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Christmas Wine II

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Marchbanks said:
A late arrival at the Beaujolais ball. Interesting that a couple of CT reviewers mention banana flavours - it’s exactly that taste that put me off the stuff for many years, probably as a result of being force-fed too much N***eau in France - but I didn’t detect any such thing here, nor in the other Bojes I’ve tasted recently from Brun and Burgaud. Both reviewers suggested that is an inevitable by-product of carbonic maceration, but then it looks like they were having an online tasting - perhaps they let teacher’s tutorial influence their thoughts a little.

This wine is light and lovely, and I suspect three-quarters of the bottle will have disappeared by the end of the night. But hey, it’s only 12.5%, and my calculator tells me that compared to my normal 14.5% or so I’m allowed to drink ‘loads more’. And it’s Sunday, or maybe Friday (I admit I’m not certain) so it’s all fine.

I rather liked the notes from the French CT reviewer who said it was ‘straight, not deviant but no fun.’ I wonder how I can get invited to one of his tastings?

Best of all, it didn’t f**k up my Coq au Vin.

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Regnie is my favourite...massively underrated.

Beaujolais 'nuveau' was a con designed to sell immature wine to gullible Brits.

I am a decanter. I LOVE decanting red wine: even ordinary wine. The result is never worse.

My decanters range from 20th cent. to 18th.
Almost all are lead crystal. I make it a rule to not leave wine in for more than a few hours: never overnight. I pour it back into the original bottle- which is invariably ordinary glass. The wine often tastes better after a few days.

I find that., days later, the contents have improved.

Why are so many 'Masters of wine' misleading?
 
Marchbanks said:
I fear for Majestic’s future - not just the name, that will be disappearing anyway - but all the physical stores, at least with the quality and range they currently offer. It seems to me Gormley’s intention is to suck money out of it to expand his original (IMHO of course) crappy wine at inflated prices venture.
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Majestic is an overpriced waste of time, i.m.o.
 
eguth said:
I am a decanter. I LOVE decanting red wine: even ordinary wine. The result is never worse.

My decanters range from 20th I make it a rule to not leave wine in for more than a few hours: never overnight. I pour it back into the original bottle- which is invariably ordinary glass. The wine often tastes better after a few days.

I find that., days later, the contents have improved.
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My experience is different - I’ve destroyed some nice old Burgundies by decanting them.
 
eguth said:
Beaujolais 'nuveau' was a con designed to sell immature wine to gullible Brits.
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Although oddly it seems to be far more of a thing in France these days. In my experience it’s difficult to escape it in supermarkets, online merchants and even restaurants in mid-November.
eguth said:
Majestic is an overpriced waste of time, i.m.o.
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Timing is everything. Hit them when they have a full sale on (Black Friday week for example) and you can save 30% on some very good stuff. You have to be quick though - people are beginning to realise!
 
BTC3 said:
Thanks @Ponty might look up the Allende, and the lobster box!
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Luckily, I have another Allende, it’s gorgeous (from BBR). Purely coincidentally, I’ve just had an Amex offer for £10 off over £60 spend with Stein’s at Home, so check the offers if you use Amex. That’s Valentine’s sorted!
 
PsB said:
My experience is different - I’ve destroyed some nice old Burgundies by decanting them.
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Sorry to hear it, PsB.

Never happened to me with any wine. I suspect that your old Burgundies were near 'over the top' and that decanting pushed them over. Surprising, because most burgundies go for a very long time. Perhaps you should consider not decanting old Burgundies?
 
eguth said:
Sorry to hear it, PsB.

Never happened to me with any wine. I suspect that your old Burgundies were near 'over the top' and that decanting pushed them over. Surprising, because most burgundies go for a very long time. Perhaps you should consider not decanting old Burgundies?
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Yes, that is exactly the conclusion I reached: decant young wines and maybe wines at their peak, but don’t decant (or proceed very cautiously or experimentally with) old wines that are fragile and past their peak. YMMV.
 
Tonight sees a nice drop of Saint Estephe washing down a lump of roast beef courtesy of Rhug Estate. Diet starts next week.
 
Ponty said:
Tonight sees a nice drop of Saint Estephe washing down a lump of roast beef courtesy of Rhug Estate. Diet starts next week.
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This is like one of those super annoying restaurant wine lists that just give appellations with no names and certainly no vintage. Has the nice drop got a name ?
 
BTC3 said:
Thanks @Ponty might look up the Allende, and the lobster box!
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I do like Allende, it's sort of halfway between old-school white Rioja (for which I always turn to Gravonia and Tondonia) and the newer, less oaky style. I'm not a fan of modern white Rioja, because I think they have taken something distinctive and characterful and turned it into a 'me too' classy white, so the Allende is about as far into that style as I'm prepared to go. It's not like there aren't any number of unoaked whites out there.
 
eternumviti said:
I'm always a bit suspicious that things are going to their heads a little when I see Bordeaux wines being given names with biblical connotations.

Averys say that they can't name the source, but the depiction of Chateau Montrose on the label kinda gives the game away.
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I have a few Dame de Montrose '16 but not drinking them yet. Maybe it is an even earlier maturing version.
 
Whatever it turns out to be, I really like it. I’m no expert at all but for what I paid for it (under £20 a bottle) I have no complaints!
 
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