Underwood Wines Blog

Christmas Wine Tasting

2011-11-01T03:02:00.000-07:00

Underwood Wines annual Christmas tastings

Join us for our Christmas wine tastings this November;

Up to 20 wines including sparkling and port.
Fizz on arrival and nibbles to accompany them.
£5 per person.
5.00-9.00pm

As a special Christmas treat, the tastings on the 30th November and the 1st December will have a special guest. Mark from The Woodland Kitchen will be showcasing his 'Smoked' fish and meats which he smokes himself in his custom built unit in nearby Bearly, Stratford. We're BIG fans of Marks food and we know you're in for a real treat.

Our Christmas tastings are always a great night so please join us at The Old Pie Factory this November.

Chooser a date that you would like to come to Underwoods and simply email dawn@underwoodwines.co.uk to confirm your place. Tickets are a modest £5 per head and you can come any time between 5-9pm on the following dates;

Wednesday 23rd

Thursday 24th

Wednesday 30th

Thursday December 1st

We would look forward to seeing you there.....

Nick, Tim, Phil, Todd, Dawn and Kate.

Late Summer Wine Tasting. 22nd September.

2011-09-01T01:47:00.001-07:00

Spectacular Late Summer Wine Tasting will be on 22nd September this year between 4.30-8.30pm.

Food and up to 20 wines on show from our Warwick wine emporium!

Late Summer tasting will include our house Champagne 'Renard Barnier' super quality with gorgous golden colour, at under £18 you really can't say no!

Favourite Old World Wines too Chablis from Domaine Des Malandes, Beautifully crafted Sauvignon from the Loire valley at half the price of Sancerre and Pouilly Fume, and the vibrant and oh so drinkable Jean Claude Brossette Beaujolais 2010 vintage just in!

Plus the most divine Edel from Waimea Winery New Zealand, an inspired blend of spicy Gewurztraminer, aromatic Pinot Gris and fresh and vital Riesling, a generous mouth-filling wine with length and Character.

Not mention a few new upmarket every day drinking Portuguese wines from Warwickshire’s most recent wine importer from Combroke on the Fosse.

Other wines featuring will be our bin end 2005 Rioja Reserva from Conde an intersting Pinot Noir from New Zealand and our entry level Bordeaux 'Chateau Brisson' which is drinking rather well of late.

Tickets for this event are available now and priced at £7.50 per person.

To book your place please email
<Dawn> and we will book you in.

Underwood wines
The Old Pie Factory
Montague road
Warwick
CV34 5LW
01926 402100

www.underwoodwines.co.uk

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The other 50 things I've learnt about Twitter.

2011-08-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

The other 50 things I've learnt about Twitter...

Following the success of my previous blog, “50 things I've learnt about Twitter that you should know” I thought it was only fair to share the other 50.

This follow-on blog is slightly more “technical” in places and a bit “geeky” in others, but these tips and tricks are the rules I live by in my virtual networking home.

I'm no expert, but I do spend a large amount of time on Twitter and these are my findings. If you have any comments I’d love to hear your views.

51. Share stuff. I follow people because they are useful. Make your account useful and make people want to follow you. It doesn't have to be your own content, but if it's useful and constant people will consider you to be a useful Tweeter and keep following you. Keep your URL links succinct. bit.ly is a URL shortening service used on Twitter, it saves precious spaces by reducing the number of characters in your link.

52. Who do I follow? I always get asked this question. The answer is to follow who you want to. Make your timeline what you want it to be. Start by looking at who your friends follow, and have a look around. See who other people are tweeting, and of course pay attention to #followfridays.

53. Use the search box. Twitter is an amazingly powerful tool, so unleash it by searching its millions of users. Try typing your favourite sport or local town into the search box, and see who is tweeting about it. I search for Warwick, then tweet people with help and advice. It makes me a useful tweeter and also gains followers and trust, which is what Twitter is all about.

54. Keep up. Twitter is the fast lane of social networking. If Facebook is the 'B' road, Twitter is the Nurberger ring.Don't worry if you miss bits and pieces, but try to resist commenting on conversations from too long ago unless you have something vital to add. Keep it short. Keep it sharp. Stick to the point. Move on.

55. Breaking down the Jargon. When people talk on Twitter it can be difficult to understand. #hashtags are used to mark key words or topics in a tweet. Clicking on a hashtagged word shows you other tweets in that category. Hashtagged words that become popular are often trending topics.

56. RT is Retweet (a tweet re-shared with followers). People often do this << at the bottom of a Retweet to highlight their own comment, something like this: "RT@underwoodwines have you seen our latest Rioja range?<<I love Rioja.

57. Be creative. I often tweet my action *waves frantically* to really show my character. Try it when you tweet *goes off to practice.* It can add humour and depth to your tweets. *trips over own tips.*

58. Engage. SO IMPORTANT! Don't just blab on about how brilliant you are and how super fantastic your workout was. Ask a question in a tweet, or give help to others, ensure you offer your opinion and converse with others. Don’t forget that when they tweet back, all their followers see YOUR name and will want to know who YOU are. The more people you tweet, the more exposure you get. Get chatting.

59. Tweet a link to a Facebook conversation. I do this a lot. Businesses can run a competition on a Facebook wall then push traffic towards it with tweets. Update your followers each time, and tell them the story of what is happening over on your wall. Sell it to them and they will want to join in. You may get extra likes on Facebook too.

60. STOP retweeting #FFs. It’s great to be #FFed, so DO reply to the person and thank them. However, there is no need to retweet it. It comes across as lazy, and can be annoying to anyone else included in the same tweet. I was once notified 4 times by my iPhone because all the other tweeters included in a boring #FF simply retweeted it. I unfollowed the original tweeter. Harsh but true!

61. Tell a story. Anyone that follows my tweets for @UnderwoodWines knows that #Diane is our vintage van or that the Pie Factory is in fact our warehouse and shop in Warwick. Create your character on Twitter and have that "soap opera" appeal where people can pick up your tweets whenever they can and still catch up and join in.

62. Current affairs. Tweet about things happening now and just watch the Twitter waters ripple, but tweet about your amazing cup of tea and digestive biscuit and await the tumbleweed!

63. Turn on your notifications. It still amazes me that people don't use the amazing service that Twitter offers with real time tweets. Conversation on Twitter is what makes it better than Facebook. If you have a smart phone, use Twitter on the go - it’s a revelation!

64. Be grateful. Thank your new followers, and say hi to them. Once they have followed you, check them out and comment and engage with them. Don't miss the opportunity to cement the connection.

65. Dig deep. Remember that guy/girl you chatted about the X Factor with, or that company you shared a love of Rod Stewart with? What happened? You connected and then nothing. I love going back through my follower lists and tweeting an old converser. Try it who knows where it will take you?

66. Get rid of the deadwood. I recently used @Twitcleaner to identify all the rubbish and spam bots and basically all that "noise" on Twitter that gets in the way of the latest #Apprentice news.

67. Read it later. There is so much information on Twitter that you are not going to be able to read everything. When you see something useful that you want to read, but need to go into that dull sales meeting, use a read it later service like @Instapaper. Most are even integrated into Twitter apps making it a simple touch of a button.

68. Do something different. Stand out from the Twitter crowd by doing something funny or interesting.

69. Learn from Twitter. In the beginning, everyone sits at their computer, staring at the screen and wondering what to do with no followers. Simply by engaging with others and copying their actions or following their lead, you too can be a great Tweeter. Twitter is like joining a party in full swing, on your own. Everyone is already getting on well and you feel nervous. Stand and watch for a while from the punch bowl and see how they engage, then copy and follow until you understand. You can then evolve into your own Twitter personality.

70. Use the lingo. I imagine you often adopt a different style or approach for different people in real life. Twitter is no different. You fit in better when you shorten links or #hashtag words. People have a way of speaking on Twitter, so understand it and try to adopt it.

71. Follow keywords. Interested in photography or baking? Like cycling or cars? Then type the word into the Twitter search box and look at the tweets from time-to-time. Tweetdeck is great for this, as you can add 'columns' of any search so it is always on your screen.

72. Open your doors. People are nosy, and love having a good look at what you're doing. Use this human characteristic to enhance your event by tweeting others involved in organising the event. People will see the organising take place, and will not only become interested by the tweets but will add to the conversation and help where they can. This tweeting raises the profile of the event without any hard sell.

73. Grow up. Twitter is a fun and often silly place where people banter and share links of cats falling off sofas and dogs saying, ‘I love you,’ but… tri not 2 tweet lyk a 13 yr old rites a txt msg. Your followers are less likely to respect your views and help you.

74. Get involved. Can you help or advise a tweeter? Then do it. They will be grateful and thank you. In turn their followers will then see, and you will gain accolade and win shed loads of cash...OK, I slightly over-embellished that last bit, but you get the picture. Twitter is one big family helping, sharing and chatting. Get involved, you can't stand by that punch bowl on your own at the party forever.

75. Have a plan. What do you want from Twitter? Have a goal and keep it in mind. Sure you can spend all day tweeting about the weather or posting links from Justin Timberlake YouTube videos, but you may be missing the point of Twitter...

76. Have a daily post. I follow a company called @Maunconsulting and every other morning they post a #MAUNing thought. It's a great idea and often contains useful information. I now often retweet the thought of the day to my followers. Think about what you could offer and generate that 'feature' approach to Twitter. Like all advertising, people will have to see it a few times for it to register - so stick with it.

77. Blogging. I love blogging! Twitter is great, but 140 characters can be restricting. Write about your passion, blog it, then share the link on Twitter. It's also a great way for people get to know you better.

78. Be careful. The greatest thing about Twitter is its ability to reach to millions via 140 characters. The danger is unwanted attention. Think before you tweet...

I'm having a great time in Madrid on holiday.

= My house is currently empty - please help yourself to that TV I tweeted about last week.

Hey @mybessyfriend fancy a pint down the Red lion?

= I just called in sick but I hope nobody tells my boss.

79. Twitter is not Facebook. Unless the information you share is OK for anyone in the world to read, then keep it to yourself. Even when you're in a conversation with someone ANYONE can see it!

80. Don’t be bullied. Block and report anyone who spams or hassles you.

81. Try not to tweet brand names. You will get spammed for weird and wonderful things. I even found myself spammed by a Tesco voucher bot the other day. When I talk about my mobile I say iPh@ne and iPad has become iPatch and so on. It can actually be great fun trying to outwit the Twitter baddie.

82. Privacy. Never publicly tweet your email address. Twitterbots will seek and spam innocent email addresses, so keep it within a DM.

