The Wine You Are Drinking Right Now

[simoan]

For comedy value as much as anything, my Friday night 'treat' this week was the cheapest bottle of commercially available wine I have seen in the UK as far back as I can remember.
Lidl shiraz at 2.99 (yes, less than a coffee) from a pallet of similar.
I needed help from the OH and even then a splash remains in my glass.
Jesus it was awful but easily worth it for the laugh (just the once).
I will continue to operate my process of 'one I know I like' then 'a punt' alternately.

W.

Glad you had a laugh! I find life’s now getting too short to drink crap wine under any circumstances. I have also found I can’t drink as much as I used to, and so quality over quantity has never been so important. Nothing under £10 a bottle passes my lips these days.

All the best, Si

[UncleEbenezer]

For comedy value as much as anything, my Friday night 'treat' this week was the cheapest bottle of commercially available wine I have seen in the UK as far back as I can remember.
Lidl shiraz at 2.99 (yes, less than a coffee) from a pallet of similar.

W.

Is that your age or your memory that's lower than mine?

First wine I ever really loved back in (I think) 1980 cost about that. A bottle of 1976 Marques de Caceras Rioja, recommended by a helpful staff member at Oddbins when I sought advice and told him what my girlfriend was cooking.

[swill453]

Back in my student days in the early 80s, the party drink of choice was Laski Riesling at £1.79 as I recall.

Scott.

[DrFfybes]

Glad you had a laugh! I find life’s now getting too short to drink crap wine under any circumstances. I have also found I can’t drink as much as I used to, and so quality over quantity has never been so important. Nothing under £10 a bottle passes my lips these days.

All the best, Si

We're coming to the same conclusion, although £8 rather than a tenner, and even then preferably on deal.

I think the cheaper wines are getting 'worse' as well, apart from a couple of notable exceptions - Rosemount Diamond range springs to mind as something easily quaffable. The problem is there is still quite a lot of chaff at a tenner plus, and whilst wasting a fiver (or £2.99 in some cases!) isn't too bad, there have been a couple of times I was in a quandry as to whether to return 80% of a bottle or not. If it was from my regular supermarket then I do, Majestic I just drop them an email and say it was poor, but if it means a special trip to Tesco or Asda I tend to leave it on the side for a fortnight waiting until I'm going that way, and then just tip it down the sink.

Nice surprises recently have been Morissons Finest Douro, and Paul Mas (not to be confused with that fine crafter Paul Masson) Vinus malbec, both on offer last week. Also surprised by the Most Wanted Chard, which like the 19 Crimes one is a 1980s Aussie style robust oaked Chardonnay, except it is Italian!

Paul

[UncleEbenezer]

Tonight's tipple is a classic Alsace Gewürztraminer. I mostly like my white wines dry, but Gewürztraminer is an exception: a sweeter white that I love. And it's better in cold weather than many of my favourite whites.

I'm sure it needs no introduction to Fools, but I thought I'd bring the thread on topic and back from the tale of a bad wine to something pleasant

[stewamax]

Tonight's tipple is a classic Alsace Gewürztraminer. I mostly like my white wines dry, but Gewürztraminer is an exception: a sweeter white that I love

Yes - another plump for Gewürz; its sharp/sweet edge goes well with chicken-liver pate and the like. As does its neighbour Alsace Pinot Gris (formerly Pinot Tokay)

[stewamax]

Tonight it will be Roc De Lussac, Lussac St Emilion at £7.75 (Sainsbury) to accompany a large slice of Dickinson & Morris Melton Mowbray pork pie

[tsr2]

Back in my student days in the early 80s, the party drink of choice was Laski Riesling at £1.79 as I recall.

I remember Yugoslav Laski Riesling from my student days in the mid-80s but I don't remember the price. In the late 80s students (at least those I knew) had discovered Jacobs Creek.

[swill453]

I remember Yugoslav Laski Riesling from my student days in the mid-80s but I don't remember the price. In the late 80s students (at least those I knew) had discovered Jacobs Creek.

I think we graduated to the Paul Masson Californian stuff in the carafe-shaped bottle with the metal lid.

Scott.

[DrFfybes]

Back in my student days in the early 80s, the party drink of choice was Laski Riesling at £1.79 as I recall.

I remember Yugoslav Laski Riesling from my student days in the mid-80s but I don't remember the price. In the late 80s students (at least those I knew) had discovered Jacobs Creek.

Don't remember JC back then, but there was Bulls Blood of Eger which was very popular. It was in 1988/9 I moved I discovered Willoughbys which IIRC was in Manchester centre back then. £4.50 on a Rioja was a lot to me, and the start of a slippery slope.

Paul

[UncleEbenezer]

I think it was 1990 I discovered Aussie wine. Flew long-distance on Qantas, and was surprised and delighted that wine was not merely free, but - unlike other airlines - rather decent.

