What Was Your Most Recent Bottle of Wine?

[hmvman]

I see the Times recommended Lidl's Deluxe Argentinian Malbec in its 50 best red wines to drink this winter on Saturday £6.29 13.5% alcohol .

My favourite god value Cahors is Clos la Coutale from the Wine Society, It keeps too - a 2017 was lovely last week . Its £9.95 though it was only about £7.95 a couple of years back .

Another very good Malbec is the Fairtrade Organic Malbec from Co-op . I think it was £8.99 not at all overblown and silky smooth fruit. I imagine it would go vry well with Christmas dinner.

Thank you for these recommendations.

[Belgrove]

Noël pour deux this year, and Mme B given the days off with me pretending as chief cook and bottle washer. So things kept simple.

Xmas Eve dinner was dover sole meunière, with a 2019 Auxey-Duresse. In its middle age and drinking rather well, pale straw hued, quite austere on first approach with its gunflint aroma and slatey minerality, but with an emerging freshness of pear and apple - a successful match.

That bottle was polished off to accompany a remoulade with air dried ham for starter for Xmas day lunch. The main event was osso buco with risotto Milanese with a 2011 Chateauneuf du Pape. Not a big alcoholic monster blend, but made from Grenache and Mourvèdre alone. Perhaps a tad over, but with an aroma of hedgerow fruits that opened out on decanting, those fruits being apparent in the taste too, blended into a gently harmonious rather than complex mix that one associates with this appellation. A decent match for the rich stew.

A 2016 Cypresés de Climens Barsac for dessert (to accompany boozy Agen prunes and, according to Mme B, a too stiff panna cota - quite correct). Rich golden sunshine and hedonism in a glass. Apricots, golden sultanas and honey, but with the all too important acidity to prevent cloying. It saved the inadequacies of the cook.

[Lordgeous]

A Canadian white! About £25. I don't normally spend this sort of money on wine but I thought I'd splash out and try something new for Christmas. Abssolutely delicious! Wild Goose Pinot Gris | Pinot Grigio White Wine 75 cl (13.5% ABV), Canadian Wine, Okanagan Valley, Canada BC VQA.

[HighlandDougie]

Noël pour deux this year, and Mme B given the days off with me pretending as chief cook and bottle washer. So things kept simple.

It saved the inadequacies of the cook.

Tsk! After sterling efforts with Osso Buco et al, Mme B might be forgiven for the firmness of the panna cotta. "Inadequacies", was, I am sure, to be read with tongue-firmly-stuck-in-cheek. The dessert wine, does, though seem rather fine. My guests last night got some Jacquesson 745 - it might as well have been Asti Spumante. Sigh!

[vinteuil]

My guests last night got some Jacquesson 745 - it might as well have been Asti Spumante. Sigh!

.... Haven't had a Jacquesson in ages! Some time back I tried them almost every other year - sad to hear that the 745 wasn't up to snuff : had it just been kept a bit too long?

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[HighlandDougie]

.... Haven't had a Jacquesson in ages! Some time back I tried them almost every other year - sad to hear that the 745 wasn't up to snuff : had it just been kept a bit too long?

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My sloppy wording, alas. The Jacquesson is delicious. Well up to their usual standards. Sort of pearls before swine in terms of those to whom it was served. I try not to be too precious about wine but no recognition that what they were drinking wasn’t just Asti Spumante. Serves me right.

[cloughie]

White Malbec - Argentinian - new to me, and very pleasant. Crisp and dry.

[gradus]

Opened a 2010 Chateauneuf Vieux Telegraphe le Crau, excellent but ludicrously over-priced now, I think I paid about £30 for it in bond years ago, an entirely exceptional purchase for me then.

[vinteuil]

The Jacquesson is delicious. Well up to their usual standards...

... that is so good to hear. I was always a fan - Jacquesson and Ruinart my bubbles of choice

[Keraulophone]

The good value Tesco Premier Cru champers @ £15 / bt (discounted and 25% off for six) and a glorious Pavillon Rouge 2010 Ch Margaux with the Christmas goose (5 bts left… looking forward to those in future years).

[french frank]

Don't trust reviews. I thought I'd try T...o's £18 white burgundy @ £6 off for me and my T...o card. Victor Blachet Hautes Côtes de Beaune 2023. Reviews depend on who's tasting it, their expectation and their knowledge. So I'm not put off by a single * review. Keeping it in reserve for food that might suit it, eg cheese.

[vinteuil]

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... very nice lunch to mark the eightieth birthday of a friend, an academic, at the B**fst**k Club -

champagne Olivier Père et Fils Cuvée Origine Brut NV
Mâcon Milly-Lamartine 2022
2019 Domaine de Mourchon Côtes du Rhône 2019

Not many perks to being an academic - unless you have students who go on to financially-enriching careers who then wish to honour you with beanfeasts like this.
Happy and honoured to have been invited to attend...


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[Pulcinella]

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... very nice lunch to mark the eightieth birthday of a friend, an academic, at the B**fst**k Club -

champagne Olivier Père et Fils Cuvée Origine Brut NV
Mâcon Milly-Lamartine 2022
2019 Domaine de Mourchon Côtes du Rhône 2019

Not many perks to being an academic - unless you have students who go on to financially-enriching careers who then wish to honour you with beanfeasts like this.
Happy and honoured to have been invited to attend...


.

You have a student who's 80?

[vinteuil]

You have a student who's 80?

... not at all! I am not an academic : but our friend is an historian (specialist subjects : Cromwell, the Civil War), some of whose students have done very well, and who generously got together to provide a slap-up meal...

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[HighlandDougie]

"Graduates", perhaps, who work for/own a hedge fund (or the like)? It sounds delightful. I was subjected last Saturday by my friend Elizabeth (terribly proud to have been deemed recently by Jancis Robinson as , "the Queen of Rosés") to a selective tasting of 24 reds/whites from the Costières de Nimes appelation. No swallowing allowed. Hard work - the neighbouring appelations to the north-east towards Avignon and Montélimar need not worry. And the 24 was post-winnowing of 48 wines (2 bottles of each wine) which had been delivered to them by their long-suffering Facteur. So, in best French fashion, our Forum Connoisseurs should shudder and note, "a fuir".