Feel free to pop into our Tunbridge Wells or Oxted stores any time, where we'll be glad to assist with any requests you have.  We're always happy to talk wine with people.  There is a minimum of 5 wines open in store for tasting at all times (see below for current wines), so if you want to try before you buy, come and see us.  Sign up to our mailing list (see top right hand corner on this website) to receive the first news on forthcoming tastings, events and new stock arriving.

In addition to the in-store tastings, we have a number of tasting events throughout the year - from Grand Tastings to tutored events, wine dinners to Be A Wine Buyer nights - all informal, always fun.  Again, sign up to our mailing list to ensure that you don’t miss these fabulous events.

We are pleased to tutor corporate events and private tastings.  See below for the options we offer.  You can also email sales@thesecretcellar.co.uk or call us on 01892 537981 to discuss your requirements.

Corporate and Private Tasting Events 2010 - please click here to download your options.

Currently on Tasting

Tunbridge Wells
This week's wines to be added shortly

Oxted
Chateau de Fonscolombe Provence Rose (France) £8.99
Loimer Gruner Veltliner (Austria) £13.49
Isabel Estate Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand) £13.99

False Bay Pinotage (South Africa) £7.49
A Mano Primitivo (Italy) £8.49
De Gras Reserva Carmenere (Chile) £9.99
Domaine Alain Chatoux Beaujolais Vielles Vignes (France) £10.99                                                            De Loach Russian River Pinot Noir (USA) £14.99

Tasting Events 2010

After a nice summer break, we're into a new season of tastings.  Take your pick from the list below....

Thursday 14th October - Tunbridge Wells - Wines of Argentina with Laurie Webster - £20 - join us for a journey around Argentina with specialist, Laurie Webster from Las Bodegas.  Taste some brilliant wines which are always excellent value for the quality.

Thursday 28th October - Oxted - Chablis with Domaine Laroche - £20 - after Adam's visit to Chablis earlier this year, we've taken on the impressive crisp, minerally wines of Laroche.  One of their team will be on hand to present their wines and discuss the area in more detail.

Wednesday 24th November - Oxted - Wines of Burgundy with Master of Wine, Charles Taylor - £20 - we welcome Burgundy specialist Charles Taylor to guide us through a number of stunning wines that he represents, both whites and reds.  A great chance to enjoy some top wines in very esteemed company.

Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th December - Tunbridge Wells / Oxted / Wadhurst - FREE CHRISTMAS GRAND TASTING - join us in your local store for our annual free Christmas tasting.  Masses of wines open to taste and enjoy, and Bing Crosby playing in the background.  Perfect.

Please book early for the ticketed events. Places are limited and are apportioned on a first come, first served basis and we cannot reserve places unless they are paid for. You can either call 01892 537981 (for Tunbridge Wells events), 01883 722944 (for Oxted events), email sales@thesecretcellar.co.uk or come into either shop..

For the free Grand Tastings, there's no need to book - just turn up and taste away! 

Do also contact us for something bespoke if you wish us to conduct a private tasting.


New for 2010 - we're delighted to welcome aboard Master of Wine, Nick Adams, who will be working closely with us through this year.  Nick has been an MW since 1992 and has worked with an extensive list of the world's top producers, as well as holding some prominent positions within the UK wine trade.  He's one of the most down to earth Masters of Wine there is, making dealing with him not only informative but also great fun, and it's an honour to have him as part of our team.

Nick's focus will be on organising tasting events (especially dinners and corporate events), conducting wine tours for small groups, cellar plans, Master of Wine recommendations, and sourcing new gems for our list.  He will be a real benefit to our business. 

Please do contact us if you have a request.


Previous Events 2010

Saturday 10th July - The Secret Cellar Wine Festival at The Trinity Arts Centre (Tunbridge Wells) -
Thanks for the support for our first Wine Festival.  With over 100 wines to taste plus local beer, whisky, a hog roast, discounts, and a film, everybody seemed to have a great time.  The feedback has been great (aside from a couple of mentions that it was too busy), so look forward to this becoming an annual summer event.

Thursday 10th June - 7.30pm - The World Cup of Wine (Tunbridge Wells)  - a unique event where we pitted wines from 12 footballing nations that have qualified for the World Cup against each other.  We picked the best wine from each country at around the £10 level and then matched them off against each other in a taste test.  Despite strong form from Spain's Artesa Rioja and Chile's Antu Cabernet Carmenere, the overall winner (by some distance in the final) was Germany with Dreissigacker's sublime Riesling.  It didn't even need to go to penalties, they won it fair and square.  Thanks to all that came along and we trust you enjoyed yourselves - you seemed to.....