83. Auto DMs. Automatic replies thanking me for following are annoying and lazy. If you can't be bothered to thank me personally then don't bother at all. Robots belong on the factory line, not on Twitter. Humans get the love; Robots get the boot!

84. Recommendations. Just because someone is not on Twitter does not mean they don't benefit from referrals or get blasted for bad service. Twitter is a referral machine, and even those not on Twitter will be benefiting or suffering from bad press because of it. If you're a company tweeter keep your eyes peeled. If you own a company and are not on Twitter then get on it quickly!

85. Technophobia? Do you struggle with bad WiFi or confuse your synch with your link? Welcome to all the help you'll ever need. Twitter is crawling with helpful geeks falling over themselves to guide you. I have watched many a Damsel in Distress get talked through a Sky+ box reset or seen people discover apps for their Smartphone that revolutionise their lives forever (I'm one of them). So the next time you get a 404error or iTunes is playing up just shout out...Tweet the Geeks because they love to offer up free useful advice.

86. Follow big brands. Firstly, this stores their user name so you can easily mention them when happy or annoyed at their service. Secondly, there are some great offers on social media and Twitter is no exception. Most of the big brands are on Twitter and although some are poor at engaging, the PR/Marketing monkeys running the Twitter campaign love to give away free stuff.

87. Link to your Site: Twitter is a great way to push traffic to your website or blog. Be careful not to push them on to people too much though. Do make sure you have a web address or blog URL in your bio(profile description) when you type your address into the space provided on your bio it becomes a link. People on Twitter are busy and need things to be quick and simple.

88. Be clever. Posting the same link all day long will annoy your followers. It could also flag you as a spammer. When someone replies saying, "Hey great link," retweet to your followers with a comment - "Thanks, I’m pleased you liked my post." That way you kill 3 birds with one tweet. You’re reposting the link in a non-spam way, you’re thanking the retweeter AND you’re showing positive feedback on the link to followers who may have missed it or who weren’t previously interested.

89. Check your settings. So often I see people who tweet with a 'Geotag' which uses the GPS technology in your Smartphone to pinpoint your position. Often they don't realise that their phone is giving out their position! Be careful.

90. SMS. The humble text message. Twitter is based around the simple "Short Message Service" and if you wish, you can tweet by text. Just add your mobile number to your settings in Twitter.

91. Website. By all means let others know you are on Twitter via a Twitter plug-in on your website, but I’m not convinced of the benefits of a Twitter side bar showing your latest tweets. Not everyone will understand the hilarity of the current conversation. Often these sidebars can look quite cheap too.

92. TWords. Almost every word can have ‘Tw’ added to the front of it! Twubcrawl, Tweetup, Twallenge. Twitter is rife with them. Get creative, but I recommend you avoid talking like this away from Twitter!

93. Multiple posting. By this I mean using Tweetdeck or Hootsuite or any desktop service to update your Twitter and Facebook. I often see the same posts on a Facebook page as the Twitter feed. It’s lazy and odd when you talk in Twitter speak on Facebook. Use them alongside each other - but realise that they are different beasts too. People engage differently on the two platforms, so posting differently gets better results.

94. Be friendly. I refer to people on Twitter by their real name, because it’s more familiar and makes engaging with people easier. The real name of most tweeters is shown on their profile page or on a mobile device, if you just tap their picture. Although I tweet for @Underwoodwines, I still have my name in the Bio, "Tweets by Todd," so that people know who they are talking to. If you tweet for a company maybe you should introduce yourself, or sign off your tweets as The Carphone Warehouse or Orange do so well. Like this...^Todd.

95. Bio. I refer to this little description of yourself in my first 50 things, but it is so important I will mention it again. When you’re considering following someone, you probably have a nose at their profile picture and more importantly their Bio, which is 160 characters describing them. When writing your Bio, use keywords, think about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and include your likes and hobbies. Silly quirky Bios like "I like turtles" or "Often eats fish for tea" are all well and good but they won’t really tell anyone what you are about. Like with most things online, you get a very limited time to capture attention, so make it count.

96. Timing is everything. If you have something interesting to share, tweet it when most people will see it. 11am is a great time to announce something as people often take a 10 minute break and check Twitter. I also get a great response at around 8am and 7pm. Remember that your followers might be in different time zones, so mixing it up a little can widen your audience too. People are creatures of habit, so learn these and work around them.

97. Be a personality. I don’t profess to be Steven Fry, but I do lend my personality to Twitter and it makes people want to engage with me.

98. Research. Twitter is HUGE. Just type it into Google and see how much there is out there written posted discussed and shared about it. Twitter is forever changing, so get on the bandwagon and pay attention to what’s going on. Like the technology behind it, it never stands still.

99. Learn to shut-up! As my followers will testify, I struggle with this one myself! Twitter is great fun and so easy to use. If you tweet too much your followers will learn to skim over your tweets. We all follow an account that we simply don't read the content of the tweet as we already know what it says. Keep it varied, keep it interesting, keep it useful.

100. Last but not least. Use Twitter in a way that suits you best. There are no real rules. These 50 things are my own findings, but everyone is different and every company is different. Indeed every field of interest or expertise is unique in its own way...isn't that what makes life so wonderful and exciting? Be different, stand out, blend in, go against the grain, copy others or create your own niche. Twitter (like life itself) is what you make it. So enjoy it! I certainly do.

As always I welcome your comments. The comment box below is open to all without signing in. Alternatively you can Tweet me @Underwoodwines and let me and your followers know what you think!

Cheers Todd@Underwoods

50 things I have learnt about twitter that you should know.

2011-07-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

Twitter has been an integral part of my life for the past 17 months. I first joined Twitter to put Underwood Wines on the map, and initially I just wanted to sell vast sums of wine and be a golden boy at The Old Pie Factory. I have had great success, but I have also learnt that Twitter is not somewhere you sell, rather advise, help and gently promote. When all these things are achieved and targeted at the right time and place, sales will be a natural consequence. Much like any Marketing I suppose.

Ok, well here is what I have learnt. You may think, ‘who’s this so-called expert?’ I'm no expert - who is? Twitter is still in its infancy, having been established around 5 years ago. But I do use Twitter A LOT and these are my findings; feel free to take them or leave them!

Twitter is what you make it. Tailor who you follow to get exactly what you want from your timeline. You can follow any individual, any service, or any business. Be selective and don't be afraid to unfollow people if you wish.

Be yourself. This is so important. I have had success on Twitter because of my personality and not because of the business I work for. People want to engage with other people - not a corporate advert.

Twitter is a harsh mistress. She can lift you in a moment with a RT frenzy or @mention medley, but she can also cast you aside in an instance with non-response and silence. Sometimes a tweet will hit home and surprise you with its popularity, and sometimes it will be read but no one will respond. Don't take it personally.

If you like something on Twitter, retweet it. Often the person you retweet will follow you back, as it may jog their memory or they may not have known you were following them. Plus, how great do you feel when someone retweets your posts? It's a two way street.

Don't forget your manners. Thank people for your retweets and mentions, no matter how late in the day; it’s just polite.

Don't tweet constantly about what you're eating unless you're a food critic. Despite how amazing your cornflakes are.

Be helpful. I spend a lot of the time referring people to services and people I know, whether they're on Twitter or not. People use Twitter to find services and often I find Twitter more helpful than ‘Googling’ a service. Twitter results are from people. Not from savvy ‘meta tag’ Google-stroking companies!

Keep it real. Don't tweet things you can't discuss further; people will see through it in an instant.

Be interesting. Dull tweeters are easily unfollowed.

Be polite and friendly. Unless you're going for the offensive look, Twitter does not generally respond to the shouty tweet guy (or girl)!

Quoted retweets. This is when you retweet a tweet but comment before it. For example, ‘I am having a great day at work’ becomes "me too RT I am having a great day at work". This gives feedback to the tweet composer and also gives your followers an idea of what you are commenting on. Don't forget, they may not follow the person you have retweeted and it saves them going back through the conversation.

News breaks quicker on Twitter than in the real world. When Michael Jackson died on June 25th 2009, company servers crashed after users were tweeting including the words ‘Michael Jackson’ at a rate of 100,000 tweets per hour.

Shorten your links. Don't post huge URLs on Twitter. It takes up valuable characters and it looks like you don’t know what you're doing.

Be sparing with characters. Try to leave enough room so that if your tweet gets retweeted, your name and RT fits. Often valuable information is lost in a retweet. Count the characters (letters) in your Twitter name and add 3. Leave this many characters free after a tweet if you can.

Leave the hard sell behind. Twitter users don’t want it.

In my opinion, Twitlonger services (used to enable you to send over 140 characters) are pointless. 140 characters is what makes Twitter great. The majority of people use a Smartphone to access Twitter, so the additional time taken to download the remaining text is often off-putting to the reader.

Learn to use #hashtags. Don't worry, they are very simple. I use #Warwick a lot in my tweets. This puts my tweets with this hashtag in a separate feed with other #Warwick tweets. It's great to watch TV whilst looking at Twitter. Watching #xfactor or #BBCQT (BBC Question Time) with Twitter is a revelation. Try it; you may gain followers or RTs in the process.

Create a hashtag for your chat. I often do this. When talking about a specific thing I put an obviously worded hashtag in the tweet and in every other tweet about this subject. This way, if someone spots your conversation halfway through, they can click the hashtag and see all the other tweets easily.

#ff (follow Friday) is a well-supported hashtag used every Friday. This is a great way of suggesting people for others to follow and often a way of patting people you follow on the back. Like someone's work? #ff them on a Friday, but don't fall into the trap of sticking a load of @mentions in a tweet and sticking #ff on the bottom. Tell people WHY they should follow.

Have a Bio on your Profile from day 1! Many Twitter accounts follow me without a Bio. I look, I have no idea what they do, so I don't follow. Chance lost.

Profile pictures (avatars) are extremely important. When you talk to someone in real life, you look at their face. Twitter is no different. It's human nature, so give them a face to link to your tweets.

People with ‘Egg’ avatars (i.e. those who have no picture) annoy me. Chose a picture from day one. I will assume you are a spam account until you do!

Learn to use the ‘conversation’ button as I call it. On most Twitter clients, apps or computers it is a little speech bubble. Press it when it is highlighted and it will show all the previous tweets in that thread. If somebody tweets you halfway through a conversation with other people, click the conversation bubble to catch up with the conversation thread.

Don't tweet pictures via DM (Direct Messaging) and think they will be private. Pictures on Twitter are posted publicly to other sites like twitpic or Yfrog. These are the sites you view when you click on a picture link from Twitter. Be careful.

