The internet was barely out of nappies when the Glaswegian writer Tom Cannavan launched www.wine-pages.com – the UK’s first wine review website in 1995. To celebrate its 20th birthday the site, which includes essays, regional reports and a buzzing member’s forum, has been revamped.
In one early essay, Cannavan voiced his concerns about the dumbing down of wine on the High Street. “This glorious, unique, wonder of nature, capable of an astonishing diversity and profundity, has been reduced to an off-dry, inoffensive, crowd pleaser,” he wrote in 1999. Strong words, but how does he feel now?
“There’s absolutely no doubt that in supermarkets the wine ranges are starting to shrink again,” he told me. “I was at a recent Aldi tasting, and the wines were all OK but only in that narrow band of being unexciting but fairly good examples of their type.”
In other words nothing to inspire a real love of wine, though at least Aldi doesn’t indulge in those spurious, half-price deals beloved of most supermarkets – a practice Cannavan deplores as “cynical and dull.”
But on the other hand “it’s a golden age for small retailers,” he reckons. “And the internet has made it a lot easier. Now you can buy stuff from all over the world be it Macedonian, ‘natural’ wines, or wines from tiny, family-owned wineries.” It was not until 2007, that Glasgow got its first proper independent wine merchant in Inverarity 121 on Bath Street. Since then there have been others including Valhalla’s Goat on the Great Western Road.
For Cannavan these are the sort of places where you can still pick up the wine bug from a random bottle, in a way that’s unlikely if you stick to your local supermarket and only ever buy Chilean merlot. Sadly, you almost always have to spend more than a fiver.
At that price the taxman plunders £2.89, two thirds more than a decade ago. Once you have stripped out the retail margin and the cost of the label, bottle, stopper and transport, you might be getting a mere 30p worth of actual wine. The amount starts to rise significantly if you can stretch up to that sweet spot between £7-12, because so many of the costs are fixed.
Tom Cannavan will be performing at the Wine Gang Winter Wine Festival in Edinburgh on Saturday November 28 (www.bit.ly/auldreekie)
Saint Chinian Terrasses de Mayline £7.99 Majestic (12.5%)
Spicy southern French blend of grenache, syrah, carignan and mouvedre with a smoky, herbal edge.
Gorrebus Rioja Crianza £10.99 Raeburn Fine Wines (14%)
A lovely vibrant modern style of Rioja with a juicy, redcurrant core and supple tannins.
The Flower and the Bee £12 Wood Winters (13%)
From the northwest tip of Spain, comes this soulful, apple-scented wine with a sour lemon yet creamy-textured flavour.
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