Vintage Mail
Open, swirl, sniff, slurp….. Riddle enjoys a wine tasting through the post!
Article by Sam Clark
Last month an unusual package dropped through our letterbox. It was unnervingly squashy. A sample I’d forgotten, sent in a moment of delirious malady? A hamster water-bed? What must the postman have thought..?
It was a glass of wine! Thank God I’d got to the post before the dog!
This tasty package is the brainchild of Paul Rousou-Adams. Realising he loved talking about wine almost as much as he enjoyed drinking it, Paul founded the Decanting Club to share his passion. The Decanting Club is a new online wine subscription club with a difference. The focus is on taste, discussion and a learning experience. Each week members receive a 150ml pouch (a glass) of carefully selected wine, they are then invited to discover more about the wine on the club’s exclusive website and share their thoughts in a conversation with the other club members about the week’s tasty glass.
Paul works with his friend and wine expert, Steve Evans to find “interesting and new” wines from small independent producers around the world that are largely unknown or unavailable in the UK. Paul says, “wine is Steve’s life” and he certainly didn’t disappoint with the wines we tasted. We were surprised and delighted with the intense flavours that were delivered to our door. Among the treats was a beautifully pale red Grenache from Australia. Its elegant, light appearance belying its deep aroma and rich flavour. A wonderful, well-chosen South African Chenin Blanc left us amazed. Astonishing, delicious big flavours in a glass of white wine that came through the post.
The wines are opened, decanted into the specially made pouches and sent out on the same day. Through tests, they found a little air contact when packing actually helps the wine travel, arriving ready to drink. Paul is conscious of the implications of opening a full bottle of wine to taste it, the expense, your heath and so forth. He says “one glass at a time” is the perfect way to experience and taste new wines. Full bottles are available on the Decanting Club website should you – inevitably - wish for more.
The Decanting Club is a great way to enter the conversation, learn and taste exceptional wines from around the world. Membership is available from one month to a year. It also cleverly fits a gap on the ever diminishing gift-list for those loved ones that have everything! If my family is reading, I believe Father’s day is coming soon… 
Enquiries: http://decanting.club/wine/index.html