Showroom Services

State-of-the-art tasting area

Showroom visitors can enjoy our tasting area, featuring two Enomatic wine-dispensing machines. The machines serve wines at perfect temperature and a harmless inert gas ensures the wines are dispensed in perfect condition.

Each machine holds eight bottles. One features wines from The Society's current selections and bin ends, and is free to use. The other gives members a chance to try some more expensive wines. For this machine, members are able to buy a card and charge it with credit which you can pay for in store, and the wines will be charged for on a per-sample basis.

A SELECTION OF CURRENT WINES TO TASTE

Enomatic wine-dispensing machines

Spiral Cellar

As members who visit us regularly know, The Showroom now boasts its very own cellar, visible through a stylish glass door in the floor, next to our Vintage Room. This state-of-the-art cylindrical storage unit was installed for us by Spiral Cellars, the leading UK supplier of constructions of this type. Three metres deep and with space for about 1,800 bottles, its insulation and ventilation systems keep wine at optimum levels of temperature and humidity. Access is via the horizontal glass door, operated via a switch on the wall.

If you'd like more information about Spiral Cellars, or would like to see one for yourself, do pay us a visit and we'll be happy to show you around. If you like what you see, it could be well worth your while!

Buy a Spiral Cellar and start stocking it right away with a wine credit of £250!

1,800 bottles may sound like a tall order, but as a Society member, you can get the ball rolling right away with a reward of £250 when you purchase your unit. This generous thank-you from Spiral Cellars will take the form of a credit on your Society Share and, of course, we have no shortage of wonderful bottles you'll be able to spend it on.

Please contact Member Services for more information.

Spiral Cellar Image Gallery

Spiral Cellar

 

Wedding tastings

The Showroom team has helped hundreds of members organise the wine for their weddings or other large functions. We can advise on wine selection, budgets, quantities and food-and-wine matching. Book an appointment by e-mailing your telephone number to showroom@thewinesociety.com so that one of the team can call you back. Please contact us as early as possible before the big day to ensure that we can plan ahead and provide you with the best possible service.

Advice

The Showroom team is well qualified to talk to you about any queries you may have on wine whether you are looking for special bottles for anniversaries or a wine to partner a particular dish.

Come in and talk to them on-the-spot or send an e-mail.

Glass hire

Members may borrow trays of glasses from the Showroom for parties and large gatherings at no charge. The tulip-shaped ISO tasting glasses are suitable for all styles of wine and are ideal for wine tastings; tumblers and Champagne flutes are also available.

Members need to collect the glasses themselves and return them washed to the Showroom.

EXCLUSIVE MONTHLY BIN END

As with all bin ends sold through The Showroom, they cannot be delivered and do not carry a pre-order discount.

Half Measures: Musings On Smaller Bottles

The Tuesday night glass of wine need not be a starter for ten.

There have been too many evenings when I’ve opened a bottle to share with my girlfriend, only to be left with a half-full bottle (never half-empty!) that required a decision I felt unable to make for the best!

Should I seal the bottle and save it for another evening? Or throw caution (and possibly an early night) to the wind and it drink up?

A suitably sized solution is at hand!

The Society’s range of half bottles provide the perfect midweek measure of one’s favourite tipple. The flexibility these halves afford are well known with regards to sweet dessert wines, but with a range that also includes sherry and Champagne, not to say claret, Valpolicella and white Burgundy, our selection enables anyone to do things in half measures and not be chastised for it!

Not only that, but they also, at more indulgent times of the week, present an ideal opportunity for matching wine with food courses.

Indeed, Valentine’s Day provides the perfect opportunity me to do just that as I shun the option to venture outdoors on 14th February to celebrate with a slap up meal at Chez Braganza!

My plan is for events to commence with The Society’s Champagne (what else?), then proceeding with a half bottle of Pinot Gris Classic, Famille Hugel 2017 (AL14502) from Alsace to complement tempura prawns and vegetables (with possibly more than a hint of chilli), before opening Tedeschi’s Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore l San Rocco 2016 (IT26342), whose ripe palate and rich fruit will prove perfect for pigeon breasts pan fried with butter.

Pudding, in this case, a treacle tart and my modest cheeseboard, will be served with a stunning half bottle of Williams & Humbert As You Like It Amontillado sherry (SH682).

Whatever your plans I truly believe you can do things by half measures…and not be chastised!

WINE OF THE MONTH

The Society's French Full Red Vin de France 2017

£6.95 per bottle in store, or here

‘Should Old Acquaintance be forgot...’

It already seems like a long time ago, but it’s actually been only a few weeks since I vaguely recall belting out the above ditty to usher in the New Year. Well, 2019 is starting to bed down and though this is traditionally the time of year to try something new, for this month’s wine I have taken heed of Auld Lang Syne to remember and rediscover an old favourite.

The Society's French Full Red (FC34291) is my choice for February. It holds a special place in my heart as it was one of the first wines I sampled when I joined The Society 15 years ago. When I tried it again recently I realised what a storming staple it is: a blend of dark, brooding carignan, spicy syrah and plummy merlot tempered by a tank of fresh-fruited grenache to add brightness.

It’s a fab anyday red; not too heavy but still able to handle lamb chops or garlic and herb-laden ratatouille, and yet able to offer immediate gratification if drunk on its own simply with pasta or pizza.

It may be the time for the new but sometimes revisiting the old can be just as rewarding!

I very much hope you agree.

Now where are my 1980s stonewash jeans?

Conrad Braganza
Fine Wine and Bin-End Co-ordinator