Now is the best and worst of times. For all retailers Christmas is absolutely crucial and means long hours, extra days and hard work for all the staff. Even back in the days when Woolworths was successful, it was loss-making for much of the year, recouping that and making a profit only in December. Majestic isn’t [...]
Yearly Archives: 2008
Young Wine Writer of the Year
Friday 19 December 2008 – 9:10
When I joined Majestic in the early 1990s we had just 30 or so stores, knew everyone, and both lived and socialised as a pack. There was very little we didn’t know (sometimes we knew too much!) about each other. Now though there are hidden talents within the business, and I for one was surprised [...]
Thanks Alistair
Tuesday 25 November 2008 – 12:29
Speculation about Alistair Darling’s pre-budget decrease in VAT had us all on tenterhooks yesterday morning. However, much to our surprise (no leaks in this direction) he partnered the 2.5% decrease in VAT with an 8% increase in the rate of excise duty on wine. The effect of this rise is to more than offset the decrease [...]
Fine Wine Tasting – My Picks
Sunday 16 November 2008 – 11:35
Following on from Jeremy’s post Friday 14th November… I often get asked by friends what I do for a job, and when I tell them I work for Majestic, the response is generally ‘you get paid to drink wine’. To an extent, this is true, although I must point out that we taste rather than [...]
Fine Wine tasting
Friday 14 November 2008 – 14:52
We held our first dedicated fine wine tasting for a select band of journalists in our St Johns Wood Fine Wine Centre yesterday, the aim being to highlight how much our offering has improved this year and to introduce Clayton Smith, the Fine Wine Manager, to the tasters. Since Clayton started in St Johns Wood [...]
Great value from the Languedoc
Monday 10 November 2008 – 9:25
I’m not the first person to recommend this wine (see the press comments on the product page) but I was very impressed with a bottle of Domaine Haut-Lirou, Pic St Loup, drunk last night with roast beef. Although made mainly from Syrah, it has a broader, more savoury character than the 100% Syrah wines from [...]
Jane MacQuitty of The Times on Majestic
Monday 3 November 2008 – 9:00
An short but interesting article in The Times on Saturday, with some historical detail and a number of interesting wines. I joined Majestic in 1991, my first (and almost very short) retail role. The next week we were within 24 hours of being closed down, until the takeover by Wizard Wine that Ms MacQuitty mentions. [...]
2000 Bordeaux – Watch this space…
Wednesday 29 October 2008 – 14:58
Recently at auction we purchased quite a substantial parcel of 2000 vintage clarets. It was massive auction of one person’s cellar (although they only sold the 2000′s) that spanned over two days. With some very selective buying, we have managed to bag some phenomenal wines. Some of you may say that the 2000′s are too young [...]
Winter Wines list
Wednesday 29 October 2008 – 11:52
Our Winter Wines list has just been published in the middle of (if only for marketing reasons) a satisfyingly cold spell. It’s Sod’s Law that every time we print a list with any mention of the C-word (Ch***tmas) the sun seems to beat down unrelentingly for days afterwards. So, best offers? Look no further than [...]
Tasting and the calendar
Wednesday 29 October 2008 – 11:34
Monty Waldin’s recent TV series, Chateau Monty, detailed one wine writer’s attempts at making biodynamic wine in the south of France. Biodynamic agriculture is a curious mix of (pseudo)science first suggested by Rudolf Steiner (who also created an educational movement, the Waldorf schools) which revolves around extreme care of the soil (easy to accept) and [...]
