Christmas Wine

[BTC3]

Photos are not quite in order, but if you’re playing with steaks, fire, and wine...
Rib eyes, about an inch and a half thick, tied, seasoned and left to sit for a couple of hours at room temp.
BBQ set to a temp of around 100C, with a smallish chunk of hickory soaked in dilute bourbon added to the coals for a bit of smoke just before cooking. Steaks cooked with the lid on/down for an hour or so, reaching a desired medium done-ness, then left to sit while the temperature was cranked up for a brief sear.
Served with tomato and onion salad, some spinach cooked with garlic and a bottle of Zin.
Not quite “bavette a la chimenée”, but nevertheless delicious!

 

[Marchbanks]

That looks fantastic. That’s half an hour of rumbling stomach I have now until mine is ready.

It’s the ‘crank up the temperature for a quick sear’ bit that I find tricky. The only way I could do that with my ham-fisted abilities after an hour’s cooking would be to light some more coals. And so I’d be more likely to take a short cut and finish them off with 20 secs per side on the chimney! A kind of corollary to the sous-vide ‘an hour in the bath an a few seconds in the pan’ I suppose.

I was perplexed to see the bottle of Bouza we tackled yesterday was a 2015. It was one of the original batch with 30% off, and all the others have been 2016s so far. I’ll now have to check the rest when I get home - that’s the second time in this thread I’ve grabbed bottles off a supermarket shelf without putting my specs on and later finding I’ve bought a mixture of vintages!

 

[Marchbanks]

Carrefour Market are stepping up to the plate now with their loyalty card. I seem to be on a reiterative spending plan at the moment.

I had an offer of 6€ off a 25€ spend sent to me. I used this to buy a number of things including bottles of Leffe, which also resulted in 6.50€ being credited to my loyalty card as well as the reduction.

I then bought some bags of charcoal (buy 2, get 5€ off) and part-paid for these with the 6.50€ on my card. When I was given my receipt a voucher for 4€ off a 25€ spend was printed too.

Today I bought the bottle below to make the shopping up to 25€. The shelf price was €15.50, and as all the other stuff was necessary anyway that made it €11.50, which I reckon is about £10.40 - seems good to me.

And at the checkout - you guessed it - another voucher for 4€ off a 25€ spend...

 

[wacko]

Now that was a surprise: found Kumeu River Chardonnay at a cheaper price in a chichi village/town than online. Already had 6 but had to buy another 4 to average the price down a bit. Half price top burgundy IMO.
Pity I haven't found a red that does the same trick for burgundy. Not yet anyway.

 

[eternumviti]

Carrefour Market are stepping up to the plate now with their loyalty card. I seem to be on a reiterative spending plan at the moment.

I had an offer of 6€ off a 25€ spend sent to me. I used this to buy a number of things including bottles of Leffe, which also resulted in 6.50€ being credited to my loyalty card as well as the reduction.

I then bought some bags of charcoal (buy 2, get 5€ off) and part-paid for these with the 6.50€ on my card. When I was given my receipt a voucher for 4€ off a 25€ spend was printed too.

Today I bought the bottle below to make the shopping up to 25€. The shelf price was €15.50, and as all the other stuff was necessary anyway that made it €11.50, which I reckon is about £10.40 - seems good to me.

And at the checkout - you guessed it - another voucher for 4€ off a 25€ spend...

Amazing. They'll be paying you to go in there at this rate.

Isn't Carrefour having the same problems with the German discounters as our grocers? They're engaged in a price-cutting war with Auchan, Casino and Leclerc in a bid to hold market share.

I went into one of them, can't recall which group, near to Caen a few weeks ago, and the wine selection was dire. I couldn't see a single bottle that I wanted to buy.

 

[wacko]

^^ smaller , or at least specialist, wine dealers have more interesting wines in general. And certainly more knowledge. They are also nicer to deal with: on one delivery there was a long delay so they threw in a couple of free bottles.
Waitrose have a few good wines but they are remarkably cavalier about vintage online.

 

[eternumviti]

Hey, Wacko, you're preaching to the vicar. I am a small/specialist wine dealer..

 

[wacko]

Hey, Wacko, you're preaching to the vicar. I am a small/specialist wine dealer..

Yes Reverend I know
Sometimes I hope there are more than 5 people on this thread and will buy from people like you. Or even you !

 

[Marchbanks]

Waitrose have a few good wines but they are remarkably cavalier about vintage online.

25% off 6 bottles at Waitrose Cellar (also seems to apply to Waitrose on-line groceries or in-store although the ranges differ.) Until July 16.

This makes Chateau Musar £20.99/bottle. They suggest it is 2003 but ‘vintages may change’ - see wacko’s comment above. That one is available at Waitrose groceries too, which is tempting as I have some £10 off £100 loyalty vouchers (the staff at Marchbanks Towers have been instructed not to frequent any other supermarkets, naturally.)

