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Join us at our 2008 tasting party. (15-09-08)

Taste 100's wines

• Taste over a hundred wines at our 2008 wine tasting.

It’s Here Again!! And this year, it’s bigger, it’s better and it’s guaranteed to be even more fun!

And it could cost you nothing.

*Just place an order on the day and we’ll knock the ticket price off the order. So you get to taste over a hundred wines, meet loads of interesting people and have an all-round amazingly great time absolutely free!

• Taste the hottest wines of the moment.
• Chat with our wine buyer, Andy.
• Find out where the very best wines are being made.
• Meet the winemakers and the Virgin Wines team.

Enjoy a 6 hour tasting marathon. Bring your mates along to our Saturday tasting marathon. Find the wines that blow your socks off.

And remember, place an order on the day and get your ticket price off.

• Where? Lindley Hall, 80 Vincent Square, SW1P 2PE.
• Directions: Click here.
• When? Saturday, 18 October 2008. 12-6pm.
• How much? Just £25 a ticket.
  And, place an order on the day and we'll deduct the ticket price from the order - so you're getting FREE ENTRY.

Save at least 15% on all Chilean Wines. (29-08-08)

Win an All Expenses Paid Trip to Chile. (28-08-08)

Chile Season Launched. (27-08-08)

Fancy saving £857? (17-07-08)

Mouton Rothschild

That's exactly what one lucky bidder saved when a 6 bottle case of Chateau Mouton Rothschild Pauillac 2002 was sold at auction today.

With its upfront and flamboyant style, this famous Cabernet Sauvignon is unlike its contemporaries. Well-endowed, powerful and rich, the monster-sized 2002 vintage is already regarded as one of the finest Moutons ever produced.

And, with a price tag of £1608 for 6 bottles, the cost is a bit of a monster as well.

But, with no reserve and a starting bid of just £1, it's you, the customer, who sets the price with Virgin Wines Auctions. And picking up £1608 worth of wine for £751 isn't to be sniffed at.

And you don't have to be in the market for Mouton Rothschild to grab a bargain. With hundreds of lots going under the hammer each week - and cases selling for under £50 on a regular basis - there are plenty of deals to be had.

So, why not visit the only on-line wine auction site in the U.K. right now and bid on a bargain. You've got nothing to lose!

Oh, and if you're after 6 bottles of Chateau Mouton Rothschild Pauillac 2002, another case is due to be auctioned starting at 2p.m. this coming Wednesday.

Rosé overtakes white wine sales. (15-07-08)

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet. (11-07-08)

Wines of the Month - Decanter Magazine August 2008. (03-07-08)

Exclusive - Cloudy Bay on auction, from £1! (19-05-08)

Every year, Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, with its distinctive label showing the skyline of Richmond Ranges, is one of the most eagerly anticipated wines to be released. Why? It is certainly a top-notch Sauvignon and rightly described as delicious. But it's always in short supply and so it's expensive.

Richmond Ranges

The 2007 vintage is even more restricted than usual because the harvest was lower than expected. This has had 2 major results. Cloudy Bay fans are likely to be disappointed by how hard it is to get hold of their favourite tipple. But those lucky enough to get their hands on some will be delighted with the extra quality resulting from the low grape yield.

We have managed to get hold of a very limited supply of the 2007 and will be auctioning these in 6 bottle lots while stocks last. The first Auction is scheduled to begin on Tuesday 20th May at 10.00.

Rowan Gormley, Founder and CEO of Virgin Wines added:

"I am very pleased that we have been able to offer this delicious Kiwi Sauvignon to our customers. Because it is in such short supply I believe that auctioning the cases is the best way to give our customers the chance to buy this very desirable wine at a realistic price."

If you haven't had a look at our Wine Auctions yet, now is the time to give it a go.

Which wine matches Hendrix? (14-05-08)

We all know that different wines go best with certain foods. Now, it seems, music can affect the way wine tastes as well!

Research carried out by Professor Adrian North at Herriot Watt University found people changed how they rated a wine depending on the music they were hearing. Listening to powerful and heavy music, such as Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana", altered the rating of red wine by 60%. Zingy and refreshing sounds, such as "Just Can't Get Enough" by Nouvelle Vague resulted in white wine being rated 40% more zingy and refreshing.

So, what to drink while listening to Hendrix? Cabernet Sauvignon is the one. On the other hand, "Spinning Around" from Kylie Minogue will add that extra something to a glass of Chardonnay.

To read the full article from bbc.co.uk, click here.

