wine recommendations

[Alison]

Whoever thinks that sauvignon blanc smells like cat pee needs their nasal senses inspecting!

[hawthorns]

thanks shirl very interesting i dont have a clue about wine so thanks for info. gonna try White Zinfandel and New Zealand Marlborough sauvignon blanc

[shirlthegirl43]

Whoever thinks that sauvignon blanc smells like cat pee needs their nasal senses inspecting!

Inclined to agree with that Alison!

[Flummery]

I believe Jancis Robinson - a fairly sensible and well balanced (rare in a wino!) expert, once described cheap Chardonnay as 'Cat's piss on a gooseberry bush'. I'm sticking to red!

[shirlthegirl43]

Eloquent description

[JanieB]

Oh dear! I'm probably going to put the cat amongst the gooseberries here. I hate Jacob's Creek and Blossom Hill wines (and several others of that type). They taste of chemicals that totally overpower the subtle wine flavours.

I'm not a wine snob and am quite happy to drink something cheap and cheerful (in fact I usually do) . What worries me are friends who have only fairly recently started drinking wine, thinking that the awful chemical flavours are "posh" and inflicting them on me knowing that I'm a bit of a wine buff and assuming they are giving me a treat .

Our local superm/convenience store is very poor at providing food, but it's offy is good for a small store.

[Winged one]

I find that I tend to drink sauv blanc and chenin blancs as summer wines as they tend to be a little bit lighter, and prefer chardonnay and chablis during the winter as they are a little bit more bodied.

Hawthorns, if you want a (mass producer admittedly) Chilean white, then the Carmen range are nice (I like pretty much all of their wines for various different things). They are about €9.95 here, and Gallo wines (Californian) are usually about €8.95, to give you an idea of price (I know we pay lot of excise duties so it's not just a sterling/Euro differential). I think Blossom Hill is over the €8 as well.

I lilke to try new ones though, and am looking forward to a few recommendations from here. Have the NZ Marlborough on my list already, and going to have a look in Oddbins for some Cretan offerings.

[Alison]

Oh dear! I'm probably going to put the cat amongst the gooseberries here. I hate Jacob's Creek and Blossom Hill wines (and several others of that type). They taste of chemicals that totally overpower the subtle wine flavours.

I'm not a wine snob and am quite happy to drink something cheap and cheerful (in fact I usually do) . What worries me are friends who have only fairly recently started drinking wine, thinking that the awful chemical flavours are "posh" and inflicting them on me knowing that I'm a bit of a wine buff and assuming they are giving me a treat .

Our local superm/convenience store is very poor at providing food, but it's offy is good for a small store.

Some of it just personal taste and depending on what you're doing at the time ie cold winter's night versus BBQ in the garden call for different wines. Know what you mean tho about people inflicting their taste on you. Had OH's family over Christmas day last year, his auntie turned up with 4 bottles of Black Tower

Has anybody tried any of the English wines? Were down in Cornwall last summer and bought some beautiful stuff from a vineyard down there, was surprisingly light and fruity and nice to drink something that hadn't been shipped from the other side of the world. Brough a case home but that's long gone.

[JanieB]

"Three Choirs" is quite acceptable. I pass a vineyard on my way to work. I keep intending to find out what their's is like.

Whenever my late OH and I were abroad we used to bring some of the local brews home, in general they were usually good - hooowever, I am stuck with some stuff he insisted on buying in Samos, called Nektar. I know dessert wines are supposed to be sweet BUT eeeugh .

[pigletwillie]

Also Chablis is bone dry whereas the other two can be described as anywhere between medium to medium dry.

[JanieB]

OK update. The last cuppla weeks I've been drinking "italia pinot grigio rose" £3.99 per bottle. Very acceptable, not great, but I've tasted expensive wines that have been well below this for acceptability.

I always give their offers a chance. If they're not up to scratch I don't repeat the experience. By coincidence, tonight is another rose, "Isla Negra". It's a merlot rose from Chile. £3.49 from Budgens. Very nice. Cheers .

If there are no acceptable offers on, JP Chenet are always good (white, red and rose) and never expensive.

[pigletwillie]

Approximately the first £2 of any bottle of wine is taken up by the bottle, tax and transportation.

The math is easy, the more you pay for a wine the more wine you get for your money. Supermarkets buy very cheap wine to sell cheap. A £10 bottle of wine generally will be much better than a £5 bottle as around £8 of it is wine rather that £3 from the cheaper bottle.

If you can, do try a wine merchants, they not only sell expensive bottles but also sell a good range of better quality wines than you will find in the supermarkets and for only a few pounds per bottle more.

Wines like JP Chenet are ok wine lake specials and most of the Aussie stuff is now made by conglomerates and is now shipped over as pommie poison.

I personally dont drink white wine so cannot realy recommend a wine for you but can say do try one at the top end of your price scale from a decent merchant, you should be able to taste it before you buy, ensuring you get one that you like.

[Mrs Dobby]

Have to say I enjoy a good white wine, and Mr D has been introduced to the differences too, so we tend to have a fair bit of wine in the house, even tho we dont get much chance to drink it! lol!

If we had time / space, then we'd be brewing our own, but as we dont (as yet) and rarely get the chance to have a bottle, we'd rather have something nice occassionally, and better if its not expensive either!

Personally I like dry white wines, Chardonnay is my fave, and the following brands are the ones I will choose again and again, as they offer good quality at a reasonable price!

My absolute fave is an English Wine we got from a local farmers market, produced by Halfpenny Green vineyards, we tried a few of theirs (they were giving free sample glasses of wine at 9am on a Sunday morning, hic!), but our fave was the one made with Reichsteinner grapes, currently called the Cartway, absolutely beautiful, like drinking the freshest crispest spring water when you are thirsty. £6 or so a bottle
Halfpenny Green Vineyard - English Wine Vineyard, Sales, Shop, Tearooms, Crafts And Markets

Others we both enjoy........
Ernst and Jullio Gallo, Turning Leaf Chardonnay - more oakey but very very nice! £6 - £7 a bottle
Hardy Crest Chardonnay - lovely! £10 a bottle, but often on half price in Tescos!
Isla Negra Chardonnay - very nice, price £4 to £7 depending on where and offers!
Evolution Chardonnay - easy drinking and very nice - $4 to £8 depending on offers!
Galloway Crossing Chardonnay is quite pallatable too! -£5 to £8 depending on offer!

Another tipple I'd recommend that we've tried of late is Swedish Cider, Herrljunga, both apple and pear - very refreshing and goes well with anything, especially an english breakfast!

[Two_Sheds]

Supermarket Wine - The easy way to find recommended wine at your supermarket
here's a site I posted previously, you can search for the 'best' wine each supermarket has to offer ...