Odd name, secret(ish) intentions - a new addition to the internet wine scene is about to be launched. There has been a little twitter buzz concerning the 'Haidu revolution', its launch has been announced as the 1st of August.

Rather than dismissing yet another "wine lifestyle network" - think Snooth, Adegga and another launching soon idea, DrinkPrice - lets see what they say there "absurdly ambitious project" will be offering:

"Some specifics: hundreds of winery websites worldwide, global Wine Dining Guide & Events Calendar, Magazine & Blogs, MyHaidu (a sort of a social network, though the Haidu folks don't like to define it like that) and websites of key players of the wine trade, from event organizers, through wine schools and universities, traders & merchants, wine tourism agencies - the list just doesn't end...

Haidu offers wine lovers around the world relevant, practical information to discover and plan their next wine experience, to expand their wine horizons.

Let's say you think about traveling to Mosel Valley for your vacance. You simply type Mosel Valley in Haidu.net search window (in its clean & elegant homepage) and before your eyes unveils a list of the valley's wineries, 'wine-friendly' restaurants, wine-related events, magazine articles & blog posts about Mosel. You can quickly tag the entities to your liking with vacance 2011 and they are automatically saved to a specified folder in your MyHaidu universe"

Easy to deduce then that Haidu will be offering a heck of a lot more than a wine tasting database. All the Haidu information is drawn from the "players themselves"

"The wineries manage their own websites, the event organizers publish their own events, even the restaurants create their own sites around Haidu's review of them. All this guarantees clean, reliable information, without any middleman distortion"

The social aspects haven't been ignored as you will be able to share, highlight, follow and receive updates from each section. There is of course going to be a Haidu iPhone App.

Just a few days then before we can all explore and engage further...

To conclude the Venice trip a quick over-view of the Bisol wines currently available in the UK. Head to Bibendum to purchase or look out for them in decent restaurants - the Jaio especially seems to find favour with many restaurateurs. (Bisol make a wide range of different wines, many I sampled at their Gustovino event, but these have limited distribution around the world).

Desiderio Jeio, rounded, appley, peachy, flowery-fragrant it might be but it is not actually 100% Prosecco! No, I hear you cry! Yes, says I. Along with 90% Prosecco there is 6% Pinot Bianco and 4% Verdiso. Its fresh, light and with bubbles aplenty. Lively and with a dash of sweetness to give a lovely rounded mouth feel and crowd-pleasing drinkability. Great for cocktails in addition to being a canapé accompaniment. Alcohol 11.5%. [Adegga / Snooth]

The Crede, the work-horse Prosecco, is also a blend. Here extra Pinot Bianco (10%) and 5% Verdiso lend a more stylish edge to the wine. Still with that trademark peachy-flowery nose and apply flavours coupled with the vibrant fizz. Alcohol 11.5%. This is the wine for making those quintessential peach Bellinis although its lovely straight with or without food. Alcohol 11.5%. Vintage 2009. [Adegga / Snooth]

The Cartizze hill, the highly expensive slopes of which produce the crème of the Prosecco producers range, supplies the grapes for Bisol's Cartizze botteling (unsurprisingly). This is 100% Prosecco and the sweetest of the three. (25g per litre for the technical minded compared with 9g in the Jeio and 10g in the Crede). You have to be a little judicious when pairing with food - while it has a modicum of sweetness it isn't enough to accommodate really sweet desserts - think lighter fruit-based fare or simple biscuits. The limited production from the Cartizze hill is responsible for the high bottle price but this has to be my favourite Prosecco of the three. This is the 2009 vintage. Alcohol 11.5% [Adegga / Snooth

To be honest a dish comprising goats cheese and baked apple would lead one to select a white wine - a South African Chenin Blanc, a Riesling from Alsace or, perhaps, a New Zealand Sauvingon Blanc. But a red wine? And one made from Merlot and Syrah? Probably not.

But this is exactly what Hix and Buck are recommending to accompany a dish of Baked Apple with Melted Goats Cheese, Potato Galette with Walnut Balsamic Dressing; the wine being their its Mas d'Intras Cuvée d'Alphonse 2007 Vin de Pays des Coteaux de l'Ardèche.

The dish was created by Sebastien Gagnbe Head Chef of Perfect Blend the "south London café, bar and restaurant". Hix and co had sent over a bottle so a try-out was in order.

The dish (recipe below) was fine, despite my disaster with getting the 'petals' of the galette to stick together (how do you do that??), resulted in a tasty, if light dinner. (More suited to a starter or lunch dish perhaps). But paired with the wine? And the wine itself, basking in Southern French rusticity was firm, strong and flavoursome in a red fruits and spice manner. But really, matching with sweetened apples and a salad? Not for me I'm afraid. My thoughts move to wild boar sausages or barbequed lamb burgers.

Hix & Buck is an importer of wine. Its aim is to bring good quality wines to the UK from undiscovered vineyards in Europe. In the spirit of discovery, the company's ambition is to surprise and delight the wine lover with unknown wines whilst offering them great value.

