Wines, Beers and Beverages - Recommendations

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by Relegation Certs, Aug 21, 2019.

  1. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    I know this forum is populated by toffs, tories and other degenerates with more money than sense, so can someone recommend me a posh bottle of red wine, for around £30-£40. Ta.
     
  2. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member

    30 bottles of white lightening, add red food colouring, quantity not quality.
     
    domthehornet likes this.
  3. zztop

    zztop Eurovision Winner 2015

    I buy bottles between about £4 and £10 at a supermarket, and can't tell the difference between them and more expensive stuff!

    And, I drink red wine chilled.
     
  4. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Pint of vodka, dash of cranberry. Ready for the big game!
     
  5. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    Hactually we 'as wine at our house at the moment.

    One of the grandads I look after is in the wine club and has a regular delivery with an extra couple of bottles free.

    After I've done his personal care bit, I carry the boxes in, put the bottles into his wine rack and break up the boxes for the recycling. In return, he presents me with a bottle each week.

    Don't really care for it much myself, but Ciff chugs it down no problem and says it's very nice.
     
  6. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Try 10 bottles of this. Comes in it's own free glass bottle which looks ok and your guests won't know its dirt cheap. Plus you can smile at the fact it costs more for Scots.
    "Vintage" and "versatile" - what more could you want ?
    https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/Red-Wine-3660.htm?articleId=9980
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
  7. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    Join the Wine Society. Huge range at low prices, as it's a non-profit, and good info on what to expect from the wine. You can get anything from £5 cheapos to well posh stuff. Collect from their Stevenage warehouse or get it delivered free of charge.
     
    Cthulhu likes this.
  8. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    *gets excited at seeing 6 alerts
    *reads 6 people's life story and no recommendations

    USELESS *****.

    Edit ffs even non swear words are banned now!
     
  9. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

  10. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    My rule of thumb is £6 bottle out of the supermarket and it'll be fine. If there's an offer on, that's even better. Above that it's all personal preference. As a further guide, I've never drunk a bottle from NZ I didn't like. Any Oyster Bay red @ around a tenner will be good.

    I once went through the Rioja card with friends just south of Santander in Spain over a New Year. I preferred all the cheaper stuff.

    More b.llocks is talked about wine than pretty much anything else on the planet. Only Alex Ferguson and Johnny Depp feel the need to spend over £30 on a bottle.

    Take the top off/cork out at least an hour before drinking it to let it 'breathe'. It'll still be fine the next day too if you don't finish it. Unlikely.
     
  11. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member

    For ****s sake

    Get a Bordeaux. 6-14 years old. East side/west side represent.
    The wine society is a good shout for a guide or go to a specialist wine shop.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
  12. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    I concur. NZ Pinot noir is nectar of the gods.
     
  13. Cthulhu

    Cthulhu Keyboard Warrior Staff Member

    It’s good but it’s a tenner. He wants a £40 bottle
     
  14. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Decent NZ PN is more than that.

    But probably £25 rather than £40, admittedly.
     
  15. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    The situation is a bit more complicated than you let on. Studies conducted on blind wine tasting have shown that once you get into expensive wine territory, untrained people tend to like them less while trained wine enthusiasts like them more.

    One of the main reasons for this is down to residual sugar content. Expensive wines don't tend to have any, while cheaper wines tend to have at least some residual sugar.

    Obviously if your palette isn't developed enough to discern the difference, you're likely to prefer the less expensive wine; most people have at least mild sugar "addiction" on modern diets so they'll respond strongly to the residual sugar flavouring on their tongue. For wine enthusiasts, however, the reverse is true: they detect the residual sugar very easily and it detracts from the flavour for them.

    While it is not correct to say there is no difference, you were correct in saying it is subjective. For many (most?) people a cheaper bottle of wine will indeed be more enjoyable for them.
     
    RookeryDad and Bwood_Horn like this.
  16. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    Ha! Most informative. I'll think I'll stick to copious amounts of cheap plonk rather than training my palette though!
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  17. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    Definitely the wallet friendly choice. ;)
     
    CleyHorn and Happy bunny like this.
  18. Happy bunny

    Happy bunny Cheered up a bit

    In my experience, New World wines are better value than Europeans, though you can't beat France for the absolute tops. If pressed I"d go for Chilean red or NZ pinot gris (more consistent than NZ sauv blanc) for good quality at up to £15
     
  19. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    Chile is my second favourite county of origin after NZ.
     
