Nuits Saint Georges

Berry Bros & Rudd will sort you out: http://www.bbr.com/GB/about/london.lml?ID=04Z4B43L5V60CR8 Shop in St James area of London, also in Basingstoke.

Various Nuits St George available: http://www.bbr.com/GB/shopping/list.lml?search_all_F=Y&description_F=Nuits+Saint+Georges&new_search_F=Y&alert_F=N&ID=04Z4B43L5V60CR8

Happy drinking,

Steve.

It's a grand old team to play for...

Steve,

Just what I was looking for.

Many thanks

Cheers

Don

You could also try Corney & Barrow:

Details: http://www.corneyandbarrow.com/locations.asp

But good Burgundy doesn't only come from Nuits St George. What retailers have you near you? I'm sure I can recommend something from the lists of both Oddbins and Majestic. I work in wine...

For Châteauneuf, try to find the 2000 vintage of La Bernadine from Michel Chapoutier, a stupendous wine.

Santé

Rod

Don,
not an option for London, but if ever you plan to come to France, let me know. I have been living here for 18 years now (oh God!) and have become a fan of Burgundy wine (and of course some others). It isn't difficult to find decent wines from small wine growers.
Cheers,
Uwe

Don

If all else fails there is always Majestic
although that does mean you will need to buy at least a case... It can be a mixed case though..

Don

Nuits St George is my preferred Christmas day red. usually available at Waitrose.

Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.

I normally buy my Dad half a mixed case or so (well 6 to 8 bottles) at Xmas and have a nearby Oddbins and a Majestic.

Do you have any specific recommendations?

He likes "big" reds particluarly Rioja and Barolo and has a definite leaning to the New World (D'Arenberg, Wynns, Stags Leap are amongst his favourites) over Bordeaux and Burgundy. For white he prefers Sauvingon Blanc rather than Chardonnay and, so my mother tells me, he's firmly on the Riesling bandwagon these days.

Price is not so much the issue (I usually spend about £100 and just vary the number of bottles) as being interesting and good value.

"For Châteauneuf, try to find the 2000 vintage of La Bernadine from Michel Chapoutier, a stupendous wine"

Indeed it's lovely (although it's also the best part of £20) and I have a couple of bottles left stashed at my Dad's. There has been lots of fantastic Southern Rhone wine lately -- Oddbins do a starightdforward Cotes du Rhone by E. Guigal which is very good every year for about £8 (it's easy to find as they have lots of it and it has a distinctive yellow label).

Matthew

Hello Matthew.

Maybe I should start a new "wine tip", although it's a bit late perhaps...

Here are a few generals:
(I can't do accents on my laptop, apologies)
Vintages in Europe have been varied of late, and you will notice a lot of wines are now from 2002. Avoid this vintage from anywhere south and east of about Lyon. You may remember the summer in terms of washed out Prague zoo etc. The Rhone, especially, was harvested in a mini-lake in the pouring rain and most of the wines are dilute in consequence. It was also a disaster in Italy. However, just to be perverse, it was a great vintage in Burgundy (although the reds are obviously way too young).

You can trust the New World stuff from retailers that command respect (Oddbins, Waitrose, Majestic), so the below are mainly European.

Champagne - search out Billecart-Salmon (Oddbins) every wine from them punches well above its weight, and they are still made by people whose name is on the label (Nicolas Billecart) instead of multinational luxury goods companies. Bollinger is also worth the extra, if you can run to it. Failing that, the fill in Marks and Sparks' own label is very good value at the moment.

Star wines IMHO:

Oddbins
white
Lingenfelder Bird Label Riesling, Pfalz, Germany 5.99
The Pfalz (previously Rheinpfalz) region is warmer than much of Germany, and Lingenfelder is one of the top producers, as well as easily the most charming and friendly. Well made Riesling is fresh and delicious and also can age magnificently. The abandonment of “Germanic” labelling, coupled with the fresh, dry style should be enough to make people look at Germany again.

Etoile Filante Viognier, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France £7
I can't believe there's any Casillero del Daiblo Viognier available anywhere anymore. This is just as good - although two quid more. Still knocks "cheap" Condrieu into a cocked hat.

