There is a law of diminishing returns with expensive wines, which means by their very nature they will never represent ‘value for money’ - but I’m not sure that’s what they have ever set out to achieve, is it?
Besides, I have wines in my cellar that are - checks CT data (and discovers a glitch in the system!) - ‘worth’ from £360/btl down to £7…
…and, and on that basis, if we’re going off value as the benchmark, then I’m buying Burlotto Monvigliero from TWS every time when comparing price paid vs score achieved vs resaleable value. Which doesn’t strike me as a tactic that will meet with a great deal of success, or indeed more importantly, much wine in my cellar.
(Actually, thinking too deeply about this scrambles my brain - assigning ‘value’ to something as transient as taste and enjoyment of wine is an almost impossible task.)
Did anyone notice a Savoie white described as a Jura red in the booklet?
Seems to be a fairly regular mishap, maybe cause the two are under the same category on the website
I have read my copy of the Pick from cover to cover a couple of times but it doesn’t move me to make any purchases.
Everything is list price where when I get the 1874 magazine I always go the back pages first and select a few bargains, wines that I am running out of or ones I am interested in trying.
I don’t mind whose favourites are picked, members, staff or buyers, I wonder whether that means anything to me because I don’t know their personal tastes. I have a couple of friends who occasionally introduce me to a new wine because they know my tastes.
It may be interesting to include a few different wines which aren’t selling well. Are we ignoring them becuase we aren’t familiar with that country’s wines, we don’t know the grape or price. The buyer could give us a fuller write-up and describe why they think these are ‘hidden gems’.
I’m not myself critical of TWS marketing, just the volume of it. What I would really like is to be able to specify desired categories, e.g., Rhones, Rhone EP, Xmas, etc., and not Bordeaux, East Europe, say.
I am convinced one of the wines in the Rhône EP offer was described as “corpulent”. Spent some time trying to decide if it should be opulent, or someone had decided that “full bodied” had been overused and turned to the thesaurus for a (much less appealing) synonym.
In a demonstration of will power I have thrown the hard copy leaflet, and cannot find this in the online text… could be going mad.
Looking back over my 1874 magazines, I think they have already done my “hidden gems” idea (see above) a few times and that is certainly the right place. I look forward to them four times a year.
I do detect a sense of ‘frightened I’m going to miss something’ amongst some WS members. As a previous member has already said ‘how much is too much’. Just throw it in the bin if you don’t want it/delete the email etc. It’s the old on/off switch on the telly surely!
I’m in the camp where I’d rather receive everything, but really we’re back to the same discussion as has been covered previously about email marketing. Should definitely have the ability to toggle categories of marketing preferences on/off.
That’s what you do with it, not necessarily what the thousands of members who get the literature will do with it.
For you. It may not be a waste of time, efforts and resource for many members that value the material and end up buying wine/trying new wines off the back of it. It’s not a waste if it gives many members pleasure from trying something different/new.
Agree there is a need to work towards net zero but I think looking at literature in isolation as an argument for the society working towards net zero perhaps ignores the huge amount they are doing. Without wanting to go on a thread drift or start any ‘whataboutery’ nonsense, if we invoke the net zero argument about literature then should we not do that when purchasing glass bottles of wine?
Mailshots from TWS are but a drop in the ocean compared to the output of some companies, magazine inserts and all the junk the postman brings. I for one don’t find them excessive. If you don’t like junk mail, make sure you never have anything to do with Saga. I did, once…
One should also not forget the considerable environmental impact of internet/email traffic, if that is seen as the alternative.
The waste I was referring to was the waste implied by filtering (binning) on delivery, rather than being able to filter before despatch, i.e. all I want to know about is Rhone and Burgundy.
I’m a bit intrigued by @CCouzens’ comments about the environmental impact of internet/email as I would have considered this the best available option.
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