  20. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Not being a total pleb - but there's nothing wrong with wine from Lidl. Most of their high-end stuff (the 96 points) I've served to wine connoisseurs/bullshitters and I've only ever heard praise. Recently I brought a bottle of bog standard Lidl's Rose Rioja to a Basque friend's house for lunch (she served her town's Jamón ibérico - it was that good you could taste the acorns the pigs had been fed on). She an exceptionally forthright 'character' and said only complemntary about the plonk.

    If you want to go for show there's an independent wine place just past the entrance to Oaklands in Snorbens. From what I remember of the place they carry some very good English wines and the owner is exceptionally knowledgable and helpful.
     
  21. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Exactly. £30 should get an entry level decent Ch*teau bottled claret (or Champage) - the same amount of money would also get two or three bottles of decent non-Ch*teau bottled claret. Unless the people you are buying for know their stuff.
     
  22. domthehornet

    domthehornet Moderator Staff Member

    What's the occasion?
     
  23. kVA

    kVA Reservist

    Guy, guys can we be sensible here. Relegation Certs is obviously excited and this could be his first actual, real life date. Let’s not ruin this moment in what could be his first meeting with ‘the one’!
     
    CleyHorn likes this.
  24. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    Thank you for the learned answers above.

    Some tart I know is about to have a kid and I've been tasked with getting this wine. She's the type that will google it so I can't blag it with a cheapo from lidl.
     
    Robert Peel likes this.
  25. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Sounds the perfect opportunity for a label swap.
     
    CleyHorn likes this.
  26. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    These days wine from anywhere at £10 & above should be well made but for impression I would say it has to be French.

    And this boils down to Burgundy vs Bordeaux.

    The classic choice is Bordeaux.

    Then is it Left Bank or Right?

    The classic here is Left. Home to Latour, Lafite, Margaux & so on. These wines can be more challenging as they are dry, astringent & structured.

    Over on the Right Bank, merlot is king & the wines are generally more velvety & soft.

    To get value, go for an Off vintage. Adverse weather will have caused problems growing or harvesting the grapes but anything since 2008 will be fine.

    I’d be looking at a St Emilion 2011 or 2013.

    Waitrose have this beauty. (Actually it’s Right Bank.)

    https://www.waitrosecellar.com/red-wine/ch-malartic-lagraviere-rge-2011-ep
     
  27. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

  28. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Partial to a Ribera del Duero myslef @Relegation Certs . don't get many over here as the Spanish drink it all up themselves. It's a qute full bodied red. Thick rather than thin and watery like a lot of French stuff imho.

    I tend to stick to £10 bottles on sale, because I'm tight as a gnat's chuff and you enter the realm of diminishing returns after that.

    But these will be worth a go.
    https://www.majestic.co.uk/search?searchText=ribera+del+duero

    Failing that the wine buyers from Sainsburys are pretty good. If you can remove the snob factor about price and label I've not had a bad taste the difference wine from them.

    For £13 this Ribera a good shout
    https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/condado-de-haza-ribera-del-duero-75cl

    The Del Duero's I've had from Asda & Tesco have been mediocre.

    Worth pointing out that currently Sainsburys have their 25% for 6 bottles deal as long as they're over £5 each so worth stocking up.
     
  29. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    When considering the Oz options a Coq du Rod Laver and a Nuits San Wogga Wogga are perfectly palatable. Some Australian reds have even been compared favourably with a Welsh Claret. Perhaps best for laying down and avoiding rather than drinking though.
     
  30. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    You're getting Welsh harlot and Welsh Claret mixed up again.
     
  31. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    A fighting wine?
     
  32. CleyHorn

    CleyHorn Reservist

    Yep. Particularly useful in hand-to-hand combat.
     
  33. Robert Peel

    Robert Peel Squad Player

    Are you the dad?
     
  34. Animal. Unless it's a beaujolais, in which case lightly chilled.
     
  35. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Bruce?
     
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