How much do you spend on a bottle of wine?

The more you become interested in wine,then the more your looking for value in each price range.
As in hifi you can become a savvy customer its almost axiomatic that the more you spend doesnt always bring better value otoh a low cost wine
is almost all tax.
As some have said a discriminating wine merchant can help,I remember mine selling me a magnum of ch.Le Pin before all the hype started.

quote:

As in hifi you can become a savvy customer

That's absolutely my point.

As in Hi Fi you gain more knowledge and are prepared to pay larger amounts for smaller improvements.

There is nothing wrong with good quality at any level - it's just that as you become more interested, you begin to realise what is possible if you spend a bit more time and money.

quote:

Having said so, a nice bottle of Marquis de Caceres - Rioja (avoid Reserva 1998 AT ALL COST!) £8.79 from the wine shop along Old Compton St in Soho is my "special occasion" wine purchase

That's great. But it doesn't mean you wouldn't appreciate the improvement if you were guided towards a classy £15-£20 Gran Reserva.

Just like Hi Fi, greater interest leads to more experimentation and expense if you're not careful.


Regards,

Steve.

quote:

Originally posted by Chillkram:
...if you go lower you need to drink an awful lot of bottles to find one that isn't plonk...

- unless it makes you or even or even (worst of all) (keep watching - it's the nearest I could find to 'chunder smilie'...)

We're a bit starved for good wine sellers hereabouts, and Waitrose is about the best option.

But within striking distance there is this fantastic specialist beer shop, which offers (literally) thousands of different bottled beers, mainly from small producers, from all over the world now, not only Europe - and of course Britain...

(And for those of us who spend nearly all our money on music and hifi, a good range homebrew stuff! Homebrew - priceless...)

James

quote:

Originally posted by JWM:

quote:

Originally posted by Chillkram:
...if you go lower you need to drink an awful lot of bottles to find one that isn't plonk...

- unless it makes you or even or even (worst of all) (keep watching - it's the nearest I could find to 'chunder smilie'...)

James

Yes, James.....I didn't mean continually drink loads of bottles until you find one that isn't plonk! Although there are plenty of park bench experts that follow that path. Nice of them to put the hard graft in to serve the wider public!
I just can't seem to find where they publish their recommendations, though.

Mark

Of course there is the time and place factor too. I wouldn't open an expensive bottle at the end of an evening when everyone is already plastered. If you are going to have a great bottle, make sure you have it before anything else and then as the sensibilities diminish go onto something less valuable. Easy to say when sober though!

quote:

Originally posted by Rasher:
Wouldn't want to give it to Nigel if he wouldn't appreciate it.

now put it away for another 15 to 20 years

The local Valqueros spend about 3 bucks, for a bottle of Metzgers' finest.

Here, it's all about bang for the buck.

BB

Big Brother = which NM wines do you recommend?

Derek

Sorry, I just barged in to make an inane remark.
Gave up drinking years ago as it threatened my sanity.

However, I read that this years' grape harvest was lousy, due to too much rain !
Avg rainfall here is under five inches per year, this year almost twenty inches of rain in the summer alone ! So the grapes get too large and fill with water, which dilutes their flavor.

Regards

BB

quote:

I get my wine from here and find that value for money is excellent as they have already done most of the sorting for you and getting a bottle of plonk is rare.

Just had a popular mixed case delivered from laithwaite's for wife's parents. However managed to break into a bottle of Chenin Blanc when we ran out the other Saturday night. doh

Regards

Diccus

$20 or less. I have spent up to $65 for something special like a French Burgundy, occasionally up to $30 for a US Pinot Noir, but I prefer to spend $10 to $12 a bottle by the case. For company or holidays up to $20. Anybody can get a decent bottle of wine for a lot of money. Something great for less is worth the effort. Also like HiFi.

quote:

Originally posted by vampyriaerotica:
Nice topic. £10 is my max for a bottle of red wine. Having said so, a nice bottle of Marquis de Caceres - Rioja (avoid Reserva 1998 AT ALL COST!) £8.79 from the wine shop along Old Compton St in Soho is my "special occasion" wine purchase albeit haven't been there for quite a while now.

