Haha... That's head-rot material, and I'm daft enough as it is! :lol:
Marco.
Printable View
Haha... That's head-rot material, and I'm daft enough as it is! :lol:
Marco.
Not as daft as i :eyebrows:Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
We used to mix this with vodka when I was in Moscow...:eyebrows:
Every Christmas Day this is my potion to come around from the night before.Quote:
Originally Posted by Themis
One Pint Pot. 50/50 mega strong larger/dry red wine mix. You have to woof this down in one as the larger reacts with the wine, causing lumps like mushy Rubarb...:lolsign:
LOL... I thought it was this that 'brought you round':
http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/6489/14101.gif
:eyebrows:
Marco.
:)
Guys,
For anyone into a bit of quality fizz, run along to Sainsbury's and pick up a bottle of Etienne Dumont Vintage 2004 Champagne.
It's absolutely top-notch (superb depth of flavour that you only get with vintage Champers) and is reduced from £29.99 to £19.99. It's Del's birthday today so we're just enjoying a bottle now with some canapés... :cheers:
Marco.
Happy Birthday...Sagittarius & Leo eh!...Enjoy twennty quid, you nuts? :lol:
Cheers, matey! :)
Aye, Sag and Leo - a fine match, albeit a passionate and firey one! :eyebrows:
;)
Marco.
Happy Birthday Del, hope you are both having a nice evening!
I have just spent a couple of weeks in Syria, where, somewhat ironically, I enjoyed several bottles of Lebanese wine. I did of course try the Syrian wine but the Lebanese is definitely the better.
Should anyone be in that part of the world, you might look out for the following. They are all from the one wine maker: Ksara in the Bekaa valley.
First my favourite
2003 Cave Kouroum ‘Petit Noir’
50% Cinsault, 15% Granache, 25% Carignan and 10% Syrah. A beautiful deep fruity red with a long finish.
My next favourite:
2007 Ksara ‘Le Prieuré’
30% Carignan, 30% Cinsault, 20% Nourvedre and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon.
2007 Ksara ‘Cuvee de Printemps’, 12.5% ABV
75% Gamay and 25%Tempranillo.
2007 Ksara ‘Reserve du Couvent’, 13% ABV
(no information on the blend of grapes)
Cheers
Interesting, Barry. Have you tried Chateau Musar (pref late 80s vintage)? That's my favourite Lebanese wine (so far) :)
It's a real stunner!
Marco.
Dunno about all these fancy wine names but i got home tonight to sniff out a couple bottles of Dry Red ozzy wine in the corner the mother-in-law dropped off. Made for Tesco so it says :lol: taste alright anyway deffo as strong as the 12% says..on well i tried.. were's mi coat :cocktail:
I did promise i wouldnt booze this Christmas but i'm like a magnet to it. :lol:
LOL - just neck it and shut it! :lol:
We had a bottle of this today with some smoked salmon to start:
http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/508/lalw002.jpg
http://www.tanners-wines.co.uk/Tanne...ie/JW00508.htm
And this with the goose (Château Bel-Air, Lussac-St-Emilion 2006):
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/812...eaux480002.jpg
Bloody lurvely they were too! :cheers:
Marco.
Aye. i bought some great big wine glasses so i could get half a bottle in one go :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
Quality, ma man, quality - some of those buggers are so big you could have a bath in them! :lolsign:
Marco.
Today it's a bottle of this with the leftover goose:
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/1425/lbxr063.jpg
Link here: http://www.tanners-wines.co.uk/Tanne...ed/CR06308.htm
Then some vintage (1988) Fonseca port with Del's home-made mince pies and Christmas cake... Yum yum!
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/8918/fvintage2000.jpg
http://www.fonseca.pt/index_.htm
Yes, Tanners is our favourite wine merchants and we're currently going through the two mixed cases we got for Christmas and New Year! :)
Marco.
Couple bottles of the wives Chardonnay Pinot Grigio :lol:
Hope yer leavin' some for her! ;)
I'm on Drambuie (with ice) at the moment... :eyebrows:
Marco.
She's not one for drinking in house..No wonder supping this shit :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
I saw this in Super U in France ealier this year but i don't think it was £8.40 a bottle, i find that Bordeaux can be on the dry side so i try before i buy,
We Buy a fair bit from Lidl over there as it is good value and ok for a glass with your dinner during the week.
we're drinking Pinot Noir at the moment but it from Jacobs creek and not a couple of quid a bottle like Lidl
We've just run out of our stock of this - they always sell wine in those little bottles, don't they? The ones that don't have quite enough in them for that last glass you must have before bed. Then you have to open another.........& red doesn't keep so well, so you feel obliged to finish it............for health & safety purposes...................Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
That is a fantastic wine Marco, but rather variable from bottle to bottle, I've found. I bought a dozen (uncased) bottles back in November.
