Which wine are you drinking today?

Am enjoying a bottle of Campo Viejo Gran Reserva while watching the footie.

This is by far and away the best of the branded wines IMO. Delivers every time and superb value.

Kevin,

We're fortunate that our local Costo always has one of the range of Campo Viejo wine on offer and, although I have just bought a case of the Rocco Bay, these are are usual tipple. Their Tempranillo is delicious and good value. I usually serve the Gran Reserva to the masses at Xmas dinner.

My favourite Rioja remains the Muga Seleccion Especial. I still have a couple of 2005 left. Maybe when you come over we can have some with one of our favourite pork pies. 

Steve

Hi Don.
As we all know wine is as personal as choice of speaker. The blessing of Rocco Bay is : Well, too easy to drink, never gives you a bad head ( even after +1 bottle) and is always consistent and even better cheap as chips. We have had it as our house-red for 4 years now and usually buy it bulk ( say 48 bottles at the time).............other than that, I don't consider myself having any major problems in life .  Try it Peter

PS. And of course it is exactly what it states on the label, even better !

That would be most good, Sir.

I have one last half-bottle of Palo Cortado - an exceptional Almacenista sherry which is sensational with cured meats, particularly those which come from pigs.

I would be more than happy to share.

I also have the last of my stash of Chateau Tayac (Margaux) 2007, which is drinking very well right now. Might go nicely with some original pressings of 1960s blues LPs spun on a maxxed out LP12...

Zuccardi Serie A, Robert's Rock, inexpensive but worth tasting.

Ah ha !, brilliant Peter - you buy enough each time to last for a whole week - very prudent  

Cheers

Don  

Your saying that no one can enjoy music that £65 amp though.

Don are you really saying you enjoyed a certain wine until some one told you it wasn't well made or very good?

Sigh. That's exactly what I'm NOT saying. You can enjoy music played through a £65 amp but still see why music played through an £850 amp (or even an £8500 amp) is 'better' and - at least to some - worth the money. And this does not make those people 'hi-fi snobs' any more than it makes me a wine 'snob'.

I enjoy cheap wine. It gives a sense of perspective, I would hate only ever to drink expensive wines (as some of my customers do). How on earth would you know?  I suspect someone with a hi-fi dripping with 500 series boxes gets a secret thrill from hearing music reproduced poorly in cars and shops for the same reasons. I like eating out in a Michelin star restaurant every so often, but I also enjoy beans on toast.

What I was trying to illustrate is that the average price of a bottle of wine in the UK is so low that the majority of people are drinking wine that costs as near as damn it zero for the actual liquid - all they are ever drinking is rubbish by definition. As though your only ever music came through a tinny transistor radio with a malfunctioning speaker. So much more to discover! Just as there is with wine, and it doesn't make you a snob.

I'm pleased I live in a country where the government doesn't charge £2 for every bottle of wine, and increases this amount every year by more than the rate of inflation meanwhile saying that there has been "no change" because of some cleverly-worded escalator policy.

This means I can drink a slightly chilled bottle of Rioja Joven for €4.50, confident that the majority of the money has been spent on the fruit, no workers have been ripped off, no corners cut, and no chemical shortcuts made.

But I will also occasionally pay €150 (in a restaurant) for a wine where I know that the sheer quality is down to a meticulous selection (sometimes down to individual grape berries) by experts, from land proven through centuries to produce tiny yields of the most concentrated and flavoursome grapes, accorded perfect plant husbandry, no unnecessary chemicals, the finest barrels and equipment, and (usually) allowed to age before release.

I really don't think this is any weirder than regarding £850 for an amplifier as 'cheap'. 

Howard, my old fruit.....

Perhaps my use of English isn't as good these days as when I went to school - it wasn't exactly brilliant even then. But how the hell you derive the above impression from what I have written in this thread I have no idea.

However, for the avoidance of doubt, I buy wine because it tastes nice and is within the ££budget that I feel happy to allocate at the time of choosing the wine. I have never deselected a wine because someboy (anybody) said it wasn't well made or very good.

Hope that is clear enough for you to grasp ?

Cheers

Don

OK Don, a miss read by me maybe,sorry.

No ploblem Howard, enjoy the weekend and another glass of £12 a bottle red to keep everybody happy........

