FrenchDuck UK - Latest

Waitrose (online and in its stores) launches its French Wine Showcase on 26 March 08 - running through to 27 April 2008 this will feature a total of 48 wines.

As well as our usual French favourites, the showcase will also see the launch of four new wines to the range, including the delightful Taittinger Rose NV and the excellent value Domaine des Eyssards Bergerac Rouge.

Unusually for a major supermarket (and greatly to be welcomed) Waitrose will be featuring 13 specially sourced small parcel wines from a wide range of less well-known appellations such as:

Quincy (crisp Sauvignon Blancs from the Loire), Provence and Lirac (Southern Rhone) and the wonderfully unusual Pierre Boniface Domaine des Rocailles Apremont de Savoie 2007 and La Bastide Blanche Bandol (rich Mourvedre red from east of Marseille).

Waitrose Wine Direct

Personally I have never liked the idea of investing in wine as a financial game - if a wine is good it should be drunk not kept in dark cellars and mainly featuring on someone’s spreadsheet or auction catalogue.
But many of us do harbour the dream of having our own vineyard and living the bucolic or stylish life we assume goes with it. My experience suggests that you need to be a chemist (and an alchemist), farmer, labourer, mathematician, warehouse operative with some business and marketing acumen thrown in. You do need to know what you are doing; it can be back-breakingly hard work; the stresses of the uncertainties of the weather, the market, pests and diseases could dent the otherwise attractive liefstyle choice.

Another way is to invest in vines. Several companies offer the opportunity to “rent a row of vines”, Wineshare is one such company, offering rather more than the nominal ownership of vines on some distant vineyard - they actually offer real opportunities to get involved and feel as though you are a part of it - visits, tastings and events at the vineyard and tastings in the UK make this more than just a financial investment - it could also make a great gift for any wine lover (prices start at £75).You can even go and pick the grapes!!
Wineshare has vineyards in Italy(Tuscany) and three in France:-
Chateau de Pizay in Beaujolais
Château Constantin-Chevalier in Provence
Domaine du Grand Mayne in the Côtes de Duras, South West France

For more info see