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Christmas Wine III

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What a sad, dingy image! Sorry.

Anyway, my first megaphone - 2019 - bought in 2021 and promptly forgotten about. Megaphone is not a gentleman. Megaphone is a good name, he kind of shouts at you, and makes you sit up straight and take notice in a respectful and scary way. He is quite complex - fruit and minerality (is that an English word?) combined in that artisanal vigneron way we all appreciate. I quite like it, but he is forceful and heady. Vin corsé.
 
^^ Hmmm looks about right for Megaphone. Telegramme is worth a better glass.
Glasses: buy Riedel when on sale. No need to go nuts believing all their marketing guff about a different glass for every grape !
The ones with no stem are more robust obviously. I quite like them for red.
Don't wash them same day after drinking: I lost a few doing that. I've never broken a Riedel in a dishwasher.
 
Reidel glasses are brilliant and dishwasher proof. I've broken perhaps 3 in a decade. All of mine have a stem.
 
mandryka said:
I'm so pissed off with good glasses breaking that I decided a few years ago to compromise there.
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wacko said:
Glasses: buy Riedel when on sale.
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If you don’t fancy the full Riedel wallet-emptying experience you could compromise with the Riedel Restaurant range for about £6 each. Nisbets are a good source. You have to buy them in dozens, but I would imagine you lose nearly that many during every wild party you throw down in Swinging Vibrant London.

Up here in the sticks they are used more frequently for lunchtime picnics during long walks.

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Of course, there are some picnics where only the best will do. On those occasions I reach for the Tesco Value Disposable range. This is the Languedoc-specific shape…

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wacko said:
I've never broken a Riedel in a dishwasher.
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I have. A rather pricey one (well, it would have been pricey had there not been 75% off RRP in a TKMaxx clearance sale) had been sitting, draining, in the dishwasher rack for a day or two. I pulled a fish slice off the tool rack above and disturbed an adjacent ladle, which fell down smartly onto the glass with explosive consequences. It had been one of a pair. Soon afterwards I broke the other one when I vigorously shook off the last few drops of water after it had been washed and drained for a while. Unfortunately, I forgot to hold onto it tightly.
 
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Marchbanks said:
If you don’t fancy the full Riedel wallet-emptying experience you could compromise with the Riedel Restaurant range for about £6 each. Nisbets are a good source. You have to buy them in dozens, but I would imagine you lose nearly that many during every wild party you throw down in Swinging Vibrant London.

Up here in the sticks they are used more frequently for lunchtime picnics during long walks.

20240121223007-8704017c-la.jpg


Of course, there are some picnics where only the best will do. On those occasions I reach for the Tesco Value Disposable range. This is the Languedoc-specific shape…

20240121223005-85f75f67.jpg




I have. A rather pricey one (well, it would have been pricey had there not been 75% off RRP in a TKMaxx clearance sale) had been sitting, draining, in the dishwasher rack for a day or two. I pulled a fish slice off the tool rack above and disturbed an adjacent ladle, which fell down smartly onto the glass with explosive consequences. It had been one of a pair. Soon afterwards I broke the other one when I vigorously shook off the last few drops of water after it had been washed and drained for a while. Unfortunately, I forgot to hold onto it tightly.
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I'm not entirely sure those count as dishwasher breakages MB.
Years ago as I put a washed champagne glass down on the uneven draining area side of the sink it toppled over into another champagne glass, of course. All in slo-mo. Probably cost more than the damn champagne.
 
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I like small glasses -- I know they're not good for savouring the wine but I really like the look and feel of them, the cuteness of them.

Quite recently I had a jambon beurre and a glass of white in the food market in Lyon (Bocuse I think it's called) and they gave me the wine in a lovely little stemmed small glass, smaller than the one in my photo which caused this discussion. I've been looking for something like them ever since, but no joy so far.
 
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I just had a glass of a Bordeaux Malbec, M de la Grande Métairie, in a restaurant. Not a great wine by any stretch of the imagination, but nice enough for me to want to have a few of that or something similar. The restaurant was in London, but I can't see the wine for sale anywhere here.

