“Natural wine” is THE buzz word in the wine trade at the moment. It is everywhere and everybody is talking about it, but does it deserve so much coverage and publicity? After all, it’s just wine as it used to be, before wine production became a global business, isn’t it?

If you’re looking for delicious natural wines at sensible prices and want to skip this article click here.

For centuries (and still now in remote areas like Sicily and Puglia) farmers in Mediterranean countries were making wines this way for home and local consumption. They didn’t add chemicals and preservatives or use artificial yeasts to enhance aromas and flavours, basically because they didn’t have any. They had a field of vines, a shed and some basic wooden barrels and that was about it. But then again, when we look more closely at these people they have a very long life span, still fit and active into their 90s. For many wine was a staple drink, drunk at breakfast from a mug and throughout the day. A soft drink was basically wine with some added water. Is their logevity down to exercise and good diet alone (as they ate fresh food and had to work the fields to produce it)? I have both Italian and French friends who’s grandparents and great uncles and aunts used to drink four litres of wine a day, every day, and lived till they were touching 100. Yet the BMA announced a few months ago that 1 glass of wine a day can cause cancer! I don’t think so (their research was completely flawed). In fact Dr Phil Norrie who is both an eminent well published physician with over 30 years experience researching the link between wine and health, and also a winemaker himself, will happily explain to you the numerous health benefits of drinking good wine every day in his research papers here. It is a fascinating read that will make you feel good about enjoying a glass of good wine! Natural wines won’t cause cancer, but I do believe this mass produced stuff with a myriad of added chemicals can do. Sulphites, used as preservatives in a host of food and most wines, have been linked with the rapid rise in throat and abdominal cancers, and of course the soaring asthma rate in the developed world. 

So we can clearly see why so many people are now searching for natural wines – they’re clearly a healthier option than many of the mass produced alternatives. Obviously we thought we were already onto healthy wines with “organic” and then biodynamic, but the rise of natural wines has exposed the rather unpleasant truth here. “Organic” in the EU only certifies the grape growing and producers are still free to play fast and loose with plenty of chemical additives (up to 80 different chemicals including a large helping of sulphites). And even biodynamic certified producers are free to add sulphites to their wines. The sad truth is both EU organic, and biodynamic wines are not necessarily any healthier than many other non certified wines. At present USA certified organic wines are not allowed to add sulphites but there is legislation pending to change this. So if you want natural healthy wines you’re safer opting for “natural wine” but be careful it is genuinely so.

The recent Natural Wine Fare at Borough Market has received very mixed reviews. Some hale it as a great success for the artisan producer. Others claim it is a publicity stunt for a handful of companies who are trying to dominate this market in the UK (at very unrealistic prices!). One certain company represents the majority of exhibitors, with the rest represented by another 3 or 4 companies. All in all I thought the wines on show were very poor. Of the 100 or so exhibitors I only found 4 who didn’t add sulphur to their wines – so to me that means the other 96 are not natural – and of these I only found 3 wines which were even drinkable (two were actually very good). But they were all horrendously expensive. It seems from this show that we are supposed to believe that all natural wines have to cost this much, and that having one that actually tastes nice is a bonus!

Yet before the term “natural wine” became the in thing this year, I was drinking stunning natural wines made without the addition of any sulphur, or any other chemicals, and at sensible prices starting below £10 per bottle. My own personal judgement aside, were they any good? 3 made it into the Rhone top 100 wines, and one white was even voted “best white wine in the Rhone Valley” by food critic Michel Brittan, so yes they are damned good wines in their own right. If you want to buy delicious natural wines, chemical and sulphite free, at realistic prices click here.

It is important that natural wine is discussed openly and made available to those who choose to buy it. But it is up against a lot of behind the scenes resistance from global wine companies who fear it will dent sales of their “organic” wines. Also just as much damage can be done to it’s reputation by these other natural wine importing companies charging exhorbitant prices and putting it on a metaphorical pedestal as something wonderful and heroic - although it may taste like vegetable soup! Let’s forget the marketing blurb designed to line the pockets of these companies and just be honest. Delicious natural wine is a great thing - let’s have plenty more of it. Poor tasting natural wine may be a labour of love from the producer but is still poor wine. It should be dropped like a hot potato, not doubled in price and sold as an antiquity.

Natural wines are quickly gaining in popularity, but is this just a new fad? The latest in  “green” credentials for wines and winemakers? Or are natural wines genuinely being appreciated for their natural taste, aroma and balance, over normal wines which have been artificially manipulated to achieve an end result?

