I know nothing, almost literally, about wine.
Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it. The rules are strict.
I want to send some red wine to someone.
It has to come from Amazon.
I don't want to spend more than £25 tops, inc delivery.
I imagine one bottle at the budget will be nicer than two or three, but I don't know that.
I know nothing other than it has to be red, and have no way of finding out more.
Don't suggest getting it from somewhere else or spending more or wouldn't a nice white do or how about some lovely gourmet sausages. Them's the rules, for reasons too boring to you to elucidate further.
Anyone? What should I pick?
www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Red+wine
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Them's the rules, for reasons too boring
>> to you to elucidate further.
>>
Oh come you know there is no detail too boring for here.
Save yourself the pain and tell all now. ;)
Last edited by: sooty123 on Fri 22 Jan 16 at 18:23
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Not knowing what sort of red wine is favoured or what it is to be drunk with I always recommend a Cotes du Rhone,
Goes with most things and is unlikely to offend, Most restaurant red house wines are of this type for that reason.
A decent example,
www.amazon.co.uk/Calvet-Cotes-Rhone-2014-Wine/dp/B017LVM3FK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453494608&sr=8-1&keywords=amazon+wine+cotes+du+rhone
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Fri 22 Jan 16 at 20:32
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I wouldn't object if you gave me a bottle of this:
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004EALQC8 (Faustino Gran Reserva)
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Nice but Rioja can be tricky as some people don't like oaky wines. I do though
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The Faustino is a nice Rioja ...... I like it..as CG says it can be oaky tasting
Have a look at the Australian Mcguigan black label Merlot and Shiraz...very palatable and reasonably priced Australian wines.
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Faustino Number 1 is wonderful, but so are the rest of the lineup...:-)
Australian Shiraz wines are also extremely palatable, especially from the c***awarra area, and those from Peter Lehmann, along with Chilean wines from Montes and Errazuriz estates.
Majestic stock them all.
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Faustino quality is classed by its number i.e. Faustino VII is the base wine, progressing up to Faustino1, which IS costly.
I would go for Campo Viejo Reserva or better. I love it and it was our red of choice when we lived in Spain.
Last edited by: Roger. on Sat 23 Jan 16 at 12:27
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The brief is quite clear. It has to come from Amazon.
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>> The brief is quite clear. It has to come from Amazon.
>>
It's only (very slight) thread drift...
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>> The brief is quite clear. It has to come from Amazon.
I appreciated that as I quoted from Amazon. However, he could save by buying from Aldi or Lidl, that being the reason I mentioned them.
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>> >> The brief is quite clear. It has to come from Amazon.
>>
>> I appreciated that as I quoted from Amazon. However, he could save by buying from
>> Aldi or Lidl, that being the reason I mentioned them.
Sorry Robbie, I had noticed! The comment wasn't directed specifically to your post although I did reply to it:)
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>>Faustino VII is the base wine, progressing up to Faustino1, which IS costly.>>
Don't know where you get that idea from. Faustino Number 1, more often than not dating back 10 years or more, costs £15 a bottle from my sources.
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>> >>Faustino VII is the base wine, progressing up to Faustino1, which IS costly.>>
>>
>> Don't know where you get that idea from. Faustino Number 1, more often than not
>> dating back 10 years or more, costs £15 a bottle from my sources.
I consider £15 costly!
Deduct £3 from the price of a bottle of wine to cover the cost of duty, bottling, warehousing, transport etc. What remains is what you pay for the wine and VAT.
On that basis a £15 wine is six times as expensive as a £5 wine. And you'd be paying up to £40 in a restaurant.
Much beyond £15 and price is more driven by rarity than quality, and the real returns for extra price diminish rapidly (hypothesis).
We all know than marginal utility depends on wealth of course. If I had practically limitless resources I'm sure I'd consider £15 fairly moderate.
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£15 is silly territory, just over priced normal stuff.
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>>£15 is silly territory, just over priced normal stuff. >>
It's great wine and the price is remarkable.
You get what you pay for when buying wine, whatever it is and wherever it comes from.
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That's naive. Wine is as subject to fashion and desirability as anything.
£15 usually represents a more popular or fashionable wine, rather.than necessarily a better wine.
"Better" being, in any case, a largely subjective term.
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I'll drink to that.
An ex girlfriend of mine worked for a wine magazine.
The pretension in the industry is mind-boggling.
