To celebrate the start of the new Choosing Wines Made Easy online wine course starting October 4th 2022 with WineUncorked and Buckinghamshire Adult Learning Virgin Wines are offering all wineuncorked.co.uk readers, and those enrolling on the course, a huge 30% discount on all the latest great wines from Virgin Wines. Offer runs until January 31st 2023.
Just click on http://www.virginwines.co.uk/wineuncorked and start choosing wines straight away. A red banner at the top of the Virgin Wines website showing 30% off wine for Uncorked viewers! will show while you search out the wines you want and add them to your basket. Choose a minimum of 12 bottles, or up to 16 in one delivery, and the 30% off will apply in your basket and at the checkout.
Winning Specialist Online Drinks Retailer of the Year 2022 makes Virgin Wines online choice of over 700 wines a tasty proposition. But with so many wines to choose from, how do you it whittle down to the final 12 bottles of wine?
Well life just got easier. Why not use the Choosing Wines Made Easy course as a guide to creating your own learn-along tasting case. This will allow you to experience the online course experience even if this time you don’t enrol (more coming up in January 2023). Because as Virgin Wines tells us 'Life's too short for boring wines'.
Each week of the course has two wines that show what that week’s topic is all about. So use these as a guide or just click and add them to your Virgin Wines basket. Don’t forget to use your 30% off offer code!
Wine Appreciation – Choosing wines made easy
An 8-week online course tutored by Paula Goddard of wineuncorked.co.uk and hosted by Buckinghamshire Adult Learning
- Week 1: Australia and the wine tasting technique
Aussie wines will help us sniff and sip our way to finding flavours we enjoy. The article How to taste wine will give you some pointers.
Tall Gum Chardonnay Semillon 2021 £9.99
16 Little Black Pigs Shiraz Cabernet 2020 £10.99
- Week 2: Red or white Rioja?
The article What do Spanish red wines taste of? will help you find wines you like, or try:
Finca Manzanos Seleccion de la Familia Rioja Blanco 2020 £11.99
Finca Los Principes La Canada Rioja 2019 £10.99
- Week 3: Wine flavours – does wine taste like apple and nuts?
Have an apple and a bag of unsalted nuts handy as comparisons when tasting your wines. Look for white wines that are labelled Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio to join in.
Dragon Hills Pinot Grigio 2020 £9.99
The Vinitor Chardonnay 2020 £11.99
- Week 4: Wine label design: Traditional castles or modern swirls?
The picture on the label of a bottle of wine does more than attract our eye. It gives us subtle clues to the wine inside – whether it’s tastes traditional and safely reassuring or wild and whacky and sharp enough to make your mouth pucker.
Look for castles or crests on wine labels for reassuring flavours, or minimalist lines and abstract pictures for modern wine flavours. Or you could just hide the wine container entirely.
Vashon Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2021 £10.99
Just the Juice Vermentino 2021 £9.99
- Week 5: Blush wines and rosés
Rosé wine: why is it pink? gives the low-down on the pink stuff
Big Top White Zinfandel Rosé 2020 £10.99
Amatista Moscato Rosé NV £5.99
- Week 6: Beaujolais v Chianti
With Beaujolais Nouveau Day on November 17th then it’s a good excuse to compare the two big names – French Beaujolais and Italian Chianti.
Domaine de la Rocaillere Beaujolais Vielles Vignes 2020 £11.49
Uggiano Lucere Chianti DOCG 2020 £11.99
- Week 7: Over-£5 wines – what do they taste like?
The average spend on a bottle of wine in the UK is now just over £6. But if you pay more, do you get even more flavour? Let’s see:
Between Bridges Sauvignon Blanc 2020 £9.99
Blackfoot Daisy Merlot 2020 £10.99
- Week 8: It’s not champagne!
There are other sparkling wines out there. Let’s taste a few and compare. Which do you prefer?
Ca' de Monaci Lambrusco Salamino DOC NV £9.99
Tuffers' Tipple The D Blanquette de Limoux NV £12.99
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