Tonight's Croatian wine, thanks to @mountainvalleyw

Croatia is firmly on my radar screen right now. I was bowled over by wines I tasted on the Pacta Connect table at a tasting a few months ago, and wrote about the Croatian wine love affair, and in part thanks to that, I will also be setting out on a trip to Istria (with a truly AWESOME group of wine communicators) in a few weeks. You'll definitely hear more about that soon.

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However, this bottle was sent to me by a friend who I met when he was importing wines from Montenegro. Mountain Valley Wines (@mountainvalleyw) have now expanded well beyond Montenegro to Spain, France, USA, Slovenia and Croatia. They're even opening a restaurant in London dedicated to basque cuisine - so look out for Donostia.

Tonight I tried a bottle of Peljesac Plavac Mali 2010 - a grape somewhat related, but rather different to, Zinfandel

This wine initially smelled a bit closed, a bit dusty, but by the end (of the bottle) was smelling more like a bright, red-currant sauce. The wine itself is nicely balanced - it isn't too heavy but it isn't a pushover. It has warm, dark fruit flavour which is matched by good acidity and a fair amount of grippy tannins that whisper: "hey man, I'm a food wine, give me something to chew on and I'll surprise you even more!". It is a fun, but still serious wine, a little fresh and young that could still be interesting in a few years time. I like it indeed.

I thought I'd try it with some Cecina (Spanish dry cured beef) as a starter and a pasta with a tomato, olive and tuna sauce. The dark, umami flavours of both dishes matched the darker fruit and tannins of the wine very well and I suspect this is a wine that would be quite flexible.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that this wine is just under £10 from Mountain Valley Wines, and from what I've seen of prices for wines from Croatia (at least those that get exported), that's a pretty good price.

A surprising Sunday afternoon Hungarian fruit experience #wine

This is a rather unusual wine - unusual because of its provenance, the grapes it is made from, and the style of the wine itself.

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First, the country. This wine is from Hungary. This shouldn't be a surprising source for regular wines, and many of you will know that Hungary makes some of the world's most unusual and amazing sweet wine - Tokaj. We just don't think about it as much for still wines.

Then there's the grape - Cserszegi Fuszeres, apparently a unique crossing of Irsai Oliver (another grape I'd never heard of) and Gewurtzraminer (a friend, but your everyday wine either).

Finally, the effect. The taste reminds me of a fruity combination of pineapple and grapefruit and a lighter rose water hint that reminds me personally of Edinburgh Rock (the flavoured sugar candy). It's crisp, fruity and refreshing and works well for a slightly unusual aperitif.

This wine was part of a mixed case from The Wine Society called "Off the Beaten Track" which I recommend to wine lovers looking to try something new and challenging (all but one I have tried so far have been lovely - the other bottle just a bit disappointing)**.

This particular wine, the Hilltop Estates Cserszegi Fuszeres 2011 is a pretty amazing £5.25 a bottle at the moment.

 

** sadly it seems the mixed case has sold out, but there may be more similar ones soon. You can still buy this wine and others individually

Its a Lot to ask for - Lot18 Launches in UK

Last night a select group of individuals that combine an interest in wine with the habit of spending a lot of time talking about it on social media, gathered at Quo Vadis. The table groaned under the combined weight of the iPhones and miscellaneous mobile internet paraphernalia of David Lowe (@bigpinots), Natasha Hughes (@londonvino), Simon Burnton (@cellarfella), Tara Devon O'Leary (@tara_devon), Matt Walls (@mattwallswine), Denise Medrano (@thewinesleuth), Lucy Shaw for The Drinks Business, and yours truly (@thirstforwine)

Our hosts were the combined talents of Tom Harrow (@WineChapUK) and the UK Lot18 team - a formidable line up that included co-founder and entrepreneur Philip James over from the US. The reason for the gathering was the launch in the UK of the highly successful US Lot18 business.

Click here to visit the Lot18 UK site (note: this link has my affiliate code embedded, as I'm keen to test this and know if these things actually work)

Lot18's business model falls under the "Flash Sale" category, but this is maybe a bit unfairly simplistic way of thinking about them. Flash Sales sites focus on selling 'lots' of highly discounted products for limited periods. The combination of attractive products, limited time offers and headline grabbing discounts are enough to get shoppers' "SALE" muscles twitching and therefore the model has been very successful in the US not only for wine, but fashion, design, and more.

