2 March 2010

Best Value Selection January 2010

It’s easy to make a mistake in complex calculations when the calculations involve the rate at which wine is consumed.

Given the fact that late January and early February seem to be prime touring time for overseas acts, and also happens to coincide with the brunt of a North Queensland summer/wet season I began to think the Little House of Concrete would be a good place to be away from in February 2010.

After all, had we been able to afford tickets, the same period a year earlier would have provided opportunities to catch Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Jeff Beck. Uncertainties associated with the Global Financial Crunch meant that sort of extravagance was out of the question, even when free accommodation in Southport was taken into account.

Two concert tickets, transfers to and from Brisbane, a night's accommodation and sundry associated expenses wouldn't going to leave much change out of $600, but, I thought, there'll be a similar set of touring acts next year, and I'll be able to afford a little more extravagance then.

The suggestion that we might be able to head south in late January went down well with Madam, and the trip was pencilled into the itinerary back in April. Fortunately, as will be revealed, she decided that it would be appropriate to drive rather than fly.

Predictably, the anticipated influx of overseas acts failed to arrive, but I set about planning for the trip undeterred by disappointment.

As noted elsewhere there's a little problem when it comes to ordering wine. Too many wineries that deserve Hughesy's custom, and a restriction on the rate at which bottles can disappear from the wine rack.

In the end we'd decided that the trip south would involve around three dozen bottles in the boot, and that, combined with a few visitors over the Festive Season should mean the wine rack would be close to empty by the time we'd packed the three cases in the car. Predictably, the visitors failed to arrive, a couple of individuals who could have helped run the stocks down left town, and we ended up looking at four and a half cases for the boot.

That decision was made a day before I realised I'd left The Wine Society Best Value Selection out of the calculations.

Consequently we had to leave a small quantity of wine in the rack, but that'll be handy in the interval between orders being placed and the actual arrival of said stock.

Over the years the Best Value Selection has managed to deliver a number of very attractive everyday drinking wines, and my standard operating practice has been to get in early, and reorder any that particularly take my fancy.

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