The kind folk at Pieroth wine sent over the wonderfully charming Keith, complete with twelve bottles of their finest wines, all vying for the discriminative affections of our meagre palettes.
We meandered through crisp, dry Sauvignon Blancs and slurped greedily at delightful Reislings; sipped creamy Merlots and lingered alongside spicy, rich Malbecs. All the while we were delightfully"edutained" by the knowledgeable and very affable Keith.
Wine tasting is a fabulous idea if you want to learn more, or simply want to get out of your wine-rut (I found we were strictly a Montepulciano/Marlborough Sauvingnon Blanc household before this evening). These evenings are priced at £99 which includes your tutored tasting of 12 wines for up to 8 people and a complimentary bottle of wine to boot.
Wine tasting is a fabulous idea if you want to learn more, or simply want to get out of your wine-rut (I found we were strictly a Montepulciano/Marlborough Sauvingnon Blanc household before this evening). These evenings are priced at £99 which includes your tutored tasting of 12 wines for up to 8 people and a complimentary bottle of wine to boot.
I attended one of these the other evening (Groupon have been offering them for £20).I must say, I'd have been disappointed had we paid full price for it. I was expecting to learn about wine, with the bonus of tasting and the opportunity to buy. Our 'tutor' was disappointing, he seemed very much to be pushing their wines 'no hangover, first press of the grape etc' and yet when questioned, couldn't tell us where Rioja is in Spain (it was one of the wines we were trying) and when asked about tanins had to refer to his instruction manual to be able to tell us what they are.
ReplyDeleteI was sceptical as to why they don't sell in shops (if they are as good as they say they are) and ultimately disappointed that you have to buy at least 12 and can't mix and match any more than batches of six of one type.
Overall, my reaction was meh and the best part of the evening was when the wine man had gone and we got drunk on our own 'plonk' as the man referred to it as and had a BBQ.
Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy yourself - Our guy was pretty knowledgeable and allowed us to mix three of each type (so long as we bought 12). Domestic Sluttery are working with Naked Wine - offering a £40 voucher if you sign up for the newsletter - maybe you'll find something more to your liking there?
ReplyDeleteHave you ever tried any other wine tasting? I'd love to hear if you'd had a positive experience!
Your guy sounds like he was better than ours then, and three of each type sounds much better. There were seven of us who all liked different things in wine, very hard to reach any sort of consensus! I've never tried any other sort of wine tasting though so maybe I just had higher hopes than I should have had!
ReplyDeleteI recently had a pieroth 'tutored wine tasting' evening. The only words that can descibe this are simply awfull. I have never felt so uncomfortable in my own home. The wine rep - Kevin - was insulting, rude and arrogant.
ReplyDeleteThe evening itself consisted of him constantly remarking on how terrible things were going, how we were not his usual clientelle, how he did not care if we purchased his wine because he clearly did not need us a customers. I think he may have been defensive as we were rejecting his ludicrous claims that you cannot get a hangover or indigestion from pieroth wines. There was no personal touch a purely robotic regurgitation of a 400 year old sales pitch. Had he actually bothered to try and build rapport with his 7 potential customers he may have realised that we weren't the bafoons he was making us out to be but in fact a group of young doctors. Sorry Pieroth, but I would rather have my added sugars and preservatives from the abhorrent supermarkets.
Dear oh dear.
ReplyDeletePieroth carry on the god work. Been enjoying your wines for twenty years. Have tried all the online companies and you are head and shoulders above them all. Ignore the young doctors who clearly know very little about wine !!
interesting reading, i am hoping to join the company soon.
ReplyDeleteOur rep pushed the no hangover and it lasting 2 weeks once opened. Who can make a bottle of wine last two weeks???? Disappointing sales pitch. Inexperienced rep. Must buy in cases of 12 was soon reduced to mixed cases of 6? Would have made a lot more sales if we were given the option of smaller lots. Overall a disappointing experience.
ReplyDeleteI saw this on groupon on Sunday after we had a similar tasting but with Shawbury Vintners which was an excellent evening, very knowledgeable and affable chap David. We could buy a totally mixed case of 12 different wines oh and no hangover!
ReplyDeleteJust had my Pieroth wine tasting on Friday which i bought on Groupon for £20 i thought it was brilliant, the guy we had was lovely and wasnt pushy - we did end up buying a case of 12 because the wine was so lovely but this was between the 3 couples and we could mix all 12 bottles which was great. Some beautiful wines, im looking forward to receiving them all!
ReplyDeleteUnpleaant experience at a Pieroth "tasting". Very sweet and expensive wines of the sort must people have gone well beyond in the UK over the last 30 years.
ReplyDeleteBeen a taster/ buyer for over a year now and I find it great that you can taste the wines and select what is to your palate some are too sweet for me but I get to buy what I like its not Russian roulette like the supermarket
DeleteAn enjoyable evening due to the good company under the influence of alcohol but..... I agree, wines (both red and white) were too sweet and at a minimum of £15 a bottle.. too expensive for what the were. I have to say though that there is no pressure to buy and you do get to drink a lot of wine. and by the way, you do get a hangover with Pieroth wines!!!!
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