There are plenty of people no doubt who are happy to enjoy a glass of wine because they like the taste (and the effect), who do not care if it is made with natural yeast, or whether chemicals are added. After all most foods contain artificial additives so why should they be bothered about how their wine is made?

But there is also a quickly growing movement of people who want to consume natural, healthy produce as nature intended, without harmful additives. Farmers’ markets and independent delicatessens are thriving, selling quality handmade produce. And this is also true in the wine world.

I have been a fan of natural wines for a long time, and I’m always keen to learn and try new experiences. I’ve just returned from a very short trip to France (Rhone/Languedoc) where I was fortunate to taste some stunning natural wines, and also unfortunate to have to drink some mass produced over chemicalled plonk in a couple of cafes. I used to be able to drink this stuff without a problem but I found this time I simply couldn’t drink it – despite a hefty 7 Euros a glass price tag! I could really taste and feel the sulphur – it was like drinking a chemical cocktail! I believe the more natural your diet becomes, the more your body rejects artificial foods (and drinks!). The thought of going to the pub to watch the six nations “with the lads” and drinking six pints of UK brewed lager fills me with dread. “Why not come to my house and have some decent wine instead…..?” It ends up costing me a fortune of course but at least I’m not ill all day on the Sunday.

“Normal” wine (I’ll use white wines as an example here) is generally produced using manufactured strains of yeast which artificially enhance aromas, and flavours on the initial palate. You pour the first glass of Sauvignon and get that big hit of gooseberry on the nose, then on first sip you get intense flavour. However the sulphur then kicks in and dulls the end palate, so you take another sip and it refreshes the taste buds for a moment, but then fades again. But overall it’s a pleasant enough experience, and it’s what we’re all used to.

Natural wne is different. It’s made with natural yeast which works in almost exactly the opposite way. On the nose the wine is nothing remarkable – in fact it can smell slightly oxidised. Sip the wine and you’ll get the true flavours but they won’t be big and aggressive, more subtle. But then you notice the lack of sulphur – it doesn’t kill the end palate and you can still taste the wine. You begin to savour it, then you notice the overall balance of the wine, the lack of added tartric acid on the finish so there is no “afterburn”. It’s simply a lasting concentrated true flavour of the grape. Then you take another sip and this magnifies the initial experience. I found myself virtually unable to stop drinking it. It felt like a delicious healthy tonic! But then I was drinking Philippe Viret’s Amphora white, 100% Viognier fermented in traditional clay amphoras, as used in Roman times. Domaine Viret is a dedicted producer of natural artisan wines. Philippe is pioneering his amphora method in France with some incredible results. He then casually mentioned I couldn’t buy any of the wine as he only makes it for a few “special” customers as he only has very small plantings of Viognier. The wine is all pre sold at least a year in advance.

However we then moved onto his Amphora red, 100% Mouverdre – it was just spectacular. I didn’t dare ask if I could buy any as I doubt I could afford it! I was then whisked off for a BBQ with Christophe, who produced only natural wines throughout the evening. We started with a delicious pale rose, then moved onto another 100% Viognier. It was lovely. Christophe then casually mentioned I couldn’t buy any of that either as the producer only makes 900 bottles which sell for 40 Euros a bottle each – to trade. It was a great evening, we drank a fair bit and had a lovely meal in great company. However we woke the next morning completely fresh, raring to go, not even the faintest hint of a hangover or lethargy (well I’m not exactly lightning in the morning, but I was even more lively than usual).

I then travelled round a few other villages and took a glass of rose in two cafes, both of which tasted OK flavourwise, but the heavy, viscous style and the chemical aftertaste put me right off. I longed to be back to natural wines.

Philippe Viret has plans to expand his production of amphora fermented wines, which is great news. With luck we will be able to buy them in the UK in a year or so. In the meantime check out his other excellent natural, chemical and sulphur free wines from www.goodwineonline.co.uk

Natural wine is experiencing a surge in popularity at present, for all the right reasons. But beware! – if you are sensitive to sulphites and other additives in your wines you need to be very very careful if you plan to rely on “natural wines” as a healthier alternative to standard wines.

Natural wine has no official definition, or any definitive requirements. It relies on ethical producers who claim their wines to be natural, made with minmal intervention. This is a grey area of course which could be easily exploited, but that isn’t the biggest danger!

The biggest danger with natural wine is the lack of understanding from the people involved in the trade importing and retailing it. Natural wine is a new phenomena, and even the small independent farmers who make it have such massively varying criteria, how can any UK retailer even begin to understand the similarities between the various wines, let alone the significant differences.

