In vino veritas - what wine are you drinking?

the beer revolu

There should be way more wine in boxes, imo!

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122294580#Comment_122294580

Lots in the UK and France. None here really. Its great for music festivals.

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122294641#Comment_122294641

Way less packaging and more efficient transportation!

Bad to have around if you have sneaky teenagers around, though! (they were popular here for a bit in the 80s, at least in our house!)

odyssey06

Almost a disaster… wanted to pick up a bottle of Georgian red wine ahead of their crunch game v Portugal on Wednesday night in the Euros. The local Polonez out of stock!

Luckily there is also a Polo store nearby and they sorted me out with a Badagoni Saperavi dry red wine for €11.30.
Dry is important here as mainly off dry reds stocked.

Something of a bargain as it is listed as €16 - €18 elsewhere.

https://www.thecorkscrew.ie/badagoni-saperavi.html

https://leonards.wine/products/badagoni-saperavi

I think M&S also stock a Saperavi now in their 'Found' range for those curious.

The Nal

Plumptious beauties

the beer revolu

Was gifted this a couple of months ago. Decided it probably wasn't getting any better (1999), so decided not to wait for a special occasion (and also, greedily decided not to share it with future guests). Instead, Mrs beer and I had it with pork chops, rosti, roast tomatoes and spinach.

It was delicious, very dry - almost vinegary, in a good way, but really complex, if still quite light. Gorgeous - polished off the bottle.

odyssey06

LIDL Vino Nobile de Montepulciano going doing well at the moment, about €12 if you manage to come across a bottle in the LIDL wine bin.

And a very nice Madiran from O'Briens. Though I still miss the older rustic Madiran Tesco used to stock, it has been made more 'approachable' with some Cab Sav blended in. Probably sells more bottles now!

The Berthoumieu Madiran is also a blend, including a grape I'm unfamiliar with:
An unoaked blend of Tannat, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinenc grape varieties, it is a pure expression of the Madiran terroir.

https://www.obrienswine.ie/products/berthoumieu-madiran-constance

For comparison, this is the Tesco Madiran:

https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/en-IE/products/262260359

odyssey06

Interesting data via Jancis Robinson newsletter, data on falling wine sales.

The drinks-market analysts IWSR released a report on 22 July that sheds light on why wine sales by volume are seeing such a steep decline. As they highlight, the UK drinks 14% less wine than in 2000, Australia drinks 11% less, and France, Italy, Argentina and Spain have all seen consumption decline since the turn of the century. But the number of wine drinkers has grown in many major markets. So what’s happened?

The issue seems to be fourfold:

• moderation is a growing trend, with 67% of wine drinkers between legal minimum drinking age and 27 years moderating intake; 61% of Millennials; 49% of Gen X and 43% of Boomers
• there is increased competition from other categories and younger drinkers are not category-loyal
• younger consumers are simply not drinking as much wine
• and finally, consumers of all ages are trading up to more premium wine but drinking less often.

Black Sheep

I've enjoyed Portuguese reds ever since I spent several consecutive summers over there.

Esporao and Niepoort are good for a more expensive option, but lately I've been really impressed with Aldi's Animus Douro Reserva.

They have a 'regular' Animus Douro, but it's the Reserva that is particularly good, worth the extra few euro.

The Nal

12 quid in Lidl. A fantastic malbec at any price.