Missing grape found alive and well in Chile! (23-04-08)

Carmenere is fast developing into Chile’s signature grape, which is strange when you consider they didn’t even know they were growing it until 1994! You see, Carmenere used to be grown in France where it was part of the original six noble grapes of Bordeaux. But it was ravaged by disease in 1867 and generally thought to have become extinct.

Fortunately, cuttings had been imported into Chile before the outbreak of phylloxera wiped out the European stocks. Only it was confused with Merlot, which it is very similar to in appearance.

Then, in 1994, a very clever professor from Montpellier realised that what everyone in Chile was growing as Merlot wasn’t all Merlot. In fact, about 50% of what was called Merlot was Carmenere.

Now Carmenere is recognised again and is providing a delicious addition to the range of red wine available. Described as a cross between Merlot and Shiraz, it is the perfect wine to enjoy with light red meats and vegetables.

Intrigued? Well, why not give our Tokerau Carmenere a try? To read Alastair Bathgate’s recent review, click here.

Word is spreading! (14-04-08)

Word is spreading about our Landelia Malbec 2005. After Alastair Bathgate's fantastic review below, we were delighted when Jamie Goode, author of www.wineanorak.com, also said great things about the wine on his Wine blog.

"A bit of a bargain this: it's a dense, dark, fruit driven Malbec of real poise, with some purity to the sweet dark fruits nose that's nicely complemented by some meatiness and a bit of spice."

"Tastes much more expensive than it is, and is acceptably modern, with lovely focus and purity."

To read the full review, click here.

Virgin Wines Attracts 500,000 Customers. (04-04-08)

Virgin Wines is celebrating after recruiting its 500,000th customer. During the last 12 months alone, the company has signed up over 122,000 new customers via its website.

Iain and Terezija.

To recognise this achievement, Louise Truswell and Terezija Hirs of Virgin Wines presented Iain McDowell of Birmingham with champagne, after he became their 500,000th customer when he purchased a case of Chilean Coyam wine and joined the Virgin Wines’ WineBank.

Commenting on his experience, Mr McDowell said:

"I’ve used Virgin Wines a number of times now. They have a great selection of unique wines, which aren’t available through other wine retailers in the UK. The service is spot on and delivery is excellent."

Rowan Gormley, Founder and CEO of Virgin Wines added: “We are delighted that Mr McDowell has become our 500,000th customer. This tops off an excellent 12 months for Virgin Wines, where we’ve seen sales increase by 43%.”

Confessions from a Wino. (03-04-08)

After reading an email from Alastair Bathgate who runs the wine blog "Confessions from a Wino" detailing his love for Argentinean Malbec, we decided to send him a couple of bottles of our Landelia Malbec 2005 for him to taste. And we are jolly glad that we did, as it turns out that he loved it!

"The taste was less bitter than most Malbecs and reminded me of blackberry soaked sponge cake, fresh plums, pork crackling and tarragon. Sounds strange, and the wine is definitely unpredictable and a bit different, but I loved it" he said.

He went on to comment:

"Landelia is available from Virgin Wines at only £8.49 which just goes to show that great value wine is still available from South America".

To read the article in full, click here.

Budget 2008: Little cheer for drinkers. (14-03-08)

Jonathan Ray, the well known wine writer and journalist, gives tips in his article on how to avoid getting stung by the increase in excise duty in the budget. As usual, Virgin Wines customers are well ahead of the game.

The following tips are included in the article.

• Buy in quantity - Virgin Wines supplies wine by the case, delivered to your door, anywhere in the UK for a single delivery charge no matter how many cases are ordered.
• Buy from good-value or up-and-coming regions - Virgin Wines spotted that the exchange rate and investment in South American wine production meant that this was the best value wine region in the world over a year ago. This meant we got in there while the supermarket buyers were still sitting in their offices. So we got the best deals. Sales of Chilean wines have quadrupled over the last year as our customers discover the outstanding value for money South American wines offer.
• Look beyond the major regions - Our policy at Virgin Wines is to search out the quality wines from the lesser known regions to get the best value for money wines for our customers. Our Red Wine of the Year 2007 Marques de Valencia Gran Reserva, from Valencia, knocks the spots off top-end Riojas at a fraction of the price - just try it, you'll be amazed.
• Buy at auction - Sotheby's and Christie's may be fine if you want to invest a few thousand in a bottle of wine. If, on the other hand, you want to bid on a bargain, join the thousands of Virgin Wines customers who have already made a killing at the Virgin Wines Auctions.
• Perhaps the only thing missing from Mr Ray's article was the fact that Virgin Wines customers don't need to be given these tips. They're clever enough already to know where the best bargains can be found.

The full article can be read here.

A little bit of what you fancy does you good. (12-03-08)

The health benefits of drinking moderate amounts of wine have been in the news several times in recent years. The March issue of the American Journal of Medicine reports on a study carried out over the 15 year period between 1987 and 2002.