Is organic wine natural wine? How about biodynamic then? I get so many importers telling me “it must be low in sulphur because it is biodynamically certified”  – which is a load of rubbish, but just shows how little these people involved in the trade actually know. Biodynamic wines are permitted to have 90 mg’l of sulphur added – that is not “natural” by anybody’s definition!

But most retailers rely on the importer’s information when purchasing wines. And there’s nothing like a biodynamic certificate to add weight to the salesman’s argument that it must be a natural wine! Hence the retailer lists the wine and advertises it as “natural”.

For example Artisan and Vine are a “natural” wine shop in London and I browsed their website recently. But they sell mass produced wines (possibly certified biodynamic) which contain enough sulphites to give a sensitive person a severe allergic reaction – I know because I have seen somebody have such a reaction to this particular range of wines. This isn’t A&V’s fault – they’ve bought the wines in good faith unaware they contain significant levels of sulphur (still lower than factory produced wines of course, but not as low as you’d want from a natural wine). As they clearly aren’t allergic to sulphur themselves they have no way of knowing these wines are not as natural as they’re made out to be.

Personally I’m all for natural wines, and have been for a long time before the term was even invented. But it’s clear there’s a need to clarify the term and give stringent criteria to what qualifies and what doesn’t.

Until that day comes, the safest option is to go for sulphite free wines which have no sulphites or other chemicals added. Most are expensive, many are an acquired taste, but there are a  a few which are delicious in their own right and naturally good for you such as Domaine Viret from France and Frey Vineyards from California. Check out www.goodwineonline.co.uk for the some of the nicest (and best priced) sulphite free wines available.

Natural wines are attracting a lot of attention at present from both the press and wine drinkers looking for a genuinely healthy option. Until recently organic was in fashion, which subsequently gave way to biodynamic.

So if we were already drinking genuinely healthy organic biodynamic wines, why has this latest style of natural wines appeared?

The truth is perhaps not what we would like to hear! Put simply we weren’t drinking healthy wines in the first place. Organic status was originally developed with all the right motives, to provide us with healthy well made wines with minimal additives. Unfortunately organic status became a victim of it’s own success, and was subsequently hijacked by the global wine companies who saw it as a powerful marketing tool.  In the EU wines are labelled as “wine produced from organically grown grapes” and it is ONLY THE GRAPE GROWING which is certified as organic. During the actual winemaking process chemicals are permitted to be added including large quantities of harmful preservatives including sulphites. So these big companies simply buy in some cheap organically grown grapes then vinify them, add a large dash of chemicals, then market them as “organic”!

Even biodynamic wines are permitted to add up to 90 mg/l of sulphur, so these wines are no healthier than any other. So the “natural wine” movement was born. Ethical producers who wanted to make wines with minmal intervention and virtually no added chemicals, sugars or synthetic yeasts. However there is no official legal status for natural wines, and there is no set of rules for what qualifies and what doesn’t.

Now would you believe the very same global wine companies who peddled their inferior wines  using the terms organic and biodynamic, are now objecting to the natural wine movement saying as there is no regulation, anything could be put into these wines! Now that is the pot calling the kettle black!

Clearly they are concerned that the natural wine movement may take trade away from them, as they know that these wines cannot be mass produced in their own factories on a commercial scale.

Are natural wines any good?

I have just attended the UK’s first natural wine fare in Borough Market this weekend where I tasted over 100 wines, cherry picking what I was told were the best. And my conclusion sadly is “no” - many that were at the fare are not good! But on the other hand I have tasted a few natural wines recently which are very good indeed.  It seems this natural wine fare was organised by a small group of specialist UK importers featuring producers who they already represent. As with all types of wine, it is not always the best examples that are marketed in the UK. I personally thought these wines were very poor taste wise, and as a wine lover I simply wouldn’t want to drink them. I wish I could truthfully say different as I’m a big fan of wines made properly without chemicals.

Most natural wines (but by no means all) are pretty poor in taste (but are healthy). Most are very sensitive and prone to storage problems. And they’re nearly all VERY expensive. At present most producers tend to be idealists (some are way out hippies!) looking to produce as natural a product as possible rather than a wine designed to suit the UK palate. I did find one sulphur free red which was decent, but cost an astronimcal £19 plus VAT per bottle to buy trade! Including VAT on the sales price it would have to retail for upward of £30.

However there is one natural wine producer who is fantastic, making top class affordable wines.

Domaine Viret in the Rhone Valley – you may remember them from the Oz and James episode where Oz called their wines cosmic nectar? Philippe Viret has had 3 red wines listed in the Rhone top 100 and his white, La Coudee D’Or, was voted the best white wine in the Rhone Valley by food and wine critic Michael Bretton. This is up against all wines, not just other natural ones!

