What wine are you drinking today ?

Domaine de la Janasse, Chateauneuf du Pape rouge, 2007

A domaine I’ve visited many a time - this bottle was bought there back in the day. I could wax very lyrical about how lovely the Sabon family are and how much I enjoy their wines. A treat this, to be savoured...

nickpeacock posted:

 

Domaine de la Janasse, Chateauneuf du Pape rouge, 2007

A domaine I’ve visited many a time - this bottle was bought there back in the day. I could wax very lyrical about how lovely the Sabon family are and how much I enjoy their wines. A treat this, to be savoured...

Lovely Nick, enjoy. It’s a treat for you to have the personal connection as well as the lovely wine.

Les Fiefs de Lagrange 2010, second wine of Chateau Lagrange. Well it’s still grippy, I’m not totally convinced the tannins will ever fully resolve. It does have a lovely pure blackcurrant nose, cassis again on the palate with nice muddy coffee and sharp spices, strong acidity and mouth-coating tannins. What you might politely call an old-school claret, it’s actually pretty much to my taste, the fruit and spice is lovely, it’ll probably mellow in a couple of years, but I’m enjoying it now. 

Quinta das Setencostas 2015; smooth little wine, not trying to be what it isn't but really good for the low price. Rather fruity but with enough velvety tannins. Hide the label and it will stand tall amongst many well known wines.

Picture the scene, if you will, down my local Morrison's. In what their buyers would later come to call the Dane-Marshall blip, they've only been cleaned out of the Bicicleta Carmenere. Much nashing.

I was about to get on me bike. Then I bought a bottle of their own label Camenere instead, at a whopping £6.35. It's a bit spirity, maybe slightly green, balanced with acid and fruit, and with a long finish. From Chile's Rapel Valley. Not much wrong for the money.

Christopher_M posted:

Picture the scene, if you will, down my local Morrison's. In what their buyers would later come to call the Dane-Marshall blip, they've only been cleaned out of the Bicicleta Carmenere. Much nashing.

I was about to get on me bike. Then I bought a bottle of their own label Camenere instead, at a whopping £6.35. It's a bit spirity, maybe slightly green, balanced with acid and fruit, and with a long finish. From Chile's Rapel Valley. Not much wrong for the money.

 

Strangely enough, no sooner had  I cleared my local Morrisons out of the Bicicleta, than they’ve restocked the shelves with the same wine, but this time, the “Reserva”, again, at two for a tenner.

Does it get any better than this?

I’ll get back to you once I’ve tasted it. ????????

 Christopher, I do recommend a visit to your nearest Majestic, to sample their Porta6 red, though I fear it’s now no longer on offer...... super everyday red though, and my feeling is that Portuguese wines are making something of a comeback.

dave marshall posted:

 Strangely enough, no sooner had  I cleared my local Morrisons out of the Bicicleta, than they’ve restocked the shelves with the same wine, but this time, the “Reserva, again, at two for a tenner.

Does it get any better than this?

I’ll get back to you once I’ve tasted it. ????????

I think my chain has just come off 

Christopher_M posted:

dave marshall posted:

 Strangely enough, no sooner had  I cleared my local Morrisons out of the Bicicleta, than they’ve restocked the shelves with the same wine, but this time, the “Reserva, again, at two for a tenner.

Does it get any better than this?

I’ll get back to you once I’ve tasted it. ????????

I think my chain has just come off 

????????

I never really paid much attention to Sicilian wines, probably due to some bad experiences with paint stripper in the '80s. Having just spent a week there, it seemed rude not to give it a chance, though, and everything we tried, chosen more or less at random, was excellent. This was one of our favourites.

Too hot for wine but not for a nicely chilled IPA from our local micro brewery here in West Suusex- sublime......problem I now have is listening to the system with a portable air conditioner belting away!

2001 Vosne Romanee Les Malconsorts from Alain Hudelit- Noellat. This has a powerful and complex nose of red and blue fruits with spicy hunts, the palate is a massively concentrated beautiful raspberry/strawberry/chapeau fruit attack with complex pepper and aromatic spice notes, great length, lovely red fruit perfume left in the mouth. A genuinely great wine.

I decided it was such a glorious day in West Yorkshire I’d treat myself to a bottle from the “are you sure?” end of the cellar, and it’s a great choice. I do miss the days when a normal person like me could afford to  pick these wines up on release, but I’ll take great pleasure in enjoying the wines I have left from the turn of the century, and the extremely good wines being made at sensible prices now. I have 2 of the ‘98, 6 of this case and 10 of the ‘99 left of this, I must be more social in the future and share them with friends.

Christopher_M posted:

dave marshall posted:

 Strangely enough, no sooner had  I cleared my local Morrisons out of the Bicicleta, than they’ve restocked the shelves with the same wine, but this time, the “Reserva, again, at two for a tenner.

Does it get any better than this?

I’ll get back to you once I’ve tasted it. ????????

I think my chain has just come off 

Hi Christopher,

We sampled the Reserva against the everyday version last night, and curiously enough, preferred the non reserve version, which seemed to have more complex background flavours going on.

Mind you, that will clear the way for you to stock up on the Reserva, without worrying too much about me swooping on it. 

Very nice full bodied Buon appetito red

with a plateful of Lasagne : )

Debs

I'm quite partial to a nice Italian Ripasso, so I thought I'd give this Aussie version a try. Very nice it was, too, in an Aussie sort of way. What it's got to do with vinyl, I have no idea.

apparently, the thinking now is that ANY alcohol at all is bad for your health, even in moderation. what do I do with all those bottled lying down in one of our cupboards.

sorry, wrong thread :-(

enjoy your wine...

/ken

There is no safe level - either - of driving, swimming, or childbirth to name but three. Perhaps we should all stop those?