The wines are brought to the UK exclusively by Hix & Buck. The founders, Chix Chandaria and Dan Roebuck, are passionate about finding small producers, often with a family history of viniculture going back centuries, and bringing that wine, with its authentic qualities and characteristics, over here.

SPECIAL READER OFFER: All readers of Spittoon are offered 15% off their first 6 bottle case purchase at Hix and Buck an offer not restricted to the Alphonse detailed above. The promotion includes free delivery. Use the voucher code 'undiscovered'.

A Press Release highlighting a new wine book: The Wine Opus. A mighty selecion of wine writers have contributed to the book including Sarah Ahmed on the Loire Valley, Tyler Colman on Beaujolais and the Loire Valley, Wink Lorch with the Jura and Savoie, Sarah Jane Evans MW who wrote the bits on Spain and David Furer with Benelux, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, and Georgia. There is also Alder Yarrow who covered Sonoma and Marin, oh and a little bit by me.

"The Wine Opus (published by DK, October 2010) harnesses the talent and opinions of a new generation of young wine writers to help you choose the best wines. Over 30 specialists have selected the 4,000 best wineries in the world and their trophy wines. Read their recommendations, from the Rhône to Rioja, from Napa to New Zealand, and from the Mosel to Mendoza in Argentina, and you will never buy bad wine again.

The Wine Opus is the most ambitious illustrated wine reference to be written in the last 20 years. It is contemporary, covering the emerging wine regions and rising star wineries as well as well-established wine countries and their producers. It is comprehensive, giving insightful overviews of every significant wine region in the world. It is accessible, with its 100-word profiles of the 4,000 recommended wineries and their wine styles. And it is elegant, with its contemporary page design, 45 colourful maps of wine regions to tour, and stunning photography of winery landscapes.

Many of the writers featured in The Wine Opus are young, with a taste for adventure that drives them to discover new wine-makers - and reject those whose standards have slipped. They are wine bloggers, book authors, newspaper and magazine journalists; others are television broadcasters, Masters of Wine, and a few are winemakers themselves. Each writer has an intimate knowledge on his or her region and has recently tasted all the wines they recommend.

Their criteria for including a winery in the book were:

Top Winery
• Makes wine of very high or outstanding quality
• Has a long track record for quality relative to its region
• Makes well-known collectible or special occasion wines
• Is a leader in its region in grape-growing and/or winemaking techniques
• Performs particularly well in a special wine category

Rising Star Winery
• Makes wine of very high or outstanding quality
• Shows potential to be tomorrow's classic winery
• Has been innovative in choice of variety, grape-growing and/or winemaking techniques
• May have a great price/quality ratio

If you enjoy drinking good wine, The Wine Opus gives you the names you need to know and introduces you to the new world of wine."

The Wine Opus is published by DK on 1st October 2010 price: £50 although Amazon are currently listing the The Wine Opus at a pre-order price of £37.50.

Get yourself out on the restaurant terrace at Danieli's for an early evening bellini. It WILL be expensive; hey someone has to pay for the upkeep on all that 18th century dandy-camp decor downstairs. It's famously decadent. You could eat at Danieli's too; but jeez just look at those prices! This being Venice the view is spell-bindingly magical of course. At night it looks like this...

And, before I upset anyone even more, the bellini is made from Bisol Prosecco and fresh peaches...

The lagoon surrounded city offers a host of eateries - more informal restaurants than Danieli's many offering damn decent Cichetti, the Italian equivalent of Spanish Tapas.

You could join the tourist throngs with their picture menus if you like, but that's not for me. I'd prefer a little local action even if this means an embarrassing struggle with the lingo, pointing and manic 'tourist abroad' smiling at the unusual shell-encased dishes behind the counter-glass or eccentric wine bottles on the shelves behind.

Local is good. More so when you realise that most of the other patrons are locals too.

I hear more than one visitor has suffered extreme disorientation trying to locate some of these little gems (or was it just the hotel, Douglas? excellent write-up though). A decent map or a guide might be useful - those Iphone-possessors should utilise a superb little English language app that I played with while in Venice (TapVenice).

From the S. Lucia railway station and Scalzi Church cross over the Grand Canal via the Scalzi Bridge, wander down to the left passing the church of S. Simeon Piccoto, turn left at the little bridge and walk down to Fondamenta Minotto and you are there! Yeh, you need a map! Ristorante Ribot (Santa Croce 158, Fondamenta Minotto, Rio del Gaffaro, 30124 Venice) has an attractive wine shop attached, a magnet in itself, but the relaxing, covered rose garden at the back is well worth trying to get a table in. If you know the right nod and can wink meaningfully you might be lucky in being given access to a 'secret wine list' - this includes a whole raft of older vintages of Sassicia for example and other very limited gems.

