AMA: wedding/party wine & the Showroom with Marjorie Cropp

[mcropp]

@"JayKay

Are bin end bottles all the ‘left overs’ of wines bought in quantity by TWS or are there any that are ‘special purchases’ which sometimes is the case in other shops’ non-wine related sales?

Hello @JayKay

Majority of bin ends are damaged or stained labels from brocken deliveries. “Bulk” bin ends are excess stock or end of line wines.
They are all in good drinking condition and usually best drunk within the year.

The average discount is 10%.

Come and grab a bargain!

[mcropp]

@"szaki1974

Are there better ‘bin end’ deals in the showroom than online?

Hi @szaki1974

There is more variety I guess. We get bin end in “bulk” as well as single bottles (wines that have had damaged or stained labels, wines from previous lists…).

Hope this helps!

[mcropp]

@"Bargainbob

If you were getting married this weekend, what would you choose as your red, white and sparkling options?

Hi @Bargainbob

I guess that if I was getting married this weekend, I would marry prince Harry and I would splash out with some pretty good vinos (bring on the Bolly and Chateau Mouton-Roschchild. Oh! and Tignanello, apparently Ms Markle’s favourite tipple. She’s got good taste this lady…!!)!

But because I’m not, these are what I would pick:
Pinot Blanc Cave de Turckheim from Alsace

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such a crowd pleasing wine, with soft mouth feel and delicate stone fruit and melon aromas.
For the red, either Baccolo Appasimento from Veneto, Italy (see link in previous post): very approachable and fruit forward and good concentration for the price!
Sparkling: if money was no object, Louis Roederer Champagne NV

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.On a budget: Blanquette de Limoux Reserve Antech from the Languedoc

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dry but soft with lovely peachy fruit.

What about you? What you would you choose?

[mcropp]

@"robert_mcintosh

I’d be interested to follow up on a conversation I had with @cgoldin about events and Sale or Return.

Sale or Return wines Membership

I gather that this is available for larger events when you aren’t sure of the volumes required. How often is this actually requested, and how often is any wine actually returned?

What state is this wine in, in your experience if/when it is returned, and what happens to it? I know that @Tim_S discussed this from a tastings point of view, but it would be very interesting to get the Showroom perspective too.

I know that if I was organising an event I would certainly keep this option in mind

Hi @robert_mcintosh

In my experience, we’ve never had a bad return.
To be honest, it is pretty rare that members bring back wines but if they do, we make sure that the labels are not damaged (for sitting in ice buckets for hours) and if we have a doudt about the actual quality of the wine, we send it to our quality team to assess.

Hope this helps!

[mcropp]

@"Nowt_in_my_glass

Is there a plan to open a second showroom…?

Hello @Nowt_in_my_glass

Not that I am aware of!
I don’t get to make that sort of decision, but that’s a good idea!

[mcropp]

@"Leah

Do you give any discount on large number of wines purchased for a wedding or party??

Hello @Leah

I’m afraid not.
We are a cooperative so we have a duty of fairness to all members.

Hope that explains it!

[szaki1974]

How much wine should one by for a wedding per guest?

[mcropp]

@"tom

What’s the:

oldest
most expensive
most popular
least popular
most asked for

bottle in the showroom?

Hello @tom

Our oldest bottle is also our mot expensive actually and it is in the Vintage Room: Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses, Roumier, Burgundy, France 1993 at £1200.
It’s not so bad…!

Our most popular wine is The Society’s Claret and The Society’s Burgundy. Classic!

Our least popular… I woudn’t know really, it’s a matter of price probably and also how well known the wine is.
Hope that makes sense?

The most asked for: except Society’s labels, the Duo des Mers for white (see link in previous post) and the Rioja Navajas (also link in previous post).
People loooove them!

[szaki1974]

Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses, Roumier, Burgundy, France 1993

Maybe it was obvious, but it is the first time it dawns on me that the showroom has wines that are not available online… Do you have a list of wines that are available in the showroom, but not online, khm, online?

