Subtitled…

Yodel Ho Ho Ho!!

You might recall my recent day of successful deliveries that arrived on 6th December. One of the Christmas deliveries I mentioned was a part delivery of wine that had been ordered for Christmas, some of which was for presents. The supplier informed us that the partial delivery was due to part of the consignment not reaching the couriers collection slot in time. Mr C arranged with the supplier that the remaining part of the order would be delivered on the following Saturday when at least one of us would be at home.

The delivery activity regarding the remainder of the order took on a bizarre turn of events culminating in a strange delivery note from Yodel… Sorry I missed you when I came to deliver parcels “Their was another box of wine I think it was Double ordered”. We were left wondering what on earth that meant… Mr C phoned up Yodel to find out and was told he had refused delivery at 8.37. How odd we were both in the house at that time and neither of us noticed anyone trying to deliver anything!!

The next day the supplier contacted Mr C by email, asking why he had refused the delivery, to which he replied:

Hi S,

Thanks for getting in touch.

To be honest I’m very confused by the delivery arrangements for this order.

On Wednesday  3^rd December, I ordered a lot of wine, some of which is for gifts, and paid for a Saturday delivery.

On Saturday 6^th, one box of wines arrived. Then I received an email from Naked Wines advising that some of my consignment had missed the courier’s collection slot on Friday 5th. I replied to Naked Wines asking for the delayed part of my order to be delivered on a Saturday and received confirmation that this would be arranged.

On Monday 8^th December, two more boxes of wines arrived though one was subsequently removed by the Yodel driver for delivery to the correct (i.e. another) household!

On Tuesday 9^th December, I came home to find that Yodel had left a card upon which was handwritten, “Their was another box of wine. I think it was double ordered”. I contacted Yodel that evening to find out what this might mean, only to be told that I had refused delivery at 08:37 that morning. I had not. Yodel said that they would request redelivery for Wednesday 10^th December.

On Wednesday 10^th December, your email below arrived (though no wine as yet – Yodel apparently deliver until 9pm).

So… Yes please, I would still like the wine that someone at Yodel refused on my behalf and without asking. A Saturday delivery would be best but given the chaos that all couriers appear to be experiencing at the moment, any day of the week will do.

Regards,

Mr C.

The book in my previous post describes Virgile as he is setting out into wine production in 2001.  At the back of the book the author Patrick provides an update stating that much has changed since 2001, Virgil has now become successful in the Languedoc wine industry.  But his success has taken him away from something close to his heart; the production of wines for the enjoyment and pleasure of wine drinkers:

Happily, a recent collaboration with a UK internet-based  business called Naked Wines has played a significant role in rekindling this primary enthusiasm.  Their unusual arrangement encourages customers to subscribe on a monthly basis, effectively sponsoring the making of special, limited edition cuvees, which they are then able to purchase using the investment which they have accumulated, (They call them ‘angels’, like theatrical angels.)

Meanwhile, for Virgile, like other wine-makers, this sponsorship allows him an outlet for his creativity, which is entirely separate from  his own domaine, creating wines which he would never normally be able to contemplate.  While some of the wines that he has made for his angels use grapes from his own vines, the arrangement also allows him to operate effectively as a ‘flying wine-maker’ (albeit without the glamour of the flights!), producing wines with grapes that are grown and picked by other landowners, under his supervision, but using their cellar facilities.

This has, for instance, given him the opportunity to make several wines in the Ventoux in the Rhone Valley, using partly the grapes grown on his late grandfather’s land – something he had never previously permitted himself to dream of doing.  I has also allowed him to try his hand at Merlot and a Sauvignon Blanc (taking him back to his early experiences in Chile) without the need to replant or invest in additional parcelles which offer those varieties, or indeed to commit himself to those particular winds in the long term at all.  To all of these he brings the same essential values and philosophy: above all, wines made for the pleasure of drinking them.  and the proof of his success must be the fact that one of his Naked Wines offers sold all of its 3,000 six-bottle cases in just three days and another exhausted a 500 case supply in a mere three hours!

Being angels we received the book with a wine order and it arrived just in time for my birthday last year.

Errr… what where you thinking?