Hi Jon,
In France it was probably half that! We never managed to go over this year, unfortunately, so didn't stock up for Christmas there as we usually do. It is a rather nice claret, though.Quote:
I saw this in Super U in France ealier this year but i don't think it was £8.40 a bottle, i find that Bordeaux can be on the dry side so i try before i buy...
You're absolutely right about Bordeaux - it can be as dry as an Arab's sandshoe, which is one of the reasons why we like it, as it goes exceptionally well with food, particularly lamb, which we eat quite a lot of. Well, the Welsh stuff is rather good! ;)
We rarely drink wine unless it's accompanied with food.
The other reason we enjoy (decent) Bordeaux is because it's richly flavoured, full of ripe tannins, and generally full-bodied. We're predominantly into 'old world' wines (France, Italy, Spain, etc), and only very rarely venture into 'new world' varieties. The former simply suit our palates better, although we love big powerful Chilean reds, or indeed most good wines from South America.
Lidl and Aldi are an excellent source for good quality value-for-money wine. Occasionally one can also find some truly excellent high-quality examples at bargain prices, such as the Château Grand Pey Lescours St Émilion Grand Cru at £7.99 a bottle:Quote:
We Buy a fair bit from Lidl over there as it is good value and ok for a glass with your dinner during the week.
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/3185/winepd21.jpg
Link here: http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/produc.../2744_5999.htm
This is absolutely fantastic value for money, as a similar quality St Émilion Grand Cru in the likes of Tanners, Oddbins, Nicolas, etc, would cost at least double that amount. Aldi must have secured a very special price on this wine.
Another case in point is the truly superb Cave De Monterail Châteauneuf-Du-Pape at £6.99 a bottle:
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3999/winepd24.jpg
Link here: http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/produc.../2744_6292.htm
And if you like dessert wine (great with Christmas cake, mince pies, Panettone, etc) there is the St Amandus Beeren Auslese at £4.99 a bottle:
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/5...lesewk4763.jpg
Link here: http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/product_range/2744_4210.htm (note that this shows the price in Euros). I got it for £4.99 a bottle in the Aldi in Wrexham.
This is a superb dessert wine; not as sickly and sweet as Sauternes or Tokaji Aszú, but 'fresher' on the palate, with bags of honey and raisin-like flavours - a veritable bargain for a quality dessert wine.
Nope, there's nowt wrong with Aldi (or Lidl) for all sorts of quality wine! :cheers:
Marco.
Hi Chris,
I didn't know you were into wine! Nice one, mate :)Quote:
We've just run out of our stock of this - they always sell wine in those little bottles, don't they? The ones that don't have quite enough in them for that last glass you must have before bed. Then you have to open another.........& red doesn't keep so well, so you feel obliged to finish it............for health & safety purposes...................
That is a fantastic wine Marco, but rather variable from bottle to bottle, I've found. I bought a dozen (uncased) bottles back in November.
Where do you get the Château Bel-Air, Lussac-St-Emilion 2006 from? We got ours from one of the branches of Nicolas in London when we were down there for JJ's MAD dinner.
Continuing through our Tanners Christmas selection, today we had a bottle of this rather excellent Burgundy-style wine from the southernmost tip of France, near to the Spanish border (Domaine de la Rectorie Les Séris, Collioure 2004):
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1224/lsfr087.jpg
:cocktail:
Link here: http://www.tanners-wines.co.uk/Tanne...ed/FR04104.htm
...and enjoyed it with Welsh rib of beef in a red wine and caper sauce, accompanied with Chanterelle mushrooms, thin green beans, buttered white asparagus and rosemary and garlic potatoes - yum yum! Just finishing the rest of the wine off now with some cheese and biscuits. I'll post the details on the cheese thread later!
Marco.
Heres one i have found on the shelves of Super U at around £2 a bottle it is a veritable bargain, very smooth and Fruity
http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/p...1/DSC_0119.jpg
The Châteauneuf-Du-Pape in France tends to be expensive in bottles i have found, but if you visit local cave you can buy it as table wine at starting at around £1.50 a litre
We drink Bourdeax but usually with cheese and also left on the window in the sun for a wee while to take any chill out, Gamay or Beaujolais as it is better known is a nice light drink for lunch times, a make by the name of Pisse-Dru is not bad, but don't buy the very cheap Gamay a certainty for a headache
Hi Jon,
That looks like an excellent quality table wine. French 'country wines', such as those, are often very good value and sometimes better than wines from the more 'celebrated' areas of France.