Back in the '80s it was a case of what to avoid. German - sickly white. Italian - bland. French - pot luck: a far-too-high risk of something truly foul. They've all come a long way since then!

[swill453]

Not forgetting Black Tower and Blue Nun of course.

Scott.

[bungeejumper]

Back in the '80s it was a case of what to avoid. German - sickly white. Italian - bland. French - pot luck: a far-too-high risk of something truly foul. They've all come a long way since then!

German winemakers were forced to raise their game in the early eighties, after a number of the big producers got caught tipping sugar into their Rieslings in an attempt to make them seem 'better' than they were. Still, that was better than the Austrians, who were poisoning their customers with antifreeze.

The drop in sales was so bad that the Germans started experimenting with Sauvignons and Pinot Blanc and suchlike dry wines, and a younger clientele started buying them. Although I do remember some really fantastic fruity Moselles from the old days, I'm a bit surprised that Rieslings still have as much of the market as they do.

I was working with a London import consultancy in the late 1980s, at about the time when Australian red wine was getting properly popular in the UK. The story went that the Oz producers had pulled a fast one on the French, by importing their techniques and knowledge without telling them that they were going to make the stuff in million litre stainless tanks, instead of the wooden vats as required by French law and time-honoured custom.

The point being that France considered the oak from the barrels themselves to be essential to the taste of the wine. No problem, said the Aussies, we'll just tip a load of oak timbers into the million litre tanks, and it'll work out just fine. Which they did, with some success. The French spluttered and protested, but once the antipodeans started winning world prizes they were forced to up their own game and stop being quite so old-fashioned and elitist. (For standard bottles, obviously. No changes in burgundy production just yet. ) Come to think of it, it's been a while since I've had a seriously bad bottle in France, except when buying at under five euros.

Out of interest, I just looked up the size of Australian wine tanks. It seems that three million litres is not unusual these days.

BJ

[genou]

Out of interest, I just looked up the size of Australian wine tanks. It seems that three million litres is not unusual these days.

BJ

God almighty. I am currently enjoying a 2015 Christophe Pichon Condrieu. http://www.domaine-christophe-pichon.fr ... drieu.aspx .

I can't imagine how many years of his production would fit in one of those. It is rather nice, though. Full fat Viognier, but decent acidity and good length.

[UncleEbenezer]

I generally like my white wines dry. Or alternatively, very dry. I may make an exception for dessert wine, but only if shared with enough people to make it just a small glass per person.

I dislike white wines that tend to sickly-sweet. I avoid today's horrible fad Sauvignon Blanc, and recollect lots of older-style German wines (including some of today's) with similar revulsion.

Today I've encountered the exception: a rather sweet white wine that was delicious and a pleasure to drink. It's a Vouvray called La Couronne des Plantagenets. The sweetness may even have enhanced its taste in the dark and wet of winter, when white wines are rarely at their best and I drink mostly red.

Mmmm ...

[monabri]

Mrs M and I like "The "Prisoner" range of wines for easy drinking. Being adventurous, I suggested that we try a bottle with a hint of coffee ( one of the offerings in their range). We like red wine, we like coffee...what could possibly go wrong? It was pretty horrible. They need to change the marketing to "20 Crimes".

https://gbl.19crimes.com/pages/the-19-crimes

[monabri]

Sainsbury's "Jam Shed".

Just "don't "....incredibly sweet and sickly. I've got a "sweet tooth" but this was not wine but liquid syrup!


https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/pro ... hiraz-75cl

[servodude]

Mrs M and I like "The "Prisoner" range of wines for easy drinking. Being adventurous, I suggested that we try a bottle with a hint of coffee. We like red wine, we like coffee...what could possibly go wrong? It was pretty horrible. They need to change the marketing to "20 Crimes".

https://gbl.19crimes.com/pages/the-19-crimes

I like donkeys
I like baths
- I wouldn't put them together

And I've already been deported

[DrFfybes]

Mrs M and I like "The "Prisoner" range of wines for easy drinking. Being adventurous, I suggested that we try a bottle with a hint of coffee ( one of the offerings in their range). We like red wine, we like coffee...what could possibly go wrong? It was pretty horrible. They need to change the marketing to "20 Crimes".

https://gbl.19crimes.com/pages/the-19-crimes

You do see an awful lot of that on the prize table at Raffles and Tombolas.

[monabri]

Mrs M and I like "The "Prisoner" range of wines for easy drinking. Being adventurous, I suggested that we try a bottle with a hint of coffee. We like red wine, we like coffee...what could possibly go wrong? It was pretty horrible. They need to change the marketing to "20 Crimes".

https://gbl.19crimes.com/pages/the-19-crimes

I like donkeys
I like baths
- I wouldn't put them together

And I've already been deported

Donkey flavoured bath water might taste better..