Gumtree Daily Deals – Virgin Wines mixed case offer review

I’ve had a range of experiences with various daily deals websites in the last couple of years, ranging from the wonderful to the ‘I want my money back NOW’, so I was very keen to find out what the relatively new daily deals from Gumtree were like.

They have several offers available at any one time (just scroll down to see the full range below the featured offer), and I had the chance to try the mixed Discovery case of twelve wines from Virgin Wines in the second week of December. Well, rude not to, right?

The RRP of the case was £120.88, and the Gumtree offer was a reduced price of £49.99 plus £6.99 for delivery. This represented a very decent discount, and there was also the promise of two Dartington Crystal red wine glasses included in the order.

I placed my order on the 9th of December, and it finally arrived on the 23rd of December, due to a few problems with the courier company. When it came through the door, everything was in perfect condition. including the delicate, excellent quality pair of wine glasses.

At this point there was only one appropriate course of action – get stuck into the wine. We chilled down a bottle of Finca Beltran Seleccion Chardonnay Viognier 2010 (Argentina) and got swilling and slurping. It’s an unusual blend of white grapes but I really loved it, half dry and half fragrant with notes of peach, apricot and green melon. The standard RRP is £8.99, which I think represents good value for money even before the discount.

The Dartington glasses were put to good use when we tested the next bottle, a Vina Ecoyen Reserva 2002 (Spain). The large goblets allowed us to clearly see the edge of the wine next to the glass, which showed us that the wine was nicely aged and that much of the harsher tannin had already dropped out. It wasn’t entirely promising on the nose although it definitely wasn’t corked, but on tasting it was a medium-soft red, with juicy notes of cherry, damson and black fruits.

The RRP is £9.99, and it’s an easy drinker that would go with most food. The Gumtree deal meant it was less than half price, and again I think that’s a lot of quality for not a lot of money. While it isn’t the best £10 red I’ve ever tasted, it’s amazing for what you’d actually pay (less than £5). The Beau pilfered half a glass of it for a casserole sauce when I wasn’t looking, and the results were delicious.

I’m looking forward to trying a few more of these over the next couple of days, and will update this with tasting notes from the next couple of bottles. Based on the sample so far, including the lovely pair of glasses, I’ve been very impressed with the quality of wines compared to the low price. We’ve since bought a second case, as part of another Virgin Wines Discovery Club offer – taking up the Gumtree daily deal automatically signs you up to use this club if you wish.

Full disclosure: first case of wine provided by Gumtree, second case of wine bought by myself.

Have you tried Gumtree’s Daily Deals yet? What about Virgin Wines? Please let me know.