As we do on a Wednesday in sunny opulent Sidcup, we settle down with a nice glass of champers with our dinner.
Had Demi sec champagne for the first time. Much sweeter than champagne and for my delicate, feminine palette, most agreeable. N ver heard of it before, is it common?
Sure, demi-sec is very popular with Germans, since they're used to having German sparkling wine, which is a bit sweeter/has more fruit than Champagne "brut" or "extra brut". If brut is a bit too acidic for your taste, try rosé Champagne ...
As we do on a Wednesday in sunny opulent Sidcup, we settle down with a nice glass of champers with our dinner.
Had Demi sec champagne for the first time. Much sweeter than champagne and for my delicate, feminine palette, most agreeable. N ver heard of it before, is it common?
The Demi sec from m&s is very good and the white label veuve cliquot is great. It's quite common and as you say very drinkable.
Having said that I think the best champagne at affordable prices is from the Co-op. Les Pionniers. Not Demi sec but I've recommended it to a few people and always got a massive thumbs up. £16.99. It's terrific.
Just came back from a trip in the Champagne region. I gather you're aware that Pommery, Moët&Chandon, Veuve ... etc ... are so called NM's (Négociant manipulant), who sometimes grow grapes, but usually buy grapes or made wines). Then there's a lot of CM's around (Cooperative manipulant) that gather wine of different local wineproducers and sell it under one name. Interesting is to go and look for the RM's (Recoltant manipulant), i.e. small batch wineproducers, who make Champagne themselves and sell it with their own label. Great fun, fantastic wine and good value. I paid 15€ up to 17€. Needless to say, I had the boot of my car filled. So ... look out for the RM's (in small print on the label).
As we do on a Wednesday in sunny opulent Sidcup, we settle down with a nice glass of champers with our dinner.
Had Demi sec champagne for the first time. Much sweeter than champagne and for my delicate, feminine palette, most agreeable. N ver heard of it before, is it common?
Just came back from a trip in the Champagne region. I gather you're aware that Pommery, Moët&Chandon, Veuve ... etc ... are so called NM's (Négociant manipulant), who sometimes grow grapes, but usually buy grapes or made wines). Then there's a lot of CM's around (Cooperative manipulant) that gather wine of different local wineproducers and sell it under one name. Interesting is to go and look for the RM's (Recoltant manipulant), i.e. small batch wineproducers, who make Champagne themselves and sell it with their own label. Great fun, fantastic wine and good value. I paid 15€ up to 17€. Needless to say, I had the booth of my car filled. So ... look out for the RM's (in small print on the label).
You've got a booth in your car! Christ......do you set it up every time you fancy a glass or two.......sounds like great fun.
I thought I'd tuck into a bottle of local Luxembourg wine this afternoon with the weather being lovely in the Grand Duchy(as it always seems to be) - selected a very cheap Rivaner (5 euro) from Remich and thought, yeah, maybe I should have spent more ! It wasn't quite yuk but think Lienfraumikch and Black Tower.
If you're going local, always take the Riesling, Pinot Gris or Pinot Noir.
Aldi just over the border in Germany has a decent Brunello @ 13 euros/bottle.
As we do on a Wednesday in sunny opulent Sidcup, we settle down with a nice glass of champers with our dinner.
Had Demi sec champagne for the first time. Much sweeter than champagne and for my delicate, feminine palette, most agreeable. N ver heard of it before, is it common?
Most Champagne is Brut which is dry. Demi Sec means, if I remember from the two years of French I did at school, 'half-dry' which is totally wrong because as you say it's quite sweet. It's not that easy to find but can be worth the effort, especially as most cheap shampoo isn't really worth getting.
Settling down to an England football game so let's have something nice to keep me company.
I've got an Irish whisky here (Green spot), finished in barrels of Léoville Barton.
@skywalker Green Spot is dead nice. Is the standard one finished in Léoville Barton barrels or is this a special edition?
