When a wine retailer offers Ch Mouton Rothschild 2000 at £1 rather than £600 a bottle and Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc for just £5, like Asda’s current offer of Dom Pérignon at £30 a bottle, you can be sure it wants to attract your attention.
www.winedirect.co.uk is a relatively young UK-based online retailer associated with the bricks and mortar Hailsham Cellars (est 1994) and run by “former international hotelier, Peter Rehberg, and former multinational executive, Andrew Birtley”. Here’s what they are claiming about their forthcoming January sale:
“Not for us a simple clear out of bin ends, but a sale of some of the world’s best-known wines at some truly unbelievable prices! Quantities are strictly limited for the big name wines, but stocks have already been put aside for what promises to be the wine sale event of the year where many items will be discounted by up to 90%.
"Star buys include the following -
Ch Mouton Rothschild 2000 £1 (normally £600, saving £599!)
Mollydooker, The Boxer Shiraz 2006 £1 (normally £14, saving £13!)
Shafer Vineyards Napa Valley Merlot 2000 £1 (normally £30, saving £29!)
Roberto Voerzio Barolo La Serra 2001 £1 (normally £100, saving £99!)
Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2007 £5 (normally £25, saving £20!)
Papapietro Perry Russian River Pinot Noir 2004 £5 (normally £30, saving £25)
Château Ducru Beaucaillou 2002 £5 (normally £35, saving £30)
Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne 2004 £10 (normally £50, saving £40!)"
This sale starts at 9am on Friday 11 Jan with what they call a preview from 9am Friday 4 Jan. The catch is that the sale is open only to pre-registered members, so this is basically a big flashy hook with which to fish for your details. Although they do point out that there is no obligation to buy, over 100 of the wines on winedirect.co.uk’s list will be included in the sale and of course that quantities are strictly limited and will be sold on a first come, first served basis.
Terms & Conditions: i) You can only purchase in cases of 12 [presumably mixed – JR] bottles ii) There can be only 6 sale items per case of 12 bottles iii) Maximum 2 bottles of any one sale item per case of 12 iv) You can buy as many cases of 12 bottles as you like.
I’d love to have a sneak preview of the arithmetic behind this offer.