I am amazing. Honestly – I truly rock. I am spreading the love of wine all around the world. Am I a predictable gift giver? A bit of an alcho? Nah – I am just incredibly thoughtful and really really nice…
To date, I have sent wine to Australia (twice), New York and Castlerea (IE).
Soon I will send an additional case of wine to San Diego for my sister’s family.
I have handed out 4x bottles of wine to various people in London.
In belated-honour of my Dad’s 70th birthday, I am going to put on a family wine tasting for my in-laws and my parents who are all celebrating Christmas with us in Seattle this year.
In other words, I am racking up the bottles and spreading the cheer! 34 bottles and counting…
My favorite wine gift mix:
6 bottles, 4 of your favorite sparkling wine (prosecco or cava work well both for pocket book and taste buds – ping me if you want some suggestions) and 2 of your favorite Pinot Noir (my fav is anything from Marlborough. You can buy it at a reasonable price compared to French and Oregonian and its almost guaranteed to be tasty). Try to get free shipping if possible – I shop around a bit before buying to see if there is a retailer offering it. Can save you bundles…so you can buy more wine!!
Retailers I used for my shopping adventures:
Castlerea: Karwig Wines Ltd, Cork based online wine delivery service. Great experience – free shipping for the holidays (though only a few euro otherwise), quick ordering system and it was delivered quickly without hassle or followup needed.
New York: Sherry-Lehmann wine and spirits. Expensive shipping (half case was $16!!) but an otherwise good experience. Given all the available vendors for buying wine online in New York, I was disappointed with the selection at most of them and all of them (that I could find) charged a LOT for shipping. Otherwise a hassle-free experience.
Australia: Vintage Cellars, OK service though took a bit of time and one of the wines I wanted wasn’t in stock (contrary to their website). I was offered two alternatives to my initial choice – both were from the same region and of the same quality however one was slightly less expensive and one slightly more. What puzzled me was that I was offered the alternative for the same price as my initial choice…now if one of the wines is CHEAPER than the one I initially wanted – why on earth would you offer it to me at the same price? Overstock of the more expensive wine? Or just a lack of understanding what they were doing/offering.
Australia: Petersons Champagne house (direct from site), ridiculous website and payment process using PayPal. Absolute crap! However, I emailed them after placing the order and got a response in 48 hours (meanwhile, money was taken out of my account and I was stood waiting to find out if I had a fight on my hands). The email they sent did apologize for their website (perhaps they already know it sucks but are locked into a contract with PayPal?) and promptly asked for my details to send the wine out. It was delivered in 24 hours which helped them redeem themselves…slightly.
More to come…
mumura 