Green Spot 10 year old, 40% ABV, a batch of 1,000 bottles released to celebrate Mitchell & Son's 200th year in existence.[5] Green Spot Château Léoville Barton, 46% ABV, regular Green Spot matured in sherry and bourbon casks, but finished for up to 18 months in oaken Bordeaux wine casks from the Irish-owned Château Léoville-Barton.
Settling down to an England football game so let's have something nice to keep me company.
I've got an Irish whisky here (Green spot), finished in barrels of Léoville Barton.
@skywalker Green Spot is dead nice. Is the standard one finished in Léoville Barton barrels or is this a special edition?
Green Spot 10 year old, 40% ABV, a batch of 1,000 bottles released to celebrate Mitchell & Son's 200th year in existence.[5] Green Spot Château Léoville Barton, 46% ABV, regular Green Spot matured in sherry and bourbon casks, but finished for up to 18 months in oaken Bordeaux wine casks from the Irish-owned Château Léoville-Barton.
I might just have to get myself one of those, or even one of both of those.
I thought I'd tuck into a bottle of local Luxembourg wine this afternoon with the weather being lovely in the Grand Duchy(as it always seems to be) - selected a very cheap Rivaner (5 euro) from Remich and thought, yeah, maybe I should have spent more ! It wasn't quite yuk but think Lienfraumikch and Black Tower.
If you're going local, always take the Riesling, Pinot Gris or Pinot Noir.
Aldi just over the border in Germany has a decent Brunello @ 13 euros/bottle.
I'd be even more specific and say stick to Riesling. Pinot Gris can be a bit nothingy and Pinot Noir is notoriously difficult to produce good wine from.
Been drinking a beauty recently. Reduced from €15 to about €5 in the supermarket, Cancellus Signature from the Douro region, full bodied smooth red. If you can get it in the UK, grab some and try it.
I recently went for a tasting in Canary Wharf run my these guys. They had some lovely stuff. It's run by a couple of friends i've met through work and Harry Winks is one of the shareholders too. Nick, the owner, is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about wine so if anyone is interested in trying something different they might be able to sort you out
I'm out of red wine and it looks like a few places will be reducing their prices this weekend e.g. M&S 25% of all wine, Waitrose/Majestic similar but not all range. I know wine pricing is a game meant to confuse the consumer, but at least with 25% off all their wines you stand a better chance of getting a good wine a a reasonable price. Any recommendations?
Waitrose have Blackburn and James Lodi Shiraz at £6.99 (down from 8.99) at the moment, a decent californian red so easy to drink that I knocked off a whole bottle having intended to have just a couple of glasses.
Tesco are also doing 25% off six at the moment, and that is on top of any discounts already there.
There is a small Tesco at the end of Jermyn Street, near my office, which sometimes does bizarre fleeting discounts. A month ago they had their finest Barolo reduced from £17 to £4.40, sold out fast then had it back in the stock the week following at full price. I wish I'd bought more!
Just purchased a secondhand wine fridge. The problem is wine is so expensive here a couple of decent bottles is the same as I paid for the fridge. I have a few fallback wines at around £12, but these would be under half that price in England.
Recently found a fabulous rosé, a bit more than I'd usually pay but this one is superb. Mirabeau Etoile, made in Provence by english winemakers. Only place I can find that sells it is Sainsbury's. I was given the first bottle and immediately ordered six more (at 25% off a standard £15 a bottle).
Drank the first one with a french mate who loves rosé, as part of a four bottle session of rosé. All were decent but we agreed this was was head and shoulders better.
Mirabeau have a range of rosés, all good, but this one is spectacular.
Mate of mine who knows his stuff recently tipped me off that 2016 was a great year for reds across the main European wine regions. I've followed that tip up and so far it has worked a treat. Hugh Johnson's vintage charts bear that out too
Put the beers & champagne in the fridge tonight... Tomorrow is going to be a lovely day
Unless I have been sold down the river, which I don’t think I have..