Dana King, M.D., lead author of the study and a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina said;

"The findings suggest that, for carefully selected individuals, a heart-healthy diet may include limited alcohol consumption even among individuals who have not included alcohol previously."

The research team found that those who began moderate (defined as one drink a day for women and two for men) drinking during the study were 38% less likely to have a "observable heart-related health issue" than lifelong non-drinkers. Of the people who took up wine drinking, as opposed to beer or spirits, the study reported a 68% reduction in the risk of "suffering a cardiovascular event".

By comparison, though, those who took up heavier drinking were 42% more at risk than abstainers.

The full article is available here.

Virgin Winetasting event goes down well - Eastern Daily Press. (01-03-08)

Over 300 local wine enthusiasts attended Virgin Wines' first wine tasting evening in Norwich last night.

Rowan meets some guests

The event took place in one of Norwich's most popular restaurants and guests were invited to sample their way through over 50 wines from Virgin Wines' latest range.

Rowan Gormley, Founder and CEO of Virgin Wines said:

"Following the enormous success of our last three tasting events in London, we decided as a Norwich based company to host a wine tasting event locally. It's a great way for wine enthusiasts to find out what wines they like in a really fun, informal and social environment. We are really pleased that so many local guests decided to join us and we hope that this tasting will be the first of many more to come in the future".

Virgin Wines Tasting Event Comes to Norwich. (19-02-08)

Following the huge success of our annual Wine Tasting Events in London, we will be hosting our first wine tasting event in Norwich at the end of February.

Norwich Wine Tasting

The event, which is taking place at The Library Bar and Grill, just off Guildhall Hill, Click Here for directions, on 28th February from 6.30pm, will showcase over 40 of our best wines and will see a number of our winemakers and personal wine advisors come together to give you their personal recommendations.

Virgin Wines Launches Facebook page. (05-02-08)

Following the astounding popularity of Facebook, here at Virgin Wines we've created our own Facebook page as another way of keeping in touch with our customers. The page will be updated regularly with news, offers, photos, videos and discussion forums. To become a "fan" simply sign into Facebook, search for "Virgin Wines" and look for the "Online Store" entry.

From South Africa's Premier Wine Producer. (31-01-08)

Rustenberg Vines

Gold Medal Winning Sauvignon Blanc

We were delighted when we heard that the 2006 Brampton Sauvignon Blanc had won Gold at the 2007 IWC awards. We were even more excited when we negotiated with the winemaker Rustenberg, one of the very top South African producers, to buy all the remaining stocks of this wine.

Amazingly, the normal price for this gem is £6.99 - but, as a special deal, this wine is available at just £5.49 a bottle when bought by the case. This offer is only available while stocks last. To watch a short video clip of Rustenberg's Head Winemaker Adi Badenhorst and take advantage of this special offer, just Click Here.

Wine Auctions go from strength to strength. (28-01-08)

Want a Bargain? Give the Auctions a go.

Since we launched our ground-breaking Wine Auctions last summer, thousands of lucky customers have picked up a bargain.

Virgin Wines is the only online wine retailer in the UK offering a Wine Auction. Everything from Dom Perignon to everyday-drinking budget cases have been auctioned online at knock-down prices. And every wine bought through a Wine Auction is covered by the Virgin Wines legendary Customer Promise. So, if you buy a wine at a Wine Auction and you don't like it, you can have your money back.

If you haven't had a look at our Wine Auctions yet, now is a great time to give it a go. With 400 cases of wine going under the hammer each week, there's bound to be something that takes your fancy. As one lucky bidder said, "This is the best thing to happen to wine buying since they invented the cork"

Chilean Wines hit the spot for Virgin Wines customers. (21-01-08)

Pure meltwater from the Andes irrigates desert vineyards

You may have seen the article in The Independent recently reporting the growing trend for British drinkers to look to Chile for wine.

The article reported that "UK sales of Chilean wine soared 25% to a new record last year, the fastest increase of any winemaking country and that "It overtook Spain, to become the sixth most successful wine exporter to the UK - behind South Africa , Italy, the United States, France and Australia."

Here at Virgin Wines, we're noticing this trend to great effect. So much so, that we now sell more Chilean wine than any other country. In December, Chilean wine accounted for 21% of sales, compared to 6% in the same month the previous year.

Rowan Gormley, Chief Executive, was quoted in the article as saying:

"It's basically the best value for money country in the world by a long way....what's going on there is really exciting"

Don't miss out on the excitement. Click Here for a selection of the Chilean wines which have made such an impression on our customers.