Menetou-Salon, Eric Pelle, Loire £8
Every restaurant of any quality from Tokyo to LA has to have either Sancerre or Pouilly Fume on its list. The "third" village appellation of Menetou-Salon is less famous by virtue of having more syllables as much as anything else, and usually provides the best value Sauvignon from the Loire. Oddbins also have a rather good Reuilly, but I can't remember from whom.

red
Cruz del Piedra Garnacha, Calatayud (Northern) Spain £4.79
Oddbins best current cheap red I think, quite fruity/spicy and new world-ish.

Crozes-Hermitage AC, Domaine du Pavillon-Mercurol £10
A label as awful as the wine is good. Spicy and great value for Rhone (Syrah/Shiraz) fans

Mercurey, Domaine Font Gravier, Burgundy
The villages of Mercurey and Givry are in the Cotes Challonaise, south of the more expensive Cote d'Or, and often much better value. This is £10.50 I think, and would be about £15 if from, for example, Nuits St Georges.

1999 Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, Castel Giocondo, Tuscany £24 May have moved onto the 2000 by now. Possibly my favourite wine of all, this is arguably Italy's finest DOCG (a sort-of souped up Chianti). Worth every penny of £25 and were it French, double that. Majestic also sell a Brunello from a small producer called Gianni Brunelli, which is just as good.

Majestic
They certainly used to sell Nuits St Georges from Alain Michelot - a great producer. I vividly remember his 1er Cru Les Vaucrains for £24, an amazing wine and actually inexpensive for Premier Cru Burgundy. Trust Majestic on Burgundy, although treat the Louis Latour wines with caution, they are "cheap" for a reason.

white
2003 La Toledana Gavi D.O.C.G. Raccolto Tardivo (Novembre)£8-ish
Late harvest Gavi. Wonderfully odd. Normally Italian whites trade on their blandness, but leave the fruit on the vine for a month longer and you get this magnificently flavoursome, honeysuckle and mandarin number.

1990 Trittenheimer Apotheke Riesling Spätlese, Weingut Laurientiushof £6
I've mentioned this before, and I make no apologies for doing so again. Fifteen year old Riesling from a top vintage and a top producer. Yes it's sweet (well -ish) but it is also as refreshing as a lime-drenched gin and tonic, low enough in alcohol to keep a clear head, and the definition of deliciousness. It is also insanely cheap.

red
Señorio de los Llanos Gran Reserva, Valdepeñas, Spain £6
As good as Rioja for twice the price, dreadful label though.

Bourgueil A.C. Les Cents Boiseleés, P J Druet, Loire Valley, £7.49
The major reds from the Loire Valley are made from Cabernet Franc, the ‘third’ of the Bordeaux varieties, which reaches its apogee in Château Cheval-Blanc, where it often makes up half of the blend (with Merlot). Loire examples typically have a leafy ‘greenness’ to them and vibrant fruit, the dryness of the Cabernet tannin structure is usually apparent on the finish. This is NOT full flavoured, but delicious and would go well with turkey and especially duck/goose.

Barolo DOCG, La Morra, Piemonte, £15
It is a reasonable truism that you should normally avoid "cheap" Barolo - and anything less than £20 qualifies as such, but this is a star. Maybe on the 2000 vintage, although 1999 is better (for being older)

Martinborough Pinot Noir, New Zealand, £19
Beats Burgundy. Enough said. Had the peculiar distinction of being Chris Evans' favourite, so they stopped supplying briefly(!) Perilously small quantities.

No Christmas is complete without a bottle of Port, and I recommend you try a Tawny with some age (eg Taylor 10 year old, £17-ish which you should keep in the FRIDGE, and drink with cheese, nuts or crappy television.

Phew! I can suppply more if needed!!
If anyone would like a copy of "A Bluffers Guide to Burgundy" which I wrote for some joe-public wine students, I can happily e-mail it on. I also have a copy of a wine and food article I wrote for the Independent, and much else if you're interested.

Cheers

Rod

I love those BIG old pound signs when it comes to buying & bullshitting about wine, at least I thought South Korea's second goal was a cracker irresspective of our other so-called sports common taters absence !


