Monday 2 January 2012
There's a problem when you're relocating website material from one site to another and the new layout doesn't quite coincide with the old one. Needing a couple of introductions to pages devoted to Baileys of Glenrowan, Brook Eden and Pfeiffer Wines, given the commonality of a Wine Club membership at each establishment it made sense to look at what prompted the move into the Wine Club. There are, after all, a number of places on these pages, and many of them have wine clubs that Hughesy didn't join. In two of these cases - Brook Eden and Pfeiffer - the Cellar Door experience was such that having heard of the existence of a wine club I had no hesitation about signing up.
Baileys, being part of the corporate entity currently known as Treasury Wine Estates, is the kind of operation I tend to shy away from. Baileys of Glenrowan is, on the other hand, fondly remembered from the pre-Treasury era, when the winemaker's name was Harry J. Tinson and the flagship wine was the HJT Liqueur Muscat. I'd been there, enjoyed the first visit and had been looking forward to going back.
The return visit was impressive, but there was no mention of a Wine Club, and I placed my details on the Mailing List form without thinking much more about it. I'd probably be in touch for some Muscat and Topaque, and the odd bottle of hearty red, wouldn't I? That was the plan until I noted Baileys was one of the properties TWE's predecessor had decided to sell off.
At that point I hadn't got around to buying, but shortly thereafter the 1870s Club flyer arrived and I sat down pondering things.
If the place was up for sale, and there was an interested buyer with a genuine interest in quality wine (the syndicate that has subsequently taken over Seppeltsfield, for example) the size of the direct marketing Wine Club might just be a tipping point in the decision making.
So I signed up, public minded citizen that I am.
A regular supply of some of my favourite fortifieds and quality reds might also have had a bit to do with it...