I am not sure, to be truthful, whether Mr Kipling only “bakes exceedingly good cakes” in the UK, or whether he deigns to offer his wares through the supermarkets of the world.Â
Regular readers will know I have been munching my way through a Wine Society case of 2005 claret. In the interests of fairness I purchased a similar early release case from the Sunday Times Wine Club and tonight opened the first bottle.
Just another quick review from my Wine Society 2005 Bordeaux and this time it’s Ch. Moulin du Barrail, Bordeaux Supérieur, Cuvée Prestige.
Quick learning point – “Elevé en Fût de Chêne” – if you see this on a bottle it simply means aged in oak, and this wine was. Although it tasted more like a piece of sandpaper on a cream cracker in the desert, it left such a dry taste in the mouth.
Anjou, the Loire village better known for its Rosés is the latest to be laughing behind the back of the wine buyers at international warehouse shop, Costco. Once again Costco has placed cost as a more valued criterion than quality.
Have you ever tasted a really good bottle of claret? I don’t mean a Château Latour or Mouton Rothschild, there are much cheaper wines that are truly excellent.
When you find one, your mouth zings and you make a strange face like you’ve just reached orgasm and everyone looks at you like you’re a nutter.
Louis XVI (seize – geddit?) CostCo’s last chance. A number of variable experiences with wine from CostCo have led me to wonder whether to bring down the guillotine (gee-yo-teen) on their wine department.
So tasting this 2004 Louis Jadot Cotes de Beaune-Villages at £6.79 plus VAT was it going to be the best of times or the worst of times? Was I going to be the Sydney Carton of wine, or the Charles Darnay?
CostCo is known for high quality products at rock bottom prices and this works well for consumer electronics, Red Bull, or San Pellegrino for example. But wine buyers need a bit more nous than getting the lowest possible price.
Now, we already know that the Spanish football team is ever the under-achiever. Possibly only England can compare to their dismal lack of success when matched against national expectation. But what are they like at making wine? In a wine competition, I suspect the English would contrive to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. However, I think Spanish wine is pretty good on average, and maybe they finally have a sport to excel at.
Firstly let me clear up the fact that I am about to review a wine that claims it is from Spain but many would say it is made in Catalunia. Without getting into Iberian politics perhaps I’ll move on to this rather nice Cava (pronounced more like cava in cavalier than “carver” as most people seem to say). But that’s not the only pronunciation problem here since the Cava is named Freixenet and as best as I can establish that is pronounced like Fresher-net.
Still, I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition when I asked for the wine at my local Co-op supermarket. (more…)
Now I don’t want to be accused of bias. I buy wine from all over the place, but to be honest Tesco is normally bottom of my list despite it being the location of choice for most of our grocery shopping.
So in the interests of giving it a fair hearing, I recently purchased a couple of sample bottles, the first of which I will review here.
£6.99 for a Grüner Veltliner seems a good deal. Tesco’s offering was “Singing” Grüner Veltliner from Laurenz und Sophie.
I saw the musical recently at Leeds Grand Theatre – it was so so. This post is nothing to do with musicals though.
Regular readers will know that I am a new member of the Wine Society in the UK and have been experimenting with various wines, mostly the Society’s own brands.
At £7.50 the Society’s New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc 2006 is less than half the price of Cloudy Bay but way more than half the quality.
One Sunday a few years ago Sainsbury’s locked my car in their Huddersfield car park causing me massive inconvenience. Combined with their stock replenishment problems at the time, I swore I would never shop there again.
Regular readers will know that my grudges don’t hold much resolve so last week saw me nipping into Sainsbury’s on Regent Rd in Manchester looking for Malbec. Ciaran had recommended the So Organic Free Trade one.
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