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Christmas Wine

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wacko said:
^^ Would find it too difficult to chose anything at all. Unless there are small producers that you already know and are difficult to source from ? And good prices ?
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Yes, you need to mark your card in advance - trying to make new discoveries on the fly is doomed to failure. Prices are probably no better than you would get from a French merchant - in fact I saw a couple of wines today that would be cheaper from Lay and Wheeler - difficult to source is the thing to go for.

eternumviti said:
The prospect of that fills me with something close to horror. Too many years of the LWTF, Vinexpo etc.
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Yebbut (I’m guessing) those are trade jobbies where you all have to be on your best behaviour in case Jancis sees you in your cups. This one is for us northern-European plebs stumbling round pushing sack trucks into one another and trying to guess which language to apologize in. Whether that’s better or worse is a matter of conjecture, I suppose.
 
Marchbanks said:
This weekend I’ll be at the wine fair in Lille. I’m going Loire crazy, buying lots of Joguet Chinon, sweet Chenins and (sorry) Sauvignon Blanc. Then a detour into Belgium for a crate or two of Rochefort and back to France to pick up a pre-ordered box of mixed Languedoc reds that I’m really looking forward to. Maybe the weekend after...
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All assembled at last. A special mention to La Poste, who managed to send the two boxes from one consignment in different directions so that they arrived on consecutive days, and thanks to the wine drinkers of Département 59 who don’t know a good thing when they see it. At two branches of Auchan there were bottles of Burn Alsace Grand Cru left over from the sales last month at 20% less than I paid chez Burn last winter. It pained me to leave some on the shelves, but you have to stop somewhere.

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So that’s winter solstice at Marchbanks Towers pretty much sorted. A wicker snowman, a goat’s head or two wearing holly wreaths and a steaming cauldron of wassail in the scullery should finish it.

Here’s to the shorter nights!
 
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Impressive stash of Joguet amongst that lot.

Cor, you've got a bottle of Mas Jullien too. How much?
 
eternumviti said:
Impressive stash of Joguet amongst that lot.
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I had ordered the Joguet in advance as some of it (2015 Dioterie) wasn’t going to be available at the fair, but the Domaine had generously offered to bring a box for me anyway. When I got there I asked if I could taste the Rosé (which I had also reserved.) Nope, sold out. The Silènes? Nope, sold out. Good job you reserved some! Er, yes...

Then I wanted to try the Quincy from Domaine Rouzé. The large and splendidly taciturn (until you ask questions about the terroir, vinification etc., then it is difficult to keep up) Jacques Rouzé poured a sample. It was excellent. So was the Reuilly. Six of each, please. No, sold out. Only enough left for tasting. Oh. What have you got? Just Chateaumeillant. So I tried it. No thanks. But here’s a snap of him opening the bottle.

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I had more luck elsewhere, although at least one cuvée I was after at both Coteaux du Layon vineyards I had marked down was - you guessed - sold out. Roche Moreau goes down as a fine discovery though.

So the moral of the story is ‘don’t go to a ginormous wine fair on day three of four.’

eternumviti said:
Cor, you've got a bottle of Mas Jullien too. How much?
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Three. Three of each of the Languedocs shown top right (Mas Jullien, Aupilhac, Clos Perdus, Domaine des 2 Ânes.) The first three are new to me. I had intended to buy Daumas Gassac at the fair, but (1) several people told me their glory days are long passed and (2) when I asked them what their prices would be at the fair I thought they were taking the mick. So I went for some recommendations by mail order instead. The 2 Ânes is something I bought from the vineyard back in my touring-Languedoc-in-Scimitar-convertible days, so I thought I’d revisit it.

The Mas Jullien is Autour de Jonquières 2016 and it cost me 33€.

Sorry. Long, rambling and nothing to do with Ch******s Wine. But I was answering a question from the OP, and that’s my excuse!
 
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Great Languedoc selection. Particularly fond of Clos Perdus - thought I recognised the label. I've got some friends who have a house in Peyriac, where they (not the vines) are based.
 
Another successful chevauchée Marchbanks. Certainly more intrepid than popping out to Waitrose. Is the cellar back at the Towers now full ?
 
Having had nightmares wondering whether I’d done the right thing leaving the Burn Muscat 2012 on the shelves of Auchan last week as I had bought the 2013 at the previous branch I visited, salvation was mine today when there was more 2012 (and 2016 Gewurztraminer, of which I already had enough) at the Boulogne branch. This really is all world-class stuff at under £13! As I was wondering how many to take, a Brit couple wandered by looking for ‘Alsace gewurz-something’ that they had been told to buy. As my good deed for the day, I pointed out the Burn and told them how good it was. I think they bought a bottle.

‘We were trying to find some of the wine we had been asked to buy when we saw a strange old chap obsessively twisting his beard around his fingers as if he were desperately trying to work something out. All the time he was humming ‘Fables of Faubus’ to himself. But he had obviously been eavesdropping because he suddenly turned, fixed us with a disquietingly psychotic glare, stabbed his finger repeatedly in the direction of one particular bottle and muttered ‘this is the one you have to buy.’ We took it quickly and ran off, thinking we could put it back later when he had gone.’
 
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^^ Haha exactly that: I was asked by a couple which wine to buy in a shop in Italy. I guess they thought I worked there. I had left one last bottle of Paolo Scavino Langhe 2015 on the shelf; and when they replied "about €20" I suggested it and they took it. A few minutes later they were gone and the bottle was back on the shelf. This time I took it. You just can't help some people.
 
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wacko said:
Another successful chevauchée Marchbanks. Certainly more intrepid than popping out to Waitrose. Is the cellar back at the Towers now full ?
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I’ve finished cellaring and cataloguing the new batch at last. I even posted a picture on the selfie thread if you want to test the strength of your constitution. There didn’t seem to be a lot more space, but just for you I counted the remaining holes and there were 96, which surprised me. CellarTracker tells me I now have 666 bottles and, rather pleasingly for those of us who like numerical elegance, that 555 of those are French. Good job I removed an Argentinian red for tonight beforehand. 39 of the remaining spaces will be taken up next year with wines ordered but not yet delivered, but of course there will be a certain amount of, er, natural wastage by then.

My first subscription renewal to CT will be pretty soon. In less than a year it has become an indispensible tool for me - I’ll up my donation to $40 this year, I think.
 
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Can't match the sign of the devil total but I have 429 and absolutely no space to store more properly, in fact a few reds are in a normal fridge which is not great. There are also about 20 Kiwi whites not in CT: lets call it 450 for the sake of elegance. Of which a neat 200 are Italian and 70 French. I never used the 'by region' sorting in CT before so thanks for the prompt.
I'm not buying any more for a while... although next month will clear the space issue...
 
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25% off six bottles again at Sainsbury. What’s more, the Perrin Châteauneuf les Sinards is already reduced...

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...which means you can buy it as part of a half-dozen for - let’s see - divide by four, borrow the one, first derivative is zero, second derivative is positive, move the decimal point, give the one back, use the fingers on the other hand... er, quite a low price.

Even so, I managed to resist the temptation for once!
 
Marchbanks said:
25% off six bottles again at Sainsbury. What’s more, the Perrin Châteauneuf les Sinards is already reduced...

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...which means you can buy it as part of a half-dozen for - let’s see - divide by four, borrow the one, first derivative is zero, second derivative is positive, move the decimal point, give the one back, use the fingers on the other hand... er, quite a low price.

Even so, I managed to resist the temptation for once!
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Thank-you that is a helpful post. Comes out at £15 a bottle. What is the wine like?
 
That CdP is worth buying and tucking in a corner for a while. I have a big old fridge in the garage, can't give the thing away, would make a good wine store.
 
The problem with normal fridges for long term storage (even if you can get the temperature up near 13 oC which I doubt) is that they minimize humidity and the corks dry out. If you use one perhaps keep a bowl of water in there.
 
At ex~cellars prices from the UK agent for Perrin, which I have, the wine should retail at £28 to £30. £15 represents well under normal cost price, though Sainsbury will have forced a 'deal' to get the price this low. I tasted it earlier this year, and though I don't have my notes to hand, I recall it as being lovely. Certainly we'll worth filling yer boots and losing it somewhere for a year or two.
 
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