Is it worth Two in the Bush?

Or is better to have a Nest Egg?

What does this mean to most people ……. Well probably very little to do with wine you would think.

Not so “me ould possums” ….. there is a fantastic winery called Bird in Hand, in the Adelaide Hills. They have 3 ranges of wines, the entry level being “Two in the Bush” with 4 wines, then moving up to “Bird in Hand” with 9 wines, and finally to the “Nest Egg” range, which can have up to 4 wines, but only if the grapes reach up to the very highest standards.

Don’t take my modest word for it, I hope James Halliday’s word carries more weight. James Halliday 2011 Wine Companion has given the Bird in Hand winery the “Red 5 Star Award”, 5 Star being the top rating, Red meaning this top quality rating has been maintained for a number of years. Not bad since the family only started in 1997.

In fact the 2011 James Halliday Wine Companion gave 12 wines 90+ points, not too shabby, for wines priced mostly under £15, with the Nest Eggs going up to under £40.

And you guessed it, the Artt of Wine stock these wines. Even the very scarce 2008 Nest Egg Chardonnay…… more to follow on that one!!!

Unfortunately the Bird in Hand Shiraz is sold out at the moment, due to its huge haul of awards. As an indication of the quality of this winery, I’ve included their recent awards below ……………..

TOP ACCOLADE OF RED 5 STAR WINERY RATING

10 WINES RATED 90 POINTS AND ABOVE

James Halliday 2012 Wine Companion

2009 VINTAGE

Two in the BushShiraz

WORLDS BEST VALUESHIRAZ

Decanter World Wine Awards

Bird in HandShiraz

Trophy Best Australian Red Wine International Wine Challenge 2011

Trophy Best Australian ShirazInternational Wine Challenge 2011
Trophy Best Adelaide Hills Red Wine International Wine Challenge 2011

