Recommend a Red Wine

aidan_walsh

So come on people, spill. If anyone has a wine they enjoy and would feel compelled to share (including the price you paid as a guideline, and if possible a link to a description, in case any of our more descerning visitors would like to look it up ), please feel free to do so.

I myself enjoyed a bottle of McGuigan Black Label Merlot. Quite tasty on its own, and like much of the McGuigan label pretty widely available from what I can see. I got the bottle in a local NearBuy store, and paid €10.99 for it, which I thought was reasonable enough, on par with what I would expect to have paid in an off license for one.

steveland?

Not a huge fan of the McGuigan Merlot but they do a nice Shiraz for around a tenner.

If you're not a huge wine drinker I'd recommend a bottle of Campo Viejo Crianza. It's €9.99 most places and real easy to drink.

Another really nice one is a Grenache Shiraz from Rosemount Estate (another Aussie wine) which costs around €12.95 or so

aidan_walsh

steveland? wrote:

Not a huge fan of the McGuigan Merlot but they do a nice Shiraz for around a tenner.

Yep, I tried their Shiraz before when I used to work in a bar. Nice stuff.

Tazz T

I've mentioned this on a previous wine thread, but try Lidl's Australian Shiraz - it really is excellent and a bargain at 6 or 6.50 euro.

steveland?

aidan_walsh wrote:

Yep, I tried their Shiraz before when I used to work in a bar. Nice stuff.

Had it with a big fat steak a few weeks ago... perfect combination

Blub2k4

If you can get your hands on a bottle of any red wine from 1994 you will have an excellent wine but can expect to pay anywhere from 20-upwards, but you wont be disappointed, 94 was good and next 95,97 then 98 but they are sorta the good vintages which are available as reserves.
Rioja from any of these years is extremely good.

Bateman

Wolf Blass "President's Select" Cabernet, €15.99 in Superquinn, probably in or around the same price elsewhere. Great with beef and blackbean sauce, sweet and sour beef, that kind of thing. Said to be nice accompanying pork too, but I'm not a "pork eater".

cerebus

Blub2k4 wrote:

If you can get your hands on a bottle of any red wine from 1994 you will have an excellent wine but can expect to pay anywhere from 20-upwards, but you wont be disappointed, 94 was good and next 95,97 then 98 but they are sorta the good vintages which are available as reserves.

No offence, but that is a rather sweeping statement. I would have to disagree that *every* single wine producing region in the world had an exceptional year in 1994 (or any year, for that matter - there's always somewhere that has a disaster). As an example I'm pretty sure stuff from Chile was well below average back then, reflecting a bad year I think, not neccessarily a systemic problem with their industry which has been steadily improving.

I believe 1994 is rated as "slightly above average" for French wine by some retailers - 1995 and 1996 are rated much higher (see Berry Bros. & Rudd for example.)

Maybe we could add some pointers to various vintage charts to a sticky? Might be a useful resource.

Blub2k4

cerebus wrote:

No offence, but that is a rather sweeping statement. I would have to disagree that *every* single wine producing region in the world had an exceptional year in 1994 (or any year, for that matter - there's always somewhere that has a disaster). As an example I'm pretty sure stuff from Chile was well below average back then, reflecting a bad year I think, not neccessarily a systemic problem with their industry which has been steadily improving.

I believe 1994 is rated as "slightly above average" for French wine by some retailers - 1995 and 1996 are rated much higher (see Berry Bros. & Rudd for example.)

Maybe we could add some pointers to various vintage charts to a sticky? Might be a useful resource.

Ok fair enough I am a fan of Spanish and 94 beats 95 and 96 by a long shot for rioja and merlot.

OldSoak

I would have to agree with Cerebus. A vintage (or a specific harvest year) is very specifically related to the region (not even the country) in which the grapes were grown. For example, 2000 was an exceptional vintage year for red Bordeaux, but too hot to be the best year for white Bordeaux or Sauternes. In Champagne it was an average vintage. Another thing to bear in mind is that some excellent vintages for certain regions, may not age as well as other weaker vintages. Each bottle of wine, each wine estate, each wine maker, each region, each grape, should be taken on it's own merit. Like people! A good rule of thumb with wine is to never generalise, and never make assumptions or judgements until that wine is on your tongue...

steveland?

Blub2k4 wrote:

If you can get your hands on a bottle of any red wine from 1994 you will have an excellent wine but can expect to pay anywhere from 20-upwards, but you wont be disappointed, 94 was good and next 95,97 then 98 but they are sorta the good vintages which are available as reserves.
Rioja from any of these years is extremely good.

Campo Viejo Rioja is great from 98, the reserva is excellent (Crianza from 99 is great too)

Baggio

Subject close to me heart ,
I'd have to say my personal faves for reds would be Italian, south african and french with some chilliean and agentinian (malbec) cheapies in there for easy drinking.
the late 90's Italians were superb, especially the 97's although Id say it would be hard to find them now. The tuscan region itself had 3 marvellous vintages in 97,98 and 99. For food ya just can't beat a nice sweety/sour tasting Italian red. South Africa i find has veryy unique tasting wines, their Pinotage is of course very different and a big fave of mine there's one yu can get in most suervalues callled Simonsig,, veryy nice stuff for around E10.00. Their whites I likeand their sparklers too.
French?..ahhh well ya's all know about them, I really like the Rhone tho best of all - excellent wines by and large, and while a bit pricey, their better value for me than over priced Bordaux and Burgundy.
For a feast try an Italian Amarone, approx E28.00, rip off I know but great wine for a big roast beef dinner oh yeahhhhhh

ciao' amigos....Baggio............

Beruthiel

Rioja V Reserva
I'm drinking a lot of that at the moment, very tasty and easy to drink

MiCr0

steveland? wrote:

Campo Viejo Rioja is great from 98, the reserva is excellent (Crianza from 99 is great too)

its worth flying to spain just to buy a couple of bottles

Blub2k4

Beruthiel wrote:

Rioja V Reserva
I'm drinking a lot of that at the moment, very tasty and easy to drink

Talk about multitasking, I am in awe

<edit> for the jogging you could always get one of those hats with the glass holders and the straws.