No producers obviously - the wines were picked from a chalked list on the side wall - but a nicely perfumed Gewurztraminer and a glass of Tocai Friulano were procured at Bacaro da Fiore. The latter wine all fruity-minerality and the better match to the freshest plate of prawns I've enjoyed since Madrid and to a fine plate of fried courgette flowers. At a corner table a huge bowl of tiny welk-like shellfish was devoured by two youngsters; they do a lot of odd shellfish do the Venetians apparently.

Bacaro de Fiore - described as a half-taven, half-bar - specialises in just the wines of the Triveneto (that's the land immediately behind Venice covering the Alto-Adige, Trentino, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and the Veneto itself). It's a tiny place down the narrow Calle de Le Botteghe, right opposite our hotel the Locanda Art Deco (and I do loves me a bit of Art Deco! and with rooms like these would you want to stay anywhere else?). I would have been happy to stay at Fiore all evening, sampling the rest of the wine list and those tempting cichetti... but no, onward...

More local, city-rustic character can be found in Trattoria Ca'D'Oro "Alla Vedova" (Cannaregi 3912). A few steps from the water taxi stop of Ca D'Doro. A great atmosphere, lovely, value-packed cicheto, a little warren of rooms packed full of food and wine related artefacts hanging from the ceiling and covering the shelves. The food and wine are the stars here the place being famous for their polpetti (meatballs). Perhaps here would be a good place to spend the evening...

I'm not really that acquainted with the wine shelves of Morrison's; even less with the Sun newspaper. But each day this week the Sun is giving away £5 Morrison vouchers to its readers (valid with a spend over £40) with a total of £30 in savings spread over the summer.

A little challenge was set for me - given £30 of vouchers which Morrison wines would I buy?

It being summer and all the choice would be light, refreshing, easy drinking reds, decent crisp whites and obviously a rosé or two. This selection is of untried wines; I've no idea if they are good value for money, good drinking or otherwise.

Having had problems in trying to access the wine list on the Morrison's website ("Sorry the page you have requested does not seem to be available" - on ALL the wines pages??) I'm selecting these off a word document so pricing is a touch vague... but one soldiers on in the face of such adversity...

Firstly a red, something light that could be chilled? Possibly, with the Orsola Valpolicella (£3.98), but I'd rather sample a New Zealand Pinot Noir - so how about the Ara Pathway Pinot Noir? It comes in under a tenner...

No problems over here of being seen drinking a rosé. Slightly particular in which mind; it has to be dry for a start and while I'm not so fussy on where it comes from I been discovering some fine examples from Spain of late. So how about the Los Vividores Rosé with its "Vibrant colour, lots of lively aromas of tomato and asparagus" or the Penrosa Rosé from Castilla Leon "Strawberry pink wine with an aroma of ripe, soft, red & black fruit. Soft & full in the mouth". Perhaps the £30 budget limit could accommodate both?

And a white... a Sauvignon Blanc beckons and while the both the Seifried (£8.99) and the Sacred Hill (£6.98) Sauvingons are mightily attractive and having already picked a wine from New Zealand it could mean the Spier Sauvignon from South Africa would be plonked into the virtual basket.

Another choice of white could be the slightly odd-ball Repertoire White "The Gros Manseng grape gives tangy, apricot & peach flavours with a gloriously refreshing citrussy finish" or the Rully Blanc "Gorgeous pineapple & tropical fruit aromas lead in to opulent buttery flavours with a lemony finish". No producer mentioned though.

But after mulling and playing with the calculator the £30 is spent on the following:

• Ara Padthway Pinot Noir,New Zealand £9.99


• Los Vidores Rosé, Spain £5


• Seifried Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand £6.98


• Rully Blanc, France £8.99

Which comes in at a smidge over £30 but as Morrison's also run an offer in which, when you buy four bottles you will get 10% off, the final bill comes in at £27.87.

Has it really been four years since that exceptional helicopter ride over the Italian Prosecco vineyards and Bisol's winery? A return visit, via the islands of Venice, Mazzorbo and Burano was more than welcome.

Each year the Bisol clan treats the locals to a little food and wine fair - Gustovino. A seemingly never ending pour from the full Bisol wine range (several not available in the UK) available to enjoy between the vineyards and an opportunity for me to, yet again, clamper ungracefully onto a horse.

Actually getting on was easier, the widespread titters and my flushed face emphasising the undignified disembarkation. Bloody gravity. Bloody stirrups. One numb bum and a hot trot through the vines gives one a thirst that only Prosecco can quench.

The last visit included a stay in the Bisol guest house. Reading back the posts from those early blogging days are rather embarrassing in the way they are incredibly brief and not really enthusing or explaining (or offering enough photographs) on how relaxing the guest house (Relais Duca di Dolle) is, how easily reachable from Venice, and how the region offers a host of excellent eateries - Gigettos for example or in Rolle, a pleasant winding walk from the guest house, is Andretta with its wonderful open terrace with views down the valley and Il Monestero, a more rustic experience with a chef who makes up a menu each day depending on his whim and the seasonal availability of produce.