The Wine & Whisky Thread

[Marco]

2nd bottle from Majestic - I'm impressed by the depth and concentration of the dark cherry flavours in this DOCG Barbera D'Asti, with some drying spicy oak and leather on the finish.

Just 6.99

Glad it worked out well, Jules. Hope my other reccos turn out to be as successful!

Marco.

[struth]

Lol - you must be joking

Just a small top up before Xmas! Btw, we had that port you gave me for Christmas last year, and it was fab

Need to get another nice bottle of vintage port for this year, as it goes great with Del's homemade mince pies!

Marco,

Think I've got some

[Marco]

Justers,

My god what a contrast. The Viognier is almost water like. Clean and refreshing but devoid of character compared to the B&B. It isn't going to offend anyone.

This bottle of B&B is not the same as the last batch. The intense oak flavour is far more obvious than the previous lot. The B&B has to be loved for its complexity. The heavy oaking is now disappearing in favour of other subtle undertones. The thing about B&B is your attitude towards it changes as you work your way through the glass. This batch, though the same vintage but oddly different, still has that aspect.

The Viognier reminds me far more of Austrian white. Crisp, clean, fresh and it tastes like it was made using great quality water. Recommended for sure.

The emboldened bits, for me, are key... I wanted you to try the Viognier, as I knew it'd be the polar opposite of the B&B! Now you know the type of white wines I generally prefer and mostly drink [crisp, clean and fresh, as you've described], but fundamentally NOT devoid of character. The character is simply less 'obvious' or overblown.

That's not to say that I don't occasionally enjoy a 'hefty', heavily-oaked Oz, or other New World-derived white wines, which are great on their own without food, but in general I prefer subtler, more sophisticated, less 'full on' whites, and which have more acidity to compliment the appropriate food

Marco.

[Marco]

Think I've got some

Good stuff. Have a squint at what it is and let me know. We normally buy our port from Tanners in Shrewsbury: https://www.tanners-wines.co.uk/

Not just port, but good Burgundy and Claret. They have a superb selection. It's only 40 mins drive, and makes a nice day out with lunch, after doing some Xmas shopping!

Marco.

[struth]

Think it was a fancy aldi bottle in a tin. Had it a few years.

[Marco]

Interesting. They often introduce special lines for Xmas. We've had some excellent pudding wines from them before, and also Lidl

Will probably give this one a go this year: https://www.tanners-wines.co.uk/cata...view/id/10792/

Should be great with some stilton, too!

Marco.

[struth]

Think it was a Xmas one. Might need decanting lol.

[Marco]

Oh it almost certainly will. especially vintage varieties, as there's invariably some sediment.

Marco.

[User211]

Justers,



The emboldened bits, for me, are key... I wanted you to try the Viognier, as I knew it'd be the polar opposite of the B&B! Now you know the type of white wines I generally prefer and mostly drink [crisp, clean and fresh, as you've described], but fundamentally NOT devoid of character. The character is simply less 'obvious' or overblown.

That's not to say that I don't occasionally enjoy a 'hefty', heavily-oaked Oz, or other New World-derived white wines, which are great on their own without food, but in general I prefer subtler, more sophisticated, less 'full on' whites, and which have more acidity to compliment the appropriate food

Marco.

By the same reasoning try the B&B. It's splendid.

Really annoying it's not still a tenner and you have to buy 6 bottles in all to get it £12.99 but hey.

You'd love Austrian white wine. They export very little of it or did years ago. Maybe that's changed.

[Marco]

Sure, if I'm in Majestic (which admittedly is rare) I'll defo drop a bottle of B&B into the trolley

Marco.