***The Wine Thread***

200sols said:
Join the wine society.
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Looking at this myself, I take it you can buy without joining, I also see that the membership is a one off £40, have you done this? Is it worth it.

Thanks


Also, does wine have an expiry date? I often just buy wine from supermarket, most of the "popular" choices like say Trivento, Campo Viejo don't seem to have an expiry I can see, so I often go on the vintage date printed on the front of bottle, not that it doesn't get drank in a timely manner:D, but just wondered how it works, say I have a bottle of Trivento red wine, one has 2019 and the other 2020, should the 2019 be used first?
 
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beachBOYken said:
Also, does wine have an expiry date? I often just buy wine from supermarket, most of the "popular" choices like say Trivento, Campo Viejo don't seem to have an expiry I can see, so I often go on the vintage date printed on the front of bottle, not that it doesn't get drank in a timely manner:D, but just wondered how it works, say I have a bottle of Trivento red wine, one has 2019 and the other 2020, should the 2019 be used first?
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Short answer: yes it does.

Long answer is very long but can probably be summed up by: it depends... What wine is it, where is it from, who made it, how did they make it, etc. All wine has a life cycle and some are a lot shorter than others. For a lot of nice wine it would resemble a bell curve graph in that it would improve to a peak and then start fading away. That peak can differ from person to person though and depend on how you like your wine. For wines that are made to be drinkable straight out of the winery the life cycle graph would look a bit like the xkcd "bacon" one; bimbling along and then falls off a cliff.

For your Trivento (Malbec?), yes drink the 2019 first. Wine is peculiar in that generally no drink from / drink to dates are given on a standard bottle; it's still not a terribly user friendly industry :). Good companies provide that info when they sell the wine and the Wine Soc would be one of those.

This is massively simplified so hope you get the jist.
 
beachBOYken said:
Looking at this myself, I take it you can buy without joining, I also see that the membership is a one off £40, have you done this? Is it worth it.
Click to expand...

You need to join before you can buy. I am a member yes, worth it for me as the prices are very competitive. Take those recent champagne deals, you wont find them that cheap anywhere else.

beachBOYken said:
Also, does wine have an expiry date? I often just buy wine from supermarket, most of the "popular" choices like say Trivento, Campo Viejo don't seem to have an expiry I can see, so I often go on the vintage date printed on the front of bottle, not that it doesn't get drank in a timely manner:D, but just wondered how it works, say I have a bottle of Trivento red wine, one has 2019 and the other 2020, should the 2019 be used first?
Click to expand...

The majority of supermarket wines are made to be ready upon release and very few people will age them for any serious time. Standard campo viejo doesn't really have many legs for aging but the reserva and gran reserva will get better or at least not go downhill for a few years.
 
taB said:
Short answer: yes it does.

Long answer is very long but can probably be summed up by: it depends... What wine is it, where is it from, who made it, how did they make it, etc. All wine has a life cycle and some are a lot shorter than others. For a lot of nice wine it would resemble a bell curve graph in that it would improve to a peak and then start fading away. That peak can differ from person to person though and depend on how you like your wine. For wines that are made to be drinkable straight out of the winery the life cycle graph would look a bit like the xkcd "bacon" one; bimbling along and then falls off a cliff.

For your Trivento (Malbec?), yes drink the 2019 first. Wine is peculiar in that generally no drink from / drink to dates are given on a standard bottle; it's still not a terribly user friendly industry :). Good companies provide that info when they sell the wine and the Wine Soc would be one of those.

This is massively simplified so hope you get the jist.
Click to expand...
200sols said:
You need to join before you can buy. I am a member yes, worth it for me as the prices are very competitive. Take those recent champagne deals, you wont find them that cheap anywhere else.



The majority of supermarket wines are made to be ready upon release and very few people will age them for any serious time. Standard campo viejo doesn't really have many legs for aging but the reserva and gran reserva will get better or at least not go downhill for a few years.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm tempted to join that wine society, it's just that initial £40, I know I would get £20 off my 1st purchase know, and I guess once paid Im a life long member and no need to worry about subscriptions.

Are the cheaper bottles decent, I think they start at around £6 for the cheapest, in the supermarkets I normally spend £7-£8 a bottle.
 
beachBOYken said:
Thanks, I'm tempted to join that wine society, it's just that initial £40, I know I would get £20 off my 1st purchase know, and I guess once paid Im a life long member and no need to worry about subscriptions.

Are the cheaper bottles decent, I think they start at around £6 for the cheapest, in the supermarkets I normally spend £7-£8 a bottle.
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Cant say I have tried many of the really cheap ones but lots of them seem to get decent reviews. I like their promise that the wine will not be faulty, I've used it a couple of times and they've always credited me fast with no questions asked. They do some good half bottles as well so you can try some different wines but keep the price down a bit, ideal for midweek.
 
Martynt74 said:
Yeah I did. Not overly hopeful on them but as you say at just over £4 a bottle you can’t ask too much. They’ll be handy for taking round to peoples houses or for me to drink Christmas Day after a few nicer bottles when I’m too ****** to care!
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that was my exact thought, makes a nice gift for when visiting people over Christmas. Having looked at them all on vivino they do get some good reviews.

I have cracked open a bottle of the Cabalie as that seemed to be the best of the bunch. Will have a glass or two this evening.
 
200sols said:
How can they sell it at £4 a bottle, doesn't even cover the tax :cry:
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There's £1.10 left when you take the tax off. That only has to cover a few things like the bottle, label, shipping, juice, wine maker costs, etc. Cracking margin left over for Laithwaites (or whoever runs it these days) I'm sure.
 
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