[mcropp]

@"cgoldin

I would add as well:

most famous

most difficult (and how)

most eccentric (and how)

Hi @cgoldin

Thank you for your very interesting question

Because I am French (I have tried over to years to work on my accent but I always get found out anyway!), some members try to converse with me in the mother tongue which I always find very nice.

Most of our members are regulars so we know them well.
My favourite members are the ones that are asking for our help on dinner parties or larger events.

Then, some people will sadly assume that because I am a “younger” (I don’t look at over 25 of course!) and female staff, I won’t know anything about wine (I get the look of non trust). but I usually manage to convince them that I know my stuff by chatting to them!

[mcropp]

@"NickP

I’m interested what the average customer age is. I think of myself as being on the younger end of the wine enthusiast age range. I’m in my late 30s, but in my head I’m in my 20s. That is until I spend any time with someone in their 20s - then I feel like I’m in my 40s

Hello @NickP

During the week, we get people that have their free time so we get a lot of retirees. At the weekend, we have lots of families coming in and plenty of regulars.

[laura]

Whoops, we had a slight delay there as Marjorie reached the maximum number of replies a new user was allowed. It’s like ‘like’-gate from the TWS Taste all over again…

Had to use my almighty Admin powers to unsilence her - but we’re all set now! We’ll extend the AMA by 10 minutes so we have time to answer your questions.

[mcropp]

@"Rold24

What wine would you recommend for a hog roast? Thanks

Hi @Rold24

Hog roast has big flavours so you need an equally big wine to go with it otherwise, the wine won’t taste of anything, which is pointless if you ask me! I would choose anything from the Society’s Corbieres

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for example which has body and big fruit flavours as a simple option and if you can splash out, I would go for a nice nebbiolo such as Fara Ciada, Valle Roncati 2011

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Nebbiolo has naturally very good acidity and it works particulary well with pork as it cuts through the richness of the meat. Delicious!

[mcropp]

Maybe it was obvious, but it is the first time it dawns on me that the showroom has wines that are not available online… Do you have a list of wines that are available in the showroom, but not online, khm, online?

Hi @szaki1974

The wines that are in the Vintage Room are not available online as there are not enough quantity! Sorry!
The wines change very regularly (because of the small quantities) so we don’t have a list per se.

[mcropp]

How much wine should one by for a wedding per guest?

Hi @szaki1974

That’s a very good question that I always get at my wedding tastings. The answer would be that it all depends on timings! The longer the day, the more booze you will need!

For the drinks reception, I would count about 3 to 4 glasses per person and about 1/2 bottle per head fo the meal. I know it sounds a lot but people get very happy at weddings…!

For the toast, count 1 glass of bubbly per person plus a little top up.

Then for party time, if there are beers and spirits available, people tend to switch on to that. But still have some wine available!

Hope this helps!

[laura]

That’s all we’ve got time for, but thank you SO much for all your interesting and varied questions - we had a lot of fun and hopefully we’ll see Marjorie here on The Community more often now!

Thanks so much @mcropp for your time, expertise and charm! It’s been a pleasure.

Look out for Marjorie’s next blog post which will be going up on the Grapevine category very shortly.

[szaki1974]

The wines that are in the Vintage Room

I am now very interested to visit the showroom!

[NickP]

Thanks Marjorie, enjoyed reading that

I am now very interested to visit the showroom!

I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across the Vintage Room recently. Some nice wines in a small but perfectly formed setting

[robert_mcintosh]

Thank so much @mcropp - lots of great answers and detail. Thanks for taking the time.

(and thanks @laura for pulling this together)

[Leah]

Apologies I couldn’t engage as I would have liked but I was out and about and kept losing signal but thanks @mcropp for your detailed answers and there’s definitely some new wines to add to my ever growing wishlist and basket