What Was Your Most Recent Bottle of Wine?

[french frank]

... yes, there can be an English snob element about wine. But also, there are ways in which the English are sometimes more clued-up about wine than the French. Not just because of the hundreds of years of English involvement in the claret trade - but also because the (non-Parisian) French often tend to know about the wines from their own area, but are remarkable higgorant about wines from elsewhere (the Italians, of course, are still worse in this regard). Precisely because we are not really a serious wine producer (I know, I know) many Brits know more about a range of French/Italian/other wines than many a French or Italian person might

But knowledgeable or ignorant, isn't it simply that the whole culture of wine drinking is different in the wine-producing countries where it's everyday drinking like tea - or Heavens to Betsy! coca cola or white lemonade)? The majority aren't drinking 'fine wines' but they still drink wine. Over here most people don't drink wine so a larger percentage drink 'fine wines' than Over There. Is that fair?

[hmvman]

But I don't go to the other extreme adopted by English friends settled in Italy for the last thirty years who drink everything from duralex tumblers. I do like thin glass and a stem, and I still like a flute for bubbles even if the latest thinking is that champagne is best from a 'normal' burgundy glass...

Some friends of ours (one of whom is French) tend to drink wine from Duralex tumblers with a lunchtime snack but use stemmed glasses at dinner.

Agreed about the bubbles; drinking fizz from a 'normal' wine glass seems very strange.

[cat]

Lindemans Winemakers Release Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon @ £7.19

Fulfills my criteria of being less than 8 quid and having a screw top.

[Dave2002]

Over here most people don't drink wine so a larger percentage drink 'fine wines' than Over There. Is that fair?

Not sure.

We once had a driving holiday round Europe passing through Spain. We sampled quite a number of bottles on the way, trying to find something "good" that we liked.
As I recall one of the best was actually just plain wine in a restaurant - in a carafe - very cheap. We also decided in the end that we might as well "go cheap" and bought some very ordinary wine - which seemed better than most.

We also had friends with similar experiences - who eventually watched what the locals did, and discovered that they were filling up plastic containers from taps in the stores (not sure if this is still possible in France) - really cheap stuff - so they tried that.

The comment they made was that those wines were significantly better than the bottled stuff - though maybe they were completely befuddled or drunk by then.

Of course this is not to say that there aren't good wines which are clearly better - there are - but they may be hard to find - and there's also an element of personal taste involved. Not every tea drinker likes Assam or Darjeeling.

There is another argument which is hard to verify that some countries deliberately export the wines their population doesn't want to drink and also some wines labelled or effectively marketed as "Fine" might not be so labelled in their home country.

I'm not suggesting that any of this is "true", but rather that the statement that a greater percentage of wine drinkers in the UK drink "fine" wines than others is very much open to question - for a variety of reasons.

[vinteuil]

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... I suppose it depends whether you recognize a formal distinction between 'wine' and a separate category of 'fine wine' (vin ordinaire, vins fins).

Which may be tendentious - like when we try here to define what we understand by 'classical' music

I think I choose wines in different ways depending on whether I am thinking of them as regular drinking wines usually to accompany a meal, or those times when the wine is in the foreground and to be concentrated on more specifically. And it's not always a distinction between 'cheap' and 'expensive'








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[french frank]

I think I choose wines in a different way whether I am thinking of them as regular drinking wines usually to accompany a meal, or those times when the wine is in the foreground and to be concentrated on more specifically. And it's not always a distinction between 'cheap' and 'expensive'

On a totally unwarranted assumption, I associate the term 'fine wines' with France, château/domaine bottled and a recognised good vintage. Consequently expensive, which still doesn't mean the more expensive the better the wine. More to do with scarcity. And of course a cheap wine can be delicious. One's buying habits depend largely on past tasting experiences. I occasionally splurge out on, say, a £20 bottle purely as an experiment.

PS I am not downhearted that today's galette will have to be partneed with the Coop cheap Spanish plonk. I shall survive, boosted by the knowledge that the galette is not haute cuisine.

[vinteuil]

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.... the Wine Soc: produces a 'Fine Wine' list as well as its regular wine lists. The Fine Wine lists have many wines costing less than £20 : France may predominate, but there are many other producers - Spain, Italy, Hungary, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Oregon &c

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[vinteuil]

PS I am not downhearted that today's galette will have to be partneed with the Coop cheap Spanish plonk. I shall survive, boosted by the knowledge that the galette is not haute cuisine.

... re: galettes - last week we had this chard'n'cheese number, excellent

https://food52.com/recipes/30264-slab-galette-with-swiss-chard-and-gruyere

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[HighlandDougie]

I'm not suggesting that any of this is "true", but rather that the statement that a greater percentage of wine drinkers in the UK drink "fine" wines than others is very much open to question - for a variety of reasons.

As in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFiuzTOitc0

[french frank]

As in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFiuzTOitc0

Not seen that. I loved "You're fired."

To Dave: I've no evidence other than experience of French domesticity where more or less all households consume wine, including supermarket wines and cheaper locally-produced stuff (which we don't have here). I felt (in making my surmise) that, relatively speaking ("percentagewise") more winedrinkers here were connoisseurs (or Alpie's "wine snobs" ) whereas in France most winedrinkers drink wine because everyone drinks wine.

[jayne lee wilson]

For a nice not-too-dry red (I dislike sweet wines from almost any region) try the Primitivo Manduria 2019 (Masseria del Borgo). Around £12 from Sainsburys etc. Fond of Northern Italian Reds as Valpolicella, but they can be a little overpowering. More partial to the heel, Puglia, and Siciliano. (Still with fond memories of the various 2000 vintages... ah...big sighs...)

The hint of sweetness makes this versatile enough for cheese and tomato pasta through to Thai/Chinese dishes, which constitute my usual, necessarily light, late night diet (when I can actually eat of course...).

Probably have to be soup and salad tonight, and this will be a fine accompaniment there too. (With the Picpoul during the piecing together of the salad plate...)

[french frank]

... re: galettes - last week we had this chard'n'cheese number, excellent

https://food52.com/recipes/30264-sla...rd-and-gruyere

What's this about 'a more traditionally-shaped free-form galette'? Mine are usually octagonal or hexagonal, although for some reason today's was heptagonal. Depends how the pastry folds. jlw's Picpoul might have been better than the Spanish 'Crisp and Dry'

[CallMePaul]

Bowler and Brolley English Rosé - £8.99 from Aldi. Great to support English wine growers and producers!

[Bryn]

A bog-standard Rose from Tesco, as part of a 'meal deal' for £10. The bottle of wine was nominally priced at £7 but would not have gained many buyers if so-priced on the wine shelves. I'm not what you might call a wine drinker, let alone a wine enthusiast. Distil the juice from the grape, apple, grain, whatever, and I am much happier. For 'medicinal purposes, of course.

[Keraulophone]

Made especially for Waitrose, the Louis Jadot Quincié Beaujolais is currently a few quid off and, after 20 minutes in the fridge, provides juicy refreshment while we swelter.