Six of the world's greatest wine regions are represented in our new imports, selected by store manager, Matt King and I, who were both lucky enough to have tasted them, along with a vast range of other wines, on Thursday 12 March.  It was our last structured day of meetings and tastings with many of our regular suppliers, so it's fantastic to have these wines available now, especially with the Covid-19 Alert level 4 lockdown in place. The store is closed but our online sales are open because the Government does consider wine to be an essential service. So you can go shopping...

It's hard to imagine a week when things have changed so dramatically during our life times and while the bumpy ride continues, there is good news this morning - we have been given the green light to deliver wine, beer and spirits to you - online via contactless delivery. What does this mean? The Government has given us permission to deliver wine, beer and spirits to you via online sales. Delivery will be by courier and will be contactless during lockdown at Alert Level 4. This means our website is on and ready to deliver to your front door. Our plan...

It's been a challenging week for many as we come to terms with the very real and difficult reality of a world in the grips of Covid-19.  Our staff in store at Regional have been run off their feet as worried Wellingtonians bought up large over the past week, in preparation for the Covid-19 level four lockdown, scheduled to take place at 11.59pm on Wednesday 25 March. By the time you read this, lockdown will be in place and your homes will be well stocked with provisions to deal with this challenging time. We wish you safety and wellness during this period. ...

Two words are used to describe wines from France's southern Rhone Valley - great value. And most of them are too, but the vast majority are also big soft fruity reds, so where does that leave the whites? This year we have been finding out with a growing number of great value (and good tasting) white Cotes du Rhones, which have come our way from importers and distributors of these exceptionally tasty and super good value wines, which tend to be blends of big flavoursome grapes such as Viognier with fresh crisp cut through from Clairette and Bourboulenc, both of...

Champagne Taittinger is one of the big names in Champagne so it was interesting to meet the company's export man, Nicolas Delion, in Wellington last month. He guided a group of wine professionals through a range of Taittinger Champagnes, which I have written about and reviewed below. It was a great event, not least due to the outstanding wines, the food and the venue - it held upstairs in the private room at Boulcott Street Bistro, where invitees, myself included, learnt a lot more about these well known bubbles. So, to the tasting. Champagne Taittinger began life in 1734 as Champagne Fourneaux. Today it is headed...