The Wine List

[David Samuels]

At a more reasonable price than Beaumes de Venise, try a Mombazillac; they tend to be delicious, sweet and luscious. For red this Christmas, we're going to have some 2000 Côtes de Castillon from Tony Laithwaite, whose wines I have been buying for 30 years. We only have four of these left which, since there will only be the two of us, should suffice. It will last through the (very) rare roast beef and the cheese.

[ahinton]

Good Spanish whites are a recent discovery for me - and, like Calabresse, I am indebted to restaurants for steering me tothemwards - (tho' nowhere near as swanky as Caliban*'s usual haunts, the Gordon Ramsay empire... ) - But I have become completely persuaded, and have come to like various albariños - rias baixas very much indeed : highly recommended!

* no perfumed ponce he, o no...

And not just albariños either; try, for example, Torres Milmanda, a chardonnay with almost alarmingly good-burgundian tones...

[Richard Tarleton]

'

But I have become completely persuaded, and have come to like various albariños - rias baixas very much indeed : highly recommended!

...product of a very different climate to most Spanish wine, much more like our own - Atlantic, mild and wet...we were taken to an albariño bodega (in the pouring rain) when I did my OU Spanish summer school in Santiago de Compostela a few years back.

My favourite Spanish wine , for special occasions, is Ribera del Duero.

[mangerton]

googling suggests about £20.

I quite liked the description of this wine "Wonderful nose with layers of sweet, velvety aromas, liquid apricots, fruit syrup; wonderful in the mouth; lighter than many but with very good fruit concentration; seems to gain strength in the glass, dominant flavors are apricot with a hint of pineapple and perhaps some green apple in the background; neither too sweet nor dry, this wine has very good balance; lacks the assertion of a ch yquem, but not a slouching wine either. "

"It's a naive domestic burgundy without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused
by its presumption." - Thurber

[Anna]

We only have four of these left which, since there will only be the two of us, should suffice. It will last through the (very) rare roast beef and the cheese.

Two bottles each? You will be Merry and Bright!! Interesting dessert wines selections, will have to investigate what I can obtain locally as too late to order anything on the net.

Now, what about champagne? I'm not thinking of Bolly but something more reasonably priced or a superior bottle of fizz?

[vinteuil]

"It's a naive domestic burgundy without any breeding, but I think you'll be amused
by its presumption." - Thurber

Mangerton - many thanks for reminding me of the Thurber classic - I wish I had the technology to upload the accompanying cartoon...

From the Wine Society website another classic : -

"The baroque school of wine writing went out of fashion in the middle of the last century. Gerald Asher’s description of a nuits-st-georges gives you a taste of the kind of thing: ‘Deep colour and big shaggy nose. Rather a jumbly, untidy sort of wine, with fruitiness shooting off one way, firmness another, and body pushing about underneath.’ "

[johnb]

Over the last few days I've gone slightly mad (well, even madder than before). Seeing that I was out of wine I've gone on a splurge - buying a silly amount. I blame the person who started this thread (and Jancis Robinson who stupidly published a list of the 60 best reds for Christmas).

Well, I certainly won't be thirsty for a while.

[Nick Armstrong]

Good Spanish whites are a recent discovery for me - and, like Calabresse, I am indebted to restaurants for steering me tothemwards - (tho' nowhere near as swanky as Caliban*'s usual haunts, the Gordon Ramsay empire... ) - But I have become completely persuaded, and have come to like various albariños - rias baixas very much indeed : highly recommended!

* no perfumed ponce he, o no...

Touché!!! (or should I say Tocado...!)

I have an albariño in the new fridge, as well as a bottle of the Pariente verdejo recommended earlier...

Moderate and very enjoyable tippling to all

[Stillhomewardbound]

I blame the person who started this thread.

That was me! But worry not. So that I may ease your burden I'll be around in the van in a jiffy!!

[johnb]

Errr ... thanks for your kind offer.

I know that wine recommendations that you see in the newspapers can be a bit iffy but, for what it's worth, this is the link to Jancis Robinson's own website, with her recommendations for Christmas wines. There are around 60 each red and white wines, starting at around £7. ("GV" = Good Value, "VGV" = Very Good Value)

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a20111217.html

[vinteuil]

25 December. Well, there was a nice petillant from Saumur to go with the nuts and such - a fine vouvray to go with prosciutto and figs - to go with the turkey, and also the cheeses, a delicate 2002 and a then a more fruity 2004 gevrey-chambertin - a more than acceptable beaumes de venise with the pud - an armagnac that i was very happy with for the coffee and chocs - and the rest is a bit of a blur.... happy crimbletide, y'all ...

[vinteuil]

I have an albariño in the new fridge, as well as a bottle of the Pariente verdejo recommended earlier...

... but not in the 'fridge too long, I hope -

"White wines should, of course, always be chilled, but never iced. They should be chilled as rapidly as possible; the classic ice bucket is still the best method. A couple of hours in the refrigerator or a half hour in the freezer (provided one does not forget it is there) will do the trick; but a prolonged stay in the refrigerator will rob a wine of all its qualities - it is cassé - broken."

Richard Olney The French Menu Cookbook

[Stillhomewardbound]

Dissappointed with the Chablis I had bought for the salmon starter. It had come out of a very cold fridge but did not come across as adequately chilled (ice bucket suggestion probably the best way to go on that one). Still, think I would have been better off with a Sancerre or a Reisling. Damn labels suggesting refinement and quality they don't deliver on.

[johnb]

Dissappointed with the Chablis I had bought for the salmon starter. It had come out of a very cold fridge but did not come across as adequately chilled (ice bucket suggestion probably the best way to go on that one). Still, think I would have been better off with a Sancerre or a Reisling. Damn labels suggesting refinement and quality they don't deliver on.

Tomorrow I'm taking an Alsace Riesling, a Burgundy and a bottle of colheita port over to close friends (a long standing custom). Luckily my house is on a steep hill and one of the rooms in the front half of the basement is unheated and forms an pretty good wine cellar (it's likely that the room was originally a lead lined water cistern). The temperature is currently at around 9C, which I understand is a good temperature for serving white wine.

It's a pity that Alsace wines are often overlooked.

[johnb]

... but not in the 'fridge too long, I hope -

"White wines should, of course, always be chilled, but never iced. They should be chilled as rapidly as possible; the classic ice bucket is still the best method. A couple of hours in the refrigerator or a half hour in the freezer (provided one does not forget it is there) will do the trick; but a prolonged stay in the refrigerator will rob a wine of all its qualities - it is cassé - broken."

Richard Olney The French Menu Cookbook

I suspect that the ice bucket is a much more effective way of chilling a bottle of wine than sticking it in a fridge.

From a rough calculation (which might well be wrong) I estimate that the amount of heat that a fridge needs to draw out of a bottle of wine to reduce its temperature from 21 to 9 degrees is around the same heat as that emitted by a 40 watt light bulb burning for one hour, and that is just for wine itself and ignores the glass bottle!