Comments for winenous

Comment on Replacing a BT landline by VoIP by Roger Heathcote

Roger Heathcote — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:48:26 +0000

Thanks for your article, I found it very useful. Like you my requirement is for stability and reliability above cost and I can’t even begin to trust a phone company who don’t have a customer service number so I have just signed up with Voipfone. Their customer service so far has been nothing short of delightful and they are even able to keep my existing landline number – something which BT themselves wouldn’t let me do! In all fairness BT did offer to play my callers an answerphone message informing them of my new number – for £26 per month! Counting the hours til I’m rid of them forever!

Comment on How to love wine by OttoN

OttoN — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:08:14 +0000

“Wine is not simple for two reasons in my opinion. One is because there is a lot of nuance and opinion. The other is that there are so many facts to get your head around.”

Very good book, and very good review of it, too! I read through the book in a single session while on a longish train trip so I might not remember every detail. But I though that Asimov did emphasize that wine is not simple and that the only reason to become “geeky” about wine is if one loves it enough to care about its complexities. And not caring about them is perfectly ok, too. This reading is why I love Asimov so much. We all love wine in our own way.

Comment on More on tasting note subjectivity by Steve Slatcher

Steve Slatcher — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:59:09 +0000

Here is a review of the genetic bssis for some diferences in the perception of flavour:
http://www.flavourjournal.com/content/1/1/9

Comment on The Daily Drinker by Steve Slatcher

Steve Slatcher — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:54:30 +0000

All fair points, Victoria.

And thank you for the reinstatement of paper copies of the notes. In a way it is perhaps a silly conceit, but it does add value for me.

I suppose “unusualness” is not very well defined. I would still however maintain that the whites I have received have been generally more unusual than the reds, and thus more interesting to my geeky self. If you like, take it as a positive comment on your whites, rather than a negative one on the reds

Please note, everyone, that if I was not very impressed by The Daily Drinker, I would not be renewing my subscription. They are currently the only merchant I allow to send me a “blind” selection of wines on a regular basis. I normally very much like to control what I buy.

Comment on The Daily Drinker by Victoria Bowes

Victoria Bowes — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:31:15 +0000

Thank you for your blog post about The Daily Drinker. It is always good to get coverage and to read our members’ opinions. However, I feel duty bound to respond to a few of your comments.

1. Tasting notes
We switched to PDF tasting notes when we realised that, sadly, many of our members were not reading them so it was proving a waste of time and money. We do however appreciate that for those people for whom the tasting note is an invaluable part of The Daily Drinker, the PDF system can be tiresome, so we are only too happy to switch people back to paper tasting notes on request. I have amended your DD account so that you should receive paper tasting notes in the box in future.

2.New Subscription Levels
I agree, they are not as clear cut and straightforward as before but you have picked up the key point – it is cheaper to have your deliveries in six bottle cases every three months rather than two bottle cases every month. We introduced this new option to counter the rising costs of fuel, cardboard, corks, wine etc etc which inevitably were pushing up our membership prices. And we DO encourage people to contact us if it appears too confusing on the website.

3.Red wines
You single out Barbera and Montepulciano which you say you “do not find particularly interesting”, and Touriga Nacional which “is hardly radical”. My first response would be to point out that not all our members know as much about wine as you and for many people, a Touriga Nacional IS something a little bit different.

More importantly, you single out these three varieties from the past 12 months but what about Tsapournakos from Greece (never before imported into the UK until we did last year)?, Freisa Braghe from Italy?, Sankt Laurent from Austria? All three are, in our opinion, fantastic wines in themselves, brilliant examples of these varieties, and you have to admit, just a little bit different…

The aim of Daily Drinker selections if twofold: firstly, that DD members consuming a bottle will get a good idea of what that variety is all about; secondly, there must be some commercial consideration as we are after all a business and we hope to sell subsequent stocks of these wines once members have tasted them.

In any event, I hope you continue to enjoy your Daily Drinker experience and thanks again for your post.

Comment on Back on the booze by Steve Slatcher

Steve Slatcher — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:54:34 +0000

That’s fine. Not sure how my stars match onto yours, but it does not really matter.

For others that may be reading, though, it doesn’t mean it is open season for grabbing my content!

Comment on Back on the booze by Victoria Bowes

Victoria Bowes — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:26:10 +0000

Thanks for the write-up of two of our wines. I have taken the liberty of posting these reviews on our website. Have simply copy and pasted them, with winenous.co.uk as the display name. Hope that’s ok with you.

Comment on Replacing a BT landline by VoIP by Codiak

Codiak — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 20:46:16 +0000

Yes I did manage, it took a 2hr phone call to find the right person to advise me at BT. My number was residential and of the geographic sort so the number could be ported from my local exchange. I will dig out what BT said to me, I used the same info to advise Sipgate on their porting request form. If you want to just exchange direct over email its codiak50@yahoo-removeme-.com you can spot the part to remove, Don’t really want bots to start spamming me

Comment on Bertrand Ambroise Nuits Saint George by Steve Slatcher

Steve Slatcher — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:47:33 +0000

You are touching on a subject that interests me greatly, Eugene. Indeed, we use different words to describe the same experience. But different people also actually perceive smells differently. Here is my latest post on the subject.
http://www.winenous.co.uk/wp/archives/3895
The post is brief, but it refers indirectly to a lot of information if you want to follow it up.

Comment on Bertrand Ambroise Nuits Saint George by Eugene Hui

Eugene Hui — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:04:25 +0000

I think that words to describe smells are usually a very personal and simplified aide memoire to describe experiences in what is a different sense nodality (smell) and one which is not systematically (or culturally) shared in the process of growing up in Western societies.

I might sometimes describe cowpat as more like pleasant fresh compost (in the best Monty Don of Gardeners World sense) and others might perhaps refer to anything within this group of smells as “sous bois” — although different individuals probably have a different take on what “sous bois” means for them. Within the nodaliity of language and speech it has been possible to define abstract concepts such as fairness, altruism etc only because of intense discussion and exchange over years of formalised shared education — but not so for smell or taste, for which there is no systematic education. For practical reasons, I suspect Amazonian Indian tribes may well have more sytematic education within their social community for smells when growing up..

I think we are both agreed the Bertrand Ambroise NSG merits the accolade of having a complex smell and taste profile though the description is a conundrum! Regards EH.