recession we have experienced a steady growth over the last 12 months, despite various set-backs along the way.

At the beginning of the recession most trade press releases suggested that the wine trade would benefit from an increase in people buying slightly more expensive wines to drink at home. The theory being that people would trade up in their wine by off-setting the saving made by not eating out. At the time I remained rather cautious of this over confident statement, as in my experience nobody is immune to the effects of a down-turn in the market. It seems now that I was proved correct as people are now in-fact being ever more careful with their money and looking for "the deals"

Having anticipated this, we at Red Field Wines have over the last 6 months have been activley looking for good value quality wines and have built up a range of entry level wines to offer our customers but at the same time insured they are of an acceptable quality. We all know it's easy to find cheap wine, but keeping an eye on quality must take first place. As we continue to move through this recession we will continue to source good quality low cost wines for our customers.

Notwithstanding that, we are continuing to source new and exciting wines across the whole price range and we recently attended the London International Wine Show in Excel and have a number of new wines to add to our range. We have expanded our range to include wines from India, Croatia and Hungary as part of our plan to provide a more varied and interesting selection for our customers. As a small independent, we feel it is important to provide that little something extra if we are to stand out from the crowd.

Over that last couple of months we have held a number of wine tasting events, which have proved very popular with our customers. Our monthly tastings held on the first Thursday of each month are very well attended and are always fully booked a good couple of months in advance. The most recent tasting where we compared new world wines with old world was great fun and successfully divided the crowd by the end of the evening and even converted some hardened followers of the old world.

Our forthcoming tastings include an Italian tasting, South African tasting and the one I am really looking forward to is our French tasting in October, where we will be travelling down through France trying wines from each region and our friends from the cooking School 'Manna From Devon' will be cooking a regional dish to match each wine from each region. That's one not to miss. Book early to avoid dissapointment.

We recently held a wine tasting for Cancer Research and raised over £200.

Yesterday we met with the producer Marguerite Van Hove from Clos Marguerite in New Zealand who came over to promote her new Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008. I have to say that I have never tasted such a good New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, it was fantastic, very smooth, delicate with a beautiful finish that just went on forever. We will be featuring this wine on our web site very soon and it will be on the shelves not long after.

For those of you who are into such things, I have recently set up a Twitter account and you can follow me by looking for RedFieldWines. Since starting I have a number of followers from all walks of life but mostly from the wine world, including wine writer Oz Clarke and TV's Phillip Schofield who is perhaps less well known for having a truly stunning and quite enviable wine collection. The world of Twitter has allowed me to talk direct to wine producers, writers and drinkers all around the world and share in interesting and sometimes unusual facts about wine. So if you want to join in please feel free, but I apologise now for some of the more obscure conversations you may encounter.

For those of you more local to us you will soon be hearing about us on the radio as we start an add campaign tomorrow so listen out for us on Palm FM 105.5. Just recently Sharon did a live spot on the radio promoting the aforementioned charity tasting and discussed wines with the presenter. I have to say she did very well and has perhaps missed her vocation in life, she has agreat voice for radio, whereas I have a great face for radio.......

Well that's about it for now. Thank you for taking the time to read this rambling blogg and please feel free to comment.

 

Bright and early Wednesday morning I jumped on a train and headed off on the 4 hour journey up to the Excel in London for the annual London Internation Wine Fair to get my yearly injection of whats new in the world of wine and meet with producers and importers from all over the world.

The event is impressive to say the least. With around 1,200 stands it is the Uk's biggest wine event under one roof that gives producers, importers and suppliers the chance to showcase their latest wines.

This year my mission was to source new wines direct from producers in France with a view of importing direct rather going through third parties and to find unique and interesting wines. I have to say that I was very impressed with the choice and variety and despite the current doom and gloom of the economy there were plenty of good wines out there to choose from.

I also took time out to look for more unusual wines from less well know countries such as India, Croatia, Hungary and Greece and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of their wines. The Croatian wines in particular were very enjoyable and I hope to begin stocking some in the near future. I was also quite impressed with the standard of wines from India and again hope to stock some soon.

A number of small producers from France caught my eye and we are now in discussions with them and will hopefully have some new wines on sale in the very near future for you to try.

Overall the trip to London proved very useful and I was pleased with the results.

