Contact us | Hints & Tips | Support

Enjoy the satisfaction of laying down a good wine.   Savour in the anticipation of the wait.  Enjoy your ruby prize with friends and good food.   Life is made up of small memorable moments, each one to be savoured and enjoyed for what they are.
  
There is nothing elitist about laying down a great wine and the enjoyment that comes from savouring a good bottle that has been tucked away for a special occasion.  We want to make laying down wine accessible and easy for our customers.   Our specially selected wines will develop a roundness and complexity over time, an experience that should be available to all.

TIPS ON TASTING

Don't think tasting is for a few privileged palates. Everyone who enjoys a glass of wine can taste wine 'properly'. All it takes is a little extra concentration and a few pointers on what to look for. Here are simple guidelines on how to gain maximum pleasure from every mouthful!

APPEARANCE
Hold your glass, just a third full, at an angle of about 45° against a white surface and look at the colour at the rim and at the centre.
A young red will have a pinkish-purple rim, an old wine a tawny-brown edge. A light-bodied red will be less deep in colour than a fuller-bodied one.
Crisp, light whites will be pale straw in hue whereas older, richer or sweeter whites are more golden. Generally, white wines gain colour with age, while red wines lose it.

AROMA
The bouquet of a wine is even more important than its taste - as more than half of its flavour is contained in the volatile aromas. Draw a couple of imaginary circles with your glass on a flat surface to swirl the wine around. Then sniff. Your first impression will always be the strongest; after that your nose will gradually tire.

 
TASTE
Then take a good sip - taking in enough wine to bathe the whole of your mouth. Notice its initial taste (its attack), what flavours develop next (its middle palate) and its finish.
How long do the flavours last? Is it a young tannic wine with enough fruit to age, or a smooth, fruity red for drinking now? Are the rich flavours of a white wine balanced by enough acidity, or is the acidity of a fresh white balanced by sufficient fruit?

HINTS
Most of your tasting will occur as part of your drinking; you will hopefully just notice more of the flavours in your glass. However, for a more formal tasting:
•    Use a room with plenty of daylight, so you get a true picture of a wine's colour.
•    Don't try to smell and taste wine in an atmosphere heavy in smoke or scent.
•    You don't need to spit out your precious samples, but your head won't be clear for long!
•    Dispense with all food except dry water biscuits.
•    Your wines should follow a simple order: whites before reds, dry before sweet, light before heavy, young before old and cheapest first. Enjoy it!


OPENING AND SERVING WINE
Older wines require a bit of care when opening and serving - so here is the wine2laydown.com guide to opening and serving wines with a bit of age to them!

Step 1
An aged wine may contain quite a lot of sediment that doesn't taste that nice and turns the wine cloudy. Ideally you should store the bottle upright for a couple of days before you intend to open it to allow the sediment to fall to the bottom of the bottle. When preparing to open the bottle - keep it upright and try to avoid shaking up the sediment.

Step 2


 
Carefully cut the capsule (the outer sheath covering the cork) to reveal the cork. There may be some general grime and dust - but don't worry, as that's a normal side effect of being left alone for so long!
Older wines may have a lead capsule instead of an aluminium one, and if that is the case make sure that you give the rim of the bottle a wipe with a damp cloth to remove any trace of lead particles.

Step 3


 
As corks get older they can sometimes crumble as you try to remove them. Lever corkscrews (the ones with arms that you push down and the cork is pulled up) work best here - try and avoid the 'waiter's friend' style if you can.
Insert the corkscrew into the cork and very gently remove the cork. If the cork does snap (which is not uncommon) - insert the corkscrew into the middle of the cork and try again.

Step 4


 
Now you can decant the wine into a suitable container - any vessel big enough to hold 750ml should do - you don't need to buy a special decanter, although they can add to the occasion.
Choose somewhere where there is a lot of light - or over a lamp or candle -
Slowly pour the wine into your chosen vessel in one smooth motion - do not allow the wine to slosh back into the bottle.
While you are pouring, keep an eye on the neck of the bottle. Stop pouring when you start to see the sediment in the neck of the bottle. There should be about a couple of tablespoonfuls of wine left in the bottle. Add this to your gravy!


 
If you did not have time to store the bottle upright for a couple of days it is possible to strain the wine through some muslin or a fine mesh - just make sure that whatever you are using to filter the wine does not impart its own flavour - eg. damp paper if you filter through a coffee filter!

Step 5
The most important bit - enjoy the wine! Older wines can change quite dramatically over the course of a bottle as they react with the oxygen that they had been deprived of for so long, therefore, you may find the wine takes a little while to open up and blossom and then it may fade quite rapidly after a few hours exposed to the air.