Thursday 3rd June - 6-9pm - The £10 Taster (Tunbridge Wells) - thanks to everyone who came along.  We treated you to some top wines from Spain and Portugal and we hope you enjoyed them.  Here's the line up.....
Adega de Pegoes Colheita Seleccionada (Portugal) £8.99 - a unique and delicious blend of Arinto, Chardonnay & Antao Vaz
Allende Rioja Blanco (Spain) £18.99 - stunning white Rioja.
La Rioja Alta Vina Arana Reserva (Spain) £20.99 - from the excellent 2001 vintage, drinking brilliantly now.
Finca Villacreces Ribera del Duero (Spain) £23.99 - situated next to Vega Sicilia, this is top stuff at a fraction of their neighbour's cost
Xisto (Portugal) £26.99 - a joint venture between Lynch Bages and Quinta do Crasto, a great red.
Numanthia Toro (Spain) £34.99 - one of the best new wave Spanish reds, very highly rated by American critic Robert Parker.

Wednesday 26th May - 7.30pm - New Icons Wine Dinner at The Black Pig (Tunbridge Wells) with Nick Adams, Master of Wine - following on from the success of the Super Tuscan dinner we held late last year, we teamed up again with The Black Pig to offer a fabulous five course menu along with 6 wines that are really taking the world by storm.  And what a spectacular evening - a great bunch of customers, superb food, sublime wines, and Nick's knowledge and presentation skills.  Thanks to everyone that came along and all those involved, really well done.  View the menu and wines here.

Thursday 13th May - 7.30pm - Enotria Wine Portfolio Tasting with Linton Neill (Oxted) - thanks to another of our key suppliers and close friends, Linton, who entertained a good bunch of you and showed some pretty good wines as well.  As usual, the Chilean Antu wines showed really well, with the top white being Iona's excellent 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. 

Tuesdays in April - 7-9pm - Introduction to Wine Course (Tunbridge Wells) - £60 - back by popular demand is our wine course which takes you through the basics of wine growing & production, as well as tasting all the main white and red grape varieties, plus some other more unusual offerings.

Thursday 1st April - The £10 Taster (Tunbridge Wells) - as usual, some great wines on show again.  Whilst the Riesling split opinion, the Chardonnay was universally loved (even by the ABCs), and the award for best Pinot went to the Au Bon Climat, despite the other two being very, very good.  Wines shown as follows:
Dr Loosen Erdener Trepchen Riesling Kabinett - £15.99
Leeuwin Estate Prelude Chardonnay - £22.99
Ata Rangi Pinot Noir - £34.99
Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Knox Alexander - £38.99
Robert Arnoux Vosne Romanee 1er Cru Les Chaumes - £74.99

Thursday 25th March - Liberty Wine Portfolio Tasting with Amy Matthews (Tunbridge Wells)
Many thanks to Amy and our guests for an enjoyable and informative evening showcasing some great wines from Liberty's huge range.
 
Thursday 11th March -  Wines of Bordeaux and South West France with Leigh Claridge of Maison Sichel (Oxted) - Many thanks to Leigh for presenting some of Sichel's range from this premium region, all of which showed incredibly well (doesn't always work like that).  Very entertaining and informative, and thanks as well to our group of lady guests who seemed to enjoy themselves very much.

Thursday 4th March  - The £10 Taster (Tunbridge Wells) - the first event in our series of Thursday evening sessions where we present a handful of the world's top wines to you in an informal walk around tasting - and what an enjoyable start.  As intended, a lot of you that came went out for dinner afterwards, so we hope it was an enjoyable start to a good evening.  Certainly the wines went down well.
The wines were:
Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc (ex Cloudy Bay winemaker's new venture) £13.99
Jean-Claude Boisset Meursault 1er Cru (spectacular wine) £47.99
Santa Rita Casa Real (sublime Chilean Cabernet blend) £27.99
Ridge Santa Cruz Cabernet Merlot (superb wine from the makers of Monte Bello) £33.99
Alter Ego de Palmer (from the excellent 2004 vintage) £54.99


Previous Events 2009

Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th December - Christmas Grand Tasting TUNBRIDGE WELLS - a packed and fun weekend as usual, with over 30 excellent wines on show.  Thanks to all that supported the weekend.

