What Was Your Most Recent Bottle of Wine?

[Belgrove]

My point was rather that your friends cannot claim to so grandiose a title as "pescatarian" when, in essence, they're people who prefer fish but will eat meat as and when their palates are titillated.

Your original point suggested that the rearing of the animals was inhumane and I gave reasons why, to the best of my knowledge, that is not the case. How my friends choose to refer to themselves is entirely a matter for them.

[Sir Velo]

Indeed it is. My UK supplier provides organically reared rose veal, the animals having a free-range outdoor life. If one eats cheese and drinks milk, then one must face the issue of dealing with excess male calves.

My point was rather that your friends cannot claim to so grandiose a title as "pescatarian" when, in essence, they're people who prefer fish but will eat meat as and when their palates are titillated.

[Belgrove]

Presumably, concern with animal suffering is not at the root of their dietary observances?

Indeed it is. My UK supplier provides organically reared rose veal, the animals having a free-range outdoor life. If one eats cheese and drinks milk, then one must face the issue of dealing with excess male calves.

[HighlandDougie]

One of the 21 classed growths? It couldn't have been Ch. Margaux - that would have been infanticide.

If Chateau Margaux, currently to be had here in la belle France from one merchant as a bargain offer at 495,00€ per bottle. Yum! Ma favorite (but not, alas, at that price).

The one slightly posh claret I still possess - 1990 Cos d'Estournel bought en primeur - is still, as they say, "drinking well" but the few remaining bottles will be the last classed growth I ever have as it's all become just a touch too expensive to be afforded on a pension.

[Sir Velo]

Pescatarian friends relax their regime when it comes to that delicious summer dish, vitello tonnato

Presumably, concern with animal suffering is not at the root of their dietary observances?

[Keraulophone]

a 2014 Margaux

One of the 21 classed growths? It couldn't have been Ch. Margaux - that would have been infanticide.

[smittims]

Yesterday I opened a 2014 Margaux, from my dwindling stock of this vintage.

[Belgrove]

Côte Rôtie is sometimes described as ‘ethereal’, which may suggest blandness or a lack of imagination to describe the scents and tastes. The colour of the 2012 Ch de Montlys is dark maroon in the glass, but with a pale brick-red rim, betraying that it’s getting on a bit. It’s perfumed, heady with dark fruits, black cherry, damsons, slightly peppery, and then a fleeting hint of violets, then liquorice - so certainly complex, perhaps ‘ephemeral’ rather than ethereal, it shifts. The first taste is silky. The tannins that provide structure and depth have been integrated, mellowed and softened with age into a smooth, rich mouthfeel. And the dark fruits on the nose are there on the palate too, and they persist. Although it’s a dry wine, it has a sweet juiciness and freshness that belies its age - it’s elegant and deeply satisfying. So not a whopping blockbuster Syrah in the Australian mode that ends up dominating a meal, but rather a very classy supporting actor that slyly steals the show. The grouse, although delicious, is essentially an excuse to consume industrial quantities of bread sauce; but with such a wine it’s a heavenly match.

[french frank]

Good grief!
Their Spanish Toro Loco here, often at £3.99.
12 bottles bought this morning.

Careful now. You're getting down to my level. When Coop Spanish White was at £4 a bottle, if I got a member's offer of 75p off any Coop wine, one bottle ran in at £2.95. Just as good as now that it's £4.10p. From the sublime to the cor blimey, this thread, I know!

[Keraulophone]

There was a scandal some years ago about anti-freeze in the wines, wasn't there? Our family just rose to the level of a table wine sold under the label of Hirondelle…

Blue Nun, Black Tower, Le Piat de Beaujolais, Le Piat d’Or, Mateus Rosé, Bull’s Blood…. memories from the ‘70s and ‘80s that are best forgotten. Beaujolais has since become an excellent buy for those who like lighter red styles, especially the village crus such as Moulin-à-Vent (which can age to resemble pinot noir).

As for anti-freeze in wine, after the scandal hit in mid-1985, Austria couldn’t sell any more wine and 27 million litres of the suspect liquid had to be disposed of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_diethylene_glycol_wine_scandal

Currently on fam hols inland from Split, Croatia, but am yet to find a bottle of local wine which I would call half-decent; have had to resort to Tuscan reds and Portuguese Vinho Verde whites form the local German supermarket.

[cloughie]

Good grief!
Their Spanish Toro Loco here, often at £3.99.
12 bottles bought this morning.


https://www.aldi.co.uk/toro-loco-sup...40728020610200

Their Estevez Chilean Pinot Noir at a similar price is very quaffable too.

Laurent Miquel Vendanges Nocturnes Cinsault/Syrah Rosé From Waitrose is a lovely pale dry rose from the Languedoc - £8.99 normal price but was on offer a few weeks ago at £6.99 - I think as good as many a more expensive Provence rose.

[Pulcinella]

Aldi has some inexpensive and enjoyable Portuguese and Greek white wines all around £6 to £8 pounds.

Good grief!
Their Spanish Toro Loco here, often at £3.99.
12 bottles bought this morning.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/toro-loco-superior/p/040728020610200

[gradus]

Aldi has some inexpensive and enjoyable Portuguese and Greek white wines all around £6 to £8 pounds.

[Belgrove]

Lapsang with smoked fish is great, but also consider a full bodied Chardonnay with smoked haddock or a manzanilla with smoked mackerel. Sherry is very underrated for the quality one can get nowadays. Bone dry or yeasty finos are excellent with kippers and smoked eel (which is a real delicacy if you can source it). Smelly thick rind cheeses (Pont l’Evéque, and of that ilk) go pretty well with with an oloroso. We once had a pissaladière for an al fresco lunch in Provence with a Bandol Rosé, which was one of those perfect matches of food, wine and (as Pulcinella alluded to up-thread) place.

[french frank]

I've developed a taste for Austrian wines which, in my view, are underrated.

There was a scandal some years ago about anti-freeze in the wines, wasn't there? Our family just rose to the level of a table wine sold under the label of Hirondelle, but that disappeared. Mind you, I weather the cold winters pretty well these days.

Oh certainly! But the everyday depends on the season, which affects what is being eaten. Last week, a sausage and tomato casserole was accompanied by a light (12.5%) everyday pinotage, whereas a similar dish in winter (with a good dollop of mash) would warrant a heavier red, perhaps an everyday Zinfandel. Fish n’ chips is always good with a cup of tea…

Still quite a bit of connoisseurship, though, especially with the fish and chips. Lapsang souchong goes well with smoked haddock - or kippers.

I quite like a glass of dry sherry with Spanish cheeses but I have to get that delivered (half bottles only) and as they have a £20 minimum delivery order I have to pick something else to make up the price. I usually go for their picpoul and keep it until I'm having something that goes with it - normally the weekly pissaladière. And at that point the oenological epicureanism reaches its zenith. Back to Coop's Spanish White ('crisp and dry').