How do you find a half decent wine?

[derrick]

I guage there are a few wine drinkers here, based on the quality of chat in the evenings.

I don't drink much these days, and when I do, it is rarely wine. Perhaps a whiskey to mark a moment. I have had so many disappointing glasses of wine, I have pretty well given up on the drink. However, I recently found I quite enjoy ALDI's Grande Alberone Zinfandel (~£8 a bottle); it's fairly drinkable.

Does that mean I should try other Zinfandels? Italian wines? Are these helpful clues?

Are there any recommendation systems that could help me try something else?

Can you be my recommendation system?

Not really a wine drinker, but to get a really good bottle you need to spend a bit more than £8.00. there are lots of drinkable wines out there for that price and cheaper, you just need to keep trying till you find one you like.

 

[T4tomo]

New world Rioja??

That raised my eyebrows too! .

Back to the OP, sticking to upper end of Aldi and Lidl wines is generally a decent hunting ground. Obviously differnet styles and tastes, try and few and you’ll get to know what you like.

Given the first £4ish give or take of any bottle of wine in the UK is taxes shipping etc costs, the proportion of your ticket price going on the wine increases very significantly when you move under £5 a bottle to £6-10 range, which is generally the sweet spot for good value, what ever that maybe.

 

[swee'pea99]

New world Rioja??

I don't claim to be any kind of expert - I mean those heavy, borderline syrupy 14%ers from Aus & the like - the kind of wines Monty Python said 'should only be used in hand to hand fighting'.

 

[Dayvo]

If you don't mind a bit of running (or walking), this might appeal to you:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...14/sep/17/marathon-du-medoc-race-wine-oysters

You might find, for some reason, that the first dozen wines taste better than the last lot.

 

[T4tomo]

I’m not a fan of wines that seem to be made for celebrating 14/15% alcohol either, it’s about the last thing you look for in wine.

However Rioja isn’t usually guilty of that and is very much a region in Spain, defo old world and not in Australia.
It also varies in style quite a bit from young easy drinking Crianza style to more structured aged Reservas and Gran Reservas. Definatley worth try

 

[srw]

Go to Majestic and get tasting. Reckon on spending £8 to £20 a bottle (retail, not pub/restaurant price) and you're getting the best value, although it can be worth spending more. Avoid discounted wines in supermarkets, because they're normally overpriced before discount and made in very large amounts. Big brands add to price - if you've seen something advertised you're paying for the ad, not the wine. Likewise big regions tend to be less good value. If the retailer has a decent turnover, age can be worth buying - Majestic had a good line in good value aged German Riesling a few years ago, and you can sometimes find a Spanish or Portuguese red with six or seven years without paying stupid money.

I tend to like European styles, and given a large selection would go for a Portuguese red, a Spanish red that's not Rioja or a Sicilian Primitivo. In white, I would buy by grape: Chenin Blanc or Viognier, or an aged white Burgundy (Chardonnay) if I could find one. For sparkling wine, English is as good as champagne, and the rest of France not far behind.

 

[Lullabelle]

Personally prefer a Merlot, Malbec and Rioja. Some are really good, others not so, depends on the brand/where you buy them from, expensive isn't always better, ALDI have some really good, M&S have some not so good. Personal taste.

 

[MontyVeda]

Quite like Aldi's Vina Cristina 2012... but be warned, one in every 30 bottles has the cork super glued in!

 

[PK99]

Worth posting this info again.

Aldi/Lidl manage to squeeze a little more value into the bottle by having lower selling costs (as per their general model - limited choice and simple display) and by lower bottling/shipping costs (bulk shipping and UK bottling) and in lower weight/quality bottles (The only bottle of that has ever broken in my car boot on the way home was an Aldi Port & it was obvious why, the glass was very light/thin and cheap quality) and by bulk buying from producers.

That makes the lower end of the Aldi/Lidl range good value, but at the upper end of their price range you'd probably find better QPR (Quality Price Ratio) at the lower end of a specialist wine merchant's range.

 

[swee'pea99]

Worth posting this info again.

I've seen that before but it's not 'info', it's palpable nonsense. If the 'wine value' drops between £4.95 and £3.99 at the same rate it's been dropping from £6.95 to £5.95 (-7%) and from £5.95 to £4.95 (-9%) by the time a wine costs £3.99, the 'wine value' must be in negative figures. Well I had a bottle of Cotes du Rhone from Lidl that cost me £3.99, and I can assure you its 'value' was a lot more than quite a lot less than bugger all.

If you want to pay a tenner a bottle, good luck to you - I'm sure you'll get a nice tipple. But there are actually lots of very nice wines for a fiver or less, and to suggest otherwise suggests to me that someone somewhere (not you, I hasten to add) has a vested interest, and one that's better served by misleading graphics than by real information.

 

[Wixsteman]

Guy I worked with swore by Chilean reds....tho he used to stick them in the fridge first

 

[Sjw]

A good wine is one you enjoy drinking. I didn't like red but I love a merlot. Best one was from Lidl but taste is subjective

 

[ozboz]

New Zealand Sav Blancs ,

 

[PK99]

I've seen that before but it's not 'info', it's palpable nonsense. If the 'wine value' drops between £4.95 and £3.99 at the same rate it's been dropping from £6.95 to £5.95 (-7%) and from £5.95 to £4.95 (-9%) by the time a wine costs £3.99, the 'wine value' must be in negative figures. Well I had a bottle of Cotes du Rhone from Lidl that cost me £3.99, and I can assure you its 'value' was a lot more than quite a lot less than bugger all.

If you want to pay a tenner a bottle, good luck to you - I'm sure you'll get a nice tipple. But there are actually lots of very nice wines for a fiver or less, and to suggest otherwise suggests to me that someone somewhere (not you, I hasten to add) has a vested interest, and one that's better served by misleading graphics than by real information.

Shelf price £3.99
VAT = 66.5p
Duty = £2.16

Difference = £1.165 to cover all production, packaging, transport, selling costs and profit.

Shelf price = £10
Vat = 1.66
Duty = 2.16

Difference = £6.17

 

[pjd57]

Bulgaria makes some decent white wine.

They don't export much if it though.
I think the tourists drink most of it.