I often ‘favourite’ a tweet if I have no time to read the content of a link it contains. I can then read it later when I have more time. I also use @evernote's brilliant DM system. Copy and paste it, then DM to evernote and they put it into your notes online. Genius!

Don't assume official Twitter apps and clients for phones or computers are the best for you to use. Road test some alternatives. I find Tweetdeck amazing, and I don't use Twitter’s official app for iPhone either. Go play. Talk to others on Twitter about it!

I often look through other peoples ‘following’ tabs to see who they follow. It's a great way to find useful Twitter accounts, and as they are being followed by like-minded tweeters, they are often perfect for me too.

Auto tweets can be useful. I use them to send out messages for events and links, blogs etc. But it’s important to keep them fresh, as duplicated tweets are annoying and unfollow buttons are easy to push!

Be conversational, but don't talk to the same person for hours on end everyday. DM them or pick up the phone. Ask yourself - would anyone else want to hear it?

Remember your housework. Check your followers, and follow them back if you like the look of them. Thank them for following. Connect with them. Some people thank every single new follower. Although this may be annoying to their existing followers, it is a good way to make sure you don't miss a possible new connection.

Be available. Twitter is fast and responsive. It is different from Facebook. Most tweeters expect a reply.

Be topical. Some of the best conversations on Twitter are based on current events.

Have fun. Twitter IS fun; if it isn't then re-evaluate your follows and actions.

Celebrities have their place on Twitter, but unless you're very lucky they never converse with you. They are often the initial attraction for people to join, but rarely the reason Twitter works. Follow them by all means, but tweeting real people is what makes the Twitterverse go round.

Twitter rants can be funny, but targeted at the right place can also get results. Large companies usually have Twitter departments, which consist of customer service representatives responding to tweets. I often find tweeting big companies more effective than calling them. Remember, when you complain on Twitter all your followers see it AND they see the way the company responds. Extra pressure gets extra results because they don't want to lose face live on Twitter... who would?

When you start out and you follow only a handful of people, you may think people who tweet more than 3 times a day are annoying and a pest. But when you follow more and more, those people who only tweet 3 times a day disappear in a busy timeline. I follow around 900 and have tweeted 22,000 times since joining. Excessive? Maybe - not all those tweets were epic or life-changing; in fact most were conversational tweets. I think of Twitter as a procession in a street carnival. Go past the spectators once and they may forget you, go past again and again and they may take notice of your float! Sometimes less is not more.

Leave the swearing on the street where it belongs. People are offended easily by bad language on Twitter. Keep it clean.

Don't be afraid to join in other peoples’ conversation if you have something relevant to add. The Twitter tag line is "join in the conversation" so do it.

People WILL unfollow you. Try not to obsess over why, and try to refrain from tweeting about how many you have lost as you are the only one who cares.

A picture speaks a thousand words. Twitpics (photos for Twitter) is a great way to share a funny situation or beautiful scene. Used from a Smartphone on the go they can be a great way to share an event or place too.

SPAM. The bad guy of Twitter. You only need to mention random things like sausages or cheese, and a spambot (an automated Twitter account which searches for key words) follows you and sends you links to websites. There is nothing you can do but report them for spam and block them. It happens, get over it, but don't encourage them.

DON’T click on links that are randomly sent to you. They will almost certainly be viruses or worse, links to sites you didn't know were illegal. Block and report for spam.

95% of the time Twitter is a happy, friendly environment. Don't engage with people who are not. There are around 145 million people on Twitter, so you can afford to be selective.

Don't go shopping and ‘check in’ to every store in the high street in a Foursquare tweet off! People won’t care and they will get annoyed. Twitter is for talking; check-ins are fine when used occasionally, but continuous GPS logins with no tweets in between get the thumbs down from me. I do check in, but I dilute these with other content too!

Vary your content. Be an eclectic tweeter not a same old simpleton.

Try not to get stuck in a rut. You will make great friends on Twitter, but don't put all your tweets in one basket. Tweet people you haven't connected with for a while, and comment on different things. By moving in different circles you will better your ‘reach’ and connect with more people.

Meet people in person from Twitter. I love doing this; it’s a great experience and there is no ice to break as you have already connected... Just be sure to meet in a public place in case they're an axe murderer though #justsayin.

Twitter IS addictive. Learn to switch off and ignore it from time to time. (I struggle with this one.)

Like most things in life, you get out of Twitter what you put in. Contribute and engage. The more you tweet, the more you'll get out of it. Simple.

Most of all, I love Twitter. I love what it can bring to an event. I love how it can enhance a simple task with a tweet. I love how far a tweet can go with the right content. I love its power, its ease of use, its appeal to young and old. I love to check Twitter when I wake and before I rest. I love introducing new people to it and explaining how it works. I love Twitter probably a little too much, but I love it for that too.

Cheers Todd @Underwoodwines
Underwoodwines.co.uk
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Comments always welcome on here or through any of the mediums above.
Thanks for reading

Many thanks to Jo C for proof reading this blog post. For Copywriting, Proofreading and CV Mentoring please contact her through Twitter. (@pinky_princess)

A Monday at Underwoods...blogged throughout the day

2011-06-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

9.00am
Morning, today I will be blogging as I go. Lots of collections from a busy weekend of weddings and parties, welcome along!

9.50am
First collection. Wedding from Saturday, narrowly avoided being a washout. Gorgeous marquee set in the back garden of an old Warwickshire country forge. All glowing comments and a very good report back on our girl Sherry who looked after the drinks and bar. Good start

Off the the next one now, a surprise order from a shop customer on Saturday delivered on Sunday by Tim Underwood.

10.30am.
A house warming at a beautiful barn conversion on Sunday, complete soaking didn't stop their drinking though. Just glasses and ice buskets back. Happy client too.

10.45am
Next collection cancelled, customer has used all the fizz and will return all the glasses and ice buckets to us. Perfect.
Back to HQ then.

11.05am.
Back at the Old Pie Factory, a hive of activity. The other van is being emptied of it's two parties. A small bar at Stratford town hall and a party held out at Beausale near Kenilworth. No records broken from these two small jobs but they all count as they say!

11.15am
The Ferrari is off out to be photographed. The second love of Underwoods, messing about with cars
(some would say our first love)

11.50am
Recycling bins are filling up quickly, always a good gauge of the weekend passed. Empty bottles mean sales to us!

12.30pm
Back in the van and off on the next collections. Next the scene of the most optimistic marquee of the weekend....no side or flooring, I predict a paper mâché disater!!

12.50pm
Turns out to be the easiest collection of the day. Wine and beer all gone and glasses already pack up in the customers car ready for collection!
Marvellous!

13.03pm
Off into Warwick now. Sun is shining...too late now mother nature!

13.15pm
Arrived at Lord Leycester hostpital to clear up wedding from Saturday.

Time to find the keys to the Great Hall.

13.23pm.
Key acquired and we're in. Certainly looks a lot different from Saturday when it was all laid out for the wedding. Lots of clearing up has happened. Spot the difference anyone?

13.38pm
Very tempted to pour a glass of Cotes du Rhone Village and watch the world go by from the Lord Leycester's balcony, but convinced clearing up is what I'm here for. Glorious sunshine though.

13.51pm
All done, another Lord Leycester wedding completed....well until it gets back to HQ for it's debriefing and stocking!
Warwick School next. Busy weekend for them so lots to sort out!

13.56pm.
Arrival at Warwick school...this may take some time.

14.11pm
All done! I am amazed. Very well organised and all ready for collection. heaps of glasses to come back and a little more wine returned from the twinning association than hoped but at least we get all the parties and weddings here...numbers game I think!
Off to Beausale now.

14.23pm.
Wedding site visit for July booked via DM on twitter from the bride. We really are embracing social media more everyday!

14.45pm
Having just called the office to find out where in Beausale the marquee party was I have arrived and conquered. Just a few glasses left. Looks like they had a wonderful Saturday just dodging the rain, yesterday's party was not so lucky though.
Still, happy customers all round today. Very satisfying!
Back to the Pie Factory now to stock and put away. Never ending cycle.

15.11pm
Back at HQ. The Ferrari is now clean and in the shop. We've decided to save emptying the van until tomorrow now. Early finish! A rare occasion!

Just invoicing to be done now, and we can call it a day!

19.58pm
Just spell checking and about to post.

Phew, well please excuse lack of correct grammar and attention to detail as this was blogged in between driving and carrying wine to and from the van!

Hope you enjoyed this rather different insight to our day.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Getting Social with a local charity.

2011-06-08T14:34:00.000-07:00

Getting social with a local charity.

Well we promised to be the biggest team, and we didn't disappoint. The Heroes Run for Air Ambulance saw Warwicktweetup raise almost £1200!

On a June Sunday morning the crowds gathered at the glorious sun drenched grounds of Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire eager to put their weeks of practice to the test. In a sea of yellow the participants chatted and grouped together, Warwicktweetup being the biggest group naturally. Armed with team T-shirts, courtesy of Liquid blu a design company in nearby Leamington Spa and supplied by Acorn Printing in Coventry we proudly showed off our group logo splashed across our chests. Just by being there we had raised £500 in sign up fees alone and with a further £335 raised on our Just giving page we were already proud of what we had achieved, the run would just seal the deal.

Gradually our team grew as our team runners came in two by two, team shirts were distributed and the team lucozade shared. We were ready, motivated and I for one felt an extreme sense of achievement. Standing at the front of Stoneleigh Abbey among such wonderful people who had given their Sunday to Air Ambulance, It really felt like we had done something special, without even warming up.

The official warm up started off proceedings, we however were far to busy comparing tiffin we had prepared for after run nibbles. Not to be out done though we had our own personal trainer on hand in the guise of Rob Coster from Life Fit Camp to put us through our paces. I was not the only one to admit to being out of breath from this but Rob assured us this was good.....it did not install confidence that I could run the distance if I could not run on the spot for 30seconds though!!

After publicity shots from Karen Massey, our official Photographer and fellow committee member, we were lined up in order of self assessed ability and the Mayor of Kenilworth took to the stage, air horn in hand, to say a few words. The crowd were encouraged and uplifted as the sun shone down upon us. We were ready, we were poised, the butterflies cartwheeling in our bellies were ready to burst, it was then I realised that running this "fun run" would be the furthest I had ever run in my life!

....The horn sounded, and we were off!

