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Christmas Wine

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^^ no easy answer. I am retired so able to spend hours on different websites and have become a wine bore.
Tbh I don't think there are many real bargains unless you go over to France: many UK supermarket wines are designed to be 'discounted'.
If you know the type of wine you like it is not that hard to identify the wine merchants that specialise in those regions and support these smaller independents.
But generally I doubt you can do much better than The Wine Society unless you are prepared to invest a lot of time in the internet and/or travel to France.
 
The Wine Society is mainly about French wines; but it does have a lot of Australia, South Africa, Chile, New Zealand and USA at good prices. Otherwise google New World wine UK and you should be able to narrow it down to a couple of suppliers near you that stock what you like.
 
I suspect your google-fu is much better than mine as that wasn't very successful apart from a start up website with no content. I did however find the Decanter Best reviews which has been bookmarked for in depth reading.
 
On my way back from France last week I picked up this King Crimson special at the motorway services. Thoroughly recommended, although a little pricey. I recognized a number of elements of the Marchbanks character reflected in Robert Fripp (especially the fairly repellent personality only occasionally escaping from behind a charming exterior) so I’ve decided to adopt one of his passive-aggressive techniques today and opt out of the decision-making process.

So please can you tell me what I will be drinking tonight with the bavette steak and dauphinoise pots?

This or this? I have four bottles of each, so there’s no problem in that area.

Thanks. While you are racking your brains I’ll go off and noodle with my Les Paul and twin Revoxes. But I promise to be un-Fripplike and do what you tell me.
 
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^^ when is your '2019 AUDIENCE with Robert Fripp' ?
Curiosity getting the better of Cellartracker's gentle suggestion that the ancestral cellar contains several wines you should be drinking before that 2016 ?
 
From what I read, RF had no shortage of people offering their opinions when he tried this tactic - come on, I don't want to bother Brian Eno again...
 
You ought to know better than go to the public with a simple binary choice MB.

I suppose I should have anticipated the huge amount of indifference I managed to generate. Next time I’ll try ‘Do mains cables make a difference? Vote Bottle A!’
You know the answer.... double blind testing.

Could get messy and dangerous. Steak knife, Marchbanks and blindfold is probably not a perfect combination.
 
25% off 6 botts offer back chez Sainsbury until June 2nd.
Sainsburys used to have a much better selection, the fayne wayne section disappeared sometime ago.
Still as I've mentioned before I'll be stocking up as my wife can get a further 20% discount.
 
Sainsburys used to have a much better selection, the fayne wayne section disappeared sometime ago.
Still as I've mentioned before I'll be stocking up as my wife can get a further 20% discount.
The Châteauneuf Les Sinards is shown and priced at £23 on the website, but ‘unavailable’. I imagine this means you could well find it instore.
 
The Châteauneuf Les Sinards is shown and priced at £23 on the website, but ‘unavailable’. I imagine this means you could well find it instore.
Indeed, Sainsbury's Nine Elms had some this morning, in fact the offerings were better than last time I went. I left with the last 9 bottles of the Les Sinards 2017 plus a couple of boxes of mixed bits and pieces. At the best part of 40% off due to the 25% offer and my wife's 20% discount I think I was rather restrained!
 
Rhône bore strikes again!

En-primeur delivery days are always good for the soul.

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To tell the truth I'm in a bit of a Rhone rut too as far as France is concerned. I've got some Beaujolais and Languedoc but Bordeaux and Burgundy are hard work to get a fair price/quality point, in the UK at least. Coming to the rather boring, but slightly risky, conclusion that the only way to buy Bordeaux in the UK is en primeur.
What vintages are those 3 ?
 
Those are 2016s. The 2017s arrive this time next year. (I guess you had probably realised that.)

Anything classed-ish in Bordeaux is a closed book to me now, even en primeur. Léoville-Barton @ £379 for six, anyone? Having said that House of Townend have some more affordable offerings - Chateau Cissac at £99 for a dozen and Lalande-Borie at £229/12 are two that are tempting me.

It’s a long way from the 1985 Léoville-Barton I bought en primeur for £105/dozen. Of course, back then it was...

Shut up, you tedious old fool.
 
I thought you maybe kept them in bond a few years where they are safer: so tempted to open a '16 Beaucastel this year ! Have to keep staring at the 2022 in Cellartracker. How much did you pay en primeur ? Do you get 6 every year ?
 
They’re safe enough in the ancestral cellars - there’s enough other stuff in there to keep me occupied for a few years! It’s the end dates that are beginning to concern me - my end date could quite easily precede those for 2015/16 Beaucastel without unnatural causes.

I bought six in 2015 and 12 in 2016. £240 for six in each case before duty and VAT. In 2017 I had a change of tack (this might have been due to the intimations of mortality pondered above) and my current intention is to avoid the 2018 because of stories like this.
 
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