The Vineyard

Following a request on the Beer thread, a thread about wines. On this subject, I'm definitely red, preferably French South West area,  Bordeaux, St Emilion, etc. That said I also like Rioja and Cote du Rhonenad even Mateus Rose from Portugal which seems to be out of favour now.

Apart from taste one of my main reasons for red wine is the health benefits that are made for it, over white wine. I am not in any way a wine expert of any kind being brought up on homemade 'country wine' by my nan, bless her. You name it she made it and it all tasted good.

Today £10 per bottle is my high price mainly because of the tax's. About £2.33 per bottle wine tax and 20% vat; so for my £10 I'm getting a £6 ish bottle of wine. Anything less than a fiver and you have to wonder what's in the bottle unless it's wholesale price has been dropped significantly.

That said the most common bottle of wine I buy is Tesco Les Tuguets Madiran at £7 - £6 per bottle. When I did some research into life longevity and wine areas this was one of the top areas for wine at a reasonable price.

So what's your favourite tipple from the vineyard?

Not really a wine buff but I prefer reds to whites because I’m a tight illegitimate. Only buy from supermarkets. Like Rioja, Brouilly, Fleurie, Ribeiro del Duero, Burgundies, all sorts really. Good with food or just drinking on their own. Partial to a good Macon and a nice sharp Muscadet with seafood but cannot drink much without food. Used to like Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé until the prices went silly.

Often limited in what I drink because the missus gets an allergic reaction to many reds and doesn’t like white wine. So I miss Cab Sauvignons. Her tipple of choice is Valpolicella but again prices are mental - occasionally Aldi/Lidl have it discounted to £8 a bottle.

One thing I used to love is an Aussie red Tarrango. Spicy. Cannot seem to find it in supermarkets now.

Toro Loco from Aldi. Much better than the price suggests.

Think it's a Temperanillo but not sure. Not a wine connoisseur.

Don't drink much wine as it floors me nowadays, especially red.

Always liked a cote du rhone , Cohors Merlot and many others while holidaying in France.

Don't drink much at all now sadly.

I must say, I do not drink so much nowadays. I try to limit myself to a nightly bottle of good claret, a 1971 Château Cos d'Estournel or something like that.

I'm a total wine nerd.  I worked in  France where I started to get introduced to it (Rhone and Bordeaux mainly).

It was when I met my wife to be that things really ramped up.  She is French and her father has an enormous wine cellar - all mainly Bordeaux.  Really amazing stuff with 20,30,40 years age on it.  Drinking a 1982 Haut Brion is probably one of my wine highlights!  Really opened my eyes.

After that it just exploded my interest.

Now Burgundy is my main wine love, with drink across all regions where the wines are well made, elegant.  Loire, Rhone, Bordeaux, Piedmont are the main regions.

Beaujolais - some really amazing wines from there for decent money.

Burgundy is becoming prohibitably expensive, so I'm looking at more modest wines from there than previously (no more Grand Cru for me!)

I buy only from wine merchants - the stuff in the supermarkets (while getting better) is not a match on well chosen stuff from a good wine merchant.

Good to see a lot of love for South-West France (Madiran, Cahors etc).  There are some beautifil wines made in those regions.

I have a wine cellar in France so it is easy (and quite cheap) to buy direct from the producers and stick them in the cellar for 5-10 years.

Jeez - I need to earn more money!!

We are red wine drinkers (a bottle of red is standard with dinner) along with the occasional sparkling or rose.

Most wine is from the West Coast (California, Oregon and Washington) although we also buy French (a few aged/aging Bordeaux in the wine cooler), Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (great value) along with a few from South Africa, Australia and South America (including a nice Tannat from Uruguay).

I buy a lot off the internet and there were some great offers from US wineries over the last year as they looked to offload wine they normally sell to restaurants. So much so that we are now overstocked and currently in a SWMBOWBM...........




She who must be obeyed wine buying moratorium!

In terms of fantastic quality - South Africa is making some superb wines at the moment.  15 years ago I would say they were pretty mid-level Bordeaux blends but now there are incredible Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chenin amongst others.

In terms of wine merchants (all of whom do online and delivery), I would heartily recommend;

- The Wine Society: worth the £40 joining fee - wines across all price ranges.  Superb.  
- Swig (online merchant with good quality selection
- A&B Vintners - bit more niche, but great range
- Lea & Sandeman

Got a nice Chablis 2014 Premier Cru chilling right now.  This thread put me in a thirst...

Quoted from Yossarian

In terms of fantastic quality - South Africa is making some superb wines at the moment.  15 years ago I would say they were pretty mid-level Bordeaux blends but now there are incredible Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chenin amongst others.

In terms of wine merchants (all of whom do online and delivery), I would heartily recommend;

- The Wine Society: worth the £40 joining fee - wines across all price ranges.  Superb.  
- Swig (online merchant with good quality selection
- A&B Vintners - bit more niche, but great range
- Lea & Sandeman

Got a nice Chablis 2014 Premier Cru chilling right now.  This thread put me in a thirst...

Bit early for that here in the US….but I guess its 5pm somewhere 😀

Having spent some considerable time in Italy and Covid aside, making 3/4 trips to the footy a year I tend to drink a lot of Italian wine.

I’ve a friend that works for these chaps https://www.bernabei.co.uk/ of which I’m sure many of you have heard of so I often receive a ‘care package’ to sample.

I prefer white but have ventured in to reds recently.

I really like the Australian wine 19 Crimes, its a blend of grape and very smooth red and usually can be found on offer at Tesco or somewhere for circa £7.
They also do one called 19 Crimes 'uprising' which is part aged in rum barrels.

Both very easy to drink and good choice for those new to reds.