(UK) Why does Supermarket Wine always tastes awful?
Posted by: naim_nymph on 19 November 2009
Twenty five years ago I read a story in a newspaper (The Telegraph I think) about wine producers/exporters in Europe who believed that us Brits were so useless at appreciating a good wine they could send us any old crap in a bottle with a fancy château-de-plonk looking label on it, and UK wine drinkers would buy and drink it quite happily without knowing they're getting ripped off.
If you ask me it's true, and nothing much has changed except now it’s the whole world that sends us all their horrid wine that no one else would be daft enough to drink.
A few years ago I used to cat-sit at a friends house while they holidayed in France. They were nice kind folk who would always come back home to give me a few bottles of Red for my loyal efforts of looking after their cat, which was always a pleasure.
However, the wine they gave me was always duty-free from France, and it always tasted superb, I never wasted a drop. This wine often came with the same recognisable labels on that one could buy here in Blighty, but whenever I did purchase from the local supermarket it would not taste anywhere near as nice as the wine they purchased in France, and often the local supermarket wine tasted so yuk i would pour it away down my kitchen sink plug hole.
I usually buy a bottle of wine that costs between £4 - £9, occasionally cheaper or dearer.
I’ve tried French, Italian, Spanish, Chilean, Californian, Argentinean, Australian, New Zealand, South African, and probably others I can’t remember right now.
But i’m always very disappointed : (
Nowadays the only wine I can drink without wincing is the Australian Hardys Merlot that costs about a fiver. But even this wine isn’t really that good.
How much (here in the UK) does a 'nice' bottle of Red cost?
Does one have to travel to another country to buy it?
Any recommendations would be very helpful please! : )
Debs
If you ask me it's true, and nothing much has changed except now it’s the whole world that sends us all their horrid wine that no one else would be daft enough to drink.
A few years ago I used to cat-sit at a friends house while they holidayed in France. They were nice kind folk who would always come back home to give me a few bottles of Red for my loyal efforts of looking after their cat, which was always a pleasure.
However, the wine they gave me was always duty-free from France, and it always tasted superb, I never wasted a drop. This wine often came with the same recognisable labels on that one could buy here in Blighty, but whenever I did purchase from the local supermarket it would not taste anywhere near as nice as the wine they purchased in France, and often the local supermarket wine tasted so yuk i would pour it away down my kitchen sink plug hole.
I usually buy a bottle of wine that costs between £4 - £9, occasionally cheaper or dearer.
I’ve tried French, Italian, Spanish, Chilean, Californian, Argentinean, Australian, New Zealand, South African, and probably others I can’t remember right now.
But i’m always very disappointed : (
Nowadays the only wine I can drink without wincing is the Australian Hardys Merlot that costs about a fiver. But even this wine isn’t really that good.
How much (here in the UK) does a 'nice' bottle of Red cost?
Does one have to travel to another country to buy it?
Any recommendations would be very helpful please! : )
Debs
Debs wrote:
The trick is to drink perhaps just one bottle at a sitting.
Cheers, Chris
quote:and i'm sure my wine drinking in the future will be.....an interesting leaning experience too : )
The trick is to drink perhaps just one bottle at a sitting.
Cheers, Chris
quote:Originally posted by rodwsmith:
I'm sure that they would be able to export more if they called/labelled it "Apulia" rather than "Puglia", but by naming this particular wine after Taranto (Quentin Tarantino's family hometown) they get past that. Fantastic part of the world to visit by the way.
Santé
Rod
No fear Rod, they have "Apulia" on the label ; )
However that Tarantino word did influence my next cd to play, (reminds me of one of my favourite alpha discs) hopefully this wine won't have a bite like a Lycosa tarentula ...and may-be a good wine to dance with?
Debs
While i'm cooking my lunch i'm having a sup...Ampelo Primitivo/Merlot
Tarantino IGT 2007 | Bin IR06207
...Very juicy wine with the softness of Merlot combining beautifully with the black fruit of the native Primitivo grape to produce an eminently drinkable wine. It comes from the area around Taranto on the Ionian coast of Puglia.
