Author Topic: Buying wine at a show  (Read 2830 times)

Melbourne12

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Buying wine at a show
« on: February 27, 2012, 18:57:59 »
Accompanied by my son and elder daughter, I went to the Shooting Show yesterday.  Great fun, and some wonderfully well-trained dogs to watch.

Anyway, we'd got to that point of the day when we were going back round the show, buying things that we'd spotted (some good bargains in clothing and boots), and browsing the various stalls.  My daughter spotted a company selling wine, and went to have a look.  Before long we were being offered samples of wine by a very fluent salesman.

The pitch was that they bought really nice wines from small winemakers around the world.  People too small to supply the supermarkets, but able to provide great value.  Sold by the case only, natch.

What sort of wine did we like?  The choice was bewildering (danger signal number one).  I mentioned the Loire, and began to egg the guy on by saying that we often took the Land Rover over to France to buy wine direct from the producer.

He had Muscadet, Pouilly Fume, and Sancerre.  We tried the Sancerre.  It was OK, but not brilliant.  I thought to myself, probably E4 a bottle in Super U or Carrefour.  What was this joker going to quote me, I wondered.  I braced myself for something approaching a tenner, maybe even £12 if he was being cheeky.

"How much?"

"£18 .... plus VAT"

My daughter said afterwards that she thought I'd lost the plot, because I responded by praising it really rather highly.  She and my son were more reticent.  The salesman thought that perhaps they'd prefer a more straightforward New Zealand sauvignon.  "Not Cloudy Bay, but near there."

To say that the NZ sauvignon was ordinary was to praise it too highly.  £6 a bottle in any supermarket.  Their price?  £16 per bottle plus VAT (and remember, this is sold only by the case, not single bottles).

Finally we tasted some Chilean sauvignon.  My son summed it up best as we left the show.  "You'd have been embarrassed to take that to a student party!"  How much?  A snip at only £14 plus VAT.  I'd not have bought it at 3 for a tenner at Asda.

I suppose there's one born every minute, but this was really rather naughty.

BarriedaleNick

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Re: Buying wine at a show
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2012, 19:27:03 »
Well there is one born every minute!
Moved to Portugal - ain't going back!

Kleftiwallah

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Re: Buying wine at a show
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2012, 17:06:39 »

Now that is the kind of bloke Professor Brian Cox reminds me of!   ::)   Cheers,     Tony.
" I may be growing old, but I refuse to grow up !"

Ellen K

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Re: Buying wine at a show
« Reply #3 on: February 29, 2012, 07:43:57 »
When I was a young girl living in lodgings, I met this guy who kept bees - which was more unusual back then - and he depended on the revenue from the sale of the honey to keep his own house going.  He used to buy the cheapest honey from the supermarket and soak the labels off to resell as his own, to supplement his income.

At the time I was shocked but now I think it must go on quite a lot.  If it tastes like "3 for £12" wine, then maybe it was.

goodlife

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Re: Buying wine at a show
« Reply #4 on: February 29, 2012, 08:03:44 »
You'll be surprised how common beekeeping has become, but beekeeper are having to keep low profile about it. Not so much anymore because of public being afraid bees, but hives being stolen or vandaliced.
As for selling shop honey as own produced...well..I'm sure it does happen, but I'd be surprised if it is very common. Last couple who got court doing so got heavily fined doing so. It was in news few years ago. There is lot of bureaucracy now with beekeeping and rules and regulations in place for those who sell their honey..it doesn't prevent beekeepers defrauding public but does make it more difficult as random test are possible at anytime for those who sell.

Paulines7

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Re: Buying wine at a show
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2012, 12:00:53 »
You'll be surprised how common beekeeping has become, but beekeeper are having to keep low profile about it. Not so much anymore because of public being afraid bees, but hives being stolen or vandaliced.
As for selling shop honey as own produced...well..I'm sure it does happen, but I'd be surprised if it is very common. Last couple who got court doing so got heavily fined doing so. It was in news few years ago. There is lot of bureaucracy now with beekeeping and rules and regulations in place for those who sell their honey..it doesn't prevent beekeepers defrauding public but does make it more difficult as random test are possible at anytime for those who sell.

This reminded me of a lady who lived near us in the New Forest before we moved to our present location in 1998.  She had a stall outside her bungalow displaying what we all assumed to be home made jams and marmalade.  They were quite expensive too but popular with the tourists.  One day, when in Asda, I saw her in the queue with loads of tins of ready prepared marmalade to make at home and not a fresh orange or lemon in sight!  She made money out it though and did it for the 14 years that we lived there and still had her stall there when we passed by a couple of years ago.

 

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