More Wine News

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ardross
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Well that's seaside resorts for you - assuming it is not a resident of Crumbly Towers caught short :D
 
:D I suspect some of Crumbly Towers' residents don't even make it to the door, Ards! The old girl was down in the foyer some time back when a large parcel arrived for one of the inmates. She was a bit taken aback to see it was for incontinence pads... (or is that a definition of homes for the very old?) :lol:
 
Here is a bargain for PDJ - 2004 was a bumper vintage in New Zealand accordingly some prices have fallen . Oddbins started an offer today of the trusty Montana Sauvignon Blanc 2004 £10 for 2

Meanwhile Jancis Robinson on her website has recommended as good value for the price Tesco's Chilean Merlot at £2.98 apparently they have saved cash on it by shipping it to England and bottling it in Irlam !
 
:lol: :lol: MO a lot more would endorse that!!! I shop @ LIDL too F/U yes all their veg /fruit is superb and half the price of TESCO/SAINSBURY'S....


I have noticed in the one that I use to shop IT USED TO when first opened, BE FAMILIES WHO WERE ON THE BREADLINE!! SO TO SPEAK..............

NOW YOU CANT GET IN THE CAR PARK WITH ALL THE ROLLERS, BMW'S, MERCS, AND SO CALLED UPPER ECHELON <_< PEOPLE :angry: so who's got it wrong then?? ......... :rolleyes:
 
Superquinn's wine sale has started. It's not that they particularly reduce their markup on the wines but they do bring in a lot of different wines that they could not get sufficient quantities of to sell all year round.

Anyway, I helped myself to a couple of bottles of Gewurztraminer , a couple of bottles of Fitou and two Château Le Thou Languedoc 1999's. The last named, at 8 euro seems a bargain, very tasty indeed for a wine at that price.

Which brings me to a question. It says on the bottle that it would benefit from decanting. There is a wine shop I go to (The French Paradox, in ballsbridge) whenever I want to get a good bottle of wine for an occasion. If you ask the owners for advice on picking out a wine, you get a wine lesson thrown in for good measure, wanted or unwanted, but they have several times mentioned that whatever bottle I got should be decanted. I never liked to ask why, it's a bit like asking a question at the end of a meeting when everyone is getting ready to go, and I already am in information overload mode. I always thought decanting just speeded up the process of opening the bottle an hour early, or is there more to it?

Another wine they have in the sale that I tried to find, in vain, last night, is described below...

Banyuls Cuvée Joseph Geraud 1996 RRP €21.99 to €17.99
A very special style of red wine, Banyuls is probably the only wine suitable to accompany chocolate, or indeed coffee and a fine cigar. It’s called a Vin Doux Naturel or naturally sweet wine, using a process called ‘mutage’ i.e. the addition of brandy, to retain sweetness. The vines are grown on steep terraces facing the sun right beside the border with Spain at Cerbere. The colour is brown with amber tints, while the nose is a complex of coffee, chocolate and fruitcake. This cuvée however has lovely citrus and balancing acidity on the finish. Ideal with fruit salads, melon, chocolate-based desserts or as an aperitif.


... sounds a bit like a french version of Masi Amarone at nearly half the price (although I've no idea how the Amarone is made). Anyone ever tried any of this? Is it worth searching out?
 
Not that particular Banyuls Melendez but I have had it . It is a bit like port with a sort of raisiny pruney flavour - very good though and although I cannot comment about cigars it is undoubtedly excellent with chocolate - as is another wine of the same district Maury .