Never mind the blurb… this is 'okay' drinkable...
I opened the bottle yesterday, for a half glass sample, so by now it‘s had lots of time to breathe, so to speak, very fruity, almost like a country wine (like I used to make 25 years ago in a demijohn). The nose sniff test
Debs
The ranking of German wines can be a little bit complicated 
.
The first step is the QbA ( Qualitätswein eines besonderen Anbaugebiets ). These are mostly simple and cheap wines, but they can be acceptable from good winemakers.
Better are the wines with "Prädikat": Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein.
The last three are very sweet, concentrated and expensive, just like the best Sauternes, but they have less alcohol. Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese are sometimes not sweet at all, in this case you can find the word "trocken" = dry on the label. "Feinherb" or "halbtrocken" means, that this wine is not completely dry but it is not very sweet.
Similar to the wines of other countries, the vintage, the location and the winemaker are very important. An excellent Kabinett can be far better than a mediocre Auslese.
Riesling is the name of the grape variety, probably the best white wine in Germany. But Sylvaner, Weißburgunder or Grauburgunder can be quite good as well.
The few good red wines from Germany are imo too expensive, better to look elsewere .
Manfred
.The first step is the QbA ( Qualitätswein eines besonderen Anbaugebiets ). These are mostly simple and cheap wines, but they can be acceptable from good winemakers.
Better are the wines with "Prädikat": Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein.
The last three are very sweet, concentrated and expensive, just like the best Sauternes, but they have less alcohol. Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese are sometimes not sweet at all, in this case you can find the word "trocken" = dry on the label. "Feinherb" or "halbtrocken" means, that this wine is not completely dry but it is not very sweet.
Similar to the wines of other countries, the vintage, the location and the winemaker are very important. An excellent Kabinett can be far better than a mediocre Auslese.
Riesling is the name of the grape variety, probably the best white wine in Germany. But Sylvaner, Weißburgunder or Grauburgunder can be quite good as well.
The few good red wines from Germany are imo too expensive, better to look elsewere
.Manfred
Years ago when I was young and thin I used to work as a door to door salesman for a very dodgy but highly profitable wine company. They trained us the whole speil about single grape estate bottled late harvest wine, etc but then they were indicted for adding antifreeze to their wines...
I still enjoy the odd Kabinett & Spatlese wine but my memory is forever branded with this experience.
Gordon
I still enjoy the odd Kabinett & Spatlese wine but my memory is forever branded with this experience.
Gordon
quote:Originally posted by Voltaire:
Years ago when I was young and thin I used to work as a door to door salesman for a very dodgy but highly profitable wine company. They trained us the whole speil about single grape estate bottled late harvest wine, etc but then they were indicted for adding antifreeze to their wines...
I still enjoy the odd Kabinett & Spatlese wine but my memory is forever branded with this experience.
Gordon
The antifreeze scandal ( 1985 ) concerned wines from Austria ( mainly Burgenland ) but not from Germany.
Manfred
quote:Originally posted by Manni:quote:Originally posted by Voltaire:
Years ago when I was young and thin I used to work as a door to door salesman for a very dodgy but highly profitable wine company. They trained us the whole speil about single grape estate bottled late harvest wine, etc but then they were indicted for adding antifreeze to their wines...
I still enjoy the odd Kabinett & Spatlese wine but my memory is forever branded with this experience.
Gordon
The antifreeze scandal ( 1985 ) concerned wines from Austria ( mainly Burgenland ) but not from Germany.
Manfred
Manfred, I am flatterd that you think I was able to be a door to door salesman as a teenager (1985) but I'm afraid I was refering to the early/mid 90's when I worked for the Pieroth brothers under their NTH brand name. They were accused of adding anti freeze (among other things) to wine and consequently focused their marketing efforts on their sister brand 'Vicomte Bernard de Romanet' which still trades.
It was a superb scam on reflection. We were taught to tell tales of monks pressing rare grapes into estate bottled wines and limited supply when in fact the 'wine' was manufactured in Luton within a bigger chemical plant then ICI. It is possible that because this was a uk scam the news never really broke in Germany.
Gordon