Some of the best 'leftovers' she brought home were run-of-the-mill bottles, with a list price a sixth of the award-winning and highly-rated stuff.
It all boils down to 'Yes, I like drinking this', doesn't it?
Yet the makers want hype and attention, the consumers want bragging rights, and the man in the street is just befuddled by it all.
A bit like the 300 quid trainers or latest iPhone which folk are prepared to queue all night for.
Roald Dahl wrote a delightful story once of some nouveau riche chap who instructed his butler to buy 'the best'. The butler did - spending thousands - yet continued to serve the odious spanish red he'd been serving all along... chap's guests raved about it, based on the label and pricetag.
Meanwhile the real stuff was being polished off by the butler and chef.
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I'm paying just over £6 per bottle for that in Pidou:)
Pat
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>> I'm paying just over £6 per bottle for that in Pidou:)
>>
>> Pat
Just had a look - I was ready to set off! £11.50 for the Faustino 1. Not a bad price though.
www.pidou.com/faustino-i-rioja-gran-reserva-esp-blle-750ml.html
Last edited by: Manatee on Sat 23 Jan 16 at 17:59
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You're right Manatee, it is just over £11 at Pidou.
Early last year they had a promotion on where they had samples in store and at that time it was just over £6 and I stocked up pretty well not realising it was such a bargain.
I should have bought more!
Pat
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>> ...and £13.34 at Costco.
>>
>> www.costco.co.uk/view/p/faustino-i-gran-reserva-rioja-2004-6-x-75cl-142628
Which, based on the PIdou price of £11.50, bears out previous comments from Mapmaker about diminishing savings on more costly wines bought in France.
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>> >> ...and £13.34 at Costco.
>> >>
>> >> www.costco.co.uk/view/p/faustino-i-gran-reserva-rioja-2004-6-x-75cl-142628
>>
>> Which, based on the PIdou price of £11.50, bears out previous comments from Mapmaker about
>> diminishing savings on more costly wines bought in France.
The duty is flat rate isn't it? About £2 a bottle difference between the duty in UK vs. France, plus VAT. So expect to save £2.50 a bottle more or less. Clearly that's proportionately a bigger difference on the cheaper stuff.
Perhaps Mapmaker's point was less obvious than that - e.g. that French sellers are simply less competitive on the more expensive stuff?
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>>Not knowing what sort of red wine is favoured or what it is to be drunk with I always recommend a Cotes du Rhone, Goes with most things and is unlikely to offend,<<
Agreed. Wife and I enjoy Cotes du Rhone, as do most folk we know.
For a few pence more, it might be a good idea to go for the 'Villages' - just to show you care!
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Sat 23 Jan 16 at 10:51
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...if you're buying from/via Amazon, then the delivery charge is the killer.
It would appear to be often in the order of a tenner per bottle, or absorbed in the up-front price of bottles that are currently cheaper in the supermarket (e.g. the Calvet C-D-R mentioned above).
So, your £25 is really going to buy you a £15 bottle at best (and there are some reasonable ones, but I'd want more for my £25 than seeing almost half of it go in delivery).
If it weren't for the delivery charges, (I understand your rules, I'm just trying to illustrate the issue) I'd be going for something like this:
www.amazon.co.uk/Chateau-Musar--/dp/B00TLPNJ30/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453535762&sr=8-2&keywords=Chateau+Musar
...which is generally a cracking wine and, being Lebanese, a bit of a conversation piece as well.
(I'd be wanting to know which vintage, though!)
Since first discovering this on a hotel wine list over 20 years ago, I've bought bottles from time-to-time, but having risen in popularity and price, it is now firmly outside my range.
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Delivery is the killer - which I hadn't noticed in my link! Ch. Musar excellent, but pricey as you say.
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Thank you all - looks like from your recommendations three are possible and meet the arbitrary rules.
I shall update you on the final choice after the weekend, all being well.
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It's wine O'clock here - Devil's Cellar red, from Chile.
Last edited by: Roger. on Fri 29 Jan 16 at 17:30
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Devil's Cellar red, from Chile.
>>
Via Lidl?
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>> Via Lidl?
>>
Satan's Supermarket?
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You mean you bought something that wasn't from aldi or lidl? How very exotic. ;)
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And not only that, he has bypassed the natural progression of Asda, then Tesco, gone straight to Sainsbury.
It'll be Waitrose yet, you mark my words. God I hope that black ball him.
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>>Yes - Sainsbury's!
