By Matt Willshire, Regional Sales Manager for Majestic Commercial in the South and South East

A trip to Chile not only gives a chance to visit a beautiful country but also to learn more about wine producing in that country. I was lucky enough to have that chance in March, where a group of Majestic-teers went out to visit Chilean wine producers, Concha y Toro.

What is really impressed me was the different regional characteristics to be found. The central valleys of Chile, such as Maipo and Colchagua are well known for their red wine production. The temperate climate here is ideal for the production of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyards being stunningly framed by the Andes mountains to the east. A bike ride through the Cono Sur vineyards at Chimbarongo was an idyllic way to get around.

By contrast we visited Limari valley, four hours drive north of Santiago, the most northerly wine producing region. Here the climate is maritime, though it is largely dry during the harvest season meaning no problems with fungal diseases. We tried some outstanding Chardonnays, Syrahs and Pinot Noirs from the Maycas de Limari range. The prospect of good quality Pinot Noir production for the future looks to be the most exciting prospect for the future here.

Yesterday in Chancellor George Osborne's Budget speech he announced there will be no additional changes to alcohol duty rates but a 2% above inflation rise in excise duties for wine and beer will be going ahead.

For further information click here to read The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (SWTA) updated Budget Report.

By Richard Milward, Regional Sales Manager for Majestic Commercial in the South West, Central England and South Wales

With Easter finally in sight, it's a great time to offer customers some wine specials. With people still very price conscious, I think getting some ideas at the £16 to £17 sell price is really important. But at the same time, it's useful to introduce some new wines that have flair and interest. So with France having a superb 2009 & 2010 vintage (and starting to look better value too) take advantage of these great spring offers.

Chateau Mont Milan Blanc 2010 Corbières

Corbières cultivation is mainly associated with red grapes, although a tiny proportion of whites such as this are also made, from Macabeu and Grenache Blanc grapes.

This wine has a soft, bright, tropical and stone fruit character, while at the same time offering a fresh crispness; a very versatile wine, great with or without food.

Our ex vat price £4.16*
Sell £16.95 delivers 70.5%GP

La Croisade Réserve Grenache 2009 Vin de Pay d’Oc

This wine comes from a selection of old vines of Grenache Noir and the vineyards benefit from the cooling breeze from the Mediterranean Sea. It shows intense and complex aromas of jammy strawberry with spicy hints of blackcurrant on the nose. While on the palate it is smooth, soft and velvety with a long and fruity aftertaste of cherry.

Our ex vat price £4.16*
Sell £17.50 delivers 71.5%GP

*Prices valid until 02/05/2011

By Alex Gittins, Regional Sales Manager for North England, North Wales, East Midlands and Scotland

To many people, Portuguese wine means Mateus Rose, unpronounceable and unrecognisable grape varieties and that thick sweet stuff you drink at Christmas. To say the countries table wine market is misunderstood would be an understatement! Portugal like its Iberian neighbour has perfect growing conditions for grapes, added to the warm climate the country also benefits from cooling influences from the Atlantic and the fabulous terrain of regions like the Douro.

Yes, we might not see the usual international varietals, but is that such a bad thing? As consumers become more aware and adventurous the prospect of another Kiwi Sauvignon or Chilean Merlot becomes a distinct turn off. And here we have the niche. Portugal has diverse regions with their own individual characters and the varieties which we can't pronounce actually make damn good wines with bags of ripe flavours and complexity.

Here at Majestic our Portuguese range is currently on offer. Here are my best buys from our range:

Pena de Pato 2007, Dao

£4.99* ex VAT

This inland region suffers cold and wet winters, but importantly a long warm and dry summer. The key varieties used here are Tinta Roriz and Touriga Nacional. This is fruit driven in style with lots of ripe red fruits with hints of minerality and savouriness, and a smooth finish. This really is stunning value and a wine that over delivers on any list in the key sub £20 price bracket.

Quinta de Azevedo, Vinho Verde, 2010

£4.50* ex VAT

'Green wine' from the Minho region of Northern Portugal - Vinho Verde wine region. The varieties used at Azevedo are Loureiro (70%) and Pedernã (aka Arinto) (30%), which both produce beautifully delicate and fragrant dry wines. With complex aromas of white and tropical fruits, citrus and white flowers. A lively wine with the typical spritz, good acidity, and an intense and fresh finish.

