BlogGrog

Young and Saunders, Edinburgh

Back in the day (1970s) this was the place to buy. Then it became Oddbins, where I worked in the 1990s. What a shop. I love the prices too! CLICK FOR LARGER RESOLUTION

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Richard’s Christmas Article 2021

Edinburgh is looking very busy in the centre of town this year. Glasgow has cancelled its Christmas market and this could be a factor as to why Edinburgh is so busy. The “scaled back” Edinburgh Christmas market is alarmingly crowded. It is not for me…

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Christmas Looms on the horizon

Our new Christmas list is back from the printers and has been posted to everyone who has bought a skelp of wine from us this year. It is a very shiny example of amateur production, although I think we are actually getting better at it…

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Gluten Free Wine

It may sound like a bit of a wine trade joke: “do you have any gluten free wines?” This is definitely something that we have been asked in Great Grog. Unlike beer (made from grains) wine is generally naturally gluten free (it being made from…

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Sunshine tipples

Ten or so days of consistent sunshine and heat! Is everyone ok? Everyone remember their sun-cream? I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced such consistently glorious weather in this country and I hope everyone has made the most of it. Now, weather such as this only calls…

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pallets

Bexit Bites

sounds like a new healthy snack consisting of a breaded, deep-fried outer shell filled with a weirdly pink sludge made from “mechanically recovered pig meat”, but no, it’s more of a product pickle (am I allowed to mention Richmond pork sausages here? Probably not). We…

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Nebbiolo – Tar and Roses

Notos Nebbiolo £13.29 If you are yet to try a wine from Uruguay, you will be hard pressed (pun intended) to get a better starting point than this wine. Nebbiolo is the grape variety behind the top-quality red wines of Piedmont, north-western Italy, the most…

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Ah…Shocking Sauvignon Shortage! 

Ah…Shocking Sauvignon Shortage!    …..as Sean Connery almost definitely never said, (but it does sound better in his accent). It may indeed come as a bit of a shock to fans of this green & grassy elixir to hear that New Zealand’s 2021 harvest will…

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Brand Wine

The top wine brands in wine for last year have just been announced and two top contenders globally were Yellowtail (Australia) and Barefoot (USA). They have both been enormously successful in attracting wine drinkers and are produced in quantities measured in the tens of millions…

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Diminishing Diversity

Brexit seems like a long time ago when so much is going on in the world, but it is really starting to have an effect on the wine trade and in what we are going to get to drink on the domestic market. Foreign travel…

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gobillard vintage rose

Tickled Pink. Rose in the sun and snow.

 click for video Weirdly, making Rose Prosecco was illegal for the last few years. The "Prosecco" regulator thought it caused consumer confusion (and to be honest, we are easily confused). It is back now, since 2020, with a bang (or is that pop?). Rose Champagne…

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simon

Za Za Zoom: Wine Tasting in the Covid Age

Za Za Zoom……Wine in the Covid Age What a difference a year makes. This time last year we as an independent wine merchant had a programme of tastings booked in for the year, mostly for 30 folk in a room with a theme or guest-hosted…

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port

Finish the Fino and Pass the Port

Festive Fancies I think I’m going to have to drink more Port and Sherry this year than in previous years. Not necessarily because I want to, but because I feel obliged as they are such good sharing drinks and I’m going to pretend to share….…

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