Now in my head, way back in March, when we decided to participate in the Heroes Run, I envisaged us all running together chatting and giving each other moral support. In reality however there was a break away "walking" group pairs and threesomes of joggers and up front the "I ran this years London Marathon" group....which I managed to find myself in. Oh dear! Stood next to me was our team PT Rob Coster who was "expecting a good time" from me and all of a sudden I realised that this would not be the social jog I had in mind.

Still, no going back now and having promised live on air with BBC's Tim Boswell that we would in fact run the 10K (twice the route of the rest) we set off through the arch way of Stoneleigh Abbey and got into our stride. The first site was our vintage van "Diane" which Tim Underwood had cunningly parked on the first grass verge of the route, it really lifted my spirits and gave a ripple of chuckles from Warwicktweetup members behind us. We ran past her as we jostled for space in the group and hit the overflow car parks gravel heading for the rear of Stoneleigh Abbey. Once out on the run the spirit and uplifting cheers from little pockets of crowds and marshals soon quashed any worries and adrenalin flowed. The first 4k was very social and Rob and I discussed starting to run more regularly and the possibility of training for a triathlon.....oh how that changed!

Once we hit the grassy uneven surface of the field our energy was sapped and Rob soon changed his mind about joining me for the full 10k. At the home straight we said our goodbyes and after a few encouraging words from Rob I got carried away waving to the crowds and tripped over him and crashed across the start finish line. Unperturbed I stumbled to my feet and crossed the line to a few gasps and an encouraging shout out over the mic for Underwood wines, well worth the tumble!

The 2nd half was tough and less social than the first, but I set in my sights Tim Boswell, fellow warwicktweetup member and marathon runner. I had to catch him up, for moral and companionship to get me round the final lap. We spoke little, occasionally waving to fellow team mates as we crossed them or lapped them, after a second bout on the gruelling field we could finally hear the sound of the PA from the stage at the start/finish, we could see the glowing yellow haze of shirts and inflatable arch which adorned the finish line. Running through the small tree sheltered path Tim told me to go, to sprint to the line. It was as if something injected energy into my legs I powered up the incline with the sound of the crowds and then my name was mentioned by Jo Payne once again over the mic. I then felt obliged to mimic a hawk and literally fly arms out to the line...what a feeling, what an achievement, what a day!

We all drank water, compared times and received our medals from the finish line. We had done it. Wow!

The moment of the day was yet to come though, the reason we were there, the purpose of our efforts, the object of our fundraising efforts. In the distance we heard the unmistakable sound of Heli-Med 53 the Warwickshire and Northants Helicopter back from a mission and ready to greet us. Perfect timing, almost as if it was planned. We all watched in awe as the Heli came in to land, it was a very emotional moment...we were here to keep this Helicopter saving lives, to keep it flying and here it was hovering in front of us almost thankful in flight, humbled by our efforts, majestically floating in front us the sponsors. Our Helicopter, the peoples hero, I had more butterflies now than I did at the start of the run!

But we had really gave it our all, so far Warwicktweetup has raised £1450 for Air Ambulance, enough to for the Heli to complete a life saving mission. We should be very proud.

We will undoubtedly be there next year and will certainly be raising for this amazing cause again soon. We may well have saved a life by meeting on twitter! Incredible!

Cheers

Todd@Underwoodwines

Twitter

Facebook

Youtube

Warwicktweetup

Comments always welcome.

Many thanks to Karen Massey Photography for the images in this and many of my blogs

The social grapevine

2011-05-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

The Social Grapevine

Way back in March 2010 Underwood Wines were still cultivating a new website and the word social media was an unknown buzz-word seen only in the odd newspaper article or over heard in the local.

15 months on and now riding not only the twitter waves but also surfing the facebook and YouTube tide there's no looking back at the still waters of the past...

but what does it bring to our shores....?

The first thing I am asked when I say "I tweet for Underwood's" is always along the lines of;

"How much business does it generate?"

and the answer is always

"I really can not tell you"

Social media is a great marketing tool for almost any business and is free so naturally everyone is tweeting, updating and interacting in every way possible with their customer base, but like any marketing you do or have done for you, there really is no hard evidence it is working.

You can not plot your success on a graph or pie chart, you have no way of creating a spread sheet in XL with all your sales that were generated by your actions on twitter, facebook or whatever platform you have chosen to thrust your business upon. So when people ask for cold hard evidence you are often left, as I am, embarrassingly scrambling for evidence in your iPhone that someone once came and spent with you because of your actions on the super highway of chat!

I often compare marketing to the story "The Emperors new clothes" A wealthy Emperor (The company) employs the best tailor in all the land (genericmarketing.com) to produce the finest threads ever seen (new business) and the tailor produces the finest clothes that anyone has ever seen, or not as the case may be, in fact the tailor sends the Emperor off naked with not a thread, nothing tangible to show for his money, nothing for his subjects to see, nothing to show for his outlay of cash and time....of course the tailor was a con artist, but the result is very similar.

So does it work.....?

Is Social media for business a professional con artist?

Well I can whole heartedly say YES is does work. How do I prove this...well that is the tricky bit.

-My Google analytic's show traffic from social sources every day, but does not prove they made a sale.

-www.underwoodwines.co.uk is top of most relevant searches thanks to being everywhere in cyberspace, but does not prove it made a sale.

-People on twitter and facebook often tell their friends and colleagues about us, there is often no breadcrumb of this, but it happens....but no proof that they made a sale.

-People do visit our shop in Warwick purely because they are intrigued after following or liking us....but no proof that this makes a sale.

I am pleased I do not work in marketing how do you stand up at the yearly appraisal and stare at your MD...naked...without a thread?

Ok, so why do I still tweet, update, upload, like, DM, Retweet or anything else for that matter, why am I writing this blog, what is the point right?!

Well, 3 radio interviews 2 newspaper articles and over 500 pages on a google search for Warwicktweetup later I reckon I made some headway on social media, and that's just one aspect of Underwood's social campaign. Social media exposure is more a case of be seen or be invisible. Sure, you can be on the high street with the rest of them, but if your competitors go outside of the shop and shake hands with the crowds and you don't? Well.... go figure.

I recently completed a questionnaire for a students diploma, the subject was, predictably, social media. The paper focussed on social media and the effect it has in the modern world. One question stood out though, one question made me say out loud in an empty room..."oh yea..."

-Would you (on a scale of 1-10) say you were more likely or less likely to do business or buy a product from a company or person you have engaged with on social media?

Without hesitation I ticked 10 and then realised what had happened. Social media had become so powerful that I would put any company I had engaged with above those I had not. Not as stupid as it sounds though, social media lets you meet the human behind the brand, get to know the personality before you walk in the door. Lets face it, at the end of the day people do business with people. Its a phrase used a lot by a company I have engaged with and met up with through twitter, Local Faces, and they are right. Social media is just that, people talking to other people.

Social media is not the only way to get your name out there amongst the crowds, but when I google a wine specific query and one of my tweets appears on the first page above huge competitors I do smile rather smugly to myself.

Cheers

Todd@Underwoods.

Twitter
Facebook

Warwicktweetup visit the Air Ambulance base

2011-05-18T09:42:00.001-07:00

Warwicktweetup visit Air Ambulance base.

Well fresh from the Air Ambulnace base I'm now more determined than ever to raise as much money for this great cause than ever before, what a great team of guys and what humble facilites they work with.

On a wet and windy afternoon at Coventry airport myself, Christie and Karen got up close and personal with the Helicopter and crew of WNAA. Thanks to Jo Payne, Warwickshire and Northants fund raiser, we were able to see where all the money raised goes and speak to the guys who save lives on a daily basis. After a few photographs from Karen's assistant Paul Massey ( who was under close supervision!) we headed inside for a cup of tea. We passed a group of "senior" fund raisers and did our best to recruit them for the Heroes run, although I think Bridge club was more their scene.

Sat in the very modest Air Ambulance base office it really felt like a village hall or community centre, not the base for a life saving service who cover the whole of Warwickshire and Northants. We chatted about many things but in particular twitter, as has become the topic of most of my conversation lately. We also spoke of photography and how the modern world is now so instant......not unlike the service that WNAA provide really. Whilst talking I spotted a tweet from Gaz @Liquidblu_, he had posted a link to a Coventry Telegraph article dated July 2009 in which a friend of his had to be air lifted from a very nasty injury incurred in a rugby match in Leamington. The crew in the office remembered the incident and were eager to see the article and horrific photo attached. Amazing really that they hadn't seen the article or indeed knew if he had recovered or was back playing rugby, as is the nature of their job, It really is all in a days work!

We learnt a lot from our visit but the one thing that sticks in our minds is that the WNAA is not Government funded and relies solely on fund raising, which considering every mission costs in the region of £1400, is astonishing! They really do need our help and we are now more determined than ever to get the biggest team together for the Heroes run on June 5th and raise as much money as possible,

PLEASE support us and participate on June 5th 10.30am at Stoneleigh Abbey. You don't have to run, you can walk, plod, you can even bring the dog and the kids. We really don't care, we just want you there, one day you might just really want the Air Ambulance there.

Join here please put Warwicktweetup in the "reason for joining" box so we can be credited as the BIGGEST team.

If you can't make it you can donate on our just giving page, all proceeds to Air Ambulance.

Thanks for your support, we hope to see you there!

Todd, Karen and Christie

Warwicktweetup 2- The WTUQuiz

2011-05-10T01:01:00.000-07:00

Warwicktweetup 2

Raising money for Air Ambulance

Chocolates donated by Jo McLean @ChocolateLady01

May 5th soon came around and the long awaited sequel to the inaugural first Warwicktweetup was upon us here at Underwood Wines. The theme this time around was a little more structured as we had a bit more time to organise, I think we had 11 days last time around!!

As we had done before many of the attendees provided prizes and items to help the evening along. Many had offered their help too but I think they were just trying to get a sneaky peeky at the quiz questions! Much appreciated all the same.

The quiz was set to be really twitter orientated and the quiz teams were really quite concerned at the content of the questions in the lead up to the quiz, we decided late on to be a little less hard on the contestants and dropped a couple of the more complexed rounds for fear of alienating newer members to Warwicktweetup. The fist round set the theme for the original idea for the quiz. We had a round of retweets. Those not familiar with twitter this is basically when somebody copy and pastes someone else's status to all their own followers...kind of a doth of the cap to the original tweeter or a little like "liking" on Facebook. All retweets were RT'd by Karensphotos and were all tweets by Warwicktweetup members. Tricky? Yea pretty much, hence why the next round was a picture round with images from around the Warwick area taken in an abstract fashion by Karen Massey. This round as well as the first were tweeted live on twitter. Some team members were playing from home and tweeting people in the room with their answers. It was a little geeky but then I'm a geek at heart and I quite enjoyed running two computers, an iPhone two screens in the shop and then a mixer for the music round. With many an error on the year of the song and much googling and wikipedia action we eventually moved on from the music round to the touchy feely round. The lights were dimmed and Percy pigs smells filled the room, great fun and very light hearted end to the WTUQuiz.

