Wine World Cup: The SEMI FINALS are here!

Last week's Group 2 tasting was very exciting, with a closely fought battle between Australia and USA for 2nd place ending in a victory for the Americans, who join winners Italy in the Semi Finals.

Tomorrow (that's Friday 24th June) will bring the first of the Semi Finals, between last week's winners ITALY, managed by Liam and SPAIN (under Chris' guidance), runners up from Group 1.


In the Semi Finals, each country will be represented by 4 wines - 2 whites and 2 reds, chosen by the managers who will give a quick presentation about them at 5pm before you taste and score them.  REMEMBER, we just want to know which wines you like, so you don't need to be an expert.

The tasting is between 5 and 7pm on Friday 25th June but you can join in by tasting the wines on Saturday or all of next week too.

It's hotting up, so time you got involoved!

The Results are in: Wine World Cup Group 1

A shock early exit for France last week as Argentina (1st) and Spain (2nd) progress to the semi finals.

Andy is delighted with his team's win, whilst Liam is licking his wounds and planning a comeback with Italy this week.  Joint top wines of the night were Finca Los Prados Chenin/Semillon and Quinta el Refugio Toro.

Take part in the Group 2 Tasting on Friday 18th by coming along to the store between 5 and 7pm and tasting for free!  Tomorrow's teams are:  Italy
                                                  Germany
                                                  USA
                                                  Australia

It's really easy to join in.  Just come along, taste the 8 wines on show and give us your marks out of 10 for each (you don't have to be an expert, we just want to know what you like).

There's a short presentation by the teams' managers at 5pm (each Red+White staff member is managing a team and we're getting very competitive about it so sparks may fly) but you can taste any time until we close at 7 or on any day throughout the following week.

See you there!

Meet the Winemaker Tasting: Domaine Begude

Following his aborted attempt to get over in May, I'm delighted to announce that James Kinglake from Domaine Begude will be joining us (ash clouds permitting) for an IN-STORE Tasting on Thursday 1st July

TASTING:  Meet the Winemaker, Domaine Begude
Date:  Thursday 1st July
Time:  7pm
Veue:  The WIne Store, 99 Fore St, Kingsbridge
Tickets:  £5 per person, available on 01548 853 898

Owned by an English couple from the South Hams who are living the dream in the south of France, Begude make some of the best Limoux wines going. Not only are their wines favourites at Red+White but they get great press write-ups too, most recently in Decanter Magazine. Hardly surprising really when they make one of the best French Chardonnays outside Burgundy!

Give me a call or email me chris@red-white.co.uk and get your place booked soon.

Wine World Cup Starts Tomorrow

I know it's a cliche to use the World Cup as a theme for store events, but frankly I just couldn't resist!
All throughout June we'll be holding mini-tastings on Friday evening that will double up as fixtures in the Red+White Wine World Cup.

8 top winemaking countries will be competing for the top prize, managed by members of the Red+White team (we're getting quite competitive about this and there's already a whiff of skullduggery in the air), and judged by you, the discerning public!

Here's how it works:
There are three rounds :Round 1, Semi Finals and Final.  In round one, four countries will compete per tasting, represented by 2 wines each.  You come in, taste them and score them out of 10 (you don't need to be an expert, just tell us which you like).  The two countries with the highest aggregate scores go through to the Semi Final.  In the Semis, countries will be paired off and will compete directly against each other, represented by four wines, and the winner will go through to the Final, which is a fully tutored tasting on the 15th July.

Matches take place on Fridays throughout June between 5 and 7pm and the wines can be tasted and scored throughout the following week.

Oh, and the bad news is that England went out in the qualifying round (great whites up front but the defensive reds failed them).

See you at the match.