Philippe has his own system called cosmoculture which surpasses biodynamic. Everything on the vineyard is completely natural without any form of chemical whatsoever. His wines are frankly delicious and extremely good for you – drinking good red wine EVERY DAY in moderation is actually extremely beneficial healthwise. Read about the many benefits including prevention of cancer and vascular disease here.

Philippe’s wines are available in the UK through www.goodwineonline.co.uk and are very competitively priced – certainly when compared to other natural wines! They start below £10 per bottle, with some of Philippe’s extremely rare 1999s and 2000 vintages costing around £35. That’s basically the same price as any decent Chateauneuf.

If you want to try natural wines I strongly recommend trying Domaine Viret wines. Quite simply they are some of the very best available, and the best value. I have also tried a few excellent natural wines from tiny producers in the Rhone and Languedoc regions, but these are made in such miniscule amounts (some only 500 bottles!) that they are not commercially available, only sold to friends and family.

Just on another note, I also tried the highly publicised Stellar organics “no added sulphur” range from South Africa including their brand new Pinotage, at the London International Wine Fare. They were hideous! We tried the Merlot and Cab Sauv too, and all 3 were undrinkable! I was highly amused as trade photographers like to slink through the crowd taking clandestine snaps of people tasting, and one guy got me just as I tasted the Merlot and virtually spat it straight back out. I wonder if that picture will make it into any of the glossies? 

Just because a wine doesn’t have sulphur added doesn’t make it “natural”. It is just as much about the use of natural rather than artificail strains of yeast, and the addition of other substances including sugars. Don’t believe these Stellar wines are remotely natural – they are not!

Trying to produce wines with no sulphur on an industrial scale (so they can be retailed at comparable prices to wines containing sulphur) just does not work. Stellar Organics is all the proof we need of that! I wouldn’t bath my cat in it (although it tastes like somebody else already has!).

SIBA South West Beer Competition – The Forge Brewery has won the Champion Beer of the show for the 2nd year in succession – with a different beer this year, beating 260 other beers. Full results available here. You may remember I wrote an article on it’s remarkable achievement of winning last year, plus winning Silver in it’s category at the SIBA National Finals.

Why is this remarkable?

Quite simply because The Forge Brewery is a one man band! And has only been in existence for 4 years. It is Dave Lang, some 2nd hand equipment and a lot of hard work. And it is beating all comers, from established micro breweries to some of the major players like St Austell with multi million pound investment behind them.

Last year Dave won the Trophy for Best Beer at the show for his delicious Lighthouse ale (4.3% abv). His Lighthouse took Gold in it’s category again this year, plus Gold in it’s category in the bottled ale section but failed to take the Trophy this year – because it was beaten by one of Dave’s other beers, his Handsome 5.1%! (It did still wine the Bronze Medal for best overall beer though!)

As you can imagine this has stirred up a hornet’s nest amongst the big players wondering how he has achieved such remarkable results. There is one Devon theory that it must be down to fairy dust from a nest of fairies at the bottom of the garden, but I think it’s more likely due to Dave’s diligence, sheer hard work and a real pride and passion in what he is producing. Funny how these big brewers didn’t come up with that conclusion themselves though!

I find myself writing about this on a predominantly wine website because of the similarites with wine. Here is somebody working hard to produce a quality product with real pride, just as many small winemakers do. They face the same problems in a market dominated by inferior mass produced brands with millions in their marketing budget – (which should have been spent on quality ingredients in the first place!) . It’s great to see the resurgence in micro breweries, which also sends out a message to the big players that the consumer is not prepared to put up with inferior beer any more. The same is happening with wine all over the country, but sadly I doubt we will ever be given the option to buy good quality, well made wines in the supermarkets and multiples, and sadly in the majority of the off trade too. But at least for those of us who are interested, now we can all find a quality online wine merchant and enjoy the wines we want to at home.

 I’ve tasted both the Handsome and Lighthouse, and they are both absolutely delicious (and pure!). However Dave has also tipped me off that he has produced a new pale ale that he says is by far his best beer yet! Unfortunately though, as a small operation with so much success already, he simply cannot produce enough beer to satisfy the local market, let alone enough to export it “up country”. I had planned a wine tour of South Africa for my summer holidays this year, but it looks like I will have to have a fortnight in Devon instead!

Seriously though if you are headed out that way this summer, look out for The Forge beers. A great place to try them from my own personal experience is the Westleigh Inn, at Westleigh on the outskirts of Bideford. Duncan does excellent food too! (Duncan – Free steak pie next time I’m down there for writing this!)

