Wine Champions 2018

Drinks Chat
#1

One of my favourite Wine Society promotions of the year, Wine Champions is finally back.

50 winners this year, very slightly down 4 from 2017’s total of 51 wines. Those of us at the AGM have already tried a few and they are, as always, very good choices.

https://www.thewinesociety.com/resources/downloads/wine-champs-jun18.pdf

There’s a new feature this year where wines are indicated when they have scored maximum points which is a good addition.

The offer formally goes live on Monday to co-incide with the Manchester Wine Champions tasting but you can have an early look now and see what choices look temping.

There are some old favourites in the mix as usual but also some interesting new choices, at least to my eyes. Here are a few that are jumping out at me:

The Vina Santico looks very temping at just £5.95, one of the very few under £6 WS bottles still available. It is, however, currently languishing at 2.2 from Member reviews, I wonder if this will change when more people pick up the wine.

The Chateau de Lacarelle picked up full marks and is very reasonably priced at £7.95.

Full marks again to the Painted Wolf Rouge which definitely looks temping -

Onto the whites, Pauletts Polish Hill Riesling

and the New Zealand Trinty Hill Chardonnay both look good, although neither one is in stock until Monday and then then Pauletts has limited stock available.

For Chablis fans, the JEAN-MARC BROCARD, CHABLIS PREMIER CRU MONT DE MILIEU 2014 gets the nod at £19.50. Again, stock available on Monday.

Only 1 white scored full marks this year which is interesting, 5 of the red wines scored full marks. I would have thought that reds would have been more contentious than whites…

For the sparkling selection, Blanquette de Limoux has been a person recommendation of mine for many years so I can certainly agree with that choice.

What is everyone else interested in and what of the selection have you already tried? Any choices that you can’t believe got selected? Any choices you cannot believe missed out this year?

Enjoy.

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#2

I cannot find this on the website… can of course follow the link, so thanks

#3

Yep, the offer is going live on Monday but you can have a preview now.

Most of the wines can also be brought now but some of them will not be available until Monday since if a Wine Champion is low of stock, the WS will hold back supplies specifically to run with the Wine Champions campaign. A few wines will also launch with the campaign if they have been judged worthy of being champions.

#4

https://www.thewinesociety.com/featured-range-wine-champions-jun18

Ta-Daaah. Wine Champs is now live on the website! Enjoy

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#5

… “And lead us not into temptation”… :tired_face:

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#6

So many wines I’ve not tried (yet) …

I think I may have to order a few of the mixed cases to sample ASAP - but also slightly worried that my favourite Muscadet made it onto the main image used on twitter and could disappear quickly :frowning:

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#7

I’ll be jumping straight for this:

These three were absolutely blockbuster in the blind tastings. Also, if you want your socks well and truly blown off then go for:

&

Also any of the Gruners/albarino/alvarinho or definitely the Pauletts Polish Hill Aged Riesling was amazing.

:slight_smile:

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#8

I notice a small overlap between the standard wine champions list and the fine wine champions list.

What is the criteria used for deciding which list a wine will appear on. Price is obviously one factor but is there anything else that goes into deciding which wines will be on which list?

I must admit, I completely forgot to look at the fine wine list when putting together my order yesterday. It is slightly hidden away compared to the main offer. Is there not an argument for just putting together one list which all the champions? People can then just filter out based on price if they do not want to exceed a certain per bottle budget.

#9

Don’t worry, Costco also stock it and its less expensive :wink:

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#10

Too late… My soul (and bank balance) are suffering!

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#11

I’ve had past vintages of this lovely Beaujolais - fantastic quality and great VFM - I bet this will be the same.

#12

It is - we had it on taste after the AGM. Absolutely marvellous. Tight, juicy, fruity, refreshing - everything Lacarelle always is, which is why it’s also a key component in The Society’s Beaujolais-Villages year in, year out.

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How does good Beaujolais age?
#13

Hi
Firstly, I’m so sorry for the delay in replying to this - hadn’t forgotten, but wanted to double check some things with colleagues before getting back to you.

As for the overlap: well spotted! Sparklers aside, anything under £15 that came through at the tasting goes into the main Wine Champions offer. The overlap is in the £15-£20 category and depends mainly on stock availability.

I’m really sorry to hear you missed the Fine Wine Champions link. I also think your feedback is spot on, and have been in touch with colleagues about it. This is only the second year in which we’re offering the ‘normal’ and Fine Champions simultaneously (the publication dates of our Fine Wine List used to mean the more expensive ones came out slightly later)… so we’re still learning ourselves how best to position them for members. As a result we’ll be doing a series of little layout tests and keeping our ear to the ground on how they go so that we can improve the experience for everyone :slight_smile: Much appreciated.

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