The Wine Topic

Get on with it you gayers.

Greetings from our President. (straight in,no messing about)

That looks like Brucie relaxing in his garden at Wentworth where I met him in a hilarious, heart warming anecdote. It's not dismal because it's a hidden wine....(see what I did there?)

Why did i think it would be a moaning topic? (I know its whine not wine but magoo is the op)

boltonbonce wrote:Greetings from our President. (straight in,no messing about)

Top Man!

I read somewhere that TV presenter Phillip Schofield has a very substantial and expensive wine collection. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than a tenner for a bottle of Plonk. I have eaten in some tidy restaurants and I have often found that the wine is woefully overpriced. I can't stand pretentious folk who pretend they can identify the grape and the vineyard just from the sniff of a cork. It's bollocks and we all know it.

Gordon Ramsay proves that some wine critics don't know their arse from their elbow.

Chairmanda wrote:That looks like Brucie relaxing in his garden at Wentworth where I met him in a hilarious, heart warming anecdote. It's not dismal because it's a hidden wine....(see what I did there?)

One day I'm gonna get this anecdote.
I'm biding my time.

Magoo would like this. Goes very well with pulled pork according to the reviews.
I've found it goes with pretty much anything.
Under a tenner too.

y2johnny wrote:Why did i think it would be a moaning topic? (I know its whine not wine but magoo is the op)

Reebok Trotter wrote:
I read somewhere that TV presenter Phillip Schofield has a very substantial and expensive wine collection. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than a tenner for a bottle of Plonk. I have eaten in some tidy restaurants and I have often found that the wine is woefully overpriced. I can't stand pretentious folk who pretend they can identify the grape and the vineyard just from the sniff of a cork. It's bollocks and we all know it.

Gordon Ramsay proves that some wine critics don't know their arse from their elbow.

I think this video shows that he does know something about wine. He totally nails the first two and he identifies the third and says it isn't worth the ludicrous price charged for it.

I like wine but would never spend a fortune on it. In terms of value most experts would say that lies in the area of approximately £7 to £12 a bottle and from my experience I would agree with that. However wine is to be enjoyed and if you like a cheaper wine there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I used to like Bulls Blood but haven't seen it for a while.
I went for a wine tasting afternoon in Byrnes of Clitheroe a couple of weeks ago. What it established for me was that price isn't the dictator!

I used to go to the trade shows when I had a restaurant.

best tips are:
* find and stick with grape varietals you like e.g. Chilean Merlot, South African Pinotage etc. and bear them in mind when tasting new stuff
* there are some perfectly acceptable new world wines around a fiver if you can find them
* french wines at the lower end of the market tend to be overpriced for what they are
* germans make excellent red wine - but tend to keep it for themselves!
* the ratio between price and quality is logarythmic - the difference between a £20 (trade) bottle and a £50 bottle is minimal and the difference between that and £100 bottle is even smaller. You can pay a high price to smooth out perceived imperfections and some wine posers are willing to do it.
* drink what you like and ignore the crap about wine etiquette. If you want a rugged Shiraz with fish - have it. The customer is always right.
* Always try to oxygenate the wine regardless of price. Suggest decanter or swishing around in the glass for a couple of minutes rather than farting in it through a straw. If you're paying good money for wine, might as well drink it at it's best.

I may well get shot by the purists for this, but some years ago somebody (who was a Muslim and so didn't drink) brought a bottle of sweet red wine to our house as a gift.

I smiled politely and opened it to have with the meal, thinking "I bet this won't be too clever" but you know what, it was wonderful.

It tasted really fruity and there was none of the bitter after taste you can get with some reds.

I'd never had sweet red before but I really enjoyed it and it made me realise what a complete and utter snobby tugboat I'd always been about wine.

I learnt a valuable lesson that day.

If I'm getting a white I usually go for Australian or an NZ Sauvignon Blanc.
Yellow Tail Chardonnay is good stuff at £5 a bottle in Asda at the minute.

If it's red, again it's usually Australian, or a Rioja.

I don't see the point in paying £4 for a bottle if I'm not gonna really enjoy it (not that you can't get a decent bottle for £4), but I don't see the point in paying £10 either.

I am currently enjoying a bottle of Wolf Blass Red Label Chardonnay Semillon (2013 grape) all to myself. 

Wolf Blass is usually a more expensive wine but Morrisons had the 3 for £10 on this so bought 18 bockles!

It was really meant for crimbo but ah fuck it!

karlypants wrote:I am currently enjoying a bottle of Wolf Blass Red Label Chardonnay Semillon (2013 grape) all to myself. 

Wolf Blass is usually a more expensive wine but Morrisons had the 3 for £10 on this so bought 18 bockles!

It was really meant for crimbo but ah fuck it!

LOL. My missus made the same mistake - bought the "Xmas wine" 2 weeks ago. Ha!

Whilst we're on Christmas booze, the Tesco in Farnworth are doing 15 bottles of Budweiser for a tenner.

Which is a good deal.

Unless you walk another six feet to the right and discover the cases containing 20 bottles for eleven quid.

A pound more, but five extra bottles.

Even I can work out that that's a better deal.

Breadman wrote:Whilst we're on Christmas booze, the Tesco in Farnworth are doing 15 bottles of Budweiser for a tenner.

Which is a good deal.

Unless you walk another six feet to the right and discover the cases containing 20 bottles for eleven quid.

A pound more, but five extra bottles.

Even I can work out that that's a better deal.

Maybe the bottles in the 15 case are 330ml whereas the bottles in the 20 case are 275ml ?

Reebok Trotter wrote:

Breadman wrote:Whilst we're on Christmas booze, the Tesco in Farnworth are doing 15 bottles of Budweiser for a tenner.

Which is a good deal.

Unless you walk another six feet to the right and discover the cases containing 20 bottles for eleven quid.

A pound more, but five extra bottles.

Even I can work out that that's a better deal.

Maybe the bottles in the 15 case are 330ml whereas the bottles in the 20 case are 275ml ?

ASDA are doing 3 cases for £20. (12x300ml per case)

Nope, they're all the same size, RT.

I think it's just a glitch.