Wine is permitted by law to have upto around 80 different chemicals added. The EU lawmakers justify this by saying that wine is such a wide and varied subject with thousands of different grape varieties, unlimited different microclimates, weather patterns, producers, production methods……..that they need the flexibility to use these chemicals to help correct potential problems. Unfortunately the truth is that cheap, mass produced wines are full of these chemicals and contain high levels of sulphites which are believed to cause mouth, throat and abdominal cancers as well as asthma of course. So no mass produced wine is good for you. In fact they are likely to all be very bad for you! That horrendous hangover isn’t caused by the alcohol – it is caused by the cocktail of chemicals in the wine. If it makes you feel that bad consider what harm it must actually be doing to your body. Drink some sulphite free wine (in moderation) and you will wake up without a hangover and actually feel healthy in the morning.

So which wine is actually good for you?

5. Reduced blood pressure (15)

6. Antiseptic due to alcohol and more importantly polyphenols (16)

7. Increases morale and appetite – nursing home and hospital patients (25) + (5)

8. Wine contains Quercetin, Resveratrol and Epicatechin, which are Nature’s most

Potent antioxidants and also act as anti-carcinogens (17)

9. Reduction in colds / URTI by up to 85% (18)

10. Diabetes reduced by up to 50% because the antioxidants reduce insulin resistance.

Dry wine best alcoholic drink that is allowed with diabetes as all the sugar has

been converted to alcohol.(19)

11. Reduced gallstones by up to 30% (20)

12. Reduced kidney stones by up to 39% (21)

13. Reduced Alzheimer’s disease and mult infarct (stroke) forms of dementia by up to

80%(7)

14. Reduced Parkinson’s disease (22)

15. Improved digestion (5)

16. Reduced H. Pylori infection of the stomach and duodenum leading to reduced

Ulcers (23)

17. Improved physical and intellectual condition in the elderly (7)

18. Reduced Hepatitis A (24)

19. Reduced stress and depression (25)

20. Reduced essential tremor (26)

21. Reduced tooth decay (27)

22. Reduced cancer of the prostate by upto 50%

 Read Dr Phil’s full article here (4 pages)

However the vast majority of red wines, even the expensive ones, still have chemicals added - sulphites in particular. Even EU Organic wine, legally labelled as “wine made from organically grown grapes” as it is only the actual grape growing which is certified, still has chemicals including sulphites added at the winemaking stage. And would you believe so do BIODYNAMIC certified wines! They are permitted to contain up to 90 mg/l of sulphites!

How do you find a good red wine which doesn’t contain these sulphites?

SoLo S02 Navitas is a sulphite free red wine made without the addition of any chemical substances at any stage right from the planting of the original vines, right through to the bottling of the wine. It is 100% natural – but also a beautiful wine in it’s own right. Due to the unique methods used in the vineyard and in the cellar SoLo S02 Navitas is packed full of natural anti oxidants and is very possibly THE healthiest wine available anywhere. You can buy it from specialist low sulphite/sulfite free wine online retailer www.goodwineonline.co.uk who have a good selection of great tasting, healthy sulphite free wines. They offer a case deal on the SoLo S02 Navitas.

Update 23rd March 2012

Solo are about to launch their much anticipated white wine in the UK at last! “Aurum Natura” (natural gold) is a blend of 65% Chardonnay, 30% Marsanne and 5% Viognier. It’s made from grapes grown on vineyards which have never used any chemicals. The wine was made without any chemical intervention too, except for a tiny splash of sulphites (only 6% of the permitted level!) at bottling to retain the wine’s natural acidity.Solo Aurum Natura is a pure, natural wine with delicious full fruit flavours and a crisp acidity on the dry finish – the first wine of it’s kind anywhere. It’s also vegan friendly and gluten free, and is perfectly safe even for sulphite intolerant people. It’s available to buy online from www.goodwineonline.co.uk

One glass of wine or one pint of beer a day can cause cancer – that is the headline on the news today, and is the biggest load of crap I’ve heard in a long time. Again the media are using sensationalist headlines to grab attention, at the expense of real informative journalism.

Before you read any more let me explain that good wine has many health benefits and will actually help prevent cancer (and other diseases). If you want the facts on the subject rather than the sensational headlines and media spin, read Dr Phil Norrie’s revealing factual report here.