Special thanks go out to the following people who made it possible.

Dave Sharpe (pictured right)from Local Faces for being our Quiz Master (Amazing).

Karen Massey for being the official photographer once again.

Lanes Bar & Restaurant for providing the canapés.

Cafe Catalan for providing the PA and a voucher for the raffle! Cheers

LPAudioGroup for loaning us their screen, thanks guys!

Prizes from;

@Ginger1print, @2businessmum, @Staceyforever , @Karensphotos @Wildaboutimages and Jana from @ChocRebublic who donated some of her fabulous truffles once again!

So, what is next? Well were going to run for Air Ambulance on the 5th June in their "Heroes Run" if you wish to join us and make it the biggest team competing or have something to offer Warwicktweetup, especially T-Shirts and printing then email warwicktweetup@gmail.com

Cheers for now

Todd@Underwoods

A brief history in wine....

2011-04-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Probably the most interesting wine merchant in the world....

With no corporate boxes to tick or share holders to please, stock bought, sold and merchandised by the owners, Underwood Wines really is as independent as a wine merchant gets!

At first glance you can tell Underwood wines in Warwick is no high street chain. Vintage cars parked at their convenience, wine samples strewed across every surface and often a meeting of minds by the counter/bar with a glass of the latest being consumed at leisure. The Old Pie Factory is certainly not number 168 High St, but more hidden treasure out of town!

Nick, Tim and Phil have been buying, selling, serving, investing, drinking, sampling and well doing pretty much everything in the wine trade for over 30 years now. The purchase of "The Old Pie Factory" in 2008 saw them open up the doors to one and all and the addition of Underwoodwines.co.uk has seen sales across the globe!

Not wishing to be at all similar to other wine shops or supermarkets Underwoods only buy from small producers and co-operatives, you won't find brand names in their Warwick emporium, the house Champagne Renard Barnier for example could not supply a large chain as their production simply is not big enough. This ensures that Underwood shoppers really do get something different, something they won't have tried before and hopefully something they will go back for.

Amongst the shelves and displays are not only everyday drinkers or lay down for laters but also rare spirits including Whiskey, tequila, rum, vodka, pisco, liqueurs and even a £3.50 bucket full of "where did this come from" items. You'll be amazed at the vast array of stock at the Montague road Aladdin's cave and probably more so with the cars, artefacts and and rare corkscrews on display.

The Moto @Underwoodwines has always been "No problem!" once the immortal words are muttered people are scrambled and miracles are performed (well not quite biblical) The personal, small business service is what Underwood wines do best. Nothing is a problem merely an issue, they go out of their way on a daily basis to keep people happy. This is not a business model any large company would provide without cost, but the boys just can't help being...well... helpful!

This attitude is transferred perfectly to the service at Weddings and functions anywhere they are asked to be. Champagne is always cold, drinks are always charged and running out is not an option. Expert advice is offered and experienced staff are deployed. During the summer months Marquees are second homes and life moves from receptions to speeches and toasts to first dances. You wouldn't go far wrong to get Underwoods behind your bar!

New arrivals at "The Old Pie Factory" are often and varied. Cellar clearances ensure fine wine stock is constantly being added to and petrol head enthusiasm means that four wheeled stock is turned around fast too, in fact its not unusual (breaks into a Tom Jones pose) to combine the two. A car needs collecting and a cellar needs valuing? No worries, the Alfa is acquired and driven to the cellar in question. Simple. New spirits and Ports are acquired and uploaded to underwoodwines.co.uk as soon as they hit the shelves too so on line shoppers are as up to date as our Warwick locals. Even the vintage corkscrews are making their way on-line one by one.

So, you've not been down to this most interesting Wine Merchant in Montague road? you've not clicked on www.underwoodwines.co.uk or tweeted me @Underwoodwines? Well I'm just speechless!

Cheers Todd@Underwoods

The problem with being diverse...

2011-04-17T03:08:00.000-07:00

More than one string to our bow you know!

The thought occurred to me the other day whilst telling the story about dropping "Warehouse" from our title, that people think of us in so many different ways, depending on how they use us.

You see, Underwood wines have been trading as a wine merchant for over 30 years, and the Underwood name as their forefathers for much longer than that. From Weddings and bars to shops and wine broking, So it's not surprising really that we have such a diverse image.

For example, some people find Underwood wines through their wedding caterer,

we get the "nod" as the go to guys for wedding champagnes, wines and services from the company providing the canapés and braised beef. The client comes to see us and we give an informal wine tasting at home or in the Pie Factory itself, we provide the staff and all the bar service they could ask for on their "big day" its a great success and they pay the bill........and quite often that's the end of our relationship, until the next wedding!?

1000's people find Underwood wines through the medium of Google!

What a wondrous referral mistress she is, but its so specific and unless you type the correct phrase into the search box you could be forgiven for thinking that we are only online, or that we specialised in rare Whiskey but you need to go to Sainsbury's for your Chilean Merlot....

Often people use us for "Sale or return"

Underwood's can provide all the "kit" for a party at home, office, marquee or anywhere in fact. We provide the drinks glasses and even the ice (of which we make our own) and buckets to chill it all in. But after we clear up and wave goodbye its all so final....

Thankfully many people also use us as they're favourite wine merchant and wander down to Montague road in Warwick and fill the boot with Rhone and Burgundy goodness with the occasional case of beer and bottle of vintage port! Naturally you can of course but a few bottles and still enjoy a glass of wine while you shop AND share Nick and Tims wealth of knowledge. You wouldn't get that at Lord Sainsbury's Gaff!!

So what do we do in the world of wine??

I find it easier to list what we don't do!

-We don't own a vineyard

-We don't stock Lambrini or blue Nun. (although we have some fab German wines instead)

-We don't expect all our customers to own his and her Range Rovers

-We dont expect you to buy 12 bottles of wine, evening top ups are fine

-We don't have any other Warehouse/shop/emporiums

-We ARE NOT a Warehouse, we're still working on our tag line!

-We don't test your wine knowledge when you visit, we're happy to advise even the most novice of wine drinkers, so dont be scared.

-We don't do pushy sales! Come and have a nose around, we love our cars and wine artifacts we think you will too.

-We don't have a minimum purchase in our shop or on line!!

So you see, not easy to sum up Underwood wines in a simple tag line is it...

Underwood wines, sell wine, buy wine, serve wine, collect wine, collect cars, provide tastings, serve at weddings, pr ovide sale or return, have over 2500 lines including rare whiskey, Port, Cognac...blah blah I'm bored. It's not exactly "every little helps" or "Underwoodwines.co.uk and your done" is it?

But hey, we don't pay big companies loads of sterling to sell ourselves, that cost's silly amounts of money, and we'd have to pass on the cost to our customers...and thats not what Underwood wines Warwick is all about.

So unless your running low on ready mixed bucks fizz or would like to invest in our vineyard in Sherbourne( no we don't own a vineyard in Sherbourne) we can pretty much help you with any wine & spirit need.

Visit us in Warwick

Click on-line at www.underwoodwines.co.uk

Call us on 01926 402100

or drop us an email

tweet us @Underwoodwines

Like us on facebook

or even watch our videos on YouTube

Cheers for now

Todd@Underwoods

Spring at last!

2011-04-03T03:28:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung....at last!

After one of the coldest and whitest winter for years , commuters and business owner's alike in the UK welcome the sight of Daffodils and early sunrise as we say goodbye to the chaos of winter 2010/11.

The first 3 months of the year certainly have flown by haven't they? I know it's a cliché to say but it only seems 5 minutes ago we were knee deep in snow and Christmas orders! Must be a sign of age!!

So, to April we "spring" full of potential and hope. The first quarter of our year at Underwood's is always a little quiet with New Years resolutions playing a big part in the down turn of customers, but, we have had plenty to occupy us in the run up to spring. Our shop is not only a shop you see, those who have visited us at The Old Pie Factory in Warwick will know that only too well. By day it can be a garage for the vintage cars, a class room for wine tutoring and by night anything from a Networking venue to a sit down dinner for 90 people to wine tastings or parties! an Ambidextrous wine Merchant if you like?!

A cold glass of something...?

With spring comes a change to taste buds too... Rosé is the order of the day for some and the big full bodied reds take a step back to let the crisp whites take centre stage. We have some Fabulous Rosé in our arsenal, The Marcadet being one of my personal favourites with its delicate notes of strawberry and ever so slightly off-dry style, or our Torres rosé or "Mans Rosé" as I jokingly refer to it as it packs quite a punch, and leans more to the red side of rosé. On the white front we welcome our new house Chilean's. With the disappearance of Peteroa from our list the Pacifico range slotted in perfectly. Pacifico Sauvignon is beautifully crisp, fresh and lively with gorgeous tropical notes, ideal for a drink up the garden now that the nights are getting longer. Sauvignon too obvious for you? Then you may want to look at Navajas Blanco or Vina Esmeralda Spanish whites with a little more body and fabulous with Tapas!

April is set to be quite a busy one at The Old Pie Factory. Speed networking, an annual dinner to come and already a corperate wine tasting for a national company under our belt, we certainly try to keep ourselves out of trouble.....I said try!

Some sad news since our last blog... The little Fiat that used to potter around Warwick and was a regular sight on the roundabout on the Coventry road at the weekend, has turned up on ebay. We sold her to a company in London last year after they gave us as offer we couldn't refuse. Unfortunately she appears to have been involved in a shunt, but hopefully is in the process of a re-build as the new owner called us for service history....here's hoping. On the subject of vehicles we finally have the new delivery van in our hands, still awaiting signage but already serving up wine from Birmingham to London. Looking very dashing in silver paint (a favourite for our vans) and fully "run in" she'll be a regular feature around the midlands and down to London once a week!

in the meantime, don't forget you can follow us on twitter like us on facebook or come and visit us in Warwick, feel free to comment or tweet the blog link!

Cheers, Todd@Underwoods

buy on line Underwoodwines.co.uk

Who said March was quiet?

2011-03-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

Mad as a March Hare!
Not usually a busy month at Underwood's is March, but 2011 has seen the traditionally quiet start of spring create a hustle and bustle at The Old Pie Factory.

