A few weeks ago Hubby and I decided to place a Laithwaites order. Although we are not drinking as much just now, we both decided that during lockdown we needed a treat.
Laithwaites have some very good wine monthly plans but we like buying wine from various suppliers so rather than sign up to a plan we decided to place a one off order. It was really enjoyable browsing through Laithwaites extensive range.
We decided to make up a box of 12 wines but as an extra treat and a little bit of excitement we also ordered one of Laithwaites Mystery Cases.
I have to admit when receiving a Laithwaites delivery in the past I have not paid much attention to the actual packaging but looking closer the Laithwaites boxes are a work of art in their own right.
Each box has a road going round with a delivery van making it's way past well known landmarks and wine bottles. The bottles are labelled with popular grapes; Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Malbec to name but three.
The well-known landmarks include the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum, Tower Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, a windmill and Big Ben. As well as the landmarks the images include, sun, rain, snow, an aeroplane, even a hot air balloon.
It's very clever artwork depicting wine from around the world and indicating wine can be enjoyed any weather, any time and anywhere. I thought they were great fun and was surprised I hadn't looked closer before.
Our 12 bottles were mainly reds with just two whites because at the moment I'm not drinking much and Hubby prefers red wine. The other reason is, on inspection of our wine cellar, we still have quite a few white wines from our various holidays but as winter is now passed the red wine selection is looking a little depleted!
Our red wines wine selection:
The Waxed Bat Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec 2019 from Mendoza, this is one of our favourite red wines from Laithwaites.
Hubby enjoys Spanish wines and one of his choices was Copa Real Tempranillo 2018; he also bought two bottles of Camino de Seda from Vendimia 2019
Le XV du President 2018 has a very simple yet striking label and was the reason for our purchase, it's a French wine but one we haven't had before.
Yarrunga Field wine from Australia is one of my favourite. I really enjoyed their white and so we decided to add a bottle of their 2018 Shiraz from New South Wales
One wine that eludes both Hubby and I is Bordeaux. We have tried many bottles, both on holiday and at home, but have yet to find a bottle that makes us smile. Fingers crossed we added a bottle of Chateau Bel-Air Le Perriere 2018, could this be the one.
Having had a super enjoyable family holiday in 2018 in Portugal we decided on a bottle of Aluado 2018 made from Alicante Bouschet, one of our favourite Portuguese grapes.
Recommended for BBQs we added a bottle of Grillhouse Western Cape 2019 Shiraz Pinotage from South Africa. We both enjoy South African wine especially Pinotage.
Final bottle of red was a tribute to my Dad, he enjoyed purchasing wines from the Sunday Times Wine Club which is the sister company of Laithwaites. His favourite wine was Il Papavero Vino Rosso - cheers Dad
The two whites we chose were ones that we haven't had before, the first being Chain of Stones 2018 Chardonnay from Moldova. Quite a distinctive label with the words written on pebbles, I'm looking forward to try this one.
The other white wine was the Gaillac Perle Tres Cantou. I have had this in France but I've never brought one back home. I'm saving this for a lovely sunny summer's day when life feels better than it does just now.
As well as our chosen dozen we also bought a Mystery Case of 12 wines. Averaging out the prices of all 24 bottles, including our addition discount on the Mystery Case as we'd already purchased 12, the price per bottle was around £6.50 which we feel is a great buy!
We opened the Mystery Case with great excitement not knowing what we would find. It's a great way of trying wines we probably wouldn't choose ourselves and looking at our selection I'm keen to try all of these.
The Mystery Case included 6 reds and 6 whites, the red wines were:
Mr Anderson Far and Wide 2018 Merlot from South Australia
Prestige du Capitole 2018 a Cabinet Sauvignon from the Southwest of France
Venta Vieja Malbec 2018 from Spain
End of the Line 2018 Malbec from Mendoza in Argentina
Chante-Clare from France, with its distinctive French cockerel label, is a wine we have had this wine before.
Cerro Nevada is a Cabernet Merlot wine from Chile.
The 6 white wines were quite a variety, some new some we didn't
Albastrele Chardonnay 2017 wine from Moldova.
A second bottle of Albastrele, this time Sauvignon Blanc.
Cerro Nevada from Chile 2018 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc
I was very pleased to discover a bottle of Il Papavero Vino Bianco, another of Dad's favourite.
Cite de Carcassonne does not produce much wine so I was delighted to find a bottle of Chasan 2018, La Revelation.
And finally a South African Sauvignon Blanc 2019 labelled Halfway
During this time of lockdown it was great fun to both choose some wine and receive mystery bottles, delivered to the door meaning I was still shielded.
Over the next few months we will be opening our Laithwaites purchases, enjoying old favourites and discovering new - cheers Laithwaites!
A good selection of wines, Clare. The Gaillac Perle is our 'local'ist' wine and is readily available in our supermarket.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried this bordeaux wine, http://latourdechollet.com/ . This winery, run by an English couple, has a slightly different Bordeaux as they use a different % blend of grapes compared to a 'traditional' Brodeaux. (I don't remember the %). We shared a bottle with our neighbours and one of them immediately noticed the difference and could tell us what it was! I was impressed. My knowledge of wine belongs to the 'I like it or I don't' category :)
Thanks Mary, I'll go looking 🍷 it was when staying in the Languedoc we had the Gaillac, many years ago.
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