As for decanting - here is what the magnificent Oxford Companion to Wine has to say

The most obvious reason for decanting a wine is to separate it from any sediment that has formed in the bottle which not only looks unappetizing in the glass, but usually tastes bitter and/or astringent. Before wine-makers mastered the art of clarification this was necessary for all wines. Today such a justification of the decanting process effectively limits it to those wines outlined in ageing as capable of development in bottle, in most of which some solids are precipitated as part of the maturation process. Vintage and crusted ports in particular always throw a heavy deposit (since they are bottled so early in their evolution), as do red wines made with no or minimal filtration. It is rare for inexpensive, everyday table wines to throw a deposit, and most large retailers insist on such heavy filtration that a deposit is unlikely (although not unknown in older, higher-quality reds). To check whether a wine bottle contains any sediment it should be stood upright for at least 24 hours and then carefully held up to the light for inspection at the base (although some bottles are too dark for this exercise to be effective).

Another, traditional but disputed, reason for decanting is to promote aeration and therefore encourage the development of the wine's bouquet. Authorities as scientifically respectable as Professor Émile Peynaud argue that this is oenologically (see oenology) indefensible: that the action of oxygen dissolved in a sound wine is usually detrimental and that the longer it is prolonged-i.e. the longer before serving a wine is decanted-the more diffuse its aroma and the less marked its sensory attributes. His advice is to decant only wines with a sediment, and then only just before serving. If they need aeration because of some wine fault (see faults in wines) such as reduction or mercaptans, then the taster can simply aerate the wine by agitating it in the glass. His argument is that from the moment the wine is fully exposed to air (which happens when it is poured, but not to any significant extent during so-called 'breathing') some of its sensory impressions may be lost, and that decanting immediately before serving gives the taster maximum control.

It is certainly wise advice to decant fully mature wines only just before serving, since some are so fragile that they can withstand oxygen for only a few minutes before succumbing to oxidation. And it is also true that the aeration process of an individual glass of wine can be controlled by the person drinking out of it. However, there are certain types of wines, Barolo most obviously, which may not have been included in Professor Peynaud's experiments with decanting regimes, which can be so concentrated and tannic in youth that to lose some of their initial sensory impressions is a positive benefit.

There is also the very practical fact that many hosts find it more convenient to decant before a meal is served rather than in the middle of it. There are also people who enjoy the sight of (perhaps both red and white) wine in a decanter so much that they are prepared to sacrifice the potential reduction in gustatory impact.
Click to expand...

If you are interested in wine it is a great book and well worth putting on your Christmas List
 
I have to admit that bugger the science that young tannic wines can in my experience benefit from being decanted . I imagine that is what they were on about at your shop .
 
I have to confess to being rather partial to the odd snifter of the tonic.

(Specially for Mo)


Oh it's colours they were beautiful
and it's texture it was fine
it's no the sash I'm talking aboot
but the buckfast tonic wine
 
Re Superquinn wine sale

Gewurztraminer was vile., like the bad old days of Liebfraumilch(sp?). Fitou was value for money, as are all Languedoc wines nowadays, IMO. I found the Banyuls as well which I thought was very pleasant and value for money, although not remotely like the Masi Amarone, which I was expecting. As Ardross says, more like a port, but, I think, a bit more to it than that. It's main asset in my household though is that my wife can't stand it - so we'll get that again.
 
Where was the Gewurztraminer from ? In my experience those from outside Alsace can be very dodgy. I had an Australian one once that tasted like you imagine toilet cleaner to taste like heavily perfumed , heavy in alcohol and a " hot " finish sort of leaving you feeling like you needed to drink a large glass of water - Gewurz is a bit of an acquired taste with that spicy , perfumed bouquet . The Caves de Turckheim one is good and at higher prices those from Beyer Trimbach Hugel and particularly Zind Humbrecht
 
It was from Alsace, but at under 10 euro was a fiver less than you would expect to pay for a decent one. The good Gewurztraminers, while fruity and sweet smelling, tend to have a fairly dry finish. This was sickly sweet.

The Tesco brand one is actually quite good at at about 13 euro (they only do one here, I'm not sure about your side of the sea).
 
Jancis Robinson recommends as a mega bargain

Westbrook 2001 Coonawarra Cabernet at just £3.99 from Majestic
 
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