Fritz Von Plonkplonkplonkplonk & keep kiddin yourselves chaps & chappesssesss ?


Where's me corkscrrew John ?

As ever Fritz, I'm not entirely sure what you're on about (although please never stop), but you live somewhere that doesn't tax alcohol to the same degree, and in the same peculiar way, as the UK.

I'm not going to waste my time on really cheap wines, because life's too short. They are the liquid equivalent of "value sausages" and we all know how such "value" is achieved.

Mr Brown, bless him, takes 17.5 percent, and then £1.24. Do the maths. When the fixed-ish costs of bottles, labels, corks, capsules, boxes, pallets, shipping, insurance have been taken off it renders a bottle of wine in the UK that costs £2.99 as having about 4p's worth of actual wine in it.

Such wines struggle therefore to be fit for human consumption let alone worth pontificating about. Or drinking.

Have a weissebier...

Rod

Rod - sent a pt to you

Derek

<< >>

Rod,

Thanks very much. I shall take your list down my local offy and see what I can find.

Matthew

I think that only applies if you have the port opened in the traditional manner with a Cavalry officer removing the top with a quick falsh of his sabre.

Matthew

A few mixed oenological metaphors I think...

Cavalry officers would (and occasionally people still do) open Champagne by cutting off the top (the wire cage and "exposed" part of the cork) with a sabre. The rest of the cork pops out under the pressure.
The ultra-traditional way of opening Port is with Port tongues, which look like a torture implement. The wine is stood upright for a day (to let the sediment fall) but at cellar temperature (i.e. cool). The tongues are heated up in a fire. Clamped around the bottle-neck (which traditionally has a slight bulge in it) the heat causes the whole top to snap off, cleanly if you get it right, just under the cork. The provocation for this is that vintage Port ideally needs decades of ageing, and the wine may actually outlive the cork. At about 25 years old wines should be re-corked as the saturated old one start to disintegrate and lose their elasticity.

Patrick, your friend was right - but only when it comes to Vintage Port. This is a wine like any other and will start to oxidise as soon as it is opened. The higher alcohol, however, prevents the onset of the bacterial spoilage that ultimately turns wine to vinegar, so in this respect you're safe. However, red Ports should really be consumed within the same timeframe as red wines, a couple of days, maximum a week.

Tawny Ports, however, have already been deliberately oxidised (hence the colour) and so they can safely be consumed for a few weeks after opening. This also applies to Madeira and SOME Sherry (the brown ones). Decent dry Fino Sherry, which has an alcohol level of only 15.5% should be drunk as soon after opening as possible - it will actually go off quicker than a similar white table wine. In my opinion the real reason people don't like Sherry is because their only experience has been from a room-temperature bottle behind a bar, or at an elderly relative's house, that has been open for ages. Any wine would taste shit in such circumstances.

You may have noticed a considerable advertising campaign by Tio Pepe this last year. One of their initiatives was supplying in half bottles and telling bars and Tapas restaurants that they could throw away any leftovers at the end of each day - at their expense. A very brave commercial decision, but a good one.

My Christmas lunch will start with a very cold glass of Fino (maybe Manzanilla). If you only associate Sherry with great aunt Maude, sweet nasty stale wines and funerals, then give it a go...no finer aperitif.

White Burgundy.
Majestic had a deal going on with Domaine Fontaine Gagnard, although the wines may have gone as they're no longer on their website. I think Richard Fontaine is one of the best makers of Chardonnay in the world, and it's all grown organically. His wines are in the spicy, minerally style and he downplays the use of new oak. Majestic were selling a number of commune and 1er Cru wines from his sites, mainly in Chassagne-Montrachet, some in Puligny.
Failing that, Oddbins often have wines from Louis Carillon (Puligny Montrachet) and Bernard Michelot (Meursault). Carillon's wines are similar to Fontaine's. Michelot however probably has shares in an oak forest somewhere, but the fruit is up there.

Having run wine shops, I have to warn you that the 21st - 24th December is not a good period to ask questions, crave advice, or get upset if things have run out...