The month started of course with the now infamous Warwicktweetup a great success and scope for plenty more in the future we hope. WTU2 is already being planned and May 5th will see a changed format and venue, details are closely guarded at the moment, so keep an eye on our twitter for all the exclusives or sign up to the official Warwicktweetup website if you want to get involved!!

Special thanks to Guy Eastwood from Surefyre for his sterling work getting the site off the ground so quickly!

Saturday 19th saw our shop turned into a restaurant with the Anglo-French annual dinner held at The Old Pie Factory. 70 guests were seated for a sit down dinner after a drinks reception, we even put on a simple bar for them too. A good chance to flex our "host" muscle's before the Annual Felons dinner for 100 next month....

On the subject of events at Underwood's on Thursday 24th March we are hosting our 2nd "Ladies Night". The event is being organised by Lindsey Roberts from @Be_Gorgeous with stalls including Fashion, jewellery, beauty products, Cupcakes, all from local boutiques and suppliers and of course a glass or two of fizz to get the party started! Tickets are available from us for £5...(Bargain) or at the door on the night. So come on ladies, get a crowd together and come shopping!

If your interested in using our unique venue for your event please contact us for more information

Car Antics~

March also see's many Vehicle antics at the wine Emporium of Warwick! Diane, our vintage Acadiane panel van, finally got her picture in a local Magazine. Smudge is fast becoming a local favourite amongst the shops and restaurants, a free, but very classy glossy mag with all the inside knowledge and deals Leamington and Warwick has to offer. We are working closely with them this year including being a part of their Wedding show in April. Diane can be found on page 30-31 in issue four...

In a few days we also see the arrival of our brand new van, after losing our trusty steed before Christmas we've limped our way through the first quarter of 2011 with the secondary van, now a long over due spa day is in order... Look out for my spanking new "office" soon , we're even putting our name on this one! (Must remember to drive appropriately)

The Bentley was dusted off for Cheltenham Gold cup week. Nick was very pleased with the positive first turn over of her engine after the winter sleep in storage, and even more so with the first run out around Warwick before sleeping at the Pie Factory over night. The Bentley had a flawless week of commuting to and from Cheltenham and can now be seen at the Pie Factory until we return her for a another little sleep...

Manoeuvres are constant here at Underwoods and next month will be no exception;

We are hosting a Speed Networking event on the 5th April organised by Laura Morris, it's new to us as it probably is to you. It sounds a very exciting idea and am very much looking forward to over seeing the event to see how it all works. With that and the previously mentioned annual Felons dinner, the classic cars will have to stay outside for the time being...

Here comes the sales bit....

Underwood Wines are open 9.30-6.30 Monday-Saturday. Wines from £5-£500 a bottle. We don't expect you to buy a case, just pop in and pick up a few bottles for dinner. Cognacs Ports and rare whiskeys and spirits can also be found amongst the shelves. We'd love for you to come and see us. Montague road Warwick

Until the next blog you can follow us on twitter like us on facebook or visit our comprehensive Website where you'll find all our wines & spirits. You can also download our stocks in a handy PDF if you so wish!

As always I welcome your comments or if you wish share on twitter or facebook with the buttons below, see you soon

Todd@Underwoods

Back to normal...?

2011-03-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

Back to normal....?

After a busy few weeks at Underwood's with social networking, day to day wine business has played second fiddle on our blog. Warwicktweetup was a great success but now we look to getting back to normal......really? We don't do "Normal" very well.

March see's our long awaited article in Smudge Magazine pages 30-31 since December's first issue we have been excited by this free glossy mag, with is polished finish and far from usual size, Smudge magazine is fast becoming a very popular directory of local news, shops and offers. Written in a more article style, it's a far better read than the normal free locals and their social interaction has been most refreshing in the Warwickshire community.

We also have our Ladies evening on March 24th. With stalls from @Be_Gorgeous, @corinacorinauk, @SimplyNails_ & @cupcakedaisyUK to name but a few and of course a glass of fizz when you arrive. The last Ladies evening we had was a great success and this looks set to be bigger and better. Tickets are £5, which is amazing value with all the stalls we have on show. For tickets please email Dawn at Underwoods. Be quick though, tickets are selling fast...

On the subject of events at the Pie Factory, we also are hosting a "Speed Networking" event in April. Laura Morris is organising the event on April 5th which proves to be a very different way of meeting new businesses and people, with a Guest speaker discussing the "Number one way to Generate New Business"

Tickets available here

Amongst all this networking we really must find time to try, buy and sell some wine!

As always please visit our website for wines, cognacs ports and rare spirits and follow us on twitter or like us on Facebook

Cheers, Todd@Underwoods

#WarwickTweetup round-up.

2011-03-06T02:22:00.000-08:00

"It's been emotional"

Well what an eventful 10 days its been. Since Wednesday 23rd Feb after the now infamous tweet from @laneswarwick, haven't we come a long way!? Not only are we preparing to host an evening on a Monday night for 80-90 people in a closed Bar&Restaurant, but we have our very own website (www.warwicktweetup.co.uk) Spangly Logo, welcome banner, official photographer, cupcakes, sparkling reception, canapés, and Goodie bags for guest's full to bursting with offers and treats from members of the tweetup!

Its incredible really, when you consider this was only going to be a couple of drinks amongst a few Warwick twitter accounts. Now its become the biggest networking event of the calendar with people desperate to get a place on the guest list, which soon filled up to the capacity in no time. We have had to turn people down, even our own friends! People have started joining twitter in an attempt to claim a place...but it was too little too late. Next stop Wembley!?

The thing that has really put a smile on "Lord Todd's" face though has been the the interaction on twitter amongst the guest's. New business cards from @stiffwhitecard have been ordered by many. Hair cuts have been booked and @browsandbeauty are busy shaping eyebrows! Saturday meant #warwicktweetup outfit shopping for most, they braved the dress code rumours and hit the high street in search of a power suit of glamorous gown for the occasion! I can't wait to see all the efforts and PR tactics put into motion on Tweetup night.

So, has everybody logged onto the Warwicktweetup Website and voted? NO? How very dare you! Guy Eastwood from @surefyre has, with great design from @AnnetteTaylorDe, created an amazing hub for our tweetup in a matter of days! Go see and sign up. The plan is that after the event the website will become a reference place for future tweetup's and you can also upload photos, so bring your camera and upload the tweetup funnies. There's no untagging there, its up and on....FOREVER (unless you catch my bad side)

Housekeeping and infomation

Doors open at 7.30pm. Invite only. We have a list and we WILL be sticking to it. Unless you have told us your bringing a plus 1 then please don't, unless your twitter name is on this Guest list please don't disappoint yourself, we have had to limit the numbers as Lanes Bar&Restaurant is only a small venue.

Warwick can be a parking nightmare, those driving be aware, it is cheap to park but the wardens work until 8 and are unforgiving.
Taxi numbers can be found here there is a taxi rank in Market place but this is a school night and Warwick can become a sleepy hollow after 10pm. Book your ride home is our advice!

Lanes are laying on canapés and we also have fabulous cupcakes from @cupcakedaisyUK for you to enjoy. That said these will be refreshments not a meal, so we would advise a light tea before you come, other wise the Fizz reception may go to your head!

It is a school night and it is also in a restaurant so last orders will be 10.45-11.00pm as usual, we have to respect our neighbours. We wont kick you out, but granny Goggins can get riled if you interrupt her Horlicks.
We're not going to formalise the evening too much, this is after all a chance to put a name to the avatar, and we don't feel "ice breaking" will be necessary, it's clear from the tweets containing #warwicktweetup hashtag that you are all getting on so well already.

So, see you there. Any questions in the meantime as always tweet me @Underwoodwines and don't forget to sign up to the website if your coming!
Cheers, Todd@Underwoods.

Special thanks to;

@karensphotos for all her help and amazing work so far,

@cupcakedaisyuk for baking 90 cupcakes for the tweetup

@SXWARWICK for our wonderful welcome banner

@StiffWhiteCard for supplying "Goodie bags"

and @zazujewellery, @CafeCatalan, @BrowsandBeauty, @Passionapps, @Westgatephoto, @smudgemagazine, @CallunaTherapy, @liquidblu_, @SmithStVintage, @ChocRepublic and @Staceyforever, for offering up gifts to fill them with! AMAZING!

@surefyre and AnnetteTaylorDe with help from @sdjmchattie for our incredible website.
and of course @liquidblu_ for our Amazing Logo!

Up goes the Drawerbridge at #Warwicktweetup Towers

2011-03-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

WOW Look NEW "Official" Logo, thanks @liquidblu_

We've reached capacity!!

Well, we've reached our limit on this #WarwickTweetup Thank you to everyone who has tweeted, talked, RT'd and joined in on what is set to be the biggest Warwick twitter event ever? Guest list on previous blog lists all the attendees twitter accounts. No mention? No entry. We're very sorry but @LanesWarwick is just not big enough it seems for the Warwick twitter scene! Next stop Shire Hall!!

It does of course all stem back to a comment from Christie of Lanes Bar&Restaurant, inviting her closest Twitter friend's and colleague's for a few drinks, and here we are today with an 80 strong crowd ascending on Castle street like a pack of hungry blue chicks! That said we welcome you all, we only wish Lanes was three times the size!

So, what next?

Well there is so much to do before Monday. Photography, Banners, Goody bags (items in by Monday am please) press, PR, cupcakes, food name tag and of course we better stock up Lanes wine supplies at the bar!

More news will follow, including dress code.....?

By for now,

Todd@Underwoodwines.

#WarwickTweetup-The agenda and FAQ's

2011-03-02T13:45:00.000-08:00

#Warwicktweetup Monday 7th March 7.30pm

Invite only please tweet @Underwoodwines to confirm your place

With so much going on on Twitter and around the #Warwicktweetup, We were keen to keep you up to date. so here's the story so far.....

7.30pm Prosecco reception at Lanes Bar&Restaurant, Castle street. Warwick Find us

8.15pm Christie and Todd welcome the guest to #Warwicktweetup

8.30pm Canapés served by Lanes with cupcakes by @cupcakedaisyUK

Official Photography by @karensphotos
Official Magazine @smudgemagazine
Business card raffle. For a bottle of Underwoods house Champagne

Special thank so far to @StiffWhiteCard @jacklinstead @SXWARWICK and a very special mention to @AnnetteTaylorDe and @surefyre for creating and constructing (still) the Warwicktweetup site.

