The disclaimer….

Just incase someone tries to sue me, I’d like you all to know that I am merely a customer of Aldi and Lidl. Aldi Wine and Lidl Wine is merely something I am tasting and giving my humble (not necessarily correct) opinion on them. I have no association with Lidl or Aldi, I don’t know anyone who works there and I don’t work for any of their rivals.

A bit about me….

Just to get things moving, I’m going to give you a brief biog of my life, without giving away too much personal details incase someone tries to rob me (i.e some dodgy Nigerian scammer or even HMRC).

I was born and raised on the rough streets of Prenton in Wirral. Life could be hard in our cul-de-sac…..hmmm perhaps I wont go that far back.

Basically I am from a working class background and went to a good local grammar school (coz I wusnt fick) but alas, I didn’t really get much out of it. I followed the advice of Mark Twain, who ‘never led school get in the way of his education.’ Though perhaps he was a bit brighter than I am, so I could have concentrated at least a bit more.

I mooched around Europe for a few months (my Dad now lives in Belgium) and then travelled for a year or so around the Far East and India, staying in Taiwan for a while to teach fat, spoilt chinese children who had wealthy parents.

Upon my return I set up my own business. I wont go into too much detail, but basically it went incredibly well at the start (I won a Trinity Mirror Business Award amongst other things) but then came crashing down due to a few personal reasons.

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after living with it for god knows how many years and ended up on the business scrap heap with no clue what to do with my life. It was at this time that I sat down and worked out exactly what I wanted to do with my life. The best way for me to do this was to write down what I love…..the list ran like this:

1) Everton

2)Beer

3)Wine

4)Food

As it was fairly obvious that I was never going to play for Everton (for reasons being mainly that I played football like Roy Cropper) I would therefore persue a career in either food or drink…..simple……or so I thought.

Yes, my knowledge was very good for an amateur, but I had as much chance being hired on my hobby as Nick Griffin had of getting a job in equality and diversity simply because he talks about blacks and muslims all day.

 So, I immersed myself (with frightening bipolar obession) into everything drink. I took every course, read every book, visited countless vintners, breweries, pubs, bars, etc, and gained WSET and BII qualifications.

To cut a long story short, I now consider my knowledge to be enough to at least give a rounded opinion on beers, wines and spirits. I’m now working in the industry, but profess that I’m working towards becoming  buyer at some point rather than what I’m doing now.

So, that’s a bit of a short summary of my life, and perhaps gives you an indication of why I’m writing this daft blog.

Welcome to my Blog

Hello!

 Welcome to my new blog, hope you enjoy it!

I say new because; thing is, I’ve started about 10 different blogs, and either lost interest or forgot the passwords for them, so I’m going to make an effort with this one.

 Well, what’s this blog all about I wonder? Well, it’s simple really.

 It’s Jan 2008, and a brand new year with loads of hope, promise and resolutions for new starts. Not that I personally thought I needed one, but I’ve sort of been forced into making a resolution of spending a hell of a lot less on wine, beer and spirits for the next year. It sounds like I’m an alki but I’m actually not.

I am in love with alcohol, the alcohol industry, the history of alcohol and all bits in between. Importantly, I (mostly) drink in moderation, and am even known to abstain from swallowing at a wine tasting evening if I’m being good. No Sir, no Frosty Jack drinking tramps on this blog. I’m ust a bloke with an appreciation of alcohol, not an addiction to it!

 This is not just any drinks blog however, and to discover the reason for this, we need to go back to the waffle I mentioned before about new year and new starts. As mentioned, I’ve been forced to cut back on spending, as  ‘I have wasted enough money this year to put my baby girl through uni’ according to my wife. I argued that I was surely doing her a favour, as so many graduates fail to gain jobs and waste three years of their lives getting pissed and eating beans on toast and kebabs (mmmm…….kebabs).

 But no, I wasn’t going to win an arguement with a woman who makes a banshee seem like buddah, so I’ve had to cut back. However, I’m not going to be totally denied the pleasure of the gifts of Dionysis (that’s the Greek god of wine for all you oiks). I’ve been allowed to enjoy wine in ‘moderation’ and at ‘reasonable’ prices apparently.

So, I’ve decided to spend a year drinking nothing unless in comes from Aldi or Lidl. Both are local to our house, and the food there is cheap and not unreasonable quality. I’ve had the odd bottle of drinkable plonk there and a few of the beers (being German) have been good value….but I’m not 100% sure how I’m going to get on for 12 months.

 I reckon I’ll be allowed the odd treat from my local vintners, but the majority will now come from these two German giants of retail efficiency. So, do feel free to join me in this tour de force and I’ll let you leave comments if a)They’re not abusive and b) They don’t disagree with my own (only joking).

Anyways, here’s to 12 months of getting to the bottom of whether the ‘value’ supermarkets can match the big boys. Time can only tell, but as a wise man once said …… In Vino Veritas!  (In wine there is truth…..now go back to your tractor.)