Reviewed by
Mary
Your Sommelier is a monthly wine subscription box.
Every month you will receive 3 bottles of French wine selected by our Sommeliers with matching tasting cards including food pairing, information about wine, regions and appellations. You’ll also get our welcome binder to regroup all of your cards.
There are two options:
Discovery Box – A perfect introduction. Discover and learn. £36/Month
Expert Box – The finest French wines for Connoisseurs. £60/Month
Delivery is free.
I was sent a Discovery Box, containing three full-size bottles, cards, and also the binder.
The wine is extremely well packaged.
Included were three cards with information about each wine; characteristics, tasting notes, food pairings etc.
There was also a card focusing on the region from which this month’s wine came, the Loire Valley.
There were two whites, Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc, plus a red, a Pinot Noir.
I love all of these wines, so I was really looking forward to diving in!
One note: drinking wine and taking pictures in daylight isn’t really practical for me, so please excuse the kitchen overhead LED-lit photographs!
The first one I tried was the La Petite Perriere Pinot Noir 2016. My husband, Big C, and I both adore Pinot Noir, so this was very much a shared experience!
This was a lovely rich colour. It smelled quite light, but the flavour was fantastically full.
It was both dry and fruity, and incredibly delicious.
The information cards are wonderful for suggesting food pairings, but I’m not quite that organized. However I can confirm this tastes superb with venison chili.
Next was the M de Mulonniere Chenin Blanc 2016.
This had a very noticeable honey smell. I didn’t notice it so much in the taste, which was definitely fruity, slightly sweet (though not in the manner of dessert wine) and slightly acidic.
The food suggestion is Asian food. Well, I did have some sweet and sour.
Anyway, this was delicious, extremely drinkable.
Finally, Sauvignon Blanc 2015 – Domaine a Deux.
Usually if I’m grabbing a white wine in the supermarket I’ll go for a Sauvignon Blanc, simply because I find it’s the most consistent and easiest to get something reasonably good at a reasonable price.
This one was definitely drier than the Chenin Blanc above, though it still had plenty of fruit. It was also slightly higher in acidity, and had a drier taste on the palate. It was quite refreshing, would be wonderful to drink in the garden on a hot day.
It was definitely extremely pleasant, though I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the Chenin Blanc. That may be because it didn’t suit the season (getting chilly!) quite as well.
Well, this is my first box from Your Sommelier, and I’m extremely impressed.
Three bottles of lovely wine, plus really useful tasting cards.
The cards had just the right amount of information on them. They’re not didactic, but they tell you about the flavours and all the technical stuff you don’t usually get as a matter of course.
I was especially pleased with the region card, it’s a nice bonus to find out a little about the area which produces these wines. The binder is a very thoughtful addition!
Regarding value, I used trusty google. The box prices averages at £12 a bottle. I couldn’t find the Sauvignon Blanc anywhere other than the Your Sommelier wine shop. This is hardly surprising as it is an extremely small and new producer.
I found the Chenin Blanc on a French website (and interestingly, several American wine sites) but not only was it £13.46 a bottle, you had to pay six euros shipping.
Pinot Noir I found at £12.48, again plus shipping.
I’m confident this is good value. I’m not talking about getting wine at a whacking great discount, but the price is perfectly reasonable, less than or what you would expect to buy in a wine merchant. The quality is great, and of course you get enough information to feel like you’re learning something new in language that is easy to understand without being idiots’ guide.
This would make a wonderful gift for the wine-lover in your life. If that wine lover is you, so much the better.
I’ve always steered towards the New World wines when I hit the wine shelves, so this is a great opportunity to actually try French wine. I love drinking wine, even though I’m not massively fussy about it, and things like this are a really lovely way of properly thinking about what you’re actually drinking. I also like learning new things, and this means I’ll definitely pay more attention to the French shelves!