Sante/a

Rod

Don

Anothe option in the City is Uncorked, behind Liverpool street station - www.uncorked.co.uk.
Rod

Good recommendations - will investigate a few.

Regards

Lambros

quote:

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I love those BIG old pound signs when it comes to buying & bullshitting about wine, at least I thought South Korea's second goal was a cracker irresspective of our other so-called sports common taters absence !


Fritz Von Plonkplonkplonkplonk & keep kiddin yourselves chaps & chappesssesss ?


Where's me corkscrrew John ?

---

Burgundy vinyards so close to the motorway and the price of the biggest selection of grand cru wines, I prefer to go elsewhere (Medoc) and drink premium unleaded

quote:

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Originally posted by matthewr:
I think that only applies if you have the port opened in the traditional manner with a Cavalry officer removing the top with a quick falsh of his sabre.

Matthew

---

Graham's flashing again naturally our Mat, good movie on here toneet Mr & Mrs Right, just came to mind, God only knows why ? innit.

Fritz Von Taylor'sreportwasdupedtoo

N.B I once paid DM 870 for a bottle of port for my ex boss, it was gulped down in minutes, bloody animals really.

9 Bottles of Red

Looked into Uncorked and Berry Bros & Rudd

Decided to try my luck in BB&R....it just "looked" a more interesting shop.

Came out with 2 bottles of each of the following (three bottles of the first) :-

Nuits St George 1998 1er Cru Les Boudots Domain Jean Grivot

Nuits St George 2001 Berry Bros & Rudd

Chateauneuf du Pape 1994 La Bernardine M Chapoutier

Berry' House Red


Tonight Mrs D had roast beef etc so we decided to try one of the N-S-G 1998 Domain Jean Grivot.

Superb.

So, on Xmas day it will be a white Burgundy to start off the smoked Salmon

Followed by Nuits St George 1998 1er Cru Les Boudots Domain Jean Grivot with the turkey and roast ham.

For the second, third and fourth rounds, while we chomp our way through to the stilton and Xmas pudds, we will simply work our way down the table.

I also have half a dozen bottles of Blue Nun. For Mrs D's dad and any other guests who can't stand French reds.

Merry Xmas and thanks for all the advice

Cheers

Don

PS Rod , a copy of your bluffer's guide etc would be most appreciated....

quote:

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I also have half a dozen bottles of Blue Nun. For Mrs D's dad and any other guests who can't stand French reds.

---

quote:

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For the second, third and fourth rounds, while we chomp our way through to the stilton and Xmas pudds, we will simply work our way down the table.

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One more after eight mint Mr creosote

Seriously though, bonne appetit and all that

I've savoured many a nuit in St Georges Tavern's in the past !

Fritz Von Fuckithoughthewroteb-nun !

N.B. Last year 2003 being a vintage one will I reckon be a good idea to stock up as many good clarets as possible afore the vulture trade gets going proper, innit !

One more after eight mint Mr creosote

There will be quite a few of us, not just Mrs D, me and her dad........

So when we get to the stilton, things will stiffen up a tad with either a Taylors LBV 94 or a Graham's LBV 97 which have occupied a bit of shelf space for far too long. I didn't particularly pick the ports, I am only reading the labels. Could be as naff as retsina in a cheap Athens B&B. AFAIK.......but by then, I doubt if we will know......

cheers

Don

Don

You lead a devine existance.

I also have pleb inlaws who insist on mixing ginger wine with whisky so I keep some Johnny walker for them.

I bought a case of Port from Worcestor College in Oxford. You get top stuff for just £9.00 a bottle. Superb.

Regards

Mick

Naff?

Is a Good word but Sleazy somewhat springs to mind..

Social climbing tendencies notwithstanding.

P

Mick,

It looks like I will route via Oxford on my way to High Wycombe next week.....

Have a good Xmas

cheers

Don

[This message was edited by Don Atkinson on Wed 22 December 2004 at 22:38.]

Social climbing tendencies notwithstanding.

If it helps me get on with my father-in-law, and 2 sons-in-law, thats all that matters......Mrs D will be pleased.....if Mrs D is pleased .....it will be a merry xmas......



Cheers

Don