Wine!
I know there are several wine lovers on here, so I thought it might be a good idea to have a place to discuss and share each others favourite tipple.
A wine I have recently taken to is Barefoot Merlot. A Californian wine, full bodied wine with a blueberry and plumb flavour. Really worth a try. We get it from the Co-op at a little less than £7 a bottle.
David
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If you like Sauvignon Blanc One I have recently enjoyed is Mud House Sauvignon Blanc from Waitrose £8.99 a bottle, although sometimes on offer. It's from New Zealand and has a really fresh, crisp taste.
David
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Not much much of a response may be everyone is teetotal?
If you are interested in wine I would suggest joining the
Yes it costs money to join, but you can leave your membership in your will
The choice of wines is huge from about £5 upwards
A bit older than the caravanclub.
Above all I have the quality of their customer service simply outstanding. 3 examples
1. I cocked up my credit card number, wine delivered got an email asking if I minded when I had a moment giving them a payment.
2 Delivery driver, they have their own was concerned that a case he had delivered was correctly packed, he insisted I opened it to check. He was right all the bottles were upside down
3. Had a bad bottle rang up to complain, not a problem they have a no quibble guarantee, but checked my history and saw that I had ordered an identical bottle did I want that replaced foc as well? Not really, We had just drunk the first one and it was fine.
Lots of organisations could learn from and aspire to their level of customer service.
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Out of interest has anyone experienced a bad wine with a screw cap closure? I don't mean a wine they didn't like, but one that was off. I haven't. I am reluctant to buy wines with the traditional cork closure now because of a couple of bad experiences with (to me) expensive wines. Waitrose always refund or exchange if you have a problem with a bottle that turns out to be not so good. I expect other retailers do as well but no personal experience.
David
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Yes I have at a restaurant, same story first bottle very nice, second supposedly identical not so good. Probably if the second bottle had arrived first we wouldn't have complained just not ordered another one. The restaurant staff were very sniffy about changing it. Actually said it must be fine because it was a screw top, we stood our ground got a refund and they didn't get a tip because it wasn't outstanding service. I can't say the presence or absence of a cork makes much difference to our buying experience.
Ps
Aldi and Lidl both have surprisingly good wines in my opinion in the £5+ bracket.
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We like Barefoot wines too, David - Malbec, Sauvignon Blanc and White Zinfandel are all good for everyday drinking ( well, maybe not quite every day!)
We get them at Sainsburys where they're normally about £6.50 a bottle, but we save our Nectar points and wait for the "buy 6, get 25% off" offers - recently bought 12 bottles for £1.50 cash!
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Has anyone ever tried the phone app called Vivino. It allows you to keep a record of the wines you drink and compare it with what others think. If gives you an approximate price too. I've used it a little, but I'm not an 'avid' user. I'd be interested to hear what others think of it.
David
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Hello David, re screws caps. This story may interest you. We were in the "cave" of one of the most prestigious wine producers in Chablis a few years ago. They had just caused "snobbish" outrage in the wine growing fraternity by putting their extremely expensive "Grand Cru" in screwtops. They said it was because it was the only way they could absolutely guarantee the quality of their wine over time. They put "Premier Cru" in bottles with synthetic corks and only used real cork for their AC. I'm all in favour because a few years before that I had to throw away a corked bottle of very expensive St Emelion Grand Cru
We have noticed since then that some other top producers, particularly in developing areas in France are doing the same. Some of the producers who have turned round the image of German Reisling use screwtops for their best wines.
Carl
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Had a girlfriend once called Vivien but she was a teetotal Methodist.
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Perhaps screw-tops are the wine industry's answer to those of us with failing memories who leave the corkscrew at home.
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Haven't tried the Barefoot wines, but will look out for them.
Usually buy wines from Aldi, but also like Vina Maipo wines, both the Merlot and the Sauvignon Blanc, Sainsbury's sell them for about £5 a bottle.
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Just come from one of our local Co-Op stores and they have the Barefoot Shiraz and one of the whites (I think it might be the Sav Blanc) at a pound off that makes it £5.99. Sadly the Merlot is still £6.99 - I prefer the Merlot (surprise, surprise).
David
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I've been 100% St Emilion (with everything) since a particularly memorable experience in the region during a 3 months and 3,500 mile European camping tour on my 60 yrs old motorbike.
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Is that a proper Royal Enfield I see there, Spriddler?
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Good guess CY. Same era and basic engineering! It's a 1954 350cc Matchless G3LS which I've had for 12 years and covered about 60,000 miles on it. Probably a bit more than a third of those abroad with a tent.
I also have a (one owner before me) 1947 500cc AJS Model 18 which I've had for 6 years and is regularly ridden. (Photo).
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Probably just as well. I had a girlfriend in the past called Vivien, a teetotal Methodist.
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I downloaded the app and tried it on the two wines pictured below, both of which I can recommend. The Provençal rose Esprit de Burganay, crisp dry, slightly citrusy, typically Provençal. The deep plummy Cabali, very intense, slightly tannic predominantly Garnache, one of my favourite grapes. The app marks it as among the top 5% of all wines in the world.
The app correctly identified both. The Cabali it correctly identified as only available from the Sunday times wine club. The price though was £1 more than what you can presently get it for, which is £8.99.
The rose it said was available from Ocado, Telegraph wines and the Drinks cabinet. Although we have been buying it from Waitrose for over a year. So I assume companies probably have to pay to be listed and Waitrose doesn't. Currently it is £7.29 from Waitrose, a third saving on the full price.
The app seems very good though and I will keep it on my phone. The reviews for these two wines generally very much mirrored my opinions. Incidentally there is also a Mud House Rose, which is a very good substitute for the Provençal version and often less expensive.
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Glad you enjoyed the app Steve. I don't know if retailers pay to advertise, but I guess what you get out of it is just what people put into it. I like the way you can take a picture of the wine label and the details of the wine comes up.
The person that introduced me to the app used it in shops when deciding what wine to buy. They would take a quick photo and quickly read through some of the reports. If I dI'd that I'd spend the whole day deciding. 😂 😂
David
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Two i have grown to like are Mcguigan Black Label (Shiraz or Merlot) at £5 to £6 it's something that grows on you I used to enjoy a brew by (Lisa Mcguigan) called "Tempus Two" but you cant get hold of that now,for a cheaper brew try Lindemans "Tollana" only £4.50 from Asda.
Steve
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Try Morrisons,David they sometimes have it marked down. Have seen it in B&M at reasonable price,if you go for the Shiraz check the label because they do a "Red" same label not quite as good!!!.
Steve
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A few years back we went to the Mosel - one of Europe’s best motorhome + bikes destinations. It seemed that almost every village and town we visited was holding its wine festival while we were there. None of our friends believed that this was a series of coincidences though it truly was. We are about to go again and this time there will be no element of chance - I have a list of all the festivals and dates and rough itinerary planned.
If like me and millions of other British wrinklies you were introduced to wine in the form of Blue Nun, Mateus Rosé and Lutomer Riesling the idea that Riesling could be anything other than sweet and nasty plonk is hard to shake. The New World lead the way but German Reisling is now IMHO where it should be - at the top (reported to be Jancis Robinson’s favourite varietal white). We love the very dry Riesling Trockens, particularly with spicy food such as Thai or even a fragrant curry. In their “regional promotions” both Aldi and Lidl have had some excellent Trockens around £10 - £12 - much cheaper than this quality of wine would be elsewhere. My advice would be to try one when they next appear. Until their next appearances we will just have to sample them in Germany and bring some home - its a hard life!
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