The British Medical Journal has published a report based on research carried out by a large group of leading medical scientists who spent millions researching drinking habits across tens of thousands of people in Europe. They came up with this ludicrous conclusion. No doubt in their report it will have been written suggestively “according to our research….may lead to….in certain people….” etc, which the media will have seized on and pulled out their definitive headline! The report goes into great detail about the individuals and their habits from smoking and diet to Body Mass Index, and even many factors as bizare as whether they had ever used oral contraception! However the one key factor they clearly didn’t consider also happens to be the most important factor in the whole investigation – what did they actually drink!

To include all alcoholic drinks under one umbrella shows complete professional incompetence, and a general lack of understanding about the drinks industry and the vast array of different ingredients involved. The obvious common denominator in their research was “alcohol” so they’ve concluded (wrongly!) that it is alcohol which causes the problem. This is like researching everybody who has ever eaten a pie, then because some people have some reactions, concluding it must be the one common denominator – the  pastry - that is bad for you! All those years ago when I was in school studying chemistry we were told that finding a common link between substance and reaction was not enough, we had to find definite proof. It would seem that’s all changed then?

For those of you who may not know, wines are permitted to have up to 80 different chemiclas added, and many of the mass produced ones do contain a huge amount! In fact they are more chemical than wine! Even EU “Organic” wines and Biodynamic certified wines are permitted to add chemicals including the one that is genuinely believed to cause cancer (and asthma) – sulphites. However there are a number of well made natural wines which contain no chemical additives whatsoever, and are sulphur free. How can a professional medical body not distinguish between the two for such important medical research?

Then take a look at beer. UK brewed lagers (and even real ales) brewed on a large scale by the major breweries all have large quantities of sulphites (and other chemicals) added as a preservative. But opt for a German Pilsner brewed to the purity laws and there are none. Or have a pint from a good micro brewery and it will also likely be chemical free. How can these be compared like for like? How bad a head do you get after a couple of pints of UK brewed Stella? But have a few bottles of the Belgian one which is more or less pure……

Then take a look at PPS – “alcopops” to you and me. They are made in factories by blending different chemicals!!! I’ve watched some being made and they didn’t even have any fruit basis to them, just different tanks of chemical! Cheap spirits are the same – just a blend of cheap chemicals and industrial alcohol.

All these drinks contain significant amounts of sulphites – a preservative which killed 30 people in the USA at just one salad bar! The World Health Organisation has recommended getting rid of them finally, after the Centre for Scientific Research in the Public Interest recommended banning them in the 1970s – and were suitably ignored of course!

Sulphites are widely used on a massive scale in the food and drink industry as a preservative. They’re in virtually all mass produced drinks, alcoholic and many soft drinks like fruit juices, as well as in seafood, processed meats, crisps, dried fruits, potato products…..the list is endless, which is exactly why nobody will openly admit these sulphites cause mouth, throat and abdominal cancers as well as asthma. The truth is industry doesn’t have a viable alternative so they’re trying to keep a lid on things till one can be found. Have you noticed now, all the foods (particularly own brands) in the supermarket are converting QUIETLY to “no added preservatives”. If I was a supermarket converting all these foods for the benefit of my customers I’d want them to know I was going to this extra trouble and expense for them, wouldn’t I? Do we conclude they’re keeping it quiet for a reason? McDonalds now iuses only organic milk – did we know that?

Winemaker Dr Phil Norrie has discovered an alternative to sulphites but it is still a long way from being ready on a commercial scale. RESVERATROL  which occurs naturally in grape skins, is nature’s most powerful anti oxidant and is actively good for you. However the EU has blocked import of Dr Phil’s Resveratrol enhanced wines into the UK for the last three years! However Nestle Pharmaceutical have given him massive financial backing to develop Resveratrol as they can see the widespread opportunities for a beneficial healthy preservative in foods and medicines, rather than one that actively poisons people.

Dr Phil has been researching the health benefits of wine for the last 30 years and has had many articles widely published.  He states that “people who regularly drink (in moderation) good red wine are less likely to die of any cause”. That is in part because they contain natural anti oxidants in the tannins that help combat the free radicals in the body that cause cancer. Good red wines also contain various other natural substances which are beneficial too, as well as the alcohol which taken in moderation is also beneficial as a relaxant and to destress.

So in complete contradiction to the headline above, good red wine is not only not bad for you, it is actively good for you and actually helps PREVENT cancer, not cause it! Just steer well clear of the mass produced rubbish pumped full of chemicals! That goes for wines, spirits, beers and even foods as well.

I suggest you save this article – in 10 years time we will look back and question why something wasn’t done now, and big industry will plead ignorance as their defence.  Mark my words!

