Description
Sorry - sold out.
You may have seen us bang on about our great mate Tom Gilbey of late, and now he’s got a book out.
We’re staying with Tom this weekend, 22-23 November, so we thought we’d ask him to sign a few copies for our friends, family and customers. This is a private offer to our customers and a few friends.
‘Thirsty’ is available now in hardback and Tom can sign and dedicate each copy while we’re with him in London until 8pm, Monday 23rd November (we've added a day) - last few copies. It’s £20 for the hardback, less your loyalty code, plus £6.95 UK postage and packing.
The book signing
Make use of the delivery instructions box in the checkout headed “where do we leave the wine if no one is in” to type the first name(s) of the lucky recipient(s) and your choice of message:
Option A: Tom likes ‘Dear Xxxx, You are ‘Wine Wxxker approved’ (he then inserts his stamp), Love Tom x’. Hmm.
Option B: Tom will write, as a default, ‘Dear Xxxx, Bring on the Bauduc! Love Tom x’ and stamp it below with his ‘Wine W**ker approved’ stamp. Childish but quite funny.
Option C: if you prefer something polite and simple like ‘Dear Xxxx, Plug in the pinot…’ or ‘Ship in the shampers, love Tom x’ and no silly Wine W**ker stamp, that’s fine.
There’s enough space in the box and we’ll see your preference there. Just write the name and A or B if in doubt.
We will be sending the books in the UK post next week (24/25 Nov), so bear this in mind - for the book, normal wine delivery instructions (eg 'put behind the bins') might not be followed as the envelope with the book will arrive in the post, not via a courier.
Best books to buy for wine lovers
It’s a great read and, ahem, there are a couple of chapters in which we feature - pages 92-96 and 214-221. In fact, the latter is referred to by Victoria Moore in the Telegraph on 17 November in her review of ‘Eight of the best books to buy for wine lovers’. See the extract below and here's the full list of books and her article.
‘In 2007, Tom Gilbey (in his pre-internet-sensation days) and his winemaker mate Gavin Quinney agreed to make an audacious gamble. Back then, the Bordeaux wine market danced according to the scores handed out by American critic Robert Parker. Quinney reckoned that, in Parker’s first tasting of the 2005 vintage (made from unfinished barrel samples, which can be inconsistent), the great man had overlooked some wines he might be expected to rate more highly. Parker was due to rescore. Any wines up-scored would likely leap in price.
Gilbey and Quinney plotted to taste their way around the (now-bottled) 2005s, find them and buy big. “I unlocked my entire savings,” writes Gilbey, “And went all in. This was either going to be the smartest wine move I’d ever made or the ruin of me.”
I’m not going to do a spoiler here; what happened is told, along with other stories, in this autobiographical book. More in the oral than the literary tradition – it has the casual feel of a podcast transcript – this book is just as entertaining as the contagiously shareable sweary video clips and “Wine Wanker Approved” stamps that have won Gilbey nearly as many Instagram followers as the prime minister.’