See for yourselves at http://warwicktweetup.surefyre.com/ <Sign up and comment upload and discuss the Warwick tweet up here. After the event we will post information on all guests and photos from the evening. We are planning more future Tweetups in Warwick so let us Know how we are doing!!

W: warwicktweetup@gmail.com

tweet @Underwoodwines

tweet @laneswarwick

t: 01926 402100

Numbers are critical for this event, Lanes is an intimate Bar&Restaurant so please respect our "invite only" policy.
Thanks Todd & Christie. Click here for the Confirmed guest's.

Warwicktweetup Guest list.

2011-02-28T11:55:00.000-08:00

#WarwickTweetup
Guests confirmed so far

Twitter seems to be having problems on some apps, and internet search engines. So here is the current list, updated when possible. last update, 3rd March 15.58

@sallyevansphoto

@fenetresetc

@sdjmchattie

@AnnetteTaylorDe
@WinePoole
@ChocRepublic
@SmithStVintage
@64PJL

@DrVictoriaG

@girlfridaymedia
@laurenloquax
@emilyjayneimage

@getoffthesofa

@funtasiadisco

@pinky_princess

@2businessmum
@Staceyforever

Updated at 15.58 3rd March, not listed? Sorry! We are now fully booked up. Lanes is a small venue and upto capacity. More Warwicktweetup's are planned.

Warwicktweetup-Update......

2011-02-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

CONFIRMED GUESTS can be found here....

Blimey. What a couple of days we've had at Underwood's!

Incredible response to the #WarwickTweetup we even got attention from local press! After a couple of Tweets from broadcasters at BBC Coventry and Warwickshire I decided to tweet Ellie Jones a researcher I found on twitter and she was very excited. Less than 24hours later I was on air with Elliot Webb on BBC Cov&Warks. Amazing, and great publicity too. Not heard it? really? Listen at 1hour 24mins to hear some shameless plugging and a lesson in Tweetups!

So who's coming? Well I've created a "list" on Twitter with all the Confirmed guests. Updated live, so if you DM your reply to confirm your coming, your added to the list. It can be found>>>> HERE <<<<<

That's it for now, gotta go, I've had 10 tweets whilst writing this!!

As always comments are very welcome, don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Cheers
Todd@Underwood's

Warwicktweetup-We've set a date!

2011-02-26T00:03:00.000-08:00

We've set a date!!!

"Any of the local Twitterati fancy a meet up if we sorted something out?"
@Laneswarwick

After only 48hours to the minute after the infamous tweet above we have a date! The clock behind the bar at Lane's bar and restaurant read 6.40pm when we confirmed, over a glass or two, the finer details of the WarwickTweetup, and of course the all important date.....so....get your diary....and cancel what ever is happening on Monday March 7th at 7.30pm.

There will be a sparkling reception laid on by @Underwoodwines together with canapés from @LanesWarwick at 7.30pm. We are in negotiation with music and press, it really is set to be a great night! All Warwick, and surrounding Twitter family are invited to come and Tweetup and put a name to the tweets. Your input would be gratefully received and anything you think you can add to the evening.

Please tweet @laneswarwick or me @Underwoodwines to confirm your place or give us your ideas.

Lane's Bar and Restaurant can be found here Castle street Warwick.

See you there....the Warwicktweetup, it's Official!!

Warwicktweetup-The game is set

2011-02-24T14:47:00.000-08:00

Well, what a difference a day makes, one tweet and 24 little hours.....

#Tweetup, heard the phrase? Ever attended or arranged one? The whole idea of social networking is to meet people, share your ideas and help others with theirs right? Well without even thinking Lane's Bar&Restaurant simply asked, with one solitary tweet, if any Warwick Tweeters would be interested in a tweetup. BANG! it just spiralled into the Twitter world of RT's and mentions and without any effort at all and powered by the desire to connect, it had a 30 strong army in hours with more joining all the time.

Warwick certainly has a strong Twitter community, it may date back to 914AD but the market town of Warwick are certainly not old fashioned when it comes to networking. Twitter has been embraced by shop keepers, boutiques, Jewellers, bars, restaurants, and pretty much anyone who's anyone is tweeting, and it's not just hard selling tactics, its real conversation and sharing, the sort of thing communities of old would have done at town hall meetings or council sessions.

The strong Twitter "family" of Warwick certainly jumped on the chance of a tweet up and plans are being put in place very quickly....we promise.

For more information on the WarwickTweetup Follow the Hashtag #Warwicktweetup on Twitter or check our Facebook discussion page for info.

As always follow us on Twitter or like our Facebook

Cheers, see you at the WarwickTweetup!
Todd@ Underwood's.

Never "assume" anything!

2011-02-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

Hello, and thanks for visiting the Underwood wines blog.

This week we had a very informal meeting with a marketing Guru,for want of a better phrase. He offered his opinion free of charge after meeting one of us at a dinner and popped into The Old Pie Factory almost intrigued as to why he hadn't been back to us or indeed heard more about us sooner.

With a Wine Wise class in full swing we chatted over coffee in the shop front. Many things were discussed, what marketing we had done, what we planned how we went about it. Most ideas he had, we'd done, most plans he suggested we'd thought of.....it was beginning to look puzzling why people didn't know of us, or shop with us, despite shouting from the roof tops from various platforms. Then it happened, the word was so obvious, none of us at Underwood Wine Warehouse had noticed. Warehouse; Wikipedia say's

a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers,exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually haveloading docks to load and unload goods from trucks. Sometimes warehouses load and unload goods directly from railways, airports, or seaports. They often have cranes and forklifts for moving goods, which are usually placed on ISO standard pallets loaded into pallet racks.

Where are the words retail outlet, shop, wine merchant with no minimum purchase? It simply is not there and doesn't give people the full picture and we've been shouting about our Wine WAREHOUSE for 4 years! Counter-productive?

On Tuesday I even asked the wonderful people who follow us on Twitter what the phrase "Wine Warehouse" meant to them, what they thought of when they heard or read it. We got an amazing response from a varied range of tweeters and all said the same....It screams trade, bulk purchase, and not at all that we are an independent wine shop that you can just pop to and buy a bottle for dinner. The Guru was right, he had hit the nail so firmly on the head that it was never coming back out! We all agreed, it has to go, phase it out, drop it, lose it, never mention Warehouse in the same sentence as the Underwood name again. Perfect. But what about the Magazine article we had just submitted and the new signs we had ordered? We quickly had our logo re designed and hurriedly emailed it to Smudge magazine and our sign maker...

better....?

Well, its too early to tell yet but I think we may have something here. All we have to do is change all the places we have Underwood Wine Warehouse printed, simple, if we could only remember all the places we have put it?!

Moral of the story is of course never assume anything, just because its obvious to you does not mean it is to everyone else. Be clear and concise with your advertising and sometimes, just sometimes thinking outside of the (logo) box can leave the glaringly obvious undetected.

Thanks for reading, your comments are always welcome and, as I have discovered this week, sometimes very helpful
Cheers Todd @Underwoods

News year's revolution.

2011-02-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

Well, February already? Incredible. Time really does seem to pass by quicker the older you get,,,or the more you drink? or both? Well which ever, the second month of 2011 has arrived.

How does it find you? We are gathering speed again after the usual lull of New year detox plans, I myself completed #Banuary(no drink til Feb) but luckily for us people have long since fell off their alcohol dry wagons and come crashing into a long awaited January pay day.

Tutored Tastings

We've got an exciting time ahead at Underwood's. The year has started positively, with new ideas and plans in motion there is a little burble of activity gently simmering on the stove at The Old Pie Factory. Starting with this months tutored tastings. We did a little research and it seem's people want to learn more about the wine they are drinking at our larger tastings but they were just too busy to really absorb any information on the wines. We do have WSET classes held at The Pie Factory by The Wine Wise Company but not everyone has 4,5 or even 6 Saturdays in a row to spare. So the Tutored evening's were born.

First 2 are this month on 10th and 24th from 7.30pm to 9.30pm, nibbles provided and more importantly Nick and or Tim Underwood will be there to really talk about the wines while you taste. Naturally though they won't take it too seriously, even if we wanted them to, so it will no doubt be highly entertaining evening to boot!

(here comes the sales bit) £15 per person please email Dawn to confirm your place. Limited numbers,

January finally saw the arrival of the most tweeted and anticipated wine in recent times. Never before has a wine been talked about, blogged, reviewed, tweeted, had articles written and emailed to us and well quite frankly marketed to within an inch of its South African roots! I am of course, for those who don't follow our Twitter account, talking about Seven Springs Sauvignon Blanc. It has been on UK soil since November but due to all manner of problems at the docks including a collapsed roof which of course was down to snow (last years scapegoat) it only reached us on January 12th! After much searching on a very cold morning at Tilbury Docks I found it hidden in a corner of a warehouse with the forklift drivers breakfast plate resting on it! Charming! After its tour of London town in the back of the van it was whisked, at the national speed limit, up the M40 to Warwick to our humble abode and quite literally tasted off the van.......

After all that anticipation was it worth the reviews, the hype the marketing and tweeting? Well yes, it stood up to the very harsh tasting and journey and we were greeted with a very delicate nose of apple/pears leading to gorgeous citrus and tropical fruits with a beautiful lingering finish. Available now from our website or in store in Warwick. Congratulations to Tim and Vaughan Pearson on a great start to a very promising vineyard.

The new year bought sad news too, our trusty chariot had to go, our silver VW van that had seen 100,000 miles of wine shenanigans and glory was returned to sender and we were down to one very old secondary bus, but then from the mists of sadness came Diane, our Acadiane panel van, promoted from round-a-bout dweller to wine delivery hero. Diane is well known to regular Saturday commuters on the Coventry road and drinkers in the Zetland but January saw her propelled to glory and potential stardom status as I took her out on daily travels to Warwick, Leamington Spa, Southam, and even the Coventry ring road...which trust me, in a left hand drive 1980's French van with wing mirrors that are too small and auto tilt of their own accord, feels like the bloody Nurburger ring! Bless her, she's done a great job and there is more to come. But not if we keep filling her up to the roof...

We have more events planned in March, but as yet I can't confirm all the details. Tutored tastings are set to be a regular feature and we hope to hold 2 a month. We have a ladies night planned and then a dinner for 90 in our shop! Yes we are mad, and no are not taking any medication apart from regular alcoholic intake, and no we will never learn to stick to the simple life. Where is the fun in that?

As always follow us on twitter or sign up to our newsletter by emailing Dawn and dont forget to check back here for news and gossip.