Trophy BestShirazInternational Cool Climate Wine Show 2011

Gold Medal Decanter World Wine Awards 2011

Gold Medal International Wine Challenge 2011

TROPHY WINNER – Two in the BushShiraz

Decanter World Wine Awards 2011

GOLD MEDAL – Nest Egg Cabernet Sauvignon

International Wine Challenge 2011

GOLD MEDAL WINNER – BIRD IN HAND HONEYSUCKLE RIESLING

RoyalQueenslandWine Show

GOLD MEDAL WINNER – BIRD IN HAND CHARDONNAY

National Cool Climate Wine Show

NEST EGG CHARDONNAY – 95 POINTS

BIRD in HAND SAUVIGNON BLANC- 95 POINTS

BIRD in HAND HONEYSUCKLE RIESLING – 95 POINTS

BIRD in HAND PINOT ROSE – 94 POINTS

BIRD in HAND CHARDONNAY – 93 POINTS

BIRD in HAND SPARKLING PINOT – 92 POINTS

BIRD in HAND CLARE VALLEY RIESLING – 92 POINTS

James Halliday

TOP IN CATEGORY

NEST EGG CABERNET SAUVIGNON

BIRD in HAND CABERNET SAUVIGNON

Winestate Magazine

5 STARS – BIRD in HAND MERLOT

5 STARS – BIRD in HAND CHARDONNAY

Winestate Magazine

2008 VINTAGE

5 STARS – NEST EGG CHARDONNAY

Decanter Magazine -UK

NEST EGGSHIRAZ- 96 POINTS

NEST EGG CHARDONNAY – 95 POINTS

BIRD in HANDSHIRAZ- 93 POINTS

BIRD in HAND CABERNET SAUVIGNON – 92 POINTS

TWO in the BUSHSHIRAZ- 90 POINTS

James Halliday

TOP IN CATEGORY

NEST EGG CHARDONNAY, BIRD in HAND PINOT ROSE,

TWO in the BUSH SEMILLON SAUVIGNON BLANC

Winestate Magazine

2007 VINTAGE

NEST EGGSHIRAZ- 94 POINTS

BIRD in HAND TEMPRANILLO – 90 POINTS

TWO in the BUSH MERLOT CABERNET – 93 POINTS

James Halliday

TOP IN CATEGORY

NEST EGGSHIRAZ, BIRD in HAND CABERNET SAUVIGNON,

BIRD in HAND MERLOT

Winestate Magazine

2006 VINTAGE

CABERNET – BEST OF THE BEST – 95 POINTS

SHIRAZ & MERLOT – 94 POINTS

9 WINES RATED 90 POINTS AND ABOVE

James Halliday

TROPHY – BEST MERLOT

RoyalHobartInternational Wine Show 2007

2005 VINTAGE

WINE OF THE YEAR

SHIRAZOF THE YEAR

WORLD’S GREATESTSHIRAZ$30 – $40

MERLOT OF THE YEAR

Winestate Magazine

The Old World Torres knowledge has been used in the New World in Chile to great effect for some time now, with their main brand of Santa Digna. But the Old World just brought out something new from the New World. Try saying that quickly!

Its Torres Hemisferio Cabernet Sauvignon and Torres Hemisferio Sauvignon Blanc and the wines are really really well worth the normal full price tag of £ 8-49. Don’t choke on your wallet though ……. Read on!!!

The initial release stock is available at £ 5-99, and I can’t imagine it ever being at that price again. I also can’t imagine you finding a better wine available at £ 5-99 anywhere, don’t even think that your supermarket “1/2 Price NOW £5-99” wine will come anywhere close to the quality of this wine.

If you want to read up on the tasting notes, or buy, just click on the wines above. I’ve included the full pre-amble that Torres give on the wine, including the fact that they love Penguins (who’ve adapted specially to their delicate environment), are saving the planet and aspire to world peace!!! They dedicate 2 paragraphs to this, and 1 paragraph to the tasting notes!!?? Actually they didn’t mention world peace ??? HAHA. I guess world peace has lost its place?

Some time ago Oz Clarke checked out Torres full range of wines. He was impressed long serving brands, such as Sangre De Toro, Vina Sol, Vina Esmerelda etc were still proving to be great wines and superb value.

I was very fortunate to spend a week with Torres on their annual “Torres Experience” course, I think it was the 19^th running. The family impressed me a lot, in that a huge company like Torres had a very good “family” feel about it, the staff were superb, knowledgeable  and all long serving But most important they had maintained their passion, enthusiasm, innovation and determination. The Torres family hosted the event extremely generously with their time and in all facets, and with at least one family member dining with us every night it was a truly brilliant experience. We had 3 long lectures on wine by Miguel Torres and his daughter who ran the technical wine making end of the business. We tried every single wine they produce, including the brandy and desert wines. They managed to convert me to enjoying brandy, you should try their brandy, pound for pound delivering great brandy, and winning very prestigious awards. (if you are interesting in getting their brandy contact me through the website and I’ll give you the information personally)

We’ve always been a great supporter and fan of Torres, stocking an impressive range of their wines…we’ve got ‘em all, well pretty much!

Visit our site or click on the one you want to find out about in the list below.

Sangre de Toro, Gran Sangre de Toro

Vina Sol, Gran Vina Sol

Coronas, Gran Coronas,

San Valentine White, San Valentine Red, De Casta Rosada

Vina Esmerelda, Atrium Merlot

Salmos Priorat, Salmos Priorat Perpetual

Ibericos Rioja, Celeste Ribero del Duero

Mas La Plana, Fransola Sauvignon Blanc,

Chilean Santa Digna Sauvignon Blanc, Santa Digna Chardonnay, Santa Digna Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Digna Merlot and Santa Digna Rose.

Hope to see you again soon.

TAO…

So how do I get the best wine for my money?

So what is the best wine? ……. There’s a loaded question  …….  Oz Clarke, Robert Parker, James Halliday etc. all make a living out of rating wine, and they are undoubted experts.

All these guys try to bring a system to their marking, and this is useful if you are buying wines commercially, or if you like to try new wines.