Ideal Temperature to Serve

We like the advice of Ursula Hermacinski, the former Christie’s wine auctioneer, when it comes to knowing what temperature at which to serve a wine: “Twenty minutes before dinner, you take the white wine out of the fridge, and put the red wine in.”

This rule is intended to fix the two most common mistakes in wine service: People tend to serve white wines too cold and red wines too warm. Now, this is not something to wake up at 3 a.m. and worry about, but the fact is that properly chilled wines do taste better.

White wines that are too warm will taste alcoholic and flabby, while white wines that are too cold will be refreshing but nearly tasteless. As for reds, keep them too warm and they will taste soft, alcoholic and even vinegary. Too cold and they will have an excessively tannic bite and much less flavour.

Champagne and other sparkling wines should start out totally chilled. Put them in the refrigerator an hour and a half before serving, or in an ice bucket with an ice-water mixture at least 20 minutes before serving. For vintage-dated Champagne and other high-quality bubbly, however, you should then let the bottle warm up a bit if you don’t want to miss out on the mature character - for which you have probably paid extra.

Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, white Zinfandel and other refreshing white wines should also be chilled to refrigerator temperature for an hour and a half before serving. But the better examples, such as barrel-aged wines like Fume Blanc (made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes) will improve if brought out 20 minutes early or allowed to warm up slightly during hors d’oeuvres or dinner.

Chardonnay, white Burgundy and other rich, full-bodied and barrel-fermented white wines of high quality taste their best at classic “cellar temperature.”  Winemakers in France’s Burgundy region know what they’re doing when they offer tastes to visiting journalists and wine buyers directly from the barrels of Chardonnay in their cool, humid underground cellars. So put these into the fridge an hour and a half before serving, but bring them out 20 minutes early to warm a bit.

Sweet dessert wines need the same treatment as Sauvignon Blanc, above, with the exception of fortified dessert wines like Port and sweet Sherry, which are better at cellar temperature or warmer. Treat dry Sherry like Sauvignon Blanc, too.

Almost all red wines show their best stuff when served at about 65 degrees—cool, but warmer than cellar temperature. This is not room temperature, unless you happen to live in a Scottish castle or in San Francisco during July. So if you don’t keep your red wine in a cool cellar or cooled storage unit, you will enjoy it more if you chill it for 20 minutes in the refrigerator before serving.

FAQs

1 Who is wine2laydown.com?
We are an internet wine retailer based in Braughing, Hertfordshire. The company is owned by Ben and Alison Stephens, who with a team of wine experts have carefully selected a list of wines that can be laid down for between 1 and 30+ years.
The company’s main office is:
wine2laydown.com, Chestnuts, Green End, Braughing, Hertfordshire, SG11 2PE.
Phone: 0845 873 9300
Email: info@wine2laydown.com

1.2. How is wine2laydown.com different from other sites?
Our number one aim is to provide excellent customer service.  We achieve this by providing a miminum order quantity of just one bottle, by providing next day delivery, by providing affordable wines that will improve with age, by providing a virtual cellar for somewhere to store your wine and by providing a snob free way to buy wine.  Our exceptional range of wines from around the world are independently sourced by experts.  You will not find these wines on any supermarket shelves.  All of our wines can be enjoyed now but will also improve with age.  Please see our recommended "lay down period" for each wine.  All prices are offered in £ Pounds Sterling and inclusive of UK VAT and duty.

1.3. Is wine2laydown.com able to source wine not offered on the site?
Yes – please let us know as much information as you can e.g. Country, region, grape, domaine etc. and we will do our very best to source the wine for you.

2. How to order wines on wine2laydown.com
We hope to make your shopping experience with us as easy as possible.

2.1 How do I search for wines?
There are two methods of searching for wine.  You can enter a keyword in the search area on the top right hand side of the screen and press Find.  Alternatively, use the drop down fields to narrow your search for a particular type of wine.  If you do not find what you are looking for, please email us at info@wine2laydown.com and we will endeavour to find a particular wine for you.

2.2 Is there a minimum purchase on wine2laydown.com?
Our minimum order quantity is just one bottle.

2.3 Can I save my wine purchases and return at a later date?
Yes. When you purchase an item you simply click on the Add to Cart icon on the wine detail page and the item will be saved to your basket.  When you click on the Go to Checkout icon, you will be taken to a Shopping Cart page where you can view your selections so far and decide whether to Continue to Checkout or Continue searching for wines.  The number of items of your shopping to date is permanently displayed on the right hand side of the screen.  You can either click on this or on the “View Cart” link in the menu bar on the right of the page to display the details of your order.  If you want to remove something, simply tick the 'remove' box next to the item in your shopping bag that you wish to remove, and then click the 'update' button. This will then remove the products that you "ticked" to be removed.  Your selections in “View Cart” will stay there until you delete them, so you can log off and return to finalise your wine purchase  at a later date.

