Best decision I have ever made (virginwines.com)

Member Name: chrisbrn

Product:	virginwines.com
Date:	12/12/01 (150 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great wine and you can buy in a mixed case, Professional, fast, informative site, Great value and service

Disadvantages: Cases of 12 bottles is a minimum

If you love wine like my family and I do then this is the Number 1 site for you. Virginwine.com offer a range of around 1700 bottles of wine whether you love champange, rose, red or white wines. There is a difference in price depending on your tastes of wine, and the location of where it is produced. I choose a 12 mixed bottled box of red and white wines for about £55. I thought that I would choose one that they recommend in which I did. This was the best decision I have made.

* How do they decide on the mixed cases? *

Well firstly, virgin wines ask for your opinions in relation to the wine that you have choosen as well as looking at which wines sell the best and working along side wine experts who then recommend the selection of wine for your tastes. You can choose a variety of mixed boxes to your preference of dry, medium, sweet wines or even a mixture of all.

There is only one small negative aspect which is that they only sell the wines by the case of 12 bottles or more. Even with this, it can be turned into a positive feature that virgin offer, and that is only because other wine merchants dont sell mixed cases so you do not have to buy 12 bottles of the same wine. You can however buy the same wine by the case if you wish. The average priced bottle is about £5.49, however the standard of wine is magnificant.

* The web site and how to order *

The virgin wine site looks upto date and has the virgin imadge look with the redish colouring. The web site itself is clear, spacious and easy to navigate with big tabs across the top of each screen to take you various parts of the site. These tabs are my home page, recommendations for me, mixed cases, my cellar, wine zone magazine, my shopping basket and gifts. The site is personalised to your needs and your can personalise it further more if your wish, which then makes the whole site seem very friendly, and less formal.

The site has a very secure area when you pay for
your goods over the net, but if you do not feel happy with the transactions over the web, then you can place your order over the phone.

* How does it know what you like? *

As when I stated in the first section that virgin wines work in relation to your likes and dislike, well this is the area where I will explain how that happens.

There are numerious ways on this site in which helps you select that perfect case of wine whether you are an novie or experienced wine drinker.

The first stage is the wine wizard and this works by asking you a series of questions about the types of wines you like and dislike. Once this is done, the system mixes you three different cases which goes by the experts, feedback and sales as previously stated. The first is a play it safe case full of the types of wines you have indicated that you like.

The second option is a try something a little different. This is a mixture of wines you already like and wines that are a little different to what you might have tried before.

The third case is a wildcard if you fancy trying things you would never have thought of drinking.

I choose the first option as I have not heard of some of the wines (plus it was the cheapest option).

Once completed and tasted the wines, Virgin then will recommend wines they reckon you may like which is based on the original answers given. You will be shown in the my recommendations tab each time you enter the site the new wines that you may like to try.

The wine wizard can be improved by use of another feature, which is the ratings section. You get a rating card when you recieve your purchase anyway so you know what to get and what not the next time you order from the site. These ratings will also give a clearer indictation on which wines should be reccommended to you. which leads me onto the next bit quite nicely. You can then click on my cellar tab and you will find listed all the wines y
ou have ordered from them and you can go in and rate them and type some comments which you may have filled out on your rating card.

This service is great if you are like me who drinks a lot of wine and forgets which one I liked and buys the one I did not like. As long as you keep the rating card which is send to you in delivery of wine, you can go and type in your thoughts in your own leisure rather than wait until you forget. With this, you can build yourself a very good little wine reference page of your likes and dislikes, whilst trying to think of an excuse to tell people that you are not the alcholic they think you are.

In addition to the highly recommended wines for your persoanl case, Virgin offer a good range of ready-mixed cases for which they give a little description but is great for not knowing what you are really going to be drinking. You can really be suprised, but also the cases are designed for the type of year and is a great idea in which they may be suited for. The latest mixed cases include a Christams survival kit case and a 2001 Wines of the Year case which is highly recommended to buy. My first case was the Summer Survival Case back in August and only cost me £33.99 for the case of 12 mixed bottles. The wines that I received were;

2 x Campo Viejo Crianza 1998 - reccommended as a best buy,

2 x Redwood Trail Pinot Noir 98/99 - Wine zone approved,

2 x Blackridge Chardonnay 1999,

2 x Vina Porta Merlot 1999,

2 x Vina Porta Chardonnay 1999,

and 2 x Anubis Tempranillo 1999.

These wines were from, Argentina, Austrailia, Chile, Spain and the USA.

Whatever you decide to buy (if anything), the ordering process is very simple and the ordering process is shown along the left hand side of the page, so you can see where you are in the ordering process and how many steps are left.

I was introduced to the site only a few months ago when I noticed an offer link
to virgin wines with a £20 off your first order voucher. So I took up the offer. The service is very efficient and all the cases I've ordered have arrived within 3 days and by Parcel Force to prevent damage to the goods in transit. If you are not in to thke the delivery, they will leave the case somewhere where you stated on the order over the internet whether it is round the back of your house or with your next door neighbour

If you dont like the wine that they recommend, then they also guarantee the wine a full refund and if you do not like it you will not pay anything, unless you have already paid for it upfront.

The delivery charge if outside London is £4.99 for unlimited cases, but is well worth it for a fast express delivery of outstanding value of wine. If you live inside the M25, then you maybe able to get the wine in the evening for an extra £2 charge.

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