Wine writer Malcolm Gluck announced today that he's been forced to concede defeat in his attempts to get his wine-ratings website Superplonk up and running again. In a personal email to Superplonk subscribers, Malcolm explained its loss had been a huge personal blow but didn’t say why his website suddenly stopped working several months ago.
Launched in 2000, the Superplonk website was an extension of Malcolm’s weekly Saturday Guardian column of the same name. Finishing with over 8000 ratings of supermarket wines, the website originally started with his previous 11 years of Guardian Superplonk reviews.
This free wine database had been gradually turning into a paid-for wine magazine. Adding the section Superplonk world of wine allowed Malcolm to include features he had written on his travels to wine tastings around the world. If you have any current subscriptions to this section, claim a refund by emailing Malcolm at superplonk@dva.co.uk.
With no more Superplonk reviews to write, Malcolm will now go and forget about tasting wine for a few weeks saying, “After 18 years non-stop you can, perhaps, appreciate that this break is welcome even if the circumstances which have forced it upon me are heart-breaking.”
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My new weekly wine and drink column Drink Up... With Paula Goddard for Sky’s website livingit.com is now live. You can already read my thoughts on rosé, red and elderflower wines; matching wines with barbequed food and salad; champagne and strawberries, golfers' wines, wineboxes and Pimm's. Each week I’ll be looking at a topical wine issue and recommending wines to try.
This small Warwickshire village’s annual show attracted steam engines, classic cars, vintage military vehicles, tractors and lorries from as far as Sheffield. Many travelled shorter distances – John Wilson’s 1929 Leyland SQ2 Worthington White Shield delivery van came the 1.5 miles from Frankton to take part in the Commercial Vehicle display.