When we're in France we tend to buy wine direct from the vineyard where you can also taste it first, as we're usually there with the car so there's no shortage of space. We buy as many bottles between us as our quota will allow! :eyebrows:
We also sometimes buy wine from small supermarkets/off-licences in little villages way off the beaten track when we're touring a particular area, as quite often you can pick up some phenomenal bargains there.
I once found a 1990 Pomerol for 10 Euros in a little village not that far from Calais... Needless to say, I bought a few bottles!
Marco.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
I have bought a few bottles of Pomerol, you need to pick a good year as they do vary in taste a bit :cool:
Damn right, and 1990 is a very good recent vintage for claret :)
It's not quite a '63, though, nor a Chateau Petrus! ;)
Marco.
Well, I do like to drink a nice one, but I've always thought scoffing it's more important than talking about it!Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
I completely agree with your Aldi recommendation above by the way - I'd be happy if that were the only wine I were ever allowed to drink for the rest of my days - I'd say it must be the equal of wines costing £17 -£20.
The Ch. Bel-Air, we got from Booth's supermarkets - one of the better supermarket traders.
Hi Chris,
I hear what you're saying. Interestingly, I often feel the same way about music in terms of listening to it and talking about it... Let's just say that I'm as passionate about talking about wine (and food) as you are talking and writing about music! :eyebrows:Quote:
Well, I do like to drink a nice one, but I've always thought scoffing it's more important than talking about it!
However, I certainly enjoy indulging in both regularly in an active sense (listening to music and eating/talking about nice food and drinking/talking about nice wine) ;)
For me though, wine and nice food go together hand-in-hand. I simply couldn't enjoy good claret, such as we're discussing, without the right food to go with it. That's why you'll often see me talk about the food I'm enjoying with the wine I'm drinking. Oh, and "the right food" doesn't necessarily mean expensive or 'fancy'; just home-cooked using fresh good quality ingredients.
I presume that you're referring to the Château Grand Pey Lescours St Émilion Grand Cru?Quote:
I completely agree with your Aldi recommendation above by the way - I'd be happy if that were the only wine I were ever allowed to drink for the rest of my days - I'd say it must be the equal of wines costing £17 -£20.
I've never heard of Booth's supermarkets... I doubt there are any near me. I'll Google it and find out.
Marco.
Just checked... The nearest Booth's to me is in Knutsford, Cheshire (about 40 miles away), so not exactly practical! :(
I'll check it out though next time I'm out on business in the area...
I like their ethos on wine (from their website):
Quality - and a world apart from bloody Asda or Tesco! :)Quote:
We pride ourselves on searching out wines from smaller producers who do not have the capacity to sell to the larger supermarkets. For example we stock a number of biodynamic and organic wines.
We offer tastings in store to give you the opportunity to try something new and different and we hold an annual Wine Fair in the autumn to highlight our award-winning range.
Our knowledgeable staff will advise you on your choice and help with any questions you may have be it a wine for a special occasion or a food recommendation.
Marco.
Marco,
While you're there you should check their cheese counter too! I'm like you - I hate the poncey new cheeses with everything from fruit to Marmite chucked in to make it appealing to folks who don't actually like cheese. They have some fantastic produce.
More generally, each store has a range of core items they stock but the managers have to buy a large proportion of their stock from local sources, so you can get some really fantastic stuff.
I reckon they're perhaps the best supermarkets I've ever been into in the UK - fantastic!
Hi Chris,
I guess it's a personal taste thing but it does nothing for me whatsoever - I don't even like garlic or herbs in cheese, never mind some of the other bollocks they put in it now! :rolleyes: :eyebrows:Quote:
While you're there you should check their cheese counter too! I'm like you - I hate the poncey new cheeses with everything from fruit to Marmite chucked in to make it appealing to folks who don't actually like cheese.
I don't doubt it, matey - it's just a pity there isn't a branch nearer me... More supermarkets should operate with the same ethos :)Quote:
They have some fantastic produce.
More generally, each store has a range of core items they stock but the managers have to buy a large proportion of their stock from local sources, so you can get some really fantastic stuff.
Marco.
Crikey, they put THOSE in cheese now! :eyebrows: Camemballs? :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
Had some very nice wine over Christmas - although I try lots of different countries and varieties, my favourite is still a decent Rioja - it is the oak-ageing I think that does it for me. Anyway, last night we had a lovely 2005 Bodegas Primicia "Mazuelo" - I learned something buying this wine, because I always thought a Rioja was made from Tempranillo grapes, but this is from the Mazuelo variety. Very nice, and good value, for a treat. As the link below says, "full of smouldering black fruit swathed in creamy oak" - perfect!
http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/article...A380D80A7.aspx
Nice one, Alex - I'll check that one out :)
If you like Rioja, have you tried Marques de Riscal? It's one of my absolute favourite Riojas... Massively powerful and full-bodied (a real mouthful of fruit!), with that vanilla-like creamy 'oakiness' that you love!