Anyone got any thoughts about Bordeax Malbec?


lepanierdesophie.fr

Château la Grande Métairie Malbec

Ce bordeaux AOP est doté d'une robe rouge profonde, c'est un vin souple, facile d'accès et polyvalent il accompagnera vos charcuteries, grillades et salades estivales. A servir entre 15et 16°C Bouchon "Oeno-bouchage" (garanti sans goût de bouchon) Vignoble situé à 45km au Sud-Ouest de Bordeaux...
lepanierdesophie.fr lepanierdesophie.fr
 
mandryka said:
I just had a glass of a Bordeaux Malbec, M de la Grande Métairie, in a restaurant. Not a great wine by any stretch of the imagination, but nice enough for me to want to have a few of that or something similar. The restaurant was in London, but I can't see the wine for sale anywhere here.

Anyone got any thoughts about Bordeax Malbec?


lepanierdesophie.fr

Château la Grande Métairie Malbec

Ce bordeaux AOP est doté d'une robe rouge profonde, c'est un vin souple, facile d'accès et polyvalent il accompagnera vos charcuteries, grillades et salades estivales. A servir entre 15et 16°C Bouchon "Oeno-bouchage" (garanti sans goût de bouchon) Vignoble situé à 45km au Sud-Ouest de Bordeaux...
lepanierdesophie.fr lepanierdesophie.fr
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which restaurant? do they have their wine menu online?
 
mandryka said:
Institut Français - chateaubriand for me.


www.gazettebrasserie.co.uk

MENUS & RITUALS | GAZETTE BRASSERIE

Discover all our menus here, as well as some fantastic rituals running weekly, we also offer regular food events focusing on particular ingredients or dishes. Check our Lunch deal also for a quick bite.
www.gazettebrasserie.co.uk www.gazettebrasserie.co.uk
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we love the food there - bit out of the way for us. I am intrigued by the wine though
 
Intimations of mortality this morning as I perused the Wine Society 2022 Rhône offer. No Vieux Télégraphe (declassified due to hail damage) and no Beaucastel (delayed release) so I wondered about going for some single-vineyard Saint Cosme Gigondas. In the course of researching which one to buy I read that Louis Barruol feels that they shouldn’t really be drunk until 10 years after the vintage. When I will be 76, in this case.

That really got me thinking. Firstly, what chance is there that I’ll make it that far? Easily found - about 75%, according to the ONS. OK - I’ll take that, but given that my sight is still slowly deteriorating year on year and my hearing is age-compromised enough for me to realise that spending money on new audio kit is silly, who’s to say that my tastebuds will be able to appreciate the difference between a £20 bottle and a £100 bottle by then? In addition, I already have enough wine to keep me going for six years at my current rate of consumption - what happens if that decreases for some reason? Suddenly, paying storage fees for eight years on bottles that I might not enjoy to the full seems rather pointless.

Yes, but you can treat it as an investment, you say. Well, apart from being against that on principle, the market performances of more expensive wines from the Rhône don’t seem to have been exactly stellar lately. I think it makes far more sense to bide my time, keep my money earning interest and take my chances on availability when the wines are much closer to maturity. For example - right now I could buy six bottles of 2015 Saint Cosme Gigondas le Poste for £340 IB (and would, if I hadn’t spent all my spare cash on Tone Poets and suit alterations), as opposed to six bottles of 2022 in the Wine Society offer for £360. Ready for drinking (according to King Louis) next year, versus 2032. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

So, my decision is this - I think buying for decade-long storage should now be a thing of the past for me. I’m going to stick to the less expensive stuff on the list for shorter-term drinking - ideally bottles that sell out quickly and are tricky to find after release. Currently I’m looking at the Mourchon Séguret (always good) at £132/doz and the Cuilleron Syrah (£55/6 botts.) And possibly Coudoulet when it’s finally released, as that always seems to disprove what I have written above by jumping up in price once it’s on general sale.

And, I forgot… if I should survive to seventy-five (as Frank nearly sang) my occupational pension takes a nice hike upwards. Perfect timing for buying those 2022 Gigondas at maturity!!
 
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^ yes I agree MB.
My stocks will only last 4 years at current rate but that rate is already slowing.
Instead of buying too much less-expensive stuff, I'm drinking more of the good stuff. I want to make sure I enjoy most of it while I can.
I knew of someone who collected wines for years before retirement. Had amassed a couple of thousand bottles but dropped dead on retirement.
To that end I opened a Ch Musar 1981 that looked and tasted so good, but the cork looked new. So I asked Ch Musar: it was re-corked in 2018.
I imagine my tastebuds will go the way of my hearing and eyesight so I'll buy Ch Plonk later, or rely on your kind alerts like the St Cosme.
 
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