advertisement


Christmas Wine II

Status
Not open for further replies.
Marchbanks said:
Nothing new to say, but I’ll say it anyway... still great value for money, 2015 still going strong, still eight left, still very pleased about that.

52053895487_80e1eb32bf.jpg
Click to expand...

Yes, value for money, but I think of it in different terms. It’s a simple wine. It doesn’t have simultaneous layers of flavours like counterpoint, it doesn’t have surprising and challenging tastes which jolt. It’s just a nice simple tasty drink. In music it’s more Howard Skempton than Brian Ferneyhough.

Terres d’orb is a bit like that.

I’d like more of these simple wines, regardless of the price point. I think I’m leaning that I prefer them to the more complicated ones.
 
Wine is wine, there's nothing simple about it.
I'm sure Arlaud,Brun etc put as much love devotion
attention into making their wines as any first growths. I'm not sure JPB would take kindly to hearing his wines described as "facile".Think of another word.
 
I always look for Guigal CdR on a restaurant wine list. If it is there at a reasonable mark-up that is a good start to the evening. It indicates a certain attitude to customers, like having good bread and clean toilets.
An Italian alternative is Terre di San Leonardo. Not as widely available as produced in much lower quantities but worth looking out for.
 
Dogberry said:
Wine is wine, there's nothing simple about it.
I'm sure Arlaud,Brun etc put as much love devotion
attention into making their wines as any first growths. I'm not sure JPB would take kindly to hearing his wines described as "facile".Think of another word.
Click to expand...

Yes of course, and to pursue the music analogy, I'm sure Howard Skempton puts as much love and devotion into his music as Brian Ferneyhough.

What I want to pursue is that many wines have "contrapuntal" flavours -- many simultaneous flavours, which evolve in different ways over time, sometimes one flavour is more prominent, later it becomes less prominent and another becomes the leading voice. Just off the top of my head, without thinking about it too much, Chemin de Moscou is an example of that.

But the Guigal CdR isn't like that, it's taste profile is not multi-faceted with different notes leading at different times. To use a musical analogy again, it is monophonic, not polyphonic.

And I like that idea in fact. I like the cotes du rhone because it's monophonic and has an attractive, easy going flavour. I'm not concerned about whether they're value for money or not -- I mean, how does anyone tell? How can anyone judge the rapport qualité/prix? At least in hi fi you have the truthfulness of the sound as a criterion of quality, in wine you just have the craftsmanship of the producer and it's value in the marketplace!
 
Dogberry said:
Wine is wine, there's nothing simple about it.
I'm sure Arlaud,Brun etc put as much love devotion
attention into making their wines as any first growths. I'm not sure JPB would take kindly to hearing his wines described as "facile".Think of another word.
Click to expand...

I have known J-P B for about 35 years, and I can assure you that the wine he now calls 'Le Ronsay' is made to provide pure, uncomplicated pleasure whilst in its youth. He not only wouldn't be offended by the monicker 'simple', I'm quite sure he's used it.

There are no shortage of winemakers who attempt to 'big up' what are in truth rather simple (and often not very nice) wines. Jean-Paul Brun isn't one of them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PsB
mandryka said:
I'm not concerned about whether they're value for money or not -- I mean, how does anyone tell? How can anyone judge the rapport qualité/prix?
Click to expand...
I think in my case it is shorthand for ‘would I have been happy paying [insert multiple here] times more for this?’ The higher the multiple the higher level of assumed vfm (decent/great/crazy etc.) But I can’t imagine describing any bottle over, say, £20 as ‘value for money’ even if it was of spectacular quality. It feels the wrong phrase for that situation, I would guess because of the increased rate of flattening out of the quality/price curve above that point.
 
Marchbanks said:
Perrin Côtes du Ventoux is another that gets my vote, esp. at this price. (Warning - dealing with this merchant is sometimes straightforward, sometimes as aggravating as hell. Everything has worked for me eventually though. So far.)
Click to expand...

It’s not quite the bottom of their range - have you ever had a snifter of La Vieille Ferme? I may pick up a bottle next time squid stew is on the menu.

By the way I just finished off L’ancien 2018 - that’s after three days, didn’t drink any of it yesterday. If anything it seemed to improve - it was vacuvined I hasten to add. Lovely wine.
 
mandryka said:
It’s not quite the bottom of their range - have you ever had a snifter of La Vieille Ferme? I may pick up a bottle next time squid stew is on the menu.
Click to expand...
Yes, a fair bit... it comes in at about £4 a bottle in France, and I wouldn't go much over that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.


advertisement


Back
Top