What Was Your Most Recent Bottle of Wine?

[hmvman]

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

Two Aldi wines I've enjoyed recently are the Pierre Jaurant Cap d'Agde Rosé which was on offer in my local store for £6.29 https://www.aldi.co.uk/pierre-jauran...10103468606600 and the Pierre Jaurant Côteaux De Béziers Cabernet/Merlot, also on offer at £5.99 https://www.aldi.co.uk/pierre-jauran...10219468299400 The rosé was particularly quaffable on a warm summer's evening.

[Belgrove]

Friends generously brought a wild salmon which, following a good deal of preparation, was confit with an accompaniment of garden peas with bacon and lettuce, and a cucumber-dill salad - simple but very summery. Something rich to drink with it was required, so a 2016 Vieux Télégraphe white Châteauneuf-du-pape fitted the bill. Honey hued and honeysuckle scented, a hint of lemony freshness and subtle stone fruit flavours with a ‘fat’ mouthfeel that worked well with the fish. The other half of the salmon was poached in stock made from the bones and served cold with mayonnaise and a warm potato salad and broad beans the following day. Another Rhône wine to accompany, a 2018 Croze-Hermitage Mule Blanche, classic ‘white flower’ aromas, buttery character and rich stone fruit flavours. A pair of memorably hedonistic wines.

[french frank]

Friends generously brought a wild salmon which, following a good deal of preparation, was confit with an accompaniment of garden peas with bacon and lettuce, and a cucumber-dill salad - simple but very summery. Something rich to drink with it was required, so a 2016 Vieux Télégraphe white Châteauneuf-du-pape fitted the bill. Honey hued and honeysuckle scented, a hint of lemony freshness and subtle stone fruit flavours with a ‘fat’ mouthfeel that worked well with the fish. The other half of the salmon was poached in stock made from the bones and served cold with mayonnaise and a warm potato salad and broad beans the following day. Another Rhône wine to accompany, a 2018 Croze-Hermitage Mule Blanche, classic ‘white flower’ aromas, buttery character and rich stone fruit flavours. A pair of memorably hedonistic wines.

I'm speechless. I think even my unsophisticated palate could appreciate those, should I ever get near a bottle!

[Serial_Apologist]

Today I finish the bottle of South African red wine I commenced on New Year's Eve. It's called Bruce Jack, and for its low price I have always found it to be of high standard, with a rich, not-too-dry flavour, and a good aftertaste. Were it to be called Jack Bruce that might have confused it with Bristol Cream (geddit??)

My father used to say to people, "I wish they would abolish the apartheid system". "Why, Dad - I didn't think you liked black people?" "Because I could then start ordering up South African wines, which, I tell you, are absolutely wonderful".

[cloughie]

Today I finish the bottle of South African red wine I commenced on New Year's Eve. It's called Bruce Jack, and for its low price I have always found it to be of high standard, with a rich, not-too-dry flavour, and a good aftertaste. Were it to be called Jack Bruce that might have confused it with Bristol Cream (geddit??)

My father used to say to people, "I wish they would abolish the apartheid system". "Why, Dad - I didn't think you liked black people?" "Because I could then start ordering up South African wines, which, I tell you, are absolutely wonderful".

I have a bottle of the Bruce Jack in my rack - I own up to purchasing it attracted by the Cream connection - I see it packs a punch at 14.5%!

[french frank]

I have a bottle of the Bruce Jack in my rack - I own up to purchasing it attracted by the Cream connection - I see it packs a punch at 14.5%!