Cheers, Todd@ Underwood's

January Newsletter

2011-01-25T12:43:00.001-08:00

t: 01926 402100
www.underwoodwines.co.uk

January 2011 Newsletter

Wine Tastings at The Old Pie Factory

Thursday 10th February & Thursday 24th February

7.30 p.m. til 9.30 p.m.

This year, we have decided to host 2 wine tastings each month, they will not be our usual format, they will be a little more formal, but certainly won't be dull!

On a first come first served basis, we will have 20 people seated with 8 wines for tasting. Tim or Nicolas Underwood will host the evening and will be giving a detailed description of the wines being tasted. For an added bit of fun we will taste one of the wines blind, to see if you can guess what it is!

This evening promises to be informative but fun and offers you the chance to taste wines that you normally would not try. We will be serving canapes. The cost of the evening per person is £15.00. Perfect for a gift or birthday present or just an evening with a difference for yourself.

Contact dawn@underwoodwines.co.uk to book your place.

Monthly Wine Club

(but not really a club!)

We have a number of customers who have given us a budget to work to and have asked us to send them a case of wine each month, so we have decided to extend this service to all of our database. It is very simple, you tell us how many, how much you want to spend, whether you want red, white, rose or champagne and we'll do the rest. A record will be kept of the wines we have chosen for you and the following month you will get something completely different or if you wish exactly the same! We will also deliver it for you free of charge within a 50 mile radius of The Old Pie Factory, for more details or to place your first order, please contact dawn@underwoodwines.co.uk

Events at the Factory

At the end of last year we had a few of our customers holding networking events at the factory. It was a way of them thanking their customers for the last twelve months business.

The Factory is perfect for that sort of event. In March, Be Gorgeous, a on-line ladies fashion site will be holding an evening for her customers, with several different stalls to show their wares (more details to follow). So, if you want to have a networking event at 'Probably the most interesting wine warehouse in the world'

give Dawn a call on 01926 402100

Have you heard of Smudge ?

Smudge is the new Leamington & Warwick's Premier Complimentary Magazine, it is packed with interesting articles, telling us about new shops, businesses, health articles, recipes from local chefs, discounted offers for local businesses. It is really is a good magazine. Have a look at it onlinewww.smudgemagazine.co.uk. We will be advertising in Smudge over the next few months, watch out for our offers!

Lane's Bar & Restaurant

Castle Street

Warwick

01926 403030

Russell and his team closed after New Year to give the restaurant a little bit of a make over, they are now back open, go and support this lovely Modern English eaterie, the food is amazing, whether you want a romantic meal for two (they are taking bookings for Valentines Night) or have an occasion to celebrate with a larger party. Lane's is also the perfect venue for the smaller Wedding Party, a 20 second walk from the Registry Office!

Russell kindly offers all of our wines on his list, so your evening is guaranteed for delicious food and wines!

Underwood Wines, The Old Pie Factory, Montague Road, Warwick, CV34 5LW. Telephone 01926 402100 Fax: 01926 494534 Emailsales@underwoodwines.co.uk www.underwoodwines.co.uk
To remove your name from our mailing list, please click here
The personnel at Underwood Wines treat personal information with the utmost respect and confidentiality. Any information entered by yourselves which is then sent to us will be stored and used for customer contact. We may contact you with information regarding events and wine offers. We do not share your information with any other parties.

Happy New Year everyone?

2011-01-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Hello and greetings.

Our first post for 2011, now the dust has settled and the mass of December paper work has been filed we finally get time at Underwood's to reflect and look back Christmas and decide how we think it went.

Well the word on everyone's lips was, of course, snow. We all have fond memories of snow days and think we can remember that white Christmas like the one on the card we got from Grandma. We all wish it would happen, oh come on....just settle. Well didn't it just, all over the UK. It snowed on Holy bushes, on the branches of the leafless tree's on the country walks, on 5 bar farm gates, on thatched roofs in the Cotswold's and all over the Motorways ...apart from the motorway it was just like Grandma's card, but we couldn't compare it, Grandma's card wouldn't reach us until January 7th as the UK ground to an icy halt. Christmas was put on ice...quite literally. Our little island tried to "keep calm and carry on" but our rear wheels spun our high heels sunk and Father Christmas.com was looking unlikely to succeed if he couldn't dispatch his presents due to "adverse weather conditions!" Not quite the Bing Crosby dream was it?!

After a hard year in retail where even the big boys struggled Christmas 2010 needed to and should have been a huge lift. On December 18th, the last Saturday before Christmas, the snow buried not just the country but the hopes of many a struggling shop owner. It halted towns in minutes and the shoppers stayed away, safe in their homes with the car cocooned on the driveway. Those who did brave the elements wished they hadn't as 10 minute journeys took a lifetime only brave pedestrians dressed in ski gear from their recent trip to St Moritz survived the walk to panic buy bread and milk from the local shop. Our day was no different, our customers just didn't come. here was a few brave Land Rovers that felt the need to make the journey...because they could, but our busiest day became our quietest.

We did our best to deliver the parties for that day. The wedding at the Lord Leycester Hospital was delivered and set up in time and the evening parties were delivered in the hope the guests would make it. They did not.
The snow kept falling and the plans got cancelled. People took notice of the AA man on the tv and didn't make any journeys that were not essential.
In retail you just don't get those sales back.

It did however bring people together. We were all in it together. We may have all got here in different ships but we were all in the same boat now. Yes people drove like the token British snow driver, and Yes people panic bought fuel and milk for the sake of it, and Yes the cocky on line shopper could only stare blankly at the tracking information begging it to update. But you probably spoke to your neighbour, you helped a complete stranger push their car, you shared stories with other salvation seekers in the local coffee house. For once we all realised that we are all just human.

Well how did we all do? Not great were we? The gritters came out but it was the wrong snow on the wrong day after the wrong rain and then the points froze and the mainline and the trucks parked up for the night...on the M20......well we've heard it all before. All we can do is look to other countries and ask "why are we so rubbish in the snow" a slight misconception as most of Europe suffered hideous transport problems too. We can only hope that we learn and invest in more severe conditions, but in reality for a few weeks of the year is it financially viable?

We survived, it wasn't our best December on record, but we had a good Sunday trade which was new to us this Christmas, the website did brilliantly, best month since it started, our couriers did a sterling job delivering the orders and as a whole "it could have been worse"

The look on customers faces when we turned up in Wellington boots covered in snow with their order was well worth all the heartache.

So to 2011 we look, lots of change ahead for us, lots of ideas and re-workings planned, its set to be a hard year the VAT increase welcomed us in to the New Year like punch in the face, but hey, optimistic and full of new vigour we trudge on, hopefully not in snow.

In the meantime dont forget to follow us on Twitter @UnderwoodWines and please do take a look at our Website

Cheers and happy New Year
Todd@Underwoods

December! The Christmas countdown has begun.

2010-12-01T12:26:00.000-08:00

Well its here already, December has come, complete with snow this year too. It may feel and look very Christmassy but as usual the snow has bought the usual chaos to our lives. The councils were confident they were ready but after seeing some parts of Essex and Kent today it is apparent they were not. The wrong type of snow at the wrong time at the wrong speed and BANG! 10 minute journeys took 4 hours and the elderly are running out of milk..

Anyway, lets not grumble, lets look on the bright side of life?!? I know, I know, there's nothing great about frozen points on Railways and Jack knifed lorry's! But lets stiffen up our upper lips and soldier on....its a war out there...with the elements!

December to us means our busiest time of the year, from tastings to mulled wine receptions and Corporate gifts to the odd winter wedding. Added to that everyone stocking up for the party season and we're are kept far from idle! Just about every aspect of our business increases in December everyone out reveling drinking our wines....who are we to complain eh?

News for December 2010.

From next week (commencing 6th Decemeber) we're open every day until Christmas day. 9.30-18.30 The Old Pie Factory on Montague road in Warwick really is an Aladdin's cave of wine, Spirits, Vintage port, wine artifacts, motor bikes and cars. Motorbike's and cars? Yes, well we do get side tracked every now and then.

From 1st December you can qualify for free delivery to any where in the UK mainland if your order is £75 or over! We've halved the amount you usually have to spend for free delivery and even wavered the minimum bottle count too (usually 12 or more bottles and £150spend) So come on down to http://www.underwoodwines.co.uk for that special bottle of cognac or Caret, or why not a vintage corkscrew for the wine lover?

What ever you decide to do this year make sure you all have a wonderful Christmas, it's been a tough year for most so here's to a more positive 2011

Don't forget to keep up to date with all our goings on subscribe to this blog or follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/UnderwoodWines or you can have our monthly newsletter emailed to you by subscribing to our list. Just drop us an email and asked to be added http://www.underwoodwines.co.uk/ContactUs.aspx

November Newsletter

2010-11-16T11:47:00.001-08:00

t: 01926 402100
www.underwoodwines.co.uk

November Newsletter

Thanks to all of you who attended our Christmas Wine Tastings, we had, as usual a fantastic turnout over the four nights. There is obviously lots of competition out there, but with us being in business for over 30 years, our customers both from days gone by and our new clients were delighted with the delicious wines we offered this year.

Whisky Tasting - Thursday 18th November 2010

We have been asked to host a Whisky Tasting Evening, The malts will be coming from the Wemyss Estate. They use the taste and aromas of the individual whiskies to identify each bottling, rather than the distillery, so the consumer can more easily understand the style being purchased.

We would love to see you for this event. We have places left and there is no charge for attending. Have a look at their website for more information

www.wemyssmalts.com - RSVP - dawn@underwoodwines.co.uk - as usual with the Underwoods it promises to to be a fun evening !

Beaujolais Nouveau 2010

Nicolas has bought some this year, pop down to the factory and buy a bottle or two!

Available 18th November

Oozing freshly bottled fruit with a hint of pear drops, brilliant for quaffing and perfect with slightly spicy foods

£6.50 inc VAT

Christmas Opening Times at the Factory

From Monday 6th December until and including Christmas Eve we will be open every day (no more Sunday lie ins for us!) - 09.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. So remember Champagne, Wines, Beers, Spirits, soft drinks will all be available for your Christmas at home, but don't forget presents, some of our Whiskys, tequilas wines and champagnes make the perfect Christmas present for the person who has everything. Our Corporate Christmas Gifts are lovely presents to give to your customers, mixed cases, champagne. Contact us to advise on what to give, according to your budget and we can deliver all over the country for you aswell.

Underwood Wines, The Old Pie Factory, Montague Road, Warwick, CV34 5LW. Telephone 01926 402100 Fax: 01926 494534 Email sales@underwoodwines.co.uk www.underwoodwines.co.uk

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