And to cap it all, at the end of the day just as I was leaving to head home I bumped into Oz Clarke again, this time at an Argentinian stand. My last chance meeting with him was at Claridges earlier this year whilst sampling Chilean wines. As ever he was very courteous and always a pleasure to talk to.

I very much look forward to next years event.

Following a very successful Spanish wine tasting at the beginning of Aril 2009 in the shop with special guests David and Holly from Manna with Devon who cooked 10 fantastic tappas dishes to accompany each of the wines on the evening, I decided to book myself on one of their cooking courses. Obviously it had to be the Tappas course because I wanted a chance to learn how to cook the delicious food they cooked at the tasting.

David and Holly run 'Manna from Devon' from their lovely home in Kingswear in Devon. They offer courses of all kinds to suit everyone and you can find out more by logging on to their web site at www.mannafromdevon.com

I had a great day learning to cook Spanish Tappas and whilst I may not be the next Gordon Ramsy or Marco Pierre White I certainly took a whole whost a little tips away to apply to my limited cooking skill at home.

I am pleased to announce that David and Holly will be joining us again at our November wine tasting to delight us with more of their fantastic food and I am very much looking forward to that.

 

 

 

At the end of the day after eating our way through 12 courses of lovelly Spanish Tappas cooked under the watchfull eye of David and Holly.

In the quiet little tranquil village of Stoke Gabriel nestled in the rolling hills along the river Dart in south Devon, anticipation and excitment was building in the children gathered in the playing field of the village scout hall. There were rhumors abound that they were about to be paid a visit by non other than the Easter bunny bearing gifts of chocolate easter eggs.

OK, enough of the poetic license. On easter Good Friday Red Field Wines sponsored Stoke Gabriels Easter Fair by donating money and running a bar at the event which was being organised to raise money for Stoke Gabriel pre-school. The weather was kind and there was plenty of activities for both children and parents to ensure everyone had a good time.

The highlight of the afternoons events was the eagerly anticipated arrival of the Easter Bunny who was going to be giving out easter eggs to all the children.

Sadly for me though, just five minutes before the Easter Bunny arrived I had to dash off on some important errand and by the time I had returned the Easter Bunny had done his stuff and had gone. I missed him???!!!!

The true identity of the Easter Bunny still remains a complete mystery to this day........

March 05th 2009 saw Red Field Wines second monthly wine tasting and the focus was on wines from the Rhone region of France.

The evening was a complete sell-out with 27 people in attendance there to try a selection of 10 different wines from the Rhone. The evening was enjoyed so much so that almost everyone booked tickets for next months tasting.

The line-up of wines were as follows : -

Domaine de la Becassone Blanc, Cotes du Rhone

Vignes d'Alexandre Blanc, Vin de Pays Mediterranee 2007

Domaine de Campuget, Viognier Cuvee Prestige

Darriaud Reserve, 'Les Hauts du Mont' Cotes du Ventoux 2006

Domaine Michelas St Jemms, Crozes Hermitage

Andre Brunel Rasteau 'Les Sambiches' Cotes du Rhone Villages

La Haut Marone, Gigondas

Domaine de Montmirail, Vacqueyras 2005

Berthet-Rayne Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Domaine de Coyeaux, Muscat de Beames de Venise

The first Thursday of April will have a Spanish theme with wines from all across Spain and accompanied with Spanish Tapas food prepared and presented by 'Manna from Devon' which is a local cookery school owned and run by Holly & David Jones in Kingswear. www.mannafromdevon.com  This promises to be an excellent evening and we are looking forward to working with Holly & David to ensure everyone has an great time.

There are only a few places left for the April tasting so if you are interested you need to book early. Tickets are £7.50.

Jingles restaurant is a lively themed restaurant located in the heart of Torquay serving fantastic Texmex food.

The atmosphere of Jingles hits you the moment you walk through the door and you know you are in for a good time. The friendly staff and unique decor complete the experience and that's before you have even ordered your food.

The menu at Jingles is mouthwatering and the servings are breathtaking. You can find dishes from all around the world from America to Asia and from Mexico to the Mediterranian. The Ostrich steak is out of this world - cooked to perfection, try it with the Chilean Merlot.

Jingles is the ideal venue for party bookings or for couples looking for a memorable evening. Whatever your requirements you can be sure of good plentiful food and Adrian and his team will make sure you leave wanting to return for more.

www.jinglesrestaurant.com