John O’Keeffe, previously Office Manager has been released to travel along the roads of Wiltshire, Dorset and East Somerset. He is also in the possession of a new Blackberry and in the hope that he has read the instructions can now be contacted for anyone wishing to see him in those areas. We are sure that if you run a pub or a restaurant in these counties he’ll be popping in to see you fairly shortly – so if a tall man with a black beard arrives on your doorstep please don’t run away in terror…he’s very nice and friendly !

With the (sob sob…) retirement of Ed Hitchcock on 26th April and the departure of John onto the road, it leaves me to introduce Pip Gascoigne-Pees to our Web customers. She has arrived calmly and with smooth efficiency is gaining ground in the front office. She will be the first port of call for most of our customers – on the phone and in the shop. Her wine knowledge is second to none and any questions or queries please do not hesitate to ring and chat with her.

Photos of both hopefully arriving shortly..

The dilemma – rushing out of the door to a Christmas drinks party do you grab a) a bottle of bubbly b) a bottle of good red or c) a bottle of wine that you normally would add to gravy ? Is it the question of whether it will get subtly added to a wine rack where it will stay until the friends in question are on their own and want to enjoy it rather than share, or whether it will get added to the masses of bottles, get opened, warm up and then thrown away at the end of the night ? Does it matter and should we just not think about it, the ‘giving‘ aspect being the most important. It’s hard to say when you’ve got a warm glass of something white in your hand, that you know has been open for hours and that your good bottle has now been hidden away for later.

The answer methinks is to buy a case of wine – 12 bottles. Not expensive, good enough quality, but not so that you’re going to cry about it if you don’t see it again. For this I can recommend our Range Valley Merlot/Cabernet at £5.09 a bottle it’s not going to break the bank and if you do actually get to drink it yourself, hopefully with your host/hostess, it will be very well received !

With over 100 keen and eager tasters at last night’s event we were once again amazed at how quickly the time went. This years tasting was held at The Royal Clarence Hotel on Cathedral Green in Exeter. Our room was beautifully decorated with the most enormous Christmas tree and someone had obviously been polishing the chandelier as it sparkled all evening over the busy crowd.

Nine tables, 85 wines, beers and spirits all to taste and be poured by the CPW team. For us it was good to meet some of the people that are regular customers but who we normally deal with only on the end of the telephone. Feedback also suggested that a central venue such as the Clarence meant public transport could be taken rather than risk the wrath of drink/driving regs.

One of the highlights for me - Pouilly Fuissé from Domaine Mathias was tasting brilliantly and more than a few people came back to it at the end of the tasting confirming it as their favourite of the night. Also at the end of the evening, when we had packed up the last remaining bottles a small glass of our new Estrella Damm Inedit beer went down a treat. Looking forward to the 2012 tasting already (I think)….). Well done to the CPW team and our huge thanks to the Clarence team for their much appreciated help. Good to meet Caroline from Families for Children and thanks to our sponsor Kirk Hills.