Hope you’re all doing well and have some plans to enjoy our two days of sun this week!
Teresa and I have been putting our heads together to figure out how we can spread some of the amazing wine recommendations and magic that you always share here, but this time on our social media platforms. We’ve come up with an idea for a monthly feature called ‘Our Community Recommends…’ Basically, every month, usually around the 15th, we’ll put the spotlight on the wine recommendations that you all suggest.
If you’re up for it, all we need are your TWS wine picks for the month – just drop them in this thread. And if you’re feeling fancy, feel free to tell us why you think it’s the perfect choice for the (insert month here). Maybe it’s the weather or you’re just loving the label.
Oh, and to make sure we’re posting the right bottle, could you pop in a link to the specific wine on our website, or even snap a quick pic of the bottle? That way, we’ll make sure to actually include the right bottle of wine in the post.
Another shout for the Familie Mantler Gelber Muskateller - a perfect summer sipper! Juicy, aromatic, with a rounded mouthfeel and good with or without food. Yum!
I’d recommend that Familie Mantler Gelber Muskateller, which I had at the press tasting. It’s muscat for people who have previously been put off this grape by too many overly floral wines which are too simplistic, sweet and lacking depth. Me, in other words. It is much more appealing and balanced because it has a good dose of acidity, and a fruity palate, to complement and fill out the floral nose.
A whiff of that wonderful bready aged fino flavour and aroma you normally have to pay very much more for - if you can even find it in the UK in the first place - for under a tenner. What’s not to love? Plus I am indeed ‘just loving the label.’
Yet another vote for the Familie Mantler Gelber Muskateller, tasted at the London Austrian growers tasting. Very enjoyable and what everyone else said - delicious and perfect for drinking in a sunny, summer garden.
I have enjoyed these red wines recently…
The Jones Fitou is a really worthy wine champion - bags of smooth fruit, some smoky notes, subtle tannin, balanced acidity, very drinkable on one of our more autumnal days.
Recommending another supplier’s wine might be embarrassing, but it would preserve the Community’s integrity. I am not sure I like the idea of our comments being taken and used as recommendations without qualification. And I dislike all ‘buy this because other people like it’ promotions. I prefer ‘our buyer likes this because…’
I don’t think this is a good direction for the Community.
For me, it’s just a case of summarising the in-stock suggestions made by anyone in the previous month and highlighting them to the wider membership. Hopefully generating more interest in the Community through the process. I don’t really see any issues with it as long as any quoted comments are anonymous.
As for recommendations based on user preference, well yes, an individual one could be inaccurate, but I’d say almost every recommendation of a bottle by the community’s members is invariably pretty reasonable and certainly no worse a way to choose wine, especially when there’s not a review of every wine by our buyers.
This sounds like a nice idea, I appreciate TWS has been looking for ways of sharing the enthusiasm from this community with other members so at least it’s a start.
The one slight drawback is that I think many on here drink wines that used to be sold by the Society, whether than be slightly older vintages or simply we have all encouraged each other to buy wine that is now out of stock.
I had the 2018 Earth and Sky by Thymiopoulos at the weekend and thought it was stunning. I’m so glad I put a case into reserves for a couple of years before drinking it. It was full of dark cherries and incredible smooth. I thought it was high end wine at a great price. However the society is now selling the 2021 Earth and Sky Naoussa, Thymiopoulos 2021 so I’ll share my thoughts on this in 2026
This idea could link nicely to the other thread in the community where some members have suggested a return to the monthly community tasting. You could highlight a couple of bottles and then promote some of the thoughts generated from those tastings too.
I really like this idea and agree it could form a basis of a monthly tasting in here.
I’ll have to have a dig around but we have a family party this weekend and a few bottles from TWS are coming out - including the Society’s exhibition Assyrtiko.
Digging a little deeper, I’m thinking it isn’t the wine which makes the interest (lovely though that bottle might be) … but the narrative around it. So a recommendation needs to have a few explanatory words.
For instance @robertd fantastic Asian /Alsace fusion dishes with pics. If that doesnt make you want to open a bottle of wine from east of the Vosges, I don’t know what will.
@CCouzens has impeccable taste: this is pure Cab Franc, aged perfectly, and quite frankly a bargain at the price. Strawberries and cream with graphite & cedar pencil shavings in the background, a summer red - perhaps slightly chilled even.
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