Cheers

Don

The invoice from my last order received last year in August 2012

[ Four dozen bottles = A one-year supply for me! ]

It's been a good supply [from local wine merchant] without one single duff bottle.

After almost a year of enjoyment I have just one bottle of Vicuna and two bottles of Ampelo left in the dusty cellar, so i must start thinking about the next order.

I can confirm the two types that cost over 10 pound a bottle, the Ampelo and Alovini have been the most enjoyable, [so some justification for Rod saying you get what you pay for].

Although value for money the Chilean Vicuna has served me very well but I feel I need to move on so will include a more expensive [and hopefully even better] red Chilean next.

The Amanti had the widest variation from bottle to bottle, including slightly bitter taste at worse to being very easy to drink and pleasant at best.

Tonight i’m very much enjoying the remainder of an Ampelo started last night

Cheers me dears 

Debs

Hi Debs.

Think I will give the Vicuna a go, but how on earth did you manage to drink only 40 bottles in a year ?!?  Dearie me and cheers Peter

Hi Debs.

Rumour has it that you REALLY have something to celebrate in a months time. Surely that deserves a corker of a bottle ! Wishing you all the best and just for the record I am not the least bit jealous.....MUCH  ATB Peter

Hi Peter,

i never drink during week days when i need to drive the car into work for the nightshift.

It's usually a bottle at the weekends, half on Saturday and half on Sunday.

One weekend a month i either don't feel like wine or i'm off driving around visiting relatives, however this alcoholic abstention is counteracted by a six weeks of holiday-leave from work when i may enjoy a bottle of wine during the weekdays.

It seems to be just under 4 dozen bottles a year for me.

I don’t know what will happen to my consumption after my redundancy, the circumstances are a shame with the office closure and worry caused to so many of my colleagues, [although in my case it’s a blessing that couldn’t have come at a better time].

I think 4 dozen bottles a year will remain during my retirement, may actually become less although i may afford better quality in future, and wine drinking may be off the menu during the weekdays when i pour my body into lycra and helmet and go out riding my bicycle [ and shades  ]

Can’t wait to get fit again, cardigan and slippers for later in the evenings perhaps

The Vincuna is a nice one, it has a light dry taste so good for an aperitif

but it does need decanting and to be at room temp.

The price at my local wine merchant is now £6.30 a bottle so it's not gone up much, still fab value for money. This new batch is from 2012 and not the 2011 that i had but it's probably still a very safe bet.

Debs

POP!

Glug-glug-glug-glug-glug...

 Slurp! ...hmmm?

Rod is a wine snob because it is in his business interest to sell poncey expensive wine to people with more money than sense - bit like his hi-fi analogy. It seems he also teaches folks how not to like cheap wine but to "appreciate" expensive wine, such as he might sell?

Of course his condescending attitude does not endear him to us poor people who are misfortunate enough to enjoy what we do enjoy at whatever price.

Anyway, I have a bottle of Buckfast Grand Crude that needs some attention.

'Wreck the hoose juice' or 'Commotion lotion' as it is delightfully known up here.

I once visited Buckfast Abbey and it's the most tranquil and peaceful place. We got shut in the abbey with the monks choir as they closed the doors for morning song. As they were about to start I leant over to my companion and quietly sang 'Here we go, here we go, here we go' .....much mirth ensued.

(Maybe you had to be there...) G

Last night.

Agostino Petri di Chianti Cassico Riserva 2008.

Simply delicious.

Deep garnet and moderately limpid in glass. Rich on the nose with notes of ripe red fruit, sandalwood and oak box, herbs, vanilla...the dryness and sharp tannic structure are absolutely penetrating, making it complex and long finishing.

Jason.

Sorry, I have been highly influenced....but it was delicious, very, very highly recommended.

Jason.

Courtesy of a very generous donation from a forum friend, I've just consumed a superb bottle of Marqes de Murrieta Reserva 2007 Rioja, bought from Booths, with a delicious beef rib roast as we've watched the torrential rain sheeting down up here in the Lake District.

Thanks Steve! 

What an unfortunate, insulting and sad posting. Had you been drinking before you wrote it?

St. Valentin, Eppan - Sauvignon Blanc 2012

very tasty - 50km on the bike was hard work today, so I think I earned it. Need to find a nice Pinot Noir for later. 

Sounds idyllic - but were you conversing or listening to music - or both?

Both!