Check it out (available in most good independant wine stores):
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/4...marquesder.jpg
More interesting info here: http://www.cellartours.com/spain/spa...al-winery.html
Marco.
Cheers for that Marco - I do recognise the label, but can't recall trying it - Majestic carry it, so I'll give it a whirl and report back! :)
No worries, Alex - let me know how you get on :)
Another one you'll love, if you haven't tried it already, is Faustino I Gran Reserva:
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/5...b598bc3141.jpg
More details here: http://shop.purewines.org/1996-faust...a-13-571-p.asp
Don't mix it up with ordinary Faustino - the Gran Reserva is something a bit special, especially the 1995 or 1996 vintage. I love it to bits! :cheers:
Marco.
Thanks Marco - Yep, Faustino is a fave, especially the Gran Reserva - I used to frequent a Spanish restaurant in Norwich, knowing the owner very well (sadly now passed away) and he and my then father-in-law introduced me to good Spanish wine in the late 80's. One of the Rioja stalwarts I still love is the famous Siglo Saco in it's hessian bottles - the Crianza is amazingly quaffable and great value... http://www.ndjohn.co.uk/siglo-saco-r...za-3052-0.html
Yep, I know of that one and like it :)
Another of our favs from Spain is Condado de Haza Reserva Selección:
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9325/dibujohe.jpg
That is a really beautful wine.
Marco.
Wines quaffed over the Christmas period
In no particular order (since I can’t remember) it has been:
FamiligiaTerraccia, 2006 Chianti Riserva, Tuscany Sangiouvese and Canailo grape.
Maison ‘de Michel’, a Bordeaux from Tesco.
Château Marzin, 2007 Premières Côtes de Blaye AOC, Merlot.
http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/images/products/35651.jpg
Château Moulin de Pillardot, 2006 Bordeaux Supérieur AOC.
http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/images/products/39651.jpg
Château Castelbruck, 2004 Margaux AOC,
Château Castelbruck, 2005 Margaux AOC.
http://www.cellartracker.com/labels/81102.jpg
Château Mayne Guyon, 2004 Côtes de Blaye AOC.
http://edge-images.snooth.com/wine/1...7975_full.jpeg
Patrizi, 2005 Barolo.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6...20Bottle.0.jpg
Château Simard, 1995 Saint Emilion.
Château Blason, 2008 Hautes Côtes de Beaune AOC, Pinot Noir.
Cuvée du Vatican, 2007 Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC.
Castel di Jesi, Verridiccio.
Regards
Had:cool: to get into this one, these are some of the Audio tweaks I used for the Holidays
Some of my favourite beers are American - there is an excellent and thriving micro-brewing industry in the States. I'm a big fan of Flying Dog Brewery, Anchor Brewing Company and Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. I caught onto the latter two on a trip to California 8 or 9 years ago, and the latter in my local supermarket 6 months ago! We are pretty well served for import beers over here, thankfully. Do you have any personal homebrewed faves, Bill?
I used to do security work for a beer dist. At that time I tried all the microbrews I could get my hands on. I am a brown ale guy & my standard fav. is Brooklyn Brown from the Brooklyn Brewery....:cool:
I've not tried that one... my all-time fave at the moment is the Gonzo Imperial Porter from Flying Dog. 7.5% and damn tasty!
7.5 sounds pretty efficient have you ever tried EKU or Samiclaus? I was very fortunate once to find a 2yr old Samiclaus I think they are 14.? % Tuff to remember after those.........:cool:
It's sipping beer! I've not had a beer that was more than 8.7% to be honest. That was Old Tom, a nice peppery porter. I've not tried the ones you mention. Yet ;)
Aaaaaaw I've got a headache!
Just thinking about EKU gives me flashback headaches!
I've enjoyed a few bottles of this too. I bought a load of it once on a visit to Dorset years ago
.
http://www.thomashardysale.org.uk/US...S/hardybox.jpg
http://www.thomashardysale.org.uk/
Yes tuff stuff, cant do mass quantities anymore. :cool:
Just finishing a pint of Pickled Partridge from the Badger Brewery in Blanford Forum ;)
Badger do a great Nettle Beer, in cahoots with the guy behind the River Cottage franchise. Very refreshing and well worth a try.