My champagne is fast becoming vintage champagne it’s been in the fridge so long.
Fingers crossed!
At last. Something about which I am ITK! Just for the sake of clarity (and to avoid disappointment) you should know that NV champagne is a blend of several years and never becomes vintage champagne. Instead it just goes off. Drink within maybe 3 years of getting it. ( So probably less time than the average Charlton takeover thread runs for.)
Even the vintage stuff should be drunk within 5-10 years of release. NV should also never be kept in a fridge but just put there a day or two before use. Indeed, no wine gets on well with vibrations. That's why a cellar is better than a wine cooler thingy. Sadly, I have a wine cooler thingy.
So @cafcfan, this is very informative. I kind of knew that the NV stuff needs to be drunk young. But is there anything on a typical NV label that tells you which year it was released?
Your remark that even vintages need to be drunk youngish has slightly alarmed me. I'm nursing two bottles of expensive stuff, which according to Cellar Tracker should still be good now, but according to you, I'm ten years or so too late (1999 Bollinger la Grande Annee, and 2004 Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque) I'll be well pissed off if I have nursed them past their best as they are the two most valuable bottles in my cellar!
Then you have more bad news with the wine cooler thingy. So we have a wine room, but it is not fully underground, and so the temperature does vary a bit by up to 10 degreesC from winter to summer, although it is suitably dark. For the valuable bottles I have a small (16 bottle) cooler. What do you reckon? I hope that the benefit of them being in a constant temperature outweights the vibration issue, which i never knew of before.
Comments
My absolute favourite. I tasted one at Vinothec Compass down in Greenwich and am hooked. Planning to go to St Julien next year.
Lay and Wheeler are all doing a free bottle from St Julien when you join their wine club if it's your thing
Having said that I think the best champagne at affordable prices is from the Co-op. Les Pionniers. Not Demi sec but I've recommended it to a few people and always got a massive thumbs up. £16.99. It's terrific.
Christ......do you set it up every time you fancy a glass or two.......sounds like great fun.
Aldi just over the border in Germany has a decent Brunello @ 13 euros/bottle.
Green Spot Château Léoville Barton, 46% ABV, regular Green Spot matured in sherry and bourbon casks, but finished for up to 18 months in oaken Bordeaux wine casks from the Irish-owned Château Léoville-Barton.
I'd be even more specific and say stick to Riesling. Pinot Gris can be a bit nothingy and Pinot Noir is notoriously difficult to produce good wine from.
maisonliedberg.com/index.shtm
I know wine pricing is a game meant to confuse the consumer, but at least with 25% off all their wines you stand a better chance of getting a good wine a a reasonable price.
Any recommendations?
There is a small Tesco at the end of Jermyn Street, near my office, which sometimes does bizarre fleeting discounts. A month ago they had their finest Barolo reduced from £17 to £4.40, sold out fast then had it back in the stock the week following at full price. I wish I'd bought more!
Not many people know that. 🧐
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswrl1
Even the vintage stuff should be drunk within 5-10 years of release. NV should also never be kept in a fridge but just put there a day or two before use. Indeed, no wine gets on well with vibrations. That's why a cellar is better than a wine cooler thingy. Sadly, I have a wine cooler thingy.
Your remark that even vintages need to be drunk youngish has slightly alarmed me. I'm nursing two bottles of expensive stuff, which according to Cellar Tracker should still be good now, but according to you, I'm ten years or so too late (1999 Bollinger la Grande Annee, and 2004 Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque) I'll be well pissed off if I have nursed them past their best as they are the two most valuable bottles in my cellar!
Then you have more bad news with the wine cooler thingy. So we have a wine room, but it is not fully underground, and so the temperature does vary a bit by up to 10 degreesC from winter to summer, although it is suitably dark. For the valuable bottles I have a small (16 bottle) cooler. What do you reckon? I hope that the benefit of them being in a constant temperature outweights the vibration issue, which i never knew of before.