*Prices valid until 2nd May 2011

Alex Gittins, Majestic Commercial

by Mark Cooper, Business Development Manager for Central London

Spring is pretty much here! There I've said it, cue thunderbolts, lighting, rain and even frosts maybe!  Typical English weather pessimism aside I feel it is the time of the year when your typical customer can be easily persuaded to trade up to a glass of fizz.

This has lead me to complete a number of staff training sessions with some of my clients to ensure their staff are fully equipped with the knowledge to take full advantage of the frivolity the onset of nicer weather inspires. 

On the staff training session I devoted a lot of time going through different methods of sparkling wine production that I will leave out here (if you are interested let me know and I can email you my notes).

First up and arguably the most popular fizz of the moment, Prosecco.

Prosecco di Conegliano Valdobbiadene Extra Dry NV Italy
Lovely and light with notes of pear drops, will be great to drink on its own, but also fun to experiment with food matches to desserts.

Next up was a Cava I have a lot of affection for having met the winemaker. When you consider the amount of effort that goes into making a bottle of Cava I feel it is grossly underrated by the current market.

Codorníu Selección Raventos NV, Spain
Originally this cuvee was reserved only for the Raventos family; the founders of Codorníu.  However they release it to the market to celebrate 125 years of Cava making. Lovely soft toasty flavours, balanced perfectly with mouth watering zestiness. It is a terrific wine for the money and will partner seafood just as well as any entry level Champagne.

Laurent-Perrier Brut NV Champagne
To complete the training we tried another wine I am particularly fond of; Laurent Perrier NV. Due to the high proportion of Chardonnay used in their blend to maintain their house style from year to year, this Champagne is beautifully soft, without the rasping acidity which I think often puts people off Champagne.  This will taste great with all the classics, smoked salmon, oysters and prawns.

That was the end of the tasting session and there we go, staff equipped to sell fizz. All we need now is the spring weather.....

Mark Cooper

Last October a small group from the Commercial team headed out to sunny Spain for a what turned out to be a thoroughly educational trip to the Codorníu winery. The group lead by Commercial Sales Director Mark Reynolds saw Business Development Manager Mark Murphy and Key Account Managers Jules Winepress and Matt Davenport meet with the winemakers at Codorníu but also venture out to various wineries to taste and learn about the wines in Codorníu's and associates range plus bring a new recruit to the Commercial on-trade exclusive range which is coming to us very soon...

Matt Davenport, Key Account Manager for North England, North Wales, East Midlands and Scotland reveals what they got up to and what they all learnt from their trip to Spain.

Day 1

We arrived at Codorníu winery around 2pm (by this time Jules had just about got over the stress of the tube strikes and taxi trip to Heathrow) and straight away we were greeted by Julia Gomez, the Event Manager at Codorníu, who treated us to some much needed Codorníu Pinot Noir Sparkling Rose and Tapas, after all it was a Monday! We were then taken on an excellent tour of the winery by Winemaker Jaume Noto Aparico, and Australian born Arthur O'Connor, who is the group's most senior winemaker, overseeing all wine produced by the Codorníu Group. Our first stop was their brand new sorting bay where grapes are put into large stainless steel containers used to prepare the grapes for pressing. Whilst on our tour we were lucky enough to see the arrival of a trailer full of Parellada. We then headed for the cellars, where we hopped onto a mini train and were taken on a guided tour round some of the 30km web of underground tunnels. This was followed by a fantastic tasting of all of the Codorníu range, plus a few special edition Cavas that Arthur and his team have been experimenting with - including some single varietal sparkling wines using Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

After the tasting we headed 2 hours north to 'Raimat Castle', a beautiful building with fantastic hillside views... but quite obviously haunted!! Within six minutes the Raimat Brut Nature Cava was opened and that pretty much set the tone for the whole evening. It wasn't long before our meal in the castle was served; a 3 course meal washed down with Albarino Raimat amongst other wines. The main event for all of us was helping with the night harvest... well, I say helped, what I mean is watched! We were able to stand on top of the harvest machines and this allowed us to have a really good view of the vines being shaken and the grapes being thrown into the trailers that were being towed by tractors. Then it was time to head back to the castle where we sampled some more of Raimats wine.  This was an excellent day because we were able to see first hand what is involved in the wine making process at both Codorníu and at Raimat.

