I met a mate yesterday for an old catch up and chat about business and family and other things. He 'confessed' to picking up a bottle of red wine in one of the low cost German supermarkets last week. "It was their cheapest bottle", he told me, "I was just Curious to try it".
Probably the most exciting release and buying opportunity we’ve had the privilege to present in our 13 years in business. Bodegas Corral is the winery behind Don Jacobo, the Rioja wines a lot of you are familiar with from the last year or so since we started importing and distributing them.
This is the sort of wine we exist for and precisely why we aspiringly named ourselves Curious Wines back in 2008. This is Maturana Tinta de Navarrete, a grape deemed lost to history until modern testing revealed it to be unique and unrelated to anything else grown in Rioja.
"Right, can you give me one more recommendation. .
In July, as part of a list of measures to help boost the economy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government announced a temporary reduction in the standard rate of VAT, from 23% to 21%, to run from 1st September 2020 to 28 February 2021.
Colli Orientali del Friuli (free-oo-lee) is the most renowned DOC in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region of north-east Italy, its calcareous and sandstone soils combined with Alpine geography and altitudes making it capable of producing world class white wines and some of the very best in Italy.
The last of the new finds for this year, from one of the world's furthest wine outposts (well from Cork anyway) and New Zealand's oldest winegrowing region, Hawke's Bay.
Bordeaux is virtually guaranteed to throw up something new and interesting every year as there’s probably nowhere that vintage is more important, or unpredictable.
Fans of our top-selling wine for the last two years, The Ned Sauvignon Blanc, might be interested in the latest addition to our New Zealand range. Named in the World’s Top 50 Most Desired Wine Brands by Drinks International last year, Wither Hills was founded by none other than The Ned’s Brent Marris.
With the Christmas buying season contributing so heavily to overall sales, November and December can see some late movements in our top-sellers list for the year.
With the Christmas buying season contributing so heavily to overall sales, November and December can see some late movements in our top-sellers list for the year.
We'd been warned it would be a bad one but Budget 2013 exceeded expectations both in terms of reductions in personal income and further taxes on outgoings. We'd anticipated an increase in the excise duty on wine but nothing like the €1 on every bottle as of midnight last night.
Bodegas Valtravieso enjoys a privileged location at 900 metres above sea level in the heart of Ribera del Duero, surrounded by its vineyards in the fashion of a French chateau.
In our view, and that of many much more expert in the area, Rioja Alavesa is the pick of the three Rioja communes. Protected from the north by the Sierra de Cantabria and the fertile Ebro Valley to the south, its limestone-based soil is particularly poor. That's a good thing for vines.
Not a lot of people know this, but Mike's greatest achievement was winning a gold medal with the Irish fencing team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He's also a Michelin-starred chef, having worked as Executive Head Chef at Le Meurice in Paris in the late 90s.
Family-owned for six generations, Domaine Christophe Camu occupies 8 hectares around the village of Chablis, covering four appellations: Petit Chablis, Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru and Chablis Grand Cru. 80% of production is still sold at cellar door to private customers.
Owned by Kilkenny man Gay McGuinness, with winemaking duties undertaken by Dubliner Ciaran Rooney, Provence winery Domaine des Anges is probably as close as you'll get to world class 'Irish' wines.
Rose joined the Curious Wines team this year, bringing with her years of experience in hospitality, marketing and PR. She has played an important role in expanding the commercial side of the business, as well as buying into the values of a company that prides itself on making curious people happy.
As his parents and siblings can attest, Matt was a difficult child growing up. Excitable, restless and easily agitated, he was nicknamed ‘the not-so-genius Evil Genius’ by his younger brother, David, who's revenge was exacted on Matt’s stag weekend back in April (pictured).
‘La Clape’ is the bit to look out for on the label. It's a World Heritage site, meaning 'pile of stones' in Occitan and was an island up until the Gallo-Roman period, and before the Aude’s river sediment deposits became part of the mainland.
A renowned and outstanding Chianti Classico producer, the Dievole estate in Tuscany is sitting on 900 years of wine-making heritage.
We launched curiouswines. ie in 2008 with the goal of making buying wine online as simple as possible. Central to this was our selection of pre-mixed cases where new customers could try us out, and established customers could always go back for the best value, carefully chosen selections in our portfolio.
There's been a little bit more excitement than usual surrounding the latest new arrivals to the Curious portfolio. Last week we took receipt of our first shipment of Two Paddocks, a family-owned operation in Central Otago, New Zealand, with a rather well known proprietor.
I think our top-sellers list always makes for fascinating reading. It can reveal fashions or preferences, for styles or types of wines, favourite grape varietals or countries.
Like what you see? Sign up for our weekly-ish newsletters for the latest special offers, new arrivals, bin ends and exclusive discounts.
