Putting it into perspective
Going to the bottle shop is all very well, but, from time to time your average wine lover feels the need to track down wines that are different from the standard fare on offer at the bottle-oh.
While the list could have been arranged alphabetically, I decided to arrange the entries in this section of the site chronologically, starting with my earliest experiences with mail order wine and adding new wineries as I place orders through a mailing list, wine club or web site.
I’d been aware of The Rothbury Estate from the early stages of my interest in wine, and while I can’t remember what persuaded me to sign up, the eighties and nineties saw a steady stream of tasting packs lob on my doorstep. That incarnation of Rothbury is long gone and probably much lamented (at least it is in these parts). Its demise has been a significant element in shaping my attitude to corporate winemaking.
The opportunity to try wines from different producers prompted me to sign up for the Hunter Valley Wine Society in the early eighties. Economic factors brought that arrangement to a close a few years later, but the experience was enough to prompt me to join The Wine Society after the Little House of Concrete was completed in 1997.
Our visit to Victoria over the 2006-2007 New Year period introduced another option (the wine club associated with a particular winery ) and subsequent visits to northern Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia have been carried out while scanning the horizon for something that might be worth signing up for. Given my location in northern Queensland, the most attractive options offer freight-free delivery, but where that’s not an option the discount offered on purchases is often enough to offset the cost of freight.
With automatic deliveries from the Pfeiffer, Brook Eden, Baileys of Glenrowan and Hay Shed Hill options in the sidebar and regular reorders from Tahbilk you’d probably be thinking Hughesy doesn’t need any more Wine Clubs, but there’s always room for maybe just one more, assuming there’s something interesting on offer...