And….. we are off! Under the Influence of 2011

January was a blur of activity at Under the Influence, with trips to Joburg and Botswana for tastings, and wine training activities. We are incredibly excited about this year and we have a range of plans moving forward. Here is a highlights package looking forward!

Tastings

Last year was the year of the Chauffeur driven wine tastings and we have to extend a massive thank you to Lexus for getting involved on that front. What an incredible experience to get collected at your home, ferried to a wine tasting and driven back in comfort and luxury. We are still working with Lexus on the more fancy pants events planned this year, but our wine tastings are reverting to self drives! Instead we are going to be exploring different venues and working with Apple to create more interactive experiences, and unleashing more food and wine experiences. Wine and food and meant to be together so we are excited about this new focus.

Click here to see more about our tastings and be sure to let us know if you want to book a private tasting or corporate event.

Website

Our website has taken baby steps forward in 2010 and we are excited to take it to the next level this year. The aim with the site is to create an environment where you can interact with the Estates, meet the winemaker and see the Estate through the videos and buy wine at the best possible price. We work really closely with the small and established Estates, so the range is there and our prices are hugely competitive. No need to buy an unlabelled bottle here to get a deal!

Click on our Estates or Shop pages to explore the wines on offer and the Estates in our portfolio. We will be growing this list massively in the next month, as we get around to adding them to the website.

Videos

Our tastings have always been relaxed, fun and informative, at least that is the goal! We are extending this to our Wine Videos. We have various wine videos being produced. One of them is a Great Places to Drink Wine range of videos, showing off wild and beautiful places to enjoy a glass of vino. Another is a Wine Estate Focus where we interview winemakers at their property and get a better understanding of wine from the horses mouth as it were. Every Friday we will also be shooting a Discover Wine video where one of the team will be exploring a wine and an Estate. Guest tasters are welcome!

Project X

This project is so Top Secret that even Wikileaks couldn’t crack it. Sorry Julian. All we can say is it involves learning a heckuva lot about wine, in an easy and fun way…

All will be revealed mid-year. Hold onto your bottle openers!

Please keep in touch by following us on Twitter and Facebook. Thanks for being a part of Under the Influence and here is to a year filled with great wine!