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.