In the US, the big players along with Lot18 are The Wine Spies, Cinderella Wine, Wine.Woot, Wines Til Sold Out and a few others, but so far none have made it big in the UK, although Naked Wines' Marketplace 2 might claim otherwise.

In my view there is a distinction to be drawn between those sites that are like retailers and give the consumer information on the brand they are buying (such as Lot18 and The Wine Spies), and those that are like classified ads and focus only on the discount. Discounted prices generally harm a brand but are sometimes necessary, but if it can be done for positive reasons, such as an introduction to wine brands that you may not have tried before to encourage future purchase, then they can have benefits too.

Flash Sales sites are particularly good at finding new homes for small lots of more expensive wines that retailers or wineries would like to get rid of. You would have thought that this should work well in the UK, which is why Lot18 are spending some of the $45m raised in funding for their US based business on launching in the UK.

The question is ... what wines will they stock, and will we consumers take the bait?

I have observed some of the sites that have tried this in the UK in the last few years, and they tended to list wines that were not that special and were mainly older vintages of wines that move fairly quickly. There was little "collectability" in the wines.

Lot18 say that they are investing in creating an attractive list of wines that are not just unsold inventory from existing importers (though they will be cherry-picking this) but also wines that they import directly from wineries from around the world, especially that middle tier of California and Oregon wineries whose wines rarely reach the UK consumer. Their UK team of Buyers, including Gus Moore Danowski, were certainly keen to show off some of the wines they have already found.

We will have to see what wines they get their hands on, and what kinds of discounts they will be able to offer, but the arrival of Lot18 in the UK is exciting and might mean Naked Wines are no longer the only innovative wine retail model in town!

Last night we were lucky to try 3 of the wines that you will be able to buy (visit the site to see what is currently "featured"); the deliciously rounded and creamy 2009 "Blancaneaux" from Francis Ford-Coppola's Inglenook Rubicon Estate, a juicy, lighter style of Barolo, the 2004 Vigna Croera de la Morra from Bruno Giacosa, that is for drinking now, and a Riesling Kabinett that ended up being paired uncomfortably with an almond cake and poached pear so I can't say that much about.

I look forward to see how this develops and do let me know if you spot any special deals (after you've secured your own, naturally)

UPDATE (03 March 2012): Here are some of the posts that the others present that evening have also published:

Wine Passionista: Helpfully profiles the Lot18 team

The Drinks Business: Lucy obviously had a little more time to ask questions (the professional!)

 

Hot desk, Cool wines

Working from home sounds like such bliss ... until you've been doing it for 6 years, in which case you may start to adopt a hermit-like loathing of having to leave the cave (aka home office) or you might have gone more than slightly mad from the lack of interaction with other adults. Coping mechanisms vary, and mine has been to delve deep into the social interactive pool of twitter, facebook, etc ... which creates great conversations and lots of business opportunities.

 

However, what it doesn't offer is a lot of experiences, chance meetings and observations ... the kind of stuff that feeds a blog for example.

There will be a lot of discussion of remote working (such as this piece from The Next Web), particularly with the disruption caused by the Olympics in London, this year, but I'm seriously considering the opposite. 

I'd love to rediscover some level of "office time" but where to do this? After all, it is rather wasteful considering I already have an office.

I love the idea of TechHub which I visited recently to take part in a Social Media Week presentation organised by the lovely folks Great British Chefs (cool use of storify for the wrap-up), but I'm not a developer and I suspect that this is not my natural crowd (though I bet they like their wine too).

As I read another newsletter from a friendly wine retailer today announcing the new wines being added to their enomatic machine, it came to me.

I am looking for a wine shop that has some spare desk space, good internet connection and friendly banter that I can rent as a "hot desk" from time to time. 

 This could be a new business model ... retail shops with hot desks for relevant freelance communicators that need occasional offices, like a "members club with retail benefits".

Anyone out there got any invitations?


UPDATE 22/2/2012: Thank you to all those great folks who are responding privately and publicly on this idea. Something might even come of it soon.

It has come to my attention, however, that "hot desk" may be an unusual term, so if you don't know what I mean, see the definition here