Anyone here regularly spend more than £10 on a bottle of wine?

I suppose I'm in this.. usually I go £15-30 as I don't drink that often.

Likes: St Emillion, Chablis and Rioja.

I would recommend The World Atlas of Wine which shows each region, producers and gives a good background to wine, the influencing factors etc. It's well worth the asking price.


Most expensive wine bought was from Chateau Cheval-Blanc. Which is one of the two top St Emillion producers. It was a present to my parents (£167/bottle). This is currently unopened in their wine rack. Top year vintages get into ridiculous pricing
Some good info here

I love smaller producers such as Chateau La Croix du Casse. Which is inside the Pomerol region border with St. Emillon. I've had a stunning red from them for the price (£35).

The Grand Crus from Chablis such as Valmur are usually fantastic too in the £20-30 bracket.

I also love the 1998 Riojas - a personal favourite. Later years don't do it for me in quite the same way.

Last but not least the oaked tastes of Louis Jadot in the £18 are interesting and I would say an acquired taste if you're used to more standard whites. Note - Jadot has a mass of vineyards so there's lots of variants.

I'm starting to aquire a none-too-healthy appreciation of Bollinger. I had a RD 1996 for new years (~£100/bottle). It's extra-brut (extra-dry) and wow.. would love to have some strawberries with it. I may buy some more and store it.
 
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Azza said:
*Googles 'decant'*


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Im going to say no...


Maybe I should have stated that this was at a house party and I was just handed the bottle.
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If you just open it and start drinking, it probably won't taste very nice...you need to let it breathe.
 
fus said:
I often wish that I could aquire a taste for wine. I've tried countless times, but it still tastes horrible to me?! I don't know what it is. I love trying new ales and also new whisky (which I would have thought is a harder taste to 'learn to love') but wine is always a no go.

The only wine which I don't mind drinking is Blossom Hill White Grenache, but even then I don't like it much. I know this is a thread hijack, but can somebody tell me how to love wine? Should I go on a tasting day, buy a book or something else?

Thanks :]
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Same here. Most wines I've drank have not really appealed to me, I've just done so as it goes with the moment, ie at a nice dinner etc. I'd love to enjoy what I'm sure they can offer, but I wouldn't know where to begin. I wouldn't spend more than £15 on a bottle though.
 
Carzy said:
*CHUCKLE*
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to be fair it was £40 wine and it was given to me as a thank you, but i think there is some good cheap bottles and some bad expencive ones, bu thats my taste, all i need now is to talk my wife into thinking £2 wine is the best or make her think its £30 stuff
 
I often buy wines over £10, but I also often buy wines around and under £10. It depends on the wine, on the vineyard, on my mood, and a little bit with luck, you can get a gem for over £10, but you can still get distinctly average wines at that price range. Fundamentally it's subjective, however I'd say that the generalisation that ALL wines over £10 are better is false.
 
I used to drink a lot more wine than i do now (getting old?); but even now I regularly buy in the £10-£30 bracket and have found that a £30 bottle of wne will not necessarily be a lot better than a £15 bottle and that generally the more you pay, the smaller increments of quality you get.

Most expensive bottle was a 98 Leoville-Las-Cases (I think it was around £120) - but I committed infanticide on the poor thing... I drank it whilst it was only about 5 years old and therefore did not get even nearly the best of it - although with another maybe ten years or more in the bottle (in good conditions) it would have been sublime. Same year, I had a Leoville Barton (I think it was a 92); which although it was about half the price or less, was much better because of the extra few years in bottle.

But then aging has a lot to do with where the wine is from, what the winery is, etc... for example: (IMHO) an Australian wine doesn't tend to age as well as say a good chateau from Bordeaux or a good Rioja (although Riojas tend not last as long as Bordeaux wines because of the way the are made). I personally prefer to drink New World wines within ten years of the vintage, as they are usually very fruit driven styles and don't gain too much from extended cellaring, whereas old world wines tend to be more structured and less fruit and generally handle the cellar better.

As a rough rule of thumb - the more expensive wines (esp. unfiltered or unfined varieties) are better after a few years in the cellar, then treated properly once they are opened.

Incidentally though - one of the best wines that I've ever had was '98 GSM from a boutique winery in McLaren Vale and that only cost about £15 (drunk this^H^H^H^H last year) :)
 
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