Day 2

After a somewhat creepy night sleep in the castle we all met for breakfast then headed 5 minutes down the hill to the Raimat winery. We were greeted by Monica Gonzalo, who is the Events Manager at Raimat, and Chief Viticulturist, Joan Esteve. He gave us an exceptional tour round the vineyards, explaining important viticulture techniques such as how to sexually confuse moths using special hormone filled plastic ties from Japan. Joan also explained how they use satellite images on aeroplanes and GPS technology on harvest machines to help them decide when to pick certain grapes at certain times, and where to grow vines to optimise grape quality. The tour followed with an interesting tasting hosted by Mark Nairn, the Head Winemaker at Raimat.  This was held in a specially designed tasting room, and was followed by another fantastic tapas meal. Just as we were about to leave, we bizarrely discovered that they even had a vineyard above the main Raimat building.

We headed three hours west to Rioja where we stayed in the beautiful town of Haro. After checking into our hotel we all decided to have a Sherry in a café in the town square before heading back to the hotel for our meal. The hotel restaurant was simply superb with high ceilings, posh cutlery and more importantly a 35 page wine list. Adam treated us to some real gems, including Codorníu's Reina Cristina Cava, Raimat Chardonnay, Bodegas Bilbainas La Vicalanda Reserva Rioja, La Vicalanda Gran Reserva Rioja and a magnum of Vina Pomal Reserva Rioja. The quality of the food was exceptional and we had a fantastic night.

Day 3

The next morning came round rather too quickly, but we were all looking forward to our tour around Bodegas Bilbainas. We were greeted by our tour guide, Mabel Oyono and Chief Viticulturist Natalie Olarte who took us around their vineyards. On our tour we were adorned with aprons and secateurs, and invited to pick some grapes - which isn't as easy as it sounds, because within each row of vines there are grapes of varying quality, so all of the grapes have to be handpicked and grouped separately. They group the grapes in three different quality categories; A, B and C. Category A is for the La Vicanda Reserva and Gran Reserva, Category B is for the Pomal Range and C is for the Vina Zaco and Crianza wines. The skill is to try and distinguish what is classed as an A grape and what is classed as B grapes and believe me, they look almost identical but they do taste completely different. Category A grapes are small but very concentrated and Category B grapes are slightly bigger and less concentrated. That's why it's so important that the right grapes are used for the right wines, and that’s why Natalie tries to have the same team of pickers year after year, because they really understand exactly what is required. Many of the pickers and winery employees have worked in these vineyards for years, and many are related which is why there is a real sense of community within Bilbainas. What's also interesting is the variation in soil types within such a small area. We found sand based soil in one area and right next to it will be a more gravelly, stony soil which inevitably affects the style of wine they produce.

After visiting a few more vineyards (and tucking a delicious Chorizo and Cava stew, washed down with a glass of Vina Zaco), we headed to the winery where we met Diego Pinilla, Head Winemaker at Bilbainas. He guided us through the winery where we were lucky enough to taste some grape juice (destined for their top wine, La Vicanda) which had only been pressed the day before, and therefore was alcohol free (because fermentation takes four days to begin). We were also able to try the same juice at 3 days old (and almost ready for fermentation), and then some which had been fermenting for 2 days which was 5% ABV, so this gave us the opportunity to compare and monitor the development. This was a fantastic learning experience as we saw wine being made before our eyes.

A quick tour of the cellars took us through to a tasting room where we sampled the range (including the new on-trade exclusive Rioja Crianza San Millan) then finished, naturally, with another excellent tapas lunch. Perhaps enjoying ourselves a little too much meant that we were suddenly a fair bit behind schedule, so we made a quick dash to the airport and luckily made it with 2 minutes to spare!

The whole trip was incredibly well organised and we all learnt so much. We'd like to say a big thank you to all the Winemakers, Viticulturists and Event Managers who spared us some of their valuable time. And last but not least we'd like to say a huge thank you to our host Adam Baggott at Codorníu, for all his hard work during our visit (and for all the driving he did!) This was one of the best wine trips we've been on and fun was had by all.

Matt Davenport