Great Bordeaux Wine

The Bordeaux region of France has for centuries been associated with fine wines and gastronomy. I spent a very enjoyable week there not too long ago and sampled a good few. Even though the city of Bordeaux is a thriving modern metropolis, the area in general is very rural with much of its open countryside devoted to vines. The grape crops spiral out from a central point which is focused on producing Cognac (the city of Cognac is in this area) with all the remaining crop going for wine production when you spiral out. It is possible to drive around rural Bordeaux for hours on end and scarcely see another car - if you do it will appear suddenly, very close in your mirror forcing one to either accelerate or pull over at the first oportunity ! What you can see however is vines, vines and more vines. At times you are alongside them but as you climb out of a valley and get a view over the open country you get an impression of the sheer volume of grapes that are grown in this region. Orderly rows of vines stretch as far as a persons vision can see.

The week in June 2010 we spent in the region was uncharacteristically wet which has resulted in some potential issues for en primeur wine bottled at that time. Whereas the harvest was far from disastrous due to the weather’s inclemency yields were certainly less than is the norm.

Our hosts for that week were Ian and Linda MacDonald who, having done well in their own business in finance and architectural practice respectively, own a couple of gites near the town of Berbezieux.. Since the weather wasn't great we spent a bit of time in their excellent company and sampled a lot of the local wines. We discovered that when in Bordeaux you really shouldn’t pay more than 3 euros for a bottle of wine when it has Bordeaux on the label. Please remember these are generally wines we're paying 8GBP for in the UK.

In fact with so many vineyards nearby many locals buy direct from the producers and end up paying far less than that for some truly excellent wine (and cognac) Ian showed us his very impressive wine collection and introduced us to a few of local vinters whose products we sampled whilst there.

That’s France though and I daresay the circumstance for most of your major wine producing countries is identical. Within the british isles however the situation is completely different. With a lot of of your wine available here being imported we bear the brunt of transport and taxation costs. A wonderful way to spend less a bit is to buy wine online. This often involves buying in bulk to some extent - 6 - 12 bottles at a time but the unit price typically makes this definitely worth doing. Numerous top wine sellers and merchants now offer online deals and delivery and a wonderful spot to discover their whereabouts all under one roof so to speak is at http://www.wineday.co.uk An online wine megastore which gives you access to thousands of wines, wine gifts and accessories. Wineday Uk is an online wine megastore which offers you all the best wine and wine related gifts and accessories. With products on offer from the biggest names in wine retailing in the UK you will find everything you need under on virtual roof. Visitbuy wine onlineand find out how easy it is to buy wine online today.