I'm a BIG fan of Spanish red wine. My cheap personal favoutire at the moment is a bottle of tempranillo from Tesco price very nicely at £3.11 on the Spanish red section. I usually buy them all off the shelves.

Affordable to use them for cooking as well unlike those really nasty "table wine" for cooking at similar price range.

UK is a rip-off for wine. You can buy a very fine bottle of red wine in normal supermarket in Spain for €5 - €10 where it's equivalent to a £15 +++ here.

Salud!

Which red is it you buy please - am stocking up for Xmas parties and need some cheaper wine?

This could be of interest to you winos.

Click

Should be a pisser.

However last evenings TV prog "Rain in My Heart" could cause one to pause for thought

clipping the following from the BBC
See ref to Rain in my Heart

"A new film by distinguished documentary maker Paul Watson looks at the lives of people battling with alcoholism.

Vanda, aged 43, has been drinking since the age of 12. Mark, 29, drinks two bottles of vodka a day. Nigel, 49, has been dry for 10 years, but his liver is hugely damaged. Toni is 26 and laughs at the words: "If you continue to drink... you will die."

With two of Watson's contributors dying, Rain In My Heart shows the traumas of the alcoholic's daily fight through life and the impact on those around them. At the same time, Watson was filmed during the making of the programme to show how he struggled to produce an honest and direct portrait of their lives, and the methods he used, sometimes uneasily.

The pioneer of the "fly on the wall" observational documentary on British television, Watson has directed some 40 films, including the renowned Malcolm And Barbara – A Love Story, The Family, Sylvania Waters and The Fishing Party. Making hard-hitting and innovative films for the BBC, Granada and Channel Four over his 30-year career, Watson's influence has inspired many others to make films that matter. "


A program to make one think.

quote:

A program to make one think.

Sadly, the people it will make think are probably not on the same path.

The more I saw last night, the more it struck me that the alcohol was merely a different tool with which to self harm.

A well made program and a tribute to the staff at the Medway hospital involved.

Steve.

The other side of the coin is people talking bollocks about wine with Oz and James on BBC2.

Don't know if anyone caught Radio 5 Live on Tuesday afternoon. They did an interview with the maker of the documentary Rain In My Heart (Paul Wason), then flipped the discussion the other way by chatting to Oz and May about their wine program (earlier link supplied).

I missed the documentary because of work. Is it repeated? (Oz and May have been taped though)

Rackit,

is it available for replay on Radio 5 "listen again"?

cheers, Martin

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
The other side of the coin is people talking bollocks about wine with Oz and James on BBC2.

Can I ask what people thought of this programme?
The idea, as you probably deduced, was to achieve exactly the opposite of the above reaction. Perhaps they have (so far) failed.

The wines of Michel Chapoutier are amongst those that I work with in the UK and he will feature in the third programme in the series (the broadcast of which was incidentally delayed until Richard Hammond was better).
Michel Chapoutier is a highly regarded winemaker in the Rhône Valley and, by a pleasant coincidence, also a collector of classic cars. It was not surprising that we received a phone call from Oz...

So I went down in the summer to watch the filming, partly as a jolly, partly because I needed to be there around then anyway, and partly in case they started asking questions like 'where in the UK, and how much?' Stuff the French notoriously get wrong on a regular basis.

It was great fun, and good to meet James May who seems a genuinely pleasant bloke. Although he smokes quite a lot of fags (which somehow surprised me. Richard Hammond is also a smoker, and Jezza famously is, or was, a near-shareholder in Marlboro). By the time I saw it the Jag was sounding very diesel-ish too. I think it broke down later that day, and not for the first time.

I think the initial programme painted rather a different picture of JM, who actually prefaced all his remarks and questions with apologies and sincere pleasantries, and seemed genuinely interested in the answers. This is some feat when said answers are coming from Chapoutier who is as loopily-hatstand as the best of them. Watch out for his explanation of biodynamic viticulture - a lengthy diatribe - which elicited the wonderful response from JM of "So, what's the point of that, then?"
I suspect this is not a response MC is used to, and raised a smile from me, Oz, most of the Chapoutier staff, and the crew. And, mercifully Michel himself. Although he wouldn't then let James drive his Willys Jeep...