Another nice budget priced red wine available in Sainsbury's is Gray Fox 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon - Priced at £5.50 this morning, as they were no longer on offer.
No need for Roger to be black balled, Z, as his nearest Waitrose store is a five hour drive away!
Last edited by: Clk Sec on Sat 30 Jan 16 at 10:46
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Yeah, I used to have a car like that.
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>>
>> No need for Roger to be black balled, Z, as his nearest Waitrose store is
>> a five hour drive away!
>>
...well, maybe forty minutes, but it's true that the soft southern supermarkets haven't caught on enough for them to be on every corner in the north.
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They'd do better if they lifted their restrictions on customers taking their pet whippets and ferrets into the shop.
;-)
Edit- I can understand them being a bit sniffy about pigeons though.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 30 Jan 16 at 12:36
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...I thought Waitrose was about the only supermarket where one can get pigeon nowadays!!?
It's next to the quail.
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Sat 30 Jan 16 at 12:51
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>> It's next to the quail.
Not till 31st March, though.
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Back when supermarkets didn't open on Sundays or late at night, a good trick was to go in at about 5.00pm on a Saturday to buy meat from the game counter. All manner of exotica were available at silly prices to clear. We had some reet posh Saturday teas as a result...
;-)
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Not one for being a pe(n)dant, but...
;)
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>> Not one for being a pe(n)dant, but...
>> ;)
>>
...you seem to have lost your nose for wine........
;-)
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It still works at Waitrose. I'll be in town at the end of the afternoon so I'm planning to give it a go.
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>> It still works at Waitrose.
Yes, I think it does. We were shopping rather later than usual a couple of weeks ago, and the couple in front of us at the checkout had bought a whole Scottish salmon for a greatly reduced price.
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>> >> It still works at Waitrose.
>>
>> Yes, I think it does. We were shopping rather later than usual a couple of
>> weeks ago, and the couple in front of us at the checkout had bought a
>> whole Scottish salmon for a greatly reduced price.
Yes it does. Ideal time is 19:45. Same does not apply in M&S tho, as the staff have it all away at end of day.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 30 Jan 16 at 16:53
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The house next door to us used to be occupied by a family who were all grossly obese. Mother and Father were huge and so were their teenage children. When the daughter got a part time job it was kind of ironic that her work uniform had an M&S "Simply Food" badge on it...
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Didn't find any stunning bargains at Waitrose - not that I was looking that hard as dinner was already planned. But I did buy a 2014 Carménère to wash down the homemade (buns, relish, the lot) burgers. £8 but worth it; gorgeous.
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>> Not yet...
>>
AFAIK, there is no "closed season" for pigeons, simply a recommended eating season, and they are probably best from Autumn onwards after a summer of raiding the farmer's crops.
Waitrose do say wood pigeon is available from 1 September to 31 March.
..probably doesn't matter if you're making burgers out of them, though. ;-)
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>> ..probably doesn't matter if you're making burgers out of them, though. ;-)
>>
>>
>>
Never had them as a burger before, used them in a stir fry loads of times. They are very nice cooked that way.
As a burger though you would probably want to mix with another meat, pork maybe?
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Yes, you'd need some fat from somewhere. Streaky bacon might be the thing, especially with a bit of smoke.
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>> Didn't find any stunning bargains at Waitrose - not that I was looking that hard
>> as dinner was already planned.
Ah well, there's the rub, you need to go in open minded and unplanned. Came out with a lobster once, never in a million years had any intention of buying one, let alone thought of having it for dinner. But at that price? well you just had to, and we happened to have a bottle of emergency prosseco in the fridge at home.
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Yep, had many a closing bargain from our local, and as Zero mentioned, quite a few unexpected purchases.
If fact the freezer in the garage is 50% full of end of day meats
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>> ...I thought Waitrose was about the only supermarket where one can get pigeon nowadays!!?
>>
>> It's next to the quail.
>>
Aldi stock red legged grouse!
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SQ 4 TRLC
>> Aldi stock red legged grouse!
Think you will find is full of grousing red necks
Last edited by: VxFan on Sun 31 Jan 16 at 19:25
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I think you'll find zero shops there, how else would he about his fellow shoppers?
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I will occasionally shop at Lidl, the stores are clean, goods are on the shelves, not in the middle of the isles shrink-wrapped on pallets, and they do cheap mortadella to die for.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 31 Jan 16 at 14:51
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They are both much of a muchness around here. I often get them both mixed up.
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Wine help? - sooty123
