Yes, I know with the weakness of the £ and strength of the Euro it’s not really worth doing a dedicated booze cruise these days, but I got sent a stupidly cheap offer by P and O and had a days’ leave to use before the end of march, so popping over in a couple of weeks.

Question is, is it even worth visiting the hypermarkets etc, or should I just go for lunch in (****) Bruges or something?

If the former, any suggestions regarding what to buy (red wine) would be gratefully received, as I really am pretty ignorant about French wine

well alot of the booze warehouses have disappeared, but when passing thru last year we still visited a couple, calaisvins and english beer and wine co are two good ones, but its worth looking at new world wines over the french, still some bargains to be had though

Don’t bother with the booze wharehouses, just go to the supermarche. Nice wines start at around €2:50. Supermarche super strong beer starts around €0.50.

I have a few favourites that I like, but a couple of strategies i’ve used to good effect are…..

Choose wine that has won awards.

Choose wine where a lots of it has already gone.

Guage the value of what I say by knowing that I’m a bloke who loves Tennants Super! 😉

Probably stay away from the supemarkets closest to the ferry and those advertising in English… Go where the locals go to pay the local price.

If you don’t know much about French wine, I’d steer clear of it. Do you know what styles/varieties you do like? I used the Majestic warehouse last time I was there, pretty good prices and you can see what you’d like before you get there. 2 years back I got some reasonable Beaujolais for £3-4 and a McLaren Vale Shiraz for £4.50 that’s £8-9 over here.

Majestic in France

Mind you, I’ve had a quick browse just now and nothing really catches my eye. That Chilean merlot for £2.50 is drinkable though.

Been to Calais Vins a few times. Tell the owners the kind of wines you like, and they’ll direct you. They have samples (stored under nitrogen I think) to taste, and they won’t try to steer you to the expensive stuff (at least in my experience). They also speak pretty good English.

Have also heard good things about Majestic from friends who’ve been there.

Paul

Thanks all.

In terms of what I drink, usually rioja, malbec, aussie shiraz, nothing subtle.

Don’t mind merlot, although I can’t quite take it seriously since seeing ‘sideways’

Any suggestions of anything french I should try? Would seem like a bit of a fail to go to Calais and come back with a boot full of spanish and argentinan wine…

+1 for Chilean Merlot, in fact pretty much any Chilean Red Wine other than the Cab Sav.

I have been on a bit of a mission recently and must have tried at least 30 different Chilean reds and the only one I didn’t like was that Del Diablo one.

Always good value

for french, bordeaux’s of odd years 2001 2003 2005 and 2007 are all pretty good

I always go to:

http://www.lechais-calais.com/modulosite2/fiche.php?fr=0&id=452&

Also worth remembering that virtually nothing is open on Sundays….

Drive a little East towards Dunkerque, there is a Super U just off the autoroute that is much cheaper than the ones in Calais, you can pick up some fine beer and wine for minimul outlay.

If you actually decide to go into Dunkerque iteself there is a restaurant just off the town’s main square that sells moules frites to die for, you can ever go to the beach if you so desire.