ChrisSU posted:

I'm quite partial to a nice Italian Ripasso, so I thought I'd give this Aussie version a try. Very nice it was, too, in an Aussie sort of way. What it's got to do with vinyl, I have no idea.

Do your records sound better after a bottle?

Bob the Builder posted:

ChrisSU posted:

I'm quite partial to a nice Italian Ripasso, so I thought I'd give this Aussie version a try. Very nice it was, too, in an Aussie sort of way. What it's got to do with vinyl, I have no idea.

Do your records sound better after a bottle?

I can't remember...

1999 Nuits-St-Georges  Les Saint Georges, Domane Henri Gouges.

Decanted at 2, glass poured at half past 2, first sip at half past 5. It’s still young, deep ruby colour with no thinning to the rim, the nose is incredible, a meaty start leading to intense cherry and blackberry fruits, amazing. The palate is ridiculously intense, blackberry fruits with loads of other fruit hints fill the mouth, then the massive amounts of acidity and tannin come in, but the fruit is so powerful it’s balanced. Lovely blackberry perfume stays in the mouth for ages. All the complexity comes from the fruit, none of the secondary flavours from aging, this is probably 10 years away from being anything but primary flavours. But even now an amazing wine, sheer fruit power balanced by strong tannins and acidity, lovely complex flavours, definitely Gramd Cru class for those with the patience to wait for maturity, stunning!

Second bottle from a case, the first was back in 2015 when I thought try again in 3 years, glad I did as it’s fantastic, but still so young, without the time in decanter and glass I would have tasted no fruit.  I reckon 5 years before the next one, if I have the patience and also (being conscious I’m 55 this year) health permitting, I may need to drink them before their peak.

Mas de Daumas Gassac, Rosé Frizante 2017

There probably are better things to do than make my occasional pilgrimage to the Languedoc’s premier cru, taste the range (including their fabulous balsamic vinegar), buy a bottle of sparkling rosé, stick it in the fridge and drink it the same evening with friends on their terrace looking onto the hills over the Lac du Salagou. But at the moment I can’t think of any.

nickpeacock posted:

 

Mas de Daumas Gassac, Rosé Frizante 2017

There probably are better things to do than make my occasional pilgrimage to the Languedoc’s premier cru, taste the range (including their fabulous balsamic vinegar), buy a bottle of sparkling rosé, stick it in the fridge and drink it the same evening with friends on their terrace looking onto the hills over the Lac du Salagou. But at the moment I can’t think of any.

Now that’s a perfect day!

This Touraine, made from Fié Gris rather than the more usual Sauvignon Blanc is seriously delicious. Xavier Frissant is apparently one of the best Touraine vignerons - we bought the wine from his cave earlier in the week while staying at Mosnes on a wonderful little campsite on the bank of the Loire. Xavier is a lovely guy and we had a really good chat with him about the wine trade and the challenges of the exchange rate and Brexit. Highly recommended - the wine, not Brexit.

Chateau Durfort-Vivens 2005, a big young claret chosen as a warmer after a wet and windy morning walk on the West Yorks. Moors  this morning. It’s still young, the picture was taken after about 90 minutes in decanter, the glass having been poured an hour before  you can see no fading at the rim yet, started drinking about 30 minutes later. Big nose, red fruits, cassis, some cedar, pencil, on the palate some creaminess, blackcurrant and red fruits, strong acidity, slightly muddy grippy tannins, nice cigar box notes, hints of violets (surprisingly not on the nose (edited just before posting, violets arrived on the nose after another hour) ), reasonable persistence of flavour. Probably 3 or so years away from being fully balanced and showing secondary flavours, lovely now with time in decanter and glass. Good mid-rank claret, available at reasonable price considering the insane price inflation of Cru Classé Bordeaux. I picked up a bottle to taste a couple of years ago from the sadly now gone Halifax Wine, liked it enough to pick up 8 more, this is the second I’ve had, I’ll leave the other 6 for a few years now, nice as they are now, they’ll be a different class in 3 or 4 years.

hungryhalibut posted:

This Touraine, made from Fié Gris rather than the more usual Sauvignon Blanc is seriously delicious. Xavier Frissant is apparently one of the best Touraine vignerons - we bought the wine from his cave earlier in the week while staying at Mosnes on a wonderful little campsite on the bank of the Loire. Xavier is a lovely guy and we had a really good chat with him about the wine trade and the challenges of the exchange rate and Brexit. Highly recommended - the wine, not Brexit.

Good find! I thought it was only Chevalier that was commercial marketing one. It’s interesting (well supremely mildly interesting I confess) that Fié Gris (aka Sauvignon Gris) is a mutation of Sauvignon Blanc (i.e. genetically the same) and yet not only has a different coloured berry (a very simple mutation for the plant - think Pinot family), but also a more intense and slightly different (smokier, muskier) flavour. It remains rare because it crops so low, but is highly prized in Sauternes where its flavour can compete with that of botyrtised Semillon (while still giving characteristic Sauvignon acidity). And because their original stock came from Bordeaux, there is quite a bit in Chile, which is increasingly being vinified separately (although it remains perfectly legal and commonplace to make them together and still call it Sauvignon Blanc.) 

Still, if you took identical twins and bought one up in San Diego and the other in Shanghai, you’d end up with two very different people. Which is why Zinfandel and Primitivo remain so unalike (although the same).

Sauvignon Gris is specifically not allowed in Sancerre - but that’s not to say there isn’t any...

No pic sorry. Returned last night to one of my favourites - Tim Adams "The Fergus" 2006 which has been maturing nicely since last Xmas. An unusual aussie blend of tempranillo, grenache and malbec. Nice! Usually from Tesco for £10.