What do you do to pay for all the bikes ?

[Harryburgundy]

Yup, Cristal is a complete and utter waste of money. If you are going to spend those kinda bucks on champagne...Krug or Salon for a richer style, Comte de Champagne for finesse.
My choice...vintage Deutz...around £40 and utterly brilliant.

Value Burgundy is somewhat an oxymoron as no doubt you know. Real Pinot taste for a tenner pretty much impossible...I would look outside Burgundy, even then you need to up the budget a bit. Margrain from New Zealand..fantastic. We sell an Alsace Pinot from Rene Mure..sourced from his Grand Cru sites....sensational..but £21.50.
Whites are easier. Our house Chablis is excellent, with more than a nudge towards Cote D'Or in a kinda Ier Cru+ Fevre stylee. Just over a tenner.
Again....from elsewhere, some of my New World Favourites...Margrain from New Zealand, Vergelegan from South Africa...and another from Argentina whose name escapes me at the moment.

Better get off my 'wine-geek' soap box

Bordeaux tasting Thursday night...looking foward to the 1999 Leoville Barton.

 

[Harryburgundy]

Yes , go to calais , and you can have lots of nice wines for a lot less than £10 a bottle .

I have a jeroboam of taittinger at home , waiting for that special oocasion .

Don't keep that hanging around to long Mate...make opening it the special occasion

 

[neilll]

Better get off my 'wine-geek' soap box

Hey Wine Geek....

Can I pick yer brains matey?

I like a nice drop of red but due to cowardice and ignorance i've never ventured further than New World single and double grapes that I know I like (Shiraz, Merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet merlot etc)

However I was paid 'in kind' for some private computer work a while back with Châteauneuf-du-Pape which I saved for 2 years and cracked open this Xmas......and man can you tell the difference :shock: :shock:

Wot can i try now? Should I venture more into 'proper' French wine.....teach me please!!



(I am serious though.....need 'guidance')

 

[cchris2lou]

French wines dont go by cepage so much ( merlot etc.. )

for example Chateau neuf du pape is so special because it has 17 different cepages inisde .

it is very hard to choose a good bordeaux or bourgogne as there are hundreds of different houses and areas .

But for Bourgogne go for the Jadot brand , not fantastic but quality is guaranted .
for Bordeaux , Mouton cadet from Rotchild is good too .

At catering college we had to learn all the different appelations , it was a nightmare .

 

[cchris2lou]

Yes , go to calais , and you can have lots of nice wines for a lot less than £10 a bottle .

I have a jeroboam of taittinger at home , waiting for that special oocasion .

Don't keep that hanging around to long Mate...make opening it the special occasion

I used to work for them , but unfortunately it was never kept in the right place , so not sure on quality inside . Jeroboam are never great anyway . the right size for a bottle is magnum or traditional 75 cl .

It was never sold in shops , and only given in house , so I might hang on to it for a while .

 

[Harryburgundy]

:shock: Blimey, thats a big question.

Do you still have some of that CNDP...they vary in styles enormously. What was the name of the producer, what was the vintage?

The BIG heads-up you had was keeping it for a couple of years, probably allowed it to develop and mature. Most wine is drunk within a couple of hours of purchase, and in many cases too young.

For me, France is where its at for 'serious' wine.

Start or should I say, continue with the classics. The Rhone still remains fantastic value despite producing some of Frances finest wines. In a similar style try some good Languedoc wines....Hegarty, Borie de Maurel, Domaine de Clavel and l'Hortus spring to mind.

The South West produce some crackers too...and not expensive..Madiran, St. Mont, Buzet, Pécharmant.

Try some Bordeaux, but budget for at least £10 a bottle. 2005 Barreyres (stunning value), Chalet de Pauillac, Brillette from Moulis and many more.

Needless to say, you are unlikely to find these in a supermarket or places like Threshers, Wine Rack. They are just interested in margin and volume.
Go to Oddbins, Nicolas, Majestics and Waitrose or your local merchant.

Hope that helps for starters.......phew..I need a drink!

 

[andrewl]

Electrical Engineer currently working on the integration of high penetration wind energy into remote diesel (ie off grid and some pacific islands) power systems.

Also do some work in Power transformer and Hydrogenerator testing as well as earthing design and testing.

 

[Harryburgundy]

French wines dont go by cepage so much ( merlot etc.. )

for example Chateau neuf du pape is so special because it has 17 different cepages inisde .

it is very hard to choose a good bordeaux or bourgogne as there are hundreds of different houses and areas .

But for Bourgogne go for the Jadot brand , not fantastic but quality is guaranted .
for Bordeaux , Mouton cadet from Rotchild is good too .

At catering college we had to learn all the different appelations , it was a nightmare .

Chris, you are mainly right, although CNDP only( :shock: ) uses 13 grape varieties.
The French (until now..and long may it continue) do not embrace varietal labeling as it is as meaningless as it is potentially informative.
Chablis is different to Meursault, Western Australian chardonnay is completely different to Hunter Valley chardonnay...yet they are all made by the same grape. (I won't start on clonal selection on day one of the lesson )
Terroir counts. Location, aspect, climate, soil, history and many other variables.

Anybody beginning to wish they hadn't asked

 

[cchris2lou]

It is changing though .

I grew up just north of the languedoc and that is mainly what I drink .

french appelations are a pain in the neck I think , too many of them.

and that is why french wines are loosing ground to new world wines .

 

[Harryburgundy]

It is changing though .

I grew up just north of the languedoc and that is mainly what I drink .

french appelations are a pain in the neck I think , too many of them.

and that is why french wines are loosing ground to new world wines .

They are loosing ground in the supermarkets......I'm seeing stronger and stronger sales as people start to fatigue of the OOT New World confected styles.

I don't think the appellations are a pain in the arse...just take a little work to understand them...like most things in life...put a bit of effort in, glean some knowledge and reap the rewards