I tend to avoid anything over 13.5% on principle. Today I opened another bottle of the Château de la Mirande Picpoul de Pinet (13.5%) to go with the pissaladière. The wine was good …

[Belgrove]

Friends brought some (thankfully already prepared) Cromer crabs. The aperitif was the new season’s en Rama fino; darker wheat-ear-hued rather than the palest straw one usually associates with a fino and with more heft. Bone-dry with a saline/yeasty tang, sharpening the palate. To eke out the crab, we had it with linguine, the rich sauce made from the brown meat, chilli, garlic (thinned down with the dregs of the en Rama) and the sweet white meat stirred through at the end. A couple of bottles of 2020 Albariño (briny preserved lemon flavours, dry but rich, with a scent of grapefruit) was a perfect accompaniment. Simple and lightning quick.

[Belgrove]

Pescatarian friends relax their regime when it comes to that delicious summer dish, vitello tonnato, regarding the poached (rose) veal as an honorary fish! It’s a tricky dish to match with wine, subtle yet oxymoronically being characterful and surprisingly rich. Not being a fan of Italian whites, which would be the natural match, meant looking further afield. A 2017 Taburnum is from the northern Rhone. Made from pure Viognier, though not from the Condrieu appellation, and even richer, were that possible. Scents of honeysuckle, bees wax and apricots, with a mouth-filling richness, almost fat, with just the right acidity to give structure and make the mouth water, and a silky apricot muskiness on the palate; it proved to be a splendid match with the food. More (southern) Rhone to follow, a simple dessert of poached peaches with a Muscat de Beumes-de-Venise; syrupy, grapey and honeyed.

[Pulcinella]

Pescatarian friends relax their regime when it comes to that delicious summer dish, vitello tonnato, regarding the poached (rose) veal as an honorary fish! It’s a tricky dish to match with wine, subtle yet oxymoronically being characterful and surprisingly rich. Not being a fan of Italian whites, which would be the natural match, meant looking further afield. A 2017 Taburnum is from the northern Rhone. Made from pure Viognier, though not from the Condrieu appellation, and even richer, were that possible. Scents of honeysuckle, bees wax and apricots, with a mouth-filling richness, almost fat, with just the right acidity to give structure and make the mouth water, and a silky apricot muskiness on the palate; it proved to be a splendid match with the food. More (southern) Rhone to follow, a simple dessert of poached peaches with a Muscat de Beumes-de-Venise; syrupy, grapey and honeyed.

Maybe they don't travel well, or perhaps it's the association that's hard to match: we've never quite repeated the pleasure of enjoying a glass of Orvieto in the city itself, sitting outside at a table while looking at the wonderful west end of the cathedral.

[french frank]

I love reading these rhapsodies especially about the matching of wine and food (and especially belgrove's!). But it's a world I don't inhabit. I do have a preference for matching countries (would prefer beer or cider with anything English).

But I wonder whether standards are dropped at all for everyday meals; and if 'everyday meals' is not a concept entertained, what wine is usually drunk (every day) for lunch/dinner.

[Andrew]

I tend to avoid anything over 13.5% on principle. Today I opened another bottle of the Château de la Mirande Picpoul de Pinet (13.5%) to go with the pissaladière. The wine was good …

I know that one-bloody marvellous!

[Petrushka]

I love reading these rhapsodies especially about the matching of wine and food (and especially belgrove's!). But it's a world I don't inhabit. I do have a preference for matching countries (would prefer beer or cider with anything English).

But I wonder whether standards are dropped at all for everyday meals; and if 'everyday meals' is not a concept entertained, what wine is usually drunk (every day) for lunch/dinner.

My 'everyday' wine is the Domaine Huber Grüner Veltliner from Austria which is available from Waitrose and Sainsbury's. Excellent wine with almost anything.

I've developed a taste for Austrian wines which, in my view, are underrated. Good ones can be had from Kipferl in London https://kipferl.co.uk/ though they are pricey. The sparkling sekt, Weixelbaum Wahre Werte Extra Brut is a wonderful celebration wine for birthday or New Year.

[Belgrove]

But I wonder whether standards are dropped at all for everyday meals; and if 'everyday meals' is not a concept entertained, what wine is usually drunk (every day) for lunch/dinner.

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…

[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').

[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.