Here’s the big issue  -  how do you compare wines at different prices??

Some systems ignore price and just mark it on a scale, so you are looking at how high up the scale it goes allowing for the price. Many competitions assess the wines within price categories, so gold medal winning wines could be vastly different in price and quality, but very similar in value for money.

Like all things in life, we want to make sure we are getting good value for our money.

But  ……     and its an important but,

Wine (and in fact all alcohol, cigarettes and petrol) has an added complication to it. The duty that is put on wine in the UK is very much higher than the rest of Europe.

The duty on a bottle of wine is now (11/4/2011) £1-81 per bottle, regardless of the selling price.

So a £3.33 bottle (3 for £10) has

56p VAT , 55p retailer profit, 181p DUTY : Total 292p  Remaining 41p

So a £4 bottle has

67p VAT , 83p retailer profit, 181p DUTY : Total 331p  Remaining 69p

So a £5 bottle has

83p VAT , 104p retailer profit, 181p DUTY : Total 368p  Remaining 132p

So a £10 bottle has

167p vat, 208p retailer profit, 181p duty : Total 556p Remaining 444p

Its even worse than this for the cheaper wine, as the wine has to be picked, vinified, safely packaged in bottles, with labels, and then boxed, bulk transported to the country of the seller, go through at least one wholesaler, and eventually delivered to each retail outlet in relatively small quantities. The more expensive wine will be in a better bottle, with superior labels and boxes, but apart from that all the other costs are the same no matter what price the bottle is.

I’m guessing, the cheap 3 for 10 wine is made by someone who gets about 10-20p for what goes into the bottle ……..

Whereas the £10 wine is made by someone who gets about 300p for his wine.

How many times better is the £10 wine ?? Well if I was a wine grower I’d be breaking my back to go from 20p to 300p per bottle.

There are some other points of interest that come up when you look at this

1. When you buy a bottle of wine in Spain say, their duty is 10p, British duty is 171p more than that. If you allow the retailer to make 25% (that’s actually a very small gross profit margin for retail), then add VAT it comes to 270p, add a bit on for shipping and wholesellers costs, and you arrive at £3 per bottle.

If you are buying wine in Spain that you can buy back at home, it should be at least £3 per bottle cheaper in Spain. So its not your lowly wine retailer back at home that’s robbing you, its our favourite robber, the Tax Man

2. When you see that big offer “buy one get one free” or “Half Price” you’ve got to wonder why a winemaker will accept selling a £10 bottle for £5. On the face of it, it could be he wants to promote it, make sure it all sells before the next harvest or many other commercial reasons, which a reduction of 50% would seem possible.

But due to the nature of alcohol duty as shown above, and the other costs involved, apparently this wine maker is selling his wine at say 300p per bottle, and has just decided to sell it at 50-80p, and he does this regularly. Not likely !!! The half price wine is a myth …… you may be getting good value at the offer price ….. but the normal price would be a very disappointing buy at say £10

We promise to always offer our clients value for money whether from a specially reduced wine on offer, or a more expensive but special bottle for whatever the occasion.

Hope we see you again soon.

TAO…

So why is wine so dear in restaurants?

Part 2

Following on from my first “soap-box” bit about wine prices in restaurants, I hope to show you that not only is wine not as expensive an option when out as you think, but if you really like wine there’s even better news.

Suppose you were out for a night, nice meal and then out to listen to some music, and intended to have a few drinks, what do you drink? I’m being painfully politically correct, I did say “ a few”. For many people that may be “several”, 5 or 6, or even slightly more…..hic.