If there is anything else on their lists that looks interesting to you, please let me/us know.

Edit: have reserved six Musar 2003 to pick up in store this afternoon. It means I can only use a £6 off voucher instead of £10, but at least I know which vintage I’m getting. So that’s £19.99 each.

 

[andrew d]

Thanks for the heads up. I like Chateau Musar! Waitrose do some silly vouchers but I couldn't see that they'd sent any this month. Nearer Christmas time they sent me a batch of Spend £40 get £10 off offers!

 

[BTC3]

Berry Bros has some 1989 Musar going at the moment, white and red. And some 1999, and the 2012. Prices are... more than Waitrose

 

[Marchbanks]

Berry Bros has some 1989 Musar going at the moment, white and red. And some 1999, and the 2012. Prices are... more than Waitrose

And also you don’t find a deli counter selling half-price wagyu burgers at BBR. I imagine.

 

[BTC3]

And also you don’t find a deli counter selling half-price wagyu burgers at BBR. I imagine.

Nope, but the Ritz is up the road and round the corner. I’m sure they’ll cook one up for you, slap it in a bun, and charge you a bit more for the privilege.
Note to self, must ask what corkage rate is...

 

[wacko]

A bit impetuous buying Musar just before the Waitrose discount but I've bought some more. I don't think there is a better wine at the full price let alone at £21.
The key (IMO) is to allow at least an hour for the decant. For this 2003 I prefer 2 hours. It is a great vintage that will even improve a bit more over another 5 years.
So nice to be able to buy aged wine at a decent price and stop drinking your other wines too early. In fact I'll open one to celebrate the England win.

 

[wacko]

Nope, but the Ritz is up the road and round the corner. I’m sure they’ll cook one up for you, slap it in a bun, and charge you a bit more for the privilege.
Note to self, must ask what corkage rate is...

If you want a laugh flick through their wine list: 2006 Beaucastel @ £210 gives a flavour but is by no means the worst. They are selling the '08 Quintarelli Valpolicella for £260: I have the '09 and am happy to drink it at home !

 

[Marchbanks]

Predicted last month that I would not be able to resist a Coudoulet and I was right.

Relieved that it is already really good and even better on the second day.
I should be able to leave the other 11 until next year now.
Big brother should be amazing in a few years.

Laziness, the internet and particularly this thread are starting to cost me a lot of money. Rather than getting down to some necessary Raspberry Pi debugging this morning I sat with a coffee and considered the possibility of adding to my 2016 dozen if the price was right. Unfortunately Lay and Wheeler had six bottles in bond at £11.50 each, less than I paid for my original EP dozen. They are now being delivered to my local Majestic next week, at a total per bottle of £18 plus a couple of pence.

 

[wacko]

Some things cannot be resisted. I had resolved not to buy any more wine this year and then '03 Musar comes along @ £21...
Interesting that Waitrose already has the '09 in magnums: not sure what happened to the intervening years.
I don't think either wine we have bought will be available for much longer.

 

[Marchbanks]

Interesting that Waitrose already has the '09 in magnums: not sure what happened to the intervening years.
I don't think either wine we have bought will be available for much longer.

When I rang Waitrose CS a helpful agent (oh yes, I know Chateau Musar, he said) investigated their stocks and told me they had several other vintages in the warehouse in addition to 2003 - I think he mentioned 2005 and 2006.

Yes, we have definitely done the right thing. Absolutely no question. I’ll keep reassuring you if you keep reassuring me. Anyway I deserve them having worked out some of the arcane ways of USB 3G modem mode switching after eight hours of swearing at computers in general and Raspberry Pis in particular.

Here’s tonight’s offering, posing in Coffee Corner. A single bottle weeded out by CellarTracker. It cost me 7€ from the vineyard. I may well find it is past its best, but it will bring back good memories of driving round the Loire Valley and Laurent Berger’s excellent hospitality.

Edit: in fact it is really good... I had almost forgotten how good Chenin can be when it isn’t turned into paint stripper. One day I will have to think about tackling my 30-year old Huets from the other side of the river... but it will need one hell of a special occasion, and I can only see gloom on the horizon right now.

 

[wacko]

Sorry was distracted by Neil Young/Bob Dylan at Hyde Park. Great evening but had to drink Fosters

 

[wacko]

Just about recovered from the Fosters yuk now.
Having said we should support the smaller wine merchant I feel a bit of a fraud now. Don't know why any smaller guy would stock what the supermarkets stock. Although I must say Waitrose are very generous to slash prices on all their wines, not just the less good ones.
At least I got the Beaucastel itself from a smaller merchant. The Musar will now get me through until they are ready.
Extraordinary that something as good as Coudoulet 2016 actually goes down on EP price. It reinforces my preference to stay out of the EP game.
I'm guessing we're pretty ready and stocked for Brexit now...