The Friday 5 #70

Introducing Fine Wine Fridays, this week’s bargain buys, a cool cocktail bar and a #winnerwinnerchickendinner

As I mentioned the other day it’s peak wine tasting season which means I’m constantly coming across bottles I’m excited about.

Of course you’ll find many of them in the Guardian over the next couple of months but they need to fit into whatever the theme is that week and generally come from different retailers. 

What we mainly do as consumers though, don’t we, is go to a supermarket or wine shop to buy a wine we’ve read about and wonder what we should pick up at the same time? So what I’m trying to do in this newsletter is to meet that need by focussing on what’s best from a particular store.

So far I’ve been concentrating on bargains and I’ll continue to do that but it struck me that you might occasionally like to hear about more expensive bottles you could buy for a special occasion, either to treat yourself or give as a present. 

So I thought I’d post one every so often - as and when I find them - under the heading Fine Wine Friday. (Actually I don’t really like the term ‘fine wine’ which sounds a bit snobby but it is pleasingly alliterative.) 

This is, I’m afraid, another paid subscriber perk which you might feel a bit miffed at not getting for free but if you do sign up you’d be making a significant contribution towards my time, expertise and expenses. (I don’t think many people realise this but nobody pays for the time wine writers spend at tastings or what it costs to get to or stay in London overnight which is often necessary.)

And honestly it’s not that much. £4.50 a month which is just over £1 a week or even less if you take out an annual subscription.

I won’t pretend the #finewinefriday selection will be cheap but it will be gorgeous and if you’re into wine I suspect you’ll want to hear about it. So sign up if you want to be in the know.