Buy gourmet meats online? Order gourmet sausages, steaks, burgers online for home delivery? YES –  that is exactly what people are now doing from companies like www.westingourmet.co.uk  I put it down to a combination of factors – the credit crunch, the success of TV programmes like Come Dine With Me and Masterchef, and even the widely publicised M&S meal deals where two people can eat for £10 – so long as they only have pensioner size appetites of course (a meal deal for 2 just about fills me up and I give the wine to the mother in law, and drink something decent from the cellar!)

Dining in is the new going out, there is no doubt about that. Restaurant prices have always been high, partly down to high running costs and taxes, but also down to greed. Restaurateurs believe they have the right to charge astronomical mark ups on wine, and food, often aiming to make 72% gross profit on retail. The paying public have now examined their spending habits to see where they can make savings, and eating and drinking out is an obvious choice.

For £20 in a restaurant you can get a bottle of wine which would retail for £5 in a shop, but for £20 on the internet you can get a bottle of wine which would retail for £25 in a shop! You spend the same amount but you get a far superior product, and much better value….and VALUE is what the whole credit crunch has brought home. People still want to treat themselves, and don’t mind spending their hard earned money, but they won’t be ripped off any more.

We all know wine sales have been very successful on the internet and this is now the favoured method for buying quality wine for the simple reasons of widest choice, accessible info and advice, best prices and next day delivery (to save lugging it home yourself). So it is a natural progression for free thinking businesses like www.westingourmet.co.uk to extend this to offer gourmet foods online too.

So is the food any good? And is it cheaper than the supermarket or local butcher?

Firstly you will only find average meat (always bright pink which steak should not be!) and fish in the supermarket as their market, as with wines, is mass produced products in large volumes. We all perceive the supermarkets to offer value too, but then when we check the price of meat in particular we note that it’s not as cheap as we thought!

The local butcher on the other hand will offer good quality produce but prices can be high. Westin Gourmet have hit the magic middle ground – top quality but at realistic affordable prices. So how do they do it? Well the one minor drawback which is essential to make the system work, is that you have to buy in volume – not half a cow or anything like that, but in larger quantities than you would pick up from the local butcher. Perhaps a pack of 10 fillets or a dozen chicken breasts. And it makes sense to buy several items at the same time to reach £75 to qualify for free delivery. But that’s very easy to do as they offer a great range so you can pick up a roast for Sunday, a pack of sirloins for dinner on Friday night and some sausages and burgers for the kids – healthy ones, made properly with actual high meat content! The benefits are of course great value, great taste and reliable ethically produced healthy meats.

I tried a few things from www.westingourmet.co.uk. In fact I’m eating a roast beef butty as I write this, made from their 100 day matured Aussie rolled topside. It was a good size so we had to cut the joint in half, then had a roast beef on Sunday with it and I’m still eating butties today!  There were two items which stood out as sensational, although we’ve only tried a few of the meats so far, so there could be plenty more to come. But their cumberland sausages were absolutely gorgeous! We normally buy ours from an award winning local butchers, but these were a different class altogether. And the smoked salmon was just incredible.

I’m a convert already. We belive in drinking good quality, healthy wines low in chemiclas and additives, and we extend this to our food too. Proper healthy meat packed with flavour and goodness. Personally I’m delighted to have discovered a way to buy delicious meats at the right price – and I can do it all from the computer. They deliver the meats next day in specialised refrigerated packaging! Give www.westingourmet.co.uk a try – you will be impressed!

There are two parts to this page. Firstly explaining the con the supermarkets use to sell inferior wine, and secondly a breakdown of the actual costs of a bottle of wine where you can see who is actually making all the money, and why you really shouldn’t buy £5 wine!

We can all begrudge the ever increasing price of a bottle wine, and naturally to save money we tend to look for the cheaper options. The supermarkets seem to have some great deals on – half price, reduced from £9.99 to £4.99 – that has to be a good deal, right?

 No!!! It is not, and here is why 

Firstly for these offers to qualify legally as a genuine half price deal, the wine has to have been on sale at one branch for at least two weeks at it’s “full” price. They get round this by giving it an obscure single facing on a bottom row virtually out of sight, in a remote store, at a massively falsely inflated price. After two weeks they then give it multiple facings, centre shelf nationwide at half the inflated price. Loooks like a great deal, but in reality the wine is now on sale for the price it should have been in the first place. In the trade this is easy to recognise because we see the same wines from the importers at the same prices year round, routinely over inflated by the supermarkets at regular intervals. It should be illegal, but the supermarkets are experts at bending the law, and they’re now so powerful the government is scared to touch them. The supermarkets work on a 35% margin on wine – this would be completely impossible with a genuine half price deal! In fact nobody makes a margin where they can genuinely offer this kind of discount. Use your head – if it looks too good to be true, it is. You are being conned.