Friday 4th & Saturday 5th December - Christmas Grand Tasting OXTED  - the first Grand Tasting we've done at WineOneHundred in Oxted but a great weekend that started on the Thursday evening and finally ended on Sunday.  Thanks to all that supported the tasting and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Wednesday 18th November 7.30pm - Super Tuscan Dinner at The Black Pig with Nick Adams MW - we always suspected that this was going to be a good evening, and so it proved.  Some great food from the chefs at The Black Pig, 6 Tuscan wines that all showed really well (a toss up between the Guidalberto 2007, the Il Poggione Brunello 2004 and the Vigna del Sorbo 2006 as to the top red; the Capezzana Vin Santo being universally loved also), and Nick Adams who proved to be a top guest speaker as always.  Thanks to all who came along and we look forward to doing a few more of these evenings. 

Thursday 24th September 7.30pm - Australia Revisited with Xavier Bizot of Tapanappa and Lucy Roberts of Mentzendorff - many thanks to both Xavier and Lucy for presenting some absolutely stunning wines that really showed how good the best of Australia is.  This was one of those evenings where every wine showed incredibly well, but guests were taken aback with how good the Turkey Flat Butcher's Block white was (a Rhone blend), as well as being blown away by the wines of Tapanappa that get better with each vintage.  Star wine of the night - the Tapanappa Merlot 2004 - the first time we've tasted it, but a real knockout.  So much so that we snaffled every last bit of stock of that vintage.  Thanks to all our guests as well.

Thursday 6th August 7.30pm - Be A Wine Buyer For The Night - Thank you to all of our guest wine buyers for this evening where we tasted through 15 different wines with a view to potential listings for our new shop in Oxted.  Whilst a lot of the wines had some fans, the only ones that had universal agreement came from the tiny Tuscan producer Camperchi.  You'll be glad to hear that we've now agreed a deal with Camperchi to bring these wines over from Italy and they should be with us in 2-3 weeks.  If you weren't lucky enough to taste them, look out for the Anno 0 (£9.99), and the two Riservas, Sangiovese and Merlot (both £24.99) - they are stunners and real bargains at the prices.

Saturday 27th June - FREE SUMMER GRAND TASTING - the first of our huge free Grand Tastings, this year we had 30 cracking wines on show with the undisputed favourite being Mount Brown's Pinot Noir.  Thanks to all who supported and enjoyed the day.

Tuesday 23 June 2009 - Henschke Dinner at The George & Dragon.  We were honoured to be part of a wonderful evening with Stephen and Prue Henschke where their fabulous wines were served alongside another fine menu from the G&D team.  The Henschkes are living legends so to hear Prue talking about the vineyards and Stephen about the wines was truly an education.  Stand out wines for me were the Julius Dry Riesling and the Keyneton Estate Euphonium.  A top night.

Tuesday 28 April to Tuesday 19 May (4 consecutive Tuesdays) - Wine Course - following the success of our previous wine courses, David takes a group through all aspects of wine tasting in an informal atmosphere.

Thursday 26 March - The wines of Gaja and Giacosa with Nick Adams MW.  Those Italian fans that attended this evening were treated to nearly £1000 worth of wine from two of the best producers in the world, all presented by Master of Wine Nick Adams in a very down to earth yet very well informed fashion.  Particularly fascinating was the subtle vineyard differences in Gaja's single vineyard Barberescos, all sublime and delicious for different reasons.  Thanks to Nick.

Tuesday 24 March - Chiantishire Dinner with Fonterutoli at The George & Dragon, Speldhurst - Francesco Mazzei, owner and winemaker at one of Chianti's top estates presented five superb wines to complement a delicious six course feast. 

Thursday 26 February - Top wines for less than a tenner - given the economic climate, all of our guests for the evening enjoyed tasting 15 wines all in the £5-10 price bracket.  And whilst a couple of the wines split opinion, it just goes to show that there are some cracking bargains to be had if you know where to look.  La Flor's Cabernet and the Cheverny Blanc from Salvard were particularly good.

Previous Events 2008

For a list of our 2008 events, please click here.

Previous Events 2007

For a list of our 2007 events, please click here.

Previous Events 2006

For a list of our previous events, please click here.