Personally I found the programme to be a little bit disappointing frankly, although it will surely raise interest in the wines of my friend Sam (the Kiwi guy where they did the grape-picking).

Wine on TV has always been a tricky subject, and I'm not sure this "Sideways-relived" approach is necessarily the best way to get it right...

Rod

quote:

Originally posted by rodwsmith:

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
The other side of the coin is people talking bollocks about wine with Oz and James on BBC2.

Can I ask what people thought of this programme?
The idea, as you probably deduced, was to achieve exactly the opposite of the above reaction. Perhaps they have (so far) failed.

Rod

Rod

I thought it was entertaining. James May is funny and works as an excellent 'foil' to Oz Clarke.

Will it strip away the 'talking bollocks about wine' opinions? Maybe. Experiencing flavours in the thing you are tasting other than that of the thing itself is not peculiar to wine. For instance, the other day I was given some green olives that tasted like something else. Then I put my finger on it, chip shop saveloys!

Where people take issue, I think, is with the pomposity that is often associated with wine tasting and, perhaps, with James May taking the piss out of Clarke it may help to break this down and get the message across.

Mark

I found it very entertaining, but am not sure how useeful, ultimately, it will be.

I am very frimly in the anti wine-ponce camp (and the anti beer-ponce camp too). Having people witter on about how this smells of blackcurrant and tobacco, or the sole of a trainer which has walked a hot tarmac road (as Oz described one wine) tells me nothing about whether I will enjoy it. A hundred pound bottle of wine which you don't like is worse than a five pound bottle that you do.

I can see that wine and beer buffs could have a load of fun at blind tasting showing off their knowledge but most people choose wine on past experience - have I had this (or something similar) before, did I like it?

I thought it was very good. I don't think we are at the stage yet that they begin to talk about wine, but setting the scene and introducing the players is working well. Maybe the next programme will get stuck into wine, but to be honest, it is never going to be a wine appreciation class, just a stab at getting people to look at a wine list and select a bottle rather than ask for "house red", which always amazes me frankly (like asking for the "house meal" )
I think it'll be successful, and James May is cutting the crap very well.

quote:

Originally posted by Nigel Cavendish:
on about how this smells of blackcurrant and tobacco

Alas I fear I am in the wine ponce camp as it's my job and I've passed all the exams.

However, trying not to be poncey, and at the risk of upsetting any chemists by over simplification, if you can smell or taste blackcurrant in a wine - it's because you actually can...
All fruit flavours are made up of esthers and the "blackcurrant" one is common to all black skinned fruit. Fermentation breaks down and re-assembles these esthers making them more (or less) apparent than they were in the original juice. Which is why cider doesn't taste like apple juice, for example.
A 'blackcurranty' wine tastes of the stuff that blackcurrants taste of (and incidentally is quite likely to be made from the grape variety Cabernet Sauvignon as this, by virtue of a thicker skin, has the greatest amount of the esther amongst grapes).

Similar is true for the gooseberry/kiwi fruit esther in Sauvignon Blanc, and the banana esther in fermented wheat (try smelling Hoegaarden or another weissbier).

Tobacco, on the other hand is subjective, although such a wine would have been aged in oak barrels, the charring of which affects the flavour.

Is that poncey, or interesting/helpful?

I'll get my coat...

Rod

Rod

Nothing wrong with being poncey - and I don't think you are btw.

I am more familiar with beer, having drunk it and brewed it for many years and I realise that beer can often smell, and taste, of things that had no part of the brewing process; I can also recognise the fruit and floral notes in wine. Same goes for whisky too.

My point is that recognising those aromas and flavours does not necessarily mean that you will enjoy the wine, or the beer, or the scotch.

I'm quite happy to talk about the different flavours and aromas in wine. It helps to convey how a wine is likely to taste and will definitely influence my purchase if it matches up with what I like.

Just putting on the label "tastes nice" doesn't quite work for me!

Some wine 'experts' do get a little carried away, though.

Mark