Thurs Sept 13th Portuguese Gourmet Night at The Rowton Poplars - £25.00 / ticket   Now then, I don't want to bang on too much about our Portuguese Fortnight, but we've been lucky to have The Rowton Poplars come on board with us for our promotion, so if you're fed up with your usual restaurant's wine list and fancy a pleasant change, wander on up there and enjoy some of our great Portuguese wine (on special offer!). There is also a Gourmet Night - three courses of delicious Portuguese food, plus a tutored tasting of 4 Portuguese wines. Call Rowton Poplars direct on 01244 333010 for further information and to book tickets.

 Thursday 18th October - Oktoberfest!  £15.00/ticket  This is almost a sell-out so get moving beer fans! A delicious selection of festival beers on taste with an expert to guide you round them.

Wednesday 14th November - Portuguese Night - £15.00/ticket - Danny Cameron once again crosses the Pennines to grace our shop. Perhaps our most charismatic speaker, Danny is incredibly knowledgeable about Portugal and brings his evenings alive with fascinating and funny stories. Not to be missed!

Thursday 13th December - Australian Night - £15.00/ticket - Newbie speaker Ed Fancourt takes the stage in this pre-Christmas knees-up. He's got some fab wines to show us from one of the nation's favourite wine-producing countries, so think on about stocking up for Christmas!

There are new events being booked for 2008 - look out for new dates!

As part of our Portuguese Fortnight, we have some great discounts and offers to tempt you.

Firstly we have a fabulous mixed case of the month to celebrate all the wonderful wines of Portugal. The normal case price is £82.00, but our offer price is just £65.00!  It should be criminal!  It should have fallen off the back of a lorry! Seriously, shameless sales techniques aside, there's some top drawer stuff in this case so I really urge you to try it. I'll be putting samples of some of the wines in the case on taste over the next 2 weeks as well so you can try before you buy (every little helps huh?)

If you can't be tempted to go for the commitment of the full case, there's also a juicy 10% discount on all Portuguese wines in the shop during Portuguese Fortnight, so fill your boots bargain-lovers! All the whites are waiting for you in our chiller as well - perfect wet Wednesday antidotes... (I know, I'm terrible...)

There are lots of other offers instore as well - try these...

The last few bottles of our Desire Francois Chenin Dry 2005 - a gorgeous crisp, fruity and dry mood-enhancer! Normally £5.25 reduced to a mere £4.50! (I know, just take the shirt off my back as well...)

There are also a range of mix 'n' match 10% discounts on offer. Choose any 6 bottles or more to get your 10% discount - what more of an excuse do you need?!

One Chain Chardonnay 2006 - £5.00
(unoaked, fruity, deliciously dry)       

One Chain Shiraz/Cabernet 2005 - £5.00
(fruity and smoooooth!)             

Bella Modella Pinot Grigio 2006 - £5.00
(a classic PG - girls' night in!) 

Vistamar Chilean Pinot Noir 2005 - £5.25
(light strawberry fruits)    

Sherwood Estate NZ Sauvignon Blanc - £7.50
(last few bottles!!)           

Don't forget our bargain basket - lots of bin ends to be found at ridiculous prices!

Me and the liver have been working hard on your behalf this month, and we are delighted to bring you our brewery of the month - Purple Moose Brewery based in the harbour town of Porthmadog, in the shadow of Snowdonia. The '10-barrel' microbrewery is fairly young - just over 2 years old, but has already carved itself a strong following thanks to really good award winning ales and some pretty funky packaging.

We are currently stocking Snowdonia (pale ale brewed with Crystal and Pale malts) , Glaslyn ( golden, fruity best bitter) and Dark Side of the Moose (delicious dark ale with a deep malt flavour from roasted barley and a fruity bitterness from Bramling Cross hops.) 

All three beers are multi-award winning and have been getting some well-earned praise from the CAMRA boys.   

(Anecdotally, whilst at York races recently, I spied a horse called Purple Moon. Having had a drink or two, I got confused and thought it was the name of the brewery, and backed it to win. Happily it romped home and we all had a jolly good laugh when I realised my mistake...)

Beer Case of the Month: Just in case you lot aren't buying enough of our carefully sourced brews, here's a cunning little incentive:  12 bottles, 6 different beers, bit of a discount...

2x Woodlands Redwood;  2x Woods Brewery Shropshire Lad;  2x Sam Smith's Famous Taddy Porter;  2x Rudgate Battleaxe;  2x Black Sheep Ale;  2x Goose Eye Wonky Donkey

Normal Price £25.60, case offer price £23.00! Form an orderly queue please...

More from me next month beer lovers!

I mentioned last month that we have arranged an exclusive offer for Scatchards customers with Antique Pine Imports based in Mickle Trafford. Any customer spending over £500 at Antique Pine Imports will be entitled to at least £25.00 in Scatchards Gift Vouchers!  Check out their website www.antiquepineimports.co.uk Don't forget to mention Scatchards to get your vouchers!

Now this bit is not strictly just for Scatchards customers, but for everyone who shops or lives in Hoole. Most of the businesses in Hoole are trying to raise money for the Hoole Christmas Lights Switch-On, and your help is needed! It costs a fortune to stage the evening, so we need some funds. I know that everyone is raising money for good causes and that makes it even harder, but this is a community event, and we all remember how miserable last year was with no ceremony. This year we would like to bring it all back! Please give generously - most of the shops have collecting tins and are holding raffles. If we don't all pull together over the next couple of months there won't be a ceremony again and that would be a great shame!