2.4 How do I complete a purchase?
When you have all the items you wish to purchase in your basket, it is recommended that you read the terms and conditions, shipping information and privacy policy, then go to your basket and click the "checkout" button which will then take you to the payment area to pay for your selected items.

You will first need to enter your details within the online shop.  If you have previously registered you only need to enter your e-mail address and password.  This will then pre-fill most of the checkout requirements for you based on the information supplied during previous orders and the details stored in your account. Otherwise you will need to set up a new account by filling in the simple form provided.  For your convenience, you may enter an alternative delivery address and any other specific details on the account in the applicable areas, which are clearly represented.   The system will remember delivery addresses of 3rd parties as well, so that you can reorder and send gifts easily.  These details are stored for you in My Account.

2.5 Are my payments secure?
All payments to wine2laydown.com are secured by the Protx VerisecurePayment Systems.  Protx is  the UK’s leading independent processing company and is now a subsidiary of Sage, the UK’s largest business software company.  Our website is therefore continuously updated by Protx with the latest secure server encryption technology.  Your payments could not be safer.

We recommend that you check the details of the items you are ordering before making your purchase. Clicking on the "Continue" button takes you through the required pages to the point at which you can enter your payment details and complete your order securely online. You will need to choose from one of the card types that we accept for online payments. We accept MasterCard, Visa, Switch/Maestro and Debit cards.

2.6 Can I send a message or card along with a wine gift?
Yes you can. We can insert a personalised message into the Storage and Tasting Notes, which can be sent along with your gift.  There is a text box for messages on the checkout page.

2.7 What if I want to reorder a wine but have forgotten the name?
All your order details are stored in My Account.  These include not only the wines you have ordered for your personal consumption but those you have sent to friends as well.  You can reorder any of the wines you have purchased with a simple click of the ReOrder button in My Account.

3.  Shipping with wine2laydown.com

3.1    What are your UK delivery charges?
Please note that the following standard delivery charges apply for UK retail orders:
•    UK deliveries are undertaken by our courier at a flat fee of £5.99 per delivery (per address) no matter how many bottles you order
•    We are happy to deliver to the Scilly Isles, central and northern Scotland and the Scottish islands. Please add £9 per order to the standard UK charge.
•    Please note that deliveries to the Channel Islands are £35 per case.  We appreciate that this is similar to an international rate but unfortunately, that is what couriers charge to these destinations.

3.2 When will I receive my shipment?
Orders received by 1pm will be normally be despatched on the same day and standard delivery timeframe is usually one working day.  Orders for Northern and Central Scotland, Scilly Isles, Isle of Man, Scottish Highlands and the Orkneys – please allow 3-5 days.  It may also take longer to deliver to remote areas – including the following post codes: AB, BT, DD 8-11, HS, IV, KA 27-28, KW, PA20-23, 28-29, 31, 34, 41 onwards, PH8, 10, 16, 18 onwards, TR21-25 and ZE.  If a particular wine is in high demand and is out of stock, we will contact you only if delivery of the item is likely to take more than 5 days. In these rare cases we will advise you of the delivery timescale we can meet, or recommend an alternative wine or refund your payment if you do not want to proceed with the order.  If you need the wine before a particular date please make sure you mention this in the comments section when placing your order.   Actual time of delivery is based upon 9am-6pm.  We charge £25 per case of 12 for a guaranteed next day delivery (before 10.30am) to standard UK destinations or for Saturday deliveries (provided that the order is received by 1pm). Please contact us at info@wine2laydown.com for any specific delivery requests.  After you have placed your order online, we will send you an order confirmation email letting you know when your products will be delivered.

3.3 What if no one is home/work to meet the courier?
If no one is at home/work, the courier will leave a card to say she/he has been. Alternatively, you may authorise the courier to leave the order in a certain place. There is a textbox in the shopping checkout where delivery instructions can be left should no one be home to meet the courier. Let us know if you want the courier to leave your order in a certain spot (e.g. at back door or in shed etc). IMPORTANT NOTE: if a request is made for wine to be left unattended we cannot be held responsible if the wine goes missing after the courier has delivered it.  In the unlikely event of breakages in transit please save the merchandise and the package it arrived in and notify us immediately.

3.4 Can I order from overseas or request an overseas delivery?
Yes you can.  We have been shipping globally for a long time, and only use reliable couriers such as DHL, Fedex and TNT and are familiar with customs requirements at both ends. 

Please note:
•    We are happy to arrange delivery to most European Union destinations, Asia. Australasia, South Africa, Canada and a number of other countries as well.   Please contact us at  info@wine2laydown.com to discuss your requirements.  
•    We cannot ship directly to the United States - US residents need to establish contact with an importer within their country that imports from the UK.

Thanks, we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Click here if you need to email us again.