So what do you drink? Well you’d like to drink your favourite drink. If you are put off drinking wine in a restaurant because you think it’s too expensive/dear, maybe think again…

Lets look at the amount of alcohol you get for your money

Vodka  -  35ml at 37.5 ABV means 13.1 ml of pure alcohol (or if you live in England a 25ml shot is 9.4ml of pure alcohol)

Pint of beer  -  Typically 568ml at 4 ABV means 22.7 ml pure alcohol

Bt of Budweiser  -  330ml at 5 ABV means 16.5 ml pure alcohol

¼ bt or 187.5 ml wine somethng like one of our current favourite value for money wine offers, Torres Hemisferio Sauvignon Blanc  -  Typically 13 ABV means 24.4 ml pure alcohol

The cost per ml of pure alcohol is

Vodka  -            22.9 pence/ml (not including your coke, and working on NI measures)

Pint –                 15.0 pence/ml

Bt Budweiser  -  17.6 pence/ml

Bt of wine  -       14.3 pence/ml (NB many wines are 14 ABV or more, which means 13.3 p/ml)

I have based the prices of items as they are in Northern Ireland, assuming they are proportionally similar in the rest of the UK. Obviously prices vary widely in restaurants and bars, both by location and how exclusive the restaurant is.

I’m not saying you should drink wine because it’s a cheaper way to get drunk, but if you like wine, drink it in the restaurant or bar.

And because you like wine visit our online store, where you’ll find offers on the best wines, advice and tasting notes and our celebrated bespoke wine hamper service.

On that note, if you have any insights or stories that you want to share with our online community and your fellow readers, add your comments below.

Doesn’t have to be about wine, or even drink.

We’d just love to hear that you are enjoying our musings and expose’s.

TAO…

Part 1.Pricing

Why is wine so expensive in restaurants?

Our family business had a restaurant for 40 years, although my grandfather started with a pub back in 1950. The wines in the restaurant were mainly French, Spanish, German and Italian, the Old World wines, as opposed to the world wide range of wines available today.

But one complaint about wine remains unchanged throughout the years,

“Why is wine sooo expensive in a restaurant compared to the off license prices …?”

Lets take a quick look at some typical restaurant prices

Vodka  £ 3-00    so a vodka and coke will cost you £4-00 to £5-00 (depending on how much coke you like in your spirits)

Pint of Beer   £ 3-40

Bt of Budweiser   £ 2-90

¼ bt of wine  £ 3-50 or a bt of wine at 14-00

Lets look at the off license prices

Vodka -  there are 28.5 35ml measures in a litre (Northern Ireland measures are 35ml) so that means a restaurant is charging you £ 85-50 for a litre of vodka compared to about £ 18, nearly 5 times as much.

Pints  -  1 pint is 568ml, a can of beer say Carlsberg is typically 12 for 7-99 for 440 ml, this means a pint of Carlsberg poured from a can is 86p, this means the restaurant is nearly 4 times as much.

Bt of Budweiser  -  30cl Budweiser is typically 15 for  10-99, restaurants use a slightly bigger bt of 33cl, this means 33cl of Budweiser poured from off license stock is 80p, the restaurant is nearly 3.5 times as much.

Bt of wine  -  Typically you are paying £ 14 for a £ 5-50 wine when it is on offer, only  2.5 times as much.

I have based the prices of items as they are in Northern Ireland, assuming they are proportionally similar in the rest of the UK. Obviously prices vary widely in restaurants, both by location and how exclusive the restaurant is.

Next time you are out in a swanky restaurant, check out the price for a vodka and coke, it goes up just as much as the wine !!!!

I highlighted this information in my introduction to a wine tasting evening I was holding, and I got a very good question posed to me. “How can restaurants justify such remarkably high mark ups for drink?” Calculating fixed and variable overheads etc etc is very complicated, so I used a slightly simpler approach. “There are numerous restaurants and bars being closed or going bust all overBritain, so the profit margins cannot be excessive, but simply reflect the additional costs involved with the different level of service”.

I only give you this information because, if you are reading this, you’re interested in wine, and this is definitely useful information for all wine lovers.

Have a look at our website, it covers a fantastic range of wines, smaller wooden box ideas, beautiful jute gift bags and a variety of hamper sizes and prices.

It is what we have always tried to do in business

 …To be smart, be creative, be open, be fair and help your customer to find what they need.

AOH/W (DA)