Now onto the real price of wine!

Let’s look at some wine which will cost a wine merchant US$50 per case of 12 from the USA. That’s $4.17 per bottle, which is roughly £2.62 per bottle. Ok, so could he retail that at £5 then? On the surface you would think so, but when you look at the horrendous UK taxes you would have to double that retail price! Most winery owners are dumbfounded when I they’re told how much we have to pay in the UK. In fact although it’s the winery owner who slaves away for a full year growing the grapes and making the wine, it’s the Uk government who will actually benefit and “earn” about three times as much per bottle as the winery!!

Let’s add shipping cost from California, about 40 pence per bottle. Then let’s add UK excise duty of £1.85 per bottle, plus the customs tax of 5 pence (on wine from outside the EU). This wine is now costing  £4.92 per bottle. Now let’s add the VAT of 98 pence. So the wine is now costing the merchant £5.90

Now when he sells the wine he also has to charge 20% VAT and pay the VAT on the difference between cost and sales to the VAT man. So if he sells it for £8.99 and it cost him £5.90, he makes a gross profit of £3.09 which is £2.58 for him, and  another 51 pence for the VAT man. If he happens to make a profit at the end of the year after all his costs he then pays the Inland Revenue some corporation tax too.

So the Inland Revenue have actually made: £1.90 excise duty & customs tax, plus £1.50 VAT, so £3.40 in total. The wine merchant has made a (GROSS) profit of £2.58, and the winery has probably made about £1.

This is obviously a massive money making exercise for the government and explains why a bottle of wine is so expensive in the UK. So how do the supermarkets offer 3 bottles for £10? Well in truth those offers are more like 3 for £11 these days so let’s have a look.

At £11 there is £1.83 VAT. ON 3 bottles there is £5.55 excise duty (let’s assume these are EU wines) which is £7.38 in total, leaving £3.62 to pay for the supermarket margin of around 35% – call it £3. This leaves just 62 pence to pay for the wine, the glass bottles, the labels, the cardboard box, the transport from country of origin and UK transport.

So what is the genuine value of the wine?

Basically the wine is worth about 5 pence per bottle! Yes, that is genuine fact. It’s mass produced plonk full of chemicals. The supermarket buyers are instructed to pay no more than US$0.35 cents per bottle, labelled and packed! As you can see if you spend a little more from a bona fide wine merchant, like the £8.99 example above, you will get a wine worth £2.62, approximately 53 times more than the supermarket plonk!

It certainly makes you think what you’re putting in your body when you drink this cheap plonk. Would you eat meat or fish which cost just 5 pence? Or would you suspect it wasn’t going to be good for you…….?

The UK press have reported that counterfeit wine has been discovered for sale in numerous off licenses in the South East. The wine is labelled as “Jacob’s Creek” and is believed to be imported from China. It’s apparently being offered for sale for £2 per bottle to these off licenses – so they clearly knew it was bent before accepting it – UK excise duty is now £1.85, plus customs tax of 5p, plus vat, making a total tax charge of £2.28 per bottle!

Certain elements in China have long been counterfeiting everything from designer clothes, sportsgear, watches, handbags ……etc, but in the last few years a massive trade in counterfeiting wine has been happening for consumption in China. The Chinese have been craving the trappings of success and fine wines have great status over there – as western indulgences such as fine wine appreciation are fairly recent developments in China, the average Chinese businessman wouldn’t know a fine wine from a bottle of plonk. So enterprising Chinese criminal gangs have been buying up all the bottom end French red wine they could find, counterfeiting labels from all the classed growth Bordeaux and selling the wine on at massive profits! The trouble is the Chinese businessman is likely to add coca cola to his wine anyway as apparently they have not yet acquired a taste for it!

However this is the first report of it happening in the UK. How can they do this without paying excise duty on it? Logically they would have to produce it in the UK to avoid customs, presumably in a laboratory or factory. Perhaps the “wine” is just a chemical solution, and possibly a dangerous one. The press report said it was Jacob’s Creek labels but inferior wine in the bottle – I didn’t think we could get much lower than Jacob’s Creek mass produced entry level dross! But then if it’s a nasty chemical solution which tastes awful and is not good for you……the counterfeit wine, not Jacob’s Creek I mean! Although………..I’m not going to use this as an excuse to slate mass produced over chemicalled plonk again, so I’ll now leave Jacob’s Creek alone.

If you happen to be concerned about this, apparently the counterfeit labels contain several spelling mistakes, so even if you can’t tell the difference from the taste or the nasty chemical hangover you should be able to spot it on the label!