Wine

[grumpyhack]

Laithewaites is an excellent place to start and get a good impression of the good wines that are available and how to spot them. Supermarket wine is generally god awful.

[LusciousLucy]

I find that these days you rarely get a bad bottle of wine. There's a lot of good everyday drinking in supermarkets for a fiver or less. But it's still hard to find that really exceptional memorable bottle. So the question is where do you buy your wine?

[LusciousLucy]

Jacobs Creek actually have upped their game too. They have a Reserve Range which names specific regions on the bottles and a single vineyard range too. The single vineyard range seeks to bring out more elegant flavours than the generic range thats in every high street shop. The Steingarten Riesling, whilst not cheap (£16) is amazing.

[LusciousLucy]

I soak wine labels off the bottles I drink and walls of my utility room are decorated with them. It's great to see a history of my drinking and fascinating to see how my tastes and sources of wines have developed.

[worm]

But when you can now get things like the Wolff Blass range in ASDAs I think it's unfair to totally damm supermarkets.

Edited February 7, 2011 by worm

[brighteyes]

you pretentious shits

[RABun]

There's a really nice Vouvray Chenin Blanc that i had in a restuarant it was about 7 years old so the acidity had mellowed and the honey notes really came through, but was still not sweet - was beautiful with a sticky pork belly.

i can't find it now.

[worm]

Is it really mass produced rubbish though?

[diddly-dee]

My palate is much too plebian as most wines taste the same to me but, if there's any of you living in the North West, i'm led to believe that Booths supermarkets have a very good range of reasonably priced wine and there'll be a member of staff who knows his/his way round a vintners in each of their stores (i know someone who was sent on one of their 'staff wine training courses' and he said it was really thorough and he's really pleased when someone asks him about wine in-store so don't be shy).

[The Nal]

Oyster Bay is very good for a supermarket wine. Nice merlot and the sauvignon blanc is great too.

[LusciousLucy]

Booths is great for wine. I only ever get to enjoy it when we head to the Lakes for holidays which isnt often enough for me these days.

And Brighteyes, it isnt pretentious and certainly not shitty It may sound it to you but its no different to banging on about cider eg. Brothers vs proper scrumpy which happens regularly on these forums, its just there is some level of pretentiouness attached to wine obviously. But not one person on this forum can be lumped in with the type of pretentious rich, snobby posh blokes in yellow checked waistcoats and a penchant for only drinking Chateau Lafite who are associated with wine. Oz Clarke doesnt help the cause either! Discussing wine is no different to discussing cars or chocolate or films or sport. Its something some of us like and some make the effort to find nicer wines than other ones.

[LusciousLucy]

I like the bit of the story where they say 'it looked like a murder scene but the smell was phenomenal!'

I attended a Majestic Wines 'Wine Course' yesterday and it was really good. Learnt a fair bit from the super knowledgeable boy doing the talking, the food and wine matching was a real eye opener and for a free event, lots of wine was quaffed. Was nicely smug when I managed to guess all the wine styles/varieties and regions correctly. Anyone who wants to know a bit but doesnt want to pay for courses, this is an excellent thing to try out.

And finally...after many months of hammering away at trying to get into the trade, I have 3 possible jobs all at my fingertips. Have met with one wine shop thats opening soon locally, got a meeting with another at the end of this week for an allrounder job thats coming up and the interview of my life this Thursday for a 2 year paid apprenticeship with one of the UK's top wine agents (supplier to places like Selfridges).

[The Nal]

And finally...after many months of hammering away at trying to get into the trade, I have 3 possible jobs all at my fingertips.

[Katster]

The best wine I have ever tasted was in fitou in the south of france. The worst wine I have ever tasted was in sardegna.

I don't know labels and all that shit but I can enjoy white, red and rose equally depending on the occasion, what's being eaten with it, how I am feeling or want to feel etc etc.

There's some nice stuff to be found in tescos, it just depends what your tastes are. Some people like fosters.

I like port. Especially with cheese or dark chocolate. The same can be said for wine actually.

[LusciousLucy]

I worked as a wine rep for a few years. Good fun, lots of free stock , good events, tastings etc and very senior people in banks etc are VERY nice to you. All those fat cats love the booze and the idea of having their own wine guy. Or girl. Not much money in it though.

[The Nal]

Unless you are a wine broker. There's an ad doing the rounds on the wine websites for fine wine brokerage...£100k salary!!! Not that I want to do that, I just want to get back to South Australia eventually and work with wine there.

Edited July 26, 2011 by The Nal

[The Nal]

Tesco doing a fantastic (and fantastically cheap) Chateauneuf-du-Pape at the moment. Had a couple of bottles at the weekend. Glorious with a medium rare fillet steak.

[worm]

Tesco doing a fantastic (and fantastically cheap) Chateauneuf-du-Pape at the moment.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

No such thing.

'Fantastic Chateauneuf-du-Pape' and 'cheap' go together in a sentence in as much as 'Tesco' and 'wine' make up a legible concept.

[worm]

I looked last night and it was 16 quid a bottle. Not exactly cheap.

[worm]

love Prosecco generally... I know it's not particularly 'classy', but I like it

[worm]

In those days I would agree that supermarket wines were very poor. But when you can now get things like the Wolff Blass range in ASDAs I think it's unfair to totally damm supermarkets.

Edited July 10, 2012 by worm

[The Nal]

Wolf Blass is donkey piss.

And the fantastic Chateauneuf-du-Pape is cheap. Maybe it was a special offer but it was 2 for 17 Euros I think. Hence my excited post.

Edited July 10, 2012 by The Nal

[eFestivals]

I once used a whole crate of £180 a bottle red wine (and this was over 20 years ago now) for cooking.

The meals were great.

The girlfriend's old man wasn't too happy tho.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I like Turning Leaf Zinfandel. I don't really care if it's considered unworthy of aclaim because I'd rather drink something I enjoy than drink an alernative to keep up appearances. Got to buy a shed load of it soon for SGP and then got to smuggle it in. Fortunately my local off licence sells it for £5.50 a bottle which is noticeably cheaper than what Sainsbury's charge for it (£7.49 I think).