It’s Spanish, but the right grape, give Viña Esmeralda a try if you spot some; lower end of your price range, but a solid performer.
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Christmas Wine
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It’s Spanish, but the right grape, give Viña Esmeralda a try if you spot some; lower end of your price range, but a solid performer.
Marchbanks
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Assuming you are in the UK, I don’t buy much here or know what the prices are like... but a few names that I have bought from that haven’t let me down - Burn, Sorg, Mader, Bernard Humbrecht, Hugel, Dopff & Irion, Weck, Josmeyer. And that Zind-Humbrecht (above) currently has me thinking the world is a wonderful place, but I wouldn’t have bought that had it not been seriously discounted!
Yes I agree with that: our 'go to' value white that everybody seems to like.
eternumviti
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Had a bottle of 2012 Gigondas 'Racines' Domaine les Pallieres with Beef Wellington on NYE. I'm always a bit wary of the Brunier's senior wines, this and their Chateauneuf Vieux Telegraphe, because I often run into volatile acidity and oxidative flavours (including the 2017 V Telegraph, tasted in November), but this was as fresh as a daisy, subtle, really very little evolution. I'd give it another 5-8 years at least.
Edit; I've just checked Rhone guru John Livingstone-Leamonth's early notes on it, and he reckons 2017 thru 2033-35. I'll go with that. He gives it five stars, top mark. House of Townend in Yorkshire seem to have stock.
Edit; I've just checked Rhone guru John Livingstone-Leamonth's early notes on it, and he reckons 2017 thru 2033-35. I'll go with that. He gives it five stars, top mark. House of Townend in Yorkshire seem to have stock.
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Vieux Telegramme (rather clever name n'est-ce pas ?) is worth trying at a lower price: at least the 2012 which is the only one I have had.
eternumviti
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Plain 'Télegramme', without the 'Vieux' - it is sourced from younger and more precocious parcels, and more recently fruit from what was La Roquètte, another Brunier-owned Chateauneuf, and designed for drinking from release. I love it, and have never seen any of the problems that randomly or otherwise appear in VT. The rest of the Roquètte red fruit goes into yet another Brunier CdP, Piedlong, also brilliant. Roquètte seems to have been retained for the white Chateauneuf.
I think that there's a younger generation edging into the winemaking, hence perhaps the apparent disparity in the brighter, cleaner, airier style of the more junior wines. The real value in the lineup comes from another thematically-named Ventoux cuvée, 'Mégaphone', which comes from a 2 ha plot on the southern side of the Dentelles and close to Beaumes de Venise.
Any of you wine aficionados care to comment on this offer @eternumviti
https://www.laithwaites.co.uk/jsp/o...campaign=email/XNH1X/MAIN/EPIPH/MAIN/JAN19/LW
https://www.laithwaites.co.uk/jsp/o...campaign=email/XNH1X/MAIN/EPIPH/MAIN/JAN19/LW
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
One of my very favourite wines.
Looks like Ch Montrose. It is not 1st April so seems a great deal if you can wait 10 years to drink it.
eternumviti
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No, it'll be Chateau Cos d'Estournel, though not actually the top wine itself, but something blended up from young/unripe/poor parcels and reject x reject x reject vats, of the sort that always used to be sold into the Bordeaux negociants for their (in this case) generic St.Estephe blends. The spiel is basically bullshit, a twelve quid wine for £20. I should think you could do better elsewhere for the money. The £75/12 thing, and the searingly bullshitty spiel, is a fishing net, you are the catch.
Laithwaites are huge, they have a turnover of £350m plus. If you you want truly individual, interesting, small production, original wines, they are pretty definitively not the place to go.
Thanks guys, the old adage of if it sounds too good to be true seems apt here.
I mean who sells £100 bottles of of wine for £20 a bottle?
I knew it would be years before you could drink the wine too and it would have to be cellared but no mention of those in the marketing spiel.
Incidentally can you drink top wine young?
And, finally, was 2017 a good year?
I mean who sells £100 bottles of of wine for £20 a bottle?
I knew it would be years before you could drink the wine too and it would have to be cellared but no mention of those in the marketing spiel.
Incidentally can you drink top wine young?
And, finally, was 2017 a good year?
I guessed Montrose from the drawing of the chateau on the bottle. Seems I guessed wrong with only 2 choices !
Anyway French wine is interesting. Of course France is the most important wine country and has some of the best wines in the world. It also has some good wines at lower prices: especially outside Burgundy/Bordeaux. But when you combine difficult year/less talented producer with a more expensive appellation that is often the most disappointing wine. I guess a low price (especially in the UK) should be a warning signal. If it is as bad as ET expects they should have sold it in bulk or poured it away as the chateau name will come out. And I thought Laithwaites were trying to improve their image...
I am full of admiration for those producers who refuse to release their top wines in lesser years to the benefit of their 'second' wines, and the consumer.
Anyway French wine is interesting. Of course France is the most important wine country and has some of the best wines in the world. It also has some good wines at lower prices: especially outside Burgundy/Bordeaux. But when you combine difficult year/less talented producer with a more expensive appellation that is often the most disappointing wine. I guess a low price (especially in the UK) should be a warning signal. If it is as bad as ET expects they should have sold it in bulk or poured it away as the chateau name will come out. And I thought Laithwaites were trying to improve their image...
I am full of admiration for those producers who refuse to release their top wines in lesser years to the benefit of their 'second' wines, and the consumer.
Marchbanks
Hat and Beard member
House of Townend (mentioned above) have sent me a 15% off code by email, valid until Feb 14 on full-priced wine. Somehow I don’t think it is personalised for me, so why not try it - enter GIFT15 at the checkout. Example - 3x Mégaphone 2015 and 3x Télégramme 2015 for £108.33 by my calculation. Free UK delivery over £100.
eternumviti
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Go for it, would normally be easily £120-£130 at UK prices, and the 2015s are absolutely superb. You won't be disappointed.
eternumviti
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Actually, you are right, it does look like Montrose. I was going by the description of the vineyard as being 'just across the stream' from Lafite, which is definitively Cos.
I'm not saying that the wine will be bad, probably very nice, just not all that they are pumping it up to be. It will need holding onto for a while, but I doubt years and years, more like 2-5. I would actually be more confident in Montrose than Cos, as the former has been making real efforts to bring the quality back to former glories and the selection might be further up the reject list than I indicated, whilst Cos is, or has been in recent years, a jacked-up, Parkerised parody of great Bordeaux, with pretentions to 1st Growth status.
I remember years ago being able to buy what was effectively a third wine of Chateau Latour, labelled as a straight Pauillac, it was absolutely superb, and for nothing.
Marchbanks
Hat and Beard member
What’s more, Montrose has a Bad Motor Scooter, whereas Cos is basically the boring bit in a salad.
eternumviti
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Sorry, I've